Patricia Graham is one the nation's most esteemed historians of education,a former dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education and Director of theNational Institute of Education. In this informative volume, Graham provides aninsightful history of education in the last 100 years.Drawing on a wide array of sources, from government reports to personalstories, Graham illuminates four successive goals for schools: Assimilation,Adjustment, Access, and Achievement. In 1900, as waves of immigrants swept thenation, the American public wanted education to assimilate their children intoAmerican life, combining the basics of English and arithmetic with emphasis onpatriotism, hard work, fair play, and honesty. Then, in the 1920s, the focusshifted from schools serving a national need (citizenship) to serving individualneeds: Education was to help students adjust to life. After World War II, theeducational emphasis shifted to Access--most notably, access of African Americanchildren to desegregated classrooms, but also access to special academicprograms for the gifted, the poor, the disabled, and non-English speakers. Mostrecently, Americans have wanted Achievement, defined as higher test scores fromall. Thus, in little more than a century, the goal of education has narrowedfrom benefiting the nation (making better citizens) to benefiting the individual(getting a better job). Colleges, which stood above the fray until World War II,now experience public scrutiny for Accountability as many students attend toimprove their employment options and as university research has become vital tothe nation.Here then is invaluable background in the ongoing debate on education inthe United States, an insightful look at what the public has sought from itseducational institutions, what educators have delivered, and what remains to bedone.

Patricia Albjerg Graham is the Charles Warren Research Professor of the History of American Education at Harvard University and formerly Director of the National Institute of Education, and president of the Spencer Foundation, the nation's leading funder of educational research.