An investigation of the junior high-school movement

Front matter

C. ET. Erffmeyer

An rn\re9"t"igoi f"ion of the Junior H igh- School M element

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE JUNIOR HIGH-SCHOOL MOVEMENT

Introduction

We usually regard the common school as the product of the Reformation. Before that time education was thought of as the exclusive right of the sons of the aristocracy, and there was no special training for the boys and girls of the common people. But among the Puritans who settled in New England the belief in an elementary education for all children was firmly accepted because of religious reasons. However, even before the colonists had established any elementary schools, we find them founding a college and beginning a Latin grammar school, whose purpose was to train ministers and leaders in the state. The traditions of aristocracy were still strong, and although the ideal underlying the elementary school was essentially democratic, that underlying the secondary school was avowedly aristocratic. The ministers and the other professional classes were a separate group, end the schools which gave them their preparation were exclusive institutions. Thus while there were established within a very short time after the founding of the colony the three divisions of education as we have them today the elementary, secondary and higher; they were not at all regarded as being the three parts of one system. The result was an elementary school for the masses, and secondary and higher schools for the classes, and these two systems had but little in common.

These two types of schools continued their separate development until well within the national period of our history. Toward the close of the colonial period, however, the Latin grammar school began to decline in influence, due to the waning interest in religion and the fact that it was ceasing to serve any broad z>

educational need. As a consequence there was a tendency to establish schools offering a more practical curriculum than the old Latin grammar schools had provided. To meet this need the academyarose, and this proved to he the transition institution between the Latin grammar school and the public high school. The academy, while much more democratic than the Latin grammar school, was nevertheless essentially an aristocratic and select institution, since it provided education only for the select youth of the better-to-do classes of society. The fact that it was accustomed to receive those who had completed the elementary schools did not in itself constitute the elementary school and the academy two parts of a single system of education.

The desire of the common people for an education in advance of elementary training at length found expression in the establishment of the public high school. The public high school arose to provide a free secondary education for the masses, and was the first, full expression of democracy in the phase of secondary education. The public high school was almost universally designed to succeed the elementary school course and to build upon it. As a consequence admission to the high school practically everywhere required the completion of the elementary school.

It is thus evident that the present form of articulation between the elementary and secondary schools in the United States is of relatively recent development and represents the results of an attempt to bring into relation two institutions which had grown up more or less independently. In other words, the present situation is the result of a gradual growth rather than a logically developed system. For many years, however, the eight-four system of articulation and organization which had gradually developed was not questioned. The new, free secondary school was too busily engaged defending its very existence to be able to devote much of its energies to the question of internal adjustment and articulatior

Toward the close of the nineteenth century the problem concerning economy of time in education arose and the discussion at length turned to the question of the best division of time between the elementary and the secondary school. As an attempt to reorganize the schools upon the best possible basis the junior high school was introduced. Since that time "junior high school" has been a term with which to conjure. The development and growth of the junior high school movement has been very rapid, and this has in itself been one cause of the fact that much of the reorganization which has passed under the name of the junior high school has been of a very superficial character. Many so-called junior high schools have been organized which entirely fail to provide for the fundamental readjustments which this new type of school involves Such superficial reorganization demands that attention be given to the fundamental principles which should underlie this change. Numerous articles have appeared upon the subject of the junior high school, but practically all of these deal with but a portion of the problem. As yet only a beginning has been made in attempting to present in a manner at all comprehensive the basic principles which should serve as guides in such a complete reorganization as that which the junior high school contemplates. The need of such a presentation is most clearly evident to those who are fac6 to face with the actual introduction of this new type of school. Just as those who are beginning a junior high school are probably never able to organize a school which will in all particulars prove best in experience, but will require many modifications and readjustments, so in this stage of the junior high-school movement it is probably impossible to lay down fundamental principles which will require no changes. On the other hand, it is very desirable that we attempt to state in as comprehensive a manner as possible the underlying principles of the junior high school; and it is for this purpose and in such a spirit that the following attempt to solve this problem has been undertaken.

CHAPTER I. DEVELOPMENT OP THE JUNIOR HIGH- SCHOOL MOVEMENT. j

As was stated in the introduction, the articulation between the elementary and secondary schools v/as the result of attempts to bring together two institutions which had grown up more or less independently. This articulation was not the result of a logically constructed organization, but came about through a gradual growth and evolution. Before long the resulting form of organization was questioned, President Eliot of Harvard at the meeting of the Department of Superintendence in 1888 raising the question, "Can school programs be shortened and enriched?" His interest in the question was directed primarily to the possibility of lowering the age of freshmen upon entrance to college, but he argued that, "It is necessary to examine the American school programs from the beginning, to start with the primary school and

go on through the grammar school and the high school, searching

*

for the places where time and labor can be saved,"

President Eliot followed this paper by another ir 1892, on "Shortening and enriching the grammar school course," in which he advocated the elimination of the wasteful work in the elementary schools in arithmetic, grammar and geography, and the introduction into the upper grades of the elementary school of

* C. W. Eliot: "Can School Programs be Shortened and Enriched"

in his Educational Reform, pp. 155-156.

** C. W. Eliot: Proceedings of N.E.A., 1892, pp. 617-635 natural history, elementary physics, algebra, geometry, French, German, and Latin.

With these two papers began the discussion of a reorganization of the school system, which has sought to determine the purposes and place in our educational scheme of the common elementary school, the secondary school, and higher education. During the years following until the present time, the discussion has especially centered around the questions of eliminating useless material from the long-established subjects of the elementary school!, the introduction into the upper grades of the elementary school of subjects usually deferred until the high school, and the introduction of departmental methods in the seventh and eighth grades, with the possibility in view of shortening the whole course of instruction through the university by a year or more. This discussion eventually resulted in the organization of a new type of school, the junior high school, as the best solution of these problems.

One immediate result of President Eliot's discussion was the appointment of the Committee of Ten by the N.E.A. This committee reported in 1893, and its recommendations, so far as they have to do with the elementary school, were almost revolutionary. nIn the opinion of the Committee, several subjects now reserved for high schools, — such as algebra, geometry, natural science, and foreign languages, — should be begun earlier than now, and therefore within the schools classed as elementary; or, as an alternative, the secondary school period should be made to begin two years earlier than at present, leaving six years instead of eight for the elementary school period. Under the present organization, elementary subjects and elementary methods are, in the judgment of the Committee, kept in use too long." *

In 1895 the Committee of Fifteen on Elementary Education of the N.E.A» gave its report. This committee did not favor lessening the time given to elementary education, but believed that a modified form of secondary studies might be introduced into the upper grades of the elementary school.

"Your committee is agreed that the time devoted to the elementary school work should not be reduced from eight years, but they have recommended that in the seventh and eighth grades a modified form of algebra be introduced in place of advanced arithmetic and that in the eighth year English grammar yield to Latin. This makes, in their opinion, a proper transition to the studies of the secondary school and is calculated to assist the pupil materially in his preparation for that work. Hitherto the change from the work of the elementary school has been too abrupt." **

During the same decade another important study under the direction of the II .E. A. was made by the Committee on College Entrance Requirements. Their report in 1899 made the following recommendations in respect to the length of the elementary and secondary periods.

Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies, 1893, p. 45.

Report of the Committee of Fifteen on Elementary Education, 1895, p. 95.

"In our opinion it is important that the last two grades that now precede the high-school course should be incorporated in it, and, wherever practicable, the instruction in those two grades should be given under the supervision of the high-school teacher.

"This recommendation really means a six- years* high-school course of study, and therefore that the qualifications of the teachers of the seventh and eighth grades shall not be inferior to those of the teachers in the remaining high-school grades."*

In addition to these reports and discussions by the N.E.A. and other educational organizations, the problem was discussed by many individual educators of prominence. In an address in 1898 before the University High School Conference at the University of Illinois, President Nicholas Murry Butler characterized the elementary period of school life as follows:

"Elementary education I define as that general training in the elements of knowledge that is suitable for a pupil from the age of 6 or 7 to the period of adolescence. It is ordinarily organized in eight or nine grades, each occupying an academic year. Nine grades are too many and are distinctly wasteful. To spend so much time on these simple studies leads to that arrested development which is so often the bane of the elementary-school period. I have never known a child who needed more than

* Report of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements, 1899, pp. 23-24.

six years' time in which to complete the elementary course."*

•These recommendations of committees and of individuals were subjected to discussion and criticism, which served to distinguish more clearly the different parts of our school system in respect to function and relationship. During the decades preceding President Eliot's address in 1888, the high school had been busily engaged in a struggle for existence. There had been a sharp contest over the question of supplying an education of secondary grade at public expense, and as late as the beginning of the last quarter of the nineteenth century there were many discussions as to whether the high school should be supported by public tax. By 1888 this point had been won, and the high school, no longer compelled tc fight for its very existence, could direct its energies upon problems of constructive criticism.**

In 1901 at the conference of the academies and high schools affiliating with the University of Chicago, Prof. Dewey called attention to the problem relating to the articulation of the secondary school in the educational system, especially with reference to adjustment to the elementary division. He was confident that "we shall soon see the same thoughtful attention which for the past fifteen years has characterized discussion of the

* K. M. Butler: "Scope and Function of Secondary Education" Educ. Rev. 16-17. June, 1898.

** F. F. Bunker: "Reorganization of the Public School System" U.S. Bur. of Ed. Bull. No. 8, 1916, p. 55.

relation of the high school and the college, speedily transferring itself over to the problem of a more organic and vital relation between the high school and the grades,"*

This same conference in the following year (190£) discussed the reorganization of the school system, and thought it desirable "to connect the work of the eighth grade of the elementary school with that of the secondary school," believing that "in some way or other time must be saved in the preliminary stages of educational wo rk in order that men and women may enter upon their life work at an earlier stage."** Three committees were appointed by this conference to consider the problem from the viewpoint of the elementary school, the secondary school, and the college.

The report which the committee on elementary schools gave the next year is of interest because of several of the conclusions which it reached.

"There were reasons, outside of those which result from the desire to adjust the curriculum to the college, which make the shortening of the course of the elementary school to seven years ad- . vis able.;

"The necessary condensation of the work resultant from the adoption of a seven-year course v/ill be beneficial. It will

John Dewey: "Current Problems in Secondary Education." School Review Vol. 10, p. 19.

** Harper: "The High School of the Future"

School Review Vol. 11, pp. 1-2 Jan. 1903.

3ead to a critical examination of the customary studies and their adjustment to the standpoint of common-sense and public utility. A certain redundancy of subject matter may find correction by this readjustment of time, and educational and utilitarian essentials be better recognized. It may possibly be found that some of the matter embodied in the various studies is unessential, and more of scholastic than educational origin and value."*

The seven-year elementary school of Kansas City, Mo., was cited by this committee as evidence of the feasibility of the plan, and it was thought that "the shortening of the course should be effected, not by the transfer of the studies of the last year to the high school, but by the sifting of the present work of the elementary schools and its redistribution over seven years."**

The report of the committee on elementary education together with those of the committees on secondary schools and colleges was referred to the three committees sitting together and known as the "Commission of Twenty-One." In 1904 this commission in reporting raised the question without answering it, "Should the elementary school correspond to the period of childhood and therefore should it provide for six years of school work from the ages of 6 to 12 years, instead of eight years as at present?"***

* Report of Committee on Elementary Schools, School Review, Vol. 12, p. 16, Jan. 1904.

Ibid., . School Review, Vol. 12, p. 18, Jan. 1904.

*** Renort of the Commission of Twenty-One, School Review, Vol. 13, p. 24, Jan. 1905.

In 1902" The Pettee Committee" reported on "An extended high-school curriculum" to the Conference of Collegiate and Secondary Instructors, at Western Reserve University. This report, expressing the professional judgment and the recommendation of nearly two hundred teachers, principals, and school superintendents, recommended a six-year high school divided into an upper high school and a lower high school, the latter comprising children from the ages of twelve to fifteen years. *

The Committee on Proposed Investigations on the Culture Element and Economy of Time in Education of the U.E.A. reported in 1905 and advised the appointment of another committee of five persons, who should prepare a report on the following topic: "The "best period for the high school, four years from fourteen to eighteen or six years from twelve to eighteen."**

The same year, Dr. lyttle , State Inspector of High Schools for New York, addressed the Department of Secondary Education of the U.S.A. upon the subject, "Should the Twelve-year Course of Study be Equally Divided between the Elementary School and the Secondary School?"*** In this paper he advocated an equal division of the time between elementary and secondary education on the grounds that the length of time given to elementary education in an eight-year

* "A Six-Year High-School Course" in Brown: "The American High School" pp. 411-415.

course is the result of a desire to attain perfection in the fundamentals; that secondary education should begin when the child has acquired the tools of education and when adolescence begins; that a decided mental change occurs in the child at this point whicl education should recognize; and that a six-year elementary course would make possible a differentiation based upon individual capabilities and interests.

Accordingly, that year a standing committee was appointed to consider the advisability of dividing the twelve years equally between elementary and secondary schools. The first report of the "Committee on an Equal Division of the Twelve Years in the Public Schools between the District and High Schools" was made in 1907. In this report the committee declares that "while on the question of the proposed change there is not a complete unanimity of opinion, there are preponderating arguments in its favor."*

The following year this committee, working along the j lines indicated by growing educational opinion, decided as follows:

"1. To outline what may reasonably be required of pupils at the end of the sixth school year as essential to a preparation for high-school work.

"2. To suggest for the seventh and eighth grades a minimum practical course of study based on the experience and practice

See Report of Committee, Proc. H.2.A. 1907, pp. 705 - 710 of the civilized world, to consume perhaps 70 per cent, of the pupils1 time, and to advise for the other 30 per cent, those electives which the "best pedagogical thought and practice approve.

"3. To recommend further careful investigation in regard to fixing points for vocational differentiation in accordance with local conditions and individual characteristics.

"4. To recommend that promotions be by units of work accomplished rather than by years, thereby permitting the shortening or lengthening of the time in which the course, nominally of six years, may be completed by pupils of varying ability.'1*

In 1909 the committee gave its "Third Report on Six-year Course of Study." The Committee believed that sentiment for the six-and-six division was growing, and declared that the change to aii equal division of time between elementary and secondary education was inevitable. In concluding their report the committee summed up their attitude toward the proposition as follows:

"There is a general impression revealed by this and other correspondence that the whole course of instruction, both elementary and secondary, should be simplified; that the differentiation of pupils1 work should begin at the end of the sixth grade; that time is wasted on non-essentials and on impracticable topics; that there should be greater flexibility in the promotion of pupils; that the whole system should be reorganized.

"A study of the schools of Great Britain and Germany within the past year discloses that differentiation begins in both

* Report of the Committee on Six-year Course of Study, Proc. N.E.A. 1908, p. 6£? k countries at the point corresponding to the end of our sixth grade; that the essentials of the higher mathematics, of science, and the study of the foreign languages are "begun at that point, and in many of the best schools even earlier; that the secondary period is six to eight years in length.

"The Committee is of the opinion that while we may not expect or hope for any sudden or extensive changes in the general scheme of organization from the eight- and four-year division to the six-and-six division, nevertheless we feel certain not only that the change is inevitable but that it is already in progress and is taking place in different ways to meet local conditions."*

In 1913 there was published the Report of the Committee of the National Council of Education on Economy of Time in Education. This committee agreed upon the following principles:

"The fundamentals of elementary educatio .1 — — lac ts. habits, dexterities, sentiments, etc. — can be taught in six school years, allowing the elementary period to end at 12.

"At the end of the first six years of school the child requires new and varied interests, beyond those found in the elementary curriculum.

"By a division of the six-year high school into two periods, junior and senior, a large number would complete the first period; the plan would be adapted to an advanced grade of vocational school between 15 or 16 and 18 for pupils unable to continue

Report of Committee on Six-year Course of Study. Proc. N.E.A. 1909, p. 50£ a general course."*

In 1918 the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, appointed "by the N.E.A., reported as follows: '

"We, therefore, recommend a reorganization of the school system whereby the first six years shall be devoted to elementary education designed to meet the needs of pupils of approximately 6 to 12 years of age; and the second six years to secondary education designed to meet the needs of pupils of approximately IE to 18 years of age.

"The six years to be devoted to secondary education may well be divided into two periods which may be designated as junior and senior periods. In the junior period emphasis should be placed upon the attempt to help the pupil to explore his own aptitudes and to make at least provisional choice of the kinds of work to which he will devote himself. In the senior period emphasis should be given to training in the fields thus chosen. "**

It is interesting to note that several years before this in 1915 the Department of Superintendence of the 1J.E.A. indorsed one of the main characteristics of the junior high school in one of their resolutions. "Resolved, That we note with approval the

See Report of Committee in U.S. Bureau of Education,Bulletin No. 38, 1913, p. 11.

See Report of Commission in U.S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin Ho. 35, 1918, p. 18.

increasing tendency to establish, beginning with the seventh grade, differentiated courses of study aimed more effectively to prepare the child for his probable future activities. We believe that as a result of these modifications a more satisfactory type of instruc tion will be developed and that a genuine economy of time will result."*

A reorganization of the school system and the introduction of the junior high school has likewise been recommended by recent school surveys. The Portland Survey ** under the direction of Ellwood P. Gubberley in 1913, the Butte Survey *** under the direction of George Strayer in 1914, and the Springfield Survey **** under the direction of Leonard P. Ayres in 1914, each recommended the introduction of the junior high school as part of the school system of these cities.

The specific problem with which the discussion of the junior high school started was, as we have seen, the desirability of reducing the age of college graduates. This problem was soon subordinated to the broader question of a reorganization of our school system which should make the schools more efficient in serving the needs of all the children. At first the movement for

** Report of the Survey of the Public School System of Portland, Oregon, pp. 189-198.

***

Report of a Survey of the School System of Butte, Montana, pp. 63-67.

The Public Schools of Springfield, Illinois, pp. 117-122.

reorganization was necessarily concerned with a theoretical discussion of its educational aspects and a consideration of working plans. Following this stage of its development, the movement entered upon that of actual adoption and trial, and this part of its development has been remarkably rapid.

During the past two decades an abundance of literature, dealing with all phases of the movement for a reorganization of the school system has appeared. This literature has especially emphasized the need for a reorganization of the curriculum of the upper elementary grades, the possibility of greater economy of time, the necessity of remedying the defects in articulation between the elementary and secondary school, the demand for decreasing the large amount of retardation and elimination, the obligation of attending to individual differences and providing for these through differentiated curriculums.

Among the cities in which a reorganization of the school system upon this new basis has been attempted, there are many different forms and stages of development. These are due in part tc the varying local conditions and the differing educational conceptions held by those introducing the change. In spite of the different forms which the reorganization has assumed, it is possible to indicate with a fair degree of accuracy the growth of the movement and the proportions which it has reached.

Although many cities had introduced features of the junior high-school plan previous to dates here given for the first junior high schools, it is probable that the real beginning of this movement is to be found in the reorganization of the school systems in Columbus, Ohio (1908),, Berkeley, California (1910), Concord, New Hampshire, (1910), and Los Angeles, California (1911)?

In the report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education for 1912, thirty-one cities claimed to have adopted the junioi? high school or some modification of it.** It is evident that among theso cities reporting a reorganization there is little uniformity, due to the fact that as yet no recognized standard for the junior high school had been achieved. Two years later the Commissioner of Education in gathering data concerning the junior high school defined it as follows:

"A junior high school is defined as an organization of grades 7 and 8 or 7 to 9, whether housed with the senior high school or independently, to provide by various means for individual differences, especially by an earlier introduction of prevocational wort or subjects usually taught in the high school."***

According to this definition 193 cities reported as

having junior high schools in the year 1913-1914, and 222 additional,

****

cities were seriously considering the introduction of such schools. In a study of the extent of the junior high-school movement made by Mr. A. A. Douglass in 1916 there were reported 286 cities which had the plan in operation, 20 were in the process of reorganization,

* Inglis: Principles of Secnndary Education, p. 292.

** Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1912, Vol. I, pp. 154-155.

K** Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1914 Vol. I, p. 147.

29 expected to adopt it later, and 24 were studying the plan with a view to some mode of reorganization.* The report of junior high schools in the North Central association territory in 1917-1918 shows that in the seventeen states included in this association there were 160 junior high schools "before the year 1916, during 1916 there were 61 such schools established, during 1917 there were 72 more added, making the total number of junior high schools 295.** The number of junior high schools in operation throughout the whole country had increased, according to T. H. Briggs, to over 750 in 1919.***

An important step in the further development and standardisation of the movement was taken when the North Central association formulated a definition of the junior high school. Their definition is as follows:

*A junior high school is a school in which the seventh, eighth and ninth grades are segregated in a building (or portion of a building) by themselves, possess an organization of their own that is distinct from the grades above and the grades below, and are taught by a separate corps of teachers. Such schools, to fall within the classification of Junior High Schools, must likewise be characterized by the following:

(1) a program of studies decidedly greater in scope and

richer in content than that of the traditional elementary school.

( 2 j some pupil choice of studies, elected under super - jx, Douglass: "The Junior High School" in National Society for the Study of Education, Fifteenth Yearbook, Part III, p. 27. **C. 0. Davis: "Junior High Schools in the North Central association Territory 1917-1918" School -ieview Vol. 26, p. 326, May ,1918.

***T. H. Briggs: "What is a Junior High School" Sduc . A dm. and Super. Vol. V. p. 283, Sept. 1919.

2£ vision.

( 3 ) departmental teaching.

(4) promotion "by subject!

(5) provision for testing out individual aptitudes in academic, ore-vocational and vocational work.

(6) some recognition of the peculiar needs of the retarded pupil of adolescent age, as well as special consideration of the super-normal pupil.

(7) some recognition of the plan of supervised study." It is probably true that only a relatively small number

of the junior high schools reported reach the standard set up by this definition. vVhen we take into consideration the lack of any recognized standard during the period of reorganization we cannot but expect to find a lack of uniformity and a wide variation in practice. The work of reorganization must necessarily be slow and difficult. Local situations and lack of adequate resources have often prevented and hindered the reorganization which the educational leaders of the community have desired. On the other hand a large share of the failure to establish junior high schools which in any measure at all meet the requirements of the above definition is due to another cause. Many superintendents and principals, who do not comprehend the true purpose and significance of the movement, are nevertheless enthusiastic supporters of the plan as they understand it, and because of this lack of understanding, the schools which they establish fail to embody many essential features of the real junior high school. Such persons hinder the development of