public-school system would be taken care of by the department of finance of the city government and be under the supervision of the head of that department; the care of the school buildings and grounds would be looked after by the department of the city commission that has charge of public property and be under the supervision of the head of that department; the work of truancy prevention, sanitary inspection and so on, would be included in the care of the department of public safety.

It was recommended also that the present commission be increased from three to five members, two constituting the department of education. This part of the report also discussed and recommended the plan of part time in school and part time at work in shops, offices, etc.

Nutley, N. J.-The school board of Nutley authorized at its regular meeting January 27, 1914, the superintendent of schools of that town to make a survey of the needs of the schools. Aided by the Bureau of Municipal Research of New York City, a thorough survey of school conditions was made and a report submitted to the board under four main heads: First, educational needs; second, geographical conditions and real estate development; third, a sociological study of the people served; and, fourth, recapitulations, deductions, and conclusions. It was recommended that the schools be organized into three groups and on the following plan:

Group I. Kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, located in the residence section near the people.

Group II. Grades 7 to 9 to be known as the junior high school and located in the geographic center of the town.

Group III. Grades 10 to 12 to be known as the senior high school, located in the geographic center and about the civic center.

The greater part of the report is confined to a discussion of buildings and further needs.

Lawrence, Kans.-A social survey of the city of Lawrence has just been completed by Profs. F. W. Blackman and Ernest W. Buyers, of the department of sociology of the University of Kansas. The study includes city planning, municipal administration, industry, and trade, education, churches, recreation, delinquency, dependency, housing, public health, and sanitation. The survey exhibit was made October 7, 8, and 9, 1914, in conjunction with the meeting of the Kansas League of Municipalities, which met at Lawrence on those days. The aim of the committee in holding the exhibit was to direct the attention of the towns and cities to a more scientific method of community study and progress.

Clarion, Pa.-The superintendent of schools at Clarion, Pa., and members of the faculty of the State Normal School located at that place made a survey of the Clarion schools for the purpose of discovering: First, what a majority of the pupils of the schools of Clarion do after leaving the various grades; second, why they quit school; third, why they went to other schools and finished their work there. The committee found that the boys generally did one of three things-worked in town as clerks, worked at manual labor, or took up some profession. From the standpoint of the school, it was found that two causes contributed largely to their withdrawal: First, the work of the school did not function in their daily life; second, the social part of the school life was much neglected, so much so that many pupils looked upon the school building as a prison. Many, therefore, went to other schools where they could get what they needed and where there was more attention given to the social side of school life. As a result of this survey, a night school was opened for boys and girls employed as clerks in stores and in offices. Because of the great number who leave school to work at manual labor, the school board introduced courses including sewing and manual training. The superintendent says:

Because of work along the lines indicated by the survey, we have not had a pupil to leave the high school to go to the State Normal School (in Pennsylvania pupils often quit high school to attend normal schools). In two years the high school has grown from 29 to 89.

However valuable a school survey by outside parties may be, a continual survey by the superintendent and his assistants is of definite worth to the school system. During the last few years many superintendents have made valuable and interesting studies of retardation in their respective schools; others have made careful analyses of unit cost in order to determine just how to use the money appropriated most economically. Among the many interesting reports that indicate careful analysis of conditions to determine the efficiency of schools is the one just issued by the school board of Solvay, N. Y. Realizing that the efficiency of the Solvay schools could not be measured by the preparation of children who passed the regents' examination, or who had done well in college, the superintendent made an analysis of conditions to determine the efficiency of his school from a knowledge of the following facts:

1. The percentage of retarded or overage pupils.

2. The proportion of pupils who completed the elementary school.

3. How many of these continued into the high school.

4. What proportion of pupils who entered our school were graduated from high school.

5. The ratio between the pupils above the compulsory age limit and those below it. 6. The flexibility of the promotion interval.

7. The money waste from unnecessary nonpromotion.

8. The attention paid to backward and exceptionally bright children.

9. The kind and amount of help given to non-English-speaking children.

10. The ability of the children to spell, write, compute, and compose (the so-called school arts), and to reason in arithmetic, geography, history, and practical science and arts.

11. The attention given to the children's health and recreation.

12. The practical values of the courses of study judged from the standard of social values.

13. The extent to which the instruction functioned at the pupils' homes and in the outside world.

14. Vocational guidance and the opportunities for vocational training.

15. The diversity of educational opportunities to meet the naturally very diverse minds of 1,200 children.

ORGANIZATION AND COURSE OF STUDY.

REORGANIZATION,

Although it is not possible to describe many of the plans of reorganization that have taken place among the schools of the smaller cities within the last year or two, the following examples of attempts to broaden the scope of the schools are interesting and undoubtedly indicate progress:

Boise, Idaho.-Realizing that the high school of his city should be more closely related to the life of the community, the superintendent of schools at Boise has reorganized the high school of that city by introducing industrial studies and by requiring only the subject of English. Sixty-three units of work are offered, 16 units being required for graduation. Of the 63 units offered, 31 represent the newer school activities, and 32 the traditional subjects. The 31 units offered in the newer activities

in distinction from the traditional subjects consist of 10 units of commercial studies, 60 of agricultural, 6 of home economics, 20 of industrial art, 30 of shopwork in wood and concrete, and 4 of mechanical and architectural drafting. Since this reorganization the high-school enrollment has more than doubled, there being 400 students in the high school in 1910-11, while in 1913-14 there were 997 enrolled. During the period from 1910 to 1914, the enrollment in the elementary schools increased only 19 per cent, which would indicate that the increased high-school enrollment was not occasioned by the growth of the city; nor can the growth of the school be attributed to an increase in the number of nonresident students.

Reorganization in Boise has not made the traditional subjects any less popular in that city. In 1910 there were 1,600 pupils enrolled in the traditional subjects, allowing four enrollments for each of the 400 pupils. In 1914 there were 2,800 enrollments in the traditional subjects and 1,200 in the newer subjects, allowing 400 enrollments for each of the 1,000 students.

To prevent pupils from "scattering" in electing their subjects, a sponsor system is provided; a teacher is selected as sponsor for a group of 25 pupils when they enter high school and she continues to act in this capacity for the same group for the entire four years, advising pupils with regard to the subjects they should pursue.

Sewickley, Pa.-The superintendent of the Sewickley schools, after a visit to the schools of Gary, Ind., was convinced that he could not adopt all that he had seen at Gary, but that he could make use of the Gary idea of giving more time to play and industrial work. At that time there was no supervised play or industrial work in Sewickley. The question was how to introduce these without adding materially to the expense of instruction. A program was arranged whereby the regular classroom teachers were kept occupied while the students were in the manual-training department, domestic-science laboratory, or on the playground. The work is departmentalized throughout the grades—that is, there are special teachers for music and drawing, language and literature, grammar and composition, physical training, history and civics, manual training and domestic science. The following is an outline of the general program which permits half the children to be under the regular classroom instructor and the other half under the special teachers, there being eight teachers for regular classroom work and eight for the special subjects previously enumerated: PROGRAM OF THE SEWICKLEY (PA.) SCHOOLS.

A study of this program shows that while the B division of a grade is in regular classroom during the first 90-minute period, the A division is having work with the special teachers. The program is reversed for the second 90-minute period. The following program for the sixth grade illustrates the plan in detail:

8.45-9.30 Domestic science, manual training-Monday, Wednesday; or physical training-Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

9.30-10.15 Second 90 minutes.

Music and drawing-Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.
10.15-11.45 a. m.

10.15-11.45 Spelling, arithmetic, geography, as for 6B. 6B. Room 13.

1

10.15-11.00 Domestic science, manual training-Monday, Wednesday; or physical training-Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

11.00-11.45 Music and drawing-Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

First 75 minutes. 1.00-2.15 p. m.

2.15 3.30 Reading, writing, physiology, as for 6B. 6B. Room 11.

By organizing the Sewickley schools on this plan the children in the first four grades have 412 minutes a week for play under the direction of a special playground instructor, the fifth and sixth grades 135 minutes, and the seventh and eighth 112 minutes. The superintendent says: "This plan has been in operation two years and has proved successful from an educational and a financial point of view. The old plan, with the present additions to the program of work, would require a longer day and would be more expensive.”

Ardmore, Okla.-The superintendent of schools at Ardmore, Okla., has reorganized the elementary schools of that city into 24 terms of three months each, so that pupils may be promoted every three months. According to reports for that city, a pupil who has completed the work of any term is never required to repeat that work. If a pupil fails in one or two subjects, he is conditioned on these and allowed to pursue his work with his class. During four weeks of this time he reviews and does extra

! Domestic-science and manual-training periods are double periods, 90 minutes, from 8.45 to 10.15 for 6A and from 10.15 to 11.45 for 6B.

work on the subject in which he is conditioned. It is claimed that very rarely do pupils fail to make up work under this plan. If a pupil actually fails in his work and is not promoted, he fails on a very small unit and is not so discouraged as he would be if he had to take the entire year over. The plan contemplated is to give four of these 12-week terms a year, with one week of vacation at the close of each term. This plan will enable a child to complete an eight-year course in six years. The results of the plan, which was put into operation only during the last year, are described by the superintendent as follows:

During the past summer we had only 10 weeks of school, not compulsory but optional. We found that more pupils took the work than we anticipated. The teachers discovered that the children did better work than in winter. The forenoon was devoted to classroom work and the afternoon to laboratory work, physical training, etc. The experience we have had so far encourages us to believe that it is going to be a very satisfactory method of organization.

REORGANIZATION IN THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADEs.

One of the problems now before the schools is to reorganize the upper grammar grades so that they will articulate more closely with the high school. One of the steps that many of the schools have taken is that of organizing the seventh and eighth grades on a departmental plan. Arguments for and against the plan are sufficiently familiar. In general the opinion of superintendents in the smaller city schools who have given the plan a trial is that their schools have become better, that there are fewer failures in the seventh and eighth grades and in the high school, and that there is a larger percentage of eighth-grade graduates entering high school. Some superintendents in the cities under consideration have definitely reorganized their school system on a "six-and-six" plan.1

CREDIT FOR WORK OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL.

How school life and home life may be more closely and definitely united is a question that many of the smaller cities are trying to solve by giving school credit for household, farm, or shopwork done at home. Another reason for giving credit for home work is that extensive industrial courses can not be offered in the smaller cities on account of the lack of funds. Many superintendents in the smaller towns and cities can not secure funds to introduce courses in manual training, cooking, sewing, music, etc.; 382 of these cities report that they do not have courses in industrial subjects because boards will not or can not appropriate the funds.

Credit for home work in some of the smaller towns takes the place of regular courses in manual training and domestic science; while other cities, well equipped for teaching industrial subjects, give credit for work done outside of school, so that the children may work in part under real life situations and not entirely under artificial school conditions.

1 See chapter VI, p. 150.