The study of educational methods throughout the country has in recent years attracted a great deal of careful attention which now has taken very definite form. At a meeting of the National Council of Education in 1891, a committee, appointed at a previous meeting, reported through its chairman, Mr. James H. Baker, the principal of the Denver High School, on the uniformity of school programmes and the requirements for admission to college. The committee was continued and authorized to investigate the general subject of uniformity and to report to the National Council of Education in 1892. They made some specific recommendations that were approved, and in turn communicated to, and approved by, the National Educational Association, July 9, 1892. The result was that a committee of ten men was appointed with authority to investigate exhaustively the subject of secondary school education in the United States, and the admissions to colleges. The committee was to appoint sub-committees or conferences to investigate certain subjects and report at a specified time to the committee. The committee was composed of the heads of schools, colleges and universities throughout the country, with President Eliot as chairman. The committee appointed nine conferences, each consisting of ten men, to investigate the following subjects; 1, Latin; 2, Greek; 3, English; 4, Other Modern Languages; 5, Mathematics; 6, Physics, Astronomy and Chemistry; 7, Natural History (Biology, including Botany, Zoology, and Physiology); 8, History, Civil Government, and Political Economy; 9, Geography (Physical Geography, Geology and Meteorology). Great care was taken in the forming of these conferences, as to the scholarship and experience of those chosen, as to the fair distribution of them in colleges and schools, and as to their proper geographical distribution. Every effort was made to have the movement thoroughly representative and exhaustive.

Of the Harvard men who served on these conferences are the following: Professor G. L. Kittridge, English; Professor W. E. Byerly, Mathematics; Professor A. B. Hart, History, Civil Government and Political economy; and Professor W. M. Davis, Geography.

The committee adopted a list of questions as a guide for the discussions of the conferences, which are in substance as follows:

1. At what age should the study which is the subject of the conferences be introduced?

2. How many hours a week for how many years should be devoted to it?

3. How many hours a week for how many years should be devoted to it during the four years of the ordinary high school period?

4. What parts of the subject may be covered during the whole course?

5. What parts may best be reserved for the last four years?

6. In what form and to what extent should the subject enter into college requirements for admission?

7. Should the subject be treated differently for pupils who are going to a college, to a scientific school, or to neither?

8. At what age should a differentiation begin?

9. Can any description be given of the best method of teaching this subject throughout the school course?

10. Can any description be given of the best mode of testing attainment in this subject at college admission examinations?

11. Can the best limit between the preliminary and final examinations of college admission be approximately defined?

The conferences carefully investigated their subjects, had their meetings in different parts of the country, at which they drew up a formal and detailed report to submit to the committee. The committee was then to draw up, in the light of these reports, a report on the best secondary school educational system, that it would be practical to put into effect in the United States, to be sent to the National Educational Association. This report has been printed as a document of the Bureau of Education, and is the most important educational document ever published in this country.