"A coarse and clumsy tool": Helen Thompson Wooley and the Cincinnati Vocation Bureau

From 1911 to 1921, Helen Thompson Wooley served as director of the Vocation Bureau of the Cincinnati Public Schools. In this position she designed and supervised a massive longitudinal study comparing the development of adolescents who remained in school with those who left school to go to work. Although the original goals of this study were not accomplished, the achievements of the Vocation Bureau brought national recognition to the city and to Helen Wooley. The accomplishments of the bureau reflected Wooley's view of the role of experimental psychology in contributing to the scientific understanding of adolescents and to educational and social reforms.