While attending graduate school at the University of Chicago in 1913, Counts was influenced by John Dewey and Francis W. Parker.

During this time he was a student of Charles Hubbard Judd, a leading proponent of the science of education.

His papers, delivered over three separate speeches, formed the core of the book, Dare the School Build a New Social Order?, published in 1932.

[7] In his address Counts proposed that teachers "dare build a new social order" through a complex, but definitely possible, process.

[8] He explained that only through schooling could students be educated for a life in a world transformed by massive changes in science, industry, and technology.

"[9] Counts' address to the PEA and the subsequent publication put him in the forefront of the social reconstructionism movement in education.

Du Bois issued a rebuttal to Counts' assertions that teachers were capable of building a "new social order".

In 1935 he spoke to a Georgia African American teacher's convention, curtly discounting the nature of the education system today.

In the 1930s William Randolph Hearst used select statements from interviews with Counts to portray American university faculty as Communist Party sympathizers.

The New Russian Primer (1931) and The Soviet Challenge to America (1931) were Counts' first works, and Dare the School Build a New Social Order?

His final publications included Education and the Foundations of Human Freedom (1952) and School and Society in Chicago (1971).