Black High School Study

The Secondary School Study (commonly referred to as the Black High School Study), sponsored by the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools for Negroes and funded by the General Education Board, was established in 1940 to assist Black high school teachers to experiment with their administrative, curricular, and instructional practices. While the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools for Negroes sought to achieve accreditation for its member schools and to make strides for equitable support—separate and equal—for African American education, some educators believed high school teachers were not involved in progressive education reform's “stream of educational ideas” and, thus, were placing too much emphasis on existing, traditional practices. Secondary School Study participants reconsidered the basic purposes of the high school and sought ways to discover the needs of Black secondary school students in relation to their social setting in America; however, the issue of whether Black schools could achieve equality within a segregated system was never questioned. Most Secondary School Study participants recognized that they sought to embrace the principles of democracy and progressive education within an undemocratic system.

The Secondary School Study included 17 high schools from the 11 Southern Association states, and teachers and staff were encouraged to explore ways to develop democratic school policy and practices and to strengthen school–community relations. Directed by W. A. Robinson and W. H. Brown, the project invited schools to participate according to their willingness to engage in program development and whether there was sufficient training, general interest, and capability. The participating schools included a cross-section of rural, urban, large, and small schools: Drewry Practice High School, Talladega, AL; State Teachers College Laboratory School, Montgomery, AL; Lincoln High School, Tallahassee, FL; Staley High School, Americus, GA; [Page 103]Atlanta University Laboratory School, Atlanta, GA (closed in 1942); Moultrie High School, Moultrie, GA (added in 1942 after the closing of Atlanta University Laboratory School); Lincoln-Grant School, Covington, KY; Natchitoches Parish Training School, Natchitoches, LA; Southern University A&M College Demonstration School, Scotlandville, LA; Magnolia Avenue High School, Vicksburg, MS; Dudley High School, Greensboro, NC; Booker T. Washington High School, Rocky Mount, NC; Booker T. Washington High School, Columbia, SC; Pearl High School, Nashville, TN; I. M. Terrell High School, Fort Worth, TX; Huntington High School, Newport News, VA; and D. Webster Davis Laboratory School, Ettrick, VA. Two schools were private and seventeen were public with four of these schools serving as university laboratory schools.

The participants attended to aspects of democratic practices in the school, core curriculum, pupil–teacher planning, and student government. Participating schools were visited by, and regional summer workshops were conducted for them by, consultants and staff from other schools that were experienced in the democratic practices. The second three-year period involved a concerted effort to broaden the experimental aspects to other African American secondary schools in the South. Beginning in 1944, the Secondary School Study staff broadened their experimental work in curriculum and staff development by offering assistance to approximately 100 other “contact” Black secondary schools in the South and additional activities were developed with regional colleges.

...