The Winnetka Plan was an educational experiment held in the Winnetka,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

-based

Winnetka School District 36 Winnetka School District 36 is an elementary school district based in Winnetka, Cook County, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago that is due north of the city. The district is composed of five schools: three neighborhood elementary schools, and two ...

.T. Corcoran, "The Winnetka School Plan," ''The Irish Monthly, Vol. 55'', No. 644, pp. 63-67 (Feb., 1927), published by Irish Jesuit Province. UR
at JSTOR
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Carleton Washburne Carleton Wolsey Washburne (December 2, 1889 – November 28, 1968) was an American educator and education reformer. He served as the superintendent of schools in Winnetka, Illinois, United States, from 1919 to 1943 and is most notably associated ...

, who was the district superintendent, and inspired by

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...

's work in the

University of Chicago Laboratory School The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (also known as Lab or Lab Schools and abbreviated as UCLS though the high school is nicknamed U-High) is a private, co-educational day Pre-K and K-12 school in Chicago, Illinois. It is affiliated with t ...

, the plan attempted to expand educational focus to creative activities and emotional and social development,Carleton Washburne, ''A Living Philosophy of Education, '' The University of Chicago Press (1941). using a program of a type that later became known as "programmed instruction."Herbert M. Kliebard, ''

The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893–1958 ''The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893–1958'', is a book written by historian of education Herbert Kliebard and published by Routledge & Kegan Paul Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by G ...

'', p. 177 (1987; 3rd edition 2004) The curriculum divided subjects into "common essentials" and "creative group activities." While "common essentials" required students to demonstrate mastery to advance, the creative activities allowed students to advance at different rates and there were no strict goals or standards of achievement. Rather than putting "gifted" students into higher-level classes, the students struggling with schoolwork were put into special classes to address those individual problems. Most of the time, the struggling student received one-on-one help from a teacher. To this day, these classes and teaching sessions still exist, sometimes called "Study Skills" or "Resources." The plan was widely imitated and led to shifts in curriculum focus across the United States.

References

External links

* * ''Winnetka: The History and Significance of an Educational Experiment'' (1963) by Carleton Washburne Education in Cook County, Illinois Winnetka, Illinois {{US-edu-stub