# Archived Information

Preparing America's Future: High School Initiative

From There to Here: The Road to Reform of American High Schools

The modern vision of high school, as expressed in the *No Child Left
Behind Act*, is that every student will reach a high level of
proficiency in core academic skills. But the current American high
school education system is based on a model established when the
expectations of high school education were far different. The model
assumed that most students would not go on to postsecondary education or
training, and that the majority had little need for rigorous academic
preparation.

As teachers, principals, local and state local leaders work to implement
*No Child Left Behind*, it is worth reflecting on how the American high
school system has evolved, the assumptions upon which it rests, and the
serious policy debates that should inform its future.

**In the Beginning: Preparing the Elite**

Until the 20th century, secondary education was a small-scale
experience, largely reserved for the privileged, rather than the nearly
universal democratic institution of today. Even as late as 1910, only
about ten percent of American youth attended high school.

The first American high school---the Boston Latin Grammar School---was
founded in 1635 to prepare young men for college at Harvard, service in
government, and the church. \[endnote 1\] Although elementary education
spread rapidly among the American population in succeeding generations,
high school education did not. The first public high school did not even
appear until nearly 200 years later, when the English Classical School
opened in Boston in 1821. \[endnote 2\]

The English Classical School taught a curriculum consisting of the
subject matter thought to best prepare young minds at the time:
composition, declamation, mathematics, history, civics, logic,
surveying, navigation, and moral and political philosophy. \[endnote 3\]
Other public high schools soon appeared in other parts of New England
and New York. Their primary purpose was college preparation for young
men, and enrollment remained quite small.

**College Prep and Manual Training**

By 1870, there were still only 500 public high schools with 50,000
students in the United States. \[endnote 4\] But things were changing.
It was in this era that enrollment first opened to girls -- with many
young women being trained in "normal" classes to become teachers---and
working class youth entered high schools to learn skilled trades. It can
be said that the modern public high school was born when the Michigan
State Supreme Court ruled in 1874 that taxes could be levied to support
public high schools as well as elementary schools. \[endnote 5\]
Thereafter, with the Industrial Revolution and the beginning of mass
urbanization, large cities began to construct high schools.

Students enrolling in the new high schools of the late 19th century were
not necessarily being prepared for college. While college preparatory
schools still existed, "manual" (i.e. vocational) training schools began
to multiply.

Many parents and students saw the "new vocationalism" as a shortcut to
the new skilled jobs in the burgeoning factories and agricultural
enterprises. Academic subjects came to be regarded as merely a part of,
rather than the core of, the curriculum of the manual training schools.

**The Great Divide**

**Academic standards**

By the end of the 19th century, some education leaders were becoming
distressed by the uneven quality of high school education. In response,
the presidents of the nation's most prestigious colleges convened the
first National Council of Education in 1892. \[endnote 6\] Consisting of
professors from Ivy League colleges, the Council, also known as the
Committee of Ten, mapped a core of academic subjects that they
considered necessary to prepare for college.

In addition to Latin, Greek and mathematics, the Committee added modern
subjects that, in altered form, are still considered the core of the
academic curriculum: English, foreign languages, natural history,
physical science, geography, history, civil government, and political
economy. \[endnote 7\]

The Committee of Ten did not believe that this curriculum was suitable
only for those intending to go on to college, but for the entire high
school population including those in the manual schools and those not
intending to go on to further education or training. To the
objection---one still heard today---that this curriculum was not
suitable for preparation for life and work, they countered that a
liberal arts education, which trained the mind, was suitable for all
students regardless of their future life path. Their message was simple:
*there would be no distinction between those students preparing for
college and those who were* "*preparing for life.*" \[endnote 8\]

But this view did not prevail for long.

Figure 1

High School Participation in the 20th Century

Graphic: This is a line graph depicting students enrolled in

high schools in grades 9-12. The numbers are in thousands.

Between 1890-1910, the number of students enrolled in grades 9-12 was
less than 2,000. In 1920, the number of students slightly increased
above 2,000. Students enrolled in grades 9-12 in 1930 rose to slightly
above 4,000 In 1940, the number of students increased to slightly above
6,000, but in 1950 the number fell to 6,000. The decade of 1960, saw an
increase of students to slightly above 8,000 and in 1970 there was a
large increase of students enrolled in grades 9-12. In 1970, the number
of students was slightly under 14,000 and remained slightly under 14,000
between 1980-1990. In 2000, the number of students enrolled in grades
9-12 was 14,000.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES. (2002). Digest of Education

Statistics 2001 (NCES 2002-130). Washington, DC: U.S. Government

Printing Office.

**General studies**

Through the first two decades of the 20th century, wave after wave of
new immigrants, many of them poor and with little formal education,
arrived in the United States and in its growing high schools. Leaders in
education and industry were not convinced this population was receiving
the type of education needed to prepare them for life outside of school.
They assumed that most students would go on to work in unskilled or
semi-skilled work after high school and that the greatest need was for
students to be acculturated to American society.

In 1918, the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, a
group appointed by the National Education Association, issued *The
Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education*. In it the Commission stated
that the primary purposes of high schools were *health, citizenship and
worthy home-membership and, only secondarily, command of fundamental
processes*. \[endnote 9\] Published by the U.S. Bureau of Education,
this document helped lay the foundation for the modern American high
school, with its emphasis on providing custodial care, what later came
to be known as "life adjustment" education.

Enrollments continued to rise dramatically as child labor and truancy
laws brought ever more students into the high schools. Attempts were
still made to prepare some of these students for technical trades---
Congress enacted the first federal vocational education legislation in
1917---and college prep schools persisted for the elite. However, it was
*The Cardinal Principles* vision that dominated most schools. So-called
"general" studies---neither specifically college nor technical
preparation---began to push out the academic and career/technical
disciplines. \[endnote ten\] Rigorous academic studies suffered most,
reserved as they were for the small minority of students deemed "college
material."

For the majority of students, neither an academic nor a vocational
curriculum was considered appropriate because these students were viewed
as fit neither for the professions or the trades. At a conference on the
U.S. Office of Education in 1945, Charles Prosser, the first director of
the Federal Board for Vocational Education, offered opening comments in
support of life-adjustment education. His comments later became known as
the Prosser Resolution (see box at right). \[endnote eleven\]

The American high school with all of its ancillary cultural institutions
from Friday night football to the senior prom---and its loose academic
standards--- became embedded in the public mind. The schools seemed to
meet the demands of the time. They were universal and democratic and
produced a more or less standardized product without requiring too much
homework. The great mass of immigrants and their children were
acculturated to American life. On average, it seemed that up through the
Second World War, American youth were well prepared compared with those
in other countries where universal secondary education had yet to take
hold.

**Sputnik - New Urgency Amid Old Expectations**

Thus, it was a shock to the public when in the 1950s and 1960s the
United States found itself falling behind other countries, especially
the Soviet Union, in critically important academic skills symbolized by
the science needed to launch Sputnik in 1957. \[endnote twelve\] The
economic rise of Germany and Japan highlighted the academic failings of
American schools, as well. The state of academics in the American
curriculum--- particularly math and science---was suddenly decried from
all corners.

Policymakers and educators responded by adding more courses and
ever-larger facilities with all of the modern trappings---science labs,
football fields, and band rooms. However, their concern was for the
elite, defined by educators as the top 20 percent of students, who would
become the scientists and engineers who would win the Cold War.
\[endnote thirteen\]

What the policymakers did not do was re-examine assumptions about the
capabilities of most young Americans. Schools continued to believe that
students should be sorted among various tracks---academic, vocational
and general---depending on their test scores and, more often, the
judgment of guidance counselors as to their suitable destinies. Most
students were judged not to be "college material" and, thus, did not
need rigorous academic preparation. The more the schools changed (bigger
budgets, better facilities), the more they remained the same (low
academic expectations for the majority)

\[Inserted Text Graphic\]

It is the belief of this conference that...the vocational school of a
community will be able better to prepare 20 percent of its youth of
secondary school age for entrance upon desirable skilled occupations;
and that the high school will continue to prepare 20 percent of its
students for entrance to college. We do not believe that the remaining
60 percent of our youth of secondary school age will receive the life
adjustment training they need and to which they are entitled as American
citizens -- unless and until the administrators of public education with
the assistance of the vocational education leaders formulate a similar
program for this group. --The Prosser Resolution, Charles Prosser, 1945

\[End of Inserted Text\]

**Equality and Access**

Before it had a chance to fully address the Sputnik shock, the education
system became the center of new storms roiling society---civil rights
for minorities and equal access for children with disabilities.
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s significant efforts were made to
ensure that all students had equal access to public education. Two
important actions were the Supreme Court decision in *Brown v. the Board
of Education of Topeka* (1954) \[endnote fourteen\] ending legal
segregation, and the Education of all Handicapped Children Act of 1975
mandating full educational opportunities for all children with
disabilities.

At the same time, large numbers of middle-class families were moving out
of urban centers to suburban areas, resulting in dramatic decreases in
the tax base for urban public education. A consequence of this outward
migration was that inner cities were left with large low-income minority
high schools. Despite the large amounts of compensatory funding from the
federal government since the mid-1960s, these schools continue to
struggle.

In the postwar period, as in the first half of the century, graduation
rates improved, but there was little corresponding improvement in
reading, and inconsistent improvement in math and science as measured by
the National Assessment of Educational Progress. \[endnote fifteen\]

**A Nation at Risk**

This lack of overall academic progress became increasingly apparent to
business leaders, policymakers, and educators as the economy faced new
challenges from Europe and Asia, where post-war reform had made rigorous
academic education nearly universal. In 1983, Secretary of Education
Terrell Bell appointed the National Commission on Excellence in
Education to address the issue.

The Commission's report, *A Nation at Risk*, marked the first time a
government sponsored report prompted serious discussion and action to
implement higher academic standards for all students. \[endnote
sixteen\] In issuing the report, the Commission expressed alarm that the
rise of global trade and the United States as the leading world power,
and the dawn of the information age, were not being accompanied by
complementary changes in the schools.

A *Nation at Risk* harkened back to the Committee of Ten, renewing the
demand that American schools provide all students with access to a
rigorous academic curriculum. Since its publication, virtually all
states have raised the number of academic credits required for
graduation and have made academic standards more rigorous. Some have
established curriculum-based and other examinations linked to high
school graduation. Some cities are also funding choice programs that
offer students greater access to a more rigorous curriculum.

But progress since 1983 has been slow and uneven. After decades of
reform, it is true that 60 percent of high school students, including
more occupational/technical education students, now complete the number
of academic credits recommended by the Commission as necessary for
postsecondary education or training.

Yet it is still not clear--given stagnant test scores and climbing high
school dropout rates--whether the quality of the curriculum, not just
course titles, is consistent across and even within the same high
schools. It is, indeed, not clear whether the rising number of students
taking core academic courses represents real improvement over 20, or
even 50, years ago. Moreover, whatever progress has been made in the
past 20 years, the economy, and its demand for ever higher academic
proficiency, has changed more than either the high school curriculum or
student performance.

Today's world demands a higher level of expectations and academic
achievement. Establishing high expectations for all is a critical first
step. Students and their parents have made their choices about the
direction they wish to pursue---97 percent of high school graduates
indicate that they intend to pursue some sort of postsecondary education
at some point in their lives. \[endnote seventeen\] But too few are
offered---or guided to---the types of courses that will prepare them for
their chosen future.

The nation and its education system remain far from achieving the vision
of excellence recommended by the Commission 20 years ago. Nor have the
low expectations that deny many students access to a rigorous curriculum
been changed. And big questions still remain about what mix of
instructional, curriculum and organizational strategies is right to
achieve the needed results.

\[Inserted Text Graphic\]

"All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a
fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of
mind and spirit to the utmost. This promise means that all children by
virtue of their own efforts, competently guided, can hope to attain the
mature and informed judgment needed to secure gainful employment, and to
manage their own lives, thereby serving not only their own interests but
also the progress of society itself." **---** A Nation at Risk, 1983

\[End of inserted text graphic\[

**The Future of American High Schools**

Public high school enrollment by 2008 is projected to increase by 11%
over 1998 figures.18 The U.S. Department of Education estimates that
6,000 new schools must be built by the year 2006 to handle the overflow
of K-12 students. And, as at the turn of the last century, the education
system is being called upon to serve millions of new immigrant children.

Multiple foundations, organizations, and educational leaders are
focusing once again on transforming the American high school. Indeed, it
will require a consistent and committed partnership of parents,
students, teachers, principals, and leaders at the local, state and
national level to create the educational opportunities and results
worthy of American youth in the

21st century. *No Child Left Behind* offers a framework to channel that
commitment and to meet these historic challenges

Figure 2

High School Completion in the 20th Century

This is a line graph depicting the percentage of students age 25 and
over completing high school through grade 12 or a GED. This graph is for
the years 1910-1999.

In 1910, only 10 percent of students age 25 and over received a GED or
diploma. This percentage steadily inclined to 69 percent in 1975.

In 1980, 70 percent of students, age 25 and over, received their high
school diploma or GED. The percentage of students slowly increased to
slightly over 80 percent in 1999.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES. (2002). Digest of Education

Statistics 2001 (NCES 2002-130). Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office. Estimates excluding the GED put graduation rates much
lower; see Greene, J., \"Public High School Graduation.\" Manhattan
Institute, 2003.

Figure 3

Academic Courses Completed by High School Graduates

This is a bar graph representing the percentage of students completing
academic courses necessary for 4-year college preparation. The courses
represented for college preparation are four English credits, three
social studies credits, three science credits, three math credits, and
two foreign language credits. In 1982, two percent of students completed
the academic courses for college preparation. In 1987, the number of
students increased to 10.6 percent. In 1990, 18 percent of students
completed the courses needed for college preparation. In 1994, there was
an increase in the student percentage to 25.1 percent. Finally, in 1998,
the percentage of students completing academic courses for college
preparation was 28.6 percent.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES. (2002). Digest of Education

Statistics 2001 (NCES 2002-130). Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office.

This paper was produced under U.S. Department of Education Contract No.
ED-99 CO-0163 with

DTI Associates, Inc. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned in
this paper is intended or should be inferred.

**Fi**

**Endnotes**

One Boyer, E.L. *High School: A Report on Secondary Education in
America. (*New York: Harper and Row, 1983.) p. 43.

Two Boyer, p. 44.

Three Boyer, p. 44.

Four Boyer, p. 46.

Five Boyer, p. 46.

Six Boyer, p. 49.

Seven Boyer, p. 49.

Eight Kliebard, H. M. *The Struggle for the American Curriculum:
1893-1958. (*New York: Routledge, 1986.) p. 12.

Nine Kliebard, p. 50.

Ten Boyer, p. 54.

Eleven Boyer, p. 249.

Twelve New York Times archives,
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/sputnik/.

Thirteen Kliebard, H. M. p. 266.

Fourteen Boyer, p. 56.

Fifteen J.R. Campbell, C.M. Hombo, and J. Mazzeo. *NAEP 1999 Trends in
Academic Progress: Three Decades of Student Performance.* NCES

2000--469. Washington, DC: 2000.

Sixteen National Commission on Excellence in Education. *A Nation at
Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform*. (Washington, DC: U.S.

Government Printing Office. 1983).

17 U.S. Department of Education, NCES. 1996. *National Education
Longitudinal Study: 1988-1994; Descriptive Summary Report (NCES*

*2001-072)*, (Washington, DC, May 2001).

18 U.S. Department of Education, NCES. 2003. *The Condition of Education
2003 (NCES 2003-067).* p. 18. Washington, DC.

Reprinting of this publication is authorized with the following
citation: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult
Education, Washington, DC, 2003. For more information about the U.S.
Department of Education\'s work on high schools, visit
<http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/hsinit/index.html>.

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