Laboratory of Learning ― Hbcu Laboratory Schools and Alabama State College Lab High in the Era of Jim Crow

The advent of the Progressive education movement at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century also saw the coming of "model" or "practice schools" for teacher training. While most of the literature about Southern black secondary education in the first half of the twentieth century emphasized the negative aspects, successful laboratory schools demonstrated their positive influence on black secondary education in the region. Laboratory of Learning is the first scholarly analysis of the secondary schools opened at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to assist in training teachers for black public school, and to provide a high-quality, college preparatory education for African-American students. With Alabama State College Laboratory High School as a case study, Pierson spotlights black laboratory high schools in the historical literature of African-American secondary education in the era of Jim Crow. Five chapters are divided into two parts: laboratory schools in historical context; and creating "precious scholars" at Alabama State College Laboratory High School. Annotation c2014 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Sharon Gay Pierson (PhD in history and education, Teachers College, Columbia University) has had her work published in numerous historical journals. She most recently contributed to the revised edition of ?Schools of Tomorrow?, Schools of Today: What Happened to Progressive Education (Susan F. Semel and Alan R. Sadovnik, eds., Peter Lang, forthcoming).