Henry J. Otto

Curriculum: Status and Description

REVIEW of current literature and of responses solicited from teachertraining institutions thruout the United States reveals no great amount of careful, fundamental research on this topic during the past three years. Emphasis here is placed upon studies having research merit. Also included are some books, reports, and studies which, altho not always based on formal research, do indicate principles, activities, and trends which may be useful to persons interested in the general status of the curriculum for the period of 1945 to 1947, inclusive. This does not suggest that the curriculum is static. Emphasis is placed upon practice. Some reference to theory from time to time is helpful, however, in comparing what was being done with what might have been done. Of primary concern here is the organization and the content of the curriculum as shown by the research of the period covered by this issue of the REVIEW.

Chapter II: Curriculum: Status and Description

REVEVIEW of current literature and of responses solicited from teachertraining institutions thruout the United States reveals no great amount of careful, fundamental research on this topic during the past three years. Emphasis here is placed upon studies having research merit. Also included are some books, reports, and studies which, altho not always based on formal research, do indicate principles, activities, and trends which may be useful to persons interested in the general status of the curriculum for the period of 1945 to 1947, inclusive. This does not suggest that the curriculum is static. Emphasis is placed upon practice. Some reference to theory from time to time is helpful, however, in comparing what was being done with what might have been done. Of primary concern here is the organization and the content of the curriculum as shown by the research of the period covered by this issue

Chapter I: Printed Materials

PRINTED materials, especially in the form of textbooks, continue to be the core of instructional materials in schools in this country. Except for The New England Primer, written by Benjamin Harris and published in Boston sometime between 1687 and 1690, textbooks that were written and published in America did not appear until after 1776. Noah Websters American Spelling Book, called the blue-backed speller, was published in 1783. Since textbooks play such an important role in schooling, authors, publishers, and users have always been concerned about nearly every aspect of the quality of such an important learning and teaching tool; but it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that major individual and group attention was focused upon the textbook problem. Questions about the selection of textbooks were treated by Maxwell (51) in 1921, by Franzen and Knight (21) in 1922, by Jensen (28) in 1931, and by Clement (9) in 1942. The broader problems of textbook content, format, size and style of type, and the like were discussed by Cubberley (11) in 1927 and by the National Society for the Study of Education (55) in 1931. Problems pertaining to the role of free textbooks and their administration in city school systems were studied by Howard (27) in 1924 and by Lange (34) in 1940. In 1955 Cronbach and others (10) published a deliberative volume dealing with the place and purpose of text materials as well as problems of text production and use.

The Organization of the Educational Program

THE position taken here is that elementary education is synonymous with schooling for early and middle childhood and that elementary schools are the service units thru which schooling is provided children during early and middle childhood. Altho the separate parts of elementary education (nursery school, kindergarten, and elementary grades) had different origins, educational theory has now accepted the importance of unity and continuity in educational services for children. The desired amount of unity and continuity can never be achieved as long as we continue to talk and think and write about nursery schools as such, kindergartens as such, and elementary schools as such. The extent to which the separateness of these parts still exists in thought and practice is evidenced by the complete absence of researches in which a unified approach has been made in teacher personnel, curriculum offering, pupil personnel, school facilities, school organization, or supervision for the twoto seven-year-age group. Research on administrative and organizational problems simply has not touched the supposedly unified schooling for early childhood. The organization of the conventional elementary school continues to be in flux. Its shifting character is influenced by changes in educational theory (which have been described in preceding chapters), increasing enrolments, population shifts, school district reorganization, and changes in the internal organization for administration and supervision within school systems. The number of pupils enrolled in kindergarten and Grades I to VIII, inclusiye, was 18,832,098 in 1940 (36) and is expected to reach a peak of 26,594,000 by 1957 (35). In 1790 the population of the United States was 94.9 percent rural, but by 1950 only 36.3 percent of the people lived in areas classified as rural. Between 1940 and 1950 there was an actual decrease in the rural population from 57,245,573 to 54,669,361, while the total U. S. population increased from 131,669,275 to 150,697,361. These changes in population are causing important changes in the organization of elementary schools in rural areas and are creating organizational, housing, and class-size problems in urban schools.

Chapter IX: The Organization of the Educational Program

THE position taken here is that elementary education is synonymous with schooling for early and middle childhood and that elementary schools are the service units thru which schooling is provided children during early and middle childhood. Altho the separate parts of elementary education (nursery school, kindergarten, and elementary grades) had different origins, educational theory has now accepted the importance of unity and continuity in educational services for children. The desired amount of unity and continuity can never be achieved as long as we continue to talk and think and write about nursery schools as such, kindergartens as such, and elementary schools as such. The extent to which the separateness of these parts still exists in thought and practice is evidenced by the complete absence of researches in which a unified approach has been made in teacher personnel, curriculum offering, pupil personnel, school facilities, school organization, or supervision for the twoto seven-year-age group. Research on administrative and organizational problems simply has not touched the supposedly unified schooling for early childhood. The organization of the conventional elementary school continues to be in flux. Its shifting character is influenced by changes in educational theory (which have been described in preceding chapters), increasing enrolments, population shifts, school district reorganization, and changes in the internal organization for administration and supervision within school systems. The number of pupils enrolled in kindergarten and Grades I to VIII, inclusive, was 18,832,098 in 1940 (36) and is expected to reach a peak of 26,594,000 by 1957 (35) . In 1790 the population of the United States was 94.9 percent rural, but by 1950 only 36.3 percent of the people lived in areas classified as rural. Between 1940 and 1950 there was an actual decrease in the rural population from 57,245,573 to 54,669,361, while the total U. S. population increased from 131,669,275 to 150,697,361. These changes in population are causing important changes in the organization of elementary schools in rural areas and are creating organizational, housing, and class-size problems in urban schools.

Chapter V: Learning Materials

LEARNING materials are defined as materials used directly with children. Books, audio-visual aids, charts, maps, globes, exhibit materials, and objects, places, and natural phenomena constituting the focus of excursions are classified here as learning materials. The three-year period covered by this review did not include studies regarding all of these types of learning materials. The studies that were made and were attainable for this review are summarized below.

Chapter VIII: Supervisory Organization and Administration

A B O U T EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO a number of studies were made which dealt specifically with the organization for supervision and the administration of the supervisory organization. These studies were made when the concepts of supervision were still centered largely upon inspection, direction, and appraisal of individual teacher merit. Since that time many changes have occurred in the philosophy and procedures of supervision. Undoubtedly these changes in philosophy and procedures have been accompanied by changes in the organization for supervision, the administration of the supervisory organization, and the broad realm of personnel administration in public schools. Yet there have been but a few scattered studies within the last ten years which have come to grip with the fundamental issues of the organization for supervision, supervisory procedures, and personnel management to give a clear picture of present practices and to appraise present practices and trends in the light of a changing philosophy of supervision and of school administration in general. Such studies are urgently needed. The studies reviewed in this chapter deal with various aspects of supervision and different kinds of supervisory problems, but only by implication are they related to the basic question of supervisory organization and administration. This fact is no criticism of the studies themselves. The statement is made merely to prevent the reader from being misled into thinking that this chapter is a review of studies dealing directly with supervisory organization and administration.