Gary Plan

The Gary Plan was a new method of building a highly efficient public school system that was much discussed in the Progressive Era in the 1910s and 1920s. It was in part inspired by the educational ideas of philosopher John Dewey. It was designed by School Superintendent William Wirt in 1907 and implemented in the newly built steel mill city of Gary, Indiana. Reformers tried to copy it across the country. Wirt later promoted it in New York City. However, there it was strongly opposed by unions and the Jewish community and was reversed in after 1917. In 1930 the census counted 25.7 million students in public schools. In 1929 variations of the Gary Plan were in use in 1068 schools in 202 cities with 730,000 students. (In 1930 the census counted 26 million students in all public schools.) Proponents claimed it both saved money and enhanced the learning experience. Ronald Cohen states that the Gary Plan was popular because it merged together Progressive commitments to:

paedagogical and economic efficiency, growth and centralization of administration, an expanded curriculum, introduction of measurement and testing, greater public use of school facilities, a child-centered approach, and heightened concern about using the schools to properly socialize children.