A Reconstruction Of The Relation Of School And University

Launched forth around the 1930s by the Progressive Education Association (PEA) in the USA, "the Eight-Year Study", a spectacular educational experiment, makes painstaking efforts to validate or solve the problems presented in the secondary education for the purpose of establishing an organic link between the high schools and colleges and universities with a view to the dual goals of higher proportion of employment and higher education enrolment, and in the meantime, to testify the soundness and feasibility of progressive education as well.Boasting itself as the milestone of social transition and the revolution and renovation of secondary education in the USA during the first half of the 20^th century, "the Eight-Year Study" functioned as the continuance of progressive education experiment movement. In the 1920s and 1930s, America's education accomplished phenomenal achievements in the aspect of scope, quality, democratization and systematization. Among these achievements, especially, the development of public schools stood out which contributed greatly to the sharp increase of high school student numbers. Meanwhile, progressive education has taken the reins of the educational reform and become the stand-bearer of secondary education development, especially in the sense of educational aim of senior high schools. In 1930, the PEA instituted the Commission on the Relation of School and College, sought to manage the relations between the schools and colleges and rid of the conflicts and contradictions between employment and higher education enrolment of the senior high school students. The commission laid down specifically an eight-year educational experiment project participated by certain high schools, colleges and universities.The whole experiment consists of two periods. From 1933 to 1936, under the supervision and coordination of Directing Committee, the experimental high schools set out to implement the education innovations, largely according to the ideal of progressive education, by independently mapping out the teaching plans, setting up the curriculum system and establishing the organization, institution and management procedure. The Directing Committee of the experiment and its branches, together with the specialists had been providing multitudinous instructions, consultations and assistance. From 1936 to 1941, the experimental colleges and universities approximately amounting to 300 in number agreed on...