Implicit Assumptions of the Holmes and Carnegie Reports: A View from an African-American Perspective

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Since the 1890s, American educators have focused on various reforms and evaluations in the hope of allegedly guaranteeing youth a quality education. One of the manifestations of this concern has been the periodic appearance of national committee reports that seek to reform existing programs. The reports of the Committee of Fifteen, the Committee of Ten, the Cardinal Principles, among others, all have their historical roots in the issue of reform. Teacher training, administrative and curricular concerns, and the call to reform educational programs were born of administrative managerial necessity in an effort to make schools more efficient and effective.' Influenced by city planners, chambers of commerce, and industrialists and northern philanthropists, under the call for efficiency, bureauracy, and school management, progressive educators began to make reforms in the hope of guaranteeing youth a quality education to fit them into the world of work. Through consolidation and centralization, educators gained control over the city urban school