ABSTRACT
Many cities used their public schools as a base for Americanization classes for adult immigrants. The multiple changes in American social, political, and economic life that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries produced enormous enrollment increases in the public schools. The Centralization Process Centralization took place in gradual, uneven patterns, as city schools attempted to grapple with increasing enrollments and the social problems that accompanied them. Centralization, combined with professional school administration, can be seen as an improvement for teachers, since it led to a more regularized system of employment and personnel policies. Public education emerged from the progressive era more influenced by the organizational reforms of centralization and curricular differentiation than by the pedagogical alterations sought by Dewey or the empowerment of teachers sought by Young. A modernized educational apparatus had been firmly installed in the nation's urban schools.
