CURRICULUM POLICY-MAKING IN THE CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 1900-1933: ECONOMIC AND LABOR THINKING OF DECISION-MAKERS (ILLINOIS)

Historical criticism has been levelled against public school administrators and members of boards of education because of their supposed policy deference to commercial and industrial interests. Scholarly research in the last two decades has suggested that the citizens of the large urban school systems had little influence in the determination of school policy. It has further been suggested that students were specifically prepared to hold low-paying, non-advancing positions in the labor market.;An examination of the policies of the Chicago Board of Education and an analysis of the speeches and papers of educational leaders during the first three decades of the twentieth century show quite the opposite. Educational leaders and administrators were quite responsive to the educational demands of students and their parents. Surveys conducted by the Board of Education and by teachers demonstrate that there was a strong demand for vocational and pre-professional curricula in the elementary and high schools. Community organizations often donated money for the continuation of the kinds of schools which have been suggested as being too strongly influenced by commercial and industrial interests. Moreover, private sources of money were used for teacher training and in-servicing.;Changes in curriculum were effected not only by the particular economic and labor philosophy of educational policy-makers, but also by the constraints of school finance. Under the difficult economic times of the Great Depression, curriculum changed according to trends which were influenced by the NewDeal. Citizens had a much larger impact upon educational policy in Chicago than has been previously believed except in times of severe financial problems.