Midwives of progressive education: The Bureau of Educational Experiments 1916-1919

This dissertation constitutes a contribution to the history of education. It describes grassroots educational reform initiatives that took place in the United States, especially in New York City, during the Progressive Era. It also reviews the efforts of the Progressive Education Association — founded in 1919 — to professionalize educational reformers and to protoprofessionalize.
Central to this dissertation is the early history of the New York City Bureau of Educational Experiments (1916-1919). The Bureau was an educational clearinghouse, and it stimulated, subsidized and conducted educational experiments. The Bureau had a previously unacknowledged influence on the founding of the Progressive Education Association. The dissertation sketches the careers of two members of the Bureau: Marietta Johnson (1864-1938) and Caroline Pratt (1867-1954). Both women would become essential links in the establishment of the Progressive Education Association and the formulation of its mission.
A number of findings described in the dissertation directly pertain to recommendations made by the Dutch Parliamentary Commission on Educational Reforms in their 2008 report ‘Tijd voor Onderwijs’.