Archived: NERPPB: Federal Educational Research and Statistics Before World War II

A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Changing Federal Strategies for Supporting Educational Research, Development, and Statistics - September 1998

I. Federal Educational Research and Statistics Before World War II

Americans have always relied upon parents and local communities to provide for the education for their children. As public schools expanded in the 19th century, some states gradually became more involved in encouraging and even regulating education.⁽¹⁾ Initially the jobs of most state education superintendents were restricted to collecting, analyzing, and disseminating educational statistics. Educators at that time believed that the collection and comparative analysis of local school data would help to stimulate the expansion and improvement of local public schools.⁽²⁾

Prior to the Civil War the federal government played only a minor role in supporting public education-mainly by setting aside land for the establishment of schools in some of the territories and new states.⁽³⁾ But following that conflict, renewed efforts were made to create a federal agency devoted to education-in part to spur the development of public schooling in the defeated South.⁽⁴⁾ After considerable disagreement about the duties and powers of the proposed agency, Representative James Garfield (Republican-Ohio) introduced a resolution which established the Department of Education:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be established, at the city of Washington, a Department of Education, for the purpose of collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several states and territories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems, and methods of teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country.⁽⁵⁾

The final legislation not only provided for the collection and use of educational data, but also endorsed a broader, but undefined mission.

Given the ambiguity in the stated goals of the Department of Education, much depended upon the particular inclinations and directives of the leaders of that agency. Henry Barnard, one of the most distinguished and accomplished 19th-century educators, was chosen as the as the first Commissioner of Education. Unfortunately, Barnard was not a skilled administrator and mismanaged his small staff as well as alienated many members of Congress.⁽⁶⁾ He was forced to resign after 2 years and the Department of Education was demoted to a Bureau of Education in 1870.⁽⁷⁾ While the stated mission of the agency remained unchanged, Congress indicated its displeasure with the more grandiose schemes proposed by Barnard and others.

John Eaton, a former Civil War general, replaced Barnard and proved to be an efficient administrator and an effective politician. Although he lacked the extensive educational credentials of his predecessor, Eaton over the next 15 years managed to expand the staff from 2 to 38 employees and transformed the Bureau into an effective and respected statistical agency.⁽⁸⁾ By the end of the First World War the Bureau of Education had grown further-but mainly because it now also administered the educational and relief programs in Alaska. Over time, the range of activities undertaken by the Bureau expanded beyond its original statistical focus. The collection and dissemination of statistics, which had taken up 35 percent of the Bureau's budget in 1875, comprised only 1 percent of the budget in 1920; at the same time, however, educational investigations grew to account for nearly one-fifth of the total budget.⁽⁹⁾

The Bureau's collection and analysis of educational data had improved considerably since 1870-even though these tasks now comprised only a minuscule part of the overall budget. The dissemination activities of the Bureau had also expanded and flourished. The methods for investigating education problems shifted from writing philosophical and historical analyses to using newly developed social science techniques such as in-depth surveys of local schools or city-wide educational systems.⁽¹⁰⁾

In 1929 President Herbert Hoover created a National Advisory Committee on Education which provided a useful overview of the role of the federal government in education. The Committee criticized the unfocused and uncoordinated federal involvement in education. The report reiterated the importance of the federal role in assembling and analyzing educational data, but also called for more federal involvement in scientific research. It recommended providing federal aid to schools through state grants; and on a split vote the Committee endorsed the need for a cabinet-level Department of Education. ⁽¹¹⁾

During the Great Depression public schools experienced considerable financial difficulties. New Deal programs provided federal support for education, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt distrusted the leaders of the traditional educational organizations and often by-passed even his own Commissioner of Education, John Studebacker. Not surprisingly, the size of the budget of the U.S. Office of Education (USOE) was smaller in 1939 than when Hoover left office 7 years earlier.⁽¹²⁾

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[Introduction]

[II. Expanding Federal Educational Research in the 1950s]