The American High School Today: A First Report to Interested Citizens was published in 1959 by James B. Conant. A noted U.S. chemist, long-time president of Harvard University, participant in the development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s, [Page 34]and educational commissioner of Germany in the early 1950s, Conant turned to a Carnegie Corporation-funded study of U.S. high schools as his major project after stepping down from his post in Germany.

Conant's interest in high schools was longstanding, though it should also be said that he had little experience with, and in, the institutions about which he wrote. His notoriety as Harvard president, however, made him a formidable voice in any educational arena in which he spoke. His interest in elementary and secondary education issues ...