Standards (1890-1920)
Who was educated?
Changing demographics and rising enrollments expanded the public education system, especially at the high school level. These changes also affected higher education.
Quick Facts about Demographic Changes and High School
- While it took 100 years for the proportion of the school-going population aged 15-18 to increase from 10% (in 1815) to 20% (in 1915), by 1928 a full 50% of the population aged 15-18 attended high school.
- Attendance in high schools grew from 202,963 in 1890 to 1,645,171 in 1918. This was an increase of over 700%.
- The number of high school graduates grew. In 1910, high school graduates numbered 125,772; by 1920, that number almost doubled to 231,000.
- Communities built high schools at a phenomenal rate-on the average of one school a day during this time.
- In part, this growth was attributed to compulsory attendance laws, child labor laws, and immigration.
Children of immigrants often were the targets of compulsory attendance laws. A 1908 survey of 37 cities found that approximately 58% of all students' fathers were immigrants. The culture of the schools and that of immigrants did not always match, and attendance in schools did not necessarily translate into social and economic mobility.
| % of Students with Foreign-born Parentage - 1908 | |
|---|---|
| New York City | 72% |
| Chicago | 67% |
| Boston | 64% |
| Cleveland | 60% |
| San Francisco | 58% |
In the last part of the nineteenth century, college enrollment steadily increased, and a simultaneous change in the makeup of the student body occurred. College enrollment doubled nearly each decade after 1880. Some of these new students came from the middle-class. Most students gained access from the growing high school.
