Davis High School—Virginia State College
Extended Educational Community

“The college students treated us like their younger brothers and sisters.
At times, I feel the DWD students caused the college students
to act in a more mature manner. We were part of the campus and exerted
positive influences on the college students.” Laureta Matthews

While the D. Webster Davis School was a laboratory school in the conventional sense—namely, a site for the training of student teachers—the school drew from the more experimental traditions of a progressive laboratory school engaged in curricular exploration. The Secondary School Study and, specifically, the D. Webster Davis School, were directly linked to the experimentation of the Progressive Education Association's Eight Year Study, considered one of the most important educational experiments of the 20th century.

A DWD-VSC campus announcement to attend a session
to discuss the findings of the Eight Year Study

“D. Webster Davis was as much a family as a school. The teachers would work with students outside of class—if we wanted to continue our learning, they would help. The teachers were welcoming and always willing to help.”
Isabel Berry

Isabel Berry

“Perhaps because the school was small, but we were more of a community
than a school of separate grades. The teachers made a point of building a sense of community among all of us.” Marion E. Vaughan

While many of the participating schools of the Secondary School Study included a 1-11 (or 1-12) grade configuration, D. Webster Davis Laboratory School arranged their buildings so that they would comprise a 1-11 unit. The original building, the Campus Training School, was built in 1920 and included grades 1-7. The Training School building was renamed in 1939 as the D. Webster Davis Laboratory High School with a second building constructed in 1940 that served as the Matoaca Laboratory Elementary School. Coupled with the physical proximity of the building, the high school staff included college faculty, and some secondary school students attended courses in college buildings. In many respects the laboratory school setting represented an elementary-high school-college configuration offering insights into students' educational experiences that transcended grade levels.

The D. Webster Davis School graduated its last class in 1948 with the opening of a Chesterfield County consolidated secondary school, Carver High School. The Davis building is now used as a residence hall for Virginia State University students.

“The college students treated us well- as if we were a part of their family. And, actually, they were part of us and we were part of them. Of course, they also knew that if they made it to their fourth year and decided to go into education—they had to come into D. Webster Davis!”
Claudia V. Goode Jennings

“The school was made so much greater by the fact that we were on campus; being among college students added so much for our education.”
Viola Bouldin Maniego

Viola Bouldin Maniego

“Since we were associated with the university, we had certain privileges. Every year we staged an operetta that served as a unifying element for the curriculum, and the program served as a culminating event for the year. The performance, staged for two nights, was held in the gymnasium, but one would never have known that it was in gym. The art department designed sets and the program, and the home economics department made the costumes. The industrial arts department constructed sets and decorations. While ‘extra curricular,’ all the teachers were involved—history teachers, English teachers; everyone participated in some way.”
Laureta Matthews

return to Davis