Grayson N. Kefauver
Published: 1933
Total Pages: 66
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Within a period of 30 years the high-school enrollment has increased a little over 10 per cent of the population of high-school age to more than 50 per cent of that population. This enrollment is so unusual for a secondary school that is has attracted the attention of Europe where only 8 to 10 per cent attend secondary schools. Many European educators have said that we are educating too many people. In order that we many know where we stand in secondary education, the membership of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools four years ago took the lead in urging a study. It seemed to them that it was wise for such a study to be made by the Government of the United States rather than by a private foundation, for if such an agency studied secondary education it might be accused either rightly or wrongly of a bias toward a special interest. When the members of a committee of this association appeared before the Bureau of Budget in 1928, they received a very courteous hearing. It was impossible, so the Chief of the Budget Bureau thought, to obtain all the money which the commission felt desirable; with the money which was obtained, $225,000, to be expended over a 3-year period, it was found impossible to do all the things that the committee had in mind. It was possible, however, to study those things which pertained strictly to secondary education, that is, its organization; its curriculum, including some of the more fundamental subjects, and particularly those subjects on which a comparison could be made between the present and earlier periods; its extracurriculum, which is almost entirely new in the past 30 years; the pupil population, and administrative and supervisory problems, personnel, and activities. This bulletin contains the following chapters: (1) Changes in the secondary-school population; and (2) Characteristics of secondary-school pupils. Individual sections contain footnotes. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.) [Best copy available has been provided.].