The Conant Study

James Conant’s work on U.S. high schools. The American High School Today literally changed the shape of American schools after it came out in 1959. Conant’s Corporation-supported work, popularly known as “The Conant Study,” helped fuel the movement away from small, isolated schools with limited offerings to the modern American high school—which, spurred by innovative educational thinkers who may be viewed as Conant’s successors, is once again being “rethought” in the 21st century. Carnegie Corporation remains deeply involved in this work by supporting efforts to promote and preserve a robust American democracy through grantmaking focused on expanding opportunity through education. The Corporation’s aim is to enable many more students, including historically underserved populations and immigrants, to achieve academic success and perform at the highest levels of creative, scientific and technical knowledge and skill. Of particular concern is helping to build students' college and career readiness by supporting the development of high-performing systems of public secondary schools characterized by high standards, data-driven management and instruction, and high-quality leaders and teachers, among other rigorous and academically challenging innovations.