The Advisory Committee on Education was appointed by the President of the United States on September 19, 1936, initially for the purpose of making a study of the experience under the existing program of Federal aid for vocational education, the relation of such training to general education and to prevailing economic and social conditions, and the extent of the need for an expanded program of Federal aid for vocational education. The Committee was requested to develop recommendations that would be available to the Congress and the Executive. Under its original assignment, the Committee was known as the President's Committee on Vocational Education. In a later letter dated April 19, 1937, the President stated that he had been giving much thought to the general relationship of the Federal Government to education, that numerous bills in connection with educational matters were pending in the Congress, and that it was his understanding that the Committee was already in possession of much information bearing upon the subject. He therefore requested the Committee to give more extended consideration to the whole subject of Federal relationship to State and local conduct of education, and to prepare a report. In accordance with this request, the Committee enlarged the scope of its work and prepared a comprehensive report, which was transmitted to the President on February 18, 1938, and was transmitted by him to the Congress on February 23, 1938. The report was printed as House Document No. 529, Seventy-fifth Congress, third session. An indexed edition of the report, differing in pagination but not in text, was also printed for public use by the Advisory Committee, and has been made widely available.1 The Committee was assisted in its work by a series of studies prepared by a temporary staff of specialists in education, public administration, and economics. These studies brought together in convenient form a large amount of information bearing upon the status and problems of education in the United States. 1 The Advisory Committee on Education, Report of the Committee, for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Price 35 cents. The present volume reports the major part of the studies that were carried on for the Committee under its original terms of reference as a committee on vocational education. The basic memorandums were prepared under the direction of Paul T. David and Leonard Power, who served respectively as Director and Associate Director of Studies for the Committee under its original assignment. In April 1937, after the change in the Committee's assignment, Dr. John Dale Russell, Professor of Education at The University of Chicago, was asked to take over the completion of the studies on vocational education. He had previously served as consultant of the Committee and had taken an active part in organizing the studies of vocational education. Dr. Russell has drawn upon the extensive materials prepared by the staff of the Committee between November 1936 and April 1937; he participated in many conferences with representatives of groups and other interested citizens; and he has supplemented the original staff memorandums by additional studies. He brought to the work a wide background of experience in educational research and administration, including former staff membership in a State department of education which administers a program of federally aided vocational education, and association as a faculty member with two State universities engaged in the preparation of teachers for the federally aided program of vocational education. This In addition to the summary staff report prepared by Dr. Russell, this volume includes as an appendix a special report on the experience of labor with vocational education. special report was prepared for the Committee by Mr. Howell H. Broach, a former president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He was assisted by Mrs. Julia O'Connor Parker, who has also had extensive experience in the labor movement. The statements and conclusions contained in the volume are those of the authors, and do not necessarily conform to those of the Committee. The findings of the studies here reported were considered by the Committee, however, in formulating the conclusions and recommendations that appear in its own report. |