Schooling America: How the Public Schools Meet the Nation's Changing Needs

Patricia Graham
Oxford University Press, 2005

In Schooling America: How the Public Schools Meet the Nation's Changing Needs, Patricia Albjerg Graham traces how American schools have changed throughout the 20th century, in step with the nation's evolving demands. While noting a number of concerns, Graham is guardedly optimistic that our schools and colleges can transform their practices to meet the challenges they face in this generation: achievement for all and accountability.

Graham – former dean and professor emerita at HGSE –  identifies four key shifts in the role public schools have been expected to play, and evaluates their success in making each transition. She proposes an alliterative scheme to characterize the four eras: Assimilation, Adjustment, Access, and Achievement. Each of these periods represents a critical juncture in the history of American public education and offers insights into what we might expect in the future.

During the period of "Assimilation" (1900-1920), a growing immigrant population, along with the transition from a rural to an urban, industrialized society, placed new demands on the public schools. Schools responded to the national need to assimilate new citizens by promoting a common language and values, including hard work, punctuality, and honesty. To manage soaring enrollments, administrators expanded schools, reorganized classes into grades, and adhered to a rigid curriculum.

Serving the social and psychological needs of children became the schools' primary goal during the period of "Adjustment" (1920-1954). Using IQ testing developed during World War I, schools sorted children into academic, vocational, and general tracks by identifying their abilities and interests. Child-centered schools with a flexible curriculum of individualized instruction replaced the earlier rigid system that emphasized acquisition of knowledge. This new model, Graham observes, may have worked well for wealthy children, but did not serve the basic educational needs of low-income children without similar home advantages.

Providing better "Access" to education became the next challenge facing public schools during the years between the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision (1954) and publication of A Nation at Risk (1983). Schools retooled to provide programs serving the specific needs of diverse populations, including girls, the gifted, minority and low-income students, and children with disabilities. Passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 introduced federal funds (and influence) into schools to support improved education opportunities for low-income children. Efforts to provide equal educational opportunity, Graham notes, were not accompanied by adequate attention to measuring the quality of that opportunity.

The goal of improving the academic performance of all students defines the current period of "Achievement" (1983 to the present). Various approaches, including school restructuring, privatization, and standards-based reform, have been implemented to improve achievement, which increasingly has become defined by test scores. All of these approaches continue to struggle with the challenges of contemporary education, including the impact of family and community on students' academic success.

In a final section, Graham examines American higher education in the 20th century, focusing on the post World War II years when colleges moved from "Autonomy to Accountability." Responding to demands for more and better research to support the national defense and economy, many small liberal arts colleges grew into large institutions offering a broader range of academic disciplines. Faculty size also expanded as schools sought scholars with specialized subject area expertise. Postsecondary education enrollment increased dramatically after passage of the G.I. Bill of 1944 and the Higher Education Act of 1965, which provided federal aid for undergraduates. This increase in federal funding – and the increasing federal scrutiny that accompanied it -- brought new demands for accountability.

Graham's chronicle reminds us that American public schools have previously met the recurring challenge of changing national education goals. History also teaches us that real change and improvement take decades, and that another major challenge will be presented before the last one is met. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from Graham's book is patience: if the nation can remain focused on the current goals of achievement for all and accountability we will have the best chance of achieving the knowledgeable and virtuous public that democracy requires.

Graham, Patricia Albjerg. Schooling America: How the Public Schools Meet the Nation's Changing Needs. New York. Oxford University Press, 2005

By Kathleen Donovan, Research and Instruction Librarian, Gutman Library, HGSE