Traced in this study are specific developments in the reform of the English curriculum in secondary schools between the establishment of entrance tests in English at Harvard in 1873 and the founding of the College Entrance Examination Board in 1900. During that period the importance of English as a subject grew because of pressures exerted on schools by colleges and by national committees whose recommendations contributed to the standardization and further growth of English. Also affecting curriculum development over the 30-year period were a preoccupation with educational means and a conflict between the two educational ideals of "utility" and "culture." By 1900, the revamped English curriculum had literary study at its center aided by the practical study of composition. The literary study was grounded in assent rather than experience, and language study was narrowed to the doctrine of a paragraph rhetoric and a prescriptive standard of English usage. This framework was ill-equipped to accommodate shifting patterns of sensibility in art or the rapidly accumulating knowledge of the nature and functions of language. (Author/JM)