Ella Flagg Young: Pioneer of Democratic School Administration

Abstract

Ella Flagg Young was the first woman superintendent of a large city school system (Chicago, 1909-1915) and the first woman president of the National Education Association (1910). She was a professor of pedagogy and a colleague of John Dewey at the University of Chicago. Dewey called her the “wisest person in school matters with whom he had come in contact in any way.” Young pioneered practices in what has come to be known as democratic school administration and was among the first to organize school councils to give teachers a greater voice in the administration of schools. She was also a major contributor to the literature of dissent from the “cult of efficiency” that followed the widespread adoption in school administration of the principles of scientific management. Through a critical review of primary and secondary sources, this work examines this remarkable woman's half-century of involvement in American education.