Report of the Commissioner of Education Made to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year ... with Accompanying Papers

CHAPTER XLV.

STATISTICS OF NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The number of students pursuing training courses for teachers in various institutions in the United States in the scholastic year 1897-98 was 89,225. These students were in 1,376 schools of various grades. Nearly 52 per cent of the whole number, or 46,245, were in the 167 public normal schools. The 178 private normal schools had 21,293 students in training courses for teachers, public universities and colleges had 2,255, private universities and colleges had 6,065, public high schools had 7,378, and private secondary schools had 5,989 students pursuing similar courses. The following table shows the number of institutions of each class and the number of normal students in each class for four scholastic years:

The above statement shows that in 1897-98 nearly 63 per cent, or 55,878 students in training courses for teachers, were in public institutions. The 167 public normal schools had an average of 277 normal students to the school, while the average number to the 178 private normal schools was 120. The average number of such students in 23 public universities and colleges was 98 and in 188 private universities and colleges 32. The average number of normal students in 494 public high schools was 15, and the average number in 326 private high schools and academies was 18. Students in public and private normal schools pursuing other courses of study are accounted for elsewhere in this chapter.

The number of graduates from the public and private normal schools at the close of the year ending June, 1898, was 11,255, or almost exactly one-sixth of the number of normal students in those schools. If one-sixth of the normal students in other institutions completed their courses the total number of graduated teachers for the year must have reached 14,871.

PUBLIC NORMAL SCHOOLS.

With two exceptions, all the States make provision for the education of teachers in public normal schools. The statistics of the 167 public normal schools are summarized in Tables 1 to 8, while information concerning each school is given in Table 19.

Table 1 shows the number of public normal schools in each State. New York and Pennsylvania have 15 each; Massachusetts, 10; West Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Wisconsin, 7 each; Alabama, 6; Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, 5 cach. Wyoming and Nevada have no public normal schools. In the 167 schools there were 1,863 teachers employed in instructing normal students, and 241 teachers engaged wholly in other departments.

The total number of normal students in the public normal schools was 46,215, as already stated-12,578 males and 33,667 females. The enrollment in each State is shown in Table 2. These schools also had 673 students in business courses, 3,570 in secondary grades equivalent to the high school grades, and 26,104 in elementary grades, as shown in Table 2.

Table 3 shows that the total number of students and pupils receiving instruction in the public normal schools was 76,594. There were 32,080 children in the model schools attached to or used by these institutions. This 32,080 includes most of the children in the elementary grades mentioned in Table 2, but in many cases elementary schools in the neighborhood are used as model schools.

The number of colored normal students in the public normal schools was 1,763, as shown in Table 3. Nearly all these were in the public normal schools for the colored race supported by the Southern States.

men.

The number of graduates from the normal courses of the public normal schools in 1898 was 8,188, as shown in Table 4. Of these graduates 6,645 were women and 1,543 There were 102 graduates from business courses and C07 from other courses. Table 5 shows for each State the income of the public normal schools. The appropriations from States, counties, and cities for support aggregated $2,566,132 for the 167 schools, an increase of $139,947 over the previous year. The total income for the year from appropriations, tuition fees, productive funds, and from other sources was $3,445,751, an increase of $180,823 over the year 1896–97. It is probable that the greater part of the $307,409 mentioned in next to the last column of the table aз "other sources and unclassified" came directly or indirectly from public appropriations.

Table 6 is an exhibit of the value of buildings and other property of the public normal schools. The number of volumes in the libraries of 150 of these institutions was 566,684, valued at $586,077. The value of buildings, grounds, scientific apparatus, etc., was $19,990,222.

The amount of public appropriations received each year for the last six years by the public normal schools is shown in Table 7. With the exception of a single year, when there was a small decrease in the appropriations, there has been a steady increase since 1892. These appropriations increased from $1,452,914 in 1892-93 to $2,566,152 in 1897-98.

Table 8 shows the amounts appropriated each year for six years for buildings and improvements in the States and Territories. There has been a decrease in the aggregate for the past two years, the $417,866 appropriated for 1897-98 being less than the aggregate for any year since 1891-92, when it was $394,635.

PRIVATE NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The number of private normal schools reporting to this office for the year 1897-98 was 178. There are many other private institutions known as normal schools, but the training of teachers is not their distinctive work. The statistics of private normal schools will be found summarized in Tables 9 to 14, while the information concerning the separate schools is given in Table 20.

Table 9 shows the number of teachers in the 178 private normal schools. There were 1,008 teachers for normal students and 736 wholly for other departments. Fifteen States and Territories have no private normal schools. In the North Atlantic and Western divisions there are only 19 such schools.

The number of students pursuing training courses for teachers in the private normal schools was 21,293, as shown in Table 10. This was a decrease of 2,888 from the previous year. The number of students in business courses was 5,031, an increase of 1,156. The number in secondary grades was 7,337, a decrease of 248. The number of pupils in elementary grades was 16,999, a decrease of 235 from the previous year. The total enrollment in all the grades and departments of these schools, as shown in Table 11, was 50,660, a net decrease of 2,215. This decrease is due to the fact that a few of the schools reported the previous year suspended and a number of others ceased to be distinctively training schools for teachers. The number of schools was thus reduced from 198 to 178.

It is also shown in Table 11 that there were 2,410 colored normal students in private normal schools, nearly all of them in colored normal schools in the South supported by donations and tuition fees. This table also shows that the number of children in the model schools used by private normal schools was 6,726.

Table 12 shows that there were 3,067 graduates from teachers' training courses, 1,164 from business courses, and 672 from other courses in the private normal schools ' in 1897-98. This was a decrease of 1,041 in the number of normal graduates, decrease of 347 in the number of business graduates, and a decrease of 1,034 in the number of graduates from other courses.

Table 13 shows the income received from various sources by the private normal schools so far as reported. The aggregate income of these schools was $898,909, a decrease of $127,168 from the previous year.

An exhibit of property owned by private normal schools is presented in Table 14. The number of volumes in the libraries of 140 of these schools was 194,460, valued at $197,932. The value of buildings and grounds, scientific apparatus, etc., was $5,047,507. Benefactions amounting to $240,203 were received during the year. The total money value of the endowment of the institutions reporting this item was $2,311,594.

DISTRIBUTION OF NORMAL STUDENTS.

A comparison is made in Table 15 between certain statistics of public and private normal schools. In the public normal schools only 27.20 per cent of the normal students were males, while the female students comprised 72.80 per cent of the number. In the private normal schools the number of students was almost equally divided between the sexes. In the public normal schools 17.71 per cent of the students in the school during the year graduated, while in the private normal schools the per cent of graduates was 14.40.

Table 16 is a summary, by States, of the number of students pursuing teachers' training courses in universities and colleges, in public high schools, and in private high schools and academies.

Table 17 is a general summary, by States, of all the students in the five classes of institutions reported to this office as pursuing normal or teachers' training courses in 1897-98.

Table 18 contains a list of the universities and colleges in which courses designed for the professional training of teachers are maintained. The number of normal students in each institution each year for the past six years is given. Certain universities and colleges having regularly organized departments of pedagogy did not report the number of students pursuing courses in such departments.

TABLE 1.-Summary of statistics of public normal schools in 1897–98.