An Experiment with the Dalton Plan

The general question as to whether or not children make progress in school subjects faster under the Dalton Laboratory Plan than under other plans has been raised whenever comparisons with other schemes of school procedure have been made. Claims both pro and con are found in the literature. As these claims have been mainly subjective judgments on the part of protagonists and antagonists, it is a matter of concern that some objective evidence bearing on the question be gathered. The aim of this experiment was to make some objective measures of the progress made in the Ohio State University Demonstration School dur ing the summer sessions of the years of 1928 and 1929, under the Dalton Laboratory Plan, and to compare the results with data obtained from two summer sessions of the Columbus, Ohio, public schools. Measures of progress were made in reading, composition, arithmetic, spelling, and handwriting. In the pursuit of this study, certain operative factors, some to the advantage and others to the disadvantage of the Dalton Laboratory Plan, are recognized. It is not maintained that all of the values of the Dalton Plan are shown in a period of eight weeks or in two periods of this same length. Certain disadvantages, such as the limitation imposed by a short school term, the handicaps experienced on account of the pupils' being unused to the methods employed under the plan, and the distraction caused by many visitors during the school day, are evident. These circumstances, however, find some compensation in the fact that Miss Parkhurst, author of the Dalton Laboratory Plan, had control of the entire school administration, a faculty of her own selection who were expertly trained in the methods of the plan, adequate financial resources for the operation of her plans, a selected group of pupils, and a staff of sufficient size to permit no classes of over twenty pupils. The pupils in grades V, VI, VII, and VIII in the Demonstration School conducted during the summer sessions of 1928 and 1929 by the Department of Principles of the Ohio State University, under the direc tion of Miss Helen Parkhurst, composed the experimental group. The pupils in grades V, VI, VII, and VIII of the Everett Junior High School and the McKinley Junior High School made up the control groups for 1928. The Everett Junior High School was the only school used in 1929 as a control group. Table I shows the enrollment: 493