The Standardization of American Schooling: Linking Secondary and Higher Education, 1870-1910 (Secondary Education in a Changing World)

This book explores the efforts of educational reformers who sought to link secondary and higher education in the decades after 1870. Through various state, regional, and national initiatives, these reformers created a hierarchical system, laid the foundation for a growing standardization in education, and influenced who would have access to college. Neither higher education nor the secondary branches dominated the other in creating this educational system. Rather, through debate, argument, and accommodation, the two levels mutually shaped each other in a time of significant political and economic change. Reformers today wrestle with this legacy as they continue to forge connections between the two educational levels.

By focusing on state, regional, and national initiatives, this book examines the link between elementary and higher education as it developed in America’s educational system in the decades after 1870. VanOverbeke persuasively argues that the two tiers mutually shaped education and created a standardized system in a time of significant political and economic change.