Reform, of Schools

Progressivism

After the 1850s, many states passed compulsory schooling laws not only to educate native-born American citizens but also to “Americanize” growing [Page 857]numbers of immigrant children. In addition to language instruction, schools included vocational training and social services such as vaccinations and school meals. Some of these efforts in schooling were rooted in the Progressivism Movement from about 1890 to 1920, which aimed to reform society's ills, from poverty to unfair labor laws. Public schools, with their captive population of children, became one more institution (in addition to religious bodies and legislatures) that social progressives could use to create programs and practices that would improve society.

While the progressives were reforming society through social programs in schools, some progressives also sought to reform pedagogy and curriculum by making it more child centered. John Dewey's work at the University of Chicago lab school led the way for schools to build upon children's experiences to make education meaningful to them. Dewey also espoused Mann's desire for schools to foster a democratic society, claiming that schools allow the opportunity for knowledge to be built through shared experiences and interests.

Progressivism in education also included the “administrative progressives” who sought to make schools more efficient by means of standardized testing and curriculum differentiated for different abilities, whether vocational or college preparation.

This emphasis on differentiated curriculum for efficiency's sake led progressive education in the 1940s and 1950s to the life adjustment movement. Undergirding life adjustment was the theory of vocational educator Charles Prosser that only 20% of students would be ready for college and 20% for vocational work, so that schools should prepare the remaining 60% of students for everyday life by teaching skills such as parenting and health. In the 1950s, critics of the life adjustment movement claimed that schools had become too child centered, were “dumbing down” their curriculum, and needed to return to extensive academic preparation. Thus was born a “back to the basics” movement, which continues today. The preference for basics over life skills was reinforced by a national event that started yet another push for extensive school reform: Sputnik.

Post-Sputnik Reform

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik I, thus winning the first heat of a space race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Because of Cold War-era tension, Americans were immediately concerned about falling behind in space, viewing it as a threat to national security and attributing the failure to poor public schools. In 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which dedicated federal funds to improving public education. Schools became much more focused on rigorous curriculum to teach math, science, and foreign languages. The National Science Foundation sponsored science fairs and provided training for teachers as well as led less successful initiatives such as New Math and an elementary school anthropology curriculum called Man: A Course of Study. While the focus on science, math, and languages continued, the concern over the United States's place in the space race was assuaged somewhat by the successful Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969. However, Sputnik established what has become a recurring theme of concern about how America's schoolchildren compete compared to the rest of the world's.

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