National School Reform: The Early Cold War Era

1
National School Reform The Early Cold War Era

• Chapter Eight

2
The Cold War Era

• Robust post-WWII economy depended on continued
  military buildup
• Threat of communism provided justification for
  the Cold War
• Containment
• Doctrine of first use
• McCarthyism
• Truman endorses the American way of life

3
The Cold War Era

• Domestic unrest
• The civil rights movement
• Integration battles in education and housing
• Progress and technology support link between
  centralized expertise and public well-being
• Big government and the military-industrial
  complex

4
Conants Legacy

• Fostered culture of expertise at Harvard
• Established standardized testing (SAT) as measure
  of academic potential
• Helped form Educational Testing Services
• Endorsed meritocratic structure of education

5
School Reform and Social Stratification

• Postwar debate questions who should be educated,
  and for what purpose?
• Conants vision
• The importance of experts
• Social mobility
• The value of labor
• Schools as sorters
• The American comprehensive high school

6
School Reform and Social Stratification

• Mortimer Smith and Arthur Bestor encourage
  intellectual training schools purpose to
  challenge educational handicaps
• Hyman Rickovers endorsement of accelerated
  programs for gifted students
• Life adjustment curriculum under attack

7
The American High School Today

• Originated as Carnegie Corporation proposal to
  study gifted high school youth
• Could the comprehensive high school deliver?
• Conant looked for evidence of identification and
  development of academically talented students and
  social integration of college-bound and
  vocational students
• Finding supported the status quo recommended
  elimination of small schools and increased
  concentration on gifted students

8
Slums and Suburbs

• Conants study of urban and elite schools
• Concluded that vocational education was
  appropriate for slum schools foreshadowed his
  commitment to junior colleges to ward off social
  unrest in the 1960s
• Endorsed continuing focus on academics for
  suburban youth
• Overlooked the role of segregated schools and
  unequal opportunities in contributing to social
  dynamite

9
Concluding Remarks

• Conants allegiance to meritocracy and higher
  education
• Opposed liberal education for all on the grounds
  of maintaining social order
• Schools focus became the national interest
• Schools contribution was preparation of students
  for a Cold War world