Committee of Fifteen of the National Education Association

The Committee of Fifteen was a committee of the National Education Association (NEA) that was entrusted with revising the elementary curriculum. In 1893, the NEA met in Boston, and Colonel Francis Weyland Parker called for a motion to establish a Committee of Ten to work on revisions to the elementary curriculum. When the five members of the nominating committee were added to the 10 original members, the group became the Committee of Fifteen. Led by Chairman William H. Maxwell, who had been the first superintendent of schools in Brooklyn, New York, and Commissioner of Education William Torrey Harris, the Committee of Fifteen also included 12 current and former city school superintendents. The Committee of Fifteen's mission was similar to that of the Committee of Ten ...