1 A sympathetic overview of the certificate system is Wechsler, Harold S. The Qualified Student: A History of Selective College Admission in America (New York: Wiley, 1977), 16–61, focusing on Michigan and Illinois. See also Krug, Edward A. The Shaping of the American High School, vol. 2: 1920–1941 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1972), 63–66; and Soares, Joseph A. The Power of Privilege: Yale and America's Elite Colleges (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 15–18. For a highly negative view of the inspection system, see Johnson, Henry C. Jr. and Johaningmeier, Edwin V. Teachers for the Prairie: The University of Illinois and the Schools, 1868–1945 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972), 44, 75, 82, 83, 93–97, 251–59, 352–53, 361.Google Scholar

2 Pedagogical Progressivism emphasized schools oriented to children's interests and needs with hands-on curricula built on children's experiences. Administrative Progressivism emphasized efficiently organized, centrally directed schools, with curricular differentiation along academic and vocational tracks based on mass testing. See especially Tyack, David B. The One Best System (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974). These categories of educational Progressivism overlapped, of course, and Gamson, David A. has recently highlighted the significance of educational leaders at the district levels who incorporated both dimensions. See Gamson, David A. “District Progressivism: Rethinking Reform in Urban School Systems, 1900–1928,” Paeagogica Historien 39 (2003): 417–34.Google Scholar

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4 Reese, William J. America's Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 290. For a brief overview, see Kirst, Michael W. and Usdan, Michael D. “The History of the Separation of K-12 and Postsecondary Education,” in Minding the Gap: Why Integrating High School with College Makes Sense and How to Do It, eds. Hoffman, Nancy Vargas, Joel and Venezia, Andrea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 55–64.Google Scholar

5 Two accounts of the inspection process in Wisconsin before 1921 are Curti, Merle Carstensen, Vernon, David Cronon, E., and Jenkins, John W. The University of Wisconsin: A History, 4 vols. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1949–1999), vol. 2, 234–51, which is sympathetic to the University and based on its archives; and Clark, James Ira “The Wisconsin State Department of Public Instruction, 1903–1921“ (PhD diss., University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1961), 223–41, which is straightforward and based on State Superintendent Charles B. Cary's published writings. See also VanOverbeke, Standardization of American Schooling, 63–65. Throughout this paper the “University of Wisconsin” refers to the institution which since 1971 is the “University of Wisconsin—Madison.”Google Scholar

6 VanOverbeke, Standardization of American Schooling, 35–58. On Dewey as inspector, see Williams, Brian “Thought and Action: John Dewey at the University of Michigan,“ Bentley Historical Library Bulletin 44 (1998): 1–31. Although implemented by Angell, inspection had been conceived by his predecessor, Henry B. Frieze.Google Scholar

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8 See Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 2 234–51; Adams’ address was reprinted as “Answered by Adams,” Marshfield Times, 3 January 1896, 1.Google Scholar

9 Many of the inspection reports, and beginning in 1922 copies of the letters to schools that followed, were described over a half-century ago by Curti et al. as “dusty and all but forgotten.” See Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 2 251. These reports can be found in Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, High School Inspection Reports, 1915–1931, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison. The working notes of Walker, R. A. the most-active inspector by the late 1920s, are part of a separate archival collection, High School Relations Committee Records, 1909–1962, University of Wisconsin—Madison archives, Steenbock Library, Madison.Google Scholar

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15 This decision was interpreted in the headline of a local newspaper as “Easier to Enter the University,” Racine Weekly Journal, 1 March 1907, 7. For how the University had adjusted its curriculum during the 1890s to accommodate the schools, and had rejected recommendations of the 1893 Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies, see VanOverbeke, Standardization of American Schooling, 106–7, 123.Google Scholar

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28 VanOverbeke, Standardization of American Schooling, posits that in the late-nineteenth century middle-class aspirations for success increasingly focused on higher education, and supported the standardization of school-college relations that included inspection. Similarly, Ryan, Ann Marie “Negotiating Assimilation: Chicago Catholic High Schools’ Pursuit of Accreditation in the Early Twentieth Century,“ History of Education Quarterly 46 (2006): 348–81, has demonstrated that Catholic high schools accepted and used the University of Illinois’ inspection system, and the recognition thereby obtained from the North Central Association, to give “their graduates increased social capital [which] … in turn furthered the social mobility of Catholics on a larger scale.”Google Scholar

29 Sheboygan Press, 20 September 1919, 4.Google Scholar

30 “Denial is Made that School is Not Accredited,” Daily Northwestern, 2 September 1926, 16.Google Scholar

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33 There is no biography of Lloyd-Jones, Thomas and he goes unmentioned in the published histories of the University. Most helpful are the newspaper obituaries and related articles at the time of his death. See “Thomas Lloyd Jones is Dead,” the headlined article on the front page of the [Madison] Wisconsin State Journal, 3 September 1931, 1; and “Professor Thomas Lloyd Jones is Dead,” a similarly positioned article in the Capital Times, 3 September 1931, 1. See also material in his biographical file, University of Wisconsin—Madison archives. On the Lloyd-Jones family, see Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette, Wisconsin (Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1901), 972–73.Google Scholar

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35 Lloyd-Jones, was always the public face of the University when it announced placement results and projections; see Capital Times, 19 November 1929, 3. On the teacher placement bureau, and its links to inspection, see Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 1, 253, 259.Google Scholar

36 Capital Times, 20 July 1918, 3; Capital Times, 3 August 1918, 6; Capital Times, 8 March 1919, 1; and Capital Times, 12 May 1919, 1.Google Scholar

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38 Statement by Frank, Glenn in “Colleagues in High Tribute to Prof. Jones,” Capital Times, 3 September 1931, 1.Google Scholar

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45 “State History Teachers Will Meet at U.W.,” Capital Times, 8 May 1930, 7.Google Scholar

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51 Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 3 94, 556.Google Scholar

52 Birge's letter is reprinted as “President Birge Explains the Dismissal of Students from the University and Methods Used in Eliminating Failures,” Wisconsin Journal of Education 53 (1921): 164–66.Google Scholar

53 Ross is quoted in the A.P. report titled “Madison Univ … Puts Skids Under Dull or Lazy Students,” Chippewa Herald-Telegram, 16 February 1926, 6. His statement received nationwide attention with slightly different wording in “At Wisconsin,” Time, 22 February 1926, 22–23. See also Ross, Seventy Years of It: An Autobiography (New York: Appleton Century, 1936, reprint, 1977), 104. In just over a year, readers of the New York Times encountered articles about the University titled, “Wisconsin Student Shot by Policeman,” 29 May 1920, 18; “Use Bombs in Class Fight,” 9 June 1921, 13; and “[Court] Warns Frats on Carousing,” 16 July 1921, 6. A recent overview and evaluation of this image of hedonistic undergraduate life during the interwar period can be found in Thelin, John R. A History of American Higher Education (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 211–26, 254–56.Google Scholar

54 A.P. dispatch titled, “Reports Students Are Drinking Less,” New York Times, 15 June 1927, 12.Google Scholar

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56 “Callahan Puts O.K. on Local Schools,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 21 March 1928, 23.Google Scholar

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58 Cary, C. P. “Proposed Changes in the Accrediting of High Schools,“ School Review 17 (1909): 223–29. A similar polemic about inspection was published by DPI as “a balanced account,” in Patzer, Conrad E. Education in Wisconsin (Madison: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 1924), 90–102. While Cary was Superintendent, DPI eliminated state-defined high school academic programs with a specific sequence of courses (e.g., Latin, Scientific, and Modern Classical) and instituted a basic graduation requirement of sixteen “units”; which units would be required and which would be elective varied over time. High schools themselves continued to group courses into academic programs and assign them titles, and DPI continued to approve “special” programs, such as agriculture, which were supported with specific state aids. See Clark, “Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction,” 186–89, 192–97, 221–22.Google Scholar

59 Janesville Daily Gazette, 12 December 1912, 4; Racine Journal-News, 22 April 1912, 11.Google Scholar

60 The details are lucidly presented by Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 2 267–83.Google Scholar

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65 “Benezet, L. P. Says Vote for Kittle,” La Crosse Tribune, 31 March 1913, 5. A balanced explanation of the complex alignments in this election is “Cary's Victory and University,” Stevens Point Daily Journal, 11 April 1913, 4.Google Scholar

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69 University of Wisconsin, Catalogue 1915–1916 (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1915), 101. Referring to the 1920s, Krug identifies the “folklore of the times” rather than actual admission requirements as why students continued to study foreign languages in high school. See Krug, The Shaping of the American High School, 67.Google Scholar

70 Woerdehoff, Frank J. “Dr. Charles McCarthy: Planner of the Wisconsin System of Vocational and Adult Education,“ Wisconsin Magazine of History 41 (1958): 270–74; Buenker, John D. History of Wisconsin: The Progressive Era, 1893–1914 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1998), 368–71; Glad, Paul W. History of Wisconsin: War, a New Era, and Depression, 1914–1940 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1990), 256–58, 262–63.Google Scholar

71 “Supt. Cary is Blamed: Secretary of the State Board of Education Launches Attack,” Daily Northwestern, 5 November 1920, 12.Google Scholar

72 Sinclair, Upton The Goslings: A Study of American Schools (Pasedena: privately printed, 1924), 278–79, 320–21. The 1910 U.S. census for Menasha, Winnebago County reported that in her lifetime Callahan's wife gave birth to three children, presumably the three daughters then living in the Callahan household, none of whom could have been a textbook salesman in 1921. Cary's assistant, Carter Alexander, similarly explained “why the department fell” (conflating personality and institution). See, “The Wisconsin State Department of Public Instruction Under Cary,” School and Society 14 (1921): 529–44. For a sarcastic rejoinder by Fitzpatrick, Edward A. secretary of the Board of Education, see School and Society 15 (1922): 110–12.Google Scholar

73 See Capital Times, 18 May 1922, 4 (Green Bay visitation); Capital Times, 21 April 1923, 3 (Edgerton visitation); Capital Times, 4 December 1929, 9 (Stoughton visitation); Appleton Post-Crescent, 3 May 1922, 1 (Appleton survey).Google Scholar

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75 “Oshkosh High Is Again Listed As Approved School,” Daily Northwestern, 26 May 1932, 10.Google Scholar

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78 Cited in Krug, The Shaping of the American High School vol. 2, 65.Google Scholar

79 “Better Rural Schools, Says New Candidate,” Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, 22 February 1921, 1.Google Scholar

80 The laudatory attitude of schoolmen toward Frank is suggested by the wording and placement of his obituary in the Wisconsin Journal of Education 73 (1940): 69.Google Scholar

81 Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 3 143–212.Google Scholar

82 Wisconsin Journal of Education 60 (1928): 424. For a general overview, see Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 3, 95–97.Google Scholar

83 Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 3 750–52. While never fully implemented, the reforms brought highly favorable national attention to the University. See, “Wisconsin to Try New Academic Plan,” New York Times, 21 September 1930, E6. The proposals were explained and defended by Fish, Carl Russell the chair of chair of the committee that recommended them, in “The Wisconsin Curriculum,” School and Society 33 (1931): 242–45.Google Scholar

84 Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, is sympathetic to Frank as a victim of rivalry with a fellow Progressive, Governor Philip La Follette. Even more laudatory of Frank is Zink, Steven D. “Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin: A Reinterpretetion,“ Wisconsin Magazine of History 62 (1978): 91–127. Zink points out that while carrying forward the Progressive “Wisconsin Idea” Frank fell victim to conservative Republicans. On the other hand, Larsen, Lawrence H. The President Wore Spats: A Biography of Glenn Frank (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1965), highlights Frank's ego and administrative shortcomings as the roots of his problems and forefronts the Frank who emerged as a pro-business conservative during the late 1930s, competing in the Republican rather than the Progressive senatorial primary in 1940.Google Scholar

85 Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 3 303–12; Larsen, The President Wore Spats, 139–51; Glad, War, a New Era, and Depression, 499–506. The responsibility for the idea that there was at least a tacit understanding between Frank and Callahan is mine, not the aforementioned authors.Google Scholar

86 Callahan, John to V. E. Klontz, 15 April 1946 (retained carbon), in Superintendent of Public Instruction, Inspection Reports, 1939–1948, box 4, Wisconsin Historical Society.Google Scholar

87 “Charge Small High Schools are not Doing Good Education Job,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 8 November 1938, 21.Google Scholar

88 Lloyd-Jones, Thomas “Junior College in the State's Program of Education,“ NASSP Bulletin 14 (1930): 69–74.Google Scholar

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90 Wisconsin State Journal, 13 May 1931, 22.Google Scholar

91 O'Shea in “Colleagues in High Tribute to Prof. Jones,” Capital Times, 3 September 1931, 5.Google Scholar

92 Capital Times, 9 September 1931, 1; Wisconsin State Journal, 9 September 1931, 1.Google Scholar

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95 “Recommendation of the Special Committee on Entrance Requirements,” attachment to Board of Regents minutes, 6 June 1934. Prospective students who had not passed enough courses, or who were not recommended by their principals, could be admitted on the basis of University-administered entrance examinations. See Holt, Frank O. and Belle Alexander, M., “Admission to the University upon the Examination Basis,” Wisconsin Alumni Magazine 34 (December 1932): 72–74.Google Scholar

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97 By the fall of 1929, 42 percent of new teachers in Wisconsin high schools came from the teachers colleges and only 19 percent came from the University. See Wisconsin Teachers Association, Guiding Wisconsin's Growing Generations (Madison: Wisconsin Teachers Association, 1933), 25. As DPI pressed for more high schools to teach manual arts, in the mid-1930s the University dropped its teacher education program in that subject.Google Scholar

98 Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 3 740.Google Scholar

99 Wisconsin State Journal, 1 December 1931, 5. Despite its limited implementation, the idea of the University's “service centers” for high school teachers attracted positive national publicity. See, Benjamin Fine, “Educators Seek Better Program in High Schools,” New York Times, 12 May 1940, 50.Google Scholar

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101 Sellery, S. C. Some Ferments at Wisconsin, 1901–1947 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1960), 45–50; Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 1, 367 describe an initially close relationship between the School of Education and its parent College of Letters and Sciences at the time of its founding in 1919. For details on the later reorganization, see Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 3, 103–7. For an overview of the School of Education's history during the middle decades of the twentieth century, see Farwell, Gail F. “The School of Education: Development in Action,” in A Resourceful University: The University of Wisconsin—Madison in Its 125th Year, eds. Bogue, Allan G. and Taylor, Robert (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1975), 25–36. By emphasizing continued collaboration between Letters and Sciences and Education, Curti, et al. presents an interpretation different than mine. See Curti, et al. University of Wisconsin, vol. 3, 739–42.Google Scholar

102 On the limited interest of Letters and Sciences faculty in the School of Education, at least by the 1940s, see the oral history of Pierstorff, Lola R. a librarian and assistant professor of Curriculum and Instruction, in the University Oral History Project. An excellent discussion of the “gradual erosion of the relationship” between liberal arts and education faculty members after 1920 in a neighboring state is Persons, Stow “Education and the Liberal Arts at the University of Iowa,“ Annals of Iowa 52 (1993): 150–65.Google Scholar

103 On the growing “coziness” between DPI and the School of Education, see the oral history of Eye, Glen G. professor of Educational Administration and principal of the on-campus Wisconsin High School, in the University Oral History Project.Google Scholar

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105 About 650 visitation reports for 1944–1947 can be found in Superintendent of Public Instruction, Inspection Reports, 1939–1948, boxes 3, 4, and 8 in the archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society.Google Scholar

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107 Goddard, “The Portion of the High-School Program that May Advantageously be given to Vocational Work,“ 288–89.Google Scholar

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110 Little, J. Kenneth “University Entry Requirements,“ Wisconsin Journal of Education 74 (1942): 234–36.Google Scholar

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131 Holt, F. O. “When the H.S. Senior Enters College,“ Wisconsin Journal of Education 62 (1930): 433–34. From a careful reading of Forehlich, Gustav it appears that Holt's claim was based on results of the American Council Psychology Examination given to University freshmen in the fall of 1928, not results of the Ohio State University Psychological Test given to high school students in 1929, which was the actual focus of Holt's article. See Forehlich, The Prediction of Academic Success, 19–23.Google Scholar

132 “Wisconsin U. Plays New Role in State,” New York Times, 26 October 1930, E7.Google Scholar

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134 Byrns, Ruth and Henmon, V. A. C. “Entrance Requirements and College Success,“ School and Society 41 (1935): 101–4. The authors’ argument was that math and foreign languages did not provide “intellectual training” for college because even the small correlation they acknowledged between high school units in these subjects and freshman GPA was mostly explained by the students’ “mental ability” as determined by the American Council exam.Google Scholar

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137 “Analysis of Occupations of Families of Freshmen in the University of Wisconsin,” School and Society 31 (1930): 11–12.Google Scholar

138 Sabine, Gordon A. “U.W. Expects about $600,000 from Students’ Fees,“ Wisconsin State Journal, 21 September 1941, 4.Google Scholar

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