“The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was established in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of Congress as an independent policy and research center called to “do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold, and dignify the profession of the teacher and the cause of higher education.” [1]
The Foundation was established with a $10 million gift by the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and based in New York. The first president was MIT’s Henry S Pritchett who served from 1906-1930. [2, 3]
In 1900 Dr Pritchett “went to Boston to become president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]. Subsequently he was responsible for suggesting to Mr. Carnegie that a foundation be set up for the purpose of providing retirement allowances for professors and teachers, a suggestion that Mr. Carnegie adopted. He endowed the Carnegie Foundation fo the Advancement of Teaching, for with Pritchett was president from 1906-1930…” writes Abraham Flexner
The Congressional “charter permitted the Foundation to sponsor educational surveys and policy reviews, many of which eventually would decide the direction and organization of American education at elementary and secondary levels as well as at the university level.”
The Foundation would go on to significantly impact the “STANDARDIZATION” of all sectors of education across America – starting with taking over the AMA’s medical education review.
- Abraham Flexner provided his first Report to the Carnegie Foundation in 1910 on reforming medical education in US and Canada, and another in 1912 [4] on Medical Education in Europe.