CHAPTER XXVI.

[Containing Tables 113-134.]

SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

A. GENERAL VIEW OF SECONDARY STUDENTS IN ALL CLASSES OF

INSTITUTIONS.

From returns received by this Bureau from more than 10,000 different institutions it appears that the number of secondary or high school students enrolled in all schools and colleges in the United States was 961,786 for the year ending June, 1907-a gain of 37,387 over the preceding year. The public high schools alone had an enrollment of 751,081-a gain of 28,389. The secondary students reported for the two years were distributed among eight classes of institutions as follows:

The enrollment of secondary students in public and private institutions is given by geographical divisions for the two years mentioned in the following table, the percentage of increase or decrease being indicated:

Students receiving secondary instruction in public and private high schools and academies and in preparatory departments of colleges and other institutions.

The aggregate enrollment in the schools and colleges of the United States for the year ending June, 1907, was 19,370,114. In the elementary schools, public and private, the enrollment was 18,124,933. Of this number, the public elementary schools had 16,820,386, while the estimated number in the private elementary schools was 1,304,547. It will be seen that the 961,786 secondary students comprise nearly 5 per cent of the aggregate enrollment in all the schools. The number of secondary students in both public and private institutions in 1890 was 367,003, or about 5,900 to the million of population; in 1895 the number had increased to 539,712, or 7,900 to the million; in 1900 the number was 719,241, or 9,500 to the million; while for the year 1907 the number of secondary students aggregated 961,786, or about 11,250 to the million population, or over 1 per cent. The following table makes the comparison for each year since 1890:

Secondary students and per cent of population.

B.-GENERAL STATISTICS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOLS.

I. THE TWO CLASSES OF HIGH SCHOOLS CONSIDERED JOINTLY.

While the number of secondary students in the preparatory departments of universities and colleges and other institutions is given above, it has been found impracticable to obtain complete statistics of such departments. The remainder of this chapter will be devoted to a presentation of the statistics of the 10,238 public

The following table will show the progress of public and private high schools since 1890:

Public and private high schools since 1889–90.

The above table shows the remarkable growth of public high schools in the last seventeen years. In 1890 there were 2,526 public high schools, with 202,963 students, while in 1907 the number of schools had increased to 8,804, with 751,081 students. The number of private high schools increased up to 1895. Since that date there has been a decrease, the number reporting in 1907 being 1,434, with 97,110 students. The number of these private schools is now less than in 1890, although the number of students is considerably greater. The relative progress of public and private high schools since 1890 may be learned from the following table:

Relative progress of public and private high schools in 17 years.

It is seen from the above table that in 1890 about 68.13 per cent

of the secondary students were in the public high schools, and in 1907 over 88 per cent.

For the first time this Bureau attempted in 1907 to obtain the enrollment in public and private high schools by years or grades. The result was that 7,624 of the public high schools and 946 of the private high schools gave the number of students in each year. Following is a synopsis of the number of boys and girls in each year of both classes of schools:

Public and private high school students classified by year of course and sex.

Public high

schools.. Private high schools...

Total

7,624 126,300 162, 448 75,859 106, 297 47,671 70,814 30,015 47,901 279,845 387,400 946 11,088 10,848 9,223 8,387 7,787 7,050 6,141 5,825 34,239 32,110 8,570 137,388 173,296 85,082 114,684 55, 458 77,864 36, 156 53,726 314,084 419,570

In the synopsis given below it is shown that in the public high schools 43.27 per cent of the enrollment was in the first year, 27.30 per cent in the second year, 17.75 per cent in the third year, and 11.68 per cent in the fourth year. In the private high schools the distribution is in a different proportion. In the first year the enrollment was 33.06 per cent, in the second year 26.54 per cent, in the third year 22.36 per cent, and in the fourth year 18.04 per cent. These comparisons and the percentages for public and private high school enrollment separately and combined will be found in the following synopsis:

Number and per cent of students in each year of high school course.

For several years this Bureau has estimated the proportion of secondary students in each of the four years as 43 per cent in the first year, 26 per cent in the second year, 18 per cent in the third year, and 13 per cent in the fourth year. This estimate was based upon the enrollment of secondary students by grades in the high schools of a number of cities.

II. PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.

The more important items of public high school statistics are sum

Table 113 shows that there were 32,774 teachers of secondary students in the 8,804 public high schools in 1906-7. This force included 15,122 men and 17,652 women. Of the 751,081 secondary students, 317,120 were boys and 433,961 girls. There was an increase of 11,812 in the number of boys and 16,577 in the number of girls in these schools over the preceding year. In the elementary grades connected with the high schools there were 141,525 pupils.

Table 114 shows that 31,950 students were preparing for the college classical course and 40,078 for college scientific courses. The number of graduates for the year ending June, 1907, was 87,385-an increase of 1,936 over the preceding year. Of the total number of graduates, 28,185 were college preparatory students-an increase of 2,123.

Of the 751,081 public high school students, the boys comprised 42.22 per cent and the girls 57.78 per cent. Of the total, 11.63 per cent graduated in 1907. Of the graduating classes, 32.25 per cent had prepared for college. These percentages are given in Table 115. The statistics of public high schools in cities of 8,000 population and over are compared with statistics for public high schools outside of such cities in Tables 116, 117, and 118. In the cities named there were 860 schools with 359,624 students, while the remaining 7,944 high schools outside of such cities had 391,457 students.

Table 119 gives the enrollment by sex in each year of the course for 7,624 high schools reporting this item, while Table 120 gives the total enrollment of these schools in each year of the course, and shows the percentage in each year to the aggregate enrollment for the 7,624 schools. As these statistics are given by grand divisions and by States, they present a new and important subject for study.

Table 121 is an exhibit of the equipment and income of public high schools in each State, so far as the information could be obtained. In most cases the accounts of high schools are not separated from the accounts of public school systems, and for this reason no satisfactory aggregate can be obtained or estimated as to the income of all the public high schools.

Of the 8,804 public high schools, 8,154 reported libraries aggregating 4,936,768 volumes, and 8,106 had grounds and buildings aggregating $210,763,094 in value. Only 1,913 schools reported receipts from public appropriations, amounting to $8,646,577.

III.-PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES.

The statistics of private high schools, academies, and seminaries are summarized in Tables 122 to 129. Tables 122 to 126, inclusive, are similar to Tables 113 to 117, relating to public high schools, and may be compared with those tables. Tables 121 and 129 may also be compared. Comparisons of certain averages computed for public and private high schools are made in Table 130.