Expansion (1945 - 1965)
Kenyon Plan
Also funded by the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Advancement of Education, the Kenyon Plan was initiated by faculty members at Kenyon College and formed by the presidents and deans of twelve colleges. It also included twelve secondary school administrators. Finding and properly educating talented youth was the aim of the School and College Study of Admissions with Advanced Standing.
The Kenyon Plan assumed that the best way to improve American education was to concentrate on preparing the brightest students for advanced placement in higher education institutions. The Kenyon Plan's designers believed that secondary schools and colleges needed better articulation between the two levels of education and that there should be some curricular continuity between them.
Those involved recruited over 80 teachers from high schools and colleges to form subject-matter committees for the preparation of course outlines. These courses were then offered to high school seniors. Twelve higher education institutions agreed to award advanced credit for students who completed advanced coursework in these high schools.
Appointed examining committees of secondary and collegiate teachers devised and administered placement exams in 1954 for those students taking the advanced courses.
The Kenyon Plan's administrators then contracted with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to administer the examinations. However, the Kenyon Plan was committed to teacher participation and to written essay tests rather than objective multiple-choice tests.
The Kenyon Plan's advanced standing examinations met with success. In 1954, 532 students in 18 participating schools took a total of 929 examinations. The numbers of students and participating schools only increased thereafter.
Eleven subjects were first offered in 1954. They included English composition, literature, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, Latin, French, German, Spanish, and history. The examinations were graded on a one-to-five scale, with grades of 3 or higher as being acceptable for collegiate credit.
