Curriculum Experimentation

“The task of the Secondary School Study was to find means by which the curricular offerings of black high schools could be influenced by accepted educational practices that had enriched other school curricula but which were practically unknown in most black schools.” W. H. Brown & W. A. Robinson, Serving Negro Schools (1946)

Southern Demonstration School library

from the Secondary School Study Catalog
School-wide and Cooperatively Planned Reading Programs

"The development of more adequate competencies in reading, particularly among high school pupils, is a need which teachers throughout the region consider important.  Without a doubt, this is one of the outstanding needs in the school.  Meeting this need is a Herculean task for the majority of teachers because their training did not include preparation for this task.  As yet, there are few colleges in the region to which teachers might go for help in approaching the problem.

Perhaps, a distinction needs to be made between planning for the accumulation of books to be made available to pupils and planning a high school program for the development of increasingly mature reading skills.  It is possible for a school to provide extensive reading material and yet assume, by implication, that pupils automatically will acquire broader and deeper interests and tastes in reading, and increased proficiency in reading.  On the other hand, a school might plan definitely for the continuous growth of its pupils toward desirable goals in reading.  The programs included in this list are based on the latter concept of a reading program."

“The free reading program was not merely a matter of reciting the plot from what we read. Students were asked and expected to truly engage with the material and to interpret what we were reading. And there was a sense of flexibility for our selections. We were encouraged to explore literature based upon our interests and needs.” Audrey Nabors-Jackson

The Secondary School Study was based upon the belief of curricular exploration as developed by the General Education Board-sponsored implementative research project, the Eight Year Study. As those staff members learned (including their social studies consultant, Margaret Willis) and as the Secondary School Study staff realized, school experimentation is difficult and many factors can deter the development and implementation of new practices. Willis' visit to the Demonstration School brings out a novel dimension of school experimentation.

Report to the Secondary School Study on a Visit to
the Demonstration School of Southern University, April 19-23, 1942

by Margaret Willis, Ohio State University

“Southern University and the Demonstration School should be trying constantly to bring the best in national curriculum theory and practice into the schools of Louisiana. The school, then, should not be afraid of being experimental in its relationship to other schools in the state, though it should be thoughtful and evolutionary in modifying its practices. I had the feeling that the hesitation over new practices was due to the fact that most of the people whom I met and talked with were too modest about the possibilities in themselves and in the situation. Realistic examination of the tasks confronting education is the basis for an intelligent attack upon those problems, and out of the experience of attacking them successfully comes confidence. The faculty needs that kind of confidence; it can do brilliant work if it finds its security in the exercise of intelligence instead of in the perpetuation of tradition. The attitude of administration plays the largest part in determining whether creative thinking on the part of the teachers will be discouraged or encouraged.”

One aspect of the Southern University Demonstration School curricular experimentation involved development of an evaluation program (similar to what had been developed for the Eight Year Study. Secondary School Study documents report that Principal Boley and Demonstration School faculty sought to redefine the curriculum in "all areas of school work" and to determine student needs as   "indicated in a school wide testing program." As Audrey Nabors-Jackson describes during oral history interviews, "the testing program was different from those now in use. We were not taught the test and instruction did not focus exclusively on content. The teachers were developing our skills and our interests, and the  test was merely to help us see if we wished to continue studying and working in specific areas.”

John B. Cade

"Examples of War-time Programs involving 'Regular' Classroom Work"
 

from Secondary School Study documents:

"The effort on the part of Negro schools to convert to a war-time basis constitutes a school-wide program which one recognizes through only casual observation.  Almost immediately one sees evidences of scrap drives, stamp sales and programs designed to build morale.
The programs described illustrate efforts on the part of schools to focus the activities in conventional subject matter areas on the war-time problems which communities face.

Southern University Demonstration School, Scotlandville, Louisiana
Miss A. A. Boley, Principal
The wartime program of this school has six phases.  They are physical fitness, military drill, community services, citizenship training, science and mathematics and occupational skills.  The school may still have copies of a mimeographed bulletin describing the purposes and activities in this program."

Finally, it should be noted that while the Secondary School Study focused its attention on progressive education at the secondary school level, staff members and consultants viewed each setting on its own terms and often viewed the experimental site as grades 1-11/12 or middle-secondary school. Margaret Willis noted the important core curriculum work underway in other grades:

“One of the best pieces of English teaching I have observed in a long time took place in the sixth grade as Miss Patty taught a geography lesson. The seventh grade core has enlisted the personal interests and responsibility of the children to such an extent that they are constantly busy without the teacher needing to tell them what to do next. In all grades students show responsibility for the care of the building and grounds. The student council and the school paper both seem to be carried largely by student initiative.”
Report to the Secondary School Study on a Visit to the Demonstration School of Southern University, April 19-23, 1942

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