The growth of the American high school that occurred in the twentieth century is among the most remarkable educational, social, and cultural phenomena of the twentieth century. The history of education, however, has often reduced the institution to its educational function alone, thus missing its significantly broader importance. As a corrective, this collection of essays serves four ends: as an introduction to the history of the high school; as a reevaluation of the power of narratives that privilege the perspective of school leaders and the curriculum; as a glimpse into the worlds created by students and their communities; and, most critically, as a means of sparking conversations about where we might look next for stories worth telling.
Author(s): Kyle P. Steele
Series: Historical Studies in Education
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 381
City: Cham
Series Editors’ Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Contributors
List of Figures
1 What Is the Twentieth-Century American High School? An Introduction
2 Politics and Markets: The Enduring Dynamics of the US System of Schooling
Politics and Markets and the Founding of Central High
Increased Access Leads to a Tracked and Socially Reproductive Central High
The Lessons of Central High Applied to the American Educational System
What’s Next in the Struggle Between Politics and Markets?
3 Renovations in the Citadel
Second Thoughts
The Disappearance of Childhood?
Mile-Wide, Inch-Deep
Lessons from a Kentucky High School
Different Sources
Numbers: Course Enrollments
Visuals: High School Architecture
What’s Next?
4 “Intellectual Power” for All: Theodore Sizer and the Origins of the Coalition of Essential Schools at Phillips Academy, Andover
“A Private School?”
The Power of Personalization
From Subjects and Seat Time to “Intellectual Power”
From Andover to the National Stage
The Coalition of Essential Schools
Deeper Learning for All
5 “A Living, Breathing, Curriculum”: Harlem Prep and the Power of Cultural Relevance, 1967–1974
“Everything Spoke to the Times”: Relevant Teaching in Class Spaces
“A Curriculum that Holds Their Interests”: Course Selection and Educational Program
“It Was like an Open House”: Programs, Initiatives, and the After-School Space
In Perspective: Curriculum, the History of Education, and Social Justice Research
6 Gendered Anxieties Pave the Way for a Separate and Unequal Co-educational High School
The Expansion of American High Schools Fuels Debates About Co-Education
Leveraging Hall’s Theories to Advance the Campaign to Build New High Schools
Germantown Residents Receive Funds to Build a Permanent Public High School
Germantown High School: A Separate and Unequal Co-Educational High School
7 A Window into the World of Students: An Analysis of 1920s High School Student Newspapers
The Progressive High School and Its Newspaper: A Natural Fit
The Beginning of High School Newspapers, 1910–1923
The Professionalization and Standardization of the High School Press, 1924–1929
8 Books, Basketball, and Order of the Fish: Youth Culture in Midwest Small-Town High Schools, 1900–1930
The Assembly: The Home of Youth Culture
The Assembly: Student Behavior
Semi-formal Organizations: From Literary Societies to Basketball
Informal Organizations: Order of the Fish
Conclusion
9 “Fight for Your Land”: Southern High School Activism and the Struggle for Youth Autonomy During and After the Second World War
Politicizing the Southern Black High School Through Protest and the Courts
Feigned Militancy: SNYC and NAACP Youth Organization During the War
“Behold the Land”: Tilling the Soil of the Southern Youth Movement
10 The Hidden Politics of High School Violence
High School Violence in the South
High School Violence in the North
High School Violence and the Carceral State
Conclusion
11 Shifting Public Perceptions of Wichita’s Southeast High School, 1957–2000
The “Golden Years,” 1957–1979
The Road to a Final Desegregation Plan
Implications of the Desegregation Plan
Little Harvard Transitions, 1980–1999
District Policy Changes: Trading One Problem for Another
District Seeks to Retain Students with Policy Initiatives
Conclusion
12 Funding the “High School of Tomorrow”: Inequity in Facility Construction and Renovation in Rural North Carolina, 1964–1997
“The Road to Disrepair”22: School Districts Funding New Construction for (De)Segregation
“No Help”77: County and State Accountability for Resource Disparities
Conclusion
13 Epilogue
Index
