This article is based on an inaugural professorial lecture given by Jane Martin at the University of Birmingham on 3 December 2014. It grew out of research in progress on the life and work of the leading educational reformer, Caroline Benn, wife of one of the most prominent and controversial post-war socialists in Britain, Tony Benn.

High school redesign is one of the most elusive reform challenges to date. This paper explains why personalized high schools are hard to get and keep in a traditional school district, and shows how they can be made much more broadly available through changes in policy and philanthropic investments. Drawing from examples of successful and…

Conant's "The American High School Today" (1959) conveyed his confidence in consolidation of smaller schools into comprehensive high schools. The book sparked criticism. Conant's personal papers reveal that his breezy optimism hid doubts, frustrations, and uncertainties. The contradiction in his views foreshadows the turbulent 1960s. (PB)

For more than a century, American educators and education policymakers have chosen sides in a great debate about the nature and function of American high schools. The origins of this long-running argument can be traced to 1893, when the influential Committee of Ten, a bluechip panel of educators, issued a report proposing that all public…