Public Scholarship Dedicated to Resurrecting a Forgotten Legacy of Black Progressive High Schools

• In Event: Reframing Racial and Ethnic Histories: Important Legacies From the Mid-20th Century

Abstract

The Secondary School Study, sponsored by the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools for Negroes and funded by the General Education Board, was established in 1940 to assist black high school teachers to experiment with their administrative, curricular, and instructional practices. Between 1940-1947, sixteen progressive high schools in the American southeast were selected to engage in a “cooperative study,” a distinguishable research method where consultants and teachers developed progressive education methods: cooperative practices, correlated curriculum, and conceptions of needs. This presentation introduces the Secondary School Study and describes a contemporary public history research project that has prepared websites and publications to assist local alumni groups to petition their local governments and schools boards to recognize these historic black schools.

Author

• Craig Kridel, University of South Carolina