Class LS_£A£k Book ^5 Copyright N° COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: SCHOOL REPORTS AND SCHOOL EFFICIENCY •The THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON ■ CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO SCHOOL REPORTS AND SCHOOL EFFICIENCY BY DAVID S. SNEDDEN, Ph.D. ii AND WILLIAM H. ALLEN, Ph.D. FOR THE NEW YORK COMMITTEE ON PHYSICAL WELFARE OF SCFIOOL CHILDREN Nefa ffotfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1908 All rights reserved JUBRARY of COWSSESS.! Two Copies Heceivgg 1 WiAR & 1908 I OoiwriKirt ciurj- jGLHSs4- AXc. rtu COHY S. Copyright, 1908, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1908. Notrjjooti Press J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. CONTENTS PAGE Introduction vii I. The Purposes of Educational Statistics. (Pro- fessor Snedden) I II. The Beginnings of School Reports in American Cities. (Professor Snedden) . . . .11 III. Efforts of the National Educational Association to improve School Reports and to secure Uni- formity. (Dr. Allen) 20 IV. Examples of Tables and Other Forms of Pre- senting School Facts, used in Typical City School Reports. (Professor Snedden) . . 28 V. Important Questions not answered by Existing Reports. (Professor Snedden and Dr. Allen) 116 VI. Suggested Economies and Improvements for School Reports. (Professor Snedden) . . . .128 VII. A Practical Study of One School Report (New York City). (Dr. Allen) 151 Index 179 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/schoolreportssch02sned INTRODUCTION The origin of this study of school reports dates back to 1904, when the board of education of New York City an- nounced that for want of funds it must curtail its vacation and night schools, recreation centers and popular lectures. Representatives of several civic organizations met to dis- cuss what seemed to them a wrong to the children and parents of congested districts. Without exception they sided with the school authorities against the fiscal authori- ties who had demanded school retrenchment. They were about to vote a protest when one delegate asked how many people would be injured by cutting off the so-called social features of the schools. No one knew ; nor did any one know whether there was any truth in the Comptroller's statement that the board of education had money enough to do its intended work without curtailment if it would use economi- cally the funds already voted it. The protest was deferred and a Committee on Facts appointed. An investigation was conducted by the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, which had supported the first vacation schools in 1894, six in 1895 and 1896, and ten in 1897. The attempt to show from official reports that due economy was being employed proved futile. In the absence of proof of economy and efficiency on the part of the schools that had spent the money, it was obviously im- possible to charge with bad faith or error those who demanded retrenchment. Thus an inquiry, started (1904) for the pur- pose of increasing the school appropriation, ended in an Vlll INTRODUCTION appeal (1905) to the board of education to get more service for the moneys received, and to adopt records and reports that would "arouse public sentiment when the occasion demands" and "defend the educational value and the cost of any and all of your educational policies." The adoption of business methods in a few instances by different committees resulted promptly in savings here of $200,000, there of $300,000, now of $13,000 on lead pencils, again of $113,000 on coal, these savings being used for ad- ditional service. In 1906 the board of education finally adopted resolutions admitting the need for improved account- ing, and instructed its auditing department to institute necessary changes. During the period 1904 to 1906 several grave questions of school policy agitated the public mind, — part time vs. full day; "fads and frills"; free meals; flexible grading; pro- motion by subject; teachers' salaries. Almost without exception these questions were discussed on theoretical and personal grounds, just as if New York had been without experience. When supposed facts were offered in evidence, they were controverted. Reports did not help settle contro- versy as to fact. No one ever knew what the truth was; it was simply known that this or that side won or that the leaders of two sides had "come together." When year after year the board of education was given a million or two less than it asked for, it seemed clear that the children of New York City were paying a very high price for want of information as to school conditions on the part of school board, fiscal authorities, newspapers, and volunteers anxious to increase school efficiency. Would the same method of settling school questions according to theory, personality, or compromise be used in meeting the demand for free lunches, for free eyeglasses, for material relief at school, for a revised curriculum, for less home study, for correction of physical defects, for industrial training fitted to the child INTRODUCTION ix and to industry? With the conviction that reasoning from fact to policy would improve policy, enhance the efficiency of the schools, increase their support, and settle questions so that they would stay settled until conditions changed, — the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor obtained funds for a three-years trial of the fact method of interpreting school needs and school merit. The Committee on Physical Welfare of School Children was organized in May, 1906, to undertake the following pro- gramme : 1. Study of the Physical Welfare of School Children. (a) Examination of board of health records of children needing medical, dental, or ocular care, and better nourishment. (b) Home visitation of such children, in order to ascertain whether their need arises from defi- cient income or from other causes. (c) Effort to secure proper treatment, either from parents, or from free clinics or other established agencies. (d) Effort to secure proper physical surroundings of children while at school, — playgrounds, baths, etc. 2. Effort to secure establishment of such a system of school records and reports as will disclose auto- matically significant school facts, — e.g. regarding backward pupils, truancy, regularity of attendance, registered children not attending, sickness, physical defects, etc. 3. Effort to utilize information regarding school needs so as to stimulate public interest and thus aid in securing adequate appropriations to meet school needs. At the end of the first year three studies are ready for publication : X INTRODUCTION i. Examination of the Home Conditions of fourteen hun- dred Families whose Children were discovered by School Phy- sicians to have Physical Defects. 2. Investigation of Fifty School Buildings in Answer to the Question, Does School Environment cause and aggravate Physical Defects? 3. A Comparative Study of School Reporting. The first proves that physical defects are due to home conditions that are not confined to the very poor nor to the immigrant parent, and points to change in home conditions as the best means of helping the individual child. The second confirms and explains the statement recently made at a conference on child welfare by a school principal, — "Our buildings, our curriculum, and our home study are manufacturing more defects than the physician and nurse and dispensary can correct." The third study is here presented. For its con- tent the Committee is chiefly indebted to two of its members, David S. Snedden, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of School Ad- ministration, Teachers College, and William H. Allen, Ph.D., formerly General Agent of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor and now Secretary of the Bureau of Municipal Research. The idea of presenting forms already in use for reporting significant school facts, we owe to several school commissioners who listened with scant indulgence to reasons for adequate reports, but welcomed heartily concrete evidences that other cities found properly classified school statistics convenient and suggestive in directing their schools. We know no better proof that knowledge leads to con- structive action than the committee's use of its own intimate knowledge of a few facts regarding physical welfare condi- tions. Thousands of children have been given fresh-air outings and winter relief; the homes of these children have received aid when needed from relief agencies; additional funds have been secured for medical school inspection and nursing, and a proposal defeated to use $33,000 of this fund for other purposes; a hastily considered plan to give away INTRODUCTION xi eyeglasses, regardless of parent's ability to pay, has been postponed if not defeated ; hospitals, dispensaries, charitable agencies are cooperating, so far as they know how, with principals and superintendents to secure prompt remedy for physical defects; a directory of dispensaries and hospitals has been prepared for the use of principals and teachers; momentum has been added to the demand for healthy chil- dren ; no little part has been played in showing the need for physical examination of all children in all schools in all sections of the country and of all children applying for work certificates. Finally, the use made of school facts shows that the volunteer informed can accomplish infinitely more for the schools he aims to help than the volunteer half-informed or uninformed. No public activity needs the intelligent cooperation of the so-called outsider more than our public schools. When public education associations look to school reports for indications of need for volunteer effort, effective intelligent cooperation between school, home, and volunteer agency will be possible. It is hoped that this publication will not only help individual school officers in their efforts to secure effective publicity as to the needs of their schools, but will also hasten the day of uniform school reports. The New York Committee on Physical Welfare of School Children. Charles C. Burlingham, Chairman. ( CHAPTER I The Purposes of Educational Statistics The published school report has come to be a characteris- tic feature of school administration in American cities. In the larger cities this report has become a plump volume and, as a rule, is published annually. The major part of the report is usually prepared by or under the direction of the superintendent of schools. It often serves, therefore, as an index of his capacity and energy in directing the educational work of his city. The typical city school report is made up largely of a dis- cussion of the progress of educational interests, discussions and exhibits of educational needs, and a series of tables deal- ing statistically with the main facts of school finance, atten- dance, etc. Occasionally many pages are devoted to the names of teachers, the course of study, and the rules and regulations of the board of education. Sometimes a consider- able part of the report is taken up with the reports made to the superintendent by heads of departments, supervisors, and other special officers. On its face the city school report emanates from the board of education and is addressed to the public which the board serves. The larger the city and the more complex its edu- cational interests, the greater the need for some regular channel of communication between members of the board and the patrons and supporters of the public schools. The pub- lished report may be said to have been evolved to meet the need for this communication. The democratic and local character of education in America explains why this report 2 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS has assumed its present size, form, and detail of development, so unlike the reports issued in foreign cities with equally elaborate systems of education. The published city school report has taken its present form during the last fifty or sixty years. Originally it was little more than a running account, periodically published, outlining the organization of the schools and showing the amount of money spent on them. But in time there de- veloped the custom of presenting rather elaborate showings of educational facts, and for compactness and intelligibility, these assumed the form of statistical tables which are now so characteristic a part of the report. Probably the most promi- nent condition affecting the form and extent of these tables has been the obligation of the city to report, at stated inter- vals, to the state educational department certain facts which had to be arranged in statistical form, such as expenditure, census, enrollment, attendance, graduations, etc. It naturally became customary to republish in the city report the tables prepared for the state. In a few instances it is found, also, that the form of report required by the Bureau of Education at Washington has determined the character of some of the tables in local reports. A second cause of the present form of statistical presenta- tion in many reports can be traced to the energy and initia- tive of various superintendents who have undertaken to give in most effective form the facts concerning those phases of administration which they most cared to affect. In some reports careful tables of teachers' salaries have been de- veloped under the influence of a desire to improve the condi- tion of the teaching force. Distributed tables of attendance or graphic presentations of these facts have been devised to show to the public the great and unwarranted falling off in school attendance. Tables showing the occupations of parents whose children attend the high schools have been prepared to counteract the belief that these schools were for THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS 3 the prosperous only. Similar causes have evolved tables showing relationship between age and grade of pupils; the professional education of teachers; the percentages of all children of school age who are found in school. Because the force of custom is strong it is not unusual to find that extensive tables are published year after year, even though the reason for their original publication no longer holds. Not infrequently, as a result, the city report contains extensive tables that are probably never examined by a member of the board of education or by a citizen. Worse than this, the tables presented are often simply masses of figures, put together in such a fashion, and so lacking in con- densed interpretations, that the average reader is not able to extract from them the information that they are supposed to convey. It is evident that in any city school system there is avail- able for publication a far greater mass of statistical facts than it is practicable to print. Tables of indefinite extent might be compiled, even from records at present available, but it would be a useless expense to print these tables unless such publication served some distinct educational purpose. Not infrequently there arises a popular demand for informa- tion regarding some phase of education and in response elabo- rate tables of data are presented. But the failure of the authorities to marshal this information with reference to some specific end prevents the citizen who cares to study the schools of his city from obtaining any clear view, and the effect on school administration in general is the reverse of helpful. There are not a few departments of local and general govern- ment in which the assembling and printing of statistics have come to be ends in themselves, rather than means to distinctly conceived ends of publicity and administrative control. It has been suggested that the most general aim in the pub- lication of school reports has been publicity. An analysis of the several aims that may be subserved by school reports 4 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS will show that the following are typical as determining the character and standards, especially of the statistical matter. a. The report may be simply a restatement of the facts and figures collected for state or national statistics. In such cases the classification and form will be vague and general from the standpoint of local conditions, and will lack all semblance of interpretation in terms of local conditions or demands. The statistics of education published in state and national reports are sufficiently lacking in interpretation and abridged statement ; and when the tables which a given city has prepared for those reports are simply republished, very seldom indeed can the interested citizen or local legislator obtain answers to specific questions concerning local educa- tional conditions. b. Reports may present statistics of education or other social phenomena in such a way as to interest and appeal primarily to the student. While this is rarely the case at the present time, it is possible that with the introduction of a greater number of specialists into the school systems of our cities, there might develop a tendency to make statistical re- ports of so technical a character that only the special student could follow and interpret them. c. The published report may be designed primarily for the use of the administrative staff of the school system. Here again the presentation would possibly be quite tech- nical and would assume such an acquaintance with the organization and procedures of the school system as could hardly be expected from the layman. For the administra- tive officers it would be possible to omit much in the way of condensation and interpretation and explanation, owing to the character of the information naturally possessed by the administrative officers. Tables of statistics organized primarily for this purpose would prove of little use to the layman. It happens that in not a few fields of professional work, the end of administrative service rather than publicity THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS 5 determines the character of published reports. But in most of these cases publicity in the ordinary sense is not a promi- nent factor, as the institutions concerned are not primarily supported and controlled as public, and hence are in a measure freed from the obligation of publicity. d. The fourth practicable aim, therefore, in statistical presentations might be publicity, in the sense that the lay- man of average intelligence, but of more than average inter- est, might have the information he seeks. Back of all our public institutions are a number of individuals, laymen of only average intelligence, who constitute the true support of such institutions in that they mainly determine public opinion as it affects the support and control of such institu- tions. These are the men who compose the boards and com- mittees and who stand between the taxpayers and the insti- tutions ; these are the people who should possess the largest possible command of the facts regarding the social cost and service of these institutions. Strong sentiment they usually have; but knowledge they frequently lack and, in the long run, such lack of knowledge greatly handicaps their effective- ness. The school report may be designed primarily to appeal to this class of persons and to provide the facts and to facili- tate the deductions that will affect their interest and action. It is entirely possible to study the capacity of these laymen to deal with statistical presentations. While, as before stated, it seems probable that many school reports are de- signed for this purpose, it is no less probable that few of them at all adequately serve such an end. The ends of efficient publicity, so far as laymen are con- cerned, can be met only by the adoption of a special method designed for this purpose. What this method is we are but beginning to learn, for only seldom has the art of making and presenting statistics been turned in this direction. Not only must facts be presented statistically, but they must 6 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS be so presented as to disclose their significance, even to the hurried reader. Summaries, comparative statements of totals or percentages, so arranged that the eye may instantly perceive relationship, reductions to average, or other and more significant digested statements, graphical presentations — all these are among the devices that are slowly developing. Some of the recent reports of the bureaus or departments of the national government indicate an extended use of these devices making for efficient publicity ; notably, those from the bureaus of immigration, census, and labor. For the layman interpretation is certainly not an unim- portant feature of all statistics. This interpretation is largely a matter of arrangement and presentation, and need involve no personal element on the part of the compiler. The approach to this sort of publicity must be largely from the side of questions asked, information desired on specific points, etc., and in light of these questions it becomes entirely feasible to marshal material so that the questions are answered with no intrusion of personal factors. This, of course, is not always the case, but under the best handling of statistical material by modern methods, it is more feasible than is commonly supposed. Of course, we do not ignore the fact that there is much in the way of the interpretation of statistics which can be accomplished by highly refined and technical methods. But this form of interpretation rarely applies to the type of question that may be asked by the citizen who is concerned with the ordinary concrete facts of administra- tion. For him an abundance of information can be supplied without resort to technical means. It will hardly be denied that the last two of the purposes above enumerated are those that ought primarily to be met by the published school report ; and of the two, the last or publicity aim is the one that must mainly determine the form of presentation. A difference must be noted between reports made to the THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS 7 superintendent of schools by the supervisors and heads of departments, the reports of the superintendent, auditor, and committees to the board of education, all of which may be in writing, on the one hand ; and the published report on the other. For administrative purposes the written report, except possibly in the largest cities, may largely serve all necessary ends. These written reports may and should be very extensive and should include the statistics of a variety of activities and investigations that need not necessarily have a place in the published report. For this reason it ought by no means to be assumed that the published report contains all the statistical presentations that should be em- ployed in administration ; rather it ought to be assumed that the published report presents mainly those showings to which it is important to give wide publicity, to the end that the patrons of the school and other interested citizens may be able to procure all information which concerns any con- siderable number of the public. This object is well stated in one of the earlier reports of the Boston School Committee (1857) when, after discussing the various special reports that shall be made to the board by the several committees, it quotes from the rules of the board : "These reports shall be referred to a special committee of the board, who shall make from them such selections as they shall deem important for public information, and shall add thereto such suggestions and remarks as they shall deem expedient, and their report, when accepted by this board, shall be printed for distribution among the citizens. '"Evidently from the foregoing rule,' reads the preliminary section of the published report, 'the object of the annual report of the school board is, not to discuss theories or general principles of education for the enlightenment or satisfaction of its own members, but to present facts, to give information to the citizens of Boston — their constituents, — on the condition, character, wants, claims of the public schools, — that great system of public instruction which these citizens sustain in conformity to the laws of the Commonwealth, and at an expense exceed- ing that of any other department of public interest or service in the 8 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS city, — and to discuss principles only incidentally and in connection with these facts.' " There can be little doubt, then, that the published school report should be regarded essentially and primarily as a com- munication from the board of education and the superintend- ent of schools to the public. It is designed to inform the more intelligent and interested portion of the public as to the status of the schools, and to command hearing and support for the progressive policies of the system of public education. American education is essentially democratic. It relies on the public, not only for support, but for endorsement and encouragement. Without the intelligent cooperation of the public, no school system can long maintain high standards of efficiency, and must largely fail to realize its full usefulness. Especially in proportion as education grows complex and increasingly expensive, something more is needed than vague, though enthusiastic faith in it, if progress and effectiveness are to be attained. In the main, the methods that will give the maximum of publicity regarding school facts will probably result also in providing the most effective basis for school administra- tion. The effort to keep the system close to the people, and the exhibition of conditions, progress, and results which can and should be made in order to answer the needs of publicity, will in most cases produce the knowledge and feeling of responsibility that most fully contribute to admin- istrative ends. Hence we may safely say that the primary standard for school reports should be effective publicity, remembering that such publicity will, in the long run, also very greatly contribute means and incentives to administra- tive success. When tested by such standards, what can be said of the published reports of the American cities ? The next chapter will show some stages in the evolution of such reports, from THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS 9 which we can easily arrive at the conviction thai, considering conditions as they once were in education, substantial prog- ress has been made in the direction of publicity and admin- istrative control through reports and especially through their statistical features. A subsequent chapter will show in detail what may now be found in the way of exhibits of facts by statistical means in the most effective examples found in contemporary reports. An examination of even the best reports, however, will show that only in certain respects do these attain to any full degree of genuine pub- licity. In other words, many of the questions that might, from the standpoint of civic interest or enlightenment, be asked, remain unanswered. Owing to the neglect of special fields of educational inquiry, or to cumbersome and faulty methods, sometimes to apparent unwillingness to inform the public fully, many of the reports give only incomplete and unsatisfactory answers to the questions and issues that require light. Taken in a composite way, however, the best contemporary reports present devices for answering a large number of such questions, and, thus taken, they suggest an arrangement of means and methods that might and probably would result in a form for a report far superior to any one of them. In the light of the showing made through a collation of the best features of existing reports, it would seem possible to criticise any given report; and this has been attempted in Chapter VII. Let it be repeated that to present statis- tical answers to all the possible questions that could be raised regarding a city school system would require so much space and time as at once to negative any such proposal ; but, as will be shown later, one of the primary aims in educational statistics should be to accomplish far more than is now ac- complished in any given report, and yet with less expenditure of time and money. It must be insisted that the business world, owing to the pressure of competition, has evolved IO EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS means and measures which combine the ends of effective statistical presentation with economy, and that it is prac- ticable for our city school systems to do likewise. The problem of doing so is not wholly a simple one ; but that it is capable of solution no one can doubt. CHAPTER II The Beginnings of School Reports in American Cities The main features of city school reports can be best un- derstood if we make some note of the evolutionary steps in their development. It would seem that the custom of issuing formal printed reports developed during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. During this period also the office of city school superintendent began to assume something of its present proportions. Until very recent years it did not exist in European schools. It did not de- velop from the teaching or faculty side of the school system, but from the board of education, which required the services at first of a clerk and then of an officer who could combine with his knowledge of clerical duties the expert knowledge necessary to inspect and report on the work of the schools. As executive officer and educational expert for the board, the superintendent was expected to report his observations and recommendations, and it was but a step farther to publish his report as part of the annual report of the board of education. If the superintendent was progressive, he made careful studies of the needs of the city system, and presented elaborate recommendations to his board. Accompanying this movement was also one in the direction of centralizing the administration of city schools. Orig- inally in many cities school administration had been divided among a number of districts or wards with local boards. As cities grew and educational systems were consolidated, it was but natural that statistical methods should develop of presenting some of the main facts with which administra- 12 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS tion was concerned. In many states it was necessary for a city board of education, through clerk or superintendent, to make an annual or biennial report to the state authorities regarding such matters as expenditure, census, attendance, graduates, certification of teachers, and kindred facts. Having the data thus available, the superintendent would include them in the published report of the city school system. Few of the earliest city school reports are now available. It would appear, however, from the numbers assigned to subsequent issues that Philadelphia published its first report as early as 1818; Cleveland in 1834 or 1836; New York and Rochester in 1843; Syracuse in 1847; Chicago and San Francisco in 1853; and St. Louis and Brooklyn in 1854. An examination of the earlier accessible reports shows that they were generally not unlike the reports now issued by many of the smaller cities. The work of the school system was described in a popular form. Considerable space was given to the discussion of new theories of educa- tion, and along with this the needs of the system were por- trayed as fully as possible with a view to arousing more extended popular support. Often a directory of schools and teachers is given, together with salaries and grades of certificate held. To these were added examination ques- tions, courses of study, programs for teachers' meetings, lists of graduates from the elementary schools, or of those who had succeeded in passing examinations for admission to the high schools, and addresses by members of the board of education. Any elaborate presentation of educational statistics was rare. Totals of receipt and expenditure are usually given, classified according to some half dozen di- visions; also the totals of school attendance, sometimes distributed among the different schools; and occasionally some other facts are presented in tabular form. An ex- amination of the statistical presentations made in a few of SCHOOL REPORTS IN AMERICAN CITIES 13 the early city reports will show what was attempted in the best of them. Philadelphia's 17th annual school report was published in 1835. It consists of twelve pages, giving detailed in- formation, in form of running account, regarding the indi- vidual schools. The 26th report for the same city (1844) consists of 96 pages and shows, among other lines of in- formation, the following facts presented statistically : occupa- tion of fathers of graduates from the high school; average of marks made by the candidates from various elementary schools for admission to the high school, with number ad- mitted and number rejected; detailed tables for each school, showing such facts as attendance divided as to sex, salaries, and names of teachers ; and a table of expenses of education, classified by wards. Cleveland's 21st annual report (1855) gives tables of attendance in the various schools classified by subjects studied (second reader, penmanship, etc.), and also a census enumeration of children distributed by wards, together with the usual brief classified statement of expenditures. There is detailed description in tabular form of school buildings. Space is given also to the school time-tables. Chicago's 3d report (1856) contains 64 pages of matter, mostly general description. There is in addition a list of teachers, with salaries paid. New Haven's 1st report (1857) presents to taxpayers the totals for ordinary expenses, with itemized account of extraordinary expenses. There is also a two-page table showing in detail the registration at each school, and in each grade, for each of four terms. Boston's School Committee published in 1857 a well- printed and bound volume of 352 pages. A resolution notes that 12,500 copies were printed. Considerable space is given to long lists of pupils winning medals, and to the rules and regulations of the school committee. Of especial I 4 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS interest is a detailed description of school buildings in tabular form showing such facts as date of erection, number of rooms, number of seats, cost, interest payments, character of heat- ing, total number of pupils registered and average attend- ance, etc. Another elaborate table distributes by schools the number of children, teachers, salary totals, and cost per pupil in average attendance in terms both of salary charge and of additional expense charge. San Francisco's earliest available report is the 14th, dated 1867. This is an elaborate affair, and includes tables on such matters as: occupations of parents of high school pupils; comparative salaries in several large cities; lists of teachers, including name, place of education, professional education, diploma, teaching experience, and length of service in California; cost of education of pupils per month and year; detailed salary list of teachers; and very suggestive detailed statements of the receipts and expenditures of the system for a series of years. Syracuse had a striking statistical feature in its 20th school report (1867), i.e. a table showing the main facts regarding pupils, arranged comparatively for a series of years. Number of children registered in the system, average daily attendance, total cases of absence and tardiness, number of pupils per teacher, cost per pupil, amounts paid for salaries, number of volumes drawn from library, and some other facts are thus shown. This compact table would be creditable to-day. Table i. From Report of Syracuse Schools, 1863-1867 Number of children between ages of 5 and 21. Number of children registered, exclusive of those transferred. Number of children belonging (approximate). Number of children average daily attendance. Number of days absence. SCHOOL KKPORTS IN AMERICAN CITIES 15 Number of cases of tardiness. Time lost in hours. Number of teachers employed at close of year. Number of pupils per teacher on average number belonging. Number of pupils per teacher on average attendance. Cost of tuition per pupil on average number belonging. Cost for entire expenses per pupil, exclusive of building, etc. Number of pupils attending winter school. Number of volumes in Central Library. Number of volumes drawn during year. Amount paid for teachers' wages. Amount paid for other expenses. Total expenses, exclusive of buildings. Another table from the Syracuse report shows expenses of the system distributed by schools, though not reduced to unit basis for comparison. Place is given in this report for detailed statement of attendance at teachers' meetings. Rochester's earliest available report, the 29th (1872), is a substantial book of 188 pages. Table No. 1 shows average number of teachers in each school, total sums paid for salaries in each, and the customary facts of registration. Table No. 2 is an exhibit of the ages of the pupils in each school, giving a column for each year between the ages of five and twenty. Table No. 3 shows attendance in each school by months. Another valuable table shows for each school the number of pupils, by two month groups, who made the respective attendances; of a full ten months, of less than ten and more than eight months, of less than eight and more than six months, etc., — these also averaged. Another table, distributed again for schools, shows the num- ber of children by grades and the sittings in each school. Still another table shows the number of pupils of each school, taking the various studies. In Table No. 8 an attempt is made to show the work of the respective schools by giving, for each school and for each grade in each school, the average percentage made in the annual examinations. The next 1 6 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS table shows the number of pupils promoted out of each grade and by schools. By careful arrangement there is thus compacted into nine pages an extensive and varied amount of information, worked out to much detail, for a school system registering over eight thousand pupils. The 16th St. Louis report (1870) is another that shows, at a relatively early date, an extensive use of the statistical method. A double page table shows the expenditures for each school classified under nine main heads. Another double page shows the following facts regarding plant: location of building, front and depth measurements of lots; names of schools; estimated value of land; estimated value of houses and furniture for each school ; size of build- ings; number of stories; number of rooms; number of seats; and character of heating. Table No. 2 shows for each school the total enrollment, and the attendance distributed by twenty day groups, i.e. the number of pupils in each school who have made 200 days attendance, the number who have made more than 180 and less than 200 days attendance, etc. A separate set of tables is given for the colored schools. Table No. 3 gives the age distribution of pupils in each school. One regrets that it did not occur to the compiler of the statistics to adopt a simple device by which he could have shown the relation of age to grade; but this is done even at the present time in very few reports. A novel feature is a carefully compiled table showing the occupations of parents or guardians of all children, — items given first with regard to pupils in the high schools, evidently with a view to refuting the charge that these schools were for the wealthy classes. Another unique table is one showing, by schools, the birthplaces of pupils registered. Table 6, the excellence of which is equaled in few more recent reports, presents on a double page the facts (distributed by schools) regarding enrollment, duplicate registration, average num- ber belonging, average number of teachers, expenditures SCHOOL REPORTS IN AMERICAN CITIES 17 for teachers' salaries, rate per pupil for salaries, incidental expenditures, and rate per pupil, etc. Another table shows, by schools, the number of pupils in each grade receiving instruction in German, numbers of these of German and of Anglo-American nativity, also the proportion of each school taking German. Still another valuable table shows salaries paid to teachers for each school and each salary class, e.g. all those receiving $400 per year, all receiving $500, etc. Another table shows for twenty years the early growth of the school system in number of schools, number of seats, number of pupils, number of teachers, receipts, expenditures, etc. Still another table shows the growth of the high school for seventeen years, the boys and girls in each class for each year, etc. Finally, not the least interesting feature of this old report is the fact that the various tables are discussed by the superintendent so as to suggest their significance to any reader interested in the progress of education. It should be noted that many, though not all, of the excellent statistical features of the St. Louis reports had developed prior to 1870. For example, the report issued in 1866 under the superin- tendency of Ira Divoll shows many of the suggestive tables noted above. What appears to have been the eighth annual report of the board of education of New York was published in 1850. It is a closely printed volume of 130 pages. Scattered through it are numerous tables that group the facts of at- tendance, expenditure, etc., by city wards. Fairly definite statistics are presented regarding: salaries of teachers; number of pupils in each ward classified by sex; three age groups (i.e. under sixteen, between sixteen and twenty-one, and over twenty-one, and also classified by degree of ad- vancement, e.g. "could not read," "lowest grade of reading," "acquainted with the simple rules of arithmetic," etc.); attendance distributed by typical weeks. An interesting comparative table shows the result of an examination of 1 8 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS the pupils in several wards, the effect of which is to indicate the relative efficiency of the schools. Of school reports issued since 1870, it may be said that very few indeed have risen to a higher level of statistical efficiency than did the best of that date. It is a conspicuous fact that there has been so little conformity to any generally accepted plan of presenting educational statistics that it is even yet quite impossible to compare one city with another, from their published reports, even in the matter of school expenditure, the statistics of which show the most com- plete development. Each city has evolved local forms and methods, and in each city the report reflects the quality of the man chiefly responsible for its making. A few cities established the tradition of publishing certain statistics in a chronological order, so that it becomes possible to view the progress of education in that city over a long series of years. In other reports, despite the frequent changes of superintendent, certain forms of statistical statement have become traditional, so that it is possible for the student to compare the development of the system year by year through an examination of old reports. The National Educational Association became effective about 1870 as a factor in education, and in its division of superintendence many efforts have been made to improve the matter of school statistics. But it can hardly be said that any distinct improvement in methods of school report- ing has taken place in nearly forty years. The best of the reports noted above, in their statistical work, are not in- ferior to most of the reports of to-day. Some forms of summary or general report have been suggested from time to time by the National Educational Association through committees, but these have not been widely adopted. At their best the city school reports of to-day, as in 1870, pre- sent valuable tables and a few interpretations of these tables. They answer some of the questions that an intelligent lay- SCHOOL REPORTS IN AMERICAN CITIES 19 man might wish to ask, and they provide some of the data for administrative control of the system of administration. Even the best of the reports, however, leave many questions unanswered, and few of them have undertaken to apply modern or scientific statistical methods. Apart from the few best reports, it must be said that the majority of the reports fail conspicuously to provide statistical information either to the layman or to the administrator. They illus- trate a striking phase of inefficiency in American municipal administration. CHAPTER III Efforts of the National Educational Association to improve School Reports and to secure Uniformity Nowhere has the need for school facts as the basis for school policy been more emphatically and convincingly presented than at the sessions of the National Educational Association. Not only have superintendents been advised to analyze statistically and to interpret their own experience, but they have been repeatedly exhorted to use a common language, uniform statistical blanks, in describing their experience. In the year 1905 Miss Halle D. Woods of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor read the reports of the National Educational Association from 1858 to 1905 and prepared a digest of all discussions of statistics of schools. With her permission we are pre- senting in brief the essential facts to make matter of per- manent record the effort of the country's foremost educators to improve school reports and to secure their uniformity. The subject of school statistics was seriously considered during the years 1859, 1863, 1872, 1874, 1877, 1881, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1895, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1903, 1904. At its second meeting (1859) the National Educational Association appointed a committee of three to confer with the Secretary of the Interior "to ascertain what additional statistics in relation to the subject of education are desirable and feasible to obtain by means of the approaching national census." A list of important items recommended for UNIFORMITY OF SCHOOL REPORTS 21 school reports included: (i) cost of buildings and the number of pupils accommodated; (2) number and salaries of teachers in these buildings; (3) expense of heat; (4) repairs and incidentals. "These items," they commented, "if reliable and accompanied by proper explanations in the body of the report, will afford valuable means of com- parison, and be serviceable in showing the most economical modes of constructing schoolhouses and organizing schools." Perhaps the most valuable part of the committee's report was that noting the difficulty of ascertaining and comparing the cost per pupil in different districts. There were many variations of terminology, a difference of 50 per cent being produced by a variation in method of recording. The committee therefore pleaded for uniformity and urged that as long as differences existed reports should clearly explain their nomenclature. In 1863 a Committee on General Statistics was appointed to prepare blanks covering the field of general statistics, to send out to schools throughout the country, to digest reports when returned, and to present a synopsis at the next annual meeting. Nothing further was heard from this committee. In 1872 the Hon. John Eaton, United States Commissioner of Education, delivered an address on the subject of Edu- cational Lessons in Statistics, emphasizing again the two watchwords, comparison and uniformity. Educational statistics were characterized as "so diverse and incomplete that they form but the records of so many single experiences, incapable of being aggregated or contrasted with each other." He pleaded for a legalized system of comparable reports. Others present voiced the wonder, which we now feel, that a National Commissioner of Education who realized the need for uniformity should have failed to reduce his own valuable material to a comparable basis. What would have been the gain to education in this country if at that time the 22 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS National Bureau of Education had secured, as it undoubtedly could have secured, uniform records from the various states, more particularly from the cities ! In 1874 a Committee on Statistical Reforms suggested a uniform system of collecting and tabulating educational facts. The National Educational Association adopted the report, and authorized the printing and distribution in each state of blanks calling for uniform statistics as to school population, age, aver- age in daily attendance, number of rooms, teachers, and salaries as well as items of income and expenditure. Results were to be tabulated by the National Bureau of Education. As usually happens when representative bodies vote decrees without supplying funds for executing those decrees, nothing came of the results, and in 1877 a speaker pronounced the statistics of that day "almost useless at home and absolutely useless abroad as standards of comparison." Among the causes for these useless statistics were mentioned public indifference, official indifference, lack of authority on the part of officials to secure proper returns, lack of uniform understanding as to meaning of terms, and an endeavor on the part of those who compile statistics to prove certain preconceived opinions. In 1 88 1 a committee of ten on Unification of School Statis- tics was appointed as a result of a discussion introduced by Su- perintendent Andrew McMillan of Utica. There is no record in the annals of the National Educational Association of work done by this committee. Lack of uniformity was characterized as follows: "With the ample provision made by the govern- ment for collecting facts connected with schools, it would seem that we have but to turn to official reports to obtain all de- sired information. But it is just here we are confronted by an obstacle of no small dimensions, and which, so far as I know, exists nowhere else in the wide domain of statistical research. I refer to the lack of uniformity in the methods of collecting facts and data pertaining to school work in the UNIFORMITY OF SCHOOL REPORTS 23 different stales of the Union . . . School reports are nearly useless for purposes of useful comparison." In 1885 a careful study of existing city and state reports was presented. After applauding at length the merits of American school reports and their reputation abroad, va- rious defects were brought out, more particularly lack of uniformity and consequent impossibility to establish units of comparison. For example, the term school age was found to have sixteen interpretations ranging from 4 to 15 to 16 to 21. Thus it was possible for Springfield, Mass., and Portland, Me., to report a difference of 4000 in school population be- cause of a difference in the years included in school age, although their total population was practically the same. Perhaps the reason so little came from this discussion and the committee's eighteen recommendations as to annual reports, is that they were perfectly satisfied to have the legal and census school age from 4 to 21, thus including children too young to go to school and too old to go to school. Aside from the usual emphasis on the importance of uniform nomenclature and a resolution that further committees be appointed to consider uniform methods, this discussion led to one important recommendation ; namely, that all reports begin with a statistical summary. At another section of the same conference the Committee on Reform in Educational Statistics presented an elaborate scheme covering school population with 10 subdivisions; departments of educational work, 4 subdivisions; teachers, buildings, and appliances, 6 subdivisions; finances, including receipts, 6 subdivisions; expenditures, 6 subdivisions. As a result of this work there was marked improvement in the increasing tendency to uniformity as well as to elaboration in the reports of state superintendents. In 1887 a report was presented on "Points for Constant Consideration in the Statistics of Education." There was the same eloquent declaration that "the more nearly statistics 24 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS approach a universal language the better;" but no new ideas were contributed. It was still possible for Mr. Gove of Denver to say "Volunteer statistics are monstrously unre- liable ; city statistical reports are jammed full of tables whose conclusions cannot be made use of. We need a positive authority to put questions and demand answers; a power above us to get reliable statements of fact." (Referring to state and national superintendents and to professional stand- ards among schoolmen.) In 1887 we hear the first suggestion that physiology and social conditions might be reflected in school statistics: "Of average pupils little need be said; but with erratic cases many statistics might be collected which would be invaluable. If a pupil makes a poor record in a certain subject, it would be interesting, as an educational fact, to know his age, habits, how long in a public school, his teachers, how long under each one, whether he had private teachers, home influences, tendencies of his parents' minds ; in short, to know the boy as he is. School statistics should enter into the social conditions of the people." In 1890 the Department of Superintendence heard of the need for proper "School Statistics as the Basis of Legislative or Official Action: What Should Be Collected and How?" The advanced ground was taken that "to secure the best results in legislation, statistics of education must be taken as complementary to other social statistics, as illiteracy, crime, and wealth." What might have been of greater importance is the emphasis upon making immediate or local application of statistics for the benefit of the schools analyzed and compared. That statistics were being used by many superintendents to bolster up official policy rather than to disclose school need, is suggested by the remark of Dr. Win- ship, Editor of the Journal 0} Education, — "We throw out our banners, commit ourselves to our idea, and then back up such and so many statistics as will enable us to make a skillful argument." UNIFORMITY OF SCHOOL REPORTS 25 In 1891 Dr. Harris, Commissioner of the United States Bureau of Education, as Chairman of a committee of three, reported on school statistics. (The report was really a scien- tific article on the meaning and value of statistics in general and of educational statistics in particular.) The essence of his message was "directive power is dependent upon insight into the forces that work, which insight is to be gained only by statistics. This insight is of even greater value to the educa- tors who are doing the work than to the legislators who are judging their work." The Association received a letter from the United States Census Bureau protesting that "no item of school statistics is now uniformly recorded throughout the country" and outlining desirable statistical information similar to the scheme previously presented. In 1892 a more elaborate form of reporting was sub- mitted, based, however, on the same general plan as before, with the larger number of subdivisions including a few items regarding social conditions. In 1894 Commissioner Harris read a paper on School Statistics and Morals, deducing certain relations between lack of education and crime. In 1895 further suggestions were made for reports. In 1899 the Department of Superintendence discussed uniform financial reports. In 1900 high school statistics was the special subject, a paper being based upon comparison of 23 cities as to average cost of maintaining high schools per pupil enrolled and per pupil in average attendance. Of special value are recommen- dations as to collecting, tabulating, and reporting information on the comparative persistence of attendance during the four years of high school work, together with special investigations as to manual training schools, their work, and their discover- able results. Superintendent Greenwood of Kansas City made this subject vital by showing results of a personal study of reasons why so many children left school in the first year 26 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS of the high school course, tabulating facts as to age of leaving and causes, number of failures by years and classes, etc. In 1903 and 1904 were discussed children with defective sight, hearing, and methods of discovering such children. There was no effort to relate the physical defect with class standing or mental ability. Nor at that time was the impor- tance of thorough physical examination of all school children brought out. In 1905, known as the New York Meeting (Asbury Park), the subject of statistics had no place on the program. At one of the sessions, however, of the National Council of Education, the Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education complained that it is still impossible to obtain comparable school data and pleaded for uniformity of method in recording school facts. In 1906 there was no convention, the earthquake having made it impossible for San Francisco to entertain the delegates. The advance program of 1907 promises at least one topic, The School Board's Attitude toward the Press, which lends itself to an eloquent plea for the proper use of the statistical method in describing school experience. A new impetus to uniformity of school statistics has been given by the interest taken in the subject by the present Commissioner of Education, Hon. Elmer E. Brown. Com- missioner Brown, in a letter dated June 4, 1907, writes, — "It has been suggested that a meeting be called at Washing- ton of the state superintendents of this country for discussion of such matters as uniformity in state school statistics and in laws covering the state school census. It has not yet been decided whether such a conference will be held, but the talk that I have had with a few state superintendents seems favorable to such a meeting, and I am very hopeful that I may be able to bring it about within the next year." It may be expected that a small working conference attended by UNIFORMITY OF SCHOOL REPORTS 27 the stale superintendents will lead not only to reendorscment of the principles favoring uniformity of school statistics, but to definite action that will furnish the basis of comparison not only of state with state but of city with city. There is at present a disposition at Washington to take more seriously the opportunity and the responsibility of the National Bureau of Education and to make more generous provision for its work. The one thing lacking in the past has been money with which to translate into action the desire for clearness and uniformity. The state superintendents will undoubtedly find it practicable to follow the lead of the National Com- missioner of Education to the end that it shall be easy for everybody to do what everybody has so long professed to want to do. CHAPTER IV Examples of Tables and Other Forms of Presenting School Facts, used in Typical City School Reports It has previously been noted that in the matter of forms for presenting statistical information each city school system has for the most part worked out its methods independently. A study of the forms used shows wide and interesting varia- tion. Barring certain staple matters of statistics, there is much diversity in the kind of facts reported. In some cities matters of finance are most exhaustively treated; in others, school attendance ; and in still others it is the new educational ventures that receive the most attention from the local statis- tician. Too many published reports show a tendency simply to print the accumulated data of balance sheets, school registers, and the detailed reports of departments. But out of the many varieties of form used the reader will discover some that are especially significant. In this chapter an attempt is made to assemble representative tables and diagrams, under the various heads commonly used. As a rule only so much of a table is presented as to show the essen- tial features; and it has seemed worth while to include with certain forms the actual published figures. Almost all the tables are taken from reports issued between 1901 and 1906. No very full discussion of the forms is given, as the table usually speaks for itself. Of course it is not assumed that all or any considerable number of tables like those shown ought to be used in any one 28 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 29 school report. In Chapter VI will be discussed matters of content and economy as involved in the publishing of a report. The object here has been solely to present a wide variety of forms — some of them quite long and involved — that seem in some measure to meet the conditions hitherto discussed with reference to statistics of school facts, publicity, and admin- istrative control. No table has been used which does not seem to contain some feature of presentation entitling it to consideration. School Plant The following are some of the forms of report on school plant. In the first two it will be noted that cost of plant and seating capacity are included, while in the second the relation of seating capacity to attendance is shown : Table 2. Detroit * LIST AND DESCRIPTION OF BUILDINGS AND VALUATION OF REAL ESTATE AND BUILDINGS Name Ward When Erected Material Kind of Roof No. of Stories No. of Rooms Seating Capacity Bagley .... 1 16 10 1898 189s 1884 Brick . Brick . Brick . Metal and Slate Slate .... Shingle . . . 2 2 2 12 12 6 511 580 306 Name How Heated Value of Site Cost of Building Total Bagley .... Smead Furnaces .... $4,400 5,000 3.700 $34,500 38,150 15,900 $38,900 43.150 19,600 * Attention is called to the fact that for the illustrative purposes of this report sample entries only are made from the tables reproduced. Figures which have no bearing on the present discussion have often been omitted, and money items are, in most cases, given in round numbers only. 3° EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 3. Detroit LOCATION, NUMBER OF ROOMS, SEATING CAPACITY, AVERAGE ATTENDANCE, ETC., JUNE, 1905 1 CJ *t2 *-• O (3 td fci-d 63 !x 13 C/2 3 l- « 3 Is E e g 1 " Schools Location 0-4 « <>H ft° £2 h n ,_, iu^w O -S.S .a «? ft soy s 3 a 3 n 3 S<5 £H £ £ ,n .0.2 * 9 s B Hi S" 5 3 3 3-2 3 b= fc fc £ £ O Alden Street . . B 2 4 168 Good . I89O Armory Street . . B 2 11 2 433 New . I90I Barrows .... B 3 10 I 460 Good . 1868 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 31 Buildings Healing A|I|KI ratus Value of Land Value of Buildings \ alur i>l Furni- ture Total Area, Lots (sq. ft.) Alden Street . . Armory Street . . Barrows .... Steam Steam Steam $2,500 3,000 T 0,000 $14,200 56,79 2 40,000 $306 2,100 789 $17,006 61,892 50,789 18,767 131,860 37,637 Buffalo's report also gives very explicit information, though it does not attempt to describe the condition or value as does the preceding; but it gives much more information regarding the capacity and character of accommodations in the school building. Table 5. Buffalo SCHOOL BUILDINGS — FEBRUARY, 1905. DESCRIPTION a a & O u fa M CO School Rooms Rooms School >• S > 'd u > -0 a a 3 _0J d a 3 9) 60 <& to ■^.2 2 11, |.a O ft d >> OS bo *a d '■§§ & PQ d 73 H a J I* si d V S 60 d 73 fc-< •3 U 3> O. lH ft Normal and Training . . Normal Department . . Training Department . . Webster Street Training . . 4 11 10 I 5 11 10 370 376 70 So 260 440 456 224 440 440 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 33 A special table found in the New York report gives by boroughs the total of sittings and deficiencies. Table 8. New York Borough Number of Regular Sittings as Re- ported by the Principals Sept. 30, 1906 Number of Pupils on Register Sept. 30, 1906, exclud- ing Kindergarten Children Deficiency of Sittings Excess of Sittings Manhattan The Bronx Brooklyn Queens Richmond 274,548 56,863 188,246 40,411 14,359 258,103 51,068 200,043 38,461 n,353 n,797 16,445 5,795 1,95° 3,006 Entire City 574,427 559,° 28 15,399 A special type of table expresses the cost of school buildings in terms of the cost per unit or sitting. This form of table is rare, the following being one devised in order to compare cost of buildings among various cities : Table 9. New Haven COST OF HIGH SCHOOL BUILDINGS RECENTLY ERECTED IN NEW ENGLAND HIGH SCHOOLS u -6 •a d -a a 'w v w 3 PQ hr, M aj „ O.T3 3 School "S-S ho 5 P .§3 U n u >2 u Q U > w H A =« Cambridge, English 1891 $206,000 $14,000 $11,000 $231,000 700 $330 Lowell .... 1893 150,000 10,000 11,000 171,000 734 233 34 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS The Cost of Education The tax-paying public is peculiarly interested in the cost of education. This cost steadily increases with the develop- ment of educational methods. Not only are salaries raised, and paid for longer terms, but the tendency is toward more expensive books, and improved apparatus of every kind. In the larger municipalities the cost of public education is from one fourth to one half the total budget. While generally acquiescing in increased outlay for the schools, the average taxpayer tends to grow suspicious of the wisdom and economy of the school system. Mismanagement and extravagance are, of course, possible in certain channels of school expendi- ture, but the chief and more frequent fault is failure to get results commensurate with outlay. It is true that no school report can adequately show how efficiently school appropriations are expended. Neverthe- less statistical showings can be devised that will clear up many doubts, indicate lines of enlightening inquiry, and enable the citizen to understand at least the essential facts. The subject may be viewed from several standpoints : Totals of expenditure, classified by items for an entire system ; Totals of expenditure classified by schools or divisions of the system, and under these more or less itemized ; Expenditures of different parts compared by the percentage that each forms of the total. This is valuable for comparing a series of years or different schools or different cities. Expenditures compared by reduction to some basis of at- tendance as a unit, and compared over a series of years or among different schools. Under the first head, totals of expenditure classified by items, we have illustrations in the two following tables arranged to show the expenditure by classified items over a series of years. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 35 By this means any obvious increase or decrease becomes apparent, and may be made the subject of detailed in- quiry. Table 10. Cincinnati COMPARISON OF EXPENDITURES FOR THE YEARS 1895-1905 Year Ending August 31, 1895 Year Ending August 31, 1900 Year Ending August 31, 1905 Teachers, Day Schools . . Teachers, Night Schools . . Officers and Examiners . . $669,752 9,606 1,641 5,678 $799,286 6,6l2 16,646 3,502 4,643 $815,719 8,321 17,792 Rent Fuel Advertising Gas Text Books and Supplement- Teachers' Institute .... Interest and Redemption of Public Library Deaf -Mute Taxes .... Transfer of Funds .... Apparatus 13,448 3,284 Totals 36 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table ii. Cleveland COMPARISON OF EXPENDITURES August 31 1900 1905 Tuition Supervisors' salaries Maintenance Officers' and employees' salaries .... Repairs $37,4o6 897,190 118,664 1,295 $50,964 1,314,660 184,144 Stationery and supplies Contingent i°,335 Water Fixed Charges Bonds Furniture and fixtures Permanent Improvements Land Buildings Grading, paving, etc Improvement existing buildings .... Miscellaneous School books St. Louis Exposition Supplementary reading books Total Another form of classification used in some reports is to give the totals of expenditure among the different classes of schools, as, e.g., primary, high, vacation, etc. By increasing the number of columns this form of classification may be extended over a series of years as illustrated in the previous TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 37 tables. For a given year a very complete general presentation may be made by the form adopted in the Rrookline report, where items of expenditure are classified in one way as to class and in the other as to type of school. Table 12. Brookline GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCHOOL EXPENDITURES High Schools -0 3 >, 0.1 |£ a „: ■an ■a jj 6^ S: Cost per Pupil 133 ■M Total Cost High . 424 5.63 GRAMMAR AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS Cabot . Devotion Heath . IOO $31-90 342 37-09 266 40.69 So far as public understanding is concerned, it is a distinct advance in bookkeeping when school reports show classified 40 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS totals of expenditure. But, as indicated in the case of the Brookline table, it is still better when cost is expressed jn terms of some unit that makes true comparison possible. Over a series of years it is impracticable to make comparisons of totals alone, since population and the number of children to be educated is constantly changing. Hence the desirability of expressing expenditures in terms of some unit that permits comparison of one year with another, of one school with another, or of one school system with another. Three devices have been employed to meet this need. The first and most com- mon is to express expenditure in terms of each child attending during the year. Not only the total cost, but also the expendi- ture for various classes of items may be expressed in terms of this unit. The following is a good example of a simple table reduced to the unit basis and permitting ready comparison over a series of years. Table 15. Cincinnati SCHOOL EXPENSES, CINCINNATI, 1834 to 1905, Inclusive CO . _ y. 1 -^ 1 1 w , , Fiscal Years Ending in a a "3 CO A cdtJ O Oh S3 S ■3, "Si J2* — .-a O g B per Pupil — erage Daily tendance on tal Expenses per Pupil — tal Enrollmen Teachers' Sal es per Pupil — erage Daily endance on ichers' Salarie "rt-Q 1=3 -3 d a 3 B 3 %.B< SH§ S«H OP O at af§ S3 H H ft ft ft u u u. O < 1904 . . . 1905 . . . A similar table for New Haven runs over fifteen years and shows, among other valuable items, the exact cost of the free text-books supplied the children in that city. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 41 Table 16. New Haven SUMMARIES OF ANNUAL SCHOOL EXPENSES 4;M-t 11 a 53 =1 11 Year si K u 490 Distributed as follows: 5 yrs. 6 yrs. 7 yrs. 8 yrs. 9 yrs. 10 yrs. 11 yrs. 12 yrs. 13 yrs. 14 yrs. Totals Ward 1 In public schools .... In parochial schools . . . In private schools .... Number not attending school 267 157 883 128 4 205 224 189 1039 144 10 57 204 192 996 168 4 11 206 201 1004 211 4 9 226 154 943 194 7 5 218 184 965 222 3 7 220 156 942 191 12 6 165 168 944 167 8 11 185 136 865 129 21 15 175 120 677 84 7 188 2090 1657 9358 1638 80 514 Totals 11,490 10,899 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 49 A defect of many school censuses is that, while they obtain from parents a statement of the fact as to whether children are or are not attending school, they utterly fail to obtain any data as to the actual amount of school attendance. In some of the previous tables, for example, the child who has attended a public or parochial school for a few days only is entered as having "attended school." The following showing made by the census table presented in the Milwaukee report is, in this respect, the most satisfactory that has been found. Table 26. Milwaukee ANNUAL ENUMERATION OF PERSONS OF SCHOOL AGE RESIDING IN THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE, JUNE 30, 1905 Ward Boys Girls Total ■Joo •§.§s H U u Sc/3 O < J3 <£ "> «oo 'Ooc & ° n tJC/3 O < Children between 7 and 14 who did not Attend 32 Weeks or more Third 1120 1297 734 1171 1353 697 2291 2650 143 1 953 1254 59° 624 326 298 6 19 18 Number of Each Age 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 First . Second Third . Totals i4S 87 150 100 147 "3 100 152 94 127 154 98 131 165 103 152 175 81 135 IS6 85 175 173 91 I48 172 96 144 169 71 154 185 8l 149 l8o 8l 147 176- 74 158 157 74 156 205 74 170 197 65 In some cities for a lack of school facilities it is necessary to allow children to attend but half of each school day. Usually it is arranged that only the lower classes shall thus be deprived of part of their school day, owing to the belief that small children suffer less from the partial deprivation. 5° EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS As a means of communicating to the public the unwelcome facts of part-time attendance we find various statistical devices. The New York tables give the gross number on part-time by boroughs and by districts for two years. Table 27. New York Borough Sept. 30, io°5 Sept. 30, 1906 Increase over Sept. 30 1905 Decrease from Sept. 30 1005 a V +, 03 a K "o $ H 1* O H Normal and Training . . . The District of Columbia has the advantage of knowing what classes of children are affected by the part-time attend- ance. Table 30. District of Columbia SHOWING HALF-DAY SCHOOLS School Half-day Schools Grades of Half-day Schools i9°S Number above Sec- ond Grade io°5 Force . . Hubbard . Morgan . Total One of the most complete exhibitions is found in the Chicago report, which presents the subject through a series of years, and also combines with the table of part-time certain financial considerations. 52 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 31. Chicago 1 "O 1 •i S.S to I < 3, O a a .S J -9 Yeas ceta ho £^ .5 «* SS 4J 3 a pq g ? 1 •a of Pupils for Accommoda ivisions in B rd 1 p-l a & nber not ay D y Boa a\ «5 S» ,_ S-H-O-a £ 3 s 3 a, a 3 O otal N there Whole owned H £ 125 n H 1894-1895 . . . i59,9 J 3 165,196 12,087 8,147 20,234 1903-1904 . . . 217,584 2 33,°35 5,86 3 5>93i 11,794 in Number in each E a §>. S Thousand of Total 3 < s£ Membership & "S a "o ^* pi* w ho 41 3 8a J*S U (UTd 23 c 2 o~ U 1 <"o.— 5 S U fiW 3 « •1- +1M 3T3 &>( as M 1 Year s s no n \\ in B 3JB ri ho a'a a J, .2 <4 bo < ^ 3 S (A 3 >> T3 hom there modation i Divisions owned by & 5 n < 23 s S .tJSH 3*0 3 a com day ings "3 3 I 3 3.8 O "3 fa H < H H H 1894-1895 . . . 76 51 I27 $71,294 $44 6,242 9, 8 34 1,836 1903-1904 . . . 27 28 55 35,699 16 9,821 4,800 2,700 School Attendance The first test of the size and popularity of a school system is the enrollment and the ratio of actual attendance to enroll- ment. Statistics of this kind were among the first to be presented in school reports. In addition to the stereotyped forms familiar to all teachers, various special forms have been devised to show facts of attendance more in detail; TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 53 to show attendance as related to other facts of school admin- istration; and to show the conditions of attendance over a scries of years. Boston's table shows the ordinary form of stating attendance by schools, columns being arranged for a few additional important facts. Table 32. Boston PRIMARY SCHOOLS SEMI-ANNUAL RETURNS, JUNE 30, 1905 Districts 0) J3 u H Average Number of Pupils Belonging Average Attendance i V ho a < O ■ PQ * i >> 00 > Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total £ Adams . IO 9 9 532 402 377 453 359 34i 79 43 36 85 89 90 420 322 303 117 85 73 537 407 376 Agassiz . Bennett . St. Louis' table combines with a historical review of the growth of attendance other facts regarding increase in room needed. Table 33. St. Louis COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF ENROLLMENT IN THE DAY SCHOOLS Year Enrolled in chools Ex- of Double ration "o a a' eV 5? m a,. a _ fttu jf u S M 3 a in Num- elonging ■1 U P -up* •30 °&8 Number Day S elusive Regist a Per Ce crease with Year O Spq > < a Per Ce crease with Year d a aJ "Soy 5 a 1870-71 . . . 1871-72 . . . 1872-73 . . . 13-3 9-7 12. 12-3 IO.9 4-5 43 43 20 Newark's table shows three years' enrollment classified both by totals and by percentages for the different types of 54 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS schools or the various grades. This has the merit of showing at a glance where the larger numbers of children are found, and serves indirectly to disclose the decline of attendance and rate of decline as the higher grades are reached. Table 34. Newark ENROLLMENT BY GRADES COMPARED (Based on monthly reports) Grade 1003 1904 1905 Euro Per Cent n m or.t of Total llment Enn)U _ ment Enrollment Per Cent of Total Enroll- ment Enrollment Per Cent of Total Enroll- ment Normal . . High . . . Eighth . . Seventh . . Sixth . ^ . Fifth . . . Fourth . . Third . . . Second . . First . . . Kindergarten Ungraded 4 3-2 3- .... 4-2 .... 6.3 .... 8.5 11. 3 .... 14-3 .... 16.4 .... 20.6 11.4 4 •4 3-3 3-1 4.4 6.4 8.9 12. iS-i 15-9 19-3 10.8 •4 ■3 3-7 3-2 4.4 6.7 9.1 13.2 14.8 14.9 18.9 IO.6 .2 Total . .... 100. 100. IOO. Very few reports combine their tables of enrollment or attendance with statistics of school population or with figures showing numbers of teachers and average of pupils per teacher. The following is a successful attempt to do this for Omaha over a series of years. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 55 Table 35. Omaha COMPARATIVE STATEMENT FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORTS ON THE MAIN ITEMS OF ATTENDANCE FOR A PERIOD OF THIRTY YEARS 'So £ HI d Pi T3 01 £ u w d « J3 no ao -D 2'eU g E M •» " d 3 .a d 3 >fc 3 £ CO £ < < fc h OS V ■ o.c o )* +* a m £ bo T3S d O. J- •5 SQhu < s «C S hp « bo « Since the average of yearly attendance is not a wholly satisfactory form of abridged statement owing partly to the 56 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS fact that an average does not always accurately reflect central tendency, and partly to the fact that, as used for school attend- ance, it quite fails to disclose the number of children who have made full or nearly full yearly attendance, we find several types of table designed to give a more accurate measure of attendance. The first and simplest of these presents attend- ance by months instead of for the year. Table 37. Pittsburg STATEMENT Showing the Enrollment and Attendance for the Several Schools, for Each Month, for the Year Ending August 31, 1903 Districts September December March June Admitted During Year En- rolled Aver- age En- rolled Aver- age En- rolled Aver- age En- rolled Aver- age Male Fe- male Allen . . . Bedford . . Beltzhoover . 1,174 477 647 1,122 457 583 1,143 492 615 1,070 463 560 1,165 477 617 1,093 449 562 1,135 449 633 1,041 423 56l 625 297 342 642 272 38o The St. Louis method of classifying the pupils on the basis of the length of attendance or number of attendances made offers a useful substitute for average. Table 38. St. Louis SHOWING CHARACTER OF ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS IN EACH SCHOOL FOR THE YEAR 1903-1904 Pupils Attending — Days , *o O w T3 13 "3 J3 C3 id C -a •08 22 -^ =3 Names of 3 Schools 00 •0 - CO 53 •H c -3 ^ % 3 00 -t 00 1 1 H £ -J Ud -ow d 3(S a at Sal y.d O O H Ph w a. C/3 Ph b Ph H Oh t-l Ph H 26.6 28.1 8.1 9.9 13-4 13-9 Barkwill 62.2 20.1 6.1 2.2 4.6 4.8 Bolton 45-9 30-2 O.I 4-3 6.2 4-3 Similarly a distributed table of the amount of absence from school is presented in Cleveland's report. Table 40. Cleveland SHOWING THE DEGREE OF REGULARITY OF ATTEN- DANCE IN THE SEVERAL SCHOOLS 6 i d d W-* d d si - 1. U d« Ut J2 j3.d &2 <- <3 JSH Jh J3 15 'A PL, < Ph <" Ph Ph < Ph < Ph H 9-6 68.1 16.7 4.8 .8 Barkwill I0.6 81. 1 5-1 1.2 Bolton 8.4 79-5 10.9 I.I .1 In subsequent sections discussing part-time, survival, high school attendance, etc., attention will again be called to methods of measuring school attendance. 58 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Age of Pupils Many reports give the age distribution of pupils. Such tables are suggestive in showing inferentially the ages of the pupils who are not in school, if it be assumed that there are practically the same number of children at each year of age in a given community. In no case has the number of children of each year of age in the schools been compared with the actual or theoretical number of that age who ought to be in school. The following table from the Chicago report shows one form, giving the ages of the children at enrollment : Table 41. Chicago AGE OF PUPILS AT ENROLLMENT Between 7 and 8 . Between 13 and 14 Between 16 and 17 32,423 19,472 3,680 32,096 20,146 3,S°8 32,318 20,260 3,3S 2 31,5*7 22,972 3,449 When presented over a series of years, this becomes valuable as showing whether there are tendencies for the age of enroll- ment to rise. If disclosed, such changes might furnish reason for further investigation. Generally speaking, however, it would seem that a table showing mere age distribution of pupils in school would be of relatively little service. But when the age of distribution is related to other facts, as that of graduation, 'of attendance on high school or other special school, of grade in the public school — then the facts of age assume a peculiar significance. For example, a table like these of Chicago and New York (by boroughs), showing ages of graduates from elementary and high schools, is helpful. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 59 Table 42. New York AGES OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GRADUATES Borough Under E3 "3 to 14 14 to 15 IS to 16 to 17 17 to 18 1(1 II) 19 to 20 Total of all Manhattan . The Bronx . Brooklyn . Queens Richmond Totals 717 4,475 6,771 4,499 LS74 306 26 3 18,371 These tables would be still more suggestive if the numbers were compared with numbers of pupils who have entered and who theoretically ought to have graduated ; and also with the age distribution of those still in the schools who have not yet graduated in, say, grades 5 to 8. Chicago and New York show corresponding tables for the age distribution of high school students or graduates. Table 43. New York STATEMENT SHOWING THE NUMBER OF PUPILS ON REGISTER IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS ON JUNE 30, 1905, CLASSIFIED SO AS TO SHOW THE AGES OF THE SEV- ERAL PUPILS IN EACH YEAR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL COURSE FIRST YEAR 11 to 12 12 to 13 13 to 14 14 to 15 IS to 16 16 to 17 Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls I I 135 82 I,o66 *&9 1,830 2,360 I,38l 2,064 573 661 SECOND YEAR 12 2 109 84 533 I,Io6 890 1,189 7 21 817 FIRST YEAR 17 to 18 18 to 19 19 to 20 20 to 21 Over 21 Entire School Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Total 141 181 33 18 5 3 I 2 5,170 6,687 11,857 6o EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS SECOND YEAR 292 373 68 97 16 11 5 3 5 2 2,651 6,335 Much more suggestive are those tables that exhibit the relation of grade to age of all pupils in the system. Such a table is that presented for Boston. Table 44. Boston DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS IN RESPECT BOTH TO AGE AND TO GRADES, JUNE 30, 1905 Grades Un- der 4 Years 4 Years S Years 6 Years 16 Years 17 Years 18 Years 19 Years and over Totals m All Grades . . Totals . . ( 1 Boys Girls 99 80 99 61 53 37 23 18 fi* H O < a 179 160 90 41 846 en Advanced Class Third-year Class Second-year Class First-year Class Totals . . \ \ { J 1 Boys Girls 5 13 33 77 48 107 62 117 148 en Boys Girls 90 139 166 267 135 180 104 66 528 681 O W Boys Girls 204 327 193 239 88 73 36 27 tn 8SS W S Boys Girls 284 410 120 136 38 39 6 11 987 W 1,368 1,472 1,231 708 429 5,520 Ninth Grade Eighth Grade . Seventh Grade . Sixth Grade Fifth Grade . . Fourth Grade . Ungraded . . Totals . . \ $ I i i \ \ Boys Girls 257 322 7i 88 10 8 Boys Girls 91 136 10 22 7 3 2,535 2,643 Bovs Girls 27 3° 3 13 1 4 3,227 3,188 ti O 8 Boys Girls 11 13 6 2 3,924 1 < Boys Girls 3 2 1 g 3,9i7 < m Boys Girls 2 2 Bovs Girls 5 2 2 1 1 1,178 9°3 218 38 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 6l Third Grade . . -j Second Grade . . - First Grade . . . j Totals . . . Boys Girls Bovs 4 7 4.7l8 4.491 a H 4 3 5'2 527 5.348 4,819 Girls Bovs C'.irls os 17 25 1.374 1,266 3.317 2,974 7.341 7,187 6,507 a M 0* 42 2,647 33.070 '. w All Classes . . . j Totals . . . Bovs Girls 133 *33 1.03S 1,006 1,422 1.33S 2,760 182I 237 2,784 W M f-> H £o 266 2,041 4i9| 5. 5io Totals by Ages .... 266 2,083 5. 4°7 7,76o| 2,554 1,609 836 470 88,586 It will be noted that the Boston Table is very concise and exhibits all the main facts (with totals) on one sheet. The following are graphic showings of the same facts, found in the St. Louis report : Table 45. St. Louis Attendance and Ages The various oblongs of diagrams A and B represent the number and the ages of children in each grade, in the Kindergarten, and in the High School. The number which each oblong represents may be seen from the figures of the scale printed below. Part C shows the ages of the pupils in each grade. It will be noticed that there are a few pupils of from 15 to 19 years of age in the lowest grades. These are children whose parents immigrated recently and who cannot speak English. A study of the chart reveals the fact that quite a number of pupils in the higher grades are below the normal age. ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS PUPILS BELONGING IN JUNE 1903 BOYS GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL 8GR. 7GR. 6 GR. 5GR. 4GR. 3GR. 2GR. 1 GR. KINDERGARTEN 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 AGES OF PUPILS ENROLLED IN 1902-1903 BOYS GIRLS 16 YEARS AND OVER 15 YRS. 14YRS. 13 YRS. 12 YRS. 11 YRS. 10 YRS. I 9 YRS. 8 YRS. 7 YRS. 6 YRS. 5000 4000 3000 ! 1000 1000 2000 3000 4000 6000 62 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 46. St. Louis AGES OF PUPILS IN EACH GRADE! 1ST GRADE 2ND GRADE 3 rd GRADE 4™ GRADE 15-19YEARS 5 10 | 30 II 64 14 12 18 II 87 || 280 13 17 64 || 238 | | 786 12 I 78 || 206 I I 788 I 1|752 11 II I I 541 | |1585 | 27$9 10 || 376 i j 1378 | 29)45 i 27$3 9 | | 858 | 3J249 31|D6 I I 874 8 | | 3319 43^4 | | 1097 65 7 I 810|7 ; 918 I 52 1 17-20 6 I 6 18 II 51 16 17 II 36 II 107 I I 253 15 l| 123 | | 226 | j 426 | | 509 14 | | 509 | j 811 j j 890 | | 682 13 I J 451 | |1367 i | 875 I I 347 12 22EJ1 | | 1185 | | 409 II 82 11 | 1|758 I I 473 II 81 I 6 10 j 596 II 87 1 9 il 38 12 5TH GRADE 6th GRADE 7™ GRADE 8TH GRADE A table found in the New York report shows the relative numbers of children who are not normally situated in the matter of age and grade. Table 47. New York Grades Number of Pupils June 30, 1906 Number Above Normal Age Per Cent of Whole Number Correspond- ing Per Cent in 1905 First year . Second year. Third year . Fourth year. Fifth year . Sixth year . Seventh year Eighth year . Ungraded . Special C Special D Special E 13-9 23-4 31.6 374 40.3 36.5 29.1 20.7 667 1,448 4,59° 12,974 5i9>7SS 16.6 25.6 34-1 40.1 42.9 37-6 28.0 19.0 (Foreign — cannot speak English) (Trying for work certificate) (Special coaching to enter Seventh Grade) 150,500 30.1 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 63 To show these facts with regard to individual schools would, for New York at least, undoubtedly require too much space for an annual report. In Milwaukee, however, the facts are published for the seventh and eighth grades in each school. This method would be helpful if it were desired to compare various parts of the city, foreign with native popula- tion, Italian with Jew, etc. Table 48. Milwaukee SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION, ACCORDING TO AGE, OF THE SEVENTH GRADE PUPILS, JUNE, 1905. Concluded Number of Pupils of the Several Ages Schools a a > S3 >< > & H ni a 3 H u a i d E j-i d c/5 d « a> > C/3 go S d 0) Sixteenth District No. 2 . Seventeenth District I 3 2 2 26 17 16 38 17 28 27 18 22 8 7 9 I 13 13 I3i Eighteenth District No. 1 . 9 I Other facts that might be related to age are : Average class standing and age within a given grade. Moral grading and age within a grade. Age and grade correlation of those dropping out of school. Percentages of promotion distributed according to age. Or the cases of "behind the normal age" might be cor- related (on basis of number of years behind) with scholar- ship, health, behavior, nationality, regularity of attendance, changes in residence, etc. Promotions Under normal conditions, a pupil who has attended school regularly ought, at the end of term or year, to be advanced to 6 4 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS a higher grade, and the proportion of children thus advanced is one of the measures of school efficiency and character of school population. Non-promotion of course may result from one or more of several causes, such as irregular attend- ance, removal from one school to another, ill adapted course of study, sickness, mental incapacity, etc. A single table of promotions can hardly be made to show reasons for non- promotion, but it can be made to disclose in what school and grades and classes the percentage of non-promotion is such as to call for the attention of superintendent or trustee. Any city would, without doubt, find it profitable to gather the facts that would tend to explain the causes of non-promotion, and it is to be regretted that the school reports of so few cities present statistical treatment of the subject. A few reports give absolute totals of promotion, sometimes distributed by grades or schools. The following table from Boston is an example : Table 49. Boston PRIMARY SCHOOLS NUMBER OF PUPILS PROMOTED TO GRAMMAR SCHOOLS FOR THE FIVE MONTHS ENDING JANUARY 3 1, 1905 Districts >> n O "3 Districts >. m 3 3 Adams .... Agassiz .... Bennett .... 115 107 no Jefferson . . . John A. Andrew Lawrence . . . 113 176 I20 Three long tables are given in the New Orleans report, the first showing the totals promoted, the second showing non-promotions in similar detail, and the third enrollment. A comparative study of these facts by schools is possible, though with greater effort, in the New York report, table 51. TABLES AND TACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 65 Table 50. New Orleans SESSION 1904-1905 — PROMOTIONS TO Eighth A B A B Boys Girls Seventh A B A B Boys Girls Sixth A B Boys A B Girls Fifth A B A B Boys Girls first district Paulding .... Jackson, Boys . . Jackson, Girls . . , Fourth A B A B Boys Girls Third A B Boys A B Girls Second A B A B Boys Girls First A B Boys A B Boys FIRST DISTRICT Paulding . . . . , Jackson, Boys . . Jackson, Girls . . SESSION 1904-1905 — NON-PROMOTIONS FROM FIRST DISTRICT Paulding .... Jackson, Boys . . . Jackson, Girls . . Eighth A B Boys A B Girls Seventh A B A B Boys Girls Sixth A B A B Boys Girls Fifth A B Boys A B Girls Fourth Third Second First Kinder- A B Boys A B Girls A B Boys A B Girls A B Boys A B Girls A B Boys A B Girls Boys Girls FIRST DISTRICT Paulding .... Jackson, Boys . . . Jackson, Girls . . . 66 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS ENROLLMENT BY GRADES SESSION 1904-1905 White Elementary Schools Eighth Seventh Sdcth Fifth Fourth Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls FIRST DISTRICT Paulding .... Jackson, Boys . . . Jackson, Girls . . . White Elementary Schools Third Second Fdjst Kinder- garten Total Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls FIRST DISTRICT Paulding .... Jackson, Boys . . . Jackson, Girls . . . Table 51. New York BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN Grade of Class Number of Pupils on Register January 31, 1906, before Promo- tion Number of Pupils pro- moted during Term ending January 31, 1906 u a '3. i« O 2,3 a U Number of Pupils on Register June 29, 1906, before Promo- tion 2£ g % h & ■ftbp N 3 a 2 ^'§§ ■811 S B < < a H a. HT3 •b a 04 Chicago Normal .... 230 191. 1 184.6 182 95-2 416 382.3 362.5 277 94.8 72.5 Manual Training and High . 882 824.9 7974 487 96.7 59-o Table 53. Chicago MEMBERSHIP AND PROMOTION Grade >.» P ™ 60 ~ < HI Ph .2£s 6 t-l Ph °l fl e J3 a) . a &? 2 ° ■M.2 So O E 1^ Alger 92 9 1 92 87 81 67 62 9 1 89 79 Amos Bagley When promotions are expressed, as in the foregoing table, in per cents, comparison is easily possible. The Cincinnati table lacks that advantage, but has the excellent feature of making comparison possible among the different grades. Table 55. Cincinnati NUMBER OF PUPILS ADVANCED, NUMBER NOT ADVANCED AT CLOSE OF YEAR BY GRADES 8th Grade 5TH Grade 3RD Grade ist Grade Schools ■a CD CJ a > < -0 a a > < 1 CD fl > < 6 T3 CD CJ C < 1 CD U CJ > < 1 •a u H > ■a < T3 O u a < d •a w u 0) 1 U I a 1 u H a H U u 3 a a u V w S o» T3 3 H f-f a) 1 ■ C i HIGH SCHOOL Third Class Junior Class Total Increase compared with last year — DISTRICT SCHOOLS Number Pupils 8th year or grade Number Pupils 7th year or grade Number Pupils 6th year or grade Number Pupils 5th year or grade Total Higher Grades . . . Increase Higher Grades compared — Number Pupils 4th year or grade Number Pupils 3d year or grade Number Pupils 2d year or grade Number Pupils 1st year or grade Number Pupils Kindergarten Total lower grades .... Decrease or increase of lower grades compared with last year — Total Number belonging at end of quarter Total increase or decrease com- pared with last year .... TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 71 Philadelphia's table makes possible a comparison of enroll- ment in each school at different periods with average number belonging, thus giving the movements in school population. Table 58. Philadelphia COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS Girls Belonging at Beginning of Year Belonging at End of Year Average Number belonging during Year I220 I350 I220 1255 TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF PUPILS BELONGING, AND THE AVERAGE NUMBER BELONGING IN ALL GRADES OF SCHOOLS IN THIS DISTRICT DURING THE YEAR 1904 Central High School .... High School for Girls .... Commercial High School for Girls Central Manual Training School Special Schools First Section Second Section Number of Pupils at End of Year by Sexes S3 g'o ° 6»u.S u- CO t,'Eii g 5 Average Number belonging The extent to which pupils drop out, or are otherwise lost to the public school, is shown by the following Spring- field, Boston, and St. Louis table and charts. Such graphic presentation of the fact that America's education is "uni- versal" only up to the third grade, even in learned Boston, would in time exercise a marked influence on both curriculum and administration. 72 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 59. Springfield, Mass. NUMBER OF PUPILS IN EACH GRADE I II III IV V VI VII September, 1895 . . 1639 i°53 1035 794 724 513 446 September, i8g6 1723 1020 1 180 817 78s 621 460 September, 1897 1781 "34 1211 980 789 754 474 September, 1898 1775 1145 1287 966 875 667 635 September, 1899 1789 1174 1243 1029 952 786 559 September, 1900 1717 1068 1294 1107 904 884 621 September, 1901 1717 1265 1226 1152 1024 892 759 September, 1902 1685 1297 1276 1088 "35 90S 768 September, 1903 177S 1319 1180 1341 1072 986 799 VIII IX Fresh- men Sopho- more Junior Senior Post Grad. September, 1895 . . 277 263 177 126 96 65 September, 1896 288 258 £04 118 86 104 September, 1897 381 27.4 206 169 93 88 15 September, 1898 382 299 227 159 123 80 22 September, 1899 486 380 243 *74 130 114 13 September, 1900 463 380 293 206 *42 83 28 September, 1901 548 378 298 212 168 104 26 September, 1902 653 416 274 191 158 i°5 26 September, 1903 633 4^4 39° 260 172 iS2 18 By following the italicized figures from left to right in this table the grade mortality can be seen at a glance. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 73 Table 60. Boston 74 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 6i. St. Louis 100 70 'STOO- LS 70 >52 V 3 V s " V V \35 ^28 5. 22 10 E fe=sj; c 10 3.2 10.4 11.4 12.3 13.1 14.0 14.8 15.7 16.8 17.5 18.6 YEAR DIAGRAM SHOWING THE EXTENT TO WHICH PUPILS CONTINUE THROUGH THE. BJGHEB GRADES , In many communities it has become a matter of interest to know how many graduates of the elementary school enter the high school. These facts are exhibited by Detroit and New York as follows : TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS Table 62. Detroit 75 TABLE COMPARING EIGHTH GRADE GRADUATES WITH NUMBER OF PUPILS ENTERING HIGH SCHOOL No. pupils graduated from A 8th to high schools for year ending June, 1904 1,335 • • • No. pupils who entered high schools from grammar schools, 1904 ... 926 No. pupils graduated from A 8th to high schools for year ending June, 1905 1,546 . . . No. pupils who entered high schools from grammar schools, 1905 ... 1,150 Table 63. New York Graduates from Ele- mentary Schools January and June Number Pupils admitted to High Schools January, February, June, and September, 1905 Elemen- ols Grad- ering the ools Boroughs From Public Schools From Other Schools Total Per Cent tary Schc uates en High Scb Manhattan . . . The Bronx . . . Brooklyn .... Queens Richmond .... 8,725 1,730 6,57° 1,024 322 5,394 i,499 5,873 925 339 53 6l 75 83 99 Graduates from Ele- mentary Schools January and June 1906 Number Pupils admitted to High Schools January, February, June, and September, 1906 : Elemen- doI Grad- tering the ools Boroughs From Public Schools From other Schools Total Per Cent tary Sch uates en High Sch Manhattan . . . The Bronx . . . Brooklyn .... Queens Richmond . . . 8,791 1,846 7,158 1,226 332 4,902 991 5,951 1,077 358 46 52 72 80 94 7 6 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Two tables from the District of Columbia show persist- ency of attendance in two types of high school : Table 64. District of Columbia SHOWING PER CENT OF SURVIVAL FOR ALL WHITE ACADEMIC HIGH SCHOOLS FROM FIRST YEAR TO GRADUATION, CENTRAL TO 1893, INCLUSIVE; ALL TOGETHER THEREAFTER Per Cent of the Immediate Pre- ceding Class reaching Class Designated Per Cent of Original First-year Class reaching Class Designated Year Second Year Third Year Fourth Year Graduates Col- lege Second Year Third Year Fourth Year Graduates Col- lege Third Year Fourth Year Third Year Fourth Year 1S92 . . 1893 • • 50.28 78.77 15-25 73-°3 76.74 50.28 39.61 6.04 28.93 4-63 Table 65. District of Columbia SHOWING ENROLLMENT AND PER CENT OF SURVIVAL FOR THE BUSINESS HIGH SCHOOL FROM FIRST YEAR TO GRADUATION Graduating Year 1892 1893 1894 Class Enrollment First Year 308 28l 3°3 Second Gradu- Year ates 85 I32 35 5° 60 Per Cent of the Immediately Preceding Class reaching Class Designated Second Gradu- Year ates 27 3° 44 42 59 45 Per Cent of Original First- year Class reaching Class Designated Second Gradu- Year ates 27 30 44 11 18 20 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 77 Detroit compares by schools, enrollment and graduation over a series of years, and shows for one grade of the high school just why pupils drop out. Table 66. Detroit TABLE SHOWING BY GRADES AND CLASSES THE WHOLE NUMBER ENROLLED IN THE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, AND THE NUMBER GRADUATED FOR EACH SEMES- TER OF THE PAST TWENTY-THREE YEARS _ For Semester ending as Below: m < < oa < PQ < p, C/3 June, 1882 . January, 1883 . . 129 117 86 62 51 45 59 25 37 June, 1883 . . . J 53 97 70 61 44 45 37 54 100 January, 1884 . . J 3i 104 86 54 43 35 48 3° 68 For Semester ending as Below: 3 O O Total d < «! sa < June, 1882 . 82 23 40 29 January, 1883 . . June, 1883 . . . January, 1884 . . 9 12 15 620 673 614 702 558 63 545 78 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 67. Detroit DETROIT CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL TOTAL NUMBER OF "FIRST YEAR" PUPILS WHO HAVE LEFT SINCE SEPTEMBER, 1904 Ages 12 13 14 is >> pq O 3 >> m pq 3 3 pq 1- O 3 H pq 3 "3 H Illness Illness in Family . . . Failing Eyesight .... Work . Transferred Left City Indifference to Work . . Music I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O O O O 2 1 I O O O O O 2 O O I O I 5 1 1 1 1 1 2 O I 6 1 1 1 I O O IO 2 O 2 O 4 4 1 1 2 1 3 1 6 5 1 1 12 3 3 2 1 10 5 1 34 4 3 8 10 65 18 4 1 7 2 7 1 1 13 54 23 4 2 4i 6 10 9 1 23 Total 119 New York gives for two years the total number discharged without graduation from each high school, and the percentage of discharged to total enrollment. Table 68. New York SHOWING FOR EACH HIGH SCHOOL THE NUMBER DIS- CHARGED EACH YEAR WITHOUT GRADUATION Year ending June 30, 1905 Year ending June 30, 1906 School Total Enrollment Number Dis- charged Per Cent Total Enrollment Number Dis- charged Per Cent De Witt Clinton . Wadleigh . . . Girls' Technical . 2,961 3,577 3,9 8 4 837 886 1,637 28 25 41 2,553 3,574 3,524 481 713 1,460 19 20 41 Entire City . 28,674 9,382 33 3i,949 9,871 31 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 79 Compulsory Attendance The more progressive cities educationally have been for many years endeavoring to enforce the laws regarding com- pulsory education. For this purpose attendance depart- ments have been developed which have in charge the matter of bringing truant children or children illegally kept away from school either to their own school or to some institution serving the purpose of a parental school. Many of the published reports give one or more pages for the purpose of detailing the work of the attendance department, but the statistics consist in the main in a bill of particulars which provide but little opportunity for statistical interpretation. Sometimes the number of cases is simply given by districts, as in the Milwaukee Report : Table 69. Milwaukee SHOWING THE NUMBER OF CASES OF TRUANCY AND HALF DAYS LOST DURING THE YEAR 1904-1905 Schools East Division High . South Division High West Division High . o § r° K« ■go 24 15 2 ^<4 Cl, .OI2 .OO8 .OOI The work of the entire city department is summarized in the New York Report, to which summary is appended some tables showing disposition made of incorrigible children. 8o EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 70. New York The following statistics show the work of the attendance department for the school years 1 903-1 904 and 1 904-1 905, the year ending July 31 : Number of attendance officers Number of truant schools Number of persons in parental relation to chil- dren arrested for violation of Section 4 of the Compulsory Education Law: (a) Arrested (b) Fined (c) Imprisoned Number of persons, firms, or corporations who have paid the penalty for employing chil- dren between 8 and 14 years of age, con- trary to the provisions of Section 5 of the Compulsory Education Law: Corporations Number of cases investigated by attendance officers Number of cases reinvestigated by attendance officers Number of cases of truancy investigated by attendance officers Number of different individuals found to be truants by attendance officers Number of children found to be non-attendants and placed in school Number of children found to be truants and committed to institutions Number of children found to be truants and committed to truant schools Number of children found employed contrary to law and returned to school ..... The cases dealt with by District Superintendents in the year ending July 31, 1905, are classified as follows : TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 8 1 Number of individual pupils who have been truants five days or more during the school year registered in the offices of the district superintendents 11,607 Number of such pupils dealt with by attendance officers . . . 10,253 Number of children brought before district superintendents for hearing on the charge of truancy 3,7&9 Number of such children recommended for commitment to truant schools 549 Number of children brought before district superintendents for hearing on the charge of incorrigibility 358 Number of such children suspended and recommended for com- mitment to truant schools . . . 133 Number of such delinquent children transferred from one school to another on probation 467 Number of children paroled from truant schools and institutions 427 Number of such children who violated parole and were returned 118 In only one or two cases has it been found that the statis- tics of non-attendance have been placed side by side with those of attendance in such a way that comparison can be made. The Springfield report presents one of these examples : Table 71. Springfield, Mass. SUMMARY OF STATISTICS FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR ENDING JULY I, 1904 % SO , JS 2 TJ a Schools CO "3 1-1 it A u cd H "o u 3T) 0h2J t-i a a 3 'bo 2, 3, 3 m |£ a. 3 P* u •° y 3 c3 3 o> a < a 8 3 < >> a 3 >• C a Oh a .0 a bo bO rt bo C3 O Q 3 3 3 u a! * 5 £ £ < < < < Ph w O Central High . . Technical High Alden Street . . Armory Street . . 82 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS The Buffalo report gives in considerable detail the reasons which were found to prevail in case of non-attendance and truancy. Table 72. Buffalo ANNUAL REPORT OF THE ATTENDANCE OFFICERS E.C. N.E. N.W. S.E. s.w. Total Total number of cases reported by principal . Total number of cases reported by citizens Total number of cases reported by policemen 7.427 187 265 794 54i i>997 1,876 1,936 i.5S° 1.855 9,214 Children kept at home by parents (temporary 1.598 Children kept at home by parents (neglect) 1,881 794 Children mentally or physically disqualified . 20 98 Children withdrawn from school and sent to Children whose residence could not be found . Children found to be truants and returned to 690 Children arrested and taken before Police Jus- Children found to be truants and committed to 138 The detailed report may take the form of enumeration of work each month with some statement of kind of action taken, as shown in the Grand Rapids report : TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 83 Table 73. Grand Rapids SUMMARY OF WORK OF TRUANT OFFICER, 1904-1905 Character of Notices Served a CO 6 3 s 1 a u & 3 d a) 1— > 1 is u U-, < >. I 1 e2 Number of persons warned for truancy .... Number of persons warned for incorrigibility . . 302 77 46 2752 3 104 60 Number of persons warned under compulsory law . Number of special cases Number of visits to stores Number of persons taken from street to school Number of persons ar- rested on warrants . . Totals Number of visits made to 234 12 351 44 294 39 311 43 322 43 284 33 343 44 434 40 477 66 294 32 3344 39 6 High Schools Devices for statistical exhibit for high schools resemble in many respects those for elementary schools in such matters as attendance, regularity of attendance, ages, etc. In a few respects popular interest attaches to phases of work that are peculiar to high schools. In some of the older reports it was customary to prove statistically that a very considerable proportion of the pupils in high schools were children of wage earners; but there is hardly any longer occasion to defend the American high school against the charge of being for the rich only. 8 4 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Very few of the published reports show the relation between age and grade of those in high school. The Springfield report is one of the exceptions : Table 74. Springfield, Mass. CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS BY AGES AND CLASSES, SEPTEMBER, 1903 Class Age Total Total 12 13 14 IS 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 33 Class Post-Graduate . j Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls 1 1 3 18 21 16 27 9 19 3 8 1 5 11 21 7 12 3 13 1 S 4 7 2 2 2 4 14 48 66 62 92 82 150 125 232 I a 1 f ld Senior j 1 1 2 3 16 23 48 86 5 3 10 18 27 46 28 7i 9 12 24 29 21 43 12 26 [ 114 1 1 T • ( [ 154 Junior ...... 2 1 1 7 11 1 2 5 27 27 Sophomore . . \ 1 232 T? U S Freshman . . . -j 1 357 Totals . . . 2 20 62 180 208 177 125 73 24 2 1 1 875 Since the high school offers considerable option of work, and is thus supposed to meet the varying needs of different classes of people, a statistical showing of the subjects or courses chosen, and any progressive movements in this regard, are of value. The following tables from high schools with extensive curriculum are examples : Table 75. New Haven NUMBER OF PUPILS IN THE NEW HAVEN HIGH SCHOOL PURSUING VARIOUS STUDIES English 1,554 History American 141 English 221 Greek and Roman . . 696 Medieval and Modern . 89 Mathematics Algebra 808 Geometry 558 Trigonometry .... 60 Mechanics 16 Language Greek 63 German 731 French 168 Latin 867 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 85 Stenography 91 Typewriting 94 Physical Geography . . 205 Commercial Geography . 260 Bookkeeping 105 Business Practice .... 92 Chemistry 206 Physics 213 Electricity 17 Biology 155 Drawing Mechanical 337 Free Hand . 543 Woodworking . 158 Metal work 179 Forging . . . 70 Pattern Making 49 Sewing, Plain . 65 Art Needlework 76 Dressmaking . 54 Domestic Science 197 Venetian Iron . 2 Wood Carving 146 Clay Modeling 45 Table 76. New York NUMBER OF PAPERS MARKED BY EACH COMMITTEE AND THE AVERAGE PER CENT IN EACH SUBJECT FOR THE SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE CITY January, 1905 June, 1905 Subject Number of Papers Average Per Cent attained in Subject Number of Papers Average Per Cent attained in Subject English . . . Algebra . . . Geometry . . 547 1,357 1,448 64.I 56.O 50-7 1,079 1,519 1,442 72.8 67.6 45-8 The following table shows very clearly the trend in di- rection of the more vocational education in Springfield : Table 77. Springfield, Mass. DISTRIBUTION BY COURSES OF THE THREE UPPER CLASSES College Preparatory General Commercial Totals Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total 1898- -1899 . 6l 76 137 72 Il6 188 12 25 37 145 217 362 1901- -1902 . 75 6l 136 52 166 2l8 39 45 84 166 272 438 1904- -1905 . 72 I29 20I 78 156 234 48 I06 154 198 39 1 589 86 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS PERCENTAGES Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total 1898-1899 . 42 35 38 50 53 52 8 12 IO 40 60 IOO 1901-1902 . 45 22 3 1 31 61 50 24 17 19 38 62 IOO 1904-1905 . 37 33 34 39 40 40 24 27 26 34 66 IOO The rapid decline in attendance at high schools is some- thing that is often discussed in general terms, but is shown specifically in very few school reports. The Boston table shown on p. 60 is an attempt to do this, as also some of the tables shown in the section on survival, p. 69 and following. The persistency of attendance during the year is shown in the following table from the Wilmington report : Table 78. Wilmington BOYS' DEPARTMENT HIGH SCHOOL 01 to ■3. ■5 g'S^ 3 3 O ^fc - C 3 & X For Month Ending M XI u d 0) H n C/3 "o >> ni Q ts u xi H is fc.9 1-2 ZpQ OJ 60 eS u a ai a a to M U a •a a "S u mber admitted to chool who have not drolled in any other c School of the Cit resent School Year mber admitted to chool who have bee ailed in other P chools of the City : the present School 'I ■a c3 u X a 3 3 9IA US B> 3C« Ct/3 O 3 £ 5 H <; < p-i £ i3 fc September 30 . . 98.3 October 31 . . . 97-7 November 30 . . 97.1 u a> x T3 a _G"53 P$ 60,3 a 13 Is g.3 6 c. "SS For Month Ending 11 «i Xi a. 3 13 a. £5 bO ■ft ft < s 3 "8? Vp3 £.2 cS U d.12 "SPw u « •g So fc °.2 u K fcW 3 2 H « H H z H W H H Austin . . . 159-4 117.6 48.1 57-2 382.3 153-7 111.6 42.8 54-4 362.5 Calumet . . 148.6 66.0 51.6 20.5 286.7 139-5 62.0 48.5 19.1 269.1 Crane, R. T. . 529-4 191.9 103.6 824.9 5H-7 184.6 IOI.I 797-4 88 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Per Cent of Attendance Promotions by Grades High Schools a 1 u T3 O 13 u •a et) •a O T3 O 6 .g J3 O O 13 > CD "5 is 3 a a •S "3 % H w H H s H w H h Austin . . . 96.4 94-9 89.0 9S-i 94.8 124 46 59 48 277 Calumet . . . 93-9 94.0 94.0 93-2 93-8 III 60 45 18 234 Crane, R. T. . 96.7 96.2 97.6 96.7 308 104 75 487 Finally, attention may be called to the following form from the Buffalo report which, in a city having but few high schools, conveys in brief compass much valuable information : Table 81. Buffalo HIGH SCHOOLS Annual registration Boys Percentage of boys Annual average daily attendance Boys Percentage of average daily attend- ance Pupils of American parentage, per cent Pupils of foreign parentage, per cent Pupils of foreign parentage, most numerous nationality, per cent . Term registration, I term .... Boys Term registration, II term .... Boys Term average daily attendance, I term Boys Term average daily attendance, II term Boys Term attendance of pupils of 80 days, I term C.H. S. M. P. H. S. L. H.S. T.H.S. 974 1,235 1,304 I02 413 523 595 I02 42 ■ 42 46 IOO 781 1,073 1,106 74 313 45° 503 74 80 87 85 73 64 67 75 75 36 33 25 25 12 20 7 9 922 1,220 1,277 88 389 5i6 581 88 859 1,111 i,i74 89 355 472 539 89 807 1,130 i,i55 73 327 472 525 73 754 1,017 1,058 75 298 427 482 75 764 1,178 1,130 72 Total 3,615 45 3,034 i,34o 84 69 31 12 3,5o7 i,574 3,233 i,455 3,165 1,397 2,904 1,282 3,i44 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 89 HIGH SCHOOLS — Continued Total Boys Term attendance of pupils of 80 days, II term Boys Average boys' age, I term .... Average girls' age, I term .... Pupils 18 years old or more, July 1, JOQS Boys Pupils who, in Sept., 1904, entered for the first time Boys Pupils who, in June, 1905, finished their first year's attendance . . Boys Advanced papers accepted .... Preliminary certificates received . . Boys Advanced certificates received . . . Boys Academic scholars Boys Regent's diplomas (48 c) issued . . Boys Regent's diplomas (more than 48 c) issued Boys Graduates, June, 1905 Boys Teachers, men, including principals Teachers, women Average number of pupils registered per teacher Average number of pupils in average attendance per teacher . . . Library, number of volumes . . . Text-books, number of copies . . . C. H.S. M. P. H. S. L. H.S. T.H.S. 299 5°I 528 72 688 1,067 1,026 74 256 460 466 74 15 16 16 15 16 16 16 202 117 189 3 100 57 78 3 411 478 553 88 153 209 266 88 274 458 448 88 9 1 200 214 88 2,724 3,783 3,6i5 119 795 801 532 97 354 3i5 240 97 585 759 739 195 285 329 921 1,235 i,3°4 383 523 595 137 194 *33 45 79 56 16 74 *9 7 3 1 5 130 224 165 55 95 73 10 7 7 2 21 3° 25 2 3 1 33 41 26 25 29 35 x 9 4,3o5 1,892 608 281 5,000 14,290 9,020 39° 1,400 2,855 1,256 16 16 511 238 1,530 716 1,268 593 10,241 2,225 1,006 2,083 809 3,46o i,5oi 464 180 109 43 519 223 26 78 35 29 7,086 28,700 9 o EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS C. H. S. M. P. H. S. L. H. S. T. H. S. $32,007.00 $36,944.00 $28,763.00 $4,144.00 2,000.00 3,200.00 4,904.00 I,IOO.OO 3>374-o7 4,85I-54 210.13 I5°-59 127-57 I.I9IS7 918.29 941.00 1,078.02 5.474.83 18,732.38 6,597.00 266.42 70.75 598.21 7I3.32 1,590.16 3,121.99 2,991-75 I,452.6o 216,125.00 I 73.475-oo 156,400.00 41,000.00 32.86 29.91 22.06 4O.63 47-3° 34-43 26.01 56.OO 8,000.00 3,220.00 1,090.00 4OO.0O Total Teachers' salaries . . Janitors' salaries . . . Regents' appropriation . Expenditures : Printing Library Apparatus .... Building Furniture Fuel Valuation of lot and building Cost of tuition, per pupil registered Cost of tuition, per pupil in average daily at- tendance Library, estimated value J101, 858.00 11,204.00 8,225.61 906.99 488.29 3,050.86 31,882.23 1,648.70 9,156-50 587,000.00 28.18 33-57 12,710.00 Evening Schools In many cities evening schools are still in the stage of educational experimentation. It is not always evident that they respond to a clearly denned need, and it is a fact that the attendance in them is frequently irregular. Naturally it is harder to demonstrate their educational worth than in the case of elementary or high schools. For this reason the public is inclined frequently to oppose the spending of money on evening schools, and we should expect to find in the published reports of superintendents the fullest possible statistics of cost, attendance, etc., with respect to evening schools. This, however, is the case in but few of the reports. It would appear that superintendents and boards of educa- tion are either unable or unwilling to give as full data as possible, and the result is that public knowledge on the sub- ject is incomplete. The best tables are given herewith. Since the mere average of attendance in evening schools is a very uncertain showing, the St. Louis table gives much TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 91 more definite information as to whether sufficient attendance has been made to justify expenditure : Table 82. St. Louis SHOWING ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS IN THE EVENING SCHOOLS, 1904-1905 Name of Schools Attending 60 Nights 50-60 Less than 10 O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute McKinley High Blow 124 80 7 131 120 154 60 60 30 18 in 27 Name of Schools Total Enrollment 1 a bo II U 75 73 a 73 H 73 73 a O H Crane, R. T., High . . MedillHigh . . . . 24 47 52 54 66 35 9 2 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS For 8 Weeks and Less than 12 Weeks For 4 Weeks and Less than 8 Weeks Less than 4 Weeks Schools JD "3 8 "3 a fa "3 CD "3 9 4) . "3 a fa "3 H "3 3 "3 a "3 H Crane, R. T., High . . 67 115 54 88 116 55 137 31 14 Another fact, not less significant than regularity of attend- ance in evening schools, is the age of those reached. Here, again, the average of age is not a satisfactory statement, so we find the following in the Chicago report : Table 84. Chicago AGE OF PUPILS ATTENDING EVENING SCHOOLS Between 12 AND Between 15 and Between 18 and 15 Years 18 Years 21 Years Schools - so E d bO.H •a g so CUu-, .O O tn »_. S3 a) 3>H P* M u +-> U 2 so ■° s gbO rt ^ OT3 ■ 9 O ai d"o o^ g.S oH < z fc < » < < fc |25 Evening High, Men .... 2,590 3,981 2,061 1,173 1,365 99 121 2,411 Evening High, Women . 601 745 487 346 405 84 26 38S C. S. Close, Males and Females 423 842 42s 355 265 62 266 493 d d J) bO % d a) bo £< O ft d IS Ph ,d d d a as PhPh d &> •a 73 d - s .a > d .a d .a d Schools X> SO m <3 XI ^ 13 n >• O *S .a 2 5 is 5° 3 « >.s . 3 f*3 O aJ > 3 pq 3 H 3 H pq "3 pq * a U Ol, 3 H a tion No. 2 No. 20 . . No. 31 . . 215 256 34i 215 204 218 13s 194 273 135 144 180 125 184 211 125 13s 132 102 no 196 102 73 120 87 93 163 87 60 96 123 164 216 123 116 134 107 140 178 107 96 106 87 85 82 8 6 10 1 4 5 8615 77o 1,200 Salaries: Supervisor, $250; principals, 83.50; male assistants, $2.50; female assistants, $2; janitors, $2 per evening. Expenditures: Teachers, $9,211; janitors, 81,244; total, $10,455; excluding supervisor's salary, but including the salaries ($332) of three teachers of domestic science at Nos. 20, 31, 35, 44, and 57, and ($155) of two teachers of sewing at Nos. 20, 31, 38, and 57. Cost of tuition: $5.89 per pupil registered, $6.90 per pupil in average attendance, referring to the term averages. Duration of term: 15 weeks at No. 2; 17 weeks at Nos. 35, 38, and 43; 18 weeks at No. 20; 20 weeks at all other schools which added one more day after the twentieth week. No. 2 finished at the same time with Nos. 31, 39, 44, 55, 57, and 58, having commenced 6 weeks later than the other schools; it added an extra week of 4 evenings when the other schools were closed for Christmas vacation, and was open 4 evenings for 5 weeks all together. No. 57 counted one week of 4 evenings in starting, Nos. 35 and 43 an additional day after closing. During the week after the vacation, all schools, excluding No. 2, were open for 2 evenings. Pupils who attended 1 evening only, 44 (30 boys); who attended 2 evenings only, 38 (27 boys); who attended 3 evenings only, 25 (19 boys); total 107 (76 boys). This enumeration excludes Nos. 2, 57, and 58. As showing the cost alone, the following table from the St. Louis report is satisfactory : * Refers to the total term registration. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 95 Table 87. St. Louis DETAILED STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURES FOR EVEN- ING SCHOOLS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1904-1905 Salaries Text-Books Schools 43 H 1 >— 1 3 H "Sfl l-i w O 73 N d •a Central High . . . McKinley High . . Blow $1,938 1,452 609 $170 152 5° $2,108 1,604 659 $57 22 $60 262 3 $60 320 25 $24 67 6 Schoolroom Supplies H Is 1 ^ § u Schools S 8.S la 01 u d en M 8 (A J. 60 d g 3 & ty: ts "c3 p. u Central High . . . McKinley High . . Blow %2 8 $52 8 $2,225 2,000 691 332 264 71 $6 7 9 In addition to the above illustrations, it may be pointed out that the published reports for the schools of St. Louis, Chicago, Providence, and a few other cities give comprehensive infor- mation regarding age, attendance, nativity, character of studies taken, cost, and many other facts which tend to give the public a clear notion of the work of the evening school system. Vacation Schools Even more than the evening school may the vacation school be said to be in an experimental stage. Many cities are, however, experimenting, and any reader of the reports must be disappointed with the meagerness of the information 9 6 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS furnished to the public regarding the main facts of the new work. After stating that the cost of the vacation schools for the year 1904 was $1,495 for salaries of teachers and jani- tors, and $184 for supplies, or $2.34 for each child in average daily attendance, the Cambridge report gives the following table : Table 88. Cambridge School Subject Number Registered Average Attendance English High School . . . English High School . . . English High School . . . Academic . . . Basketry . . . Cooking . . . 52 96 99 35 57 63 The New York report gives attendance by schools in the following form: Table 89. New York VACATION SCHOOLS MANHATTAN School Number of Teachers Total Enrollment Aggregate Attendance Average Attendance Per Cent on Total Enrollment One .... Seven .... Eight .... 17 17 17 813 787 1,005 13,610 10,113 I5,9H 454 337 530 55 42 52 Allied to the vacation school is the organized playground for which also various cities present statistics. In the Newark report we find the following : TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 97 Table 90. Newark PLAYGROUNDS Playground Session Average Daily Attendance Number of Males Females Totals Teachers Branch Brook Park . . All day 405 332 737 4 West Side Park . . . All day 274 236 5io 4 East Side Park . . . All day 296 l8l 477 5 As in the case of vacation schools, the New York report gives the fullest information regarding playgrounds in the following form : Table 91. New York VACATION SCHOOLS — MANHATTAN VACATION PLAYGROUNDS School Seven . Eleven . Fourteen Sixteen . Number of Teachers Attendance 33,030 12,735 19,277 7,808 OPEN-AIR PLAYGROUND Average Attendance 354 402 163 65th Street, West of Broadway 2 11,092 231 KINDERGARTEN CENTER Belle vue Hospital .... 1 i,57i 33 AFTERNOON ROOF PLAYGROUND Educational Alliance . . . 1 75,349 1,570 9 8 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS EVENING ROOF PLAYGROUNDS One . . . Twenty Twenty -one 118,142 196,294 88,024 2,461 4,089 1,834 AFTERNOON PLAYGROUNDS — FOR MOTHERS AND BABIES Eight . . Thirteen Seventy-five 11,463 8,300 12,518 EVENING RECREATION CENTERS 239 173 261 One. . Twenty 89,459 120,982 503 587 PUBLIC SCHOOL BATHS School Opened Closed Total Number Bathed Boys Girls One Thirty-four July i July 1 Sept. 2 Sept. 2 12,838 12,358 14,696 17,545 School Libraries Though the idea of a schoolroom or school-building library for the use of children is by no means new, it is nevertheless true that many cities have made little progress in developing them. In a few cities the school library has become a great adjunct in education, and systematic efforts are made to develop such libraries. A few city reports give sufficient information regarding this work to make it desirable to present it in statistical form. Some of the tables are full of significant information, whilst others are almost meaning- less. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 99 The following tables from the New York report are quite full : Table 92. New York REPORT ON SCHOOL LIBRARIES SEPTEMBER, 1904 TO JUNE, 1905 Borough Number Schools Reported Number Classes Number Class Libraries Number Volumes Class Libraries Number Volumes Reference Libraries Total Volumes Reference and Class Libraries Richmond .... 185 41 I3S 76 34 5,391 973 3,652 909 286 4,811 801 2,655 684 224 169,536 29,712 85,685 23,137 8,493 82,803 20,182 21,655 6,854 2,195 252,339 49,894 107,340 29,991 10,688 Totals 47i n, 211 9,175 316,563 133,689 450,252 Increase over 1903- 1904 32 1,066 1,194 7o,4i5 20,277 90,692 CIRCULATION Borough Class Libraries Reference Libraries Total 3,411,987 1,416,483 476,883 246,017 67,769 128,561 31,934 70,920 19,690 2,127 3,540,548 1,448,417 547,803 265,707 69,896 Totals 5,619,139 253,232 5,872,371 Increase over 1903- 1904 (5 months only) . . . 2,950,670 161,985 3,112,655 CIRCULATION OF CLASS LIBRARIES BY GRADES First year Second year Third year Fourth year Fifth year Sixth year Seventh year Eighth year Total Teachers' Reference Libraries . . Total Reference and Class Libraries 648,749 746,720 928,340 969,666 808,481 672,451 465,051 379,681 5,619,139 253,232 5,872,371 LOFC. IOO EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS The following table from the New Orleans report is of interest : Table 93. New Orleans VOLUMES IN SCHOOL LIBRARY SESSION I904-IOO5 V cs) c o s 3 >> T3 T3 >> 2 13 Colored C trl >> » 1j» -.9 4) cd 2 ^3 Elementary Schools M O fill K _!=•£> •3 In 3 M OJ T5 in 3 r & ■3< w s H £ r CDQ O U (2 H FIRST DISTRICT Fisk 3° 4 19 9 12 9 26 6 I 8 5 I 45 S3 228 SECOND DISTRICT Robertson .... 22 7 7 22 IO 12 45 40 18 29 10 3 11 10 245 The financial side of the school library is especially brought out in the following table from the Paterson report : Table 94. Paterson SHOWING CONDITION OF LIBRARIES IN THE SEVERAL SCHOOLS FOR YEAR ENDING JUNE, 1903 Name of School so .a 3 -a '3 u % 3>< 3 (11 e a- < 3 _o p. ■s-s 3 m §3 -a.S CD u > 3 •53 T3 CD CD a^K 3 „, d < 3J O ■*-• 0.43 3 > as <: 3 CD a>n CO 0> O ** O bo W.S "ft 3 CD ij ,0 en 1° cu O 03 S ft 5s -a .S 3 S.S 3 > U CD .25 ■3 9 -o'C B 3 & « gas < M 3 d AS 2 ft 3 ft |< ss 0,m-i s-s 55 gft < 3 ~ «1 %■$ 3-S 1? 3 •ag M CD J3 033 M M «« 3 >H 3 «TJ S3 3 O O O J3 u W "o OJ _3 "3 «! CD^ S3 P4 cd P. P. < 13 CD _3 > a S CD 43 CD 2 High . . No. 1 . . No. 3 . . No. 4 . . $11 $25 80 8 $10 S3 80 70 70 800 6l7 $9 $10 6 3 185 500 490 IOO 164 2,600 50 $IOO IOO $30 15 3 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS IOI Medical Inspection Medical inspection is yet too imperfectly developed in American education to admit of definite description in school reports. In many large cities it does not go beyond some temporary matters of dealing with epidemics and vaccination. At present it is difficult for the interested student to discover, even where inspection is well developed, what it costs to maintain. Only the largest cities present any statistics at all (with the exception of Newark) and these barely give certain classified totals. The first table is taken from the Chicago report, and is valuable as indicating the number of suspicious cases ex- amined each month, and the size of the inspecting force: Table 95. Chicago REPORT OF MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS Date 5 67 13 CD fa m 1 ho 3 O u be C Q fa a cu M '.3 a H ft S 3 % Li O 3 >> §w fa .£? a 3 fa g 3 is bo c fa si £ fa s -3 O a .2 3 _ P.T3 Ifa.E H 0u OK 1 iu -° 6 ° M 3 &O "3 O cd September, 1903 October, 1903 . November, 1903 December, 1903 January, 1904 February, 1904 March, 1904 . April, 1904 . . May, 1904 . . June, 1904 . . 26 44 8 113 118 166 290 147 Si 3 106 166 155 58 64 78 233 118 102 102 625 683 701 315 283 816 1,815 966 959 576 9 9 12 12 IO 12 12 12 12 12 14 12 n 2 1 7 3 1 Total . . 14 135 1,182 7>74i 51 The next two tables are taken from the New York report and serve fairly well to indicate the extent of the work there, and indicate also the progress in the recognition of chronic 102 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS ailing conditions as well as those other illnesses which take the form of epidemics: Table 96. New York REPORT OF WORK PERFORMED BY MEDICAL INSPEC- TORS OF SCHOOLS IN ALL BOROUGHS, CITY OF NEW YORK, 1903, 1904, 1905 1903 1904 iQ°5 Number of visits to schools . . Number of children examined . Number of children excluded . . Reasons for exclusion: Scarlet Fever Whooping Cough Contagious Eye Diseases . . Pediculosis Chicken Pox Contagious Skin Diseases . . Miscellaneous 103,301 11,301,691 65,294 250 53° 66 364 32,525 21,100 909 4,029 5,52i 101,766 12,236,050 25,369 1,172 155 55 187 10,624 8,717 780 2,123 i,556 88,964 6,285,435 18,844 312 74 47 35i 8,833 4,692 937 2,018 1,580 Total 65,294 25,369 18,844 Table 97. New York PHYSICAL RECORD MARCH 27 TO DECEMBER 23, I905 Number of cases of Bad nutrition 3,283 Diseased anterior cervical glands 14,214 Diseased posterior cervical glands 3,047 Chorea 738 Cardiac disease 895 Pulmonary disease 600 Skin disease 989 Deformity of spine 485 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 103 Deformity of chest 401 Deformity of extremities 498 Defective vision 16,394 Defective hearing 1,296 Defective nasal breathing 6,182 Defective teeth 18,182 Defective palate 698 Hypertrophied tonsils 8,347 Posterior nasal growths 5, 119 Defective mentality 1,210 Where treatment was necessary 33)55! Number examined S5,33 2 Special Statistics of Teachers The facts regarding the teaching force of a city which may be presented in statistical form embrace such cate- gories as: number, number in each class, classified salaries, kind of education, length of service in city, total length of service, etc. Some of the reports give lists of teachers with names and addresses; in a few instances salary is added, and in oc- casional cases the character of the education of the teacher. Many of the reports publish salary schedules. The number of pupils per teacher is given in a few instances, or the num- ber of teachers under charge of one supervisor. The following is an example of a classified statement of the principal facts regarding the teaching force : Table 98. Reading The following is the Annual Statistical report of the Superintendent for the school year ending June, 1904, to State Department: Number of schoolhouses 47 Number of schoolrooms ' . . 320 Seating capacity 14,000 Number of rooms without sufficient seating capacity .... o Number of houses built during the year 2 Number of good schoolhouses 47 104 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Number of rooms with suitable furniture 320 Number of rooms supplied with furniture during the year . . 16 Number of schools 312 Number of graded schools 312 Number in which the Bible is read 312 Number in which any of the higher branches are taught . . 2 Number of public examinations held 1 Number of provisional certificates granted 85 Number of professional certificates granted 3 Number of applicants rejected 1 Number of male teachers employed 9 Number of female teachers employed 324 Average age of teachers 29 Number of teachers who have had no previous experience . . 13 Number who had previously taught five or more annual terms 12 Number of teachers employed who hold provisional certificates 34 Number of teachers employed who hold professional certificates 271 Number of teachers employed who hold permanent certificates 28 Number of teachers employed who are graduates at a State Normal School 1 Number who have attended a State Normal School but are not graduates . . ■ o Number of teachers employed who were educated in the com- mon schools 319 Number educated in academies or seminaries 1 Number who are graduates of colleges 12 The following enumeration of the attendance, etc., of each teacher, found in the Pawtucket report, is possible only in the report of a small city: Table 99. Pawtucket Names of Teachers >> °£ ■£> fao 3-a •4-1 ^ u °o M I. 1-9 'ctf Q M a °8 a)TJ 0% > u £ *i S °i B & f- S 3 %& y« 5> £« H< fc< S-- £ £ £ < < Ph fc CHURCH HILL 23 16 10 34 32 93 21 39 22 3 52 48 92 90 12 12 20 19 94 24 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 105 T he summaries of teachers and pupils found in the Boston reports convey useful information in brief form : Table 100. Boston SUMMARY . Number of ha < ~ a iz; Normal . . . I 5 10 15 266 260 6 97-7 265 Latin and High 12 93 117 215 6,732 6,286 446 93-3 6,366 Grammar . . 62 i34 875 1,009 44,665 41,109 3,556 92.0 43,622 A special table to indicate term of service is found some- times as in the Newark report: Table ioi. Newark TERM OF SERVICE OF TEACHERS In the following table the teachers of the city are grouped according to their total experience in teaching: Number who have been teaching 1 year or less 66 Number between 1 and 5 years 199 Number between 5 and 10 years 297 Number between 10 and 15 years 174 Or to indicate salary schedule : Table 102. St. Loins 3 E u a & a in S3 CD T3 U 3 O 3 E 13 ■B 00 t3 V >< ■3 d > en 3 bO W 1,840 1,600 1,304 976 $3,600 1,968 i,744 i,432 1,040 Prin. Class A Schools (18 or more Assts.) Prin. Class B Schools (14 to 17 Assts.) Prin. Class C Schools (10 to 13 Assts.) . Prin. Class D Schools (8 or 9 Assts.) . $2 ,064 1,840 1,540 1,104 $2,184 1,968 1,640 1,160 $2,304 1,216 $2 ,400 io6 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS More satisfactory is the schedule showing salaries dis- tributed according to the number receiving them; as in Chicago report: Table 103. Chicago TEACHERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Salary $1,025 I,000 975 950 9 2 5 900 875 850 825 775 Number Receiving 2 14 42 38 193 168 I,Oo6 1,785 202 40 Salary $750 725 700 675 650 625 60O 55° Number Receiving 219 37 189 8 3 79 164 356 Total number 4,545 Finally the following table from the Erie report shows how a large number of facts may be satisfactorily presented in one table: Table 104. Erie TEACHERS — 1901-1902 To- tal No. edu- cated wholly in Erie No. gradu- ated from Erie High School No. Erie Training Class No. hold- ing State Normal, College or University Cert. No. having Taught previ- ous to Erie Certificate Experience Prov. Prof. Perm. Less than i year One .... Two .... Three. . . . 8 22 20 20 8 IS 19 17 8 18 20 19 8 17 19 15 2 2 8 22 S 3 IS 14 1 Years' Experience German Teachers Principals Number receiving per Month As Eng- lish As Ger- man As Teacher Only As Prin- cipal 820 to $2 5 $26 to $3° S3 1 to $35 $36 to $40 $to6 to $110 $121 to $125 $136 to $140 $156 to $160 $181 to $185 $211 to $2 IS Less than i year One .... 2 2 5 1 1 I 6 7 1 1 2 IO 3 1 2 16 IS Two .... Three .... TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 107 Summaries of Principal Facts Where considerable statistical information has been collected, it is sometimes possible to combine much of it in one presentation which becomes highly effective for the information of the busy reader. An examination of many reports will show that few of them succeed well in sum- marizing information in a statistical way. The following tables represent some of the most successful devices in this direction. The first is the recapitulation form used in the Duluth report where facts of all varieties are presented so as to make comparison for four years possible: Table 105. Duluth RECAPITULATION STATISTICS Number of cases corporal punishment . . . Number times tardy Number times absent Number suspended for irregular attendance . Number suspended for misconduct . . . . Absence of teachers (in half days) . . . . Number of schoolhouses owned by city . . Number of schoolhouses built during year Number of schoolhouses under construction . Number of schoolrooms in use Number of sittings in use Number of supervising principals Number of teachers in grammar grades . . Number of teachers in intermediate grades . Number of teachers in primary grades . . . Number of teachers in ungraded schools . . Number of teachers of drawing Number of teachers in High School . . . . Number of teachers of penmanship . . . . Number of teachers of physical culture . . . Number of teachers in kindergartens . . . Total number of teachers and principals . . Average monthly wages of teachers — male . Average monthly wages of teachers — female io8 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS RECAPITULATION — {Continued) STATISTICS Money expended for text-books Cost per pupil for text-books on enrollment Cost per pupil for text-books on average attendance Cost per pupil for text-books on average number belonging . . . Money expended for supplies (not text-books, fuel, etc.) .... Cost per pupil for supplies on enrollment (not text-books, fuel, etc.) Cost per pupil on average attendance Cost per pupil on average number belonging Cost per pupil for janitors' salaries on enrollment Cost per pupil for janitors' salaries on average attendance . . . Cost per pupil for janitors' salaries on average number belonging . Cost per pupil for teachers' salaries on enrollment Cost per pupil for teachers' salaries on average attendance . . . Cost per pupil for teachers' salaries on average number belonging Cost per pupil for incidentals on enrollment Cost per pupil for incidentals on average attendance Cost per pupil for incidentals on average number belonging . . . Cost per pupil for fuel and lights on enrollment Cost per pupil for fuel and lights on average attendance .... Cost per pupil for fuel and lights on average number belonging . Cost per pupil for repairs and improvements Cost per pupil for repairs and improvements on average attendance Cost per pupil for repairs and improvements on average number be- longing Total cost per pupil on enrollment Total cost per pupil on average attendance Total cost per pupil on average number belonging Cost per pupil for sundries on enrollment Cost per pupil for sundries on average attendance Cost per pupil for sundries on average number belonging . . . Grand total per pupil on enrollment Grand total per pupil on average attendance Grand total per pupil on average number belonging Number of school days Number of pupils enrolled Number under 5 years of age enrolled Number between 5 and 8 enrolled Number between 8 and 16 enrolled Number between 16 and 21 enrolled Number over 21 years of age enrolled A similar table from the Grand Rapids report gives the main facts in a comparative way and partly for two years. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 109 Table 106. Grand Rapids GENERAL STATISTICS 1. Population of city according to state census . . . 2. School population according to census (legal) school age s to 20 years 3. Whole number of different pupils enrolled 4. Estimated number in schools not public 5. Number of school days in the year . . 6. Number of days taught 7. Estimated cash value of school property 8. Assessed value of taxable property . . 0. Tax for school purposes, mills per dollar 10. Cost of superintendence and instruction 11. Cost of permanent improvements . . 12. Cost of incidentals 95.783 26,907 15,662 4.45° 200 188 Si, 700,000.00 73.93S.6oo.oo S 284,849.30 16,399.94 147,982.01 100,000 26,908 15,539 5i"2 200 194 ,750,000.00 ,507,026.00 4.80 285,413.50 30,880.98 130,615.49 IS cj ft 00 "3 c V w tl KQ 7,671 1.673 2,368 206 5,303 1,467 5.231 1,492 4,381 1,189 4.231 1,215 4,158 1,158 4.043 1,162 3.736 1,182 7i 14! 143 IS 30 2 35 27.6 $24.44 $36.39 10.12 10.12 34-56 46.51 21 43 14.8 18.5 13. Total enrollment in each department 14. Total transfers in each department 15. Total different pupils enrolled 16. Total of different pupils enrolled last year . . . 17. Average number belonging 18. Average number belonging last year 19. Average daily attendance 20. Average daily attendance last year 21. Actual number of pupils belonging at close of school year 22. Number of men teachers, including superintendent 23. Number of women teachers 24. Number of special teachers 25. Number of pupils to teacher, based on average num- ber belonging 26. Cost of education per capita for superintendence and instruction, based on average number belong- ing 27. Cost per capita for incidentals, based on average number belonging 28. Total cost per capita for education 29. Number of nonresident pupils 30. Average age of class promoted 31. Number of pupils studying Latin, 606; Greek, 9; German, 425; French, 86 12,796 4,027 8,769 8,939 7,332 7,546 6,939 7,"3 5,77i 2! 223IJ 2 36.8 $20.06 10.12 30.18 14 11. 1 22,140 6,601 15,539 15,662 12,902 12,992 12,255 12,318 10,689 25 397 4 35 $22.12 32.24 78 IIO EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS The scheme adopted by the Superintendents' Convention in 1899 also shows a large number of facts in order, the illustration being taken from the Kansas City report: Table 107. Kansas City REPORT OF SCHOOL RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES FOR THE YEAR {Scheme adopted by City Superintendents' Convention, 1899) 1. Estimated actual value of all property in the city (or school district or corporation) 2. Assessed valuation of all property in city (or school dis- trict or corporation) $76,000,000 3. Rate of school tax levied on each dollar of assessed val- uation of city (or school district or corporation) . . 10 mills RECEIPTS 4. Received from state apportionment of taxes . . . 78,445 5. Received from county apportionment or taxes . . . 6. Received from city (or school district or corporation) taxes 773,196 7. Received from fines, licenses, penalties, etc. . . . I >°79 8. Received from all other sources, except loans and bond sales (specify different sources) 25,766 9. Received from loans 10. Received from bond sales ii. Total receipts, all sources $878,487 EXPENDITURES 12. Paid for salaries of teachers and supervisors . . . $415,287 13. Paid for current expenses (excluding interest, but in- cluding salaries of officers, janitors, fuel and lights, text-books, including drawing and writing books, stationery and other supplies for schools, ordinary repairs to buildings, and all other current expenses) 84,157 13}. For Library and Library Building Expenses . . . 3°>49i 14. Paid for sites ... i 5j55° 15. Paid for additions and new buildings 238,292 16. Paid for permanent furnishings and furniture . . . 1,466 17. Paid for permanent equipment for manual training, science and laboratories, etc 6,476 18. Paid for reference and library books 68 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS III 19. Paid for all other permanent improvements, such as grading, paving, etc. (specify different expendi- tures). Paving, $3,953; grading, $1,164; sewers, $160; condemnations, $21; curbing, $716; side- walks, $2,375; trees > $ x 45 tota l 8,405 20. Paid for interest 7°j534 21. Paid for principal of loans 22. Paid for principal of bonded debt 35,ooo 23. Total paid out, all purposes $905,709 24. Cash on hand at beginning of year (net) .... $133,743 25. Cash on hand at beginning of year in fund for sites and buildings (included in 24) 26. Cash on hand at beginning of year and sinking fund (included in 24) 50,488 27. Warrants outstanding, beginning of year .... 9>4 I 7 28. Cash on hand at end of year (net) 103,619 29. Cash on hand at end of year in fund for sites and build- ings (included in 28) 30. Cash on hand at end of year in sinking fund (included in 28) 67,420 31. Warrants outstanding at end of year 6,516 32. Paid current expenses, evening schools (included in 12 and 13) 33. Paid current expenses, teachers' training schools (in- cluded in 12 and 13) 34. Paid current expenses schools for defective or other special schools (included in 12 and 13. Specify different schools) 35. Bond school debt of city for school district or corpora- tion at end of year 1,705,000 36. Population of city (or school district or corporation) . 175,000 37. Persons of school age, 6 to 20 years, inclusive, in city (or school district or corporation) 61,749 38. Number of pupils enrolled, all schools 28,280 39. Average number in daily membership, all schools . 22,668 40. Average number in daily attendance, all schools . . 20,994 41. Average number in daily attendance, night schools (in- cluded in 40) 42. Average number in daily attendance, teachers' training schools (included in 40) 43. Average number in daily attendance, schools for defec- 112 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS tive or other special schools (included in 40. Specify different schools) 44. Annual cost of education per pupil (sum of Nos. 12 and 13 divided by 40) on the total enrollment, $18.10, and on the average daily attendance, $20.14. STATISTICS FOR 19OO-19OI Males Females Totals Number white persons in the district be- tween 6 and 20 years of age . . . Number colored persons in the district between 6 and 20 years of age . . Total white and colored .... Number white children who attended public school during the year . . . Number colored children who attended public school during the year . . . Total enrollment during the year . Increase over the previous year in Kansas City Total number days attended by all children Average number days attended by each child on the enrollment Number days school has been taught . Average number pupils attending school each day Total number in school under 16 years of age Number white pupils under 16 years of age Number colored pupils under 16 years of age Total number of pupils in school over 16 years of age Number white pupils over 16 years of age Number colored pupils over 16 years of age Total enrollment 28,283 2,686 30,969 12,036 1,327 13,363 279 12,492 11,267 1,225 871 767 104 28,163 2,617 30,780 13,319 i,S98 i4,9!7 448 13,400 11,984 1,416 i,5i7 1,335 182 56,446 5,303 61,749 25,355 2,925 28,280 727 3,778,920 133 180 20,994 25,892 23,251 2,641 2,388 286 28,280 TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS "3 Salaries paid male teachers, per month $10,239 Salaries paid female teachers, per month 35>i°5 Average salary paid male teachers, per month .... 126 Average salary paid female teachers, per month .... 67 Salary paid 30 substitutes, $20 per month 600 Number male teachers, white, 66; colored, 17; total . . 83 Number female teachers, white, 479; colored, 45; total . 524 Total white and colored 607 Number substitutes, white, 29 ; colored, 1 ; total ... 30 Total number teachers and substitutes 637 A table from the Erie report summarizes certain main facts over a long series of years: Table 108. Erie COMPARATIVE STATISTICS: YEAR ENDING FIRST MONDAY IN JUNE Year Assessment of City School Millage Receipts Expenditures Total Increase * Decrease t Total Increase * Decrease t 1871 .... 1872 .... 1873 .... 1874 .... $1,967,020 15,392,857 15,400,306 15,748,596 25 4 4 5 $53,54o 62,552 64,274 86,634 $9,012 * 1,721 * 22,360* $55,764 64,232 61,132 76,320 $8,468 * 3>ioof 15,187* Year Number of Teachers Average Sala- ries per Month Enrollment of Pupils Population Male Female Male Female Male Female 1871 .... 19,646 1872 .... 11 51 $64 $39 1,906 1.594 1873 .... 8 62 82 40 1,889 1,663 1874 .... 8 62 82 40 1,889 1,663 Similarly the Grand Rapids report gives statistics sum- marized for a series of years, and in considerable detail: H4 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 109. Grand Rapids GENERAL STATISTICS Years Population of city based on school census . . Number enumerated in school census (5 to 20 years) . . . Estimated number in schools not public . . . Whole number of different pupils enrolled . . Average number of pupils belonging .... Average daily attendance Per cent of whole number enrolled on number enumerated* Per cent of average number belonging on number enumerated* Per cent of daily attendance on number enrolled Per cent of daily attendance on number belonging Number of teachers (June) Number of pupils to a teacher, based on number belonging Cost per capita for superintendence and instruc- tion Cost per capita for incidentals Total cost per capita for education Number of non-resident pupils 42,119 12,218 1,100 7,925 6,042 5,667 66 5° 7i 94 167 35 13-27 13-57 26.84 180 44,329 ",775 1,290 8,250 6,323 5,966 67 41 72 94 182 35 14.02 9-35 23-37 138 48,810 14,066 1,788 8,539 6,438 6,045 66 5° 70 94 195 84 15.06 4.87 16.93 156 The St. Louis report, in brief space, summarizes the main facts of attendance and expenditures for each individual school : * Percentage based on school census of the preceding year. TABLES AND FACTS IN CITY SCHOOL REPORTS 115 Table iio. St. Louis SHOWING ENROLLMENT IN THE DAY SCHOOLS, AVER- AGE ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS, AVERAGE NUMBER OF TEACHERS, AND COST OF THE SCHOOLS FOR THE YEAR 1904-1905 Whole No. enrolled exclusive of dupli- H ■6 a -0 d ft 3 u Ph u CATE Registration la "S 3 Q u .0 6 3 °.S 2d CJ < < >, 73 O < < a 53 a Ph Names of Schools >> m 3 73 H O | ft U M cc) CO CJ CD O > **' <1 62 62 61 60 98 28 Central High 705 1,326 2,031 16 1.530 1,469 96 21 McKinley High 446 739 1,185 7 918 890 97 23 Yeatman High 297 512 809 4 603 559 93 20 Sumner High (colored) . . . 97 272 369 299 291 96 29 Total High Schools . . . 1. 545 2,849 4-394 27 3,350 3,209 96 23 714 788 1,502 87 1,186 1,105 93 49 102 112 214 26 185 172 93 37 "o is 73 d Names of Schools CD a 3 |7[ ,r Amount of =" 9 o_o -3'aS ftpH 3 . 73 •a 8<-3 ■n 9 ° d°13 H S ffl Total Cost of Teachers' *6 S3* cj-d Salaries ^ a ft . *H 3 °Ph& Jh CD Salaries and Inci- O c3 M cd cd O gymnasiums, physician's room? QUESTIONS AS TO RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES Occasionally Answered What has been the annual cost for a series of years of the school system as a whole? What has been the total amount expended for such items as salaries, administration, fuel, building, repairs? What has been the per capita expenditure, expressed in terms of average enrollment, or average daily attendance? Seldom Answered *What do the different classes of educational institution — ele- mentary schools, high schools, evening schools, etc. — cost ? *What has been the cost of the system over a series of years, by division of items? 120 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS *What is the cost of the system by individual schools? *How does the per capita cost compare over a series of years? *What is the relative per capita cost of different classes of school, as high, elementary, evening? *As among different schools, what is the relative per cent of cost of salaries, fuel, supplies, etc.? Never Answered *How does the amount expended on individual schools compare over a series of years, totals or per capita ? *By individual schools, what is the annual cost of fuel, supplies, etc., each reduced to some unit as per capita of attendance, sitting, class ? *What is the cost of medical inspection, and what for each unit of work? *What is the cost of evening school per unit of attendance or per child attending twenty nights (the average nightly attendance being a most uncertain unit for this purpose) ? *What is the cost of high school or elementary education, or of its special factors? *What is the cost of special subjects per pupil benefited? *How does district compare with district? *What part of last year's disbursements was for the preceding year or the year to come? *What goods or service were used last year and not paid for and not counted in cost? QUESTIONS AS TO CHILDREN TO BE EDUCATED Occasionally Answered *How many children does the school census show ? (Answered for ages 5 to 21 or other ages, which frequently bear little rela- tion to the ages at which children regularly attend school. ) *What is the relative number of children of school age of each sex? Seldom Answered *What are the numbers of children of each year of age in the city? *What is the number of children by ages, or within the ages of com- pulsory attendance, in each district? *By districts, how does the number of children of compulsory school age compare with the number in attendance on the public schools ? *0f the children not in attendance on the public schools, how many IMPORTANT QUESTIONS UNANSWERED BY REPORTS 121 are at private schools, in public or private institutions, hos- pitals, or otherwise satisfactorily accounted for? Never Answered *Where was child born? *Of the children recorded as attending school, how many are making only a nominal attendance? *Of those not attending, or attending only a short time, how many are physically incapacitated, and how? *What is the character of the parochial school attendance? *Of children at work and subject to census enumeration, what is the character of the employment? Are they working in factory, store, office, home? In what number of cases is the working illegal ? *How do seats provided and attendance compare with census of children of 4-5 (kindergarten age), 6-7 (permitted to attend), 8-13 (compelled to attend), 14-15 (permitted to work if satis- factory evidence of education is given) ? QUESTIONS AS TO CHILDREN ENROLLED AND ATTENDING Occasionally Answered What is the total enrollment? the average enrollment? the average daily attendance? What is the percentage of average daily attendance on average enrollment? (It may be pointed out that the items "total enrollment" and "average daily attendance" are usually com- puted in the same way; while there is a lack of uniformity in the method of computing the quantity "average enrollment." Some schools drop a child if absent three days, others carry on the roll for two weeks or more.) Seldom Answered What is the attendance, etc., by individual schools? *What is the amount of persistent attendance, i.e. the number of children who make attendances of 180 or more days out of a possible 200, 160 days out of 200, etc.? *What has been the character of the absence of children, i.e. of those who have been absent a given time, how much of the absence has been for short periods at frequent intervals, and how much for a few long periods? *Is attendance by grades or by ages regular and persistent? 122 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS *What is the character of attendance in the case of part-time pupils? *What is the distributed attendance in evening schools, i.e. how many attended 20 nights, 30, 40, etc. ? What was the attendance per teacher? per subject? Never Answered *What is the relation of attendance to health conditions? *What is the relation of attendance to scholarship? *What is the effect of adopting measures to improve attendance? *What is the connection between attendance and overcrowding? what is the part-time attendance? *What are the causes of non-attendance? of dropping out? *What proportion of children who should have finished the elementary and grammar grades fail to finish? QUESTIONS AS TO DESCRIPTION OF CHILDREN ATTENDING Occasionally Answered *What is the relative number of each sex enrolled? What is the relative number of each sex on average register? in average attendance? How many children are in each grade of the schools? How many children by given years of age? *In high schools, evening schools, etc., what is the number of children in each of the various subjects? Seldom Answered What is the relation between age and grade of the pupils enrolled? If we assume a certain normal age for each grade, what number and what percentage of children in each case are ahead or behind this normal age, or, as sometimes stated, how many over-age and under-age children are there? *What number of children drop out of the various grades each year, or during the vacation periods? *Of those who drop out, what number go to other schools? What number go to work? What number of withdrawals are un- explained ? *Of those who drop out, what are the typical scholarship records? *What is the relation between non-promotion and withdrawal from school ? *What is the relation between over-age and dropping out? *Is a connection shown between irregular attendance and final withdrawal? IMPORTANT QUESTIONS UNANSWERED BY REPORTS 123 QUESTIONS AS TO SCHOOL WORK Occasionally Answered Of children attending, what number are promoted, and in what grades ? *What number in each grade (or school) are not promoted? What is the number of graduates from the eighth grade? What relation does this bear to the number in the grade? *to the number who were on the seventh grade last year? *in the sixth the year before? Seldom Answered What is the number of promotions, or proportion of promotions, to the number that should have been eligible to promotion had scholarship, attendance, etc., been satisfactory? *What are the characteristic facts regarding the cases of non-pro- motion, i.e. how do they classify under such heads as failure owing to illness, irregular attendance, lack of ability, etc.? *Over a series of years, how many are the cases of pupils who have failed of promotion two successive years, or have failed of promotion more than once, and what, again, are the character - • istics of these cases? (It will be observed that the satisfactory control of the organization and administration of special or ungraded classes will depend on this information.) *How do schools that employ flexible grading compare with those which promote yearly or half-yearly in percentage of promo- tions and in percentage of survival? *Do high schools that promote by grade show a higher "mortality," i.e a higher percentage of "dropping out" than high schools that promote by subject? *What evidence is there that school training has prepared children for industrial efficiency? QUESTIONS AS TO COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE AND TRUANCY Occasionally Answered How many truant officers are there? What number of attendance cases have been investigated? What has been the number of cases of truancy, and what has been the work of the department with them? *What is the total cost of administering the compulsory attendance department : by divisions of expense, officers, supervision, etc. ? 124 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Seldom Answered *What is the actual number of children who should have been in school who have not attended? *What number have attended so short a time as to fail of educational profit? *Of those who have not attended, or have attended so short a time as to derive no profit, how many have been illegally employed? How many have been truant? How many have been phys- ically incapacitated for attendance? *Of the truants, what were the classes as regards physical condition, economic condition, scholarship condition, ages, grades, etc.? *What results has the truancy department accomplished toward the cure of truancy? *Where special truant schools exist, what quantitative contribution do they make to the education of the groups with which they deal? *What is the cost of the department of compulsory education in terms of some unit of results, such as children permanently restored to school, etc.? *How many truant officers are needed to attend promptly to non- attendants? *What is done with children who move out of the school district? Is a tracer or a notice sent to the school officers of the new district to which the child was moved? What efforts have been made to compel parents to enforce attend- ance by their children? QUESTIONS AS TO SPECIAL CLASSES Usually Answered (if special classes exist) How many children are specially treated? *What is the number (of each description) of special classes? What kind of pupils are treated in special classes, as regards scholar- ship, *behavior, physical condition, etc. ? What is the age and *grade of those dealt with in special classes? *What is the character of attendance and application? *What are the facts regarding the size of classes, number who are not admitted for lack of room, etc.? *What is the duration of attendance on special classes? *What is the effect of the attendance on special classes in terms of subsequent attendance, scholarship, grading, behavior, etc. ? IMPORTANT QUESTIONS UNANSWERED BY REPORTS 125 ♦What is the total cost of special class work: per class, per child benefited ? ♦What are the educational qualifications of the teachers carrying on special class work? ♦What is the effect upon attendance and progress of normal children when the "special problem" child is segregated? ♦Does the special class save expense in treating the normal child as well as in treating the special child? ♦What lessons applicable to regular classes are learned from indi- vidualization necessary in special classes? ♦Do special classes appreciably reduce commitments for truancy and for juvenile delinquency? QUESTIONS AS TO EVENING SCHOOLS Occasionally Answered How many evening schools, and what their enrollment and average attendance? ♦What is the cost of evening school work, in totals and per capita of average attendance? Seldom Answered ♦What is the attendance, distributed into groups so that one may learn how many of the students have from 90 to 100 evenings attendance out of a possible 100? ♦What is the distributed age and scholarship record of those attend- ing, per subject? ♦What is the cost of evening school education in terms of actual attendance and work done, or in terms of each evening of attendance ? What are the salaries and ♦qualifications of teachers? ♦How many teach in both day and night school? Are they as efficient as those who teach only one session? ♦How many pupils attend two or more seasons? How many earn certificates ? ♦Do boys of 14 and 15 who work by day profit enough from night school to justify the extra drain upon their physical strength? Are truancy, irregular attendance, and early falling out higher in this class than among older and stronger pupils ? ♦What are the effects upon the eyes of night study in badly lighted rooms ? 126 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS QUESTIONS AS TO VACATION SCHOOLS AND PLAYGROUNDS Occasionally Answered What has been the total enrollment? What has been the length of session? *What is the total cost of vacation school and playground? What the per capita cost based on average attendance? Never Answered *What is the character of the attendance, distributed as to duration or persistency, classes of children, kinds of work taken, etc. ? *What are the results of such attendance? *How many more vacation schools are needed? *What would it cost to give all children in the city the privileges now confined to a few? QUESTIONS AS TO MEDICAL INSPECTION Occasionally Answered *How many medical inspectors and nurses were employed? How many inspections were made? How many exclusions were made on account of communicable diseases? Seldom Answered *What is the cost of medical inspection, expressed either in totals or in terms of units of work done, etc. ? *What is the number and distribution of the force connected with medical inspection? *In case of inspection and nursing connected with chronic defects, what is the cost per unit of work done (which, of course, might be in terms of each child treated, or in terms of class or room or ioo children from which treated cases are taken)? How many visits were made by physicians or nurses at the homes of school children? Never Answered *What proportion of children need medical care? *What proportion of children backward in studies or over-age owe this condition to physical defect? *How many homes were visited? *How many schools and how many children have only the cursory inspection to detect communicable disease, without the thorough IMPORTANT QUESTIONS UNANSWERED BY REPORTS 127 medical examination for adenoids, enlarged tonsils, defective eyesight, and hearing? *What "follow up" methods are employed to see that physical de- fects arc corrected? What are the results? ♦What effort is made to teach mothers to care for children's heads and bodies so as to prevent head lice, itch, etc. ? *What is the effect upon school progress of removing physical de- fects ? *How many physicians and how many nurses are needed to do thoroughly for all children in all schools what is being done for a few children in a few schools? How much would their work cost? How much would they save? *What is the effect of inspection, examination, and home visiting upon prevalence of communicable disease? *Do family physicians and dispensaries cooperate? *What evidence is there that teachers appreciate that prompt atten- tion to children's physical defects will decrease waste of pupils' and teachers' time and of taxpayers' money? *How does the work done by school nurses and physicians responsible to the health authorities compare in quantity and quality with work done elsewhere or in former years by school nurses and physicians responsible to the school authorities? CHAPTER VI Suggested Economies and Improvements for School Reports The foregoing list of topics upon which information might be presented in school reports by statistical and other means represents information that school boards should possess currently and publish periodically rather than in- formation that should be included in each yearly report. For reasons of economy it might be impracticable and un- desirable to take them all up at any one time, or even, in some places, at all. There are certain principles of economy that may well be observed in preparing reports, some of which are suggested by a study of existing reports. The first principle to be observed is that only such data shall be collected and such reports prepared as will tend to answer, either now or in the future, questions bearing on educational efficiency, and serve the purposes of school administration, either directly or through the indirect means of publicity. Wherever considerable labor is required to assemble or interpret statistics, it is wise to keep this cri- terion in mind. For example, in some systems it is customary to preserve and tabulate information regarding occupations and nationalities of parents of children in the schools. In the case of special schools, — as, e.g., high schools, vacation schools, evening schools, and the like, — it is probable that this information would, if properly interpreted, have a distinct bearing on administrative efficiency; but in the ordinary elementary school, supposedly working under com- pulsory education laws, detailed information regarding nation- ality and occupations of parents can hardly serve any useful purpose. Furthermore, in the case of those types of edu- 128 SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 129 cation for which it seems desirable to collect the above species of information, one may doubt if any valuable purpose is served by collecting and publishing it yearly. An exhibition at intervals of three or five years, at least as far as publica- tion is concerned, will serve every necessary purpose. Again, it is evident that in a small system the annual publication of itemized expenditures may serve a useful purpose; such publication in a large city would in no way minister to actual publicity. Of course the system of book- keeping for the city will preserve these items in their detailed form, but owing to the complexity of the situation presented, their publication, except in significant summaries, will hardly tend to true publicity. In general it may be said that there is needed in each city system a careful study of the conditions under which edu- cational data should be collected and published. That which is desirable for the large city may be quite unnecessary in the small city; and that which is practicable to present in an extended form in the small city must be very much digested and interpreted in the large. The standards of selection must be determined: first, by the administrative problems upon which the collecting and arranging of facts will tend to shed light and by the degree of publicity which it is the right of the intelligent citizen to demand in a system of public administration; and, second, by the limits of energy and means available among teachers and others responsible for such collecting and interpreting of statistics. If the United States commissioner would institute such a sci- entific study of the reporting required by the school interests of large and small cities, the results would be prompt and vast. The second principle of economy depends upon the conditions under which the primary data of statistics are collected. By primary data is here meant facts collected and assembled by those workers in immediate contact with the facts which enter into statistical presentations. The 130 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS primary data for financial statistics originate with those who handle bills, receive vouchers, and make original entries. In the count of children the original data are supplied by the census taker. The teacher is the source of original data regarding facts of attendance, grade, age, scholarship, deportment, and final disposition of the children who attend school. The attendance officer provides original data re- garding the special facts in connection with the limited number of children who come under his attention. Simi- larly, the school physician or other medical inspector pro- vides original data regarding health. The principal of the school provides primary data as to attendance of teachers, suspension of pupils, and many other facts, while some primary data regarding teachers — grade of certificate, sal- ary, age, place of education, teaching ability, etc. — originate in the superintendent's office. Recent business progress in America has clearly demon- strated that there may be a scientific treatment of the con- ditions under which primary data are obtained, with a view to economy as well as to efficiency. Many of the registers and other blanks on which teachers now make primary records are cumbersome and wasteful of time. An example is found in the daily register which may be made to contain all records of the pupil except those of scholarship. As frequently provided, it requires that the names of all pupils shall be written anew each month. But there are forms available in which it is necessary to write the names of pupils but once in the term or year, and by a system of indented leaves all records are made automatically to stand opposite the name and other facts which thus are entered but once. In such a register, having all entries of attendance on one line, summarization of attendance, etc. — not merely by months, but by the year as well — is obviously a simple process. Suppose that for administrative reasons it is desirable to present a record of attendance, not in terms of SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS J 3* the average of daily attendance, but in such a way that the citizen or others concerned can learn what proportion of the children are making attendances of a given number of days in the year. If the teacher be furnished a blank like the following, it will be a matter of but a few minutes' counting to obtain the necessary information from the register, and it will take the principal or superintendent's office a very short time to add these preliminary totals and so arrive at a distributed table of school attendance, a fact that is far more significant in day schools as well as evening schools and vacation schools than the mere average of attendance. Table hi SHOWING NUMBER OF PUPILS MAKING GIVEN NUMBERS OF DAYS' ATTENDANCE >> 5» rt a >. c? Q Q p Q Q P o\ o. Ov o. o> o> Ov CO li^ *^ o. o 3, o o o ■2, v$* o o o o o r-O" «fr •o 00 B a a a a a a o o o o o o o u u M £ Pn Pn tn En fi fe First Grade . . . Second Grade . . Similarly, if it seems desirable to make an exhibit of school attendance by the months of the year, — in order to demonstrate conditions of falling out, going to work, increase of population during certain months, or other facts, — such a table can almost instantly be compiled from the right type of register. The advantage of having a card record so arranged that annual records of significant facts can be compiled from the register, and preserved for the individual pupil for several years, will be discussed later. At present it is so seldom employed that it is practically impossible for any 132 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS city to provide statistical records of individual groups of pupils extending over a series of years. If such cards were employed, it would then be possible for the teacher to provide much of the following information more conveniently than from the register, though in a properly arranged register this can be done with a moderate outlay of time and energy. The following are some of the types of information that can be easily provided: age groups, by a given grade; scholar- ship groups; character of school absenteeism by groups and by alleged causes, etc. More important is it to observe that the teacher, with the original data easily at hand, can, on convenient blanks, check off in a few minutes the sched- ules of related facts which may be presented in tables of double classification or double distribution. Few cities, for example, present the double distribution tables of age and grade which show progressively how the children in a given city stand with reference to these two sets of facts. In order to obtain such a table it is obvious that the teacher or other person having primary individual records must check these off individually in a blank like the following, the combined records of each pupil determining the square in which the count must be made : Table 112 SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS IN EACH GRADE BY AGES, RECORDS OF AGES BEING MADE (insert date) First Grade Second Grade Totals Males Females Males Females Males Females From s years 6 months to 6 years 6 months **x ii Etc. Sub-totals .... 6 2 From 6 years 6 months to 7 years 6 months in TfSi. I Sub-totals .... 3 6 Totals SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 133 These double-distribution or double-classification tables, — especially when the totals are reduced to a common denominator by percentages or otherwise (which need not be done by the person having control of primary records), — are of great value in disclosing facts of proportion and relationship that cannot be suggested otherwise. In the same way relationships can be exhibited between such sets of facts as: attendance and scholarship, scholarship and over-age (number of years pupil is above normal or median age for his grade), non-promotion and attendance, attendance and nationality or occupation of parents, etc., and (if we had better classification) the relationships between health groups and attendance groups, between health and scholar- ship, between health and moral character, scholarship and moral character, etc. With satisfactory original records the possibilities of discovering many important facts is great in these directions. A few further examples will illustrate this. Many reports of evening schools, for example, give distributed tables of attendance, since it is quite generally recognized that the average as a statement of attendance here is quite worthless. Also many give distributed tables of the ages of those at- tending, since it is matter not merely of interest, but of administrative control to know the age character of evening school attendance. But only in the rarest instances are these two sets of facts given in the form of double-distribu- tion tables which would tend to show far more than the two tables presented separately. Yet with satisfactory original entries and the provision of a blank like the follow- ing, it would be an easy matter to present the entire range of facts. 134 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Table 113 SHOWING RELATED DISTRIBUTIONS OF AGES OF STU- DENTS AND ATTENDANCES MADE IN THE EVENING HIGH SCHOOL Age of Students Attendance of from i to 20 Evenings Attendance of from 21 to 40 Evenings Attendance of from 41 to 60 Evenings Totals From 14 years 6 months to 1 6 years 6 months mi J-stj 1 Etc. Sub-totals .... 4 6 From 16 years 6 months to 1 8 years 6 months II ^ Etc. Sub-totals .... 2 10 Etc. Totals From such a table (and only from such a source) can we discover the relation between the age of evening school students and their persistency of attendance, relation which is surely most important in determining the kind of courses and other facilities which should be provided. There are minor facts which, by being made matters of primary record in the register, might ultimately tend to show facts of importance in administration. An instance of this is found in the relation between persistency of attend- ance and the distance at which the child lives from school. If, in one column of the register, this distance were recorded at the beginning of the year, at the close it would be practic- able, in a few minutes, to transfer the appropriate facts to a blank containing a horizontal distribution of groups of days attended and a vertical distribution of distances at which children came to school; thus the facts recorded could be interpreted at leisure. Other instances of possible double classification will be discussed later. The third principle of economy relates to the publication of statistical tables in school reports. It has become custom- SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 135 ary to issue reports each year, and to have each number contain full statistical presentations along all lines. But for purposes of administrative control, or for the kind of publicity that should be sought, it is not at all necessary that the publication of all sorts of tables should be annually repeated. For some types of information, biennial or triennial publication would suffice. There are other types of statistics which, if well presented once in five years, with columns provided for comparative purposes extending over the years intervening since the last publication, would serve every purpose. In still other cases, and especially in the case of somewhat extended studies of relationship as shown by statistical presentations, more or less frequent publica- tion would certainly serve every purpose. For the sake of clearness, it would be desirable in each report to publish a schedule showing when detailed tables have been pre- sented or when they may again be expected, so that the interested investigator could refer to previous or forth- coming issues of the report for information not contained in the last number. But in general there is no inherent reason why every year's report should contain in printed form all available statistics, provided there be some effective guarantee that such information will be available at regular intervals, and that the school officials have before them for current administrative use the information contained in these tables. The foregoing considerations are based on an examina- tion of city school reports as they are now found. The methods and procedures given have, within limits, been tested experimentally, and most of them have proved of statistical utility. Any suggestions and steps beyond these must be regarded as tentative, since only experience can demonstrate the practicability of new devices. In other fields of social economy administrative control and publicity have been secured through devices that have not yet been 136 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS applied to educational statistics. The United States De- partment of Labor, as well as the Bureau of Immigration, has developed means of interpreting statistics that are not found in other reports of the national government. Certain means adopted in the twelfth census exceed in excellence the corresponding means found in educational reports. The annual reports of some of the large philanthropic organi- zations, like the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, the Charity Organization Society, and the United Hebrew Charities of New York City, exhibit certain features of statistical presentation that might well be imitated by educational officers. In the reports of the state boards of charity and correction for Indiana and Ohio we find certain tables showing expenditures for a variety of public institutions. These tables represent in the highest degree the advantages that accrue from publicity by means of statistics. Presented in such a way as to foster com- parison (not only by totals, but by per capita expenditures) of the expenses of the institutions by years, the citizen and the interested legislator have available the best possible checks on extravagance and maladministration. In very little of our public work is the excellent principle of publicity pushed so far. In the field of financial administration it is hardly in place here to go beyond the suggestion that the business world has worked out methods by which records and accounts can be made to answer any and every question that may be in the mind of an administrative officer. Enterprising banks, railroads, insurance companies, department stores, factories, would not think of conducting their business with the inefficient methods of bookkeeping that still obtain in school work. As has been stated elsewhere, we find in promoting school welfare as in promoting the welfare of other city departments or in strengthening branches of business enterprise, the clear financial statement is one of SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 137 the best means of obtaining increased financial support. Any method of accounting that conceals inefficiency in financial management will conceal also financial need of a school system. Any Board of Education that cares to obtain increased financial support and to arrive at better standards of educational bookkeeping can find experts capable of devising methods of relating educational work to cost adapted to the particular schools in question. If in doubt or if living in communities where the profession of accounting is not yet developed, directors would do well to address inquiries to the New York School of Philan- thropy, which will be permanently in position to make helpful suggestions. A conspicuous defect of most financial statements in school reports is their failure to present expenditure in terms of some common denominator to the end that the average reader may make easy comparison among different schools, or articles of supply, or over a series of years. As has been already indicated, no statement of fuel consumption can be finally satisfactory that is presented merely in totals distributed among various schools. Such totals do not in any way point to wasteful consumption. Suppose, for example, the fuel consumption were presented in a table like the following, using any one or all three of the units suggested ; any marked deviation from a normal amount of fuel consumed would at once suggest inquiry to discover the cause, which of course might lie in any one of several directions, — like defective furnaces, exposed or badly constructed buildings, unskillful firing, or actual misappropriation of fuel. Table 114 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS SHOWING CONSUMPTION OF FUEL IN DISTRICT SCHOOL Number of Tons Cost per Ton Total Cost Cost per 1000 Cu. Ft. Cost per Sitting Cost per Capita of Attendance Fuel No. 1 Fuel No. 2 School No. 1 . . School No. 2 . . Etc Total of Average If such statistics were preserved year after year and if it were at any time a matter of uncertainty as to where causes of deviation from the normal might lie, a table could readily be prepared, which would cast still more light on possible sources of waste, by showing, over a series of years, whether a marked departure from the average is due to a transient cause or to something fundamental in building or in janitor service. Excellent tables are given and used in Milwaukee and Balti- more. After these forms were given to the Superintendent of Supplies of the New York Board of Education methods were adopted that resulted in a saving of over $200,000 yearly in coal. In general it may be said that in all matters of routine expenditure where waste or peculation may possibly enter, it is highly desirable to present to the public something more than mere totals of expenditure. By reducing the expendi- tures among different schools, or different supplies consumed, — as fuel, school supplies to children, text-books, etc., — to some unit basis, it becomes much more possible to detect variations and to seek an explanation of the same. The statistics of school expenditure present a relatively simple problem in one respect, owing to the possibility of definite schemes of classification. On the other hand, in endeavoring to provide better statistics of school work SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 139 or the results of such work, educators are handicapped by the absence of satisfactory schemes of classification. Children may be classified readily enough along a few lines, as previously illustrated in the existing statistics — these being sex, age, grade, attendance, parental nationality and occupation, and, less perfectly, scholarship, promotion, graduation, and deportment. But in the highly important matters of health, moral character, mental ability, actual educational progress made in school, economic condition of family, and many others, — it is difficult, at present, to make any statistical showing because adequate schemes of classification have not yet been devised. For comparative purposes it is obviously almost indispensable to have simple schemes of classification. Thus from the standpoint of its effect on school work, the health of children cannot be classi- fied on the basis of the indefinite number of complaints diag- nosed by the physician. For purposes of administrative control children should, as to their physical well-being, be divided into relatively few categories, — these being graduated with reference to the bearing of each on the ability of the child in school work, or the degree to which it should modify or restrain such work. Simply by way of illustration it may be pointed out that, if it were possible to make four or five divisions of children on the basis of their merely physical ability to submit profitably to school hours, discipline, and studies, administrative adjustment would be greatly facili- tated. Some of our city schools are slowly discovering that a large percentage of over-age children are suffering from some sort of positive physical handicap. Surely it would be of the utmost educational interest and value (assuming that we could simply and with fair accuracy classify children on the score of physical well-being) to discover what relation- ship existed between physical vitality and such matters as scholarship, attendance, over-age, behavior, promotion, and graduation, etc. 140 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Possibly such classification must wait on the development of medical inspection, and close cooperation between school physicians and teachers. Since, however, every teacher is assumed to know something of the health conditions of her pupils, and to wish to relate school work to these health conditions, it seems reasonably practical to provide the teacher with some carefully (even if tentatively) planned scheme of classification, to the end that each child should be classified according to the teacher's best judgment and that ultimately these classifications may be worked into relationship with other methods of classifying children. Even the imperfect work of the teacher in this field, where she is not expected to possess expert knowledge, would undoubtedly make her more discriminating, and her imperfect results might still shadow forth certain very important facts of school administration. Moral character, or, as the school test makes it, deportment, is now subject to classification in school reports. The classification, however, does not seem to be adequate for the purposes of studying the relationship of the facts of moral character to scholarship, regularity of attendance, over-age, health, etc., for we never find such studies made on a statistical basis. It is conceivable that a more adequate treatment of classification in this regard would lead to results which would finally have much importance in the matter of forming and dealing with special classes, administering discipline, etc. Another field in which we lack classification at the present time has reference to the economic and social condition of the homes of the children. It might possibly be considered un- American and inquisitorial to endeavor to obtain such facts, but in view of the close bearing of nurture, regular rest, etc., on the educational work of the school, it may well be deemed an essential part of the work of school administration to obtain such information. In all this discussion, of course, there is not assumed any publicity as regards individual cases ; public- ity is supposed to extend only to classes of persons with whom SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 141 the school deals, and then only on the assumption that such publicity affects the educational work beneficially. Hence the obtaining of the above data and its classification would not in any way disclose parental conditions except to those whose share in the education of the child entitles them to confiden- tial information on these points on somewhat the same basis as it does to the results of medical inspection. A valuable contribution to knowledge of home conditions, and the need for home teaching of non-dependent as well as dependent or very poor mothers, is given in the Report on Home Con- ditions of 1400 Families whose Children were found by School Physicians to have Physical Defects, by the New York Committee on Physical Welfare of School Children, American Statistical Journal, July, 1907. So far as the results of school work are concerned, the educational system is seriously at fault in its failure to provide systems of classification that enable the city to know what is actually done by its public school system. We have seen that our first test of educational work is in terms of attendances made ; the second is in terms of promotions and graduations. Beyond this the public possesses no means of ascertaining whether the work of the system is worth while or not. An instance of this is found in the case of children who are kept in school under the operation of compulsory education laws and who, of themselves or through the connivance of their parents, seek to evade such laws. What does this compul- sory attendance accomplish for them? Do they make any progress in the classes to which they are assigned? What is their condition when they finally reach the age where the law no longer may force them to attend? At present our defective systems of classification and statistical presentation give us no light whatever on this problem which is surely of great administrative importance. Similarly with regard to the vast number of children who fail of promotion or of gradua- tion. Who are they ? Why are they behind ? What becomes 142 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS of them ? Even now few reports are so prepared as to indicate the existence of such a class ; whilst in no case is any statistical presentation made which would enable the interested citi- zen to learn why the school has failed to reach or affect such a class. In other words, the defects in our reports start from the elementary fact that we do not yet possess any adequate system of classifying the results of school work to the end that tabulated statements of results may be made. The final success of any statistical work is dependent upon systems of classification that will prove workable. In few departments of science or practical affairs can we have exact and rigid classifications ; all are, within limits, approximate ; but approximate classifications, if understood to be approxi- mate, are of great service in all statistical methods of arriving at knowledge of fact and control of action. Especially must any classifications of school children be based measurably on estimate and approximation ; but their value is great. In trying to depend upon classifications and arbitrary divisions there is, of course, the ever present danger that the individual will be lost sight of, and it is probable that many efficient superintendents, — especially of smaller school sys- tems, where some contact of superintendent with individual teacher and of teacher with pupil is possible, — will resent the tendency to ask for more extended statistical methods in dealing with their schools, on the ground that they do not wish their teachers to become statisticians, if that will in any way interfere with their regard for the individual. But this, of course, is a fear of the abuses, not of the proper uses, of educational statistics. It could be readily demonstrated that as school administration is at present, not merely in- dividuals, but entire groups and classes of individuals suffer irremediable injury, owing to our failure to develop and to employ quantitative standards in our work. Publicity of the right kind and administrative control mean that the instru- ments by which these are attained shall be merely means to SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 143 the knowledge and control which lie at the basis of adminis- trative efficiency and not that these means shall become ends in themselves. In addition to working classifications that will cover a wider range of fact than can now be reached, there is also a well-defined demand for such forms of record as will tend to give the main facts regarding each individual pupil through- out his school life. Because the class register is not practicable for this purpose the continuous card is proposed. The con- tinuous card record has been tried at some points, especially in high schools, as a means of preserving a permanent scholar- ship record in cases where promotion is by subject. In elementary schools it has been used, but only in one or two places in such a form as to preserve all the important facts regarding the individual pupil. Frequently it contains only name and residence, name of parent, etc., and is used by the principal. But the ideal card should be such as would, at the end of each term or year, receive from the register and the book of class standings all the important facts, in summarized form, so that from term to term or year to year these would be accumulated, thus providing a history of the pupil. In German and French schools this is accomplished by the book which the pupil retains. But for administrative purposes in American schools it would be preferable that this card should always be retained by the school, provision being made to have it passed on from one school to another as the pupil is trans- ferred. Such a card as this is now advocated by a com- mittee of principals for the New York schools, and if adopted, will undoubtedly be quickly copied in other schools. It is estimated that this card and the changes that it would neces- sitate will save one half hour a day for each teacher and in addition will give invaluable information as to school, prin- cipal, teacher, and child. Facts as to the proposed individual record can be had by applying to City Superintendent of Schools, 59th Street and Park Avenue, New York City. 144 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS The precise form of such a card as this would have to be a matter of experiment in schools of different types and sizes. Here again is need for a scientific investigation such as only the United States Bureau of Education is equipped to make for all states. It is important that a card be devised that is suitable for all sections of the country, because comparison of one city with another is a most valuable means of school progress. If, as before suggested, it were possible to make in some very brief form a classification of pupils as to health, deportment, social environment, etc., it would certainly be desirable that space be provided for such facts. Obviously a form like the following would contain the more important facts : Table 115 SAMPLE CARD FOR CONTINUOUS RECORD (Size 5 in. by 7 in.) Name (Boy or Girl) ...... Year Month Date of Birth Place of Birth Day Name of Father Occupation of Father. Nationality of Father. Name of School Grade Term Promotion Residence Attendance Present Absent P. S. 71 4th B. f 1-14-06 ) 1 6-10-06 ) P 221 Blank 171 29 of School >> Scholarship a CD s a, CD P CD w Name 1 la 1 5-> B so CD CD a <*> a a Special Notes P. S. 71 • 12 A c B D B A A c B Was ill 1 month A separate sheet of instructions would be supplied to the teacher. Most of the above items are self-explanatory, but note: SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 145 1. If pupil is boy, cancel word girl, and vice versa. 2. Use P, nP, and cP for promoted, not promoted, conditionally promoted. 3. Scholarship marks are found by averaging quarter marks in special subjects, and averaging these for groups of related subjects, e.g. spelling, composition, mechanics of reading, and grammar make the subject "Language." 4. Teacher's estimate of health is from teacher's standpoint. Medical examiner has separate card. Teacher will use following basis of record for health. A. Continuous good health and working vigor. B. Good health, except period of illness. C. Generally poor health or chronic colds, nervousness, etc., but not so as to interfere greatly with school work. D. Chronically poor health, periods of severe illness, etc. The statistical uses to which some such card could be put in endeavoring to improve administrative control of a school system are almost indefinite. Many of the most important questions as to what the school is able to accomplish with children — questions of retardation in grades, of causes of failure of promotion, etc. — could be statistically answered. As a means of educational diagnosis, some thousands of such cards, running over a series of years, would be incomparably superior to any form of records now made. Furthermore, as a means of diagnosing social conditions and social tendencies there is ground for believing that no other field offers greater opportunity for such scientific research as that to which are devoted the funds of the Carnegie Institution for Scientific Research and the Russell Sage Foundation for Improving Social Conditions. Grave doubt is frequently expressed whether the school census in the large American city is a profitable investment of money. Common sense tells us that if educational ad- ministration is to be at all worth while, it is desirable that the city know how many children are to be educated, where they are located, and whether they are receiving an education at 146 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS the hands of private agencies. But experience often dem- onstrates that as the school census is now taken we really do not arrive at any workable statement in regard to the above matters. The census is taken by people who are inexpert and who can get trustworthy information only on matters of number and location, regarding which parents have no desire to misstate facts. The results of the census are published only after a considerable interval during which many children have come of age, many have moved, and other conditions have changed. Finally, the census when taken is not in a form to be actually used by a given school or its attendance department in a profitable way. This criticism applies to most American cities. It seems quite probable that the taking and keeping of the school census will have to be put on an entirely different basis before it will successfully meet the real needs of the situation. The following is submitted as a logical solution of the difficulty. In its main features it corresponds to many of the modern devices of successful business administration, and merits, therefore, the credit of an examination. 1 Each large American city has, as an adjunct to its educa- tional administration, an attendance department. Let us assume that a census of all children in a given school dis- trict is once made, and its results preserved on cards in the form of a card catalogue. Let us assume that once being made, it becomes the duty of the attendance department to keep this census up to date. Naturally a procedure somewhat like the following would be carried out : a week or two after the opening of the public school of a given district, the attend- ance officer would sort out, from the entire number of cards standing for the children of school age in the district during the previous term, the cards of those children who were now in attendance, and also the cards of those who had passed beyond 1 The substance of this discussion of the School Census appeared in the New York School Journal, Vol. 70, p. 553. SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 147 the compulsory school age. The attendance officer would find in the school a number of children for whom he had no census cards, these representing new arrivals in the district. For these new cards could readily be prepared in the school itself. After this preliminary sorting, there would remain the cards of all children not attending school. These would consist of the following classes : (a) Children who had re- moved from the district during the summer ; (b) Children who were attending private schools; (c) Children detained by parents for satisfactory reasons, as illness ; and (d) Children who were absent from school illegally. A further sorting of the cards could now be made, for purely temporary purposes, on the basis of those who, by virtue of their previous record, would probably fall into classes (6) and (c). This would leave a residuum of cases which it would be the business of the attendance department to investigate at once. If, owing to the age or sex or previous record of the pupil, it seemed probable that certain children were being illegally employed, or were truant, then naturally these cases would be first in- vestigated. Or, since each card contains the residence of the pupil for the preceding year, it would be possible now to classify these cards by city blocks or such other restricted areas as would facilitate door-to-door investigation. In the course of this investigation, the officer would find many cases of removal, and the houses occupied by newcomers. For these newcomers he would then and there make a census. In other cases he would discover illness, chronic or temporary, and here a record of this fact would be made. Other children would be reported at parochial schools, and note be made of that fact, — the parent's statement to be corroborated later by information procured from the school itself. And so the work would go on, the attendance department proceeding in a thoroughly systematic fashion instead of the haphazard fashion that is now the rule in most cities. 148 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS There would still be a certain number of newcomers in the district for whom there were no cards in the school. If these children were sent to private school or illegally detained from school, the attendance department would have no check on them until it had included them in its census. This assumes that the department would, in due season, set about the making of census of all these new arrivals, and in a region where there is much shifting of population this would be a considerable task. But at least two considerations must be kept in mind here. The first is that the attendance officer or officers attached to a given school would be supposed to know their areas very well. Knowing these areas thus well, they would by multitudinous ways receive a large amount of information as to new arrivals, location of unschooled children, etc., quite early in the year. It has been previously shown that the investigation of homes from which families on last year's record have removed would suffice to disclose a con- siderable number of these new arrivals. Again, the attend- ance department would be at work the entire year taking note of all new arrivals at the school, and so a considerable number of new arrivals would tend to enroll themselves. In discussing any continuous census of this sort, it must be kept in mind that it could be made to provide information which the census as now taken cannot provide. The present census is usually taken by very inexpert people, — by the police or by men or women hired for a few days and who know little of the language or customs of the area in which they work. It is taken by people who have neither opportu- nity nor desire to pursue their investigations further than a merely formal compliance with the requirements of their work. Where the police take the census, conditions are some- what improved, but here again there are many obstacles in the way of securing exact information. It is not for the inter- mittent census taker to determine whether a child reported as deaf, ill, or crippled, is really so or not. But the attend- SUGGESTED ECONOMIES AND IMPROVEMENTS 149 ancc department, cooperating with all departments of the school system and also with the organized charitable asso- ciations, would have greater reason and greater opportunity to verify the facts. Again, any statistics of school attendance now taken in the census are practically worthless, even assuming that parents report correctly, for they express that attendance in no quanti- tative way. For example, the school census of a city shows that so many children of given ages have attended public school and so many have attended parochial school. But there is nothing to prevent an attendance of a week or two from counting in either enumeration. On the other hand, if provision were made to enter the approximate time attend- ances on the permanent card kept by the attendance de- partment, the officer could easily obtain such figures from public and private schools at a minimum expenditure of time. From these cards, in the long run, could also be obtained the most satisfactory information for the enforcement of child labor laws. After such census had been kept up for some years, it would be entirely practicable to obtain the past school history of any city child. The earlier age records would seldom show any tendency to give false records, and so a check would be had on the tendencies of parents to over- estimate the ages of their children when the age limit for compulsory attendance is approaching. Nothing is said here about the cooperation of one school with another in the matter of keeping these records ad- justed, and in interchanging cards where the address to which families have moved can be found. But a really efficient scheme of administration would soon discover opportunities for this. However businesslike such a plan as the above may appear on paper, its feasibility may be questioned. At present New York has one attendance officer to something like nine thou- sand children on net enrollment. Even for the present work 150 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS of the attendance department it is claimed that the above number of officers is quite inadequate. If it were possible to utilize some of the money now spent on the taking of the school census, it would considerably increase the efficiency of an at- tendance department. It is very improbable that the keeping of a live census would be in effect the addition of so much more work to the present attendance department, for the census above proposed would in many directions greatly expedite the present work of the department. It is quite conceivable that one attendance officer to 5000 children of school age in a compactly settled city like New York might be sufficient to do the entire work because there would be relatively few cases to be investigated after due account of all children actually attending school had been taken; and the businesslike methods above proposed would tend to bring this residue into evidence in the most expeditious manner possible. It should be noted that, while the school would be the main gainer in effectiveness through a trustworthy and up-to-date census, other civic work would be greatly aided by it. Chari- table societies would find it of much service, and the statistics of children so gathered would be of the utmost significance to students and scientists. CHAPTER VII A Practical Study of One School Report (New York City) The starting point for any school officer or volunteer student of school needs who may wish to apply the principles laid down in the foregoing chapters will naturally be the report of his own schools. By applying to one's local school report questions raised in Chapter V, or by comparing tables with those cited in Chapter IV from the best city reports, the reader will be able at once to see whether constructive suggestions are required. The complete report for the schools of New York City is in two volumes, one signed by the Superin- tendent of Schools (for the school year ending July 31) and one by the Board of Education (for the fiscal year ending De- cember 31). Since the latter is not given general circulation, and since the former contains facts as to financial adminis- tration, this study of reporting in New York City is confined to the City Superintendent's Eighth Annual Report for the year ending July 31, 1906. Its Potential Influence A word-to-word reading of this document of 479 pages shows that it deals with questions of tremendous moment not only to New York City, but to the educational world. In fact, it is probable that no other single school report touches upon so many problems and so many aims of a public school system. Effective use is repeatedly made of tabular state- ments to disclose tendencies, to show increases and de- creases, to advertise the needs of different districts and differ- ent schools for special facilities, to interpret the progress of certain lines of educational effort. The argument for adequate records and accounts is condensed in the plea for a study of European experience of trade schools (p. 123), — "The 151 152 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS chief difficulty is that we have no traditions to guide us, no standards by which to measure our work, no fund of ex- perience from which to draw." Just because this report is brim full of suggestive material it is important that its sug- gestions, and the experience upon which these suggestions are based, be marshaled with the utmost efficiency. No American school report, in fact no school report in the world, has the educational opportunity of that describing the ex- perience and the needs of New York City's schools. So far as its standards are higher than other cities, it exerts a power- ful influence for more intelligent analysis of school experience. So far as its statistical and pedagogical methods fall short, it is probably true of this report as of no other, that it is a serious handicap to educational advance throughout the world. In attempting, therefore, to measure this report by the standards set up in the foregoing chapters, we are not only suggesting steps by which any school officer or volunteer may measure his local school report, but we are interpreting the need for school statistics in the light of the interests of 700,000 children in one administrative unit and of taxpayers who gladly pay a school tax of nearly $30,000,000 a year. Technical Methods It would not be profitable in this chapter to make a critical examination in detail, as in almost every instance typical needs called to the attention of those who prepare a report will suffice to establish both principle and method. Of the 147 questions given in Chapter V, 1 13 (marked*) are not answered in the New York Report. The great number of questions not there listed that are answered, however, speak eloquently of the possibilities of a school report that is intended to answer important queries and to help solve problems. It is proposed, therefore, merely to cite a few examples where tables could be easily improved and the Superintendent's message strength- ened, were certain technical methods adopted that have been found useful in other cities. a practical study of one school report 153 Alphabetical Topical Index The Table of Contents is chronological, not topical. In reading these four pages one gets the impression of a sug- gestive, comprehensive report dealing with a great many social and educational conditions and problems, — kinder- garten growth, part-time problem, promotion, schools without kindergarten, shops or kitchen, changes in course of study for elementary schools, diseases in school children, classes for mentally defective children, schools for the crippled, deaf and dumb and blind, compulsory education, pupils' self-govern- ment, parents' meetings, drawing, music, cooking, vacation schools and playgrounds, physical training, medical school inspection. But since few persons read any report from cover to cover and since most of us use reports for answering questions as to one particular problem at a time, the reader can obtain little help from this Table of Contents. An alphabet- ical, topical index, showing for the Superintendent's report and its twenty appendices all the pages where each subject is treated, would greatly increase both the usefulness and the interest of the report. Typographical Technique The introductory pages that set forth the powers and organ- ization of the Board of Education (pp. 9-14) promise logical treatment, use of indentation, numerals, and letters to facilitate classification. This promise, however, the body of the re- port fails to fulfill. No use is made of heavy-faced type or of the many other devices by which a printer can aid the reader. There are no page headings. Page after page of solid printed matter is given that is too valuable to be permitted to seem uninteresting. Superintendents who find the same defects in their own reports will find also that a little expert editing will not only add to the clearness and interest of their story, but will save both space and money. 154 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Economy of Condensation Repetition is expensive. This report consumes pages in itemizing facts that it later puts in a summary table occupying but an inch or two. Why not dispense with the long drawn- out, unintelligible enumeration of isolated facts and let the summary tell the story ? The story of progress in providing seats (p. i8ff.) would be greatly helped by a short table that would disclose what the English call "expectancy," not only for the city as a whole, but for each grade, thus : Table 116 SITTINGS BY GRADES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Opening school year September, 1906 Added during year 1906 At beginning school year 1906 . . Added September to December, 1906 Total available sittings January, 1907 Total contracted for To be completed September, 1907 . Total available September, 1907 . . Total The economy of condensation is illustrated by p. 87 of the New York report which is here reproduced with the same matter set up in condensed form (Table 117 a): Table 117. New York ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS PRINCIPALS Number of Applications Number Granted Number Refused IO IO O A PRACTICAL STUDY OF ONE SCHOOL REPORT 155 ASSISTANTS TO PRINCIPALS Number of Applications Number Granted Number Refused 6 4 2 GRADUATING CLASS LICENSES Number of Applications Number Granted Number Refused 21 14 7 LICENSES FOR PROMOTION Number of Applications Number Granted Number Refused 126 63 63 KINDERGARTEN LICENSES Number of Applications Number Granted Number Refused 278 193 85 Table 117 a. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Licenses Sought No. Applications No. Granted No. Refused Principals Assistants to Principals Graduating Class . . Promotion Kindergarten .... IO 6 21 126 278 IO 4 14 63 193 O 2 7 63 85 A map defining the school districts could be used year after year, and besides telling the reader what part of the city was meant by District 37, would save setting up each year the enumeration of divisions and districts (p. 16). The number of children, teachers, and schools per district and per division would indicate the magnitude of responsibility per division or i56 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS district superintendent, and would supplement the map in aiding a number of agencies endeavoring to secure adequate funds for schools, parks, playgrounds, public baths, etc. Summary Tables The summary on p. 23 shows that the possibilities of omission in a summary are almost as great as the possibilities of inclusion. Because few persons have time to read 446 pages of editorial comment, it is highly desirable to present summaries giving the essential features of school experience and indicating the essential problems. If the summaries in our New York report were comprehensive, there could be no possible excuse for a school commissioner's boast that he had never read a school report in his life. It is suggested that no more important step toward adequate, uniform reporting of school facts could be taken than for the school authorities in New York to prepare summaries adequate in form and in content. It is not too much to affirm that proper summaries requiring possibly 6 or 10 pages would render unnecessary 100, perhaps 200, pages of the present bulky report. The summary table is here produced without figures and should be compared with similar tables in Chapter IV. Table 118. New York 1 905- 1 906 Increase Per Cent Net enrollment in all schools . . Average daily attendance . . . Per cent of average daily attend- ance on average register . . Average register in high schools Average register in training schools Average register in elementary schools A PRACTICAL STUDY OF ONE SCHOOL REPORT 1 57 Average register to kindergartens Number of superintendents . . Number of directors of special branches Number of assistant directors of special branches Number of teachers of special branches Number of training school prin- cipals Number of training school teachers Number of high school principals Number of high school teachers Number of elementary school principals and heads of depart- ments Number of elementary school teachers Number of kindergarten teachers Average number of pupils to a teacher in high schools based on the average register . . . Average number of pupils to a class in elementary schools based on the average register Average number of pupils to a class in kindergartens based on the average register .... 1004- "JOS K)O5-I0O0 I in n;iso Per C'int 158 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS Many useful modifications are possible in the foregoing summary. The totals for 1905 being of little importance when the increase in 1906 over 1905 is given, there would be no great loss if the figures for 1905 were omitted and the space used to give information of value. If desirable to tell more of the story on one page, several columns could be added by turning the page around and running the headings from bottom to top, as in many of the tables in Chapter IV. Much space is wasted because some headings take two lines. Some of these lines could be shortened. For example, .number of can be dropped. Based on average register uses up three lines. A footnote might explain once for all that average number of pupils enrolled means average register. In fact, a key to abbreviations and to terms in the first pages might save a great deal of explanatory matter in the body of the report. Space saved by turning the page and by omitting unnecessary words might be used for additional important facts classified according to kind of school. For example : Table 119 Net enrollment . . Highest enrollment Lowest enrollment Average register . Average attendance Average absence . Per cent promoted Per cent not pro moted .... Per capita cost . . Total cost ... Number of teachers Pupils per teacher Sittings under con- struction . . Additional sittings needed .... Children examined Days lost account in fection .... Kindergarten 1906 Inc Elementary 1906 Inc High 1906 Inc Training 1906 Inc All Schools 1906 Inc A PRACTICAL STUDY OF ONE SCHOOL REPORT 159 Thus without additional space it is made possible to com- pare readily different kinds of school and different facts for each kind of school. The reader beginning with the high school column could quickly learn all the important facts about pupils, teachers, and needs in these schools. The feasibility of such suggestion is shown not only by numerous reports in Chapter IV, but by the register of individual schools in the New York report (p. 453 fL). In 1906 the report gave: School Location Principal Number of Pupils on Register, Sept. 30, 1904 54 G . . . . 104th St. & Amsterdam Ave. . . Margaretta Uihlein . . 90S In 1907 the same space gives the following : School Location i-j d q < 3Pl,P40 h ° ° J " 3PhPl,0 m S4G 104th St. & Amsterdam Ave. 768 872 Totals should be Classified Unclassified totals are largely responsible for the evil reputation of statistics. These are found frequently in the New York report. For example, the table on p. 32 gives for each of 22 districts of Manhattan the number of sittings, excess or deficiency of sittings, and the number of pupils registered September 30, 1906. In 7 districts there is a total deficiency of 3,719 sittings; in 15 districts there is an excess of 20,164 sittings ; a net excess in all districts of 16,445 sittings. If, however, average need for sittings, i.e. 1 average attendance, had been compared with sittings provided, there would have been an excess of sittings in every district, total- 160 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS ing 33,905 in all districts, and an excess of 4,667 in the 7 supposedly deficient districts. (The foregoing figures for attendance are obtained by applying to the register for Sep- tember 30, the attendance percentage, 90.6%, for the previous year, all boroughs. The attendance is not given by districts.) Without locating needy grades it would appear then that unclassified totals as to excess or deficiency of sittings would throw no light on schools or districts needing more seats or having part-time pupils. Such judgment is confirmed by p. 45 which gives the number of part-time pupils in each dis- trict, the date being the same as for the above-quoted table. Of 22 districts having an excess of 16,445 sittings when compared with the register, or of 33,905 when compared with average need for sittings, 12 districts report from 190 to 6,264 pupils on part-time, a total of 21,587. District 3, which reports an excess of 2,355 sittings, also reports 190 part-time pupils; Number 7, with 597 seats to spare, has 2,047 part-time pupils. Had this table compared the num- ber of sittings in grades where there is overcrowding with the number of pupils in those grades, the real needs would have been clearly shown. Had the register and sittings for each grade been given, any one could tell just where relief was needed and where consolidation of two or three classes was possible. Had the returns been classified by grades on each principal's report for September 30, 1906, it would have been as easy to show the real situation and the places where relief was needed as to print unclassified totals. Uniform District Reports The division superintendents make reports, but, while they are presumably coping with comparable conditions, it is not possible to compare the problems or the efficiency of these important officials. A uniform basis of reporting would bring out differences which the city superintendent, school A PRACTICAL STUDY OF ONE SCHOOL REPORT i6l commissioner, and reader would wish explained. Further- more, such comparative statements would give to the weakest and least orderly mind among the division superintendents the method worked out by the strongest, most orderly mind. That there are differences in orderliness the division reports prove. With advantage the Connecticut plan could be copied of ranking superintendents according to pupils registered, a! tendance, number of classes, part-time pupils, truancy, number of teachers, per cent of promotion, per cent of de- motions, regularity of attendance, facilities needed. Such ranking would not only stimulate both wholesome rivalry and critical study, but would undoubtedly lead to similar ranking of district superintendents by division chiefs, of principals by district superintendents, and of teachers by principals. Instead of leveling the individuality of the dis- trict superintendents, the uniform basis of presenting the facts about which comment is made would bring into clear relief the personality of each writer and would concentrate upon editorial style and matter the attention which is now diverted by a great deal of statistical matter that readers are unable to assimilate. Averages may Mislead How averages mislead is shown on p. 216 which gives the number of papers marked and the average per cent attained in each of twenty-six high school subjects : January, 1906 Subject Number of Papers Average Per Cent attained in Subject English 545 1,068 1,198 66.5 64.9 56.9 Algebra If 8 boys attain 70% and 2 boys attain 10%, what is the average scholarship? 1 62 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS 100% x 10 = i, 000%, the maximum possibility for 10 boys. 60% x 10 = 600%, the minimum requirement for pro- moting 10 boys. If 8 attain 70% (70% x 8 = 560%) and 2 attain 10% (10% x 2 = 20%), the class as a whole attains 580%, or 20% less than passing mark. In other words by the method of averages given in the above table 100% of a class of 10 would appear as falling below passing mark, whereas 80% were 10 points above passing mark. Comparing School with School To compare, school with school, the failures in English from the present table requires that the reader examine pp. 217, 219, 221, 222, 223, 225, 226, 227, 229, 230, 232, 233, 235, 236, 237, 238, 240, 241, 242, 243. How many people will take this trouble? If, however, the facts as to English examinations in all high schools were on the same page, as are the facts as to graduation (p. 246) and admission (p. 247), even the casual reader would at once be struck with the differences requiring attention. GRADUATES High Schools Date of Exami- nation Number Exam- ined Number Gradu- ated Whole Number Examined Whole Number Graduated Per Cent Gradu- ated ADMISSIONS SP Ov o. ^ 00 VO Subject J-l u og To no" J. ° O V bo" ■sf .Ufa .fa Jjfa .3 fa a fa rt "SPh ta^ rt&n "JS&H rtPn O £ Pi X Pi # Pi a practical study of one school report 163 Readers ask Questions How questions are stimulated by published records is indicated by the report on compulsory attendance (p. 251 ff.) : Table 120. New York Number cases investigated by attendance officers .... 149,846 Number cases of truancy investigated by attendance officers . 17,120 What were the other 132,726 cases? Number of different individuals found to be truants . . . 9,263 Number found to be non-attendants and placed in school . . 2,289 Number found to be truants and committed to institutions . . 157 Number found to be truants and committed to truant school . 754 Number found to be employed contrary to law and returned to school 1,676 What became of the 4,387 truants not accounted for in this report of cases disposed of ? How many were night school or high school truants ? Why were fines imposed on only 39 out of 262 parents arrested ? What led to the arrest of these only among the parents of 9,263? What fines were paid? What was the effect upon the truant ? How many days do truancy officers work? How many days are they active before school opens? How many days after school closes ? Is there any reason why truant officers should not work during midyear vacations ? Of 318 parents brought to the Children's Court why were 160 dismissed? Did their children attend regularly there- after? Does it pay to take truancy cases to the Children's Court ? What was done with 656 parents brought before the city magistrates for violating the compulsory education law? Explaining School Needs Needs are set forth clearly, pp. 92-98, in tables that give schools without kindergartens, schools without shops or 164 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS kitchens, schools having shops but no kitchens, schools having kitchens but no shops, schools for girls only having no kitchens, and schools for boys only having no shops. This admirable principle is not applied to roof gardens, gym- nasiums, shower bath, proper ventilation, play space, ad- justable desks, or to truant officers. While more vacation schools are urged, we find only the following general statement that will neither help nor inspire a school director or a vol- unteer agency wishing to increase vacation schools: "The amount of money required to double the facilities of vacation schools and playgrounds would be comparatively small, while the financial loss involved in keeping the majority of our school buildings closed and unused during the summer is enormous." Nowhere in the report is given a statement of the total cost of vacation schools now existing, hence it means little to say that the "amount required to double" would be small. In connection with this it is important to point out that no appeal has been made to the Board of Esti- mate and Apportionment during the spring months of 1907 for funds to increase the number of vacation schools, while for the year under review the number of schools was actually reduced by ten from the number voted by the Board of Esti- mate and Apportionment, although salaries of supervising officers were increased in amounts exceeding the amount required to run these additional schools. What do Schools Cost? As to cost, the report says (p. 104): "The exact amount expended on account of the day schools . . . cannot be stated for the reason that no separate accounts are kept showing the amount expended for vacation schools, play- grounds, and evening schools; for supplies, lighting, fuel, repairs," etc. Again, "The per capita cost of a pupil in the day schools ... is really too high because all the amounts expended for supplies, fuel, salaries of janitors, and incidental A PRACTICAL STUDY OF ONE SCHOOL REPORT 165 expenses are charged against the day schools, whereas a con- siderable share of these monies is expended on evening schools, recreation centers, vacation schools, and playgrounds." The cost of high school instruction is not known because (p. 105) "the salaries of superintendents, examiners, directors, and attendance officers " are charged to elementary schools. The cost of evening schools is of course not correct because only salaries paid principals and teachers are charged. The published cost of vacation schools and playgrounds, etc., includes teachers' salaries only. It is out of the question to learn the cost per pupil of a special subject such as cooking, sewing, or German. Nowhere in the report is set forth the total cost of any single department. New York has two funds, a general fund raised by a 3-mill tax made compulsory by the charter for paying salaries. So on pp. 101 and 102 appear salary disbursements of teachers and principals under twelve different headings. In addition to this salary fund the schools also have a large appropriation for supplies, repairs, fuel, salaries of janitors, etc. This report does not bring together those two costs. Significant administrative items are not kept distinct, but are jumbled up with other items. For example, salaries of substitutes are included in salaries of regular teachers. This is proper unless the school authori- ties wish to know how much the substitute teachers cost. If it is true that the employment of substitutes is occasioned by sickness or leave of absence on the part of regular teachers or lack of applications from teachers suitable for permanent positions, it would seem that the cost of substitutes would answer important administrative questions. The cost of superintendence is not totaled or distributed. The number of pupils in corporate schools which receive $282,000 subsidy is not given. "Miscellaneous" includes annuities of retired teachers, and amounts to $614,000, — a rather large un- classified total. Neither percentages nor subtraction are used to indicate the change from last year, increase or decrease 1 66 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS in various branches of expenditure, etc. The superintendent of supplies, by a very few simple changes in business meth- ods, has been able during the last two or three years to save several hundred thousand dollars while increasing efficiency. So large and prompt were the economies and so convincing the sub-committee's argument in favor of improved methods of accounting and reporting throughout the school system, that in February, 1906, the Board declared in favor of a modern system of account and record and took certain first steps to insure such system. Unfortunately this change was not at first welcomed by those immediately responsible, and its logical development was not insisted upon by the directors. But the results of a partial test have been notable and con- vincing ; extension is inevitable. Reasoning from Fact Where business methods are lacking, reasoning is likely to be illogical and inconsequential. For example, the para- graph that introduces the financial statements (pp. 100 ff.) reads : " The amount expended for supplies . . . shows surprisingly vary- ing rates of increase and decrease. In 1899-1900 there was a decrease of 3.6 per cent. ; in the following year there was an increase of 13.6 per cent.; in the next year a decrease of 11.1 per cent.; in the next year an increase of 19.2 per cent. ; in 1904-5 there was again a decrease of 8.5 per cent., while last year there was a decrease of 12.5 per cent. The first, if not the only, conclusion to be drawn from these figures is that an enforced and probably unwise economy in any one year necessitates a greatly increased expenditure the following year. Alter- nate famine and profusion in the matter of school supplies is a bad thing for the schools and their pupils. The very possibility of such an alternation shows the necessity of having a stable income for our special fund as we have under the law a stable income for our general fund." Entirely different conclusions are possible from the fore- going figures. The accounting method of learning the A PRACTICAL STUDY OF ONE SCHOOL REPORT 167 significance of alternate increase and decrease in a sup- ply appropriation would begin with questions somewhat as follows: Are the increase and decrease due to the fact that goods were bought and paid for in one year and not used until the next year? If the distribution of supplies is sufficiently controlled, how can going without supplies one year "necessi- tate a greatly increased expenditure next year"? Whether the schools suffer in lean years and in what way the report does not state. That supplies were wasted in fat years the report seems to admit but does not prove. Whether supplies were evenly distributed per capita over lean and fat years would be shown by a proper supply account. The per- centage increase and decrease are based upon changes in cash payments, but have no necessary relation whatever to changes in the goods consumed by school children. The supply account should tell of pencils and papers and desks given out during a school year. Without such record of goods consumed no board can tell whether changes in cash dis- bursed for supplies mean "unwise economy" and "alternate famine and profusion." Why Children drop Out High school mortality is explained not by facts gathered, as in Detroit, but by a priori reasoning. Detroit says 119 first-year pupils dropped out of high school: Table 121. Detroit Because of illness 23 Because of illness in the family 4 Because of failing sight 2 Because of work 41 Transferred 6 Left city 10 Indifference to school 9 Music 1 Cause unknown 23 119 [08 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS The New York report accounts for the dropping out of one third the pupils in the city's high schools as follows : "Undoubtedly the chief cause is that many leave to go to work. Probably in the majority of such cases the necessity of earning money is the controlling motive. Such students generally take supplementary courses in the evening high schools. Others . . . leave . . . because of that restlessness of mind that comes to all students at the period of adolescence and which is particularly marked amid the excitements of a large city." The report continues without data that in other cities at least it does not seem impossible to obtain. "The following explanations are approximately true: i. Children leave school because they have not the natural ability to cope with high school studies. The number of such children is, in my judg- ment, small. 2. Children are withdrawn from high school by their parents because the latter fear that their children's health will be injured by what they regard as the excessive amount of home study required by some teachers. 3. Children leave high school because they are bewildered for a time and sometimes scared by a school atmosphere very different from the atmosphere of the elementary school which they left — an atmosphere in which the teacher stands more aloof and in which the pupil is thrown more on his own resources. 4. A few pupils leave before graduation because they find that there are colleges which will receive them, despite their slender academic attainments, into the freshman class." School Census The census blank, if properly used after being filled out, could have thrown much needed light upon school ques- tions. A PRACTICAL STUDY OF ONE SCHOOL REPORT 169 fc h- 1 H < U P Q W Pn O H £ W 3 H M P4 ~ < w Ph pq W O Q H I O en" P B >H W £ J 3 w h- 1 £ (4 pq w O p-1 >H H t—i £ O H W w H 1 1 X! £ O p< pq W a H < ij 55 e 5 - a b y d y 1 n 1 d •3 3 eg 3 ft ft fa « * ? ba -a 'a 5 s 3 u ►j > u >-> K M M :>. -3 E a =1 < >< fa D d fa CO c3 < (J O to O O to 1 M ft H 3 > 03 3 Z. H-i w O O ►J fa d 1 i c 2 0> u c - PM >> si w t-4 O 2; § H H £ c ?5 1) * w H 55 > ft SS M < Phi Eh O < m 3 a a 'S Q O 3 2 H Ph < 3 PQ 5! jd 55 fa H < d «a e3 H-l 1—1 3 id a cd U t^ H *o a H 23 Q H >>» W a> H X H to M * ffi 55 H H * CO S < 55 n n <: a w H H a s d 1 2 fa < £ pq co ft H c fa O Ifl < u H O a < 55 O CO 13 O C\ < z > 3 PS . a 7! P P tn fl ^ d u b k (L) d ^ K — ° O ^^ S£ "S "2 "2 8 | - •^ 1 2 2 O 3 In M H ru -d t3 ^•2 2 w d |3 ! , ■"■333 *3!3 U a •a ° u °t:!5 t n~iO*;>»dd O ddddddddd .2 ° .° .° .2 .2 .2 .2 dddcjidcjddd ooooooouo OOOOOOOOQ ijH-lfaKlfafafafafa 22 £,(£&%£'?;&&& h 2 ^ b 2 ° ^3 -d co g 3 fa ffl H O U O 33. 4i, 84-85. New Orleans, illustrative tables from reports of, 65-66, 100. New York Board of Health, tables of medical inspection of schools, 172- i75- New York City, first school report published in (1843), I2 i description of 8th report of (1850), 17-18; il- lustrative tables from reports of, 33, 50, 59, 62, 66, 75, 78, 80-81, 85, 96, 97-98, 99, 102-103, JS^iSS. 1 5 6 ~ 157, 163, 169; important questions unanswered in reports of, 1 18-127; a practical study of one report of, 151-178; school tax of, 152. Omaha, illustrative table from school report of, 55. Parental schools, statistics involving, in school reports, 79-83. Part-time attendance, statistics of, 50- 52- Paterson, illustrative table from report of, 100. Pawtucket, illustrative table from report of, 104. Per capita cost of schools shown in tables in school report, 42-43. Persistency of attendance ("survival"), statistics of, in school reports, 69-78; at evening schools, 91-92, 93; statis- tics of, in school register, 134. Philadelphia, first school report pub- lished in (181 8), 12; an early school report of, 13; illustrative tables from reports of, 46-47, 71, 93. Physical needs of children, 171-173. Physical record of schools, report of, 102-103. Pittsburg, illustrative table from report of, 56. Plant, the school, specimen forms of report on, 29-33; certain important questions regarding, 118-119. Playgrounds, statistics of, in reports, 97-98; questions as to, answered and unanswered in reports, 126, 164, 177. Primary schools, statistics of promo- tions in, in school report, 64. Promotions, statistics of, in reports, 63-69, 87-88; statistics which would be of value concerning, 141-142; among children treated and not treated for adenoids, 175. Publication of reports, question of, 129. Publicity the primary standard for school reports, 8, 176-178. Pupils, age of, given in school reports, 58-63; dropping out of, 69-78, 167- 168. Questions, answered and unanswered in reports, 118-127, 177-178; asked by readers of reports, 163. Reading, Pa., illustrative table from school report of, 103-104. Real estate, reports including valua- tion of, 29. Recapitulation form used in report, 107-108. Receipts and expenditures, report of, 110-112; questions answered and left unanswered regarding, 1 19-120. Record cards, 131-132, 143-145; as used by attendance department, 146- 150. Registers for entering data, 130-134. Repetition, avoidance of, in reports, 154. Reporting, uniform basis of district, 160-161. Reports. See School reports. Rochester, N.Y., first school report published in (1843), I2 > description 1 82 INDEX of earliest school report of, available (1872), 15-16. Roof playgrounds, statistics of, 97-98. Routine examinations of children, 173. St. Louis, first school report published in (1854), 12; statistical features of 16th school report of (1870), and dis- cussion of by superintendent, 16- 17; illustrative tables from reports of, S3, 5 6 , 6l , 62 » 7°, 74, 9 1 , 95, I0 S, US- Salary schedules of teachers in reports, 105-106. San Francisco, first school report pub- lished in (1853), 12; description of earliest report of, available (1867), 14. School census, 145-150, 168-171. School needs, explanation of, in reports, 163-164. School plant, forms of report on, 29-33; questions to be answered regarding, 118-119. School property, reports including description of, 30. School reports, typical, 1-2; causes of present form of, 2-3; statistical tables in, 3; analysis of aims sub- served by, 3-5; distinction between administrative and published, 6-8; effective publicity the primary stand- ard for, 8, 1 76 ff . ; progress of, in direc- tion of publicity and administrative control, 8-9 ; points in which lacking, 9; possibility of accomplishing more in educational statistics at smaller cost of time and money, 9-10; begin- nings of, 1 1 ; first publication of, in dif- ferent cities, 12; character of early, 12-18; slight advance in, since 1870, 18-19; lack of uniformity in, in pre- senting educational statistics, 18-19; efforts of National Educational Asso- ciation to improve and to secure uni- formity in, 20-27; tables showing methods used in (1901-1906), 28- 115; lack of excellence in statistics in, 116; poor systems of comparison and classification in, 116-117; lack of economy in, 117 ; vital elements to be remembered when compiling, 117- 118; important questions unan- swered by, 1 1 8-1 2 7; suggested econ- omies and improvements for, 128 ff. ; data to be collected for, 128-129; question of annual publication of, 129 ; conditions under which primary data are collected for, 129-134; economy in publication of statistical tables in, 134-135; a practical study of one report, 151 ff.; possibilities of, 151- 152; technical methods in, 152; al- phabetical topical index for, 153; typographical technique of, 153; condensation in, 154-156; summary tables in, 156-159; classification of totals in, 159-160; uniformity in reports from districts urged, 160-161; averages in, misleading, 161-162; comparison of school with school, 162 ; questions which might be asked by readers of, 163 ; explanation of school needs in, 163-164; cost of schools as given in New York report, 164-166; school mortality accounted for in, 167-168; school census in, 168-171; physical needs of children according to New York report, 1 71-17 5; the circulation of, 176-177; attitude of, toward the community interested, 177-178; results that may be ex- pected from, 178. Seating capacity, reports showing, 32, 33- Service, table in report showing term of, 105. Sittings, table of, 154. Snedden, David S., x. Special classes, questions as to, answered and left unanswered in reports, 124- 125. Springfield, Mass., illustrative tables from reports of, 30, 41, 48, 72, 81, 84, 85-86. Statistics, in school reports, 3-4; inter- pretation an important feature of, 6, 136; primary aim of educational, to present fuller answers to possible questions at less expenditure of time and money than now, 9; in early school reports, 13-18; in reports since 1870, 18-19; consideration of subject of, by National Educational Association, 20-24; report of Com- missioner Harris on, 25; of high schools, 25-26; interest taken in, by Commissioner Elmer E. Brown, 26; illustrative tables of methods of pre- senting, 28-115; regarding school plant, 29-33; of attendance, 32, 52- 57, 146-150; of class rooms, 32; of seating capacity, 32, 33; of cost of INDEX 183 school buildings, 33 ; of cost of edu- cation, 34-45; in the school census, 45-52; of age of pupils, 58-63; of promotions, 63-60, 87-88; of per- sistency of attendance ("survival"), 69-78; of compulsory attendance, 70-83; of high schools, 83-90; of evening schools, 90-95; vacation schools, 95-98; of playgrounds, 96- 97; of school libraries, 98-100; of medical inspection of schools, 101- 103; of teachers, 103-106; of school receipts and expenditures, 110-112; suggestions as to what data should be collected, 128-129; economies sug- gested in methods of collecting, 129- 134; economy which might be prac- ticed in publication of tables of, in reports, 134-135; of fuel consumption, 137-138; improvement in classifica- tion of, 138-143; giving facts regard- ing each individual pupil (card record), 143 ff. ; necessity of classify- ing totals in giving, 159-160. Summary tables in reports, 36-37, io7-"S. i5 6_I 59- Superintendent of schools, origins of office of, 11; circulation of school facts by report of, 176-177. Survival, statistics of, 69-78. See Persistency of attendance. Syracuse, N.Y., first school report pub- lished in (1847), 12; statistical fea- tures of 20th school report of (1867), 14-15- Tallies, illustrating methods used in school reports, 2H-115; economy in publication of statistical, 134-135. Tax, school, of New York City, 152. Teachers, statistics of, in reports, 103- 106. Text-books, free, cost of, shown in table in school report, 41. Totals, classification of, 159-160. Trachoma, medical inspection for, 173. Truancy, 79-83, 147, 148; questions as to, answered and left unanswered in reports, 123-124. Tuition, cost of, shown in table in school report, 42. Typographical technique of reports, 153. Uniformity in presenting school sta- tistics, efforts after, 20-27. Vacation schools, statistics of, in re- ports, 95-98; important questions to be answered regarding, 126; treat- ment of subject in specimen New York City report, 164, 177-178. Washington, D.C., illustrative tables from reports of, 87, Wilmington, tables from reports of, 55, 86. Winship, A. E., quoted, 24. Withdrawal of pupils, statistics of, in reports, 69-78. Woods, Halle D., 20. PIONEER HISTORY SERIES By CHARLES A. McMURRY Designed as a complete series of early history stories of the Eastern, Middle, and Western States, suitable as an introduction for children to American History. Illustrated and equipped with maps. Cloth xamo 40 cents each Pioneers on Land and Sea The first of the three volumes deals with the chief ocean explorers, Columbus and Magellan, and with the pioneers of the Eastern States, Canada, and Mexico, such as Champlain, Smith, Hudson, De Leon, Cortes. These stories furnish the gateway through which the children of our Atlantic States should enter the fields of History. The attempt is to render these complete and interesting stories, making the experiences of pioneer life as graphic and real as possible. Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley Such men as La Salle, Boone, Robertson, George Rogers Clark, Lincoln, and Sevier supply a group of simple biographical stories which give the children a remarkably good introduction to History. Teachers are begin- ning to believe that children should begin with tales of their oWn home and of neighboring states, and then move outward from this centre. For eastern children these stories form a very suitable continuation to " Pioneers on Land and Sea," and vice versa. Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains and the West In some respects these western stories are more interesting and striking than those of the states farther east, because of their physical surroundings. Children of the Western or Mountain States should enjoy these stories first. The various exploring expeditions which opened up the routes across the plains and mountains are full of interesting and instructive incidents and of heroic enterprise. The chief figures in these stories are men of the most striking and admirable qualities, and the difficulties and dangers which they overcame place them among the heroes who will always attract and instruct American children. Incidentally, these narratives give the best of all intro- ductions to western geography. They are largely made up from source materials furnished by the explorers themselves. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO ATLANTA Source Readers in American History SELECTED AND ANNOTATED BY ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, of Harvard University IN FOUR VOLUMES. ILLUSTRATED No. I. Colonial Children - - - Price 40 cents, net No. II. Camps and Firesides in the Revolution. Price 50 cents, net No. III. How Our Grandfathers Lived - Price 60 cents, net No. IV. Romance of the Civil War ■ Price 60 cents, net Source Book of American History FOR SCHOOLS AND READERS Edited by ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Ph.D. Editor of "American History told by Contemporaries," etc. Cloth, iatno. 6o cents, net "A volume that we have examined with close attention and can commend with confidence. In about four hundred pages of text, it finds room for something like one hundred and fifty examples of the original material of our history, from the voyages of Columbus to the Spanish-American War. The selections are judiciously made, edited, and annotated ; the introductory chapters for teachers are of the most helpful sort ; and the book is sold at so low a price that no secondary school in which American history is taught can find a reasonable excuse for not employing it as an adjunct to the regular manual." — The Dial. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO ATLANTA 006S 6 HV$ I 9 !308 \" :; ■ ' ■• \\u\\ \m LIBRARY OF CONGRESS m IllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliiiiV 021 287 192 8