Early entrance to college

[3][4] In the first decade of the 20th century, the Carnegie Foundation adopted the "count" system that the North Central Association had devised in 1902 to compare different secondary and tertiary curricula.

[8] Another early innovator was the University of Louisville, which in 1934 also began admitting promising high school students after their junior year.

[10] Although the Louisville program was still active in the 1950s, as of 2011[update] the university only admits high school students on a concurrent enrollment basis.

[14] Although the University of Chicago eventually abandoned this program, it was adopted by tiny Shimer College in 1950,[15] and continues there in a modified form to the present day.

[citation needed] In 1942, the Educational Policies Commission made a formal recommendation that colleges admit academically skilled high school students after their junior year.

[22][23] Although originally intended to involve only four large universities,[24] the "Early Admission Program" ultimately encompassed twelve schools: Yale, Columbia, Wisconsin, Utah, Chicago, Louisville, Fisk, Goucher, Lafayette, Morehouse, Oberlin, and Shimer.

Shimer was unique in following the original Hutchins model and opening the program to all ability levels,[26] although this approach was modified after the initial experiment.

[27] National in scope and involving grants totaling US$3.4 million,[28] the Early Admission Program targeted high school students who "seemed ready, both academically and in personal maturity, to undertake college work.

"[25] The Fund commissioned two independent studies on the outcomes of the program, one approaching it from a psychological point of view and one from the perspective of educational attainment.

[31] But in the absence of strong institutional support, and facing resistance and skepticism from both high schools and universities, these programs subsequently died away.

In the 1960s, social pressure in favor of egalitarianism restrained any further large-scale efforts on gifted education, of which early entrance was considered a part.

Simon's Rock was founded by Elizabeth Blodgett Hall, formerly the headmistress of Concord Academy, who wanted to create "an institution that would provide learning for students who had begun to think independently.