Among the important purposes stated by all high schools "preparation for college" is always to be found near the top of the list. Even though a small minority go to college, the school is vividly aware of this objective. All of the Thirty Schools stated that they expected to send young men and women into college well ready for the responsibilities they would meet there. The schools in the Study, believing that there are many different kinds of work through which students may develop the skills, habits, and qualities essential to satisfactory achievement in college, made such changes -is are reported in Chapters II and III. Many of these innovations were marked departures from the conventional pattern prescribed as preparation for college. These changes were made to meet more fully the present, as well as future, needs of students. School work was brought much closer to students' lives; their concerns while in high school became content of the curriculum for all, whether they are going to college or not.

It has long been assumed that adequate preparation for the work of the liberal arts college depends upon proficiency in certain studies in high school. The colleges and universities have been saying something like this to prospective college students: "To be ready for the work that will he expected of you here, you should study English during your high school course. If you do well and secure good grades, you will have 3 or 4 credits to present for admission. You should also study algebra for at least one year, preferably two, and geometry for one year. That will add 2 or 3 admission credits. It is necessary for you to know at least one foreign language; therefore you must spend at least two years in the study of a foreign language. But we advise you to spend two more years in the study of that language, or two or three years in studying a second foreign language. That will provide from 2 to 5 more entrance credits. You must study history, preferably ancient history, for one year, and science, preferably physics or chemistry, for one year. There you have 2 more credits. You now have accumulated at least 9 entrance credits which we require; but if you have followed our recommendations, you have 14 of which we heartily approve. We require for admission a total of 15 credits. To secure the required number you may present other subjects which you have studied in high school, but we advise you to present additional credits in those fields of study we have recommended. If you wish to offer credits in some other subjects-such as mechanical drawing, art, or music----your school must have its courses in these subjects approved by this college."

Colleges differed, of course, in the rigidity with which they adhered to these prescriptions. Some prescribed more, some less. A few colleges imposed no credit prescriptions whatever, but required entrance examinations in at least the four subjects studied in the senior year of high school.

The Thirty Schools set out upon their explorations with the consent of practically all colleges and universities. From many the schools received sympathetic understanding. Taken by and large, the institutions of higher education have kept the agreement in letter and in spirit. In all cases the participating schools were freed from subject and credit prescription and in most cases from entrance examinations. Hundreds of young men and women entered college from the Thirty Schools without having studied all of the usual required subjects. Some had taken such subjects, but for shorter time than is usually required.

• The Commission and the School Asl Questions
• The Investigation is Planned
  • The Criteria
  • The Colleges
• The Staff Study the Students
• The Graduates of the Thirty Schools Succeed
  • College Follow-up Staff and the Findings
  • College Follow-up Staff and the Facts
  • Concerning Different Conditions
• Footnotes
  

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