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8 Year Home
 
8 Year Web Project
   About
this Project
Introduction
I
Study Launched
II
Schools Choose
III
Curriculum-Needs
IV-Schools-Study-Pupils
V
In College?
VI
We Learned
Appendix
 Index
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The Eight Year Study, considered by many educational
researchers to be one of the best program evaluation studies
ever conducted, followed the students from more than 30
experimental high schools during the 1930's. Although the
students from the experimental schools only did as well or
slightly better on standardized test scores than students
from their traditional counterparts, the students from the
experimental schools showed many improvements in other
areas. The traditional separate subject approach appeared to
be the least effective for preparing students, even for
things that we'd always assumed it was best for. The most
effect schools used an approach which was very different,
using content from the disciplines of knowledge, but instead
of organizing it by subjects, organizing it around themes of
significance to their students. This approach was called
Core Curriculum (this term now has a different connotation)
and is now often referred to as Curriculum Integration.
The study isn't well remembered, since it was published in
1942 and the American mind was focused on other matters. It
continues to be of importance, however, to educators
interested in Curriculum Integration, as well as other
areas. The study was published in eight volumes and
educational scholars sometimes find it difficult to find
copies. The National Middle School Association explored
republishing at least the first volume (The Story of the
Eight Year Study), but decided that the project was cost
prohibitive (and instead published a wonderful companion
book to the study). A more affordable solution to making the
study available to educators and educational scholars is to
republish the study on the Internet.
That is the goal of this project: to republish Aikin's
The Story of the Eight Year Study on the
Internet.
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