From child study to efficiency: district administrators and the use of testing in the Chicago public schools, 1899 to 1928

• Autores: Ann Ryan
• Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 47, Nº. 3, 2011, págs. 341-354
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Historians have documented the dramatic battle over the mass introduction of IQ testing waged by Chicago�s unionised teachers in 1924 against Superintendent McAndrew and the Chicago Board of Education. The efforts of Chicago�s mid-level district administrators and their work with principals and teachers to address the real and perceived differences of the students pouring into classrooms in this era have garnered less consideration. Examining the work of district administrators responsible for the educational programmes intended to manage �backward�, �subnormal� and �feeble-minded� children provides a rich case to analyse how these district administrators made use of the emerging field of testing to address the educational issues they confronted. The use of testing in Chicago�s schools during the early twentieth century represents a moment when the line between administrative and pedagogical progressives appeared unclear and illustrates the complexity of educators� pedagogic beliefs and practices. It offers examples of educators making use of educational testing and resisting it. This study analyses the reports of Chicago�s district administrators and superintendents, who often identified as progressive educators. These administrators seemed able to question the use of testing at least in part because of the vibrant progressive reform movement that existed in Chicago during this era. Indeed, although teacher resistance complicated the use of testing on a wide scale in Chicago, the early concerns of these mid-level district administrators in the 1910s proved critical to keeping intelligence testing at bay until the mid-1920s