School progress and school facts ...

Contents

Foreword : page

Trustees, Bureau of Municipal Research 3-7

School Reports As They Are : A Rejoinder :

Conclusion

The New York schools can not, if they will, prevent progress in school reporting. Other cities now have information which we are not able to obtain. Our own taxpayers know that there is a way of obtaining information. The facts given above prove that the writer of the article and any superior officers who may have collaborated in its preparation, have not given us the benefit of "the wisdom of experience" or have not been averse to "half truths, more mischievous than lies."

The time is not far distant when New York's system of reporting school results will be modern and efficient. Then the methods of statesmanship, instead of those of the politician and of agitation will be employed, by subordinates wishing advancement, by the city superintendent of schools or by the board of education itself wishing funds for justifiable purposes.

Nothing could more clearly establish the truth of every proposition in my article than the first recommendation in the superintendent's report for 1908, issued just about the time that this rejoinder was written, namely, that "an assistant trained in making statistical investigations should be appointed on the staff of the city superintendent's office." From this recommendation it is but a step to a demand for records that currently tell the truth clearly and with a saving of teachers' and principals' time. Facts that should be currently reported by school authorities are now being sought by the Russell Sage Foundation at great expense. There is no better way of befriending the school system of New York City than to demand efficient methods for recording school experience, and for separating competent from incompetent, practicable from impracticable, wasteful from economical.

Reprinted from the Educational Review, New York, February, 1909. Copyright, igoq, by Educational Review Publishing Co.

I

The personality tablets and the educational experience that may be discovered in school reports, even as they are, offer a splendid field for some progressive magazine wishing to give the whole country the benefit of pioneer work and pioneer thought by makers of school reports. Whether complete or incomplete, perfunctory or earnest, with or without illuminating matter, the formal statements of school superintendents to their communities constitute our richest mine of educational data — the fragmentary materials of research with which scientific study of school problems must begin. They tell much more of the elasticity, open-mindedness, and instinct of workmanship among educational leaders than could Who's who, or a gallery of portraits, — far more, too, of the obstacles and opportunities that confront those leaders than do treatises on adolescence, or histories of education.

To discover what school reports really are is a task far more interesting than the subject implies. In June the Educational Review asked me to prepare two articles on School reports as they are, and School reports as they ought to he, " from the standpoint of the Bureau of Municipal Research, and its general program for effective publicity." Dr. Elizabeth Kemper Adams, whose courses in education at Smith College include field study of educational administration, became so interested in the contemplated examination that she gave to it her summer vacation, thus making possible

'Written in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth K. Adams, Smith College.

I lo Educational Review [February

a more detailed analysis than would otherwise have been possible.^ Two graduate students, Miss Beavers of Adelphi and Miss Allen of Columbia, have since assisted. School reports are full of two essential ingredients of sensation and inspiration, — opportunities seized and opportunities lost. After living in New York thru five years when schools and public alike have suffered because school problems were discust on theoretical and personal grounds, just as if New York were without experience, I have come to believe that there is probably no need today in the educational world so pressing as that for adequate recording and reporting of school experience.

Desire to better school reports is general, for eighty-six replies were received from cities and forty from states, in response to an invitation for suggestion and criticism sent to the superintendents of the hundred cities having the largest population, and to all state superintendents. The present article, and a second, — School reports as leading educators wovdd have them, — are based upon these answers, and upon an analysis of seventy-two city reports.^

For exhibits of best things and of weaknesses in school reports, for a story of repeated efforts by the National Education Association to improve reports, for a list of questions never answered and occasionally answered, and a study

' Each report was read from cover to cover, all statements of fact, all recommendations, and the essential elements of make-up being listed. Financial items were not scheduled because the Teachers College studies have already made clear the deficiencies in this particular, and the United States Commissioner of Education is now gathering information that will lay the basis for future complete and uniform financial data. The number of items tabulated (3,500) was so great that it has not seemed desirable to detail them, especially as their lesson can be fairly shown by tables for ten large cities : New York, Qeveland, St. Louis, Buffalo, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. The last-named city is not fairly represented, because the superintendent sent us his own report without the tabular matter on which it is based.

' Much that is here said of city reports is not true of state reports, which have made greater progress in securing both uniformity and completeness. Because the accuracy of uniform and elaborate tables may still be questioned, and because the attainment of ideals for state reports depends upon improvement in reports for cities where educational problems are most acute, the question of state reporting, except for purposes of illustration, is left for future treatment.

in detail of the New York report, the reader is referred to School reports and school efUciency. I want here to consider certain aspects of reporting that especially concern the parent, taxpayer, press, and outside student of school questions. The cost of printing school reports gives an idea of the educational results we are entitled to expect and to require. The following table shows that the present cost bears no fixt relation to population or school enrollment : , ' !

City Population Copies Published Cost

Elizabeth, N. J 53,ooo 000 000

To produce the sixty-two city reports for which facts were received cost $25,000, the annual income on $600,000. To print twenty-six state reports cost $47,500. Including the value of labor given to compilation, preparation, proof-reading, editing, our annual school reports, state and city, represent the income on an investment of probably $5,000,000, or more.

The number of reports published has a bearing upon the effectiveness, make-up, and audience. Indianapolis has had no report since 1902. Elizabeth and Des Moines hope to print reports next year. St. Louis prints 2,000, but has a mailing

1 1 2 Educational Review [February

list of only 400. Lowell, with a population of 95,000, prints as many copies as New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, with a combined population of over 5,000,000. Birmingham, with 38,000 population, prints and distributes 3,000, more than Baltimore, New Orleans, New Haven, Paterson, Richmond, and Trenton combined, with an aggregate population of 1,200- 000. Cambridge, the home of fair Harvard, and Minneapolis, likewise a center of learning, together mail 1,600 copies, for a combined population of 300,000. New Haven, beneficiary of Yale's atmosphere for two centuries, prints only 500. What does it mean that in New York the Board of Education, spending from $30,000,000 to $40,000,000 a year, has declined on grounds of economy to print enough reports, or even abstracts for all teachers, and, including its out-of-town mailing list, prints but 3,000 copies?

The make-up of reports proves the need for better technique in editing, typesetting, binding, etc. Of seventy-two superintendents, only eighteen give an index; only eighteen employ black face type for emphasis or clearness, while only nine have even those unsatisfactory tables of contents by pages which discourage reference. Seven print the name and date on the back of the report, a very important little thing when a library shelf contains more than one report. Indentation, summaries, percentages, diagrams, are so seldom and so sparingly used that one wonders whether authors had in mind their use by either students or a public wishing light on school problems. New York City's report of 663 pages has a table of contents with no cross-references and with no subdivisions whatever of 500-odd pages written by associate superintendents. Contrast with this one letter of Cleveland's alphabetical index :

Improving school conditions 44

Increased effectiveness of the Teachers' Institute 47

Increased salaries for teachers in elementary schools 44

Increased defective schools 59

Indigent books, 14 ; new policy determined, 22 ; restriction of

privilege, 22 ; results 23

Industrial education, extending, 50; credit course in applied arts

established, 53 ; evening trade schools, 52 ; high school manual training course revised, 54; revision and extension of elementary

manual training work, 52 ; The Technical High school 51

Industrial education, see also Technical High school.

Inspiration of education conventions 50

Instruction, cost of SO

Interest, coupons for 165

Altho nearly thirty years ago the National Education Association requested that all reports begin with summaries, few, as yet, have such summaries, and those given are not uniform, are incomplete, and often confusing. What might be put into a summary will be discust in the next article. Suffice it to say that, generally speaking, it would be possible to tell five times as much in one-half the space now used in city reports. For example, New York City uses a page of over six inches to set forth the following facts :

License Sought No. Applica- No. Granted No. Re-

tions fused

Ungraded class licenses 37 9 28

Substitute licenses 1,741 1,585 156

Licenses to teach in vacation

Licenses to teach in evening

After setting up a special total for each of these items, the New York report reads thus : " The total number of persons examined for the various grades and kinds of licenses designated by the Board of Education on the recommendation of the Board of Superintendents was 13,494. The total number of licenses was 10,086. The total number of applicants who failed was 3,408." Two such tables, not condensed, are among four tables properly condensed. Much space is taken for long sentences to the effect that " the following table will show," etc., etc., or " the above table shows," etc., etc.

Few reports show any definite plan : many being a jumble of fact, school history, educational discussions, etc. A pleasing contrast is the report of Cincinnati's superintendent, who explains the scope and plan of his reports, and logically develops it.

1 14 Educational Review [February

How far are defects of make-up and the small number of copies issued due to indefiniteness of the audience which superintendents are conscious of addressing? Fifty-two cities report that budgets are not publicly discust. Of 1,000 recommendations made in seventy-two reports, few seem to have been addrest to the people who pay the bills for carrying them out. Dissimilarity in language and method of reporting implies that other superintendents are not the audience. Lack of technique and of apparent interest in presentation suggests that trustees are not invariably aimed at. Altho sixty cities send reports to teachers, few impart information to, or invite suggestions from, the teaching staff. Superintendents seldom try to justify themselves to themselves, for few reports are accounts of stewardship : efficiency of system, officers, teachers, supervising staff, or of teaching and business methods is not shown; in fact, the not-done, the not-yet-done, the partial failure are rarely mentioned. Here and there are evidences that information is intended for general consumption. Erie, Pa., keeps available for ready reference all newspaper accounts bearing upon the conduct of the public schools. Milwaukee's superintendent urges more publicity of school matters, " to work up interest in schools and to get the best professional personnel on the board." Utica advises the greatest publicity of board expenditures.

Failure to picture the superintendents' audience is indicated by the small number of illustrations. This can not be due to lack of funds, for " before and after " pictures of adenoid children, such as Cleveland gives, may save several pages of discussion, exhortation, and description, and many thousands of dollars for visits by nurses and truant officers and for teaching needlessly backward children. An obdurate trustee will not argue against a photograph of an unadjustable desk that causes spinal curvature because it does not fit its occupant, or of gas jets burning in the daytime. Either the forty cities printing illustrations are extravagant, or other superintendents are profligate in failing to use the wealth of live material furnished by school incidents, children's activities, products of laboratory, workshop, and playground. If illus-

1909] Sckojl reports as they are 115

trations did not convince, enlighten, and entertain, makers of newspapers, magazines, and textbooks would save enough yearly to endow a national institute for the promotion of efficiency in public schools.

Of 375 recommendations made in the reports of the first ten cities, the subject distribution was as follows :

School property and equip- Vacation schools 8

ment 84 Promotion and school mortal- Modifications of curriculum ... 43 ity 7

Schools or classes for defec- School gardens 6

tives 24 Text-book problems 5

Professional progress of teach- Kindergartens 5

ers 23 Methods of receiving and spend-

Industrial education 19 ing funds 5

Medical supervision, examina- School aid to needy children ... 2

tion, etc 19 More accurate census I

Teachers' salaries 18 Moral training i

Truants or delinquents 14 Free lectures i

School laws and board rules ... 14 Physical education I

Closer correlation between parts Economy in supplies I

of system 13 More visiting of schools by

Classes for the " out of board i

grade " 10 Size and make-up of board .... i

Schools as social centers 9 Miscellaneous 40

If the foregoing recommendations were to be adopted at one time, or if they were to be debated at one time, what commotion would result ! Some gravely indict present methods and equipment; all presume experience as their basis; all involve the expenditure of energy, and, with one or two exceptions, expenditure of money. It would cost approximately $25,000,- 000 to carry out the recommendations made by Superintendent Maxwell of New York City, besides a radical change in the responsibilities of the health and educational departments. How worth while, therefore, a support from facts that will enlist lay understanding, sympathy, and cooperation; how dangerous, also, recommendations not justified by experience. If recommendations were based upon definite information and discust v^ith reference to such information, it would not be necessary to wait twenty-five or fifty years to grasp or reject the blessings tendered by these superintendents : school boards of five with an executive business agent and proper

Ii6 Educational Review [February

accounting methods; no more waste of supplies; annual school census; use of dwelling houses for overflow registration; purchase of sites, and construction of buildings according to a comprehensive plan, in anticipation of city growth; sanitary buildings only; heliostats and trained janitors; dressing-rooms, dispensaries, physical examination rooms and instruments, lunchrooms, kitchens, baths, exhibition rooms, photographic darkrooms, domestic science rooms, attendance offices for issuing work certificates, sanitary drinking fountains, telephones to save the attendance officers' time, ample schoolyards, athletic fields, playgrounds, and apparatus. All districts would have school gardens, vacation schools, night schools, and buildings opened for neighborhood clubs and entertainments. Every school would have its parents' association and cooperative relations with labor unions, public libraries, relief agencies, chambers of commerce and manufactures. Teachers would receive equal pay for equal work; would not draw pay when absent; would be compelled to take courses for their advancement; would be periodically tested, and, if found inefficient, would be either dropt or pensioned. All children would be protected from contagious and removable defects; nurses would explain defects to parents; laws would compel operation or better nourishment when necessary. Special schools or special classes would be started for the deaf, crippled, blind, paralytic ; while the backward would be studied and advanced. Foreigners would be taught civics; girls, domestic science; boys and girls would be given industrial and commercial training; and the curriculum for elementary schools and high schools would be absolutely made over. Police courts would attend to truant cases with interest in the child's education. Greater attention would be given to school hygiene and moral instruction. Principals and teachers would be alert to recognize physical defects, and would hold frequent conferences so that upper and lower grades, elementary and higher schools, would work for a single plan ; the curriculum would fit for life as well as college; physiological, not chronological, age would determine the promotion to secondary schools. School mortality and promotion would be studied, the elementary course shortened, and the shorter day recognized as the normal day for younger pupils. Promotion would be by subject and whenever the child is ready, and not when his fellows are ready, or when a majority of subjects are past.

From the seventy-two reports analyzed 3,500 facts were scheduled, not including the financial items. Had each report contained all items, there would have been a total of 252,000 ; in fact, there were only 13,234. Not a single item appeared under the same name in all reports, nor did one appear in all of the reports for the first ten cities. The following table gives for these cities a consolidated statement showing for nine different subjects the total facts reported by all cities, the number by each city and its proportion of total possibilities — assuming similar treatment.

LACK OF UNIFORMITY AND COMPLETENESS IN CITY

REPORTS

Consolidated Statement of Number of Facts Reported by Ten Cities

_ m iti

-d

■a

TO m ^

OJ la

•a

Ten Large Cities

1^

TO dJ a u a

OS ft d

0, go n 2

*a

(X ft m a

'5

Oi

M

H

Total separate facts .

• 1,664

3,048

New York . .

. 383