Shaping Public High School Training Curriculum: The Corporate Contribution, 1893--1917 and 1985--1999

Abstract

Findings related to the behaviors of business organizations and business leaders across time periods provide a framework for examining their involvement in reform of the public school curriculum. The framework consists of five parts. First, the fundamental restructuring of work. Second, the availability of workers with the requisite skills for life-long employment. Third, the forming of business-centric alliances supportive of public school reform. Fourth, the continuity among individual business and political leaders over time who support public school reform. Fifth, American businesses' regard for the public schools as the preferred supplier of workers with the requisite skills for life-long employment.