Hollis Caswell

Hollis Leland Caswell (October 22, 1901 – November 22, 1988) was an American educator who became an authority on curriculum planning in schools. He directed surveys of curriculum practices in several school systems, and wrote several books on the subject.

Caswell joined the editorial advisory board of the World Book Encyclopedia in 1936, and became its chairman in 1948. In 1954, Caswell was appointed president of Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, and served as its president until 1962.

Following his retirement as president at Teachers College, Caswell continued at the College, being appointed to the Marshall Field, Jr., Professorship of Education. He remained in that chair until 1967.

Early life and education Caswell was a descendant of Kansas homesteaders. He attended a rural high school in western Kansas and attended Kansas State University for two years before transferring to the University of Nebraska, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1922. In 1958, in a speech at a conference in Albany, he welcomed citizen interest in schools but opposed participation by people who were not educators in planning curricula: What should be taught in American history should not be left up to historians and not to citizens' committees.

Caswell also disputed campaigns to do away with some of the so-called frills in education, contending, for example, that driver training was worthwhile because it cut accidents and that the draft in World War II showed the nation that physical education was not a frill either.

In the two decades before his retirement Caswell was a principal editorial adviser to World Book Encyclopedia, published by Field Enterprises. He also was a consultant to many state education departments and municipal school systems and held a number of high positions in national educational organizations, including the National Education Association and the American Council on Education.