Society, Schools and Progress in England examines the role of education in society and its contribution to progress. This text presents a descriptive analysis of changing purposes in English education, highlighting the plans and crises as well as the constant efforts in the past hundred years to fit education and meet the needs of an evolving industrial society. This book is comprised of eight chapters and begins by providing the historical and institutional background, followed by a discussion on administration, the school system, family influences, and background social forces. In particular, the function of Parliament in relation to education is considered, along with the relationship between education and industry; the widening of educational opportunity in connection with concerns over the crude social and economic barriers to further progress; and the proposed reforms for the educational system. This book also looks at the efforts of the early twentieth century to create a national system of secondary education and concludes by assessing what has been achieved so far and what still needs to be done in improving the education in England. This reference material is intended to serve students of sociology, government and politics, and education.