educationalshift-committeeoften

=**History:** = During the year of 1892 the government approved a committee that would look at whether or not the schools in the United States were up to par or whether they should have a more rigorous schedule. The committee came up with the recommendation for schools (this is discussed in the following paragraph), which would lead to things such as if high schools should be allowed to offer college level work to its students, and the students should be given the opportunity to redeem this work for college credit at universities that deemed it proficient enough work to allow students to be given credit. This committee opened the future to the AP tests that began in 1955. The main focus of the committee was to come up with a standardized schedule that would be able to be followed by the entire United States. (1)

The committee came up with a recommendation of 8 years of elementary school followed by 4 years of high school, a total of twelve years of school that would be required for everyone. The schools would have to teach English, Mathematics, History. It also recommended during high school years that biology, chemistry, and physics be taught in ascending order. All of these are commonplace for almost all schools in the United States today. By following these recommendations, this changed the course of the United States forever. (1)

The committee consisted of ten people from all across the United States. The chairman of the committee was Charles William Eliot, who also was the president of Harvard, one of the most prestigious universities. Eliot also later helped on a committee that was formed to reform the College Entrance Examination Board in 1906. The committee also had people from as far away as Oregon. It did not only include people from the college level, it had the head master of the Laweranceville School in New Jersey, James Mackenzie, and the principal of the Albany High School in New York, Oscar Robinson. The committee also included the heads of other prestigious colleges and university and the head master of an all woman's school. (1,3)

=**What Was it Fixing:**= The United States education system in the late 1800's was underperforming according to the government; there was no reliability or accountability to anything that was occurring in the school systems. The government had little to no control over what teachers were teaching and how it was being taught. If a school was not able to produce students with the knowledge people believe they should have, the government would not be able to tell the school what to change. By placing these recommendations of the committee of ten, schools would be held more accountable. It is one of a few times in United States history that the government looked into changing the way things are taught and making the schools more accountable for what a child should or should not know. Before this time the schools in an area got to choose what was being taught in their districts. (2)

With no consistent idea on what should or should not be taught in a classroom the schools all required something different of their students. No school had a perfect way of teaching children. Some schools would teach enough history, but not enough math for a student to go to college, and some would teach enough math but not enough English to go to college. The recommendation dealing with what courses needed to be taught told schools exactly what was expected of students and educators; this helped place a guideline on what was required to get into colleges. (1)

=**Did it Succeed?:**= The recommendation succeeded in the fact that as of today almost every school follows this schedule with a little change, elementary schools are 5 years, middle education is normally 3 years, and high school education is normally 4 years. The only difference from the recommendation is splitting elementary schools in the middle years and the earlier years. In the past century college bound students have drastically increased from the 19th centruy, nearly every year in the past century the college rate has increased. The literacy rate in the United States has steadily increased to be one of the highest in the world. The purpose of the recommendation was to make schooling more standardized to come up with ways schools can as a whole teach students better. (1,2)

The success of the United States education system can all be attributed back to this committee of ten, with their recommendation of the changes in the school districts, schools are now held accountable. Since the recommendation only a few changes have come close to that of the 1892 change. The "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2002 made schools have to report how successful they have become to give parents and children an option of where a child should be schooled. This made it so all schools were to be held to the same high standard as all of the other schools in the United States. (2)

Without the initial standardizing of what is to be taught neither of those acts would have been successful. To make a more rigorous science schedule requires that science be part of each school's curriculum, the committee of ten recommended this. For the "No Child Left Behind Act" it recommeneded the same curriculum be taught through out the entire United States. The committee made it so that this this was the case. (2)

Most schools that are not public do not follow this recommendation, and teach students how they feel would be the best way to teach their students fdsgsa. All public schools follow this recommendation though, so schools that are public are not following the old beliefs at all. (2)

Sources: 1. The Committee of Ten- Main Report according to Richard Mitchell's book __The Graves of Academe: The Seven Deadly Principles__: Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1981 (Found at http://tmh.floonet/books/commoften/mainrpt.html) 2. NEA Agenda of Events (Found at []) 3. Biography of Charles William Eliot (Found at http://www.answers.com/topic/charles-william-eliot)

Photo #1: Charles William Eliot. (Picture is in the Public Domain, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_William_Eliot.jpg) Photo #2: President Bush signing "No Child Left Behind" into law. (Picture is in the Public Domain, )