Secondary Education in England 1870-1902

In this comprehensive and extensively researched history, John Roach argues for a reassessment of the relative importance of State regulation and private provision. Although the public schools enjoyed their greatest prestige during this period, in terms of educational reform and progress their importance has been exaggerated. The role of the public school, he suggests, was social rather than academic, and as such their power and influence is to be interpreted principally in relation to the growth of new social elites, the concept of public service and the needs of the empire for a bureaucratic ruling class. Only in the modern progressive movement, launched by Cecil Reddie, and the private provision for young women, was lasting progress made. Even before the 1902 Education Act however the State had spent much time and effort regulating and reforming the old educational endowments, and it is in these initiatives that the foundations for the public provision of secondary educational reform are to be found.

Prof John Roach, John Roach

Part I The endowed schools 1 The work of the Endowed Schools Commission 1869-74 2 Poverty, merit, and social differentiation 3 Political, administrative, and religious issues 4 Academic policies and the curriculum 5 Conflict in the provinces-Bristol, Birmingham 6 The Charity Commissioners after 1875 7 The endowed schools about 1890 Part II Public activity in secondary education 8 'Our new Secondary Education...' 9 Higher-grade schools: Bradford, Sheffield, Manchester 10 The 1890s: the technical instruction committees Part III The public schools 11 The public school image 12 The public schools and society 13 The public school community Part IV Private and private foundation schools 14 Private schools: strengths and weaknesses 15 Private schools: policies and practices 16 Some individual schools 17 Semi-public and private foundation schools Part V The education of girls 18 Endowed schools-1 19 Endowed schools-2 20 Proprietary and other schools-1 21 Proprietary and other schools-2 22 The girls' schools and their objectives 23 The internal life of girls' schools