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STATEMENT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, September 1, 1913.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following brief statement of the operations of this office for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913:

DIVISION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.

The work of the division of higher education included the supervision of the administration and finances of the land-grant colleges, so far as these relate to the Federal funds; statistical work; the preparation of three bulletins; and the field work of the two specialists assigned to the division.

The reports required to be made by institutions receiving Federal aid under the acts of Congress of August 30, 1890, and March 4, 1907, were duly received and examined. Expenditures were found to have been made for the purposes specified in the acts. A special study of the extension work of the land-grant colleges was undertaken.

Fifty-two institutions were visited. Several inspections were made at the request of the institutions, and detailed reports of the investigations were made to the institutions. A representative from this division was in attendance at 21 educational meetings and conferences.

The statistics and other data relating to colleges, universities, technological schools, professional schools, and normal schools were compiled for the annual report of the commissioner. Hereafter this work will be done by the statistical division.

Dr. Kendric C. Babcock, specialist in higher education, who devoted a large part of his time to a study of the standards of universities and colleges and the organization and administration of higher education in the several States, resigned his position in the bureau in May, 1913, to accept the deanship of the College of Literature, Arts, and Science of the University of Illinois. Upon his resig nation, Dr. George E. MacLean, formerly president of the University of Iowa, was given a temporary appointment as specialist in higher education and detailed to visit the British universities and report on recent developments therein. Dr. MacLean has submitted a preliminary report. His final report will be submitted for publicatior. as a bulletin of the bureau.

DIVISION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION.

The division of school administration collected and compiled the statistics of city school systems for the annual report, and prepared a chapter on the most important features of city-school administration during the year. It issued nine circulars on various phases of school administration. It sent out periodical multigraph letters to city-school officials, informing them of important legislation and rulings of city boards of education. During the winter and spring of this year the legislatures of about three-fourths of the States were in session. While these legislatures were in session circulars were prepared, and sent from time to time to the school officials of all the States, giving the titles of bills pertaining to education either introduced or passed in any of these legislatures. Summaries were prepared of the most important of these bills..

A member of this division spent three months studying the schools of certain Cantons and cities of Switzerland for the special purpose of reporting on the methods by which the work of these schools is adapted to the needs of the people, interpreting these methods in terms of American methods, and showing how they may be adapted to the conditions and needs of American schools. The report of this investigation will be published as a bulletin of the bureau.

Members of the division visited and studied the schools of 21 cities in the United States. Many cities have adopted the system of uniform records and reports recommended by the bureau, and it is now possible to make more accurate and helpful comparisons of the income, expenditures, and educational activities of these cities than could be made before this uniform system was adopted.

DIVISION OF SCHOOL HYGIENE AND SANITATION.

As a means for the improvement of rural schoolhouses the bureau prepared, for lending purposes, six cardboard models of each of three different types of schoolhouses. The demand for the loan of these models received from school officials, lumbermen, associations, health boards, normal schools, and others has been overwhelming, and it has been possible thus far to comply with only a very limited number of the requests. This experiment has been so successful that the bureau must undoubtedly extend this service as soon as funds therefor can be made available. In addition to this service, special advice regarding the construction of schoolhouses has been given to school officials in the States of Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Bulletins on medical inspection and on the International Congress on Hygiene and Demography and a report on the work of typical

health-teaching agencies in the United States were issued during the year. Considerable work has been done also on the manuscript for a bulletin on rural schoolhouses. The special agent attached to this division rendered valuable service to the International Congress on Hygiene and Demography held in Washington City in the fall of 1912. He had charge of the educational exhibit held in connection with the Congress. He also rendered much assistance in the preparation of an exhibit for the International Congress on School Hygiene at Buffalo, N. Y.

DIVISION OF RURAL EDUCATION.

An increase of the appropriation "for the investigation of rural education, industrial education, and school hygiene" from $6,000 to $15,000 rendered possible the more complete organization of the division of rural education by the appointment of a chief of field service in rural education at a salary of $4,000 per annum and three specialists in rural education at a salary of $2,500 each per annum. These persons were assigned to duty as follows: The chief of field service was placed in charge of the work in the Southern States, with headquarters at Richmond, Va.; one specialist, with headquarters at Salem, Oreg., was placed in charge of the work in the Western States; one, with headquarters at Kirksville, Mo., has charge of the work in the Middle Western States; and the third has charge of the work in the Eastern and Northern States. These persons have made special studies of the condition of rural education in their several districts and have collected a large amount of information, some of which has already been published; the rest is being digested and prepared for publication. This material will form a valuable addition to the literature of rural education and will contribute much toward the improvement of educational conditions in rural communities throughout the United States.

In the South the division has cooperated with the Southern Education Board and the Conference for Education in the South, with the supervisors of rural education, and the directors of rural school improvement in the several Southern States, and has made a special study of the means by which the school terms are being extended, better preparation given teachers, and the standards of the schools improved. A special study of educational progress in the South since 1870, dealing largely with rural education, has been begun, as has also a study of the development of high schools and secondary education in the South since 1900. In the West an intensive study of the rural schools was made in one county in the State of Oregon, and a special study was also made of the Oregon plan of school credit for home work, as was also of the plan adopted in Walla Walla County, Wash., for organizing the elementary schools of the dis

trict around a central school doing some high-school work. An intensive study of education in Montgomery County, Md., has been made and the results have been published in a bulletin of the bureau. A careful study of the preparation of teachers for rural schools in all parts of the country has been begun. A special study was made of the rural schools of the southern Appalachian Mountain counties of the Virginias, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Material has been collected for a digest of the most important and significant efforts for the extension and improvement of the work of rural schools in all parts of the United States within the year, and a beginning has been made on the collection of data for accurate detailed information in regard to each of the rural and village schools in the United States.

One specialist and two collaborators were detailed to make a careful study of the rural schools of Denmark for the purpose of finding and reporting the means by which they have become such a vital element in the rural life of that country. Three months were spent in going to Denmark and making personal inspection of typical rural schools. The results of these studies will be published in a series of four or five bulletins and will form a valuable contribution to the literature of rural education.

The members of this division prepared and assisted in the preparation of a number of bulletins on rural education which were issued during the year and attended numerous meetings for the purpose of disseminating information regarding educational conditions and suggesting methods by which such conditions might be improved. The titles of the bulletins referred to are included in the statement of the work of the editorial division.

Considerable additional material regarding various phases of rural education has been collected and will be issued in the form of bulletins during the present fiscal year.

The chief of field service severed his connection with the bureau on June 30, having been called to the presidency of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute at a salary much larger than that paid him by the bureau.

DIVISION OF NEGRO EDUCATION.

The division of negro education was established during the year with the cooperation of the trustees of the Phelps-Stokes fund. Besides a general preliminary study of schools for negroes in the South, it has made a first-hand study of the high, private, and industrial schools for colored people in Alabama, has collected a great deal of information regarding those schools, and is preparing a preliminary report thereon. It has been able to render much assistance to persons making inquiries regarding the reliability of schools for negroes.

The division prepared a report on "Recent movements in negro education" and on "Social science and history in high schools."

DIVISION OF KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION.

With the cooperation of the National Kindergarten Association there was established on March 3, 1913, the division of kindergarten education. A survey has been made of the status of kindergartens in public schools and of all other kinds of kindergartens in the United States. The results of this survey will be incorporated in a bulletin and will include detailed statistics as well as opinions of superintendents, supervisors, teachers, and others as to the value of kindergarten training.

In cooperation with the bureau a committee of 20 kindergarten training teachers has been created to assist in making a survey of kindergarten training schools with the purpose of formulating standards for such schools. The committee has appointed two subcommittees, one of which will give advice and suggestions wherever problems of administration and practice arise, and the other will select and recommend material suitable for publication in the form of leaflets and bulletins.

EDITORIAL DIVISION.

The following publications were issued during the year: Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1912, Vol. I. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1912, Vol II.

Annual Statement of the Commissioner of Education to the Secretary of the Interior, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912.

Bulletins of the Bureau of Education:

1912, No. 12.

The Dutch Schools of New Netherland and Colonial New York. 1912, No. 14. Report of the American Commissioners on the Teaching of Mathematics.

1912, No. 15. Current Educational Topics, No. II.

1912, No. 16. The Reorganized School Playground.

1912, No. 17. The Montessori System of Education.

1912, No. 18. Teaching Language Through Agriculture and Domestic Science.

1912, No. 19. Professional Distribution of College and University Graduates. 1912, No. 20. The Readjustment of a Rural High School to the Needs of the Community.

1912, No. 21. A Comparison of Urban and Rural Common-school Statistics. 1912, No. 22. Public and Private High Schools.

1912, No. 23. Special Collections in Libraries in the United States.

1912, No. 24. Current Educational Topics, No. III.

1912, No. 25. List of Publications of the Bureau of Education Available for Free Distribution September, 1912.

1912, No. 26. Bibliography of Child Study.

1912, No. 27. History of Public School Education in Arkansas.

1912, No. 28. Cultivating School Grounds in Wake County, N. C.

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