No account of the status of secondary education in the United States is complete without reference to schools on private founda tions. During the 3o year period from 1890 to 1920, the public schools increased from 6o.8% to 87.3% of all schools reporting to the U.S. Bureau of Education, while the pupils enrolled increased from 68.1% to 91.o%. This means primarily that public schools were growing so rapidly as to become increasingly dominant numerically. What was taking place in private secondary education may best be shown by reference to data reported to the bureau in 1895 and 1922. The number of schools on Roman Catholic foundations increased more than three-fold, while the number of pupils in these schools increased even more rapidly; the number of schools of all other denominations combined decreased some what, although they experienced some gains in total enrolment; non-sectarian schools decreased both in numbers of institutions operating and in the total number of pupils enrolled. It appears that sectarianism is the dominant factor in the persistence of private secondary education, and that it is most effectively oper ative with Roman Catholics. See PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS.
Reference has already been made to the expanding concepts of purpose of American secondary education from service to college going pupils only, toward service to both college-going and non college-going pupils. This expansion is made much more apparent in a comparison of literature on the subject from an earlier day with that issued recently. Three types of purpose appear in the older literature, namely, college preparation, selection for higher levels of training, and what was referred to as "mental discipline." More recent statements of leaders in secondary education emphasize training for civic, social and moral relationships ; train ing for the proper use of leisure; training for health; and training for occupation. There is also emphasis on such matters as even greater popularization of educational opportunities on the sec ondary-school level, recognition of individual differences, and guid ance. A significant conclusion to be drawn from such a comparison of older and modern concepts is that the latter are stressing values having obvious relationships to every day needs, whereas the former are cast in terms of remoter and deferred values. Such a shift of concepts was certain to manifest itself as soon as this pe riod of education came more frequently to be looked upon as terminal or culminal rather than preparatory. At the same time the leaders whose writings were consulted recommend the continu ance of the function of preparation for college for such of the graduates of the high school who continue to higher levels of training.
It is to be expected that these shifting concepts would be re flected in the make-up of the curriculum of secondary schools. This is shown in the marked shift of registrations from certain subject-groups to others, for example from foreign language and mathematics to the social studies and the practical arts. It is shown also in the rapid multiplication of new courses formerly unrepresented or much less frequently represented in the high school offering. One large field of expansion has been the voca tional, but there are others also, like the fine arts and physical training. It is shown again in the much greater flexibility of pro grammes of studies than was characteristic before the opening of the 2oth century, including the opportunity to select one from a number of "courses" or curricula, and even within a curriculum to elect from a variety of different subjects. These expansions have been accompanied by the advocacy of the "comprehensive" high school, an institution which aims to care for all the needs of gen eral and occupational training of all pupils who may care to enter. There are, nevertheless, those who advocate the restriction of the high schools to general education, the occupational training to be provided in separate vocational schools.
An interesting development contemporary with popularization and expansion of the offering has been the increase of extra curricular activities, that is, that great body of activities in which young people engage spontaneously, for example, athletics, debate, journalism, dramatics, music and subject clubs. Those in charge of these activities are coming to regard them as possessing large values in training and are making efforts to integrate them with the curriculum proper. On this basis these activities may in an important sense be looked upon as an extension of the curriculum.
The expanded secondary school, inclusive of popularization and the enriched and flexible offering, has brought with it the problem of the proper distribution of the secondary-school population to the training opportunities, that is, the problem of guidance. The necessity for guidance in the modern school is made more apparent if one keeps in mind not only these factors of popularization and enlarged offerings, but also the complexity of occupational life outside the school with its increasing tendency to specialization, the shift of the rural population to urban centres, and the changing status of women. All these factors have stimulated the develop ment of guidance programmes, which are becoming characteristic of the better schools. The proportion of secondary schools with out some development along this line is not large. Among the means of guidance used are exploratory, or "try-out," courses (par ticularly in the junior high school) ; a course affording a survey of occupations; intelligence, aptitude and achievement tests; ade quate records ; summer and other part-time employment ; place ment and employment supervision; and the provision of special personnel officers, referred to as "advisers" or "counsellors." In comparison with teachers in European secondary schools, instructors in high schools in the United States are criticized for their lack of professionalization. It is pointed out that both the extent of training and the period of service are shorter. Both these conditions are often explained by the large proportion of women teachers. Whatever the cause, the extent of preparation and the period of service are shorter. Better systems have been able for some time to insist, for teachers in four-year high schools, on the minimum represented in the bachelor's degree from a standard college, and in some quarters, notably California, there is insis tence on a year of graduate work. It is likely that in time the schools will more generally move to this as the next stage of pro fessionalization. This should assist somewhat in extending the average period of experience. Whether or not it is the determin ing factor of duration of training or experience, women teachers over a long period have outnumbered the men. It is not generally known, however, that with a single exception the proportion of men has ranged between 4o and 5o per cent. The exception was the period immediately following the Great War. The question of standards of preparation is being reopened owing to the appear ance of junior high schools and junior colleges, for both the extent and nature of training for these teachers will need to differ.
Mention is often made in discussions of the expanding pro gramme of secondary education in the United States of the mount ing cost of these schools, a cost that is increasing not only because more pupils are in attendance, but also because the cost per pupil has increased. The question is sometimes raised as to whether the nation will continue to go forward with the programme of pro viding secondary education for all. Although no final pronounce ment may be made on this score, the evidences point toward as sumption of this larger burden. Usually, when issues involving greater outlays for schools are placed before the voters in a local situation, they respond in unmistakable terms in favour of ex pansion. Moreover, the aspirations to a democratic society are based on a popularization of intelligence which is not to be achieved through a system of free schools limited to what we think of as elementary education : it requires the training of almost the whole population above the traditional common-school level. For the nation to admit unwillingness or inability to afford this higher training would be tantamount to abandonment of democratic convictions.
BiBuoGRApHy.—Elmer E. Brown, The Making of Our Middle Schools (1902) ; Paul Monroe, Principles of Secondary Education (1914) ; Alexander Inglis, Principles of Secondary Education (1918) ; Leonard V. Koos, Trends in American Secondary Education (1926) ; Milo B. Stuart, The Organization of a Comprehensive High School (1926) ; Aubrey A. Douglass, Secondary Education (1927) ; Leonard V. Koos, The American Secondary School (1927) ; William A. Smith, The Junior High School (1925) ; Frank C. Touton, and Alice B. Struthers, Junior High School Procedures (1926) ; Leonard V. Koos, The Junior High School, Enlarged Edition (1927). (L. V. K.)