Howe, Harold

Harold Howe II (1918–2002), a teacher, principal, superintendent, and U.S. Commissioner of Education in the Lyndon Johnson administration, courageously led the federal government in the fight to desegregate public schools. A preeminent educator of the twentieth century, Howe was instrumental in redefining the federal role in schools and advocated for a new definition of education that includes the world beyond the schoolhouse. He pursued a lifelong agenda to ensure that all share in America's bounty.

A champion of minorities and the poor, as U.S. Commissioner from 1966 to 1968, he was a key figure in the Great Society movement to abolish segregation in schools under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Howe was responsible for implementing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). Title I of ESEA provided funding to high-poverty schools, which, under Howe's direction, was distributed to schools that did not discriminate, creating an uproar among those who wanted to preserve the status quo and earning him the sobriquet “U.S. Commissioner of Integration.”

Howe's moral drive likely stemmed from his roots as son of Reverend Arthur Howe, president of Hampton Institute in Virginia, which had been founded as a trade school for freed slaves by his grandfather. He served as captain of a minesweeper in the Navy during World War II, which reinforced his strong belief that schools must make better use of the power of experience in learning. A graduate of Yale and Columbia University, Howe taught history at Phillips Academy; was principal in Andover, Cincinnati, and Newton, Massachusetts, where he restructured the high school into smaller units to personalize education, a practice now common; and was superintendent in Scarsdale, New York.

When Howe left Washington, D.C., he joined the Ford Foundation as an advisor to India and vice president for education, whereby he established funding for predominantly African American colleges and minority doctoral student scholarships. Later, he was a popular senior lecturer at Harvard University. During that time, he headed a commission that produced the report The Forgotten Half, which focuses on youth who do not attend college and influenced the development of national school-to-work policy.

Outspoken on many educational subjects, “Doc” Howe targeted school funding and campaigned for equity. He promoted service learning and interdisciplinary learning and argued that “tests have become the tail that wags the dog in the public discussion of educational change,” questioning how new tests and standards would cure what ails American education and help teachers teach diverse groups of students. Although responsible for increasing the federal role in schools, he cautioned that there must be restraints in place to provide support but not be intrusive. He was most passionate about the importance of broadening the definition of education and viewing the family and community as educational institutions. Howe's legacy is that educational leaders and government should always think about our children and improve education for all.