Conant, James Bryant (1893–1978)

James Bryant Conant was a chemist, a university president, a government official, and an educational reformer. He was especially well known for his studies of high schools in the United States and for the processes used to prepare teachers for American classrooms.

Born on March 26, 1893, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Conant studied chemistry at Harvard University, receiving a BA in 1914 and a PhD in 1917. At Harvard, he was a professor of physical and organic chemistry and was tenured in 1927. The American Chemical Society awarded him its highest prize, the Priestley Medal, in 1944.

Conant became president of Harvard University in 1933 at the age of 40 and held the position until 1953. As resident, he implemented a number of changes in the university's educational practices. Prior to his administration, Harvard primarily admitted students from the families of the Eastern establishment. Conant, however, wanted to attract the most academically talented students from throughout the United States as well as those who reflected diverse backgrounds.

As part of his initiative, a scholarship program for academically gifted students was implemented. Selection criteria for the scholarships included the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Conant, an advocate of standardized tests, was instrumental in these tests becoming part of the undergraduate admissions criteria. Students would be admitted based on intellectual aptitude rather than social connections.

Conant worked to create a world-class research university at Harvard. To achieve this objective, the university curriculum shifted emphasis from the classics to scientific and modern subjects. This emphasis was reflected in the general education program, which included three broad categories of disciplines: (1) the humanities, (2) the social sciences, and (3) natural sciences.

A Charter Day address titled “Education for a Classless Society: The Jeffersonian Tradition” printed in the May 1940 Atlantic Monthly reflected Conant's approach to education: A system of public education can help society resist “the distorting pressures of urbanized, industrialized life.”

From 1941 until 1946, Conant was chairman of the National Defense Research Committee. As chief civilian administrator of American nuclear research, he was involved in the top secret Manhattan Project, which led to the development of the first nuclear weapons. Conant attended the Trinity test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and was involved in the decision to use the bombs that were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After World War II, he was an advisor to both the National Science Foundation and the Atomic Energy Commission. From 1953 to 1957, Conant was U.S. ambassador to Germany.

Conant is recognized as an educational reformer. He studied critical issues in education such as the American high school, the education of teachers, and the comprehensive high school. His study of the American high school was funded by the Carnegie Corporation. For the study, 103 schools in 26 states were visited. The findings of the study were reported in The American High School Today (1959). Among the reforms he suggested was the consolidation of small schools into comprehensive high schools.

Slums and Suburbs (1961) was based on studies of inner-city schools in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Financial problems in these districts were described. Conant recommended preparing African American students for the workforce. Interestingly, he did not suggest integration as a solution to the problems of inner-city schools.

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