Isaac L. Kandel and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

• In Event: The world in Teachers College, Teachers College in the world

Proposal

Kandel spent nine years working formally and decades informally with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT). Through this collaboration, Kandel both broadened his research and policy interests and influenced the fields of comparative education and education administration. In 1914, Kandel began accepting projects for CFAT as a “research specialist” (Pollack, p. 7), which involved him in “diverse matters such as vocational education, teachers’ pensions and examination systems” (Pollack, 1989, p. 7). CFAT, an American center of research and policy reform, was founded in 1905 with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie, with the initial goal to provide retired college instructors with pension funds (Britannica). One of CFAT’s lasting impacts is the standardization of institutions of higher education and downward to high schools. For example, CFAT developed the “Carnegie unit” to standardize the measurement of education credits, which impacted secondary school curriculum as well as college admissions. CFAT was also responsible for the development the present-day Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Education Testing Service (ETS) (Walton & Zheng, 2018).

Much of Kandel’s research with CFAT aligned with the organization’s earlier focus on the “structure and organization of educational institutions” in the United States (Walton & Zheng, 2018, p. 3). Kandel wrote on topics including federal aid for vocational education (1917), public school teacher pensions (1918), and professional preparation for public school teachers (1920) (Pollack, 1989). In addition, Kandel explored examinations and their alternatives, where he took a critical stance towards examinations and outlined his support for the provision of “several forms of liberal education to meet the different capacities and interests of youth and needs of society” (Pollack, 1989, p. 44).

Upon promotion to full professor at TC in 1923, Kandel ended his formal relationship with CFAT but remained connected. In the 1930s, Kandel spent more time on comparative education, which was his primary interest, but he continued to examine structural issues of American education administration.THat same decade, Kandel also participated in the work of CFAT and TC to examine the educational systems of former British colonies, where centralization had caused British culture and values to dominate, and he worked towards solutions for decentralization (Glotzer, 2000). In 1937, after spending six months studying New Zealand’s education administration, Kandel argued that “teacher ratings should be abolished…curriculum development localized,” and authority made “collaborative” (Glotzer, 2000, p. 106). This was the period of time when CFAT was primarily focused on how standardization (including the aforementioned GRE and ETS) might be used to improve higher education in the U.S. (Shulman, 2004). However, the Foundation also expanded its international reach by using its special fund to support education research in present and former (British) colonies, led by its president, Federick P. Keppel and “encouraged by another New York based philanthropy, the Phelps Stokes Fund” (Glotzer, 2000, p. 96). In this manner, the work of Kandel, TC, and CFAT came into intersection in the 1930s.

Author

• Nancy Ku Bradt, Teachers College, Columbia University