Abstract
“What we call the American educational system is composed of a number of separate institutions, each originally built up for some specific purpose and without particular reference to any of the others,” Henry S. Pritchett, the former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced in 1909. “There must be some way,” he continued, “of coupling consecutive stages that will form a vestibuled passage and avoid the confusion and waste of a missed or doubtful connection. In a word, regular temporal succession suggests, in the interest of efficiency and economy, genuine educational continuity.”1 He certainly was not saying anything new. James B. Angell, Charles W. Eliot, and a host of others, in the absence of any governing or central authority, had been trying to move secondary and higher education in this direction since the early 1870s and with notable accomplishments at state and regional levels. Pritchett’s aspirations, however, stretched far beyond regional goals. Like Eliot, he wanted national uniformity and a standardized system of education that extended from one coast to the other. What made Pritchett hopeful that success would not be elusive this time, as it had been for Eliot’s Committee of Ten, were the vast sums of money he controlled as president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
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Notes
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Fourth Annual Report of the President and Treasurer (New York: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1909), 134.
Edward A. Krug, The Shaping of the American High School, 1880–1920 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), 145; Nicholas Murray Butler, “Uniform College Entrance Requirements with a Common Board of Examiners,” in Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Convention, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1900), 46–47.
Charles W. Eliot, “Discussion,” in Addresses and Proceedings of the Preliminary Meeting, Oct. 16 and 17 1885, First Annual Meeting, Oct. 16, 1886, and First Special Meeting, Jan. 7 and 8, 1887 New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools (Boston, Mass: Published by the Association, 1892), 16.
Butler, “Uniform College Entrance Requirements with a Common Board of Examiners,” 46–47; John A. Valentine, The College Board and the School Curriculum: A History of the College Board’s Influence on the Substance and Standards of American Education, 1900–1980 (New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1987), 3–4, 8–10.
“Meeting of the Association of Colleges in New England at Amherst, Nov. 1st, 1894,” Letter Press Volume, 1889–1898, Charles W. Eliot Papers, Harvard University Archives, Harvard University, 84a–85.
Nicholas Murray Butler, “Entrance to College,” New York Times (December 17, 1899), 25.
Butler, “Uniform College Entrance Requirements with a Common Board of Examiners,” 46; George Herbert Locke, “Editorial Notes,” School Review 10 (November 1902), 711.
Julius Sachs, “Discussion,” in Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Convention, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1900), 138–139.
Christopher Gregory, “Discussion,” in Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Convention, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1900), 61.
Nicholas Murray Butler, Across the Busy Years: Recollections and Reflections (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939), 198.
Nicholas Murray Butler, “Establishment of a College Entrance Examination Board for the Middle States and Maryland,” in Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Convention, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1901), 48–49; College Entrance Examination Board, Second Annual Report of the Secretary, 1902 (New York: Published by the Board, 1902), 4–5. The first twelve colleges and universities to join were Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Columbia University, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Rutgers College, Swarthmore College, Union College, University of Pennsylvania, Vassar College, and Woman’s College of Baltimore.
Butler, “Establishment of a College Entrance Examination Board for the Middle States and Maryland,” 51; College Entrance Examination Board, Eighth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1908 (New York: Published by the Board, 1908), 2; Claude M. Fuess, The College Board: Its First Fifty Years (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950), 60–61; Harold Wechsler, The Qualified Student: A History of Selective College Admission in America (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1977), 102–103.
“Editorial: The Problem of College Admission,” Educational Review 21 (January 1901), 106–107.
College Entrance Examination Board, Second Annual Report of the Secretary, 1902, 37.
Harold Wechsler, “Eastern Standard Time: High School—College Collaboration and Admission to College, 1880–1930,” in A Faithful Mirror: Reflections on the College Board and Education in America, edited by Michael C. Johanek (College Entrance Examination Board, 2001), 45.
College Entrance Examination Board, Second Annual Report of the Secretary, 1902.
Ibid., 10.
Clement L. Smith, quoted in Nicholas Murray Butler, “College Entrance Examination Board of the Middle States and Maryland: First Annual Report of the Secretary on the Examinations of 1901” Educational Review 22 (October 1901), 4.
Butler, “College Entrance Examination Board of the Middle States and Maryland: First Annual Report of the Secretary on the Examinations of 1901,” 3, 8–14; Fuess, College Board, 34, 48–52; Edward L. Harris, “The Public High School: Its Status and Present Development,” in Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Urbana, IL: Published by the Association, 1907), 16.
College Entrance Examination Board, Second Annual Report of the Secretary, 1902, 2, 5. Although Yale refused to accept the Board’s certificates without first reexamining the results, the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale accepted the results without any further review.
College Entrance Examination Board, Fourth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1904 (New York: Published by the Board, 1904), 2; College Entrance Examination Board, Fifth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1905 (New York: Published by the Board, 1905), 1; College Entrance Examination Board, Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1909 (New York: Published by the Board, 1909), 1; College Entrance Examination Board, Tenth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1910 (New York: Published by the Board, 1910), 1, 10; Valentine, College Board and the School Curriculum, 18; Sidney Marland, Jr., The College Board and the Twentieth Century (New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1975), 5.
College Entrance Examination Board, Fifth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1905, 8, 14; College Entrance Examination Board, Fourth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1904, 2; Valentine, College Board and the School Curriculum, 18; Marland, College Board and the Twentieth Century, 5; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Columbus, Ohio: Published by the Association, 1904), 61–62.
Fuess, College Board, 61–62.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Second Annual Report of the President and Treasurer (New York: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1907), 74.
Krug, Shaping of the American High School, 150–151.
Wilson Farrand, “Five Years of The College Entrance Examination Board,” Educational Review 30 (October 1905), 225.
Nicholas Murray Butler, “College Entrance Examination Board of the Middle States and Maryland: First Annual Report of the Secretary on the Examinations of 1901” Educational Review, 22 (October 1901), 2; “Document No. 2,” reprint, College Entrance Examination Board, The Work of the College Entrance Examination Board, 1901–1925: The Solution of Educational Problems Through the Cooperation of All Vitally Concerned (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926), 73.
College Entrance Examination Board, Seventh Annual Report of the Secretary, 1907 (New York: Published by the Board, 1907), 1–2.
Ibid., 1.
College Entrance Examination Board, Second Annual Report of the Secretary, 1902, 10, 22; College Entrance Examination Board, Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1909, 17, 43.
Marvin Lazerson, “The College Board and American Educational History,” in A Faithful Mirror, 382; Andrea Walton, “Cultivating a Place for Selective All-Female Education in a Coeducational World: Women Educators and Professional voluntary Associations, 1880–1926,” in A Faithful Mirror, 155, 161–164; College Entrance Examination Board, Eighth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1908, 15–17. The seven female colleges were Smith, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Vassar, Mt. Holyoke, Barnard, and Woman’s College of Baltimore.
“Admission to College on Certificate of Secondary Schools,” in Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1902, United States Bureau of Education (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903), 527. The nine colleges were Amherst College, Boston University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Tufts College, Wellesley College, and Wesleyan University.
Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examination, Fourteenth Annual Report, 1899–1900 (Providence: Snow & Farnham, Printers, 1900), 10–11; Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examination, Fifteenth Annual Report, 1900–1901 (Providence: Snow & Farnham, Printers, 1901), 7–10.
Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examination, Fifteenth Annual Report, 1900–1901, 13–18.
“Admission to College on Certificate of Secondary Schools,” 527–528.
Ibid., 528.
Nathaniel F. Davis, “Is the Present Mode of Granting Certificate Rights to Preparatory Schools Satisfactory?,” in Official Report of the Twenty-First Annual Meeting of the New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools (Chicago: Reprinted from School Review, 1906), 74. 38. College Entrance Examination Board, Fifth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1905, 8–9, 26–28; College Entrance Examination Board, Eighth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1908, 10, 15–17.
“The Unification of Requirements for Admission to College,” The University (of Michigan) Record 4 (February 1895), 93; Mark Newman, Agency of Change: One Hundred Years of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (Kirksville, Missouri: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1996), x–xvi, 22–25, 45–47; Calvin Olin Davis, A History of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary School, 1895–1945 (Ann Arbor: The North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, 1945), 3–5, 8–15, 45.
Davis, History of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary School, 45–47; Allen S. Whitney, “The Problem of Harmonizing State Inspection by Numerous Colleges so as to Avoid Duplication of Work and Secure the Greatest Efficiency,” in Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Ann Arbor: Published by the Association, 1901), 25–26.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Ann Arbor: Published by the Association, 1901), 70–71.
Ibid., 70–71.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Ann Arbor: Published by the Association, 1902), 8; Davis, History of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary School, 37–38.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting, 7–8.
Ibid., 8.
Ibid., 35–36; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting, 47; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Urbana, IL: Published by the Association, 1907), 57.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting, 35–36; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting, 47; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting, 57.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting, 36–38, 42.
Davis, History of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary School, 54–55; “Admission to College on Certificate of Secondary Schools,” 529–531; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Ann Arbor: Published by the Association, 1903), 86.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting, 43.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting, 63, 65.
Ibid., 67–68.
Harry Pratt Judson, “The Outlook for the Commission,” in Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Columbus, Ohio: Published by the Association, 1904), 59–60.
George N. Carman, “Shall We Accredit Colleges?,” in Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Columbus, Ohio: Published by the Association, 1906), 96.
E. L. Coffen, “The Inspection and Accrediting of Colleges and Universities,” in Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Columbus, Ohio: Published by the Association, 1906), 97, 99.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Chicago: Published by the Association, 1909), 52–53, 58; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Chicago: Published by the Association, 1910), 76.
Krug, Shaping of the American High School, 159–160.
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Published by the Association, 1913), 63–65.
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the First Meeting (Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, 1895), 3–7; Krug, Shaping of the American High School, 127; Donald C. Agnew, Seventy—Five Years of Educational Leadership (Atlanta: Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 1970), 2, 5; Edwin Mims, Chancellor Kirkland of Vanderbilt (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1940), 129–132; George Herbert Locke, “Editorial Notes: A Significant Forward Movement in Secondary Education in the South,” School Review 13 (March 1905), 263; Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting (Chattanooga, Tenn: Press of Southern Educational Review, n.d.), iv—v. The initial six colleges and universities were Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Mississippi, Washington and Lee University, the University of the South, and Trinity College (Duke).
Jabez L. M. Curry, “Education in the Southern States,” in Proceedings of the Second Capon Springs Conference for Christian Education in the South (Capon Springs Conference for Christian Education in the South, 1899), 28.
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting (Printed by Brandon Printing Company, Nashville, Tenn., n.d.), 20; Paul H. Saunders, “Report of the Committee on Uniform Entrance Examinations,” in Proceedings of the TenthAnnual Meeting, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States (Chattanooga, Tenn: Press of Southern Educational Review, n.d), 44, 47; F. W. Moore, “Report of the Williamstown Conference on Admission to College,” in Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States (Nashville, Tenn: Press of Marshall & Bruce Company, n.d.), 11.
Saunders, “Report of the Committee on Uniform Entrance Examinations,” 47–48.
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting, 2; Paul H. Saunders, “Our Experiment in Uniform Examinations,” in Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States (Chattanooga, Tenn: Press of Southern Educational Review, n.d.), 32–33, 35. North Carolina and Virginia statements quoted in Saunders, “Our Experiment in Uniform Examinations,” 32–33.
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting (Nashville, Tenn: Press of Standard Printing Company, 1910), 26; Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting (Nashville, Tenn: Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, n.d.), 21.
College statements quoted in Paul H. Saunders, “The Report of the Uniform Entrance Examination Committee,” in Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States (Nashville, Tenn: Press of Marshall & Bruce Company, n.d.), 56.
Saunders, “Report of the Uniform Entrance Examination Committee,” 56–57.
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting (Nashville, Tenn: Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, n.d.), 23, 32; Agnew, Seventy-Five Years of Educational Leadership, 9.
Agnew, Seventy-Five Years of Educational Leadership, 8–9; United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1899–1900 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1901), 2129, 2130, 2145, 2162; United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year Ended June 30, 1911 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1912), 1192, 1196, 1205.
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting, 23–24; Agnew, Seventy-Five Years of Educational Leadership, 8–9; Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting, 30.
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting, 23–24; Agnew, Seventy-Five Years of Educational Leadership, 8–10, 28–29; Leland Stanford Cozart, A History of the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, 1934–1965 (Charlotte, NC: Heritage Printers, Inc., 1967), 1–2.
Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States, Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting, 29.
United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year Ended June 30, 1911, 1184, 1224.
National Association of State Universities, Transactions and Proceedings (Published by the Association, 1905), 9, 75–76.
George Edwin MacLean, “An American Federation of Learning,” in Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Columbus, Ohio: Published by the Association, 1906), 9.
National Association of State Universities, Transactions and Proceedings (Bangor, Maine: Bangor Co-Operative Printing, Co, 1907), 14–15; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (Chicago: Published by the Association, 1908), 44.
National Conference Committee on Standards of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Minutes of the Conference (Published by the Association, 1909), 3; National Association of State Universities, Transactions and Proceedings (Hamilton, Ohio: Republican Publishing Company, 1910), 257–261; College Entrance Examination Board, Tenth Annual Report of the Secretary, 1910, 3; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the FifteenthAnnual Meeting, 31–34.
Krug, Shaping of the American High School, 160–161; Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, Private Power for the Public Good: A History of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983), 37–39; Henry S. Pritchett, “Scope and Practical Workings of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,” Journal of Education 68 (December 17, 1908), 657; Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, First Annual Report of the President and Treasurer (New York: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1906), 15–16.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, First Annual Report of the President and Treasurer, 20, 79.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Second Annual Report of the President and Treasurer, 69; North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting, 62–63; Lagemann, Private Power for the Public Good, 95; College Entrance Examination Board, Seventh Annual Report of the Secretary, 1907, 7.
Krug, Shaping of the American High School, 160–161; Lagemann, Private Power for the Public Good, 95; Howard J. Savage, Fruit of an Impulse: Forty-Five Years of the Carnegie Foundation, 1905–1950 (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1953), 66, 102; Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, First Annual Report of the President and Treasurer, 38–39, 47; Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Second Annual Report of the President and Treasurer, 67.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, First Annual Report of the President and Treasurer, 24–25; Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Fifth Annual Report of the President and of the Treasurer (New York: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1910), 31–32.
J. H. Kirkland, “Requirements for Admission to College,” in Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States (Nashville, Tenn: Press of Marshall & Bruce Company, n.d.), 69
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, First Annual Report of the President and Treasurer, 24–25; Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Fifth Annual Report of the President and of the Treasurer, 31–32.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Third Annual Report of the President and Treasurer (New York: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1908), 62–63; “The Carnegie Pension,” Springfield Republican, reprint, Journal of Education 71 (April 28, 1910), 459; Charles C. Heyl, “The Carnegie Foundation and Some American Educational Problems,” Journal of Education 71 (May 26, 1910), 564–565.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Second Annual Report of the President and Treasurer, 66; National Association of State Universities, Transactions and Proceedings (Bangor, Maine: Bangor Co-Operative Printing, Co, 1909), 62–63; Krug, Shaping of the American High School, 161–162.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Second Annual Report of the President and Treasurer, 63.
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VanOverbeke, M.A. (2008). Regional Efforts and a Renewed Focus on National Reform. In: The Standardization of American Schooling. Secondary Education in a Changing World. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612594_7
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