LB j/ |- UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA py Ji"^ STATUS OF THE RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA LE ROY ALBERT KING A THESIS IN EDUCATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Reprinted from Bulletin, 192 1, No. 34 Department of the Interior — Bureau of Education Washington, D. C. 1922 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA STATUS OF THE RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA A THESIS IN EDUCATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY LE ROY ALBERT KING Reprinted from Bulletin, 192 1, No. 34 Department of the Interior — Bureau of Education Washington, D. C. 1922 H^l --:> DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF EDUCATION BULLETIN, 192], No. 34 STATUS OF THE RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA By LE ROY ALBERT KING Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, University of Pennsylvania WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1922 ADDITIONAL .COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PEOCUREB FKOM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOOUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 10 CENTS PER COPY CONTENTS. Chapter I. — Introduction. Page. Purpose and plan ol the study 1 Original sources and procedure followed 1 Teacher's questionnaii-e 2 Secondary sources 4 The background '. 5 Chapter IL— Social and Economic Status. Hen and women teachers .8 Age of teachers ,9 Beginning age of teachers 11 Teachers born and reared in the open country 13 Teachers living with parents or relatives 13 Teachers married and single 13 Board and lodging 14 Teachers remaining over Saturday and Sunday in the community in which they teach 15 Income apart from salary 16 Money saved 16 Dependents 16 Insurance and beneficial associations 17 Amounts expended for professional literature 17 Chapter III. — The Teacher at Work. Number of pupils 18 Number of daily recitations 19 School libraries 21 Accessibility to other libraries 22 Local institutes 22 Professional literature 23 Supervision by county and assistant county superintendents 24 Schools visited by school boards 26 Community interest and support 27 Chapter IV. — Academic and Professional Training. Elementary education 29 Secondary education 30 Professional training 33 Academic and professional training during service 35 Chapter V. — Certification. Certificates held by teachers in one-teacher schools 38 Certificates held by teachers in schools of two and more than two teachers 42 Certificates held by teachers in borough elementary schools 42 Analysis of the practice of certification by counties 43 in IV CONTENTS. Certificates over a three-year period 45 Teachers' certificates in relation to experience 46 Certificates and age of teachers 47 Academic preparation and professional training as related to certification 48 Certificates of teachers from standpoint of supplementary training during service 49 Chapter VI. — Experience and Tenure. Stability oi the teaching force 53 Stability of teaching force over a three-year period 55 New teachers Avithout experience and experienced teachers in new positions. . 57 Chapter VII. — Salaries. One-teacher schools in townships 60 Schools of two and more than two teachers in townships 63 Borough elementary schools 64 Length of school term in townships and boroughs 66 Salary in relation to certificates G8 Bases on which school boards raise salaries 71 Salary of men and women teachers 72 Relation of salary to years of experience 73 Age of men and women teachers as related to salary 76 Years of education as related to salary 78 Chapter VIII. — Summary 79 List of references , 84 STATUS OF THE RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. ter I. INTRODUCTION. PURPOSE AND PLAN OF THE STUDY. The purpose of this study is to learn the true status of the rural teacher in Penn- sylvania. By the rural teacher is meant the teacher in the one-teacher schools in the open country. The study is restricted for the most part to the facts and conditions pertaining to the teachers in the one-teacher schools. In some instances data will also be given regarding the teachers in two-teacher schools, villages, and boroughs, either for the purpose of helping to verify the conclusions concerning the teachers in the one-teacher schools, or merely to show contrasts and significant similarities. As to scope, this study endeavors to collect all the data possible relating to (1) the personal, social, and economic status of the teacher; (2) conditions under which the work is conducted; (3) academic and professional preparation and training; (4) cer- tification; (5) experience in teaching and tenure; and (6) salary. Each of these aspects will receive detailed consideration in single chapters as designated. The material in general will be treated on the basis of the counties reporting as a composite whole, for the purpose of revealing the situation for the entire State, but in some cases individual counties will be used for more specific interpretations. It is not primarily the purpose to compare the data herein set forth with those of other States; in the first place, because of the very limited amount available in this field, and in the second place, because of the time and expense that would be incurred in trying to obtain such material from other States. Again, it is not the aim in dealing with the problems concerning the rural school teacher to set up a definite program for the State, but rather to present some conclusions and make such suggestions as the facts in this study may safely warrant. ORIGINAL SOURCES AND PROCEDURE FOLLOWED. (1) Upon investigating what material was accessible bearing upon the topic, it was found that, on account of the meager supply, a questionnaire would have to be formu- lated in order to get the information necessary for the study of many of its essential phases. Under the direction of Prof. Harlan Updegraff, with the assistance of the fellow members of the seminar in educational administration at the University of Pennsylvania, a tentative questionnaire was framed and distributed among the teach- ers in several townships in the vicinity of Philadelphia. After a number of trials and modifications of the original questionnaire, caused both by the type of answers given by the teachers, and by the tabulation of these replies in a preliminary study, the questionnaire was finally formulated as here given. 1 2 STATUS OF EURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. TEACHER'S QUESTIONNAIRE. 1. Educational and professional training: (a) Did you attend a one-room rural school? How many years? A rural school of more than one room? How- many years? (&) Did you attend a -village, borough, or city elementary school of eight grades? . . •. How many years? (c) In the blank spaces l:>eIow "state further educational preparation, if any. Exact length of attendance. Did you graduate? Diploma or certificate. High sehool A cademy Normal school Spring or summer normal course. Summer college course Years and months. Years and months. Years and months. Weeks Weeks Have you had any of the above academic or professional training since you began teaching? Where? How long? Kind? What would induce you to get a better academic or professional training for teaching? What kind of certiiicate do you hold? Exj>erience in teaching. (Fill out blank spaces below.) Rural, l-TGom school Rural, more than l-roora school. . . Village Borough , City Number of sehool years. Number of school years. Number of sehool years. Number of school years. Number of school years. Number of places. Number of places. Number of places. Number of places. Number of places. (5. Are you now teaching in a township? In a village? In a one-room rural school? If more than one room, how many rooms? 6. How many pupils in your schoolroom? How many recitations or classes do you teach in a day? How many grades? What grades? 7. What year did you begin teaching? Wlaat was your age when you began teaching? Is this your first year? Age? Sex? Were you born and reared in the country? Inavillage? Boroiigh? City? 8. Are you married? .. . How many children? If unmarried, is any one dei^endent on you for financial aid? How many? What amount per year? Do you live with your parents or relatives while t4?aching? Do you stay over Sunday in the community in which you teach? 9. What is your salary per month this year? How many months? What was your salary per month last year? How many months? " Did you have any other income last year besides your teaching salary? If so, how much per year? 10. What was your salary per month the first year you taught? How often have you had your salary increased? On what basis does your district raise salaiies? , 11. Do you pay board? How much per month? How many months? How much per week? How many weeks? 12. Did you save moaey on your salary last year? Approximately how much?. Do you think you can save money on your salary tliis year? How much ? Do you carry life insurance? Cost per year? Do you belong to a teacher's protective or beneficial organization?. Cost per year? o:isrTii-ODU*CTiO]sr. 3 IS.. Axe you a siibsca-iber i&x a ^pedagegjeal or professional -EQagazine?. Name? Cost?,.,.., ^_Do you invest any other money for professional literature? Kind? Cost? . . Do you have any inference books besides your regular class textbooks? What Idnd? Do you have a sdhool library? :4^fs?oxi- mate number of books? .,., Have you access to any ether library tor books or materials f oir iteaehing? .,.....,.. Does yoiu- district hold local insti- tutes? , . . . Are you a member of a reading circle? 14. Do you take part in a parent-teacher's association or any other kind of com- munity activity held in your school building? iCind? Is ithe schoolhouse used fox any kind of community meeting at night? Kind? ...... How many homes of patrons do you ;think you visited last year? How many \dsits, approximately, were maflio by parents to your school last year? 15. How marHy hours last year did the county superintendent supervise your teach- ing? How many hours, the assistant county superintendents? Did your school board visit your school? ..,,.. How many? How often? 16. How much consideration does the school board in your district give to the county superintendent's or other 9U}>ervi8or's judgment at the time of a teacher's leleetion or re-election? (Answer — ^None, little, or much) Do you believe you will be retained .as a teacher next year in your district; or in other words do you have a feeling: of security in your position? Why? During the school year ending June, 1918, the questionnaires were distributed among the teachers in the one-teacher rural scfhools of 18 counties of the State. These counties were selected at random, with the exception tbat special precaution was taken that the eastern, central, and western parts of the State should be represented. It was also planned to include 3 counties in which State normal schools are located. As there are 66 counties in Pennsylvania under county supervision, excluding Phila- delphia County, and since 13 of these ihave State normal schools, it will be seen that this is a fairly proportionate representation. The size of the counties was also taken into account, so that an equitable distribution of large and small counties should be represented in the study. These questionnaires were distributed at the teachers' institutes of the different counties, and the teachers are represented who voluntarily remained either during the session of the institute or the intermission. In the majority of the counties the writer supervised the distribution of the questionnaires; in cases where it was inipos- sible for him to do this, cafeiuily prepared instructions were sent to the county superintendents to be read to the teachers, «o that the questionnaires woifld 'be handled in each county in as uniform a manner as possible in order to avoid the least variation in procedure. The teachers were asked to fill out the questioniaalires but were instructed not to insert their names, in order to prevent any hesitancy on their part in giving the facts requested; likewise the county superintendents were assured that their counties would not be referred to by name. These precautions were taken to make the study •as accurate and scientific as possible. From the 18 counties there were 1,450 replies Teceived, of which 1,110, or 76.5 per cent, were given by women teachers, and 340, or 23.5 per cent, by men — an average of 80 replies for each county represented. Th-e number of teachers from the different counties who replied averaged 62 per cent of the teachers enrolled in one-teacher schools in each county respectively. Although all the teacheirs im each of the 18 oounties ^did not reply to tlie 'question- aaire, there is sufiicient evideace to establish the belief that those who responded constitute a very fair sanq>ling of the teachers of each county represented. Of the teachers constituting this study, 45 per cent hold provisional oeitificates, 24.7 per ■cent professional, 12 per cent permanent, 18 pei' cent noitmal school oei'tificates or diplomas, and approximately 0..3 per cent college provigtonal or peimianent certifi- cates. The smaller percentage of teachers hoHing provisional oertificates and the 4 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. larger percentage of teachers holding permanent certificates and normal school certifi- cates and diplomas, as compared with the per cent for the State as a whole (Chapter VII), would alone seem to justify this assumption. Consequently, any unfavorable criticism of rural schools of Pennsylvania can not be gainsaid on the ground that an inferior sampling of the teaching group had been made. The superintendents in some of the counties examined the answered questionnaires and stated that in view of their knowledge of the teachers they believed the replies to be accurate and representative of the teaching force of their respective counties. The complete and illuminating way in which the questions were answered, especially those pertaining to the social and economic status of the teacher, also bears out the judgment of the county superintendents. It is the belief of the writer that the interest manifested by the teachers, after being assured that the main purpose of the questionnaire was to get the facts which might eventually be used for improving the status of the rural school teacher, is evidence that their replies are accurate and reliable. The replies of the teachers were completely tabulated on 18 record sheets — one for each county represented — outlined so as to set forth clearly the information under such headings as academic and professional preparation, teaching experience, salaries, economic conditions, etc. Each teacher's questionnaire was given a number to coincide with the number on the county record sheet in order to check up or trace an individual teacher's record. These county record sheets made possible the tabu- lation not only of the total record for each county, but also of the combined record sheet for all the cases, making readily accessible each item covered by the data for the composite group. It will be observed throughout the study that there is considerable variation between the total number of teachers replying to the questionnaire and those answer- ing individual items. Percentages are usually made on the basis of the number of teachers answering the particular question, rather than upon the whole number of teachers reporting. (2) Besides the use of the questionnaire above referred to, it was necessary to obtain further original data directly from the county superintendents. They were asked to send a complete directory of the teachers under their supervision for the school years 1918-19 and 1919-20, designating those who were teachers in one-teacher and two-teacher schools in the townships. They also indicated after each teacher's name (1) the kind of certificate held, (2) whether a new teacher without experience, or (3) an experienced teacher transferred to another school, and (4) the teacher's salary. Data regarding these phases of the status of approximately 5,100 teachers were submitted by the superintendents of 30 counties through their official directories. The number of counties and teachers covered by this material will be referred to specifically throughout the discussion. (3) A questionnaire was sent to each principal of the 13 State normal schools to give and corroborate certain statistics pertaining directly to the training and certifi- cating of rural teachers. Specific reference will be made to this material in certain parts of the context. SECONDARY SOURCES. Among the secondary sources furnishing data, the State reports issued by the super- intendent of public instruction should be mentioned, particularly the one for 1918. Since the data in the State reports, for the different counties and for the entire State, deal Avith all the teachers under county supervision as a composite whole, the informa- tion was found quite limited, in so far as it was directly applicable to the problem at hand — the teacher in the one-teacher rural school. ' I Rep. Sup. of Pub. Instruction, Pennsylvania, 1918. INTRODUCTION. 5 The report on rural schools by a committee of the Pennsylvania State Educational Association, issued in 1914, contributed to the formulation of parts of this study. ^ Suggestions were obtained from Coffman's "The Social Composition of the Teaching Force," particularly in reference to the social and economic status of the teacher.^ The legal basis for this study is found largely in the Pennsylvania School Code. * In the case of all other sources and references used, due and proper recognition will be given as each one occurs in the various chapters. The statistical procedure used in this study is based largely on Thorndike's "Mental and Social Measurements* and Rugg's "Statistical Methods Applied to Education, ^ in which the terms and processes used are clearly defined. THE BACKGROUND. The 10,038 teachers in the one-teacher schools of Pennsylvania constitute approxi- mately one-fourth of the entire number of teachers in the State and one-half of the teachers under county supervision. The number of teachers in one-teacher rural schools is larger than the total number of teachers of all classes in each of 23 different States of the United States and is approximately equivalent to the total number of teachers in the States of Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia. '' With the excep- tion of Iowa, with approximately 11,000, * and Illinois, with 10,105 ^ one-teacher schools, Pennsylvania ranks highest among all the States in the number of teachers in one-teacher schools. The next States in rank are New York, with 8,500 one- teacher schools; ^° Minnesota, with 8,174; '^ and Wisconsin, with 7,000. '^ These one-teacher schools are distributed for each of the 66 counties of the State (Philadelphia excluded) in the accompanying Table 1. It will be seen that 10,038, or 42.2 per cent, of the entire number of teachers under county supervision — namely, 23,807 — are teaching in one-teacher schools, and that approximately 2,394, or 11.3 per cent, are teaching in two-teacher schools. ^^ The range of the number of teachers in the one-teacher schools of the different counties extends from 22 to 361 and in per cent from 8 to 96 of the total number of teachers in each county. The median county has 51 per cent of the teachers in one-teacher schools, indicating that one-half, or 33 of the counties, have from 51 to 96 per cent of their teachers in one-teacher schools. It will be noted that counties 23 and 2, which contain large cities, have only 8 and 10 per cent of their teachers in one-teacher schools. On the other hand, counties 29 and 47 have over 90 per cent of their teachers in these schools. Both of these counties are very sparsely populated, having a teacher in a one-teacher school for every 126 and 159 inhabitants. 2 Rep. of Rural Educ, committee of the Pa. Educ. Assoc, Harrisburg, Dec, 1914, Part IV, pp. 37-47. 3 Coffman, L. D.— The Social Composition of the Teaching Population, Teachers College, Columbia University. < School Laws and Appendix for Pennsylvania, 1919. s Thorndike, E. L.— Mental and Social Measiu-ements, Teachers College, Columbia University. 'Rugg, H. O. — Statistical Methods Applied to Education, Houghton Mifflin Co. 'Rep. U. S. Commis. of Educ, 1917, vol. 2, p. 76. 8 Rep. Supt. Pub. Instruction, P. E. McClenahan. 9 Rep. Supt. Pub. Instruction, F. G. Blair. 10 EngeUiardt, "The Teaching Profession in the State of New York" (unpublished). Will appear in the Annual Report for 1918-19 of the Assistant Commissioner of Education, New York State. 11 Rep. Commissioner of Education, James M. McConnell. 12 Rep. Supt. Pub. Instruction, C. P. Cary. 13 Rep. Supt. Pub. Instruction for Pa., 1918, pp. 608-610. Becht, J. George, "A Study of School Con- solidation and Transportation." Sixth An. Schoolmen's Week Proc, p. 197. STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. Table 1. — Number of eleimntwry teachers under couinty mpervision— Number ami per cent in one-teacher schools, Uvo-teaoher schools, more than two-teacher schools in villages and boroughs — Population and area in square miles. County. "3 as «| o 1 O m — o si 2; 6 "o o 43 %% 12 114 38 54 36 36 60 40 68 60 110 8 12 28 68 26 78 12 38 44 24 28 18 28 20 90 18 72 4 20 18 32 30 20 74 30 26 62 22 30 28 20 « 24 56 2 46 22 8 4 12 88 12 54 4 8 18 16 26 16 Jh '*^ J^ ill .si li fe-2 L o g-g I- * H 96 5 ^ o a'. O w Is Q,C3 03 o22 (-1 3-98 65 73 87 10.5 1 Rep. Supt. Pub. Instruction for Pa., 1918, p. 633. « Rep. U. S. Commis. of Educ, 1916-1918, Vol. Ill, p. 16. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STATUS. 9 While there is very little available material from other States concerning the per cent of men and women teachers in the rural schools grouped apart from all the teach- ers in the public schools, nevertheless what we do have shows that Pennsylvania has a higher percentage than certain other States. For example, a survey of Nebraska in 1915 showed the percentage of men teachers in the rural schools to be 10.3 and of women 89.7.* In 1918, among the white teachers in county schools in Virginia, 9 per cent were men and 91 per cent, women. ^ A study of the per cent of men and women teachers in the separate counties as shown in the table reveals a wide variation. On the one hand, counties 11 and 20 show 47 and 43 per cent men teachers, respectively, comprising nearly one-half of the teachers in the one-teacher schools. On the other hand, in county 19 only 2 per cent of its 104 teachers are men, and in counties 8 and 15 the men teachers are 8 and 6 per cent, respectively. From these facts it. will be seen that the range of the men teachers extends from 2 to 47 per cent, while for the Women the range is high, extending from 53 to 98 per cent. From the data at hand it is difficult to account for the large variation in the num- ber and per cent of men and women teachers in the different counties. It happens, however, that the counties having the highest per cent of men teachers are usually classified as agricultural counties. Through the questionnaire it was learned that in the counties having a high proportion of men teachers the majority were married, lived on farms, and frequently reported substantial incomes in addition to their salaries received for teaching. Owing to such living conditions, teachers remain in the teaching service, thus bringing about greater stability in the teaching force. AGE OF TEACHERS. Of the 1,446 cases represented in Table 3, 1,109 are women and 337 men, with ages ranging from 18 to 65 years. The median age of the women teachers is 22, and of the men, 26.7, showing a difference on an average of over 4 years. Although the range in the age of men teachers is practically the same as that of the women, yet there is greater variation and a wider distribution about the midpoint in the case of the men teachers than in that of the women, as evidenced by the quartile deviation of 10 in the first case and 3.5 in the second. The upper 25 per cent of the men and women teachers are beyond 41 and 27 years of age, respectively, indicating more conclusively the higher age of men teachers. The median age for the combined group of rural teachers in one-teacher schools is 22.8 years, which is approximately the same as the median age for the rural teachers in Nebraska,^ and South Dakota in 1918,® 21.01 years and 22.14 years, respectively. The average age for the rural teacher in one-teacher schools in New York State in 1919 was 27 years.'' 3 The Rural Teacher of Nebraska, U. S. Bui., 1919, No. 20, p. 21. * Va. Pub. Sch. Survey, 1919, p. 135. 5 The Rural Teacher of Nebraska, U. S. Bu. of Educ, Bui., 1919, No. 20, p. 23. 6 The Educational System of South Dakota, U. S. Bu. of Educ, Bui., 1918, No. 31, p. 211. ' Engelhardt, F. The Teaching Profession in the State of New York. i'O STATUS or RURAL TEACHER. IN PENNSYLVANIA. i 1 1 i O 1 « t^ t^ OC4»O«OiO00,-^t^C^C0C0 o '^ ^ »Hco.1 C-)rt-.M00T)o CO-ao ^ -H^ CM ■^ — ( -H rt "^ OS M evi .-1 rt .^ -1 .-1 "* '^ 05 (N --I oomN rtCM,H lNOiO(NCO CMCM—I ■* - -* -( •^ •^ " -* -' o Total. 05^1DC^Q0t^0JtD.-HC0t0t^tDt0«D>«05'-H>noO.Q0-* C0^3 CO -CO CO 26.7 21.7 41.8 10. d Total distri- bution (18 ties). cjr--ci^a>Cit^toc'jcococotoc^'Mcococ^iojr-H.-..^(MOir-i ! 22.8 20.3 29.6 4.7 OC o s 5 S3 ?^ ■* N ^ s Si OC cs ^ ^ tc OC cs 5 tc OC 5 ^ tc "3 o 1 J % j c5 )> BEGINNING AGE OF TEACHEES. Table 4 shows that the median age at whieh the i,421 teachers represented began teaching is 19.2, and that the range extends from J5 to 32 years. The 123 teachers who reported their teaching as beginning earlier tlian at the age of IS must have begun their work before the enactment of the Pennsylvania School Code of 1911. Twenty- six teachers reported as having entered the teaching profession at 25 or more years of age. The middle 50 per cent of this group ranges from 18.4 to 20.5 years, meaning that 710 teachers, or half the group, began teaching between these years. 12 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. • ^ HO 1 t^ CO CO C^ IN (N t- ) ^H 1-1 00 O) c "5C 5 rtrt —I C s OOc^i ) (N -HrtrH C COC^ 1 tH lO b£ (M c CS tiO C ^ IM O c —11-1 (M— 1 •a o t~o CO CO CO CO 1—1 CO W CO (N IM ■*0( COUOi-IOtJKMCOIO C^ »o n ;5;c ,-(CDC^':Dt^iOCO00 (N -<0C (NtC t^C0»CW^ - t^ CI tc ■^r^ CO ^ <0 CO CO (N U3 (N COIN IN U2 C _o C 3 o o 00 c _o 1 c h g , "S • ^ I' o • d " ~ -< c^ CO ■* lo to t>. 00 1 o a e Fh e 1 IN -* in. ci 00 o !■ Mis cs-a SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STATUS. 13 TEACHEES BORN AND REARED IN THE OPEN COUNTRY. It has been pointed out repeatedly in the recent literature on rural education that one of the main factors in the success of rural teaching is to know rural life and be in sympathy with its problems. A circumstance which should help teachers secure an insight into and a sympathetic understanding of rural life and customs, especially in the case of those not trained professionally for rural teaching, is their being born and reared in the open country. In the light of this, it was thought advisable to tabulate the data as found in Table 5. Table b.^Niimber of teachers in one-teacher schools born and reared in the open country, villages, boroughs, and cities — total distribution and per cent, followed by 8 typical counties. Open country. Village. Borough. City. Total. Total distribution 18 counties 1,003 74 92 7 164 12 99 7 1 358 ' 100 Distribution in typical counties: 35 64 122 30 88 53 78 100 5 4 12 2 8 3 1 3 3 9 25 3 14 20 10 6 43 2 3 8 4 27 8 13 4 80 3 167 4 39 5 137 6 84 7 102 8 113 Among the 1,358 teachers who answered the question as to the place of their birth, 1,003, or 74 per cent, were born and reared in the open country; 92, or 7 per cent, in villages; and 19 per cent in boroughs and cities. Since it will be shown later that approximately three-fourths of these teachers had no professional training to fit them for teaching in rural schools,* it might, therefore, be considered fortunate that such a large proportion of the teachers represented in this study were familiar with rural life, and had received at least part of their educational experience in a rural school. Many county superintendents state that they would prefer to have teachers under their Bupervision who possess a sympathetic understanding of the life and customs of rural people rather than to have those who come from boroughs and cities with better academic preparation but unfamiliar with rural work. TEACHERS KEYING WITH PARENTS OR RELATIVES. In reply to section 8 of the questionnaire, pertaining to the social life of the teacher, it was found that, out of the 1,160 replies, 739, or 64 per cent, reported they were Uving with their parents or relatives while teaching; but 348 out of the 739, or nearly half the number, were obliged to pay from their meager salaries a certain amount for board and room. TEACHERS MARRIED AND SINGLE. Of the 336 men teachers replying to this part of the questionnaire, 184, or 55 per cent, were married. This probably is a fortunate situation, in that their homes may be made to serve as teacherages and in that it helps to improve the stability of the rural teaching force in many counties of the State. In considering the very small proportion of married women teachers, 60 out of 1,050, or approximately 6 per cent, 8 See p. 34. 73438°- -22- 14 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. the question might well be raised, especially in these times of great scarcity of teachers, whether a special effort should not be made to induce and encourage more married women either to continue in the service or to reenter the profession of teacliing. BOARD AND LODGING. Out of the 1,450 replies received, 870, or 60 per cent, reported as paying for board and room. Of this number, 747 were women and 123 were men. The yearly and monthly cost of board and room for the teachers reporting these items of expense are shown in Tables 6 and 7. The outstanding feature of tliis information is the wide variation in the cost, both on the monthly and yearly basis. For example, it will be seen in Table 6 that the yearly cost of board and room ranges from less than $50 to more than $200. The median cost per year (generally considered the school year) is $121, while the cost for 61 per cent of the teachers ranges from $75 to $150. Probably the most significant fact revealed by a study of this table is that 38 per cent of the teachers pay less than $100 per year for board and room. It should be recognized that these data were collected in 1918, and that in the meantime tliis item of expense has been very greatly increased. Nevertheless, the facts seem to bear out the opinion generally held that the cost of board and room for rural teachers is considerably less than for urban teachers. Table 6.— Yearly cost of hoard and room. Less than $50. $50-$74 $75-899 $100- $124 $12.'')- $149 $150- $174 $17.5- $199 S200or above. Total. Total distribution 18 counties Per cent 16 2 82 10 213 26 118 14 174 21 10 79 10 53 7 819 100 Typical counties: 1 5 3 3 1 4 11 7 10 6 4 21 19 13 11 21 18 7 2 24 1 11 ie' 2 5 12 36 7 15 6 4 1 2 5 19 1 6 1 1 6 16 1 4 4' 5 is" 27 2 36 3 2 126 4 30 5 1 1 1 2 67 6 30 7 2 51 8 33 Turning to the individual counties, it will be seen that there is considerable varia- tion in the amount of money expended for board and room. Counties 5 and 8 show a median cost of $133 and $83, respectively. Tliis difference can probably be somewhat explained by the fact that county 8 is principally an agricultural county, while county 5 contains a number of urban communities. Table 7. — Monthly cost of board and room. $6-$8 $9-$U .S12-$14 $15-$17 $lS-$20 $21-$23 $24-$2G $27-$29 $30 or above. Total. Total distribution 18 31 4 86 11 219 26 194 23 217 25 13 2 52 7 4 14 2 832 100 Typical counties: 1 1 4 14 8 7 14 9 9 6 9 32 24 3 9 23 IG 11 9 27 20 9 2 11 5 11 13 43 19 27 7 9 1 6' 3 1 1 2 10 G 17 1 i" 1 1 2 2 32 2 3 2 8 41 3 137 4 90 5 66 6 32 7 1 6 1 54 8 37 SOCIAL AISTD ECOTS"OMIC STATUS. 15 The median monthly cost of board and room, as shown in Table 7, is $16; the range extends from $6 to |30 or more per month. It will be further observed that 75 per cent of the teachers paid from $12 to $20 per month, and that 14 per cent paid lesa than $12 per month. Table 8. — Number of months for which teachers pay for hoard and room. Months. 5 or less. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total. Total distribution 18 counties Per cent 21 2 IS 2 439 ' 64' 178 22 76 9 15 2 70 9 817 100 Typical counties: 1 3 2 27 9 49 50 23 28 28 32 32 2 14 47 17 19 1 3 16 26 8 4 13 13 IS 1 2 2 43 3 2 2 1 2 1 137 4 8 98 2 2 2 4 m fi 34 7 36 8 38 It will be seen in Table 8 that over 50 per cent of the teacher's reported that they paid for board and room for seven months of the year, which is the length of the school term for a majority of the teachers in rural districts. Teachers who paid their living expenses for a period of eight and nine months usually taught in counties in which a large proportion of the school districts have eight and nine months' terms. Eleven per cent of the teachers had to meet these expenses for a period of 10 months or more, while only 9 per cent were obliged to meet them for the entire calendar year. TEACHERS REMAINING OVER SATURDAY AND SUNDAY IN THE COM- MUNITY IN V/HICH THEY TEACH. In most of the recent literature on rural education, particular emphasis has been placed on the matter of whether teachers live in the community in which they are teaching over the week end. It is maintained that in order to be of the best service in a particular school community a teacher should participate in and become a part of the social life of that community. With this idea in mind the following question was formulated: "Do you remain over Sunday in the community in which you teach? " The replies were as follows: Table 9. — Teachers spending weelc ends where teaching. Niunber. Per cent. Teachers remaining in community Saturday and Sunday 485 48 Teachers not remaining in community Saturday and Sunday 477 47 Teachers remaining occasionally 45 5 Total number replying 1, 007 100 In the first place, it should be noted that only 70 per cent of all the teachers reply- ing to the questionnaire reported the above information, but of those reporting, 48 per cent, or slightly less than half, spent Saturday and Sunday in the community in which they were teaching. Since it will be recalled that 64 per cent of the teachers lived with parents or relatives, a large proportion of this group must be represented in the above 48 per cent.^ While it was not found practical to trace each one of these individually in order to establish the proportion definitely, yet it was apparent that 9 See p. 13. 16 STATUS OF RUEAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. an unusually large percentage were absent from the community at probably the most opportune time for participation in the social activities and life of the people. INCOME APART FROM SALARY. The salaries of the teachers under the super\'ision of county superintendents during the school year 1918-19 were unusually low, as will be discussed more at length in Chapter VII of this study.'" It will be seen that the median salary of the teachers in the one-teacher schools is as low as $411, with a large proportion recei^^.ng the small amount of $315. As teachers can scarcely eke out an existence with such an income, it was deemed advisable to discover, if possible, what proportion of the teachers had an income apart from the salary which they received for teaching. From the 810 teachers replying, or 56 per cent of the entire number included in this study, it was found that only 25 per cent stated that they had an income apart from their remuneration for teaching. Only two-thirds of this number, or 137 teachers, gave the exact amount of this extra income, which ranges from $25 to $1,000. Approximately one-third of the group had an income of lees than $100, and 25 per cent an income of not less than $300, apart from their teaching salaries. The median amount reported is $200, which also happens to be the mode, or the amount reported the greatest number of times. The information explaining how these teachers ob- tained additional income apart from their salaries was not given in most cases. How- ever, a large proportion reporting the outside income have been usually men teachers who obtained from their small tracts of land a substantial livelihood independent of that received for their public-school work. MONEY SAVED. It is rather surprising to note that in spite of the fact that teachers in one-teacher rural schools receive such low salaries, approximately 40 per cent of the 1,024 teachers reporting, stated that they saved money. The amounts saved per year by these 420 vary from $10 to $400. For the group the median amount is $100, which also chances to be the mode. . One-fifth of the group saved from $10 to $50 per year, while slightly less than this proportion reported saving from $200 to $400. To make a more thorough study of the economic life of the teacher one should trace each individual to determine how it is possible to save money from the amount of salary received. It was found, as a rule, that the teachers thus reporting were about equally distributed between the following groups, namely, those living with parents or relatives, consequently having very low living expenses, and those reporting an income apart from the salary received for teaching. However, those not li\a.ng with parents and not having an outside income independent of their teaching constituted for the most part the group that did not save any money or did not make reply. DEPENDENTS. Only one-half of the teachers gave information relating to this question, and of the number reporting, 32 per cent stated that part of their salary was consumed in support- ing dependents. Usually these teachers have one or two such persons wholly or partially dependent upon them, the amount of money expended for such purposes ranging from $25 to $350, with a median amount of $175. On the whole, it appears that a fairly large proportion of the rural teachers were obliged either to support parents or relatives, or to give at least in part a substantial portion of their income for the main- tenance of the home. 10 See p. 60. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STATUS. 17 INSURANCE AND BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATIONS. Out of the 973 teachers who answered the question whether they ' 'carry life insur- ance," it is interesting to learn that only 267, or 27 per cent, reported in the afBrmative. The amount of money invested in insurance varies from $5.20 to $150, with an average amount of $30 for the group. It would seem that these figures indicate a fairly large proportion both in number of teachers and amount of money expended in view of the very limited income of rural teachers. Some of the teachers also reported having joined a benefic'ial association, vrf.th dues ranging from $5 to $15 per year. Only 13 per cent of those reporting had taken such precautionary measures against illness or accident. While the writer knows of two such organizations that have sprung up in the State within recent years, especially intended for the protection of teachers, it would seem from these facts that a very small proportion of the teachers in the one-teacher rural schools have availed themselves of such protection. AMOUNTS EXPENDED FOR PROFESSIONAL LITERATURE. An unusually large number of these rural teachers subscribed for educational maga- zines and reference books for teaching. The kind of material will be discussed in the next chapter. However, it should be noted that a fair proportion of their income was thus expended. Table 10. — Amounts expended for educational magazines. Cost of magazines. $0.50 $1.00 $1.50 $2.00 $2.50 $3.00 $3.50 $4.00 $5.00 Total. Number of teachers. 7 1 122 16 455 58 89 11 46 6 36 4 15 2 6 1 10 1 788 100 This table shows that 786 teachers paid subscriptions ranging from 50 cents to $5 for educational magazines. Approximately 58 per cent of the group invested the median amount of $1.50, and 14 per cent paid from $2.50 to $5 for such magazines. Table 11. — Amounts expended for professional literature and reference boohs. Cost of professional literature and reference books. $1.00 $2.00 $3.60 $5.00 $7.50 $10. 00 $15.00 $20.00 $30. 00 $40.00 $50.00 Total. Number of teachers Per cent 62 19 63 19 44 14 74 23 25 8 24 8 10 3 12 4 3 1 1 3 1 321 100 Twenty-two per cent of the teachers reported investing money in professional liter- ature and reference books ranging in amounts from $1 to $50; the median amount thus expended is $3.50. In the light of the fact that a very small proportion of rural teachers have had professional training, it speaks well for them that there is so strong a tendency among this rural-teacher group, receiving such limited incomes, to invest money ranging from $10 to $50 in educational publications. Chapter III. THE TEACHER AT WORK. In discussing the working conditions of the rural teachers in the one-teacher schools, it is the puipose not to examine them as elements of the organization of the school, but rather to consider them only in so far as they help to throw light on the status of the iniral teachers, and explain the tremendous handicap under which they are obliged to work. A number of the topics touched upon herein but slightly might well be continued in a more intensive study. NUMBER OF PUPILS. As the size of the school is usually one of the first factors that is given considera- tion in stud^dng conditions under v/hich any particular group of teachers work, the teachers were asked in the questionnaire to state the number of pupils enrolled in their schools. Table 12 shows that 1,436 teachers reported in 1918 that their schools ranged in size from 3 to 68 pupils. The median number is found to be 26; the 25 percentile 19 and the 75 percentile 35, which facts show that 50 per cent of the teachers had schools under their charge ranging from 19 to 35 pupils. Table 12. — Number of pupils in one-teacher schools of 18 counties , followed by S typical counties. Number of pupils. Total in 18 •coun- ties. Typical counties. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 3- 5 10 27 50 109 126 156 132 157 120 205 138 120 39 33 8 6 1 1 1 5 4 6 4 8 4 1 5 3 2 1 1 1 2 10 12 17 13 7 13 10 8 13 2 1 5 3 6 11 12 7 2 1 3 1 6 8 2 7 12 15 17 16 24 11 21 20 10 4, 3 4" 11 9 11 13 32 IS 23 9 6 1 1 9-11 2 6 2 6 4 4 3 4 1 3 2 1 1 1 2 3 2 3 2 5 7 « 4 1 6 12-14 4 15-17 10 18-20 9 21-23 11 24-26 16 27-29 11 30-34 12 35-39 15 40-44 15 45-49 5 SO-54 1 4 S5-59 1 1 Total 1, 436 2S 46 24 40 24 39 31 159 25 IBS 32 109 21 52 18 120 Median numbei- of pupils 28 In view of the very dif&cult and laborious work usually attributed to teaehera in rural schools, it is gratifying that only 25 per cent of the teachers reported schools ■with an enrollment larger than 35 pupils, and that only 6 per cent of the teachers had 45 or more children under their direct charge. Nevertheless, it should fee remembered that in these schools generally all grades from the pruuary to the eighth and frequently the ninth and tenth were represented. 18 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 19 There is also considerable variation in the size of schools among the 8 typical coun- ties as found in Table 12, in that the median size of schools in county 7 is 18 pupils and in county 5 is 32. In 5 of the counties, however, the median number of pupils for each centers close about the median number for the entire group, namely, 26. Just as we observe a marked variation in the pupil enrollment in one-teacher schools, so we may note a similar variation both in the number and kinds of grades. Table 13. — Distribution of grades in one-teacher schools. Grades. Total. 1 2 3 i 5 6 ■ 7 8 9 10 19 1.8 32 3.1 60 5.9 131 12.9 160 15.7 148 14 5 426 41.8 18 1.8 25 2.5 1 019 Per cent 100 It is noticeable in the preceding table that the range in grades extends from 2 to 10, with the median falling in the group reporting 7. Inasmuch as the largest num- ber of schools are found to have 8 grades, it is evident that the county superintend- ents are carrying out the program suggested in recent years by the State department of public instruction of grading and grouping the pupils on an eight-grade basis, as has generally been practiced in the urban schools. ^ Although a large proportion of the teachers, 72 per cent, have the pupils grouped in 6, 7, or 8 grades, yet it is quite significant that 23 per cent report 5 or less grades, and 4 per cent, 9 and 10 grades. The latter condition is usually found in schools in which the advanced pupils either repeat the grammar-school subjects or pursue the study of one or more high-school subjects which may possibly be added to the regular elementary school work. In the case of teachers reporting 5 grades, it is found that there are a number of one-teacher rural schools with large pupil enrollment who hold to the traditional scheme of grading their schools in 5 divisions. A diversity of gi'ading similar to that which prevails in the group as a whole is apparent in the different counties. Several of the counties show a fairly large pro- portion of schools with large pupil em-ollment having 4 or 5 grades, while in two others 7 and 8 grade schools largely predominate, thus showing on the part of super- visory officers the pursuance of different policies of grading and grouping pupils. NUMBER OF DAILY RECITATIONS. The number of daily recitations in the program of the teachers in one-teacher schools for the 1,350 teachers ref)orting this information is shown in Table 14. The number of class recitations is found to range all the way from 9 to 50 per day. How- ever, since only two teachers reported as having the almost incredible number of 50 recitations, it is probably safer to say that the upper range for the group is approxi- mately 45 recitations per day. The median number is 25.6, failing within the largest group reporting 24 to 26 classes. The middle 50 per cent extends from 22 to 30 reci- tations. Probably the most significant fact revealed by these data is that 25 per cent of the teachers reported as having 30 or more class recitations per day, and 7 per cent of these 35 or more per day. 1 Course of Study for Elementary Schools of Pa., 1918, State Dept. Pub. Instr. Koch et al., p. 9. 20 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PEI^NSYLVANIA. Takle 14. — Number of recitations per day in one-teacher schools in IS counties, followed by 8 typical counties. Number of recitations. Total, IS coun- ties. Tyjiical counties. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9-11 4 37 38 1S2 209 396 146 246 60 22 8 2 1 1 3 5 31 31 60 18 16 2 1 2 . 3 7 6 9 4 10 10 39 28 7 4 2 2 1 3 5 9 48 14 18 1 1 1 i' 7 13 17 2 3 i" 1 12-14 2 15-17 3 18-20 4" 14 2 20 2 2 4 13 13 7 1 11 19 7 2 3 4 21-23 7 24-26 21 27-29 19 30-34 43 35-39 g 40-44 7 45-49 50 Total 1,350 25.6 43 30 40 27 42 23 168 25 129 31 103 26 44 24 113 Median number of recitations. 30 Since the length of the school day is approximately 5^ hours, or 330 minutes, exclusive of intermissions, it can be seen that teachers having 30 or more recitations per day would average approximately 10 minutes per recitation. These facts cer- tainly give some proof of the very strenuous work that teachers in one-teacher rural Bchools are obliged to do, especially in a school of 25 or more pupils. In the 8 typical counties represented in the table the medians range from 23 in county 3 to 31 recitations per day in county 5. Although the teachers in three of these counties report 30 or more recitations, we are glad to point out that the data show that three others of the group have an average of 25 or fewer recitations. Since approximately 20 per cent of the entire group, as we have already pointed out, have 20 or fewer recitations per day, there seems to be direct evidence, at least in some of the counties, of a tendency to lighten the teacher's work and to improve her efficiency by following the suggestions of the State department of education in 1918 in the Course of Study for the Elementary Schools. ^ In the suggested daily program contained in the State course, the allotted time provides for 23 recitations per day, including the opening exercises. It is doubtful, however, whether in the average daily program for a rural school, with a fairly large enrollment of pupUa divided into 7 and 8 grades, the required work can be covered with less than 25 recitations per day. In comparison with the very limited data that we have from studies relative to the topic of class recitations in rural schools of other States, it would appear that Penn- sylvania ranks very well. In South Dakota the numl)er of daily recitations in open country schools was found to be 26.65.^ In the State of Colorado the number of recitations for all the schools in the counties, including villages, averaged 22, How- ever, in the one-teacher schools the number of recitations in many cases is reported as high as 37. •» RELATION BETWEEN NUMBER OF PUPILS AND NUMBER OF DAILY RECITATIONS. In representing the relation between the number of daily recitations and the num- ber of pupils enrolled, it will be seen in Table 15 that in the group of 141 teachers reporting an em-oUment of 18 to 20 pupils the range in daily class recitations extends from 12 to 45, with a median of 26. In the case of the group of 198, with an enroll- 2 Course study for Ele. Sehs. of Pa. State Dept. Pub. Instr. Koch et al., p. 8. 3 Educational System of S. Dak. U.S.Bu. of Educ.Bul., 1918, No. 31, p. 114. « A dmini stration and Support of the Colorado Scliool System. U.S. Bu. of Educ.Bul., 1917, No. 5, p. 76. THE TEACHER AT WORK. 21 ment of 30 to 34 pupils, there is an equally wide range in class recitations per day. Where the enrollment is over 35 there seems to be a tendency toward an increase in the number of recitations. Table 15.- -Number of pupils in one-teacher schools in relation to number of daily recitations. Number of pupils. Number of redtations,. Total num- 9-11 12-14 15-17 18-20 21-23 24-26 27-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50 ber of pupils. 3 5 1 2 1 8 2 4 3 4 2 3 ...... 1 1 3 3 5 1 2 2 4 1 8 3 3 ""2 1 11 8 11 13 16 27 18 12 24 15 11 4 7 2 1 3 4 14 14 32 19 25 21 12 26 19 14 2 1 ...... 2 6 14 32 40 - 53 27 53 22 67 30 32 7 5 1 2 8 6-8 1 ' 2 15 11 15 9 20 12 15 15 12 7 5 3 2 27 9-11 6 8 10 24 25 27 33 35 25 33 11 8 1 48 12 14 1 1 2 6 8 7 13 7 6 4 3 1 1 95 15-17 1 111 18-20 1 2 2 1 3 4 4 1 2 1 141 21-23 127 24-26 157 27 29 . 102 30-34 2 1 ...... ...... 198 35-39 120 40-44 117 45-49 37 50-54 .i...... 1 1 33 55-50 8 6 Total number recitations. . 4 32 38 181 207 393 144 246 59 22 7 2 1,335 r=.20 P. E.-±.018. Looking at this table with the number of recitations primarily in mind, it will be seen that the teachers reporting class recitations in the class intervals from 18 to 20 and from 24 to 26 per day show practically similar distributions in the number of pupils enrolled, with the median number of pupils approximately 25 in each dis- tribution. Beyond 27 daily recitations there is an evident increase in the number of pupUs enrolled. The correlation, while positive, is not high, namely r=.20 P . E. = ± .018 (Pearson's Product-Moment Method). This means that schools having the largest number of pupils enrolled do not necessarily have the greatest number of class recitations per day. In discussing the number of pupils, the grouping into grades, and the number of daily recitations, it has been the purpose primarily not in any way to make an exhaustive study of each of these phases of the school, but rather to throw light, if possible, on the tremendously large and difficult task that many of the teachers in one-teacher rural schools are called upon daily to perform. An average enrollment of 26 pupils with 7 or 8 grades and a daily program of 26 or more recitations were tyi^ical of the average working conditions, not to mention the group of nearly 50 per cent of the teachers whose pupil enrollment, number of grades, and daily recitations far surpassed these averages. In discussing further the working condition* of the teacher, we shall take into account the information given in the questionnaire concerning the agencies which should help to make their work more efficient during service. Therefore, we shall tabulate the answers given to parts 13, 14, and 15 of the questionnaire as found in chapter 1.^ SCHOOL LIBRARIES. In answer to the question whether there was a school library, only 1,044, or 72 per cent, of the teachers replied. In Table 16 it will be seen that 31 per cent answered affirmatively, 41 per cent negatively, and 28 per cent did not reply. 5 See p. 3. 22 STATUS OF KURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. Table Ifi. — Per cent of tcacJters reporting school Uhraries, total per cent followed by 10 typical counties. Total, 18 coun- ties. Tyjjical counties. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Per cent reporting libraries Per cent not reporting libraries. . 31 41 28 30 38 32 25 65 10 26 60 14 . 37 50 13 63 25 12 64 1 35 44 29 27 28 50 16 12 66 71 15 17 19 Great differences seem to exist among the separate counties. For example, in counties 5 and 10, school libraries were reported by 63 and 6G per cent of the teachers, respectively. On the other hand, counties 9 and 2 indicate the opposite extreme, in that only 12 and 25 per cent thus reported. The reason for these differences must be left largely to conjecture, since no definite information was given to indicate conclu- sively the exact causes. The teachers were asked to state the approximate number of books filed in their libraries. These data are tabulated in the following tal>le: Table 17. — Number of books in one-teacher school Uhraries. Number of books. Total. 10 20 30 40 50 75 100 150 200 300 400 Number of teachers re- porting 58 14 85 20 64 15 31 8 76 15 30 7 43 10 23 6 14 3 5 1 4 1 423 Per cent 100 It will be noticed here that the range in number of books extends from 10 to 400. Nearly 50 per cent of the 423 teachers who gave this information reported libraries %\dth less than 40 books, and 21 per cent reported libraries with 100 or more volumes. Al- though only 423, or 29 per cent of the whole number of teachers upon which this study is based, reported as having a definite number of books in their school libraries, yet these comparatively few teachers should be highly commended for the efforts exerted by them, frequently with the aid of jiupils and ofttimes at a personal sacrifice. ACCESSIBILITY TO OTHER LIBRARIES. In reply to that part of question 13 of .the questionnaire asking whether teachers had access to any other libraries for obtainiifg books and materials for teaching, it is interesting to note that 924, or C4 per cent, of the teachers replied, of whom 398, or 43 per cent, reported in the affirmative. In view of the slight variation among the different counties, this condition seems to have been quite prevalent throughout the counties represented in this study. LOCAL INSTITUTES. Since it is generally known that all teachers in Pennsylvania are obliged to attend either county or district teachers' institutes for five days, we shall not discuss in detail this agency as a means for the training of teachers. However, since most of the county superintendents in Pennsylvania encourage, or actively participate in the organization of many local or district institutes throughout their counties, the question was asked of the teachers, how far they availed themselves of this opportunity. There were 824 teachers who replied to this question, of whom 591, or 72 per cent, reported that they had attencied such educational meetings. From this large proportion of THE TEACHER. AT WORK. 23 affirinativ-e replies it is 6^4deIlt that local institutes play a part in helping to develop teachers in the rural districts. In order to learn what opportunities the teachers in rural schools have for personal growth and development, they were asked whether they were m^embers oi a reading circle. Thirty-one per cent of the 1,017 teachers replying said that they were members of such an organization. This low percentage may probably be expected because of the physical difficulties that teachers in rural communities must necessarily experience in attending such meetings. PBOFESSIONAL LITERATURE. To ascertain fiu-ther the opportunities of which teachers in the one-teacher rural schools individually availed themselves, they were requested to state the kind of professional literature for which th«y subscribed^ such as educational magazines and reference books. It is shown in the previous chapter that teachers expended a fairly large percentage of their salaries for material of this kind. Of the entire number of teachers comprising this study, 1,114, or 77 per cent, gave this information, of whom 1,.©15, or 91 per cent, reported that, they subscribed for edu<:;ational magazines. AmoBf the number thus reporting, 879 gave the names of the magazines as described in the following table: Table 18. — Educational 'magazines subscribed for by tsachers in one-teacher rural schools Kind of magazines. Number. Per cent. 460 52.3 36 4.1 28 3.1 17 2.0 7 .8 • 3 .3 3 .3 2 .2 2 .2 156 18.0 62 7.0 17 1.9 13 1.5 11 1.3 10 1.2 9 1.0 6 .7 4 .5 5 .6 3 .3 3 .3 2 .2 1 .05 1 .05 18 2.1 Normal Instructor Primary Plans Primary Education . . , Poqjular Education Educational Journal Child Life Pennsylvania School Journal. Progressive Teacher Teacher's Work IN COMBINATIONS. Normal Instructor and Priaiary Plans Normal Instructor and Pathfinder Normal Instructor, Primary Plans, and Pathfinder Normal Instructor and Primary Education Normal Instructor and Popular Education , Primary Education and Popular Education Primary Plans and Popular Education Normal Instruction, Primary Plans, Popular Education. Normal Instruction, School Journal, and Pathfinder Normal Instructor and Educational Jom'naL Educational Journal and Pathfinder Norm5,l Instructor and The Century Normal Instructor and Educational Foundations Normal Instructor and Current Events Primary Education aind IKte Century Miscellaneous - Total. 100 From the data at hand we have no evidence as to how fai' these selections of educa- tional magazines carried out the suggestions of the list of educational journals as sub- mitted by county superintendents in the different counties, but in talking this matter over with several of the superintendents of counties represented in this study, the writer learned that in many cases the teachers followed the suggestions of an agent in selecting magazines either separately or in attractive combinations. Besides the educational magazines in tiie foregoing list, a email percentage of the teachers reported as subscribing for the following magazines and periodicals; E,e^T.ew of Pv,eviews, Home Economics, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics, New Century^ World's Events, The American, World's Work, Youth's €ompanian, Saturday Even- 24 STATUS OF EURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. ing Post, Geographic Magazine, Pathfinder, Current Events, Nature Study, Bird Life, newspapers, etc. None of the above was named more than 10 times, with the exception of the Pathfinder, which was named 48 times. Cm-rent Events, 35 times, and Geographic Magazine, 20 times. Relative to reference books, ap'proximately 22 per cent of the teachers gave informa- tion. The following were named most frequently: The Encyclopedia, the Diction- ary, the Standard Dictionary of Facts, Century Book of Facts, Stoddard's Lectures, Book of Knowledge, Book-s on Teaching, Books on Theory, Story Books, Classics, Public School Methods, Supplementary Text Books, etc. SUPERVISION BY COUNTY AND ASSISTANT COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. Inasmuch as it is generally understood that scores of teachers in the rural schools are new and inexperienced in the work and frequently have very limited academic and professional training, it was deemed advisable to determine, to some extent at least, how much time was actually spent by county and assistant county superin- tendents with rural teachers for supervisory purposes. These data are tabulated in Table 19, of which Division A shows that the time spent by county superintendents in supervision, according to the replies of l.OOG teachers from 18 different counties ranges from a quarter of an hour to eight hotirs during the school year. The median is found in the group of 404, or 40 per cent of the numl)er, who reported supervision for a period of one hour. It is most significant that 66 per cent of the teachers replied that county superintendents could spend only one hour or less in supervising their teaching work. Table 19. — Number of hours per school year teachers in one-teacher schools arc super- vised — Distribution for 18 counties , folloived by 8 typical counties. DIVISION A.— COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. Total Typical counties Number of hours. distri- Ijution, j 18 coun- ties. 1 2 3 4 5 1 6 7 8 J.., 46 215 4' 1 12 17 45 4 12 2 16 *.. ■■ 6 23 1. . 404 12 31 8 i 38 15 38 35 n. 71 6 4 1 4 2 13 5 2.. 159 7 6 3 1 ! 10 8 3 8 3. . 38 2 2 1 1 2 4 3 4. 39 17 4 6 6 4 1 1 ' 1 1 5 ■ 6 1 1 7 3 2 8. ..-------- - 2 1 i Total 1,005 29 58 15 17 117 45 73 75 DIVISION B.— ASSISTANT COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. Number of hours. Total distri- bution, 18 coun- ties. Typical counties. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 i 9 68 175 54 204 78 36 13 5 5 10 3 6 3" 1 6 12 2 10 7 2 1 h 2 5 3 26 4 2 2 1 8 2 3 20 44 16 25 20 3' 1 1 6 1 12 n 2 2 10 3 7 4 4 2 5 2 1 ""■ 1 6 1 1 7 1 I 1 8 3 2 2 Total 655 12 ,50 1 10 130 44 44 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 25 In observing the 8 typical counties in Division A, it is apparent that the range and median time spent in supervision are practically the same in all the counties with the exception of counties 3 and 7 — the counties among the group according to Division B, that do not have supervision by assistant county superintendents. This is due to the fact that by law counties with less than 200 teachers are not entitled to an assistant superintendent. ^ But note the contrast-^in county 3, having 22 one-teacher schools out of the approximate 60 schools supervised,^ the teachers in the one-teacher schools reported supervision ranging from 2 to 8 hours; on the other hand in county 7 in which the number of schools approaches 200, with approximately 125 one-teacher schools,'' very little supervision can necessarily be given to the rural teachers, as has been shown by the replies from two-tliirds of the teachers, who stated that they have received one hour or less of the superintendent's time in supervision. While this latter county superintendent probably gave as much time in supervision to the schools as most of the others representing the group of 8 countios, the extra supervision received by the teachers in the other counties through their assistant superintendents was practically denied his county with 125 one-teacher schools by the rather arbitrary State law. In Table 19, Division B, 655 teachers reported the amount of time spent in super- ^dsion by assistant county superintendents in their schools, respectively. While the range in time is the same as in the case of the county superintendents, the median is found in the group of teachers reporting two hours of supervision during the school year. Since 54 per cent, or over one-half, of the teachers in counties having assistant county superintendents reported supervision of two or more hours during the school year, it is apparent that teachers received, on the basis of the data reported, con- siderably more supervision from assistant county superintendents than from county superintendents. This condition would naturally be expected, inasmuch as the county superintendent is responsible not only for the supervision of every school under his jurisdiction, but also for the administration of his office. It seems remark- able that these school officials could devote as much time to the schools as herein reported, not only because of insufficient professional help, but in many cases because of the lack of sufficient clerical help and proper office facilities. At this point the reader 's attention should be called to Table 1 in Chapter I, in which are set forth certain difficulties relative to supervision in the various counties that county superintendents are obliged to face, such as the large number of one-teacher schools, sparsity of population, and size of county. To study the first of these problems more specifically, in county 41 the siiperintendent with only one assistant has 321 teachers under his supervision, of whom 197, or 61 per cent, are employed in one-teacher schools ; in county 28 the superintendent with also one assistant superin- tendent has under his charge 307 teachers, with 197, or 64 per cent, in one-teacher schools; while in county 20 there are 373 teachers, with 311, or 83 per cent, one-teacher schools, likewise supervised by the superintendent with the aid of only one assist- ant superintendent. In counties 36 and 66 there are 650 and 571 teachers under the county superintendent's supervision, with 361 and 350 teachers in one-teacher schools, respectively; but the superintendent in the former county has 3 assistants, while in the latter the superintendent has but 2, although the two counties have practically the same number of one-teacher schools. It would seem that in order to provide additional professional supervision for rural teachers, instead of using the arbitrary plan providing for one assistant for 200 to 400 teachers, and one additional assistant for 400 to 600 et cetera,^ the number and distri- bution of one-teacher schools should be given careful consideration, to say nothing at 6 School Laws of Pennsylvania, and appendix, 1919, Art. XI, sec. 1126. ' Teachers' directories issued by county superintendents, 1919-20. 2S STATUS OF EUKAL TEACHEE IN PEJSTNSYLVANIA. this time of such other factors as the size of the counties, aparsity of population, and number and size of school districts. It is not the purpose to elaborate on these data any further or to suggest possible constructive measures, but rather to set forth the situations in the State as they exist, namely, the lack of professional supervision and assistance giA'en to teachers in the rural schools, and emphasis upon the need for immediate additional assistance for county superintendents, in order to make the time spent in super\'ising rural schools at all comparable with that devoted to supervision in borough and city schools. These conditions certainly must tend to discourage many of the teachers without any pre- vious experience, and undoubtedly cause scores of them to enter urban schools or leave the profession altogether. SCHOOLS VISITED BY SCHOOL BOARDS. Since the school laws of Pennsylvania provide that "boards of school directors shall exercise general supervision over the schools of their respecti\'e districts, and shall, except in districts having district superintendents or supervising principals, by one or more of their number visit every school in the district at least once a month," ^ the question was asked of the teachers in the rural schools whether the school boards had visited their schools the previous year. Of the entire number of teachers included in this study, 694, or 48 per cent, supplied this information. Sixtj'-nine per cent of those replying say that their schools were visited by the school boards, and the number is distributed in the following table : Table 20. — Number and per cent of school directors visiting one-teacher rural schools. Number of directors. 1 2 3 4 5 Total. HI 28 134 27 108 21 58 11 65 15 506 100 The median number of directors visiting schools is found in the group who reported visits by two directors, and in only 65, or 15 per cent, of the schools was it reported that the entire board consisting of five members observed the teacher actually at work. Table 21. — Number and per cent of visits made by school directors in the one-teacher schools. Number of visits. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Number of schools represented... 294 61 88 18.2 33 6.9 15 3.2 18 3.7 5 1 12 2.4 8 1.6 8 1.6 2 0.4 483 "100 This table shows that the median number of visits made by school directors in one- teacher schools is found in the group reporting one Adsit. It may be interesting to point out that 294 reporting one visit comprise 61 per cent of the group. The school code, it should be recalled, provides that the boaids shall exercise general super- 8 School Laws of Pennsylvania, and appendix, 1919. Art. IV, sec. 408. THE TEACHER AT WOBK. m "Vision over the schools, but it does not specifically refer in any sense to their super- vision of instruction. This brings us to the question of whether school iboards do give consideration to the judgment of county superintendents in the election or reelection of teachers to posi- tions in their school districts. In reply to this question, as found in section 6 of the questionnaire, unfortunately only 50 per cent of the teachers have given this informa- tion. These replies are tabulated in the following table: Table 22.- -Consideration that school boards give to judgment of county superintendents in the election or reelection of teachers. Number. Per cent. 180 342 203 23 47 30 Total 725 100 In studying the above table and discounting the fact that only one-half of the teachers from the 18 counties comprising the study furnished this information, it is most significant to learn that 70 per cent of the teachers reported that the school boards gave none or very little consideration to the judgment of county superinten- dents in exercising their very important function of electing or reelecting teachers to the schools in their respective districts. When it is recalled that 31 per cent of the teachers reported that the school boards do not visit their schools, one can not help but point out the fact that teachers certainly receive very little intelligent considera- tion from many school boards as far as their professional welfare is concerned. These conditions emphasize all the more strongly the need for a centralized county organiza- tion, especially in its relation to local school boards, if the teachers in the one-teacher schools are to be assured of the consideration which they so rightly deserve. COMMUNITY INTEREST AND SUPPORT. In closing this discussion of the conditions under which the teachers in the rural communities are obliged to work, it is of interest to see just what support and coopera- tion the teachers in the one-teacher rural schools received from the patrons and resi- dents of the school community. The teachers were asked to give this information in several parts of the questionnaire. In the first place they were asked, "Do you take part in a parent-teachers' association or any kind of community activity held in your school building? " The following table contains the replies: Table 23. -Teachers reporting parent-teachers' organizations and other community activities. Number. Per cent. Teachers reporting parent-teachers' association or other community activities 293 720 28 72 Total 1,013 100 It is quite apparent from the above replies that teachers in the rural communities have very little community cooperation and support in an organized way as is shown by the small percentage, 28, who reported such an organization. In some cases it may have been impossible to have such a community organization, but we are glad 28 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. • to learn that teachers in many rural schools made it a practice to visit the homes in their respective communities and that the parents also frequently visited the schools. In reply to the direct question covering these facts, 515 teachers, or 36 per cent, reported that it was their practice to visit the homes of parents. The average number of homes visited by the group thus reporting is 7. At the same time, 483, or approxi- mately 33 per cent, of the parents showed an interest in the work of the schools by making frequent \isits during the school year. The average number of \isits reported by this group is found among those who received eight such visits from parents. In communities having one-teacher schools, interest and cooperation in the work of the public schools on the part of patrons and residents frequentlj' has a very direct bearing upon the kind and condition of the school and especially upon the social and economic life of the teacher who is called upon to serve in such a community. This support and interest on the part of the citizens is undoubtedly as vital to the teacher's personal welfare as the support of county and local school officials is to her profes- sional welfare. Chapter IV. ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING. Because of the important part which the teacher's academic and professional training plays in the conduct of school, it is most essential that in a study of the rural teacher this phase should receive careful analysis. The facts in this discussion are based entirely upon the replies in the questionnaires furnished by the teachers themselves. ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. Table 24 shows for the year 1918 the elementary education of a group of 1,440 teachers in the one-teacher rural schools in 18 counties of the State. The range in years of the 1,192 teachers, or 80 per cent of the total group, receiving their early education in townships extends from 5 to 12 years, and of the 248, or 20 per cent, in boroughs, from 5 to 11 years. The median length of elementary education in both cases is found in the group reporting as having an elementary education of 8 years, which is the equiva- lent of 68.2 months on the basis of 7.6 months, the average length of school term for townships, and 70.8 months on the basis of 8.6 months, the average length of term for boroughs.^ Table 24. — Elementary education in years of teachers in one-teacher schools in townships and boroughs — Total distribution and per cent for 18 counties. DIVISION A— IN TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS. Years. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total. Totaldistribution 18 coun- 20 2 114 9 164 14 423 36 228 19 147 12 66 5 30 3 1,192 100 DIVISION B— IN BOROUGH SCHOOLS. Years. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total. Total distribution 18 coun- 4 2 28 11 46 19 119 48 26 10 23 9 2 1 248 100 There is much similarity between Division A and DiAdsion B, as shown by the ranges and the medians. Probably the greatest difference between the two is found in their respective distributions, the former sho-wing 39 per cent attending elementary schools for a period longer than 8 years, the latter only 20 per cent for practically the same length of time. It is probable that, among those teachers who report elementary See Table 46, p. 66. 73438°— 22-^ 29 30 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. education for'a period of 11 or 12 years, high-school training maybe included, inas- much as they do not answer the part of the questionnaire pertaining to secondary education. This is more likely to be true in the case of the teachers receiving their elementary training in townships rather than in boFoughs, since only 36 per cent of the former completed this education within the period of 8 years, as compared with 48 per cent of the latter. These facts can be explained in part in that rural schools in townships frequently have classes that extend beyond the eighth grade of the elementary school. It is not at all uncommon to find nine grades and sometimes more in one-teacher rural schools. The highest, or "A," class in many of these schools frequently spends three or more years repeating the more advanced elementary-school sul)ject, with the addition, probably, of algebra or Latin or some other high-school subjects, depending prolmbly somewhat on the ability and choice of the individual teachers. This tj-pe of school, however, is rapidly passing out of existence, and in its place many school districts have developed a high school of the second or third class, or they have transferred the pupils to another district for instruction beyond the elementary grades. In contrast with these facts, it is most interesting to note that the percentage of teachers attending elementary schools for a period of 7 years or less is as high as 32 per cent for those securing their early education in boroughs and 25 per cent for those receiving their early training in townships. SECONDARY EDUCATION. In examining Table 25, which shows the secondary education for the same group of 1,440 teachers in one-teacher rural schools from 18 counties of the State, it will l)e observed that 39 per cent of the teachers reported in the questionnaires that they had had no secondary education. Seven per cent had attended a secondary school for les* than one year, 4 per cent for one year, 11 per cent for two years, 17 per cent for three years, and 22 per cent reported as having completed a four- year secondary-school course. It is only fair to state that inasmuch as the proportion of two and three year high schools available among the high schools of the State was, for example, 90 per cent in 1908 and 64 per cent in 1918, at least three-fourths of those reporting as having attended high school for two and three years were usually graduated from their high schools.^ The 98 teachers stating that they had attended a secondary school less than a year in most cases attended a private academy, of which there are quite a number throughout Pennsylvania, ranking about the same as the high school. Table 25. — Secondary education of teachers in one-teacher schools— Total distribution for 18 counties, followed by distribution in 8 typical counties. DIVISION A- -DISTRIBUTION BY YEARS. Teachers reporting. Without secondary educa- tion. With secondary educa- tion. Years of secondary education. Less than one year. One year. Two years. Three years. Four years. Total distribution (18 counties) 1,440 566 874 98 57 1.57 247 315 Distribution in typi- cal counties: 1 46 99 92 105 110 40 65 109 19 63 39 38 45 20 13 46 27 36 53 67 65 20 51 73 1 4 3 4 20 3 2 17 1 1 2 2 9 1 3 7 6 5 4 8 19 2 6 20 11 17 11 22 9 5 15 11 g 2 g 3. 33 31 g 4 5. .. ft 9 7 25 18 8 2 Eleventh An. Rept. High School Inspectors, State Dept. of Educ. of Pa., July, 1918, p. 14. ACADEMIC AND PEOFESSIOlirAL TRAINHSTG. 31 Table 25. — Secondary education of teachers in one-teacher schools Total distribution for 18 counties, followed by distribution in 8 typical counties — Continued. DIVISION B- -DISTEIBUTION IN PER CENT. Teachers reporting. Without secondary educa- tion. With secondary educa- tion. Secondary education in per cents. Less than one year. One year. Two years. Three years. Four years. Per cent 100 39 61 7 4 11 17 22 Distribution in typi- cal counties: 1 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 40 64 42 34 40 50 22 39 60 36 58 66 60 50 78 61 2 4 3 4 19 7 3- 16 2 1 2 2 8 3 5 6 13 5 4 8 18 5 9 . 18 25 17 12 21 8 13 23 10 18 2 9 3. 37 4 31 5 7 6 22 7 33 8 11 Among the group of 39 per cent constituting: the teachers who reported no secondary education, it must be pointed out, as will be discussed more in detail in the next chap- ter,^ that they held all types of certificates, and that 60 per cent of those holding per- manent certificates reported that they had no secondary education. At the same time the answers showed that teachers just entering the profession with provisional certificates had. the highest percentage of secondary school training. Another consideration should be taken into account when interpreting these data, namely, that a small percentage of the teachers who reported no secondary education attended elementary schools in rural communities with 9 and 10 grades, of the type described earlier in this chapter. Then, again, a small proportion of those reporting only elementary educational preparation attended an academy or local county nor- mal school for a period of six weeks before securing a teacher's certificate. In tracing the education of each teacher in a number of typical counties, it was found that this group constituted from 10 to 15 per cent out of the 39 per cent reporting no secondary education. This means, after making all possible deductions on the basis of the answers given by the teachers themselves, that on a very conservative estimate the number of teachers not having had any seconda,ry education is approximately 25 per cent. This conclusion is further corroborated by a recent study in teacher shortage made by the bureau of certification and training of teachers of the State department of public instruction, in which it is set forth that 25 per cent of the teachers holding provisional and professional certificates have had only elementary education, and that 2 per cent out of these 25 per cent had not even completed this elementary training.* This information was submitted to the State department by the county superintendents, and covers the teaching force for the current year 1919-20. Two facts, however, should be kept in mind in analyzing the data issued by the State department: First, that teachers holding permanent certificates are not included, which, on the basis of this study, would undoubtedly raise the percentage of teachers not having had secondary education;^ and second, that the data com- prise all teachers under county supervision rather than the teachers in one-teacher schools, exclusively, tending therefore to lower the percentage of teachers without secondary education, since a much larger proportion of the teachers in one-teacher rm'al schools hold provisional and professional certificates than in the two-teacher rural, village, and borough schools.'' These facts would all the more strongly warrant the conclusion that, as before stated, 25 per cent of the teachers without secondary education in one-teacher schools 3 See p. 48. < Study in Teacher Shortage, Dept. Pub. Instruction of Pa., 1919-20 (unpublishtsd). 6 See p. 49. 6 See pp. 39, 40. 32 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. is surely not too high an estimate, and the exact per cent would likely be between the 25 per cent and the 39 per cent recorded by the teachers themselves in the questionnaires. On the basis of the data presented, applying these percentages to the 10,000 teachers in one-teacher rural schools of the entire State, it would mean that approximately — 3, 900 began teaching without secondary education; of these, 2,500 from the ele- mentary schools without any additional training, 1,400 with ninth and tenth grade advanced elementary training. 700 with secondary training of less than one year. 400 with secondary training of one year. 1, 100 with secondary training of two years. 1, 700 with secondary training of three years. 2, 200 completed a four years' secondary course. 10, 000, total. PROV.C 28 y/^/A\\\\\\\ 72 9 II 4C 20 32 e o Y///M\\\\\\\\\\ 13 13 15 19 ?im. eo 40 55 ZQ 5 9 6 AS 7 12 16 10 39 61 17 22 NO 5CC.ED. CZZl TWOYRSDHID ONt YR ThRtL YR5. OR IE55 ^ ^m rOUR YR5. Dl^gram 1. — Percentage of touchers iu one-teacher rural schools, by certificates, on the basis of their secondary education. The secondary education of the teachers represented in the 8 typical counties in Table 25, Division B, following the distribution for the entire group of 18 counties, shows considerable variation. In the first place the range in percentage of teachers ha^^.ng secondary education extends from 36 to 78. Among those who have finished a four-year course in a high school or an academy, the difference in per cent between the lowest county and the highest one is 31, county 5 indicating 7 per cent and county 7 indicating 38 per cent. While there is evidently considerable variation in the counties in the number of teachers spending less than four years in high school, the counties showing the large proportion of teachers with two and three years of high- school education possess a goodly number of two and three year high schools, respec- tively, throughout their counties.' Counties 5 and 8 stand out prominently because of the large number of teachers who reported attending secondary schools less than one year. This may be due in part to the fact that private academies are located in these counties offering both to teachers in service and to prospective teachers a spring or summer normal course for a period of six weeks. While it is not our purpose at this point to discuss fully these academies which conduct normal school courses, yet the influence of these schools in ' Eleventh An, Rept. Pa. State H. Sch. Inspectors, p. 14. ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING. 33 the counties where they are located is quite marked, as will be shown in the latter part of this discussion dealing with the training of teachers in service. The counties that have this type of school show a higher percentage of teachers with academic or professional training than those counties which do not possess schools offering similar opportunities either for prospective teachers or for teachers in service. In comparison with other States from which we have data, it appears that Pennsyl- vania on the basis of this study does not rank very well in the number of teachers with secondary education in one-teacher rural schools. It should be remembered that the percentages for Pennsylvania are strictly for one-teacher schools and that in some of the other States cited all rural schools, including \dllage schools of two and more than two teachers, were considered. Table 26. — Education of teachers in one-teacher rural schools. Ala- bama.i Colo- rado. 2 Nebras- ka.3 Peimsyl- vania. South Dakota.< Vir- ginia.5 Elementary education onlv 16.0 10.1 17.2 18.0 38.0 7 4 9 16 15 36 6 2o 18 18 17 22 9 6 One year of high school or less 3 3 Two years of high school -. 16 9 4 Three years of high school 10 2 Four years of high school '3.5 ^ 58 Ml.O 1 Educational Study of Alabama, U. S. Bu. of Educ, Bui., 1919, No. 41, p. 349. 2 Administration and Support of the Colorado School System, U. S. Bu. of Educ. Bui. 1917, No 5 p 74 3 The Rural Teacher of Nebraska. U. S. Bu. of Educ. Bui. 1919, No. 20, p. 31. 4 Educational System of S. Dakota, U. S. Bu. of Educ. Bui., 1918, No. 31, p 213. 6 Virginia Public School Survey, p. 334. 6 See explanation p. 31. ^ Per cents do not total 100. PROFESSIONAL TRAINING. To consider the professional training of this group of teachers in the one-teacher rural schools means, under the present certificate system in Pennsylvania, practically the exclusive consideration of those teachers who have attended a State normal school. This information is tabulated in Table 27, which shows that, out of 1,445 teachers, 1,105, or 76 percent, report having had no State normal school training. This indicates that the remaining 340, or 24 per cent, attended a normal school for a period ranging from 6 weeks to 4 years in length, of which number 264, or 18 per cent completed the normal school course. It will be seen that this percentage of normal school graduates is higher than the average, which is 14 per cent for the entire State of Pennsylvania, based on the reports of 28 counties in 1919, as will be explained in the next chapter.* This helps to substantiate the view that a good proportion of the better educated and professionally trained teachers in each of the counties repre- sented in this study answered the questionnaires. Table 27. — Distribution of teachers on the basis of normal school education in prepaj-a- tionfor teaching — Total distribution for 18 counties, followed by 8 typical counties. Teach- ers re- port- ing. With- out normal school educa- tion. With normal school educa- tion. Normal school education. Nor- mal school grad- uates. Per cent with normal school educa- tion. Per Less than lyr. 1 yr. 2 yrs. 3 yrs. 4 yrs. normal school grad- uates. Total distribution 18 counties 1, 445 100 1, 105 76 340 24 40 3 1 142 10 91 6 25 2 264 18 Per cen4; Distnbution of Typi- cal Counties: 1 47 99 62 40 110 53 107 119 34 43 43 28 68 37 83 99 13 60 19 12 41 16 24 22 9 6 4 2" 3 5 11 2 6 2 5 16 1 3 2 2 21 8 5 IS 4 10 5 2 55 13 5 37 12 13 9 28 61 31 30 37 30 22 18 4 2 20 6 1 4 5 3 4 7 '""i' 1 3 3 56 3 21 4 13 34 5 6 23 12 7 8 7 8 See p. 40. 34 STATUS or RURAL TEACHER IN" PENNSYLVANIA. The largest group of teachers, namely 10 per cent, of those reporting State normal school education had attended for a period of two years, indicating that these either had graduated from a four-year high school and spent two years in a normal school, or had attended a State normal school for a period of two years under what was known as the two-year course which existed for a period of years prior to the year 1904.* During that time it was possible for a student to complete the elementary school and graduate from a normal school in two years without any preliminary education. From 1904 to 1914, normal schools in Pennsylvania had what was known as a three- year course, which admitted students either from an elementary school or from a high school, meaning that the 6 per cent group in the table attending a normal school for three years in most cases had entered the school without any high-school educa- tion. The 25 teachers reporting that they had attended a normal school for four years are usually persons who had gone to the normal school directly from the ele- mentary grades, thereby making it serve both as the secondary school and the pro- fessional training school. In the individual counties following the general distribution, the range in per cent of teachers having attended a normal school extends from 18 to 61, while for those who completed the normal course, th per cents range from 4 to 56. Counties 2 and 5, having the largest number of teachers who attended and graduated from a normal school are 2 of the 13 counties of the State in which State normal schools are located. Undoubtedly the most significant fact as brought out in these data is that at least 76 per cent of the teachers in the one-teacher schools entered upon their work without professional training in State normal schools by the examination route, made pos- sible by the Pennsylvania certificate system, which will be discussed more at length in the next chapter. We have very little comparative data from other States per- taining exclusively to the rural school teacher, yet from the meager information we do have, it appears that Pennsylvania ranks very low. For example, in South Da- kota, according to the recent school survey of that State, it is estimated that 45.8 per cent of the teachers attended professional schools and that 54.2 per cent entered the rural schools without professional training.'" In Alabama it is also estimated that 63.6 per cent of the teachers teaching in rural and village schools had no pro- fessional preparation." Wliile the rural schools as defined in both of these surveys may not be as closely confined to the one-teacher school as in this study, yet the com- parison is most significant in that Pennsylvania, on the basis of the numl^er of cases represented in this discussion, ranks lower than a typical western and a typical southern State. In New York State only 8 per cent of the teachers in one-teacher schools are grad- uates of State normal schools, a percentage considerably lower than that for Penn- sylvania.'- However, "approximately 60 per cent of the teachers in these schools have had one year of professional training in training classes either added to four years of high school, or added to an incomplete high-school course." '^ Since the State of Pennsylvania has no teacher training institutions specially intended to pre- pare elementary teachers other than the 13 State normal schools, it would seem at least on the basis of comparison with our neighboring State New Y'ork, with its 11 State normal schools, that these facts give us additional evidence in favor of the immediate establishment of larger and more adequate teacher training facilities in Pennsylvania. 9 Pennsylvania State Nor. Sch. catalogues. Proc. State Normal School Prinnipals. 10 Educ. System of S. Dak., U. S. Bu. of Educ. Bui., 1918, No. 31, p. 231. 11 Educ. Study of Alabama, U. S. Bu. of Educ. Bill., 1919, No. 41, p. 349. 12 See p. 40. 13 Engelhardt. "The Teaching Profession in the State of New York." AOABEMIC AlfD FBOFESSIOIf AI, TBAINLFG. 35 Table 28-. — Distribution of normal-school graduates in one-teacher schools for 18 counties on the basis of preliminary secondary education. Normal school gradu- ates. Without second- ary edu- cation. With second- ary edu- cation. Years of secondary education . Less than 1 year. One year. Two years. Three years. Four years. Total distribution 18 counties 264 100 144 55 120 45 4 2 la 5 32 12 43 16 28 10 Percent An important observation that can be made from these data is the great variation in the amount of time actually spent in a normal school. This can probably be best explained by observing Table 28, which shows the percentage of the group of normal school graduates referred to in Table 27 from the standpoint of their preliminaiy secondary education. The range in time spent in a secondary school extends from six weeks to four years. Of the 45 per cent, or less than one-half, of the normal school graduates reporting as having had preliminary secondary education only 10 per cent had finished a four-year high-school course, and 16 and 12 per cent stated that they hfid three yeara and two years of high-school education, respectively. It is, indeed, most interesting to note that 55 per cent of the teachers holding normal-school cer- tificates or diplomas had gone directly to a State normal school without any secondary education. These data help to explain the tremendous variation in length of time spent in the normal schools by those who had graduated, as was brought out earlier in this dis- cussion. Since the normal schools in Pennsylvania have been admitting students with all kinds of academic preparation, ranging from the pupil who had finished the eighth grade in the elementary school to one who had completed a four-year high- school course, it is quite evident that one must naturally expect to find such tre- mendous variations both in the case of the preliminary secondary education and in that of the time spent in the normal school. ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING DURING SERVICE. The different kinds and amount of academic and professional training of which the teachers in the one-teacher schools avail themselves during service are tabulated in Tables 29 and 30. In the first place, it should be noted that only 1,085, or approxi- mately 75 per cent, of all the tea.chers who replied to the questionnaire gave this information. Of those who reported, 676, or 62 per cent, have had no academic or professional schooling since entering the teaching profession. Of the 38 per cent who reported such supplementary training 10 per cent attended summer academies, 8 per cent summer local or county normal schools, 12 per cent summer normal schools, and 6 per cent summer colleges, all ranging fi-om one to four summer terms of six weeks each. In studying more in detail the kind of institution selected by these teachers in individual counties, it was found that two factors predominated in deter- mining this selection — ^first, the kind of certificate held by the teacher, and second, the land of school most accessible. The former was found true from the fact that teachers usiially select a school that helps them to obtain the academic schooling in such branches as algebra, general history, plane geometry, etc, studies in which they are called upon to pass an examination to qualify for either a professional or per- manent certificate. This will be more specifically discussed in the next chapter in considering the academic and professional preparation and training in service of the teachers holding the different types of certificates. 36 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. Table 29. — Supplementary academic, and professional training of teachers during serv- ice. — Total distribution for 18 counties followed by 8 typical counties. No train- ing dur- ing serv- ice. Train- ing dur- ' ing serv- ice. Summer academy. Summer local or ■ county nor- mal school. Sumimer State normal school. Summer college. Corre- spond- ence Weeks. To- tal. 109 2 .... 8 3 21 "19 Weeks. To- tal. 93 9 13 '"2 ""ii 2 21 Weeks. To- tal. 129 Weeks. To- tal. and miscel- laneous. 6 41 1 'i 5 2 7 io 12 37 1 ] '5 IS 18 "2 '3 '3 24 13 'i "5 i 6 48 1 5 i '4 1 6 12 29 3 3 'i ■? 9 18 5 2 3 i '4 24 U 3 2 "3 "2 6 64 2 "i 4 13 3 1 12 28 1 '3 3 5 3 18 IS "2 '2 2 '3 24 19 1 2 6 '2 1 '2 6 44 12 IS 24 Total distribution (18 counties). Typical counties: 676 409 12 4 60 18 22 19 65 40 76 56 39 56 16 17 23 21 34 46 9 53 4 2 15 7 22 9 1 10 1 2 5 2 4 2 4 2 1 1 2 1 i 1 1 1 2 6 3 7 4 5 2 2 3 1 4 1 5 2 6 1 7 1 8 1 Table 30. — Suppleraentary academic and professional training of teachers during service in per cent — Total distribution for 18 counties followed by 8 typical counties. Per cent without training during service. Per cent service. Summer local or county normal school. Summer State normal school. Summer college. Corre- spond- ence and miscella- neous. Total per cent (18 counties) 62 38 10 8 12 6 2 Typical counties: 1 58 53 74 66 69 55 81 51 42 47 26 34 31 45 19 49 5 24 36 10 6 17 3 5 7 2 3 1 13 3 20 1 4 3 11 5 2 5 20 9 2 9 6 4 11 2 2 6 11 4 19 1 7 2 8 IS 1 The second factor above referred to may best be illustrated by looking into the supplementary- training of this group of teachers as shown in the 8 typical counties constituting the second part of the table. For example, in counties 3 and 5 the larger proportion of the teachers attended the summer session at one of the State normal schools. Since each of these counties has a State normal school located within its boundaries, naturally the school is most accessible for the teachers, and this caused them to select this school intended primarily for teacher training. On the other hand, in counties 6 and 8 a large proportion of the teachers select courses in summer academies and local or county normal schools. Both of these counties show a veiy small pro- portion of teachers attending a summer State normal school. According to the infor- mation obtained from the county superintendent, in the case of county 8 there are two private academies and four summer local or county normal schools. The latter are usually conducted by high-school principals in certain parts of the county who. probably with the aid of one or two additional teachers, provide a number of academic courses especially intended to prepare teachers to qualify for examinations, either foi additional subjects to the certificate already held or possibly for the next higher cer- tificate. In many cases the professional training in these schools is limited to a class in school management, using one of the well-known traditional texts in the develop- ment of the subject. ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING. 37 One other observation should be pointed out. It was found that the counties which show the lowest percentage of teachers who avail themselves of the opportunity of supplementary education or training are usually the ones which have the least number of available schools offering courses during the summer months. It seems very evident from these facts that the accessibility of the school or schools found in any particular county has a direct bearing on the kind and amount of academic and professional training of teachers in rural schools. It would seem from the material presented in this discussion, indicating in the first place a very low proportion of teachers having secondary education and a still larger proportion that have no professional training, that in order to raise the standards of the teaching force in our rural schools the matter of providing a larger number of PROV. 69 31 8 10 10 21 PROF. CZ PERM, cz: NORMAL [ TOTAL NO SURTR. SACADEMY C0MS.arM!5C a \0 !2 6 2 S.STATE NORMAL S.COLLEGE .LOCAL CO. NORMAL Diagram 2. — Percentage of teachers in one-teacher schools on the basis of their supplementary academic and professional training during service. schools offering both academic and professional training is one of the most pressing educational questions before the State at the present time. The 13 counties in which the State normal schools are located have a very great educational advantage in pro- viding facilities for training teachers as opposed to the 53 counties not having such schools in their midst. Whether the additional training for rural teachers in Pennsyl- vania can best be conducted in high schools — the plan followed in the State of Minne- sota ^* — or in county training schools, of which Wisconsin has furnished us a notable example, ^^ it is not within the scope of this monograph to siiggest. But all will agree that it shows unmistakably that something must be done in the remainder of these 53 counties not possessing State normal schools to increase the supply of academically and professionally trained teachers to meet the great demand for teachers to fill the schools under county superintendents' supervision and especially the one-teacher schools in the open country. i< Foght. The Rural School System of Minnesota, U. S. Bu. of Educ, Bui., 1915, No. 20, p. 43 15 Laws of Wisconsin Relating to County Training Schools, sec. 411. Chapter V. CERTIFICATION. There are seven different kinds of teachers' certificates issued in Pennsylvania — provisional and professional, valid only in a county or district, and permanent State certificates, normal-school certificates, normal-school diplomas, provisional college certificates, and permanent college certificates, valid thi-oughout the State. The four kinds of certificates commonly held by rural teachers may be described as follows:' Table 31. — Principal features of teachers^ certificates in Pennsylvania. Name of cer- tificate . Issued by— Valid in- - Duration. Persistence County or district County or district Branches Provisional One year Hay not teach superintendent. (nonindori^able). named. more than 5 school terms on certificate. Professional County or district County or district ...do Three years... Not renewable superintendent. (indorsable by other county or district superin- tendents in dis- tricts of 2d or 3d class). more than 3 times; renewable on examination in 2 of the elec- tive branches for a professional certificate not be- fore offered by the applicant. Permanent State superintend- ent of pubic in- State ...do Life struction. State normal- State normal school. . ..do ...do Two annual school terms. school certifi- cates. State normal- State normal do ...do Life or term school diploma. school. of years. There is, in addition, one other type of certificate held by a small proportion of teachers in elementary schools under the supervision of county superintendents — the county permanent certificate, discontinued through the adoption of the new Pennsyl- vania School Code in 1911. Since the number of teachers holding these certificates is email and since the certificates are valid for life, they will be included with the permanent State certificates. Inasmuch as the number of teachers holding the college provisional and permanent certificates in the elementary schools in townships and boroughs under county super- vision is so small as to be practically negligible, it is also deemed ad\isable not to consider these types of certificates. Thus it will be the purpose in this study to see the working out in actual practice of the provisional, professional, and permanent certificates, based practically on examination, and State normal-school certificates and diplomas issued as a result of attendance in a State normal school. 1 Pennsylvania School Laws, and appendix, 1919, Art. XIII, sees. 1301-1324. Updegraff, Harlan. Teachers' Certificates Issued under General State Laws and Regulations, U. S, Bu. of Educ. Bui., 19H, No. 18, p. 96. 38 CERTTFICAIIOEr. 39 CERTIFICATES HELD BY TEACHERS IIST ONE-TEACHER SCHOOLS. The number and proportion of the different types of certificates held by teachers in township districts of 28 counties of the State in the current year 1919-20 will be found in Tables 32 and 33, which represent 5,131 teachers, of whom 4,217 are in one-teacher schools, and the remainder, 914, in schools of two and more than two teachers. These statistics include all the teachers in townships listed on the official directories issued by the counties in the fall of 1919. The county superintendents indicated on these directories the kind of school taught and the certificate held by each teacher working under their super\dsion. Table 32. — Number of teachers in elementary one-teacher schools, and two and more than two-teacher schools, according to hind of certificates held, in 28 counties of the State. Division A .—One-teacher schools. ; Division B.— Schools of two and more than two-teacher schools. No. of county. Certificates. Certificates. Pro- vi- sional. Pro- fes- sional. Per- ma- nent. Nor- mal. Col- lege. Total. Pro- vi- sional Pro- fes- sional. Per- ma- nent. Nor mal. Col- lege. Total. 1.. 142 75 126 73 72 73 113 131 13 26 41 28 55 72 93 35 183 31 53 62 60 62 169 24 71 57 72 176 41 41 79 41 60 44 40 39 24 12 4 13 21 32 54 16 64 18 26 25 22 42- 60 13 20 35 39 56 25 16 4 9 10 11 9 8 22 4 20 I 22 11 12 8 45 2 13 19 10 10 8 6 26 7 11 80 9 11 2 2 48 45 56 1 1 5 147 9 51 8 2 10 67 3 15 16 9 29 4 3 1 8 18 26 2 ....„ "'i' '"'i' 4 2 219 143 211 128 190 175 218 179 60 48 216 51 149 123 161 69 359 54 107 122 101 143 241 47 118 107 140 338 21 3 8 34 7 11 13 52 1 1 1 14 1^6 43 14 13 8 22 4 3 2 9 4 2 4 12 7 4 3 15 14 40 13 6 1 5 14 46 2 11 3.- 99 4 102 5 39 6 67 7 38 8 92 9 2 10 6 ""■"9" 12 11 24 12. 13 3 8 5 2 18 3 4 1 5 1 14 3 1 ■■■■4.' ""14' 1 7 3 3 1 14 1 15 14 12 15 17 1&. - . 4 17 60 18. 8 19 20. 3 5 14 26 5 4 10 13 22 2 ""'1.5' 20 13 '"'ik' 10 14 3 1 5 8 12 4 20 5 2 13 4 1 1 \\ 21 14 22 45 23 52 24. 24 25 12 26 39 10 5 1 80 27 37 28 61 Total 2,186 981 429 606 - 14 4,217 293 257 129 230 5 914 Range 13-183 41 71 93 26 4-79 20 35 42 11 1-80 8 10 19 6 1-147 3 9 26 12 47-359 101 140 190 45 0-52 3 7 13 5 0-43 1 8 14 7 0-20 1 4 3 0-10 2 5 13 6 0-102 First quartile 12 Median ... 24 Tiiird quartile Quartile deviation 46 12 40 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PEN IST SYLVAN I A. Table 33. — Percentage of teachers in elementary one-teacher schools, and two and more than two-teacher schools, according to kind of certificates held, in 9.8 counties of the State. Division A.— One-teacher schools. Division B.— Two and more teacher schools. than two- No. of county. Certificates. Certificates. Provi- sional. Profes- sional. Perma- nent. Normal. Provi- sional. Profes- sional. Perma- nent. Normal. 11 65 52 60 57 38 42 52 73 22 54 19 61 37 58 58 51 51 57 ,50 51 60 43 70 51 60 53 51 52 19 29 37 32 31 25 18 22 40 25 2 25 14 26 33 23 18 33 24 20 22 30 25 28 17 33 28 16 11.0 11.0 2.0 7.0 5.2 6.0 4.1 4.4 36.0 9.0 9.2 1.9 15.0 9.0 ?.4 11.0 13.0 3.7 12.0 16.0 10.0 7.0 3.3 13.0 22.0 6.5 8.0 24.0 4.0 8.0 .9 1.5 25.0 26.0 25.6 .5 1.6 10.4 68.0 18.0 34.2 7.0 1.2 1.5.0 18.0 5. 5 14.0 13.0 8.9 20.0 1.6 6.3 .9 7.4 13.0 7.6 45 27 27 34 18 16 34 56 50 8 4 31 9.1 55 42 36 20 21 21 9 27 7 8 10 3 10 14 15 2 ^ 36 3 10 41 15 5 36 61 60 7 34 8 6 g 50 101 50 42 111... 38 58 121 13 20 66 29 50 30 38 26 8 29 25 23 38 6.6 47 14 25 15 24 18 16 25 17 23 12 23 18 12 19 20 27 35 31 50 21 33 13 35 36 18 45 21 50 7 2 20 67 15 11 33 14 22 33 39 54 29 23 7.6 4.1 25 26 23 27 23 49 27 . . 27 8 Total percent.. 52 24 10.0 14.0 32 29 14 25 19-73 50 52 57 5.3 2-40 19 25 30 5.5 1. 9-36 5 9 12 3.5 0.5-68 1.6 8 18 8.2 4-66 20 30 36 8 0-55 18 25 36 9 0-67 2 10 20 9 0-60 First fjuartile 10 25 Third quartile 36 8 1 College certificate t eachers in Table 32 n ot include 3. From these tables it will be observed that 2,186 of the 4,217 teachers in the one- teacher schools hold provisional certificates; in other words, 52 per cent hold the lowest possible type of certificate in order to qualify as a teacher in the public schools of Pennsylvania. The number holding the professional or second kind of certificate is 981, or 24 per cent of the total number. Thus, 3,167, or 76 per cent of the entire number, hold certificates obtained through examinations given exclusively by county superintendents, while 24 per cent hold permanent State certificates and normal school certificates or diplomas. But only 606, or 14 per cent of the entire group, hold normal school certificates and diplomas. If, however, county 11, which has an unusu- ally large number of normal school graduates, were eliminated, the remaining 27 counties would have but 459 out of 4,001, or 11.5 per cent normal school graduates in their one-teacher rural schools. Assuming that the proportion of normal school graduates in these counties is typical of the State as a whole, it will be seen that on the basis of 14 per cent for the 28 coun- ties there would be approximately 1,400 nonnal school graduates among the 10,000 teachers in one-teacher schools throughout the whole State. However, if the average for the 27 counties, 11.5 per cent, is taken as a basis, there would be approximately 1,150 normal school graduates teaching in these counties. Since, according to the annual report of the State superintendent of public instruction for 1918, there were 7,404 normal school graduates teaching in the 23,800 schools under county supervi- CERTIFICATION. 41 3ion,2 there are approximately 6,000 normal school graduates teaching in the 13,800 county schools other than one-teacher schools. When one considers that the number of one-teacher rural schools constitutes nearly one-half of the entire number of teachers under county supervision, a striking contrast No. of County 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 l\ 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 TOTAL Per Cent. 80 100 ZI^^^^^^^ :^^^^^^^^^ Provisional Professional Permanent Normal DiAGEAM 3. — Percentage of teachers holding different kinds of certificates in elementary one-teacher rural schools in 28 counties of the State. is found between this one-teacher group, with only 14 per cent nomial school gradu- ates, and the two and more than two teacher group, with approximately 44 per cent of the teachers with normal school training. This demonstrates a most inequitable distribution of normal school trained teachers among the schools under county super- !Rep. State Supt. Pub. Instruction, 1918, pp. 610-11. -42 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PElsr]S:SYL,VA]SriA. viaix)n. It would seem that ii a more equitable distribution of trained teachers were established throughout the counties, greater impetus would be given toward solving the problem of raising the standard of the one-teacher rural schools in the State. Again, it is equally striking that 52 per cent of the teachers in one-teacher schools in the 28 counties considered hold pro\'isional certificates, which when interpreted for the entire State means that approximately 5,200 teachers in the one-teacher rural schools hold this certificate. In the report aboA-e referred to, issued by the State .department of public instruction, it will be found that 7,033 teachers out of the 23,800 under county supervision held provisional certificates in 1918. Consequently the remaining 1,800 certificates must be held by approximately 13 per cent of the 13,800 teachers in schools other than one-teacher school under county Buper\ision. This second comparison of the percentage holding provisional certificates between the two groups of teachers emphasizes just as strongly as in the case of the normal school graduates the very unfortunate inequitable distribution of teachers holding different types of certificates. CERTIFICATES HELD BY TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS OF TWO AND MORE THAN TWO TEACHERS. It may be seen at a glance, in Division B of Tables 32 and 33, from the number and kinds of certificates, that a larger proportion of the teachers in this class of schools are better trained than those in the one-teacher schools. For example, 293 out of the 914 teachers hold provisional certificates, which is only 32 per cent of the whole number, as compared with 52 per cent in the one-teacher schools. On the other hand , 25 per cent hold normal-school certificates and diplomas as compared with 14 per cent in the one-teacher group. The number of teachers holding professional and permanent certificates is also proportionately liigher than in the one-teacher schools, although the difference is not so marked. The main fact in all of this is that the percentage of teachers holding higher certificates, thus indicating l>etter preparation and training, is appreciably higher among the teachers in schools of two and more than two teachers than in the case of the teachers in the one-teacher schools in the same counties. CERTIFICATES HELD BY TEACHERS IN BOROUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. Since the writer had the information giving the kind of certificates held by the teachers in the borough elementary schools under supervision of the county superin- tendents in the same counties, it was found interesting to see how the certification of these teachers compares with that in the township schools previously discussed. The number of teachera holding professional and permanent certificates is practically the same as in the case of the one-teacher schools and of the schools of two and more than two teachers in townships, namely, 21 per cent professional and 15 per cent permanent. It was also found, as might l>e expected, that the per cent of normal school graduates teaching in boroughs is 58 per cent, or 44 per cent higher than that in the one-teacher schools, wliile conversely the per cent of proAdsional certificate teachers in the boroughs is only 6 per cent, or 46 per cent lower than that in the one- teacher schools. These facts emphasize all the more strongly the uueqiial distribution of kinds of certificates among county teachers, imphdng unequal academic and professional preparation in the different types of schools under county supervision. They help to sul)stantiate the evidence found elsewhere in this study that teachers with the higher grades of certificates either migrate voluntarily to the village schools of two and more than two teachers and the borough schools, or are frequently transferred arbi- trarily by school boards to the first type of schools just named in the same townslups; These vacancies thus caused in the one-teacher schools are, as the facts indicate, CEETIFICA.TION. 43 usually filled by teachers holding provisional certificates. The fact is already estab- lished that the ungraded one-teacher rural school is iisually taught by one with in- adequate academic preparation and practically no professional training or teaching experience. In Chapter II were presented the facts relating to the limiting conditions affect- ing the work of the rural teachers in one-teacher schools. Clearly they were of the most disadvantageous type. Naturally teachers avoid these schools if possible, and those in charge apparently are not willing to pay more to secure teachers for these more difficult positions. Hence our rural schools are being filled with the least com- petent among the entire teaching force. ANALYSIS OF THE PRACTICE OF CERTIFICATION BY COUNTIES. Turning now to the individual counties, it will be observed in Table 32, Division A, that the variation is most pronounced both among the kinds of certificates held by 20 40 6.0 SO KX3 iJ<2R15CIIO0L5C 4S ABOVE ZRM5CH. cm A 30 2« Mn 25 48 U 1$ fmm i\ 4 31 S z PROVISIONAL C£RT)fIding professksnal certificates attended smniser academies and loc-al coimty BGcmal sclboois, "SfMefa. is evidence ^lat th^e tesch^s elected the scliools -wMeh were not only loost ^x:e^Ke, but which alao b«?t aS^ded vasm. the academic preparation in the subjects listed for the particular certificate ior which they were applicante. As the aecessibility of schools is so dearfr d^EDera^rated in the eight typical counties in the jHevMos chaptsr, it do^ not seem necessary to paesent these counties on the basis ef certificates a second time. It is, however, fortunate that such conditions exist, since it probably helps to increase the number ot teachers who wiH avail themselves oc additional trarniog in service. It mi^t not be out of place here to give a bit of the writar's esperience in which tjte opportunity w^ aSocded to interview a number of rural teachers holding' pn>- viaflnal, pn^^siaaaal, and pemanent certificates in Pennsylvania wMIe helping to prepare the schedole 1 ]co cs >o ^ g '00 '-' '000 a> IN 1 C) —1 CD 03 :S5 OirH r-l co-^ T)< i ■-(lO IM lO ^ ODti '-* 00 10 OJ OOIMOCO rt (M t-.-l rH (N coco CS) CO CD s lOOIMW > "3 g d iz; IM CO •^ "3 U3 t~ 00 a> r-t (N o: 1-H ^ 73438°— 22- 62 STATUS OF RUEAL TEACHER IIST PENNSYLVANIA. 02 ►4 O O w o W o <1 w 6 12; W « o Q 5 $461 490 392 577 500 556 488 517 450 599 649 699 450 438 458 OS 1— 1 ■15 1 OC .-1 U3 t^ —1 00 l^C-<-Oiltl CO CO 00 •* 2 1-H >n N ^ t^oo ui OS m o--" § >ra CD OS OS CO ira CO ^^;*?3" S3 ^^^^o^^ n^ CO CO T-r ■<*< t~ ooo 5 TOO ^ C^ (M CO lO CO s ■X" t^rH^ t~(M00O0.H ^ o ^ OOIM t-rHOO(N CO t~ in 00 C0-ai50l3iN>O0>' cr ft -S o ^ ^o .^ CI '"' CS r— I T CO ^^f :a .2 a> ® c« CO 00 o CO CO €©■ CO O) €©■ xi, s ^ ^'•^ ^ £P <»^ CT- . CO lO _> Tt< €» £. c3 P .^ ^ a* cS SALARIES. 6S Now, turning from the study of the group of counties as a whole, wide differences in salaries paid in the individual counties are noticeable. The median salaries of 8 different counties are lower than the group median, 1411; coifnty 3, with a median of $378, falls as far as $33 below that of the entire group. Its range extends from $315 to 1485, this latter amount being only $7 higher than the third quartile (the 75 per cent point) for the entire group. County 13, while having the same low range as county 3, $315-$485, has, however, a better distribution in salaries, evidenced by its median falling on a higher point on the scale, namely, $385. In contrast with these counties ranldng low in salaries as compared with the stand- ards for the group as a whole, is county 10, which has a median salary of $500. The salaries of one-half the teachers of this county are greater by $22, or more than the amount representing the 75 per centile, $47 8 ^ of the composite group. County 6 likewise has a median salary of $500, which is $122 higher than the mid -point of county ONE-TEACHER RURAL SCHOOLS— TOWNSHIPS. «*" V////////////////////A TWO AND MORE THAN TWO TEACHER SCHOOLS— TOWNSHIPS 519 V////////////////////////\ RURAL SCHOOLS— COMBINED. 440 V///////////////////A BOROUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 588 Y7y////////////////////////777A RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS— TOWNSHIPS. SECONDARY SCHOOLS— BOROUGHS. ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS, ENTIRE STATE (Including cities). 3 Diagram 5. — Distribution of median salaries of elementary and secondary teachers in 1918-19 in the difEerent types of schools in Pennsylvania. 3, $378, the lowest with respect to salary of all the counties reporting, and $89 higher than the median salary for the entire group, thus indicating an astonishingly wide range in median salaries. SCHOOLS OF TWO AND MORE THAN TWO TEACHERS IN TOWNSHIPS. In order to show the true situation concerning the salaries paid teachers in the one-teacher schools in the open country, and to understand more thoroughly the causes for these existing conditions, it seems advisable to look into the salary situation in the schools of two and more than two teachers in townships. Table 44, Division B, indicates the salaries of the 933 teachers in these schools in the same 15 counties used in the previous division. The median salary for these teachers is $519; the range extends from $315 to $1,300; the middle 50 per cent from $460 to $630, with a quar- tile deviation of $85, which is almost twice as great as the deviation in salaries of teachers in. the one-teacher schools, thus indicating a much wider distribution of salaries about the point of central tendency. In comparing the median salaries of the teachers in one-teacher schools. Division A, with the median salaries of those 3 Statistics of State School Systems, 1917-18, Bonner H. R., U. S. Bu. of Ed., Bui. 1920, No. 11, P. 42. 64 STATUS OF RUEAL, TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. in two and more than two-teacher schools, Division B, of the same individual counties, it will be observed that the extent of difference in salaries in the two types of schools is most pronounced, ranging from $311 in county 12 to $14 in county 3. The average difference for the entire group of 15 counties is $91. It should be especially emphasized that the median salary, which for practical purposes is approximately the same as the arithmetical average, is, in the case of the teachers in the schools of two and more than two teachers, $108 higher than that of the one-teacher schools in the same townships of the respective counties. Such conditions exist in spite of the fact that these two types of schools are frequently found in townships controlled by the same board of directors, in whose hands lies the power of determining the amount of salary paid the teachers. Upon investi- gating some of the individual school districts in these counties, the writer finds that in the same townships teachers in the schools of two and more than two teachers are receiving as high as $20 more monthly salary than teachers with practically the same qualifications and in many cases an equal amount of experience in the one-teacher schools. In other words, teachers are frequently transferred by the school boards from a one-teacher school to a more centralized \'lllage school of two or more than two teachers in the same district, not only being paid a larger salary, but in many cases given a janitor besides. These facts may help to explain the difficulties that county superintendents have to face in stabilizing their teaching force, and that school boards in their shortsightedness bring upon themselves in securing teachers to fill the vacancies in these one-teacher schools. The grand total distribution of the salaries paid the 3,301 teachers, including all schools of the townships for the 15 counties combined, will be found in Division C, Table 44. The median salary for this combined group of township elementary teachers is $449, and the first and third quartiles, $393 and $508, respectively, with a quartile deviation of $57. BOROUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. The data relating to salaries in boroughs help to throw further light on the salary situation of the one-teacher schools. The median salary of the 1,205 borough elemen- tary teachers as found in Table 45 is $588. At a glance one may see that this amount is $139 higher than the median salary ($449) paid to the teachers in the combined group of schools in townships in the same counties, and $177 higher than the median salary ($411) paid to teachers in the one-teacher schools in the open country. SALARIES. 65 Me- dian sal- aries. MOooiot^TxooiOJTtioocqc ICOOOOOOOQOO-^lOOOi-Hri^T 5cD"D^»0*OlO •^ 00 lO •.'■ 55 s s 32-*S ^2S 05t~(MIM10C 00 50 1 t~,-H .-( O CD'-t lOtO ^ 1^ § 9« (M0100-*CO(MTt<-* r-<-*,-l,-lrtCO.-l^ ■* 0> O lO cocc i-H i-H T-C CO i 1 TtH.-( t^-:f< lO CT) »0 CO rt (M .CO to i-H CO(MM S"2 ■H T-I 00 CO rH CO s o o TOCO CO IM lO t^ IM lO (M o rHi-i ia 00 (NTtKNM ^o ■^ Ol lO-^ IU3 § 1 ■* rH CO ^ CO t-H CO CO rH COiM CO 'CO ;:^ § to rt (N rHCO -ICO •■ra CO ^ •CO Tjl N '"' '.'" ■* (M O (N "^ ; ■ l-i Tt( 3 o o o i CS CO -Id O to l> 00 Oi o T-l CO ■^ lO "a ■s Eh 66 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. LENGTH OF SCHOOL TERM IN TOWNSHIPS AND BOROUGHS. The length of the school term is undoubtedly a determining factor in explaining the marked variations in teachers ' salaries prevalent in the counties throughout the State. Table 46, Divisions A and B, indicate in months the length of school terms in town- ships and boroughs of the 15 counties previously discussed in this chapter according to the 1918 report of the State superintendent of public instruction for Pennsylvania.* There are 629 school districts in these 15 counties,, of which 403, or 64 per cent, are townships and the remaining 226, or 36 per cent, are boroughs. It will be noticed that the average length of term in townships is 7.6 months, while that in the boroughs is 8.6. Fifty -eight per cent, or over half, of the townships have a school term of 7 months, the minimum requirement by law, while only 11 per cent of the boroughs limit their terms to this minimum standard. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that almost the reverse is true in the case of the 9 months' term, namely, 53 per cent in boroughs, and 14 per cent in townships. In the case of the 8 months' term, townships and boroughs show no appreciable difference. Table 46. — Length of school terms in months in townships and boroughs of 15 counties in 1918. DIVISION A— TOWNSHIPS. 1 Months. Counties. Total. Per 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 in 11 12 13 14 1.5 cent. 7 27 1 32 9 28 8 1 3 n 17 3 3 5 33 17 16 4 2 17 3 2 2 5 9 4 3 8 12 14 7 13 4 3 1 21 13 6 35 1 232 104 59 8 58 8 26 9 14 10. - 2 Total 28 41 37 31 6 55 22 22 7 16 41 21 21 19 36 403 100 DIVISION B.— BOROUGHS.2 Months. Ck)unties. Total. Per 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 cent. 7 2 8 6 3 5 14 2 7 4 9 1 6 4 2 4 12 2 1 9 3 4 2 "5" 4 22 10 24 62 120 20 11 8 1 16 5 1 1 5 11 1 .... 1 6 3 '14' 9 27 9 53 10 9 Total 16 24 20 22 2 17 11 18 1 10 23 12 9 5 36 226 100 ' .\ritliinetical average of terms, 7.6 months. 2 Arithmetical average of terms, 8. 6 months. When the practice in individual counties is considered , it is apparent that there is very great variation in the length of school terms among the townships and boroughs. In counties 1 and 13 all the townships have a 7 months' term, with the exception of one township found in county 1, while 20 out of 25 boroughs in these same counties have 8 or 9 months' terms, which facts show that the townships, with 98 per cent main- taining a 7 months' minimum term, in comparison with the boroughs are being very much handicapped educationally by their shorter school terms. On the other hand, counties 6 and 11 have 76 out of 96 township districts with 8 or 9 months' terms, with county 11 having as many as 7 townships maintaining a school term of 10 months. * Rep. Supt. Pub. Instruction, 1918, pp. 372-601. SALARIES. 67 The practice in these townships, in comparison with the boroughs of the same coun- ties, shows that the length of school term is relatively the same. This practice is a commendable feature in the management of the schools on the part of the school l^oards of these townships, inasmuch as it affords educational opportunity equal to that offered in the boroughs. In the light of these facts it will now be seen what bearing the variation in the average length of schooj term has on the salary paid the teachers in the different types of schools. By considering the average school term for townships as 7.6 months, and the yearly salary as either $411, the median salary for the teachers in one-teacher schools (Table 44, Division A), or |519, the median salary for the teachers in the school One-teacher schools.' [State as a whole.' $519 ^!!^!}M^v^m^^^\^w^\^v^^^ Two-teacher schools.^ $702 y/ /////A'^//////y/////////////////// ////y/////:^^ state as a whole.* S445 H^B^^^^^^iH One-teacher schools.^ $562 V/////////y////m//////////////////m State as a whole.' HEW YOBE $600 t^^\\\\\\\\\\\V\\^\\V;y^^ Two-teacher schools. $976 W//////////////////////////////////////////y^^^^^^^^ State as a whole.'' ONTTED STATES $635 W^///y////////V///Ayy////Zr:7^ U. S. as a whole.' Diagram 6. — Median teachers' salaries in Pennsylvania in one-teacher schools, in two-teacher schools, and in the State as a whole in 1918-19, compared with a typical Eastern, Southern, and Western State and United States. of two and more than two teachers (Table 44, Division B), it will be found that the average monthly salary is, in the first case, $54, and in the second, $68. Taking the median salary as $449 for the entire group of teachers in townships (Table 44, Division C), and di\'iding by 7.6, the average number of months in the school term, it shows a monthly salary of $59. However, if we consider 8.6 months the average length of term for boroughs, and the median borough salary as $588 (Table 45), it will be seen that the average monthly salary is $68. The above facts show that the average monthly salary in boroughs is $9 higher than the average salary received by the combined group of elementary teachers in townships. The average monthly salary for the teachers in schools of two and more than two teachers in townships is $68, exactly the same as the average monthly salary for the boroughs, which means that the higher salaries paid to teachers in boroughs, as compared with the schools of two and more than two teachers in the townships, are due apparently to the longer school term rather than the larger monthly salary. 5 Va. Pub. Sch. Survey, pp. 142, 337. 6 See p. 62. 'Bonner, H. R. Statistics of State Sch. Systems , 1917-lS, U. S. Bu. of Educ, Bui. 1920, No. 11, p. 114. 8Thc Rural Teacher of Nebraslra. U. S. Bu. of Educ, Bui. 1919, No. 20, p 53. 'Engelhardt, F. The Teaching Profession in the State of New York. 68 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. However, the significant fact in all of this is that the teachers in one-teacher rural schools in these 15 counties receive on an average $14 per school month less than the teachers in the schools of two and more than two teachers in the same townships, have the same length of school term, and are controlled by the same boards of education. There seems to be no logical reason why teachers of practically the same training and experience in one-teacher rural schools should receive less salary than those in schools of two or more than two teachers, and since the facts show that this difference does exist to such an extent as to average $14 per month, not to mention the extreme differences at the ujiper and lower ends of the range, it certainly does give a tremendous argument in favor of an extra State "bonus" to these teachers. This principle was recognized in the recent Woodruff salary bill providing an extra State bonus of $5 per month to rural teachers, but we can not see any reason why this small amount should be considered at all adequate to meet the situation in Pennsylvania, provided the bonus scheme is decided upon as the best plan to solve this, one of the most difficult phases of the rural school problem. The evidence so far cited seems to warrant the conclusion that one of the main factors in explaining variations in annual salary in counties is the difference in length of school terms in townships and boroughs. From this pronounced difference between townships and boroughs, and from the added fact that school boards in these town- ships and boroughs usually pay only the minimum salaries, teachers would natm'ally be drawn, on economic grounds alone, if on no other, from the rural one-teacher schools to the schools of two and more than two teachers in townships paying higher salaries, and of course to borough elementary schools with the longer school terms. It is also a noteworthy fact that many boroughs have a small number of teachers, consisting in some of the counties of 1, 2, and 3 teachers, and in two of the counties listed in Table 46 the boroughs have an average of 4 teachers for the entire county. Certainly a situation, for example, in which 9 teachers in a township receive a min- imum salary of $45 or $50 per month for a 7 months' term, when in the same town- ship there is located a small borough of 1, 2, or 3 teachers receiving a minimum salary of $55 or $60 with an 8 months' term, to say the least is not conducive to the main- taining of a stable teaching force or the improving of the status of the teacher in the one- teacher schools of such a township. One might well ask the question whether some form of county local imit of more centralized school control would not help to solve these problems directly affecting the rural teachers, in which the county superintendent and county board of educa- tion would have more power in maintaining more uniform salary schedules and a more equitable school term. SALARY IN RELATION TO CERTIFICATES. Since it was shown in the previous chapter that the types of certificates held gen- erally by teachers in the one-teacher rural schools in Pennsylvania are provisional, professional, permanent, and State normal certificates or diplomas, we shall now see how salaries in 1918, as reported through the questionnaires, are distributed on this basis. In the accompanying Table 47, the salaries of 1,383 teachers from 18 counties of the State are distributed according to the type of certificates held. Of this total number reporting, 47 per cent hold provisional certificates, 22 per cent professional, 13 per cent permanent, and 18 per cent State normal certificates or diplomas, which percentages correspond quite closely with the percentages of certificates held by the teachers in 28 counties of the State as reported in Chapter V, SALARIES. 69 Table 47. — Salaries paid to teach;rs in one-teacher schools according to certificates held. Certificates. $300- ?324 $325- $349 $3.50- $374 $375- $399 $400- $424 $425- ."449 $450- $474 $475- $499 354 10 80 50 1S2 79 38 113 85 39 42 6 30 IS 9 8 19 14 24 31 Normal certificates and dlplo 36 42 Total 354 10 80 248 315 117 54 111 Certificates. $500- $524 $255- $549 $550- $574 $575- $509 $600- $649 8650- $700 Total. Per cent. Median salaries. 2 3 8 6 1 13 13 11 1 5 5 9 648 299 189 247 47 22 13 18 $323 Professional 2 1 - 5 1 3 3 i" 1 398 421 Normal certificates and di- plomas 427 Total 19 38 20 8 7 2 1,383 100 400 By studying this table one can see that over 50 per cent of the teachers holding provisional certificates receive a salary of |315, the minimum legal salary for a seven- months' school term in 1918.^" The second largest number in the group holding pro- visional certificates receive a salary of $360, which amount is the minimum monthly salary of |45 required by law, for an 8 months' term. Practically 75 per cent of the number of teachers who reported holding provisional certificates receive a minimum salary of $45 per month for a 7 or 8 months' school term. In the case of teachers holding professional and permanent certificates, more than half the number receive |385 and $420, respectively — again the minimum monthly salaries of $55 and $60 required by law for these types of certificates in 1918 for a 7 months' term." It is also noteworthy that the second largest number of teachers in each of these groups receive the minimum salaries for an 8 months' term, $440 and $480, respectively. The quartile deviation of both groups holding professional and permanent certificates is very small, indicating a close distribution about the medians which are the legal minimum salaries. The range of salaries for teachers holding normal-school certificates or diplomas is very much greater than for those holding provisional, professional, and permanent certificates, namely, $385 to $700; however, the median salary for this group is only $427, just $6 more than the median salary for the teachers holding permanent certifi- cates, and $29 higher than the median for those holding professional certificates. This can probably be explained from the fact that the minimum salary by law in 1918 for a normal-school graduate with less than two years' experience was $55, the same as that paid to a teacher holding a professional certificate, and $60 for a normal-school graduate of two or more years' experience, the same amount received by a teacher holding a permanent certificate .^^ Thus, it can be seen that nearly 60 per cent of the teachers holding normal certificates and diplomas receive the minimum salary of $385 and $420 for a seven months' term, and that 30 per cent of the group receive $440 and $480, the minimum salary, for an eight months' term. The above facts clearly show that, in the case of each of the four types of certificates, over 50 per cent of the teachers in the one-teacher rural schools receive minimum salaries for a seven months' term, and that approximately 80 per cent of all the teachers reporting receive the minimum amount required by law, either for a seven or an eight months' term. One would naturally expect that a great many teachers holding tha lower class of certificates requiring practically no professional training would receive the minimum salary, but to discover that as many as 78 per cent of the teachers pro- fessionally trained, holding State normal certificates or diplomas, are receiving the minimum monthly salary of $55 or $60 is startling evidence against the unfortunate i» Pa. Schl. Laws, and app., 1919, Art. XII, sec. 1210, part 4. u Ibid. 12 Sch. Laws of Pa., 1917, Art. XII. sec. 1210. 70 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. practice of school boards in their nonrecognition of professional training by their per- sistence in paying these teachers only the minimum amount required by law. These facts alone show that the minimum-salary law is probably the most potent factor in determining salaries in the rural districts. The same facts and tendencies prevalent among the combined group of counties which we have just discussed are probably even better illustrated in the accompanying Table 48, showing how salaries are distributed according to certificates in four typical counties. It is not the purpose of the writer to analyze the salaries paid teachers in these counties and the causes for the same, but merely to indicate, by using the four typical counties, the wide variations that exist in the number and kinds of certificates held by the teachers, together with their accompanying salaries. In counties 1 and 2 a large majority of the townships have a minimum school term of seven months, while in counties 3 and 4 more than one-half have eight and nine months' terms (Table 46). The same general practice of paying the minimum salary required by law, previously shown as prevailing among the counties as a whole, is even more apparent in each of these individual counties. Table 48. — Salaries paid to teachers in one-teacher schools according to certificates held (Four typical counties.) COUNTY 1. Certificates. $300- $324. $325- $349. $3.50- $374. $37^ $399. $400- $424. $42.5- $449. $450- U75- $474. ;$499. $500- $524. $525- $549. $550- $574. $575- $599. $600- $624. $625- $649. To- tal. .... 47 2 3 26 52 2 16 6 24 28 16 Normal certificate orj 3 32 1 1 10 1 47 -- 2 Total.. 106 COUNTY 2. 36 10 3 30 49 6 19 5 ..... 1 ..... 1 38 21 Normal certificate or 3 36 8 36 10 1 1 1 Total . 30 1 116 COUNTY 3. 30 2 12 5 20 10 7 6 1 2 5 4 I 3 4 1 9 1 3 2 2 8 1 1 ei9. 2 1 40 1 1 9\ Normal certificate or 6 ?.?. 30 2 12 Total 31 32 12 4 3 2 145 COUNTY 4. 1 2 10 4 2 10 8 1 3 6 9 32 2 ..... 5 35 7 2 2 1 1 2 17 1 15 Normal certificate or 1 13 6 7 67 Total 1 2 10 5 2 31 50 7 5 10 3 1 1.34 Teachers from one-teacher rural schools with higher certificates migrate to schools of two and more than two teachers in townships, and to borough elementary schools to get increased salaries, causing vacancies in the rural schools which must be filled by county superintendents issuing temporary provisional certificates to a constantly changing corps of new inexperienced teachers. There are, of course, some rural school districts which provide for a longer school term or fix their salary schedule so that they can attract teachers with better academic and professional training; but these, as the facts indicate, are very much in the minority. • It might be in order to note here that in the questionnaire sent out to the teachers, they were asked to state the salary that they had received the previous year, as well as SALARIES. 71 the present salary. In tabulating these results it appeared that, whenever salaries were increased, it was generally due to the minimum-salary law which went into effect in 1918, and the amount of increase was usually the minimum $5 or |10 per month increase required by law, depending on the type of certificate held. BASES ON WHICH SCHOOL BOARDS RAISE SALARIES. The factors and conditions which are taken into account by school boards as bases in determining increases in salary, according to the replies given by the teachers in the questionnaires, are listed in Table 49. Upon tabulating these different answers and omitting "no basis," fourth on the list, it is found that there are 57 different bases named. Table 49. — Bases on which school boards increase salaries as given by the teachers- distribution, followed by 8 typical counties. -Total Bases for increased salaries. Total 18 coun- ties. Typical counties. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 337 96 91 43 -10 30 29 25 19 18 14 13 12 8 7 6 6 6 6 ' 6 5 5 5 5 4 6 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 40 6 "'""i" """3' ...... 51 5 3 ...... 1 2 1 1 3 2 8 2 26 10 8 1 24 2 4 1 68 21 21 3 13 1 ""'i' 17 5 1 Certificate '. Legislatvire (when State raises it) 1 ...... 6 1 ...... 13 3 3 4 2 2 8 1 8 3 11 2 3 2 Experience and certificate When compelled 1 Efficiency and certificate Professional trainins; ...... 11 1 E xperience and efficiency 2 Salaries are not raised 1 S5 per month 5 Amount of work done 5 Change of school 5 E ducation 5 State appropriation 2 $25 a year '""i' 1 1 1 1 High cost of living — clothing i 1 $1 per month each year after fifth Protest of teachers 4 2 1 Scarcity of teachers 1 $25 every two years After 2 years $5 per month 1 1 2 First year experience, later law 1 Limit 1 Number of pupils 1 S25 a vear until S65 1 War Basis 2 1 1 2 Yearly 2 Absolute necessity After two vears 1 2 2 1 After visiting five schools 1 After 2 years $10 per month After 2 vears S25 year until maximum 1 1 1 Experience (one case favoritism) To prevent teachers going to towns 1 1 1 Because I earned it Custom 1 EquaUzation of salaries 1 1 Education and experience 1 Income 1 If satisfactory , after first year 1 1 Money m treasury 1 1 Personal persuasion 1 Raised twice after obtaining professional cer- flcate 1 1 State legislature and taxation 1 To secure and retain good teachers 1 1 $2.50 per month until 5 years Three times in 10 years 1 When a teacher less is needed 1 Total number of replies 913 53 76 33 61 66 163 26 57 72 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. t Since the teachers were asked in the (questionnaires not to name the district in which they taught, there is no way of telling the number of school boards that are represented in the 913 replies. However, since approximately two-thirds of the teachers in the one-teacher schools in the townships of the 18 counties answered, and since they undoubtedly came from all sections of the counties, we are probably safe in assmning that a large proportion of the school districts of each of the 18 counties is represented. Inasmuch as the average mumber of township school districts for these counties is 27, it would seem safe to estimate on two-thirds this number or 18, thus giving replies representative of the practice of 224 different school boards throughout the 18 counties. The data in this table show that 36 per cent of the replies gave as a basis the "mini- mum salaiy law, " and that approximately 10 per cent additional replies include such as "legislature, " "certificate, '' "when State raises it, " etc., making a total of 46 per cent of the replies which refer directly or indirectly to the minimum salary law. Analyzing further the factors and conditions that school boards consider in increasing salaries, one is surprised to find that "efficiency" and "experience," factors which would naturally be expected to receive more frequent consideration, were each named in only 10 per cent of the replies. A number of the bases were given in com- bination, such as "experience and certificate," "State legislature and taxation," "experience and efficiency," etc. As a separation of these combinations into their constituent parts would be merely a matter of opinion, it may be well to consider them jointly as listed. Those who may look for unique replies in data of this kind find them in such ex- pressions as "personal persuasion, " "when a teacher less is needed, " "$1 per month each year after the fifth, " "one case favoritism, " "whim of directors, " "after visiting five schools, " etc. It is of unusual interest to observe that "professional training" was named only 13 times, "education" 6 times, and the "high cost of living" 4 times. The latter fact is most unusual since the high cost of living has been one of the strongest arguments presented to school boards for increasing salaries. Approximately 5 per cent of the teachers reported that their boards have no oasis for increasing salaries, and 3 per cent admit frankly they "do not know. " It should also [be remembered that only 65 per cent of all the teachers who filled out the questionnaire answered the question which called for this information. Might this not indicate that a large proportion of teachers have no knowledge of the kind of con- sideration their school boards give the question of salaries, one of the most important factors in their social, economic, and professional welfare? It is not the purpose to offer these data on increasing salaries as necessarily conclusive evidence; but the material may be of importance from the standpoint of the many different kinds of reasons given, and from the fact that it helps to substantiate the pre\dous conclusions concerning minimum salaries. The discussion of this table thus far has been based on the distribution of the total niunber of replies as found in the first column of Table 50. Columns 1, 2, 3, etc., just following the total column, show the distribution of replies in typical counties. It will be observed that there is about the same number of diversified answers in each of these counties, and that the percentages of the more numerous replies are practically the same. There are, of course, some differences, but it is difficult to speak of these in any conclusive way because of the unequal number and proportion of replies in the separate counties. SALARY OF MEN AND WOMEN TEACHERS. Tables 50 and 51 show the salaries paid to men and women teachers, respectively. Of the total number reporting, 1,369 teachers, 1,070, or 80 per cent, were women; and 299, or 20 per cent, men, which is practically the same proportion as is found to exist in the 20 counties of the State (Ch. 11).^^ The median salary for men teachers is $406, which is just $6 higher than that for women, namely $400, showing that the average salaries paid men and women teachers " See page 8. SALARIES. 73 in the one-teacher rural schools on the basis of these replies is practically the same. This is further emphasized by the fact that both in the case of the men and women teachers, the range in salaries extends from |315 to $700. However, the quartile deviation of the salaries received by women teachers is $53, which is twice the quartile deviation of the salaries received by the men, indicating a much greater variation and a wider distribution about the mid-point of the salaries paid women teachers as com- pared with those paid to men teachers. Let us now look at these tables from the point of view of the relationship existing between the experience of men and women teachers and their respective salaries. Table 50. — Relation of years of experience of men teachers to salaries. Years of experience. To- tal. Salary. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 11 12- 14 15- 17 1 18- 20 1 21- 23 24- 26 27- 29 30- 32 33- 35 36- 39 40- 49 50- 59 60 S300-$324...:.... 21 5 17 4 1 1 52 325- 349 1 350- 374 7 3 2 2 4 2 6 2 2 '"4 5 1 2 3 1 2 4 7 "i 1 "4 7 1 3 3 2 2 4 1 2 5 1 '"3 1 "2 2 1 14 1 3 12 oq 375- 399 1 11 1 5 1 3 i 1 5 2 3 2 "3 ::: 39 400- 424 425- 449 7 1 9 113 9 450- 474 1 2 1 1 1 9 475- 499 4 1 3 4 "i 3 1 1 28 500- 524 ... 1 "i 6 525- 549 1 4 550- 574 --. 1 2 575- 599 1 1 3 60O- 624 1 1 625- 649 1 1 650- 674 1 675- 699 10 1 40 15 31 17 17 7 3 21 17 16 8 14 7 7 7 ~7 8 3 Total 20 9 7 8 299 Median years of experience, 7; median salary, $406. r=.20 P. E.= ±.037. Table 51. — Relation of years of experience of women teachers to salaries. Years of experience. To- tal. Salary. 1 2 3 4 7 5 1 6 7 3 8 2 9 "i 10 1 11 12^ 14 1 15- 17 18- 20 21- 23 1 24^ 26 27- 29 30- 32 1 33- 35 36- 39 1 40- 49 50- 59 60 $300-8324 135 3 53 17 17 17 6 15 1 1 1 31 1 8 20 12 2 11 16 66 1 22 17 10 I 14 2 6 1 13 263 325- 349 6 350- 374 13 20 11 6 1 7 3 6 1 if 18 15 2 10 3 5 3 2 1 1 13 7 10 1 14 2 5 1 2 15 9 6 3 6 1 4 1 2 1 10 9 1 1 6 3 "i 1 1 1 6 2 "'i 1 3 4 106 375- 399 6 11 "5 2 "2 5 10 1 1 1 "2 2 6 4 1 "4 1 2 6 22 2 3 10 "4 1 1 3 13 2 1 2 7 1 3 1 1 2 3 1 1 1 1 4 164 400- 424 425- 449 4 6 1 5 2 2 3 3 1 190 76 450- 474 40 475- 499 1 2 2 1 116 500- 524 26 525- 549 1 1 42 550- 574 18 575- 699 1 10 600- 624 1 1 1 1 7 625- 649 ■ 1 ■ 3 4 650- 674 1 1 675- 700 1 82 1 Total 266 101 152 89 55 49 37 21 27 23 18 53 23 23 6 9 12 5 6 6 6 1 1 1,070 Median years of experience, 3.2; median salary, S400. r=.20 P. E.=±.0126. RELATION OF SALARY TO YEARS OF ^EXPERIENCE. Among the group of 113 men teachers in Table 50 receiving a salary in the class interval $400-$424, the median step, it is evident that their experience ranges from to 50 or more years. The median number of years of experience of this group is 15; the quartile deviation is 8.5 years, showing that there is an unusually wide varia- 74 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLiVANlA. tion in experience. Since the salaries of 52 teachers are found in the step $300-$325, it is apparent that they are holding provisional certificates, which by process of the law insure them a minimum salary of $315, and account for their experience-limit of 3 or less years (with the exception of 5 teachers, as shown in the table) since the State law stipulates that pro\asional certificates can be renewed yearly by examination for a period of only 5 years. The teachers in this group having more than 5 years' ex- perience probably held provisional certificates before the above provision of the recently passed Pennsylvania school code became effective.^* The median years of experience of the entire grovip of men teachers as shown in Table 50 is 7. It will be noticed that practically all the teachers receive a salary less than $425 and have had less than 7 years' experience. 1 n other words, only 30 teachers or approximately one-tenth of the teachers, are included in the group receiving more than $425 salary and having seven or more years of experience. This means that in the case of 110 men teachers, or 37 per cent of the group who receive a salary in the median step $400-|424 or less, experience — at least beyond the seventh year — is not a factor in determining the increase in salary. It will be seen by inspection that there is little positive correlation in this group beyond the median salary and the median years of experience. The coefficient of correlation was found to be r=.20 (Pearson's Product-Moment Method). The replies of 1,070 women teachers, as shown in Table 51, indicate that the largest number, 2(i3 teachers, receive a salary of $315. With the exception of five teSchers, all of this number report five or fewer years of experience, with 135, or approximately 50 per cent, new teachers without experience. Half of the entire number of women teachers, 535, receive a salary less than $400, and have also had less than 3.2 years of experience. These teachers, like the men teachers, show the greatest range of ex- perience of to 50 years for the class interval in which the median salary is found, namely, $400-$424. By drawing a line through the median years of experience, 3.2, and the median salary, $400, nearly 400 of the total group will be included in the small quadrant from $315 to $400 salary and from to 3 years of experience. Just as the same amount of salary is paid to a group of teachers having a wide range in years of experience, so it can be seen at a glance that there is an equal diversity in the salaries paid to those having had the same amount of experience. While there is a positive correlation between years of experience and salary of .20 in the case of the men teachers and .20 in that of the women teachers (Pearson's Product-Moment Method), it is evident from the tables that these relationships are probably due to the grouping of salaries and years of experience about the median points, respectively. It is also apparent that experience seems to center about 2 and 4 years, while salaries group themselves about $385 and $420. The certificate laws in Pennsylvania undoubtedly have a great bearing on this posi- tive relationship in the lower part of the range, since it will be recalled from the previous chapter that 2 and 4 years of experience are required by law of appli- cants for professional and permanent certificates, and also that $10 and $15 monthly minimum salary increases above the minimum salary for provisional certificates are required by the same law for each successive type of certificate.^^ Of course the working out of the minimum salary law in itself would in a sense automatically cause this positive relationship. The data seem to establish the conclusion that there is less positive relationship than might be expected in ascending the scale of experience and salary, and that the falling off is most marked above the various medians indicating very Little relation- ship between higher salaries and longer years of experience. • n Pa. Sch. Laws, and app., 1919, Art. XIII, sec. 1302. 15 Pennsylvania School Laws, 1917, Art. XII, sec. 1210. SAI.ARIES. 75 NUMBEE OF INCREASES IN SALARY AS RELATED TO TEARS OF EX- PERIENCE. Since it has been shown that the factor of years of experience in general does not determine the amount of increase in salaries, let us now examine Table 52 to see what relation, if any, exists between the number of increases and years of experience. "While over 500, or one-half the number of the 1,018 teachers submitting this informa- tion, have a median experience of 6.4 years,, they had their salaries increased only three times. In other words, the average number of years of experience is slightly more than twice the average number of increases in salary for the same group of teach- ers. At first glance one would think this to be quite a good median relationship, but after studying the table more carefully, it is evident that there is probably very little correlation beyond 12 years of experience and 5 increases in salary. A large propor- tion of teachers receiving 3 and 4 increases, respectively, have been teachino- mor- than 12 years. Table 52. — Relation between number of increases in salary and years of experience. Years of experience. Number of increases in salary. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total. 1 33 36 10 10 4 4 "l 1 62 113 49 21 16 11 5 4 3 1 1 1 95 157 8 21 35 24 30 20 10 10 16 6 7 4 4 1 1 4 ""2 ""3 2 7 16 17 15 16 9 9 8 4 11 5 8 3 1 7 6 4 2 5 ^. 87 4 1 3 2 6 4 5 86 62 7 63 43 30 10 2 3 29 33 12 4 1 2 17 13 14 10 5 7 9 2 8 4 4 9 2 3 1 3 1 3 1 2 1 1 4 3 3 1 3 j" 1 2 5 8 3 6 2 2 3 2 1 2 1 3 1 1 4 2 2 5 3 1 2 2 1 2 30 16 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 '"'i' ""2 2 1 ""'"3" 1 24 22 9 27 13 12 17 13 6 5 6 5 8 4 12 5 16 17 13 8 24 25 26 27 28 29 30-31 32-33 34-35 36-37 ...... '"'i' 1 1 ""2 ""i' """s" 2 1 1 1 ""2 3 2 2 4 2 ""i' 3 '""i" ""'i" "" '5" "■""2" 3 1 2 1 '""i" 1 1 1 ..'.'.'.. 40-44 45-49 ;;;;;■ 60 and above. . -. "l 1 '"'i' ""2 ...... "i" 1 1 6 14 3 g Total 101 288 213 169 120 74 31 16 6 1 1,019 = .50 P. E.= ±.016. The important fact to be conveyed by this table is that the range in years of ex- perience for teachers who have had no increase in salary is from 1 to 9; for those who have had 2 increases in salary, from 2 to 40; and for those who have had 3 increases the range is from 3 to 50 or more years of experience, with a median of 9.5 years. The data seem to show rather conclusively that teachers, at least beyond the median years of experience, 6.4 years, in many cases have not had the number of increases in salary determined by the years of experience. There is a positive correlation for the group as a whole, which can be indicated by r=.50 P. E. = ±.016 (Pearson's Product- Moment Method). 76 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. AGE OF MEN AND WOMEN TEACHERS AS RELATED TO SALARY. Tables 53 and 54 show the salaries paid to men and women teachers on the basis of their ages. It will be seen that in Table 53 a large majority of the men teachers are 25 or less years of age. Beyond this age there seems to be practically no positive relationship between ages and amount of salary received. This can be illustrated best by studying the group of teachers recei^vdng the salary of the median step, $400- 1424, in which the distribution of ages extends all the way from 19 to 69 years. Sine© the median age of men teachers reporting is 27.3 years, it is especially interesting that the ages of the middle 50 per cent of this group of 118 teachers range from 28to 45 years. In looking over the table more carefully, it is noteworthy that only 33 teachers beyond the age of 25, or approximately one-tenth of the group, receive more than $420. Table 53. — Relation of age of men teachers to salary. Ages. $300- $324 $325- $349 $350- $374 $375- $399 $400- $424 $425- $449 $450- $474 $475- $499 $500- $524 $525- $549 $550- $574 $625- $649 $700 Total. 18 13 19 13 11 5 2 1 ...... 1 3 3 4 3 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 ...... 17 19 ....„ 3 2 5 5 6 4 5 1 4 2 1 2 1 2 ■■"e" 1 4 7 4 24 20 1 1 ""2 ""2 26 21 1 2 3 2 1 1 22 22 20 23 1 15 24 ...... 1 15 25 19 26 8 27 1 6 28 7 2 5 3 3 4 4 1 4 4 1 4 3 2 6 4 2 8 1 5 2 8 29 1 1 7 30 1 1 ""i" 1 11 31 . . 1 6 32 1 6 33 4 34 1 1 6 35 1 36 3 1 i 8 37 1 1 6 38 1 3 39 1 1 1 3 6 40 7 41 1 1 4 42 1 2 1 9 43 4 44 1 3 45 1 1 10 46 1 :::::: 2 47 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 3 9 48 3 49 1 SO 2 1 2 7 5 2 4 1 2 1 15 55 2 1 9 60 2 1 11 4 Total . . 65 3 29 61 118 14 11 25 4 2 1 1 1 335 r=.41. P. E.= ±.0312. SALARIES. Table 54. — Relation of age of women teachers to salary. 11 Ages. $300- $324 $325- $349 $350- $374 $375- $399 $400- $424 $425- $449 $450- $474 $475- $499 $500- $524 $525- $549 $550- $574 $575- $599 $600- $624 $625- $649 $650- $699 $700 To- tal. 18 78 80 78 29 15 8 5 "2 2 1 2 2 1 1 29 26 IS 15 13 9 3 5 3 3 2 1 1 5 17 12 30 13 20 12 12 5 8 6 8 3 2 1 ..... 2 1 3 5 11 14 12 5 12 8 1 6 8 4 6 8 6 2 5 4 5 6 19 15 12 10 9 5 3 1 6 6 13 3 6 1 1 2 12 19 7 12 12 3 3 1 6 2 4 4 4 2 1 2 1 3 124 19 1 2 _ 166 20 1 164 21 1 1 123 22 2 1 5 1 '"2 "'i' 3 ' 1 1 4 3 1 2 2 1 1 1 ""i' 1 87 23 75 24 2 1 '"2 1 1 1 52 25 40 26 2 5 16 27 5 1 1 1 39 28 1 1 2 3 1 1 1 2 22 29 ..... ""i" 1 1 1 1 2 ..... 1 1 3 2 1 25 30 1 22 31 3 2 1 1 25 32 15 33 2 7 34 9 35 1 1 1 g 36 1 12 37 .' 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 ..... 13 39 1 40 i 1 1 1 "'i' 1 2 9 41 i 3 42 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 43 ..... 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 45 7 46 1 1 3 48 1 4 49 1 2 50 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 10 55 ,. 1 1 g 60 and above 1 1 3 Total... 307 11 136 164 143 100 49 115 22 22 16 8 13 2 1 3 1,112 r = .42. P. E. = ±.016. In the case of the women teachers, one can easily see by inspection of Table 54 that there is a positive correlation existing between ages and salaries. It is rather surprising too, that as many as 500 women teachers are represented in the quadrant bounded by the medians 22 years in age and $400 in salary. The largest range in salary, $315 to $700, is found at the age of 27, and at least 80 per cent of the entire group of women teachers range in age from 18 to 27 years. The same condition holds true in this group as in the case of the men teachers, in that the range of ages is largest in the median salary step. However, we can not help but observe the long range in ages in the case of practically each salary paid, which can be well illustrated in the first class interval, $300-$324, in which the largest proportion of the entire group receiving the smallest salary, range in ages from 18 to 32 years. Probably the outstanding fact in the data just presented is the scattering of cases both in respect to salary and age. While there is a definite positive relationship evident in the case of both men and women teachers between the age 22, or possibly 25 years, and a salary of $420 or less, on the other hand, there is practically an entire lack of positive relationship between ages and salaries in ascending the scales beyond these points. The relationships expressed in figures of correlation are r=.41 for men teachers and r=.42 for women teachers (Pearson's Product-Movement Method). In other words for the entire group of men teachers and women teachers there is only a slight tendency for older teachers to receive the higher salaries. 73438°— 22 6 *9f »• 78 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. YEARS OF EDUCATION AS RELATED TO SALARY. In Table 55 the teachers are listed according to the number of years of education which they have had beyond the elementary schools, comprising the work done in high schools, normal schools, and colleges. In comparing the distribution in educa- tion ranging from to 8 years mth salaries received, it is at once noticeable that there is practically no definite tendency shown, as evidenced by the negligible correlation r=.04. Teachers with years of secondary or higher education receive salaries from $315 to $600, while those with 4 or 5 years' academic or professional training be- yond the elementary grades also receive salaries extending over the same range, mth the largest number of teachers in each case receiving the minimum salary of $315. From the standpoint of salaries, the group receiving $315 and the group receiving $520 have secondary training extending over the same range of to 6 years. These rather striking data further emphasize the fact that school authorities frequently fail to recognize by adequate tangible reward the education of teachers secured either before entering service or during service. It also further helps to establish the evi- dence previously expressed that years of experience, type of certificate, and local prerogative on the part of school boards are the plredominating factors in determining salaries rather than academic or professional preparation in educational institutions. It would seem that the very low salaries paid rural teachers and the nonrecognition of standard practice in establishing salary schedules are directly or indirectly the prin- cipal causes of most of the unfavorable phases of the status of the rural teacher as brought out in this study. Table 55. — Relation between the years of education beyond the elementary school and salaries. Salary. Years of education. Total. i 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 $300-$324 85 5 13 67 85 21 11 24 6 8 3 1 2 45 2 5 33 38 10 6 6 36 "■3" 33 46 12 8 10 2 3 1 2 51 2 5 30 45 11 5 11 1 4 6 2 2 62 1 16 41 36 13 5 18 3 5 1 1 60 12 2 353 $325-$349 10 $350-$374 .... 35 23 35 18 4 13 1 3 3 5 10 12 3 8 2 1 1 80 $375-$399 5 13 11 2 7 1 1 2 4 3 i' 239 $400-$424 312 $42.5-$449 112 $450-8474 . . 44 $475-5499 2 99 j500-$524 17 $525-5549 1 30 $550-1574 13 $575-$599 . . 1 8 $60O-$624 1 1 7 $625-8649 $65O-$70O 1 1 2 Total 331 153 157 175 203 193 58 43 12 1 1,326 Median salary =$398. Median years=2,l. r=.04. P. E.= ±.018. i^^ff Chapter VIII. SUMMARY. 1. This study of the status of the rural teacher in Pennsylvania is based principally on a questionnaire distributed among the teachers in the one-teacher rural schools of 18 counties of the State. Out of the 1,450 questionnaires returned, 1,110, or 76.5 per cent, were answered by women j and 340, or 23.5 per cent, by men, averaging 62 per cent Ojf the teachers enrolled in the one-teacher schools in each county respectively. Pennsylvania, with 10,038 one-teacher schools, ranks third among all the States of the United States, being outnumbered by Illinois and Iowa. Over 53 per cent of the teachers under county superintendents' supervision are teaching in one and two teacher schools, of which 42 per cent are in the one-teacher schools. The number of one-teacher schools varies throughout the 66 counties from 22 to 361, with the median county having 150. These counties range in size from 130 to 1,200 square miles, but the number of square miles to each one-teacher school ranges from 2.4 to 17.8 square miles. 2. In analyzing the social and economic status of the rural teacher it has been found that the percentage of men teachers, 24 per cent as compared with 76 per cent of women teachers, is greater in Pennsylvania than in any State of the Union for which there are data available, and greater than in the United States as a whole. The average age of beginning teachers is 19.2, but the ages of teachers range from 18 to 65, with an average of 22 years for women teachers, and of 26.7 for men teachers. Eighty-one per cent of the rural teachers are born and reared in the country districts' and 19 per cent in boroughs and cities. One-half of the teachers participate on Saturday and Sunday in the social life of the community in which they are teaching. Sixty per cent of the teachers pay for board and room amounts ranging from less than $50 to more than $250, with an average cost of $121 per year. On a monthly basis the average cost is $16, with the lowest amount $6 and the highest $30 or more per month. Only 9 per cent of the teachers are obliged to meet these living expenses for the entire calendar year. These facts substantiate the prevalent belief that living expenses for rural teachers are on a much lower scale than those of urban teachers. Twenty-five per cent of the teachers, of whom most are men, receive an income of $200 or less, in addition to their teaching salary. It is rather surprising that approx- im"ately 40 per cent of the teachers have saved on an average approximately $100 per year from their meager salaries. Among this thrifty group are included the small percentage who carry life insurance and are members of beneficial associations, ex- pending as dues from $5.20 to $150 per year. Practically all in this group subscribe for educational magazines and reference books in afiiounts from $0.50 to $50 per year. 3. Investigation of the working conditions of rural teachers shows that their schools range in size from 3 to 68 pupils, with an average of 26. The number of grades varies from 2 to 10, with the median falling among the group having 7 grades; however, 41.8 per cent of the schools are organized as eight-grade schools. The median number of class recitations is 25.6, varying from 9 to 50 per day; and 25 per cent of the teachers have school programs of 30 or more recitations per day. The data clearly indicate an extremely low correlation between the number of class recitations per day and 79 80 STATUS OF RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. the number of pupils enrolled, showing that a great proportion of the smaller schools are among the group having the larger number of daily recitations. Only 31 per cent of the schools have libraries containing from 10 to 400 volumes, but 43 per cent of the rural teachers have access to libraries apart from the school li- brary, for obtaining books and materials to aid them in their teaching. Since teachers in Pennsylvania are obliged to attend county institutes, it is quite surprising that 72 per cent voluntarily attend regularly the county local institute intended to help train teachers in service. Furthermore, as stated preAdously, teachers subscribe generally for educational and other current magazines of the type listed in Table 18 of the con- text. , The fact that rural teachers are supervised only from 15 minutes to 8 hours per school year and that the superintendent makes on an average one visit each year of from 30 minutes to one hour shows plainly that one of Pennsylvania's greatest needs is such a complete revision of the system of rural school supervision as shall involve much greater supervisory assistance. It should be recalled that county superintend- ents have no assistance in their work unless they have 200 or more teachers under their jurisdiction. In the counties that have assistant county superintendents, the average time spent by them in visiting each school, in addition to that spent by the county superintendent, is 2 hours per year. According to the statement of 69 per cent of the teachers, one or more school directors have visited their schools at least once during the year. Upon the impression gained from this -visit frequently depends the election or reelection of a teacher, since, according to the replies of 70. per cent of the teachers, little or no consideration is given by the directors to the judgment of county or assistant county superintendents. There seems to be very Little community cooperation in the rural districts, as- evi- denced by the fact that only 28 per cent of the teachers reported the existence of parent-teacher organizations or any other type of community activity in connection with their schools. Since, in addition to this, very few patrons or residents of the various school communities take any interest in the schools, it would seem that a vital need in the rehabilitation of the rural schools is the development of an increased support and of a more sympathetic interest not only in the personal welfare of the teachers on the part of patrons and citizens, but also in the teacher's professional status and opportunities for growth on the part of administrative and supervisory officers. 4. In summarizing the academic and professional training of rural teachers, Pennsyl- vania has a very low standing in comparison with other States. Eighty per cent of the teachers received their elementary education in township schools in periods of 5 to 12 years, and the remaining 20 per cent in boroughs from 5 to 11 years, the average length being 68.2 months and 70.8 months, respectively, on the basis of the average length of school year for townships and boroughs. Thirty-nine per cent of the same group of teachers had had no training in a secondary school; and of the 61 per cent who attended secondary schools, only 22 per cent completed a four-years' course. It should be stated that some of the teachers who had never attended a recognized secondary school had received some academic instruction in high-school subjects given in the ninth and tenth grades in one-teacher elementary schools. As to the professional training of this group of teachers, 76 per cent had no normal school training, and of the remaining 24 per cent attending a normal school for periods ranging from 6 weeks to 4 years in length, only 18 per cent completed the course. The extreme variations in preliminary training, evidenced from the fact that 55 per cent of the normal school graduates had not had secondary training, as well as the varied amount of time actually spent by teachers in preparation in normal schools, are largely due to the normal school system, which for a number of years received students with all types of training from the completion of an elementary school coiirse to that of a standard four years' secondary course. SUMMAKY. 81 As regards further training during service, 62 per cent have had no academic or professional schooling since entering the profession. Of the 38 per cent who had such supplementary education 10 per cent attended summer private academies, 8 per cent summer local or county normal schools, 12 per cent summer State normal schools, and 6 per cent summer colleges, all ranging from one to four terms of six weeks' duration. The determining factor in the selection of an institution was found to be the type of certificate held and the institution most accessible. Since only 13 counties have State normal schools Avithin their boundaries, and since the 53 remaining counties must depend in a large measure upon private academies and summer county or local normal schools to provide opportunities for teacher train- ing, it is evident that one of the pressing problems before the State is the provision for properly organized training facilities in high schools, in county training schools, or in additional State normal schools, if the supply of educationally and professionally trained teachers shall in any way meet the demand in the rural districts. 5. Regarding the certification of rural teachers in Pennsylvania, there is un- doubtedly need for more exacting certification laws, as well as for the establishment of a larger number of accredited teacher training institutions. In 1919-20, on the basis of a study of the directories of. 28 counties, including all the teachers, the per- centage of the various types of certificates held by teachers in one-teacher schools is as follows: Provisional 52, professional 24, permanent 10, and normal school 14, with such extreme va,riations among counties as 19 to 73 per cent in the case of provisional certificates; 2 to 40 per cent, professional certificates; 1.9 to 36 per cent permanent certificates; and 0.5 per cent (1 out of 179 teachers) to 68 per cent (147 out of 216 teach- ers) normal school certificates. The data further emphasized the fact that 76 per cent of the teachers hold provisional and professional certificates, obtained through exami- nations given exclusively by the 66 county superintendents of the State. In the two and more than two-teacher schools, 25 per cent of the teachers hold normal- school certificates, and 32 per cent provisional certificates, in contrast with the 14 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively, in the one-teacher schools in the same counties. This inequitable distribution of the qualifications of teachers, as evidenced by certifi- cates, is still further emphasized in the fact that 58 per cent in the borough elementary schools of the same counties are normal-school graduates, while only 6 per cent of the teachers hold the provisional — the lowest type of certificate. Examination of the certificate situation of five typical counties over a period of three years, 1917-1919, showed a tendency toward marked increase in the number of pro- visional certificates and a consequent decrease in the number of normal-school cer- tificates, in spite of .the fact that the county showing the largest decrease in normal- school graduates had a normal school located within its boundaries. The median experience of the teachers on the basis of their certificates is for pro- visional certificates 0.9 year, for normal-school certificates 4.5, for professional cer- tificates 4.9, and for permanent certificates 15.9 years. From the standpoint of age, the average for teachers holding provisional certificates is 20.3 years, professional, 24.8 years, normal school, 23.9 years, and permanent, 37.3 years. In considering the certificates of the teachers on the basis of their academic and professional training, the largest proportion of those holding permanent and normal- school certificates or diplomas have had no training in secondary schools. Of the number completing a foiir-years' course in a secondary school, the largest proportion hold pro\isional certificates and only 6 per cent have obtained permanent or hie cer- tificates. 6. The experience of teachers in the one-teacher rural schools averages 3.7 years, ranging from the "beginner" to the one having had 55 years of teaching service. The average experience for men teachers is 7 years, and for women teachers 3.2 years. The investigation also showed that the average number of places taught by the entire group is 3, and that 24 per cent taught in from 5 to 20 different schools. The correla- 82 STATUS OF RURAL, TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. tion between the number of places taught and the years of experience was found to be very high, namely r=.79. The facts concerning the stability of the teaching force for the entire State over a three-year period indicate thatin the 10,000 one-teacher schools, 4,100 would have three different teachers, 4,400 one teacher for two years and one teacher for one year, and only 1,500 one teacher over the entire three-year period. This unusually high pro- portion of instability of the teaching corps should receive the serious and immediate attention of the educational leaders of the State. In examining the teachers' directories of 18 counties of the State for 1919-20, 30 per cent of the 2,640 teachers in one-teacher schools are ' 'beginners," and 37 per cent of the teachers, while experienced, are now teaching in a new position, making a total of 67 per cent of the one-teacher schools of these counties with either an experi- enced teacher in a new position or a new teacher without any teaching experience. On the other hand, in the two-teacher schools of the same counties, only 12 per cent are new teachers without any experience and 33 per cent are experienced teachers in a new position. This again demonstrates the tremendous handicap of the one-teacher schools as compared with the other types of schools under county supervision. On the basis of the facts in this study and of others referred to in this monograph , the schools of Pennsylvania will require each year to meet their needs between 5,000 and 6,000 new teachers. From the fact that normal-school principals tell us that on an average only 15 per cent of their graduating classes enter one-teacher rural schools, it is evident that, on the basis of 2,000 State normal-school graduates, there are only approximately 300 trained teachers available to fill the 3,000 Aacancies in one-teacher schools. Surely it is most imperative that additional training facilities as well as a full capacity of the State normal schools now in existence must be pro- vided, or the vacancies throughout the State will necessarily have to be filled with an inadequate and poorly trained teaching force. 7. ^According to the data for the year 1918-19, the salaries of the teachers in one- teacher schools averaged $411, while those of teachers in two and more than two- teacher schools averaged $519. This difference of $109 in salary between the one teacher and two and more than two-teacher schools frequently occurs in the same township under the same board of education, thus specifically indicating the great inequalities in the educational conditions and in teacher standards existing in these types of schools. The median salary of borough teachers in the same counties is $588, which is $69 higher than the median salary, $519, paid to teachers in the two and more than two teacher schools, and $177 higher than the median salary, $411, paid to the teacher in the one-teacher schools. This salary situation explains at least in a large measure the instability of the teaching force among the smaller villages and rirral districts. The length of school term, always a determining factor in explaining teachers' salaries, was found to average in townships 7.6 months, and in boroughs, 8.6 months. The minimum school term of 7 months required by law exists in 58 per cent of the townships, and in only 11 per cent of the boroughs. The significance of these data is that the teachers in the one-teacher schools receive on an average $14 per school month less than the teachers in the two and more than two-teacher schools in the same townships with the same length of school term, and frequently controlled by the same board of education. It would seem that these facts furnish a strong argu- ment in favor of some scheme for equalizing educational standards. This might be brought about by an equitable salary measure for the rural teachers in the one-teacher schools, such as the "bonus" scheme as recognized in the Wisconsin salary law and to some degree in the Woodruff salary bill for Pennsylvania, or by some radical change in the form of unit of administration, such as a county-local unit with more centralized control over local units, oY a county unit with a small county board of education. In 75 per cent of the cases school boards pay teachers the minimum salary required by SUMMARY. 83 law and do not seem to recognize the academic or professional training of teachers either before entering service or while in service. In increasing salaries their main consideration is apparently such mandatory legislation as the kind of certificate held and the minimum salary law. In only 10 per cent of the cases was it reported that school boards considered such factors as experience and efficiency in placing teachers and determining salary schedules. The correlation between years of experience and salaries of men and women teachers was found to be very low: namely, r=.20 and r=.20, respectively, indicating that teachers receiAdng, for example, a salary of |420 might have from no experience to 50 years of experience and at the same time teachers with two or three years of experience received salaries from |315 to |700 . The fairly low correlation of the number of increases in salary to the number of years of experience offers further proof that experience is practically an insignificant factor. These findings are a recapitulation or a summary of the outstanding facts con- cerning the different phases of the status of the rural teachers. It should be kept in mind that it was not primarily the purpose of this survey to offer remedial or con- structive measures in the solution of the problems revealed by the investigation but rather to make such observations and suggestions as the evidence safely warrants. It will, however, serve its purpose if the facts and conclusions set forth, and the nethods used in establishing their reliability, will help constructively to solve one of the greatest problems in the field of American education — the problem of the rural school. LIST OF REFERENCES. Administration and support of the Colorado school system. U. S. Bureau of Educa- tion. Bulletin, 1917, no. 5. pp. 74, 76. An educational study of Alabama. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1919, no. 41. p. 349. Annual reports and teachers' directories. Issued by county superintendents of Pennsylvania, 1918-19, 1919-20. Alexander, Carter. County training schools of Wisconsin. Seventh annual school- men's week. Proceedings, p. 93. University of Pennsylvania. Arp, J. B. Rural education and the consolidated school. New York, World Book Co., 1918. Bagley, W. C. The Smith-Towner bill and the preparation of rural teachers. School and Home Education, 38: 158, April, 1919. Becht, J. George. A study of school consolidation and transportation. Sixth annual schoolmen's week. Proceedings, p. 197. University of Pennsylvania. Betts, G. H. Rural school consolidation and transportation. Sixth annual school- men's week. Proceedings, p. 192. University of Pennsylvania. Bock, Thomas A. Consolidation and transportation in Pennsylvania. Sixth annual schoolmen's week. Proceedings, pp. 200-307. University of Pennsylvania. Bonner, H. R. Statistics of State school systems, 1917-18. U. S. Bureau of Educa- tion. Bulletin, 1920, no. 11. p. 42. Burnham, Ernest. The preparation of rural teachers. Fifth annual schoolmen's week. Proceedings, pp. 169-185. University of Pennsylvania. ■ The training of teachers for the rural schools of Pennsylvania. Fourth annual schoolm-en's week. Proceedings, pp. 150-167. University of Pennsyl- vania. Carney, Mabel. Should rural teachers be prepared in high schools? Seventh annual schoolmen's week. Proceedings, pp. 99-110. University of Pennsylvania. Twenty-third annual report of the inspector of State high schools for Min- nesota (1916), pp. 17-19. Department of Education, St. Paul. High school board rules. Bidletin 45, May, 1916. pp. 24-30. Department of Education, St. Paul. Couiitry life and the country school. Rowe, Peterson & Co. Coffman, L. D. The social composition of the teaching population. Teachers College, Columbia University, 1911. (Series No. 41.) Committee report. A constructive program for the improvement of rural schools, in Pennsylvania. Fifth annual schoolmen's week. Proceedings, pp. 167-169. University of Pennsylvania. Cook, Katherine M. and Monahan, A. C. Report of an inquiry into the administra- tion and support of the Colorado school system. U. S. Bureau of Education. In their Bulletin, 1917, no. 5. pp. 74, 76. Cubberly, Ellwood P. Rural life and education. New York, Macmillan Co. Eggleston and Bruere. The work of the rural school. New York, Harper & Bros. Engelhardt, F. The teaching profession in the State of New York. In Annual report of the Assistant Commissioner of Education of New York State, 1918-19. Evenden, E. S. Teachers' salaries and salary schedules in the United States, 1918-19. The National Education Association, 1919. Commission series no. 6. 84 EErEEEIsrCES. 85 Foght, H. "W. The rural school system of Minnesota. U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1915, no. 20, p. 43. The efficiency and preparation of rural school teachers. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1914, ao. 49. The rural teacher and his work. New York, Macmillan Co. Rural teacher preparation in county training schools and high schools. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1917, no. 31. Geographical gazetteer. New York, Rand-McNally Co. Harbold, P. M. Needed revision of the normal school course of study. Proceedings of principals of the Pennsylvania State normal schools, 1917. p. 24. Harris- burg, Pa. Larson, W. E. The Wisconsin county training schools for teachers in rural schools. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1916, no. 17. Laws of Wisconsin relating to common schools — county training schools, 1915. Sec. 411. Mirick, G. A. Supervision of rural schools. Fifth annual schoolmen's week. Pro- ceedings, pp. 188-191. University of Pennsylvania. Monahan, A. C. The status of rural education in the United States. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1913, No. 8. and Cook, K. M. Survey of Wyoming. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1916, no. 29. p. 52. Pennsylvania. County superintendents. Annual reports and teachers' directories, 1918-19, 1919-20. Pennsylvania. State Department of Public Instruction. Course of study for ele- mentary schools of Pennsylvania, 1918. Harrisburg, Pa., 1918. pp. 8, 9. Ma- terial by C. D. Koch and others. Eleventh annual report of high school inspectors, July, 1918. Har- risburg, Pa., 1918. p. 14. Pennsylvania State normal school catalogues. (Series of years.) Philips, George M. Annual report for normal schools for 1918. Pittenger, B. F. Rural teacher-training departments in Minnesota high schools. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (1914). Bulletin. Problems involved in the consolidation and State-aid to transportation acts in 1919. T. A. Bock; J. W. Sweeney; L. J. Russell; E. M. Rapp; F. E. Shambaugh; L. L. Driver. Seventh annual schoolmen's week. Proceedings, pp. 57-78. University of Pennsylvania. Proceedings of State normal school principals. (Series of years.) Report of the superintendent of public instruction for Pennsylvania, 1918. pp. 372- 601, 608-611, 633. Report on rural education. Committee of the Pennsylvania Educatioxial Associa- tion. Part IV. pp. 37-47. Harrisburg, December, 1914. Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1916-1918. Volume 3, p. 76. Rugg, H. O, Statistical methods applied to education. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co. School laws for Pennsylvania, 1917. Art. XII, Sec. 1210. School laws and appendix for Pennsylvania, 1919. Art. IV, sec. 408; Art. XI, sec. 1126; Art. XII, sec. 1210, Part 4; Art. XIII, sec. 1301-1324. Showalter, N. D. A handbook for rural school officers. New York, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1920. Smull's legislative handbook for Pennsylvania, 1918. p. 389. Harrisburg, Pa. Study of teacher shortage. Department of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania, 1919-20. (Unpublished.) 86 STATUS or RURAL TEACHER IN PENNSYLVANIA. SjTQposium. Tlie supe^^ision of rural schools. The twelfth yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Part II. The educational system of South Dakota. U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1918, no. 31. pp. 114, 210, 211, 213, 231. The rural teacher of Nebraska. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1919, no. 20. pp. 21, 23, 31, 40, 53. Thorndike, E. L. Mental and social measurements. Teachers College, Columbia University. Updegraff, Harlan. Teachers certificates issued under general State law and regula- tions. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1911, no. 18. p. 96. Virginia pu1)lic school survey. Report to the State Educational Commission, 1919. pp. 135-136, 142, 333, 337. INDEX. Academic and professional training, 29-37. See also Certification. Age, 9-12; salaries in relation to, 76-77. Beginning age, U-12. Bibliography, 81-86. Board and lodging, 14-15. Born and reared in open country, 13. Borough, elementary schools, certificates, 42-43; salaries, 64-66. Certification, 38-52; academic preparation and professional training as related to, 48-49; and age of teachers, 47-48; from standpoint of supplementary training during service, 49-52; relation to experience, 46-47; salaries in relation to, 68. Community interest and support, 27-28. Counties, certification, 43-45. Dependents, 16. Educational magazines, amounts expended for, 17. Elementary, number under county supervision, 6-7. Elementary education, professional training of teachers, 29-30. Experience, salaries in relation to, 73-75. Experience and tenin-e, 53-59. Grades, distribution, one-teacher schools, 19. Income, apart from salary, 16. Insurance and beneficial associations, 17. Libraries, schools, 21-22. Literature, professional, amounts expended, 17. Married or single, 13-14. Parent-teachers' organizations, 27-28. Parents or relatives, number living with, 13. Professional literature, 23-24. Professional training, 29-37. See also Certification. Pupils, number in one-teacher schools, 18-19. Questionnaire, 2-4. Eecitations, daily, number, 19-21. Salaries, 60-78. . Savings, 16. School boards, bases on which salaries of teaches are increased, 71-72; schools visited, 26-27. School term, determining factor in salaries, 66-68. Secondary education, professional training of teachers, 30-33. Social and economic status, 8-12. Spending week ends where teaching, 15-16. Supervision, county and assistant county superintendents, 24-26. Teachers' certificates. See Certification. Teachers' institutes, 22-23. \ ' Teaching force, stability, 54^57. Tenme, 53-59. Women, distribution by number and per cent, one-teacher schools, 8-10; salaries, 72-73. Working conditions, 13-28. 87 o LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 022 158 746 7