Secondary School Curriculum

History of the High School

During the 17th and 18th centuries, in the American colonies the curriculum of the Latin grammar school stressed formalistic instruction in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew language and literature for socially elite males. From the late 18th century into the 19th century, the academy movement expanded the secondary curriculum; subjects such as surveying, navigation, and bookkeeping, as well as English, modern foreign languages, geometry, and algebra, were offered often alongside the classics. This curriculum remained relatively constant, with local variation, for the remainder of the 19th century, as publicly supported high schools became the dominant form of secondary education, especially after 1870. By 20th-century standards, however, the curriculum of the late 19th-century public high school was relatively narrow, composed nationally as it was of only about 16 separate subjects. This curriculum evidently was suitable for the elite secondary student body that in 1890 represented only about 5.6% of the population of 14- to 17-year-olds.

With the expansion of secondary school enrollments during the first three decades of the 20th century and the invention of the comprehensive high school, the secondary school curriculum began to expand, especially in vocational offerings. By 1930, high school enrollments represented about 50% of 14- to 17-year-olds. By 1934, the secondary school curriculum included about 204 separate subjects nationally. At that time, approximately 62% of enrollments were in academic subjects and 38% of enrollments were in vocational subjects. This ratio of academic to vocational enrollments remained relatively stable until the early 1980s, after which time enrollments in academic courses steadily increased as enrollments in vocation courses slightly declined.

Both change and continuity over time can be discerned in the history of the secondary curriculum in the United States. Expansion of access to, enrollment in, and curriculum offerings of the secondary curriculum represent major changes over time. For example, as the proportion of enrollments in academic subjects remained stable, and the proportion of adolescents enrolled in high school expanded from about 62% of 14- to 17-year-olds in 1934 to about 94% in 2000, more adolescents had access to the academic curriculum. The enduring dominance of the traditional academic, that is, college preparatory, program in the secondary curriculum represents continuity over time.

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