range of sessions from 20 to 177, the average number of sessions is 59. Thirteen cities report over 80 sessions in a term; 78 report from 40 to 80; and 22 report less than 40.

State aid is the most powerful factor in standardizing the number of sessions in a term. In New Jersey, under the provision of the general aid law, a community may not receive State aid unless it maintains night schools on at least 64 evenings. In Connecticut, the minimum is fixed at 75. In Minnesota, State aid is not available unless the pupils attend on 40 nights or more.

The number of sessions per week ranges from one to six. The standard seems to be three nights per week on alternate evenings. Of 376 cities reporting, 175 had three evenings per week, and 102 had four evenings per week. Monday is selected by 335 cities, and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings constitute the most frequent combination in 86 cities, although classes are conducted on the first four evenings of the week in 80 cities. The tendency during the past year or two has been toward the first standard mentioned three alternate evenings per week Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. At the close of the last evening school year, the school officials of Detroit announced that the four-evening combination would be abolished and a three-evening combination would be substituted during the coming school year.

The length of a session is unusually well standardized; 323 out of 428 cities reporting use a two-hour session. Nevertheless, 74 cities have sessions of one hour and a half. Although 122 cities use the 7 to 9 o'clock period, the most common hours of conducting classes are from 7.30 to 9.30. One hundred and fortysix communities have adopted this as a standard period.

REGULARIZING ATTENDANCE

Although cities have used several methods of regularizing attendance of immigrant pupils, the most common practice is to require a deposit returnable upon regularity of attendance. At least 159 communities require deposits conditioned upon two thirds to four fifths of the evenings taught. The amount of the deposits varies widely. The most common amount required is $1. Out of 429 cities 77 report an actual fee charged. This operates to discourage attendance rather than to regularize it.

PUBLICITY AND COÖPERATION

In bringing evening school facilities to the attention of prospective pupils, the most common methods used by school authorities are announcements in the foreign-language newspapers, posters, placards, and handbills. In seven cities slides are shown in moving-picture theaters. In a few cities circular letters are sent to employers, labor organizations, foreigners' societies, and civic clubs.

The greatest contribution to publicity methods has been made by the city of Detroit, where the board of education and the board of commerce united in a city-wide publicity campaign to induce foreigners to attend night school. Several hundred industrial establishments coöperated in having their non-Englishspeaking employees enroll. Posters and handbills were disseminated broadcast and notices were placed in pay envelopes. Priests, foreigners' societies, foreign language newspapers, patriotic societies, civic clubs, and fraternal organizations cooperated in bringing the value of night schools to the attention of foreign-born residents. As a result enrollment was increased in excess of 150 per cent beyond the year preceding.

For the sake of stimulating an appreciation of the value of publicity as a means of getting foreigners into the night schools, the Bureau of Education caused the distribution of over 150,000 "America First" posters. These set forth in English and seven foreign languages the advantages of attending night school and learning the English language. The response was definite and conclusive. Not only was a perceptible increase in attendance noted, but a positive demand for night schools came from many sections where such facilities had never been maintained. A considerable number of communities established night schools as a result, and a keen interest in the Americanization movement was developed among American citizens.

Another method of publicity was devised by the United States Bureau of Naturalization in the Department of Labor. The names of declarants and petitioners for naturalization were entered upon cards and sent to the respective school authorities in those communities where these aliens resided. Through the contact developed in this way between naturalization courts and

school officials a considerable number of classes in citizenship for those preparing for naturalization have been established.

In December, 1914, the Bureau of Education suggested to the United States Bureau of Immigration in the Department of Labor that the names of alien children of school age be sent to the proper school authorities in those communities to which such children were destined upon arriving at the ports of entry. The names of a limited number prior to that time had been sent to certain cities upon request. The plan was extended to all communities at the beginning of the school term of 1915-1916. A great number of enthusiastic letters were received from superintendents setting forth the value of the plan in enabling them to locate newly arrived immigrant children before they become unlawfully employed.

Americanization through education has been denoted, in 19151916, by greater tendency toward coöperation. Private agencies especially have shown more desire to unite with governmental authorities in dealing with the problem of immigrant education. Chambers of commerce, industrial establishments, patriotic societies, philanthropic organizations, newspapers, women's clubs, labor unions, and public-spirited citizens, alike, have put sincere endeavor into the Americanization movement. In many instances privately maintained schools have been transferred to the supervision of the constituted school authorities. This indicates a healthy tendency toward centralizing work for immigrants.

THE SCHOOL AS THE INSTRUMENT FOR NATIONAL

IZATION HERE, AND ELSEWHERE

FRANK V. THOMPSON, SUPERINTENDENT BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

AMERICA is looking forward with anxious hope to the

school as the chief instrument for Americanization. It may be proper for one whose thesis is favorable to the importance of the school as an agent for Americanization to point to the danger of regarding the school as the sole factor or as an isolated instrument apart from other forces. As the result of the application of scientific tests for determining and testing the abilities of school children, we are recognizing and even measuring the influence of outside school experiences in the attainment of school standards. Children often make better scores in arithmetic at the end of the summer vacation than at the end of the preceding school term. The child grows in the power to perform arithmetical operations by making purchases at the store, by handling change, by buying war savings stamps. Ability to read, that is, ability to interpret ideas from printed words, is often obtained from the disapproved paper covered tale of adventure as well as from the carefully expurgated models of literature proffered by the school. We no longer doubt the forces, good and bad, of the moving-picture show. The graduate of the elementary school at fourteen who has followed the customary school procedure has an accumulation of ideas, habits, and impulses which are the result of quite complex forces. One would hesitate to say definitely how much of the good should be credited to the school or how much of the good and bad to outside school influences. We are assuming too much, consequently, when we conclude that the formal schooling of the immigrant will automatically solve the problem of Americanization. Not only the school, but the home, the church, the street, the playground, the moving picture, the job, are factors which determine the character and tendencies of the citizen.

An analysis of the figures of the ability to speak our tongue among foreign-born will indicate that the school has not been the controlling factor. Of the 13,345,000 immigrants in our country in 1910, 3,000,000 were found to be non-English-speaking. Of the whole number of immigrants 9,981,000 were not acquainted with English at the time of arrival. Only a small proportion (729,000) of the 9,981,000 were young enough to come under the compulsory school attendance laws of the various States. About 7,000,000 non-English-speaking immigrants had learned our language sufficiently well to be recorded as English speaking in the census of 1910 and must have acquired this knowledge largely outside the schools, for we may not conclude that the knowledge of English was acquired in the evening schools, as the figures of attendance at this agency are quite negligible. Let us recognize the fact that the majority of our immigrants of non-English-speaking origin have learned to speak English, but have acquired this accomplishment outside the schools. It is also true that there were three million immigrants, a minority, who had failed to learn English either in or outside the schools, and this latter fact is one of the significant reasons for the subsequent discussion.

In spite of the seeming deprecation of the influence of the school upon the immigrant, it remains true that the school can be the most important force in reducing materially the large amount of failure among the foreign-born to speak our tongue. Progressive nations and states are able to reduce illiteracy among the native born and children of foreign parentage to a fraction of one per cent. Extension of compulsory attendance to include higher ages for non-English-speaking immigrants necessarily would reduce the comparatively high figures of illiteracy of this group. The school is always an effective agent when its resources are used, and is an institution under public control and, consequently, the most effective means for exercising definite influence. The objection may be raised that the conscious control of the school extends only to public schools and that the numerous pupils attending private institutions may miss the intended ends. The spirit of democratic institutions always has given freedom of action respecting the education of the young, and very likely will continue to maintain this freedom with probably