The progressive education movement originated from the great turning point of American society-from agricultural country to industrial country, from liberal capitalism to monopoly capitalism, from colonial culture to independent culture. In this development process, the United States is facing an unprecedented social and cultural crisis. Therefore, the progressive education movement and its thoughts are the response of American educational circles to the challenges brought by a series of major changes in the process of American social modernization, and it is a kind of extensive effort and reform choice to reform American education under the condition of modern urban industrial civilization. On the other hand, the old education in the United States at that time could not meet the needs of social development. From 1852 to 19 18, all states in the United States passed compulsory education laws, but the education at that time followed the traditional European education system and was divided into aristocratic education and civilian education, which had a distinct class nature. At the same time, education pays more attention to academics than occupations, which leads to the opposition between academics and occupations and the isolation between people and society, making education unable to meet the needs of industrial development. The old education regarded education as "shaping" or "repeating and reviewing", which seriously ignored people's subjective initiative in education and even failed to realize the "transformation" function of education. In addition, there are still many problems in educational practice, such as poor quality of teachers, loose school management, rigid educational content and so on. Therefore, this education is divorced from society, life, human development and practice. Progressive educators will formally reform this old education through new progressive schools and progressive education.