Establish bureaus of educational research in city school systems to direct measurement work, as urged by Commissioner Claxton and endorsed by the editorial.¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The strategy is to create, within city school systems, bureaus of educational research staffed by trained psychologists. The editorial endorses Commissioner Claxton's circular letter asserting that "every city of more than 30,000 inhabitants should have such a bureau," and points to men discharged from the army's psychological division as available directors.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Trained personnel capable of directing such bureaus, which the editorial says existed even before the war.
• Financial support and assignment of competent teachers, which the editorial says superintendents and boards had not previously been convinced to provide.

Constraints¶

• The editorial notes the proposal depends on public opinion becoming favorable, which it argues the war's popularization of psychology now makes possible.

Target Learners¶

• pupils in city school systems

Target Learning Goals¶

• measuring the results of teaching
• establishing standards in school studies
• discovering mental aptitudes of pupils
• identifying defective and superior-intelligence children
• informing promotions, class organization, and special schools

Claims¶

• Wartime army psychological testing of recruits stimulated popular interest in mental measurements and created a favorable opportunity to extend their use in education. [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• J. C. B. (1919). Measurements in education [Editorial]. The Journal of Educational Psychology, 10(1). https://archive.org/search?query=Journal+of+Educational+Psychology+1919