ABSTRACT
As we have already discussed, during the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th century, the United States made a commitment to universal public education. Much of the impetus for this came from the massive waves of immigrants arriving in this country, until immigration was curtailed in the 1920s. By 1900, both private academies and public high schools enrolled only 10.2% of the population of the 14-to 17-year-old age group. In other words, 90% of American youth in 1900 chose other roads to the world of work than high school (Karier, 1986). By 1930, 51% of the population attended high school (Kliebard, 1995), and by the 1960s, not only a high school, but a college education was seen as necessary for many young people. Educational and societal changes, as we will see more fully in Part IV, have shaped education in dramatic ways over the last 100 years.
