THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT Till: CLEVELAND SCHOOL SURVEY Charles E. Adams, Chairman Thomas G. Fitzsimons Myrta L. Jones Bascom Little Victor W. Sincere Arthur D. Baldwin, Secretary James R. Garfield, Counsel Allen T. Bums, Director THE EDUCATION SURVEY Leonard P. Ayres, Director CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY THE CLEVELAND SCHOOL SURVEY (SUMMARY VOLUME) BY LEONARD P. AYRES THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION CLEVELAND OHIO 1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION Printed January, 1917, 3153 copies Reprinted March, 1920, 500 copies WM. F. FELL CO PRINTERS PHILADELPHIA Education Library FOREWORD This report on "The Cleveland School Survey" is the last of the 25 sections of the report of the Education Survey of Cleveland conducted by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foun- dation in 1915. Twenty-three of these sections have been published as separate monograph reports. In addition there is a volume entitled "Wage Earning and Education" which gives a summary of the sections relating to industrial education. The present summary volume tells of the conduct of the entire work and the find- ings and recommendations of the 15 volumes re- lating to the regular work of the public schools. Copies of all these publications may be obtained from the Cleveland Foundation. They may also be obtained from the Division of Education of the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. A complete list will be found in the back of this volume, together with prices. *>*> TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Foreword 5 List of Tables 17 List of Diagrams 18 CHAPTER I. THE SURVEY AND THE CITY 19 The people who live in Cleveland 20 The work that Clevelanders do 22 How much Cleveland has and what it spends 24 What Cleveland people buy with their tax money 26 People who prefer private schools 27 Summary 29 II. How THE SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED 31 Permanent staff and specialists 32 Form of report Conferences with the local school people 33 Carrying the community 35 Cost of the survey . 39 Distribution of total survey costs among the prin- cipal divisions of the work 39 Principal purposes for which survey funds were spent 40 Survey staff 41 Summary 47 III. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 49 Legal basis of the system 50 Control by board 51 Professional leadership and methods of supervision 52 Financial support 56 Business management 56 Organization of system 57 The teaching staff 58 Educational aims, courses of study, and agencies 59 The school plant and equipment 61 Community standards and aspirations 62 Summary 63 IV. NEW CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION 64 The education of exceptional children 64 The education of immigrant children 66 Boys and girls in commercial work 68 An actuarial basis for industrial education 69 Expenditures for educational and for business pur- poses 71 The platoon plan 72 Comparative costs of school buildings 73 The purchase of text books 74 The pension fund and teachers who enter late 75 x Speed and quality in handwriting and reading 76 "- Standardized tests in reading 77 A spiral test in arithmetic 77 ^Analysis of failures in school subjects 78 Relation of high schools to rest of system 79 Summary 79 SUMMARIES OF SEPARATE MONOGRAPH REPORTS V. CHILD ACCOUNTING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 81 Accuracy of school census 82 Number of children in public schools 82 A more accurate and useful census 83 Ages at which pupils leave school 84 Grades at which pupils leave school 87 Regularity of attendance 89 Children who are misfits 89 Size of classes 94 Compulsory attendance 94 Conclusions and recommendations 95 VI. THE TEACHING STAFF 97 Salary schedule of elementary principals 97 The salaries actually paid to Cleveland teachers 99 Number and salaries of supervisory officers 100 Salaries in Cleveland compared with salaries else- where 100 Salary increases 101 Increase in the cost of living 101 Salaries of teachers as compared with those of other workers 101 School funds and teachers' salaries 102 Experience of teachers 103 Experience of principals 103 Ages of principals 104 Education of elementary and high school teach- ers and elementary principals 104 The pension fund and teachers who enter late 106 Married teachers 109 Training in service 109 Teachers' meetings 110 Promotion for merit and service 112 The normal training school 113 Health of teachers 113 Teachers' certification 114 Tenure 114 Substitutes 115 Appointment of teachers 116 Conclusions and recommendations 116 VII. WHAT THE SCHOOLS TEACH AND MIGHT TEACH 118 The point of view 118 -.Reading and literature 121 Spelling 122 Language, composition, grammar 123 Mathematics 124 History 125 Civics 127 Geography 128 Drawing and applied art 129 Manual training and household arts 129 Elementary science 131 Physiology and hygiene 132 Physical training 133 Music 133 Foreign languages 134 Differentiation of courses 134 Conclusions and recommendations 134 VIII. MEASURING THE WORK OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 137 Aggregate failures in all grades 138 Mental incapacity as an explanation 140 Failures in subjects 140 * Failures in reading 140 Failures in arithmetic 141 Records of individual grades and schools 142 The need for scientific supervision 143 OBSERVATIONS IN THE SCHOOLS 144 Methods of recording visits 145 General conclusions from visits 145 Emphasis on traditional subjects 146 Behavior in classes excellent 146 Fluctuations in quality of teaching and super- vision 147 Observations on supervision 147 Dearth of men in elementary schools 148 Central supervision 148 TesTS AND STATISTICAL STUDIES 149 Tests show wide variations in grades 149 Tests reveal lack of definite aims at many points 150 Tests as a basis of administration 151 TESTS OF HANDWRITING 151 Uniform conditions 151 Scope of the Cleveland tests 152 Individual rates of speed 152 Speed in various grades 153 Method of rating quality 153 Variations in quality 154 Relation of speed and quality 154 Emphasis in various schools 155 Comparison of Cleveland with other cities 157 Recommendations 157 TESTS OF SPELLING 158 Words for the tests 158 Number of returns 158 Variation in schools and grades 159 Cleveland has an average record 159 Recommendations 160 STUDIES OF ARITHMETIC 160 Spiral character of the tests 160 Test of speed 161 Test A 162 Test B 164 Test C 164 Test D 164 Test E 164 Test F 165 Test G 165 Test H 165 Test I 166 Test J 166 Test K 166 Tests L, M, N, and O 167 Complexity of educational processes 167 STUDIES OF READING 168 Conduct of reading tests 168 Tests of oral reading 169 Variations in schools 169 ^Analysis to show influence of sex, books, and nationality 171 Achievement in Cleveland as compared with other cities 171 Tests in silent reading 175 Comparison of Cleveland pupils with others 177 General relation between rate and quality of silent reading 177 Explanation of the Cleveland record 179 Records of various schools 182 \KlNDERGAKTENS AND PRIMARY GRADES 182 Recommendations 183 RELATION BETWEEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND HIGH SCHOOLS 183 Differences between individual schools 184 HIGH SCHOOLS 186 Ranks of entering students 186 Ages of students in various schools 187 Withdrawals and non-promotions 187 High school grades in the first year 188 Number of repeaters, students dropped, and failures 189 Comparisons between successive years 190 Recommendations 190 APPENDIX 191 Conclusions and recommendations 191 IX. HEALTH WORK IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 194 The argument for medical inspection 194 How the work started 194 The present system 195 The school nurse 196 Cleveland's dispensaries 196 Dental clinics 196 Eye clinics 197 The medical inspection staff 197 The plan of concentrating interests 198 Speech defects 198 Vaccination 199 Future development 199 Health and education and business 200 Conclusions and recommendations 201 X. SCHOOLS AND CLASSES FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 203 Why we have special classes 203 Division of exceptional children in two groups 204 Classes for the blind 207 Classes for the deaf 209 Classes for crippled children 210 Open air classes 211 "Steamer" classes 211 Speech defects 212 Restoration classes 212 Classes for incorrigibles 213 The socially incompetent 213 The selection of feebleminded children 214 What should be done for the feebleminded 215 The special school for feebleminded 216 An institution for the feebleminded 217 Conclusions and recommendations 217 XI. HOUSEHOLD ARTS AND SCHOOL LUNCHES 219 HOUSEHOLD ARTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 219 Household arts training 220 Present conditions in Cleveland 220 Supervision 221 The teaching corps 221 Teachers' salaries 222 Attitude of principals, parents, and pupils to- ward household arts 222 Course of study Practical suggestions regarding the work 223 Model housekeeping apartments 224 Relation of household arts to elementary educa- tion 224 Homemaking versus housekeeping 225 Both boys and girls need education for home- making 225 Function of household arts and its two aspects 226 Selection of subject matter 226 A housekeeping course in the junior high school 226 HOUSEHOLD ARTS IN HIGH SCHOOLS Space, physical equipment, and costs 227 Course of study in technical schools 228 West Technical lunchroom used for vocational work Trade work in foods and sanitation 229 Courses of study in academic high schools 229 Teaching force 230 Supervision 230 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LUNCH SERVICE 230 Elementary school lunches from two points of view 231 School meals as supplements or substitutes for home meals 231 Kinds of lunches and by whom provided 232 Food natural need of all children 232 School lunch or street lunch 233 Lunch service a big business 233 Consolidated lunch service recommended 233 HIGH SCHOOL LUNCH SERVICE 234 Two distinct policies with regard to school lunch service 235 Place of lunch service in the school system 235 High school lunches a big business 236 Consolidated system recommended 237 INFANT HYGIENE 237 Origin of infant hygiene instruction 238 Arguments for teaching infant hygiene in ele- mentary schools 238 Infant hygiene and the work it displaces 238 Adult responsibility and the adolescent girl 239 Hygiene for boys and girls alike 239 Teaching of infant hygiene an emergency measure 240 Conclusions and recommendations 240 XII. EDUCATION THROUGH RECREATION 243 Organization of recesses 247 Schoolroom and indoor recreation 248 Kindergartens and lower grades 249 Playgrounds idle most of the year 249 Many gymnasiums unequipped 250 Swimming pools unfinished or unused 251 Hardy games in the elementary grades 251 The conduct of school recreation 252 Recreational influence of schools out of school hours 254 Play and recreation distinguished 254 Organization for education through recreation 255 Conclusions and recommendations 257 XIII. EDUCATIONAL EXTENSION 258 By whom schools were used 260 Groups using school accommodations 261 Cleveland's most intensively used school 262 Plant well equipped for extension work 264 Past administration of extension work 265 The new division of school extension 266 Internal reasons for this new development 269 Conclusions and recommendations 270 XIV. THE SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT 272 A large proportion cannot speak English 272 Fewer become American citizens 273 School children from non-English-speaking homes 274 Foreign language teaching in parochial schools 274 Wide variation hi different schools 277 Efforts of national groups to preserve their lan- guages 277 Teacher should know characteristics of national groups 278 The problem of education for the foreign children 279 Steamer classes 279 English-speaking children from non-English- speaking homes 280 The adult immigrant and the school 284 Citizenship classes 285 Quality of instruction in evening schools 286 Reorganization essential 288 Conclusions and recommendations 290 XV. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 293 Library branches in public schools 293 Seven elementary school libraries 294 Work of school libraries with children 294 Book supply 295 Conditions of borrowing 295 Administration of library work 296 Branch libraries 297 Classroom and home libraries 297 High school libraries 298 The normal school library 298 Future developments 299 Reading and education 300 School libraries and the platoon plan 300 Libraries in junior high schools 301 Inadequate salaries of school librarians 301 Conclusions and recommendations 302 XVI. SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 304 Building for education 304 Building for economy 305 Building for safety 305 Building for health 305 Building for happiness 306 Developments in seven decades 306 Location of buildings 307 Lighting 307 Blackboards 308 Furniture 309 Special rooms 309 Toilet facilities 310 Fire protection 312 Heating and ventilating 314 Costs 314 Building problems of the future 315 Forecasting future needs 316 The testing of building policies 317 Conclusions and recommendations 318 XVII. OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS AND THE PLATOON PLAN 319 Part time plans 319 The platoon plan 320 Length and arrangement of day 322 Equipment of special rooms 323 Costs 323 Equipment of buildings 324 Problems of administration 325 Building problems in Cleveland 325 Teachers for the platoon plan 326 Preliminary experimentation essential 326 Conclusions and recommendations 327 XVIII. FINANCING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 328 Expenditures for all school purposes 329 Distribution of expenditures for the operation and maintenance of schools 330 Economies in school administration 336 Means of increasing school revenues 336 Conclusions and recommendations 341 XIX. SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 343 Methods of board determine character of school system 344 What the board should do 346 How the board should be selected 347 Board should delegate details 350 School problems require board deliberation 352 Direct action as a substitute for committee action 354 Unit instead of dual organization 355 Authority and responsibility should be defi- nitely located 357 Free textbook system should be adopted 357 Conclusions and recommendations 361 LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1. Pupils in elementary, high, and normal schools 85 2. Age and progress of children in elementary schools 90 3. Children both over-age and making slow progress 93 4. Salaries of Cleveland teachers 98 5. Salaries of supervisory officers 99 6. Comparison of Cleveland salaries with those in other cities 100 7. Records of visits to recitations 144 8. Ranks of pupils in elementary and high schools 186 9. Special schools and classes in 1915 203 10. Recreational facilities 244 11. Growth of wider use of school plant 262 12. Languages spoken in homes of pupils 275 13. Pupils studying foreign languages in Catholic schools 276 14. Leading nationality groups in elementary schools 282 15. Costs of school buildings 315 16. Book purchases from different companies 360 LIST OF DIAGRAMS DIAGRAM PAGE 1. Nativity of inhabitants of 11 large cities 21 2. Occupations of inhabitants of 11 large cities 23 3. Wealth and taxes in 11 large cities 25 4. Rank of Cleveland among 11 large cities in municipal expenditures 26 5. Children in public and private schools in nine large cities 28 6. Nationalities of pupils in two Cleveland schools 67 7. Expenditures of 18 school systems for business pur- poses 72 8. Boys and girls of each age in public schools 85 9. Ages at which pupils leave school 86 10. Grades at which pupils leave school 88 11. Ages and progress of children 91 12. Training of Cleveland teachers 105 13. Home trained teachers in Cleveland 107 14. Failures in each grade 139 15. Quality and speed of handwriting 156 16. Results of arithmetic tests 163 17. Oral reading of girls and boys 170 18. Reading of pupils using Ward and Aldine systems 172 19. Reading of American, Italian, and Hebrew pupils 173 20. Reading scores in Cleveland and in Illinois 174 21. Rate of silent reading in Cleveland and 13 other cities 176 22. Quality of silent reading in Cleveland and 13 other cities 176 23. Speed and quality in silent reading 178 24. Silent reading in Cleveland, in other cities, and in selected schools 180 25. Rank of elementary pupils entering high schools 185 26. Administration of school recreation 253 27. Standards used in judging buildings 313 28. Expenditures and receipts 329 29. School expenditures in Cleveland and other cities 331 30. Cleveland's expenditures and those of other cities 333 31. Salaries of teachers 32. School and municipal expenditures 339 33. Roll call votes of Board of Education 351 34. Book purchases from different companies 359 THE CLEVELAND SCHOOL SURVEY CHAPTER I THE SURVEY AND THE CITY The education survey of Cleveland began in April, 1915, and continued through June, 1916. It was conducted under the auspices of the Survey Commit- tee of the Cleveland Foundation, which supplied the necessary funds. The reports of its work have been published in a series of 25 bound monographs deal- ing with different phases of the educational condi- tions and problems of the city. Fifteen of these monographs consider different aspects of the work of the present elementary, high, and evening schools, while eight are educational studies of occupations employing large numbers of wage earners in Cleveland. One monograph is a summary of these eight studies of vocational edu- cation, and the present volume, which is the last of the entire series, is primarily the summary of the 15 public school reports. In addition it gives some ac- count of the inception, conduct, and conclusions of the entire survey. The first four chapters present a general summing up of methods and conclusions, while the 15 following chapters are brief summaries 19 of the 15 separate monograph reports on different phases of the work of the public schools. In order that these findings may be seen in proper perspective, it is worth while to review in this first chapter some of the more salient social characteristics of the city. THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN CLEVELAND Cleveland is not only one of the largest cities in the country; it is also one of the most foreign. This is clearly indicated by Diagram 1, which shows the proportion of native and foreign persons in Cleve- land and 10 other large cities at the time of the last census. The cities shown in this comparison are those reported by the census bureau as having populations between 400,000 and 750,000 in 1915. In each case the horizontal bar represents all the people of the city. The first section in outline shows the number in each 100 who are native whites of native parents. The second part of the bar in cross- hatching shows the per cent who are native whites of foreign or mixed parentage. The third portion of the bar in black shows the number of foreign born whites, and the last part with horizontal lines shows the number of colored persons. In the Pacific Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco this last group contains many Asiatics as well as some negroes. The important condition revealed by the diagram is that Cleveland is one of the most foreign of large American cities. Three-fourths of all its inhabitants are either foreign born or of foreign parentage. It 20 is true, moreover, that Cleveland has a larger pro- portion of foreign inhabitants who are unable to Los Angeles Hat. white of native parent* libr'.'jparent'iy Colored^ Diagram 1. Number of persons in each 100 in 11 large cities who are native white of native parents, native white of foreign parents, foreign born white, and colored 21 speak English than has any other large city and that nearly one-third of all the men of voting age are aliens possessing no political rights in this country and owing no allegiance to the government of the United States. Nearly half the school children come from homes in which some foreign language is regu- larly spoken. All these facts are fundamentally im- portant in their bearing on the larger problems of public education. THE WORK THAT CLEVELANDERS Do It is probably true that most people mentally at- tribute different characteristics to the inhabitants of different cities. Thus it is natural and easy to think of the people of Detroit as being engaged in making automobiles, those of Pittsburgh as employed in metal working, and so on. Certain it is that those who take part in survey work become thoroughly accustomed to having the people of the city in which they are working assure them that problems and conditions there are quite different from those any- where else. The fact is, however, that in all large cities the proportions of people engaged in different kinds of work are almost fixed and relatively constant. The explanation of this is that there are many kinds of work that must be done in every city simply because it is a city and these sorts of work are necessary to its life. The great city requires an almost fixed pro- portion of professional workers and a nearly constant 22 number of people doing clerical work. The number engaged in transportation cannot be greatly in- creased or diminished and the city must have its Detroit Diagram 2. Number of employed persons in each 100 in 11 large cities who are engaged in each of six principal lands of work proper share of people engaged in trade. Even those working in manufacturing and mechanical occupa- tions constitute a more nearly fixed proportion of the 23 whole population than would at first thought be expected. These principles are graphically illustrated in Diagram 2, which shows the number of persons in each 100 workers engaged in each principal sort of occupation in Cleveland and 10 other cities of similar size. The important lesson of this diagram is that while Cleveland is a manufacturing center, its young people need preparation for other lines of future work in proportions not very different from those maintaining in the other great cities. How MUCH CLEVELAND HAS AND WHAT IT SPENDS Some cities have considerably more taxable property per inhabitant than others and there is wide varia- tion in the amounts that the communities take each year in taxes for the support of municipal govern- ment. These two sorts of variations do not cor- respond with each other either directly or inversely. There is no general rule such as that rich cities have high tax rates and poor cities low ones, or vice versa. In Diagram 3 the wealth and the tax rates of the 11 cities are compared. The black bars on the left of the diagram are proportionate in length to the real value of the taxable wealth per inhabitant in 1915 as computed by the census. It will be noted that Cleveland is fourth from the bottom in this comparison and so does not rank among the rela- tively wealthy cities. The tax rates are shown in the cross-hatched bars 24 at the right of the same diagram. Here it is interest- ing to note that the richest city has the lowest tax rate and that the two poorest cities have the two highest tax rates. The Cleveland rate is the fifth from the lowest. Taking together the two sets of figures for wealth and for taxes, the diagram indi- Diagram 3. Wealth per inhabitant and tax rates in 11 large cities cates that Cleveland is not one of the wealthy cities and that its municipal affairs are so inexpensively administered that its tax rate is very low indeed in proportion to its resources. All the figures enter- ing into this comparison are taken from the census reports of municipal finances for 1915. 25 WHAT CLEVELAND PEOPLE BUY WITH THEIR TAX MONEY Cities, like persons, spend their incomes for the things they must have and those other things that they value highly enough to pay for. By finding out how Diagram 4. Rank of Cleveland among 11 large cities in per capita expenditures for each principal kind of municipal activity. Numbers in black circles show Cleveland's rank 26 they expend their incomes we discover something of their characteristics and aspirations. Diagram 4 shows where Cleveland ranks among the 11 cities in its per capita expenditures for each of nine sorts of municipal activities. The numbers in the black circles show in each case Cleveland's rank. The first column shows that two cities spend more per inhabitant for the support of public libraries and that Cleveland occupies third place in this respect among the 11 cities. In expenditures for health and sanitation five of the cities rank above Cleveland and five below. For all of the seven other classes of city work Cleveland's expenditures are much lower than the average. There are two impressive lessons to be drawn from this diagram. The first is that Cleveland's munici- pal activities are very inexpensively conducted. The second is that Cleveland places a relatively higher valuation on libraries, sanitation, and educa- tion than it does on other sorts of city work. These facts, like those of the preceding diagram, are from the 1915 census report on municipal finances. PEOPLE WHO PREFER PRIVATE SCHOOLS In present-day consideration, criticism, and com- mendation of American education the assumption is almost invariably made that if our young people are poorly educated or well trained, the blame or the credit belongs to the public school. The business man who complains that the boys and girls whom he 27 hires cannot spell correctly or compute accurately seldom stops to ask whether they were trained in public schools or in private ones. I 84 | I 77 74 74 71 70 Diagram 5. Portions in black indicate number of school children in each 100 attending private and parochial schools in each of nine large cities, and portions in outline indicate those attending public schools The fact is that in all our large cities many thousands of children are educated in private and parochial schools, and in not a few American com- munities a majority of all the children are trained in 28 these schools. Figures are available in the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1914 showing the enrollment in public schools and in private and parochial schools in nine of our 11 cities. The facts are presented in Diagram 5, in which the black portion of each horizontal bar shows the number of school children in each 100 who are en- rolled in private and parochial schools and the white portion shows the percentage in the public schools. The lesson of the diagram is that in most of these large cities about one-fourth of the children are in private and parochial schools and three-fourths in public schools and that Cleveland has more than an average share in private and parochial schools. SUMMARY 1. Cleveland is one of the most foreign of American cities. 2. It is predominantly a manufacturing city but occupational distributions are so nearly uniform in large cities that the proportions of Cleveland's workers engaged in trade, transportation, service, clerical occupations, and professional work are not greatly different from those found in other large communities. 3. Cleveland is not a wealthy city and it has a comparatively low tax rate. This means that its municipal income is proportionately lower than that of most other large cities and so its public activities are inexpensively conducted. 29 4. In most forms of municipal work Cleveland spends less per inhabitant than other cities of similar size, but the expenditures for libraries, sanitation, and education are more generous than those for other municipal activities. 5. More than one-fourth of Cleveland's school children are being educated in private and parochial schools. This proportion is somewhat larger than that found in most of the other cities of similar size. 30 CHAPTER II HOW THE SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED The Cleveland Foundation is a community trust established in 1914 by Mr. Frederick H. Goff through .the agency of the Cleveland Trust Company and for the purpose of forwarding social progress and human welfare in that city. Its funds are not the gift of any one person, for this is a new sort of foundation controlled by representatives of the community, responsible to the people for its acts, and deriving its income from funds contributed by those who see in this new form of benefaction an effective instru- mentality for bettering the city in which they have lived and worked. Already the sums that have been pledged to the Cleveland Foundation mount far into the millions. Only small portions of these funds are as yet available for foundation purposes, but it is already clear that in the years to come the Cleveland Foundation will face the duty of expending wisely for that city sums of money altogether greater than any that have ever been spent from private sources for the benefit of a single community. Immediately after the establishment of the Founda- tion it became evident that the future responsibilities of its trustees would be heavy and varied in the ex- 31 treme. In view of this future certainty those direct- ing the policies of the Foundation decided to enter upon a systematic policy of investigation of the conditions, problems, and needs of the municipal community. They adopted as a guiding principle the proposition that accurate and ample informa- tion and wise interpretation are the first steps toward success in any undertaking. The education survey was the first large, compre- hensive study undertaken in accordance with this principle of action. The work was begun and carried through with the cooperation of the Board of Educa- tion and the cordial support of nearly all the educa- tional officials and the teaching force. Field work began in April, 1915, and continued through June, 1916. PERMANENT STAFF AND SPECIALISTS As has already been explained there were 23 main sec- tions of the work, of which eight were studies of edu- cational problems connected with training workers for the industries employing the largest numbers of wage earners. These studies were carried through by investigators who were permanently attached to the Survey Staff and who conducted a series of long and expensive studies. The rest of the permanent staff of the survey con- sisted of the director, his secretary, and 10 other assistants. These people, together with those en- gaged in conducting the industrial studies, consti- 32 tuted the force at work during a large part of the duration of the survey. Fifteen sections of the survey were studies of problems and conditions affecting the work of the regular public schools of the city and most of these were conducted by edu- cational specialists employed for brief periods of time. FORM OF REPORT The most important differences between the methods employed in the Cleveland survey and those that have been used in similar work elsewhere are related to the form of publication that was adopted for the reports. There have been many reports of surveys in other cities consisting of single paper-covered pamphlets; others have been fairly thick books; one consisted of three volumes, and in that case the dif- ferent sections were also printed separately. The reports of the Cleveland survey are published in 25 bound monographs. Here the entire survey work has been divided into relatively small sections and a complete and independent treatise has been prepared on each section. CONFERENCES WITH THE LOCAL SCHOOL PEOPLE There are many advantages resulting from this form of publication and most of them relate to securing improved results in educating the public; in bridg- ing the gap between knowing and doing. The typi- cal procedure in the preparation of a report was as s 33 follows: The specialist employed to study one feature of the work conducted his investigation and submitted his written report. It might have to do with the course of study, or provisions for excep- tional children, or school buildings, or the teaching force, or any other phase of the educational work of the city. The report was written in such form that ' it might be printed in a separate volume and still be entirely comprehensible to any one who did not read any other volume of the series. After the report was submitted, the director of the survey and other members of the staff worked over it with the author to make sure that its findings were accurate and that its recommendations were in har- mony with those of the other sections. The report was then put into what the office force came to term "tentative final form" and some 20 copies of it were made by the mimeograph process. The copies were then submitted to the members of the Survey Com- mittee, the members of the Board of Education, the superintendent of schools, and such interested school officials as the board or the superintendent might designate. For example, a manuscript dealing with health work was submitted to the chief medical in- spector, while one having to do with buildings was submitted to the architect and the business director. After allowing about a week for examining the re- port a meeting was held of all those persons to whom the manuscript had been submitted. At the meeting criticisms, corrections, and suggestions were discussed at great length and in great detail. In addition to the 34 verbal discussions, all the members were invited to submit written memoranda. These conferences resulted in clearing up before publication questions of fact and questions of form. They did not clear away all the differences of opinion with respect to interpretation and recommendation. In these matters the final decision was left to the director of the survey. This process of conference resulted in mature deliberation concerning each fact presented and each recommendation offered. Some of the reports were rewritten as many as five times before being finally sent to the printer. The rep- resentations of the members of the Board of Edu- cation and the school officials resulted in some changes in every volume and in scores of changes in some of them. In the aggregate some hundreds of alterations were made as a result of the representa- tions and arguments of the local school people. After the report had gone through this searching process of revision, it was printed in the form of a small bound monograph of anywhere from 60 to 300 pages in length and usually with many diagrams, tables, and illustrations. CARRYING THE COMMUNITY Each monograph, as it came from the printer, was given to the public and to the newspapers at a public luncheon in one of the leading hotels. The lunch cost 60 cents and began at 12 o'clock. At about half-past twelve the director of the survey or the 35 author of the monograph gave a talk of a little more than a half hour's duration presenting the gist of the report published that week. Moreover, the reports were placed on sale at the time of the meeting. A uniform charge of 25 cents was made for most of the volumes, although it cost more than that to publish them. Invitations were sent out to attend the luncheon, although any one might attend who wished to. The dining room where the luncheons were held accom- modated about 300 people and the luncheons were held weekly with few exceptions for more than a year. During the first few months of the work the methods and problems of the survey were discussed at these luncheons and during the latter weeks the findings were discussed in the manner just described. Although this work was carried on for more than a year the weekly audiences always filled the hall comfortably and at times they were so large that the hotel accommodations were entirely inadequate to care for them. One interesting fact was that the audiences varied greatly in membership from week to week. A discussion of school finance filled the hall with business men; one on medical inspection attracted a large number of doctors; while one on schoolroom methods brought out the teachers and principals. As the weekly luncheons increased in popularity, the newspapers of the city gave increasing amounts of space to the consideration of educational problems and the discussion of the weekly reports. Cleveland 36 was probably the only city in the country at that time where the daily newspapers regularly relegated war news to the inside pages in order to put school news on the front page. This laborious process constituted a new develop- ment in educational practice and in the technique of the school survey. It might be called bridging the gap between knowing and doing, or it might be termed a process of carrying the community. It was a method of educating the public concerning its educational problems. Its object was to make the entire school system pass in complete review before the public eye. It made the schools and the public pay attention to each other. It presented the past, the present, and the possible. Its aim was to place before the citizens a picture of the schools, a picture so accurate that it could not mislead, so simple that it could not be misunderstood, and so significant that it could not be disregarded. The Cleveland ex- perience demonstrated that it was entirely possible to arouse the public to this sort of interest in their school problems and then to sustain that interest. The best judges of news values are the public newspapers, and when they devoted a large part of their front pages to the discussion of educational problems week after week for nearly a year, they did it because they knew that the readers were more interested in those problems than they were in any other part of the current news. Moreover, it must be remembered that this condition maintained de- spite the fact that in the main the discussions and 37 reports did not relate to alleged inefficiency. They made no charges of dishonesty. They revealed no bad conditions in school buildings. They brought to light little that was sensational. The lesson of all this is that citizens and the newspapers are inter- ested in the public schools and they will give sus- tained attention to them and their problems if only these matters are presented to them simply and convincingly. As a result of these new methods of bringing the school people and the public into the work, the find- ings of the Cleveland survey differ in some important respects from those of most other similar pieces of work. Since each section of the report is a separate volume, it had to carry its own setting and be suf- ficiently complete to stand alone. In order to meet this requirement the different specialists were com- pelled to delve deeply into the fundamental factors conditioning their problems. This was rendered possible by the unusually favorable circumstances under which the Cleveland work was conducted. The workers had ample time and there was generous financial support. The work enjoyed the coopera- tion of the municipal and school authorities and the reports profited by the searching criticism to which they were subjected. As a result of these conditions the findings of the survey deal largely with funda- mental problems rather than details, with the es- sential rather than with the contingent, and with what to do rather than how to do it. 38 COST OF THE SURVEY The Cleveland survey was a very expensive enter- prise. It cost approximately $48,000. The amounts expended on each of the main portions of the work are shown in the following condensed cost account- ing. In compiling this accounting the cost of selling reports has not been charged against the survey, nor has income from such sales been credited. The cost of printing second and third editions of the reports has been omitted since these expenses pertain to the conduct of the business of the Cleveland Foundation rather than to the expense of conducting the educa- tion survey. Again, no part of the salary of the director and permanent employees of the Cleveland Foundation has been charged against the survey al- though they greatly assisted in the work. The items for the two summaries include only the cost of print- ing, since the expense entailed in writing the volumes was borne by the Russell Sage Foundation as a part of its contribution to the survey. DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL SURVEY COSTS AMONG THE PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS OF THE WORK Studies and tests of the quality of instruction $6,597 Studies of metal trades and industrial education for them 3,444 Studies of building trades and industrial education for them 2,981 Studies of garment trades and industrial education for them 2,371 Studies of printing trades and industrial education for them 2,219 Problems of education for commercial and clerical work 2,210 Studies of household arts teaching and school lunch administration 1,737 Carried forward $21,559 39 Brought forward $21,559 Industrial education for street and steam railroad employees 1,672 Problems of education for department store employees 1,602 Educational problems of the immigrant 1,454 Studies of quality, condition, and cost of school buildings 1,309 Educational provisions for mentally and physically exceptional children 1,283 Training, tenure, and qualifications of the teaching staff 1 ,272 Sources and administration of school funds 1,218 Provision of adequate library facilities for school children 1,165 Study of local adaptability of platoon plan of school administration 1,153 Industrial education for workers in dressmaking and millinery 1,146 Problems and conditions of organization and admin- istration 1,144 Wider use of the school plant and educational extension 1 , 1 20 Educational possibilities through play, recreation, and athletics 1,056 Medical inspection and the work of the school nurse 975 Problems of census, retardation, elimination, atten- dance, and work papers 932 The curriculum and the course of study 922 Summary of the educational inquiries 750 Summary of the industrial inquiries 490 Public discussions of educational problems and survey findings 3,143 Private conferences on survey recommendations 3,048 Total . $48,413 PRINCIPAL PURPOSES FOR WHICH SURVEY FUNDS WERE SPENT Salaries, subsistence, and traveling expenses of spe- cialists and staff $31,343 Printing of 25 volumes of monograph reports 10,078 Wages of clerical assistants 3,682 Printing of blanks and forms, office supplies, and stationery 1,535 Miscellaneous office expenses, postage, express, and public dinner 988 Line cuts, half-tones, photographs, etc. 683 Ten per cent of cost of permanent equipment used by survey 104 Total $48,413 40 SURVEY STAFF The identity of the different specialists employed by the survey, together with a brief statement as to their experience and qualifications, is shown in the follow- ing summary: Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.B., A.M., Ph.D. Director of Survey. Teaching experience in first four grades; country superintendent; city super- intendent; general superintendent of schools for Porto Rico; author of books and articles on educational, statistical, and scientific sub- jects. Now director of Division of Education and director of Division of Statistics of Russell Sage Foundation. May Ayres, S. B. (Ph.D. pending). School Buildings and Equipment and Health Work in the Public Schools. Teaching experience in grades and university; chief of Social Service De- partment, Psychological Clinic, University of Pennsylvania; research worker, Boston Psychopathic Hospital; special agent, Rus- sell Sage Foundation; author of Fire Protec- tion in Public Schools; co-author of Protect- ing School Houses from Fire; author of A Century of Schoolhouse Construction; co- author of Text Book on School Hygiene. Took part in school surveys of Greenwich, Connec- ticut, and Brookline, Massachusetts. Now graduate student at Columbia University. Franklin Bobbitt, A.B., Ph.D. What the Schools Teach and Might Teach. Teaching experience in all grades of rural and graded schools; superintendent of schools; principal of normal school; director of school surveys of South 41 Bend, San Antonio, and Denver; specialist in Illinois State Survey and Grand Rapids Sur- vey. Now professor of educational adminis- tration in University of Chicago. Alice C. Boughton, B.Sc., A.M. (Ph.D. pending). Household Arts and School Lunches. High school and university teaching experience; superintendent elementary school lunches of Philadelphia, 1907-15; one year in Europe to study school lunches; president Philadelphia Home Economics Association, 1913-15; chair- man School Lunch Committee, American Home Economics Association; author of nu- merous reports and articles. Now graduate student at Columbia University. Edna Bryner, A.B. The Garment Trades, Dress- making and Millinery. Teaching experience in grades, high school, normal college. Eu- genics research worker, New Jersey State Hospital; statistical expert in U. S. Bureau of Labor investigation of women and child labor; statistical agent U. S. Post Office Department. Now special agent, Russell Sage Foundation. Earle Clark, LL.B. Financing the Public Schools. Teaching experience in grades; principal of industrial school; municipal judge; statisti- cal assistant Insular Government Porto Rico; special agent U. S. Immigration Commission; examiner, U. S. Tariff Board; lecturer on statistics New York University; author of statistical reports on immigration, insanity, wages and labor conditions, index prices, in- surance, and educational costs. Now statis- tician, Russell Sage Foundation. 42 Ralph D. Fleming, A.B., M.A., Ph.D. Railroad and Street Transportation. Special agent and in- vestigator for U. S. Immigration Commission, the Federal Census of Manufactures, the U. S. Tariff Board, the Minimum Wage Com- mission of Massachusetts, the National Civic Federation, the U. S. Commission on Indus- trial Relations; author of numerous reports. Now with the Alexander Hamilton Institute. Shattuck O. Hartwell, A.B., M.Ped., LL.D. Over- crowded Schools and the Platoon Plan. Teach- ing experience in grades and Polytechnic In- stitute; high school principal; city superin- tendent of schools; president Michigan State Teachers' Association; president Michigan Association of City Superintendents. Now superintendent of schools, Muskegon, Michi- gan. Walter A. Jessup, A.B., A.M., Ph.D. The Teaching Staff. Teacher in elementary school; prin- cipal of high school ; superintendent of town- ship school; superintendent of city schools; professor of pedagogy in college and univer- sity; state high school inspector of Indiana; dean of the School of Education of University of Indiana; dean of the School of Education of University of Iowa; author of books on supervision and arithmetic. Now president of the University of Iowa. George E. Johnson, A.B., A.M. Education through Recreation. Teacher in grades; high school principal; city superintendent of schools; college professor; superintendent of recrea- tion for Pittsburgh; author of books and articles on play and education. Now assist- ant professor of education, Harvard University. 43 Charles H. Judd, A.B., A.M., Ph.D., LL.D. Meas- uring the Work of the Public Schools. In- structor in philosophy Wesley an University; professor of psychology New York Univer- sity; professor of psychology and pedagogy University of Cincinnati; professor of psy- chology and director of the Psychological Laboratory Yale University; professor of education, University of Chicago; author of books and articles on psychology and educa- tion. Now director School of Education, University of Chicago. R. R. Lutz, Director of studies in industrial education. The Metal Trades; Wage Earning and Educa- tion. Normal school graduate; teaching ex- perience in rural and graded schools; super- intendent of schools; secretary of Depart- ment of Education of Porto Rico; magazine editor; took part in school surveys of Green- wich, Connecticut, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Springfield, Illinois, Richmond, Virginia. Now special agent Division of Education, Russell Sage Foundation. Adele E. McKinnie, A.B. Public Library and the Public School. Eugenic record office training for field work in eugenics; special investiga- tor in eugenics for the State Board of Health of Michigan; investigator in the survey of the Michigan Eugenics Commission and collabo- rator in preparation of report; special agent in eugenics work for the Michigan Home for Feebleminded. Now graduate student Colum- bia University. Herbert A. Miller, A.B., A.M., Ph.D. The School and the Immigrant. Instructor at Fisk Uni- versity and in Olivet College. Extensive 44 sociological studies in Europe; author of treatises on nationalism, immigration, and race problems. Now professor of sociology in Oberlin College. David Mitchell, B.A., A.M., Ph.D. Provisions for Exceptional Children. Lecturer and clinical psychologist, Graduate School and Psycho- logical Clinic, University of Pennsylvania. Director of laboratory experiments in mental tests and measurements. Psychologist, Ex- tension Clinics for Exceptional Children in Pennsylvania. In charge investigation into mental qualifications of typists and stenog- raphers, Curtis Publishing Company. Con- sultant Psychologist, The Municipal Court of Philadelphia. Now assistant professor of psychology, University of Pennsylvania. Iris P. O'Leary, Department Store Occupations. Head of manual training department, First Penn- sylvania Normal School; head of vocational work for girls and women, New Bedford In- dustrial School; head of girls' department, Boardman Apprentice Shops, New Haven, Connecticut; student at Drexel Institute and Columbia University; special investigator of department stores for New York State Fac- tory Investigating Commission; three years' trade experience as employer and employee; author of books on household arts and de- partment stores. Now special assistant for vocational education, State Department of Public Instruction, New Jersey. Clarence Arthur Perry, B.S. Educational Extension. Teaching experience in grades; grammar school principal; industrial school principal; high school principal; assistant superinten- 45 dent of schools; special agent U. S. Immi- gration Commission; took part in recreational survey of Springfield, Illinois; author of books and articles on the wider use of the school plant. Now associate director, Department of Recreation, Russell Sage Foundation. Frank L. Shaw, A.B., LL.B. The Building Trades; The Printing Trades. Teaching experience in grades and high school; principal of high school; assistant superintendent of schools; superintendent of schools; special agent U. S. Immigration Commission; special agent U. S. Census; industrial secretary North American Civic League for Immigrants; special agent Salem Fire Relief Committee; author of reports on immigration legislation. Now educational statistician, General Edu- cation Board. Bertha M. Stevens, A.B. Boys and Girls in Com- mercial Work. Teaching experience in ele- mentary and secondary schools; agent of Associated Charities; secretary of Consumers' League of Ohio; director of Girls' Bureau of Cleveland; author of "Women's Work in Cleveland"; co-author of "Commercial Work and Training for Girls." Now director, United Employment Bureau of New York City. The nineteen persons whose names appear in the preceding list are authors or co-authors of the differ- ent volumes of the survey report. In addition to the studies conducted by them a very important part of the survey work was done by Messrs. George S. Counts, Joseph F. Gonnelly, and William S. Gray 46 who were members of the permanent staff of the sur- vey. Most of their time was given to the tests and measurements of classroom work. Dr. Counts was especially connected with the spelling tests and the preparation of the arithmetic tests. Mr. Connelly compiled the material showing the relationship be- tween elementary schools and high schools. Dr. Gray prepared the material on reading. They did a large part of the classroom visiting. All three of them have had extensive teaching and supervisory experience. Dr. Counts is now Professor of Educa- tion in the State College of Delaware; Dr. Gray is Dean of the School of Education of the University of Chicago; Mr. Gonnelly is Instructor in Education in the University of Chicago. In addition to these special workers the following assistants were employed for different lengths of time: Violet Glover, secretary to the director Robert Goldsmith, editorial assistant Edith M. Crump, draftsman Gertrude Gouvy, stenographer Elizabeth Greenslade, stenographer Esther Swartz, stenographer Lorena Knox, clerk Marian Rannells, clerk SUMMARY 1. The Cleveland education survey was conducted by the Cleveland Foundation as one of a series of investigations of the conditions, problems, and needs of the city. 47 2. The survey work began in April, 1915, and con- tinued through June, 1916. It was conducted by a permanent survey staff and by special assistants temporarily employed. The entire force consisted of 30 persons of whom 22 were specialists and eight were office assistants. 3. The report consists of a series of 25 bound monographs each of which is a complete and inde- pendent section of the whole. 4. Before publication each section of the report was put into tentative final form, revised by the author and the director, and submitted to careful study and discussion by a conference of local school people and the members of the survey committee. 5. The reports were given to the public and the newspapers at a series of public luncheons at which the different educational studies involved were dis- cussed. 6. The total cost of the survey was approximately $48,000. 48 CHAPTER III GENERAL CONCLUSIONS There are 10 principal factors, or sets of factors, in addition to the characteristics of the children themselves, that determine the quality of results and efficiency of work of a school system. These 10 principal factors are the following: 1. Legal basis of the system 2. Control by board 3. Professional leadership and methods of super- vision 4. Financial support 5. Business management 6. Organization of system 7. Teaching staff 8. Educational aims, courses of study, and agencies 9. Plant and equipment 10. Community standards and aspirations As a result of their studies of the Cleveland school system, the Survey Staff believe that in this city the most effective assets of the school system are to be found in those factors that are numbered 5, 7, 9, and 10 in the list above. The business management is honest and efficient. The teaching staff is of in- herently good quality. The school plant is of ex- * 49 ceptionally high grade. The community genuinely desires good schools. With respect to the other six factors, the findings of the survey have recommended readjustments that would, in the opinion of the staff, greatly strengthen the school system of the city and largely increase its effectiveness for community service. As a brief summary of the more important points in these different sorts of conclusions, it is worth while to review the major conclusions under each of the 10 factors that have been mentioned. 1. LEGAL BASIS OF THE SYSTEM The survey has recommended four important amendments in the laws which constitute the legal basis of Cleveland's school system. The purposes of these changes would be: first, to enable the Board of Education to simplify and systematize the conduct of its business; second, to separate school elections from municipal elections; third, to secure increased financial support; and fourth, to extend the com- pulsory attendance period to the age of 16 for both boys and girls. The first three of these recommended changes are discussed in the sections of this chapter dealing with board control and financial support. The reason for recommending that the compulsory attendance period be extended to the age of 16 is that the sur- vey's vocational studies have shown that the jobs that industry and business offer children under that 50 age are so few and so undesirable that they fall far short of equaling in future value an added year of school life. 2. CONTROL BY BOARD There is ample evidence that many of Cleveland's educational troubles have their origin in past and prevailing methods of board control. In too great measure the board has attempted to run the schools instead of getting them run. It has tried to do things instead of getting them done. It has overlooked the fundamental principle that in a public service cor- poration policies should be determined by the board but put into execution by the professional adminis- trative officers employed by the board. The board spends so much of its time dealing with small matters of specific application that it has little time left to devote to large problems of general policy. Because of these conditions there prevails through- out the school system the practice of putting off de- cisions wherever possible until the questions involved can be referred to the board. The board really manages the schools and is exceedingly busy dealing with the details involved. From these conditions there has grown up a general lack of unity of educa- tional thought and action that has become a tradi- tion and habit of mind in the city. Authority and responsibility are widely scattered and vaguely as- signed. Specialized interests are permitted to domin- ate and subordinate concern for the general welfare of the schools as a whole. 51 Part of the reasons for the conditions described are to be found in the traditions and customs of the system which can be altered by board action. Part of the reasons are to be found in the provisions of the state law which allot to the Board of Education a multiplicity of duties that consume the time and energy of the board members and seriously restrict the usefulness of the board's executives. In order to remedy this situation the board should lend its sup- port to every wisely considered bill introduced in the state legislature that has as its object the simplifica- tion and systematizing of the conduct of board busi- ness. Without waiting for legal changes, it should make a careful study of its own activities with the definite purpose of condensing, abridging, and dele- gating detail. It should simplify and largely abandon its present method of conducting business through committees. The city should seek a change in the state law so as to provide for holding school elec- tions on some date other than that of the municipal elections. The findings of the survey concerning board con- trol, its descriptions of existing conditions, and rec- ommendations as to legislative and internal changes are set forth in the survey report entitled "School Organization and Administration." 3. PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP AND METHODS OF SUPERVISION The quality of education of the city schools is largely determined by the leadership that directs it. It is 52 as true in a school system as it is in every other form of human organization that the character of the whole is largely determined by the people at the head. Professional leadership is mainly exercised by the superintendent, the assistant superintendents, the supervisors, the high school principals, and the elementary principals. They are the skilled defenders of the interests of the children. The survey holds that the improvements which can be most rapidly brought about and which will prove most beneficial can be effected through improving the quality of educational leadership exercised by all these different people. Through the reorganizations already advocated in the preceding section on board control there should be brought about such a redistribution of the work of the board and the superintendent that each can exercise an effective and appropriate kind of leader- ship. The city rightly and naturally looks to the board as representing the public, the taxpayers, and the parents, and to the superintendent as being the expert guardian of the interests of the children. This does not mean that the deliberative work of the board should be limited to telling the superintendent what the public wants, and the work of the superintendent limited to putting these orders into execution. In addition to his work as executive, the main business of the superintendent is to think, to plan, and to propose, and the business of the board is to make de- cisions about these proposals. The superintendent should receive an annual salary of at least $10,000 53 so that Cleveland may compete with other cities of corresponding and smaller size. Not less important than the leadership of the superintendent is the leadership of the supervisors, the high school principals, and the elementary prin- cipals. It is the judgment of the Survey Staff that supervision falls far short of being one of the strong phases of the school system of the city. There are principals in both the elementary and the high schools who are without sufficient training for their duties, without adequate information as to what is going on about them, and without comprehensive grasp of educational problems. Many of the ele- mentary principals have had little contact with the current educational movements. Many of them have been in the system for a long, long time and are con- ducting the schools today on the basis of opinions about school organization which originated before the stirring developments in education that have brought about new and better equipped buildings, an enriched course of study, and scientific methods of supervision. Some of the high school principals spend too much time and energy in the discussion of problems arising out of competition between the different high schools. The type of educational lead- ership that expresses itself in good supervision would unify the high school system so that it would be- come a cooperating system of institutions. The whole situation as to educational leadership can be improved by replacing some of the least able members of the force and by stimulating, training, 54 and guiding others. As a major step toward this end there must be built up in the system a type of super- vision based on ascertained fact that will reveal con- ditions and aid in solving problems in the work of instruction throughout the city. The reason why this is necessary is that Cleveland has grown too large to make it possible for its schools to be admin- istered by the same sort of educational machinery that was adequate when it was a small community. There was a time when small school systems and relatively simple courses of study could be governed and supervised by central school officials who could keep all the activities of the teachers under direct personal observation. Opinion was the basis of action. That time has passed. In a system of more than 100 elementary school and 10 high schools methods of supervision must be worked out and put in operation which are impersonal. There is a special technique of administrative inquiry, a type of continuous self-survey which should be culti- vated in the school system as it is being cultivated in all great business concerns. Money spent in cen- tral administration is well spent if it produces a system of scientific general supervision. The conclusions and recommendations dealing with the relation of the superintendent to the board are discussed in the report on "School Organization and Administration." Those dealing with the work of the other educational officials and with the need for scientific supervision are to be found in the volume on "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools." 55 4. FINANCIAL SUPPORT The one outstanding fact in connection with the financial support of the Cleveland school system is that it is inadequate. For several years past the expenditures of the Board of Education have been growing more rapidly than its revenues. As a result there are at present deficits in the different educa- tional funds; the board is forced to borrow money to meet its current obligations, and the school sys- tem has to resort to bond issues to raise money for the construction of new buildings. The survey finds the administration of the finances honest and effi- cient. It has been able to suggest only a few minor ways by which economies can be effected or revenues increased. The only immediate means for relieving this situation are to be found through increases in the valuation of city property or the repeal of the present state law which limits tax rates. The board should work for both of these ends but with a realiza- tion that an adequate solution can be secured only through legislation. The financial problems of the system are extensively treated in the survey volume entitled "Financing the Public Schools." 5. BUSINESS MANAGEMENT The business department of the Cleveland school system is honestly and efficiently conducted. Its work has been criticised by the survey on two counts. The first of these is that it has referred to the Board of Education so many separate matters of detail 56 that it has been seriously expensive of the time of the board. This has been partly due to the provi- sions of the school law and partly to methods which may easily be modified for the better. The second count on which the survey has criti- cised the business department is that it is inde- pendent of the educational work and is rapidly be- coming the dominant part of the school system. While these two criticisms are well founded, the fact remains that the business management of the sys- tem is so markedly efficient that it constitutes one of the real and important assets of the educational situation. A reorganization could be readily effected by which this efficiency could be retained and the grounds for criticism eliminated. The facts concern- ing the business management of the system are set forth in the volumes entitled "Financing the Pub- lic Schools," and "School Organization and Ad- ministration." 6. ORGANIZATION OP SYSTEM No form of organization insures efficiency, but there are some forms which make efficiency possible and some which practically preclude it. There are also forms of organization of every intermediate degree of effectiveness. The organization of the Cleveland system falls in one of these intermediate classifica- tions. It is far better than the poorest and probably better than the average found in large cities. It is not, however, so effective as it might be. Several of 57 its shortcomings have been referred to in the pre- ceding sections. There are three outstanding weaknesses. The first is that the activities of the system are now so organ- ized and administered as to refer to the board a great mass of details that should be attended to by the executive officers. The second is that the work is organized on the theory that the board's work is of two separate and distinct sorts the one pertaining to business affairs and the other dealing with edu- cational affairs. The third weakness is one for which the second is largely responsible. It is that through- out the system authority and responsibility are widely scattered and vaguely assigned. Chapter III of the report entitled "School Organization and Administration" deals with these problems and brings together evidence from the reports presented by the different specialists concerning conditions found in their several fields of study, and illustrat- ing the prevailing indefiniteness of authority and responsibility. 7. THE TEACHING STAFF Among the most valuable assets of the Cleveland system must be included the teaching staff. For many years the city has maintained its own train- ing school and during most of the time it has been an unusually efficient institution. It has trained a large proportion of the teachers in the elementary schools and some of those in the high schools. A 58 considerable number of the teachers have come from the more intelligent families of good social standing in the community. There are evidences that in recent years there has been some stagnation of pro- fessional interest and it is unquestionably true that the force would be strengthened by bringing in well- trained teachers from other localities. There has been too much "inbreeding" of the teaching staff. Nevertheless, the teachers of Cleveland compare very well with those of other large cities in so far as their professional preparation and inherent personal qualifications are concerned. Probably the greatest and most valuable single asset that the city has is the mutually self-respecting attitude found through- out the schools between the teachers and the pupils. These problems and conditions are treated in the survey report entitled "The Teaching Staff." 8. EDUCATIONAL AIMS, COURSES OF STUDY, AND AGENCIES As one of the 10 factors affecting the quality and determining the efficiency of the work of the school system it is clear that this eighth factor has an inade- quate designation. Its title should be sufficiently inclusive to embrace the educational philosophy be- hind all that the system does and the means by which that philosophy finds its expression in such educa- tional activities as the high, elementary, and even- ing schools, medical inspection, school lunches, com- munity centers, public lectures, playgrounds, and 59 all the rest. It should include the curriculum and the course of study. Regarding this factor in this all-inclusive way there is one major criticism which the survey has to make and several minor ones. The major criticism is that the professional spirit of the Cleveland schools is formalistic and conservative rather than liberalistic and progressive. The fundamentally social point of view of the survey is that effective education is preparation for adult life through participation in the activities of life. Since the work of the schools is to fit people for social conditions that are con- tinually changing the work of the schools must cor- respondingly change. Social growth is never com- plete; it is especially rapid in our generation. Public education must grow and change as fast as social conditions make such changes necessary. It can never be complete, crystallized, perfected. In attempting to compare what Cleveland does with what Cleveland needs the intention of the sur- vey has been to present the disinterested, detached view of the outsider. Although it cannot know as much as those within the system about the details of the work, it has perhaps been able to get the per- spective of these changing social conditions rather better than the local worker just because its mind has not been filled with the details of the local daily work. Looking at the educational work of Cleveland from this point of view, the survey has found what it re- gards as too much drill, too much formalism, and a 60 too close adherence to tradition. This is the out- standing criticism and a somewhat general one. It is best expressed in the survey report entitled "What the Schools Teach and Might Teach, "which con- siders in detail the course of study. The specific and detailed criticisms of aims, courses of study, and agencies are to be found in several of the survey reports. A most important one is in the study of "The School and the Immigrant," which recommends an entire reorganization of the night school work. Several detailed criticisms as to teaching and some general ones are included in the report on "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools." A plea for a more progressive program in one much neglected field is put forward in the report on "Education through Recreation." Hearty com- mendation is expressed in the volume on "Health Work in the Public Schools, " while some praise and more questions are to be found in the volumes on "Educational Extension" and "Household Arts and School Lunches." Specific criticisms are to be found in the eight reports on vocational education. 9. THE SCHOOL PLANT AND EQUIPMENT In its school plant Cleveland possesses another of its valuable assets. Its buildings are evidences of a wise and progressive policy growing in accordance with growing educational ideals. All its buildings are exceptionally well kept up and its older build- ings have been modernized, painted, cleaned, and kept in good repair. 61 Precautions against panic and fire are unusually good. There is probably no other city in the country so large and so old as Cleveland where the danger of fire is so slight. A comparison of the costs of the newer buildings with those in other cities leads to the conclusion that Cleveland is erecting modern socialized school buildings at a moderate cost and is receiving large values in return for its investments. These findings are set forth in the survey report en- titled "School Buildings and Equipment." 10. COMMUNITY STANDARDS AND ASPIRATIONS The members of the Survey Staff are unanimous in their conviction that Cleveland genuinely desires good schools and is determined to have them. This has not always been apparent in the past educational history of the city. Nevertheless no other conclusion can be reached by any one who studies conditions carefully enough to get under the surface of things and reach those subtler truths which concern the whole community and which constitute the materials for straight thinking about the situation. Convincing evidence as to community sentiment and aspirations with respect to the school system is afforded by the hearty cooperation given the sur- vey and the unusual and sustained interest in its findings. The spirit of self-examination is the prod- uct of civic intelligence and community progress. Surveys attract slight and brief attention in cities where interest in education is dormant. Where so- 62 cial progress is most active the movement for self- examination is most virile. It is certain that there exists in Cleveland at the present time an enlightened public opinion about public education. SUMMARY 1. The survey recommends four important changes in state legislation. 2. It recommends that the board divest itself of routine details of work and devote its efforts to decid- ing what it wants done, selecting people to do those things, studying results to see how well they are being done, and to telling the public about problems faced and progress made. 3. The survey believes that the greatest single need of the school system is improved professional leadership. 4. Financial support is inadequate and must be increased. 5. The business management is honest and effi- cient. 6. Authority and responsibility should be more definitely located and assigned throughout the system. 7. The teaching staff is of inherently good quality. It needs professional stimulus. 8. The spirit of the system is formalistic and con- servative. 9. The school plant is excellent. 10. The community genuinely wants good schools and is determined to have them. 63 CHAPTER IV NEW CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION The work of the survey has not merely consisted in applying to conditions in Cleveland the standards, tests, and measurements worked out elsewhere. One result of bringing together so large a force of workers as composed the survey staff has been that in several cases new methods of testing were de- vised, new educational theories formulated, or new principles discovered. These original contributions to education that came as a part of the survey work are some 14 in number. They are of widely differing importance and they relate to different sorts of edu- cational problems. Since new contributions are of special importance to the still growing and rapidly maturing science of education it is worth while to review in this chapter the more important ones that the Cleveland survey developed. They are not con- sidered in the order of their importance. 1. THE EDUCATION OF EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN The study of educational provisions for exceptional children emphasizes the fundamental condition that these children consist of two great groups who may 64 be designated as the socially competent and the socially incompetent. The socially competent con- sist of all those who are of normal mentality and who will spend their lives in association with normal people. They are the backward, the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the foreign, and the children of the open-air classes. Since these children are socially competent and are to spend their lives in competi- tion with the rest of us they should be educated in special classes in regular schools and have at least part of their work in the regular classes with the normal children. In Cleveland the classes for the blind have for some years been so conducted to the great advantage of these handicapped children. The socially incompetent children consist of the feebleminded and the epileptic who may be cared for during their younger years by the public schools, but who are so deficient that they must eventually be placed in institutions. The duty of the school system is to prepare these children for self-support in institutional life, and the most reasonable way of doing this in large cities is to segregate them in special classes. Now in point of fact American school systems have generally followed just the reverse plan. They have educated these socially incompetent in special classes in regular schools and have segregated such socially incompetent children as the blind, the deaf, and the crippled in special schools. The findings of the sur- vey advocate the establishment of special schools for the feebleminded and classes in the regular schools 6 65 for the mentally normal. These conclusions are pre- sented in the report entitled "Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children." 2. THE EDUCATION OF IMMIGRANT CHILDREN In Cleveland about one-half of the school children come from non-English-speaking homes. In a ma- jority of the schools the children from non-English- speaking homes outnumber those from English- speaking homes. It would thus seem on first con- sideration that it would be a comparatively simple matter and a very desirable procedure to modify the instruction given in each school so as to meet most adequately the needs of the pupils of the dif- ferent foreign nationalities. Both in Cleveland and elsewhere it has been strongly urged that a separate scheme of instruction be developed to meet the needs of the children of each important national group. A careful analysis of the facts as to the distribu- tion of the children of the different nationalities through the grades, the rooms, and the schools of the Cleveland system conclusively demonstrated that such plans are administratively impractical. The reason for this is that the group of children from non-English-speaking homes is exceedingly complex. Taken altogether they outnumber those from Eng- lish-speaking homes, but there is no educational basis on which they can be taken together. These chil- dren from non-English-speaking homes belong to more than 50 different nationalities and they speak 66 a great variety of languages and dialects. In many of the classrooms of Cleveland there are pupils of a dozen different nationalities. In a great majority of the classrooms of the city the largest single group is made up of children from English-speaking homes. In only a few cases are there classes in which prac- tically all of the children are of the same nationality EAGLE SCHOOL TKEMOMT SCHOOL 23 Albanian.. 3.1 Armenian . 2| Bohemian 26 English... 01 French 6| German .... 91 Oreek 22 Hebrew.... lUl Hungarian . gs HBHBBi^HBl Italian 01 Lithuanian 117 3] Horse 10 23 Polish U83 3 1 Roumanian 10 16 Russian . . - ^i^? 2|Ruthenian.19 Ol Scotch .... 01 Servian if I Slovenian . 1 1 01 Spanish... 1 2 8=) Syrian.... 10 2 1 Welsh |0 2 j Yiddish... 1 4 Diagram 6. Distribution of pupils by nationalities in two ele- mentary schools and these classes seldom hold together for more than a single term. In most cases it was found that the teachers and principals themselves were unaware of the extremely cosmopolitan character of their classes. In many cases they knew that their pupils were largely Italian, or Polish, or Hungarian, but did not realize that they represented perhaps a dozen 67 different languages. Something of the complexity of the problem is indicated by Diagram 6, which shows the distribution of pupils by nationalities in two of the larger elementary schools. This same method of analysis may well be applied in a large range of educational situations in which it is advocated that the instruction be modified to meet the special needs of individuals and groups. Under present forms of educational organization this can be done only where those individuals or groups can be brought together in sufficiently large numbers to form fair-sized classes that are homogeneous in composition. In the case in point the analysis brought to light the most unexpected conclusion that the largest single group in almost all the class- rooms was made up of children from English-speak- ing homes, although they form a minority of the whole number of children. These findings are dis- cussed in the report entitled "The School and the Immigrant." 3. BOYS AND GIRLS IN COMMERCIAL WORK In the study of education for wage earning in com- mercial and clerical work an analysis of some thou- sands of office positions held by men and women, boys and girls demonstrated with great clearness that modern commercial work of men is an entirely differ- ent thing from the commercial work of women. With perfect definiteness the records show that the requirements of work, the lines of promotion, and the 68 necessary preparation are of one sort for the boys and men and of another and essentially different sort for the girls and women. These are facts which our school systems have overlooked in planning their high school courses in commercial work. The evi- dence in support of these conclusions is presented in the report entitled "Boys and Girls in Commercial Work." 4. AN ACTUARIAL BASIS FOB INDUSTRIAL EDUCA- TION During recent years educational leaders, school teachers, and the general public have come to think of the carpenter shop, the machine shop, the forge room, and the cooking room as necessary and desir- able adjuncts of the modern school and to their minds these shops have typified industrial educa- tion. Very generally it has been felt that the prob- lems of industrial education were to be solved through the wider extension of these shop facilities in our public schools. When the survey submitted these familiar general- izations to careful analysis their whole structure began to totter. In Cleveland about 3,700 boys leave school each year and go to work. They repre- sent various stages of advancement from the fourth grade of the elementary school to the fourth grade of the high school. They are scattered through more than 100 school buildings. The problem of indus- trial education is to prepare these boys with their 69 differing ages, their widely varied school preparation and their scattered geographical distribution to take their places in the work-a-day world. They repre- sent every grade of intelligence and every stratum of social and economic life. They are scattered in little groups through more than 1,000 classrooms. Now almost all these boys are of American birth and it is certain that in a few years they will be en- gaged in doing just about the same sorts of work as are now done in Cleveland by adults of American birth. Census data show us that among every 100 American-born men in Cleveland there are eight who are clerks, seven who are machinists, four who are salesmen, three who are carpenters, and so on through the list of hundreds of occupations. Even these simple facts at once call into question all the standard assumptions about the extension of industrial edu- cation depending on increasing the number of car- penter shops and machine shops in the public schools. Among each 100 American men only seven are machinists and three are carpenters. Clearly then we should not be justified in training all the boys in our public schools to enter the machine trade or the carpenter trade when nine out of each 10 will in all probability engage in entirely different sorts of future work. Again a study of other similar figures shows that the 10 leading occupations include only 41 out of each 100 American-born men. Moreover, more than half of these 41 are engaged in mental work rather than in manual work. The more such figures 70 are studied the clearer it appears that our conven- tional ideas about industrial education need critical scrutiny and careful challenge. A beginning in both directions has been made in the Cleveland survey. The results are presented in a summary report en- titled "Wage Earning and Education." 5. EXPENDITURES FOR EDUCATIONAL AND FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES The study of Cleveland's school finances introduced a novel feature in classifying the expenditures in two distinct groups. One included the items having a direct bearing upon the instruction of pupils, such as expenditure for teachers' salaries, supervision, sta- tionery, and other classroom supplies. In the other group were included expenses for creating and keep- ing in operation the school plant and conducting the administration offices. When these two groupings were worked out for Cleveland and 17 other cities of comparable size the fact came to light that different cities follow the most diverse policies with respect to dividing their incomes between business purposes and educational purposes. Three cities are es- pecially noteworthy. St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland are evidently following the policy of de- voting to their business activities much higher pro- portions of their incomes than do the other cities. These facts are clearly brought to light in Diagram 7 in which the lengths of the black bars are proportion- ate to the number of cents that each city devotes to 71 business purposes for each dollar that it spends for educational purposes. These conditions are pre- sented in the report entitled "Financing the Public Schools." Diagram 7. Number of cents that each of 18 city school systems devotes to business purposes for each dollar that it spends for educational purposes 6. THE PLATOON PLAN One of the most interesting reports of the survey is the volume on the platoon plan, which is the name 72 applied to the Gary idea as modified for use in estab- lished school systems and as now being applied ex- perimentally in several of the Cleveland buildings. In this report the author has rendered a service by formulating for the first time a clearly stated analysis of what the Gary plan for using school space really is. It shows that it is not a single plan, but rather a com- bination of five varying factors which may be stated as follows: 1. Shops, gymnasiums, and an auditorium are added to the school building; playgrounds and school gardens are provided outside. 2. Through administrative readjustments all spe- cial rooms as well as all classrooms are used throughout the school day. 3. Several classes are accommodated simultane- ously in auditoriums and gymnasiums. 4. Different groups of children come to school at different hours. 5. Libraries, churches, the Y. M. C. A., etc., are allied with the schools to the extent of caring for part of the children part of the time. With this analysis as a basis the author goes on to show the degree to which each factor may be utilized in effecting economies and the practical possibilities and limitations of combining them. These findings are presented in the report entitled "Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan." 7. COMPARATIVE COSTS OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS The report on the school plant makes available for the first time comparative figures on the cost of school 73 buildings in different cities reduced to the same basis so as to render the figures for one locality comparable with those for other localities. Such comparisons are rendered especially difficult because buildings are erected from different plans and composed of differ- ent sorts of materials. Moreover, there is no single satisfactory unit of cost comparison. The survey met this difficulty in some measure by securing de- tails concerning the construction and costs of 46 recently erected schools in five different cities, re- ducing the figures as nearly as possible to a com- parable basis, and then making six different sets of cost comparisons and finally combining them all. It is believed that these methods are not only su- perior to those that have been heretofore available, but that, by developing and perfecting them, still more valuable units can be secured that will be of value for other localities. The findings are reported in the volume entitled "School Buildings and Equip- ment." 8. THE PURCHASE OF TEXTBOOKS In Cleveland, as in many other cities, it is the general conviction of people who have accurate knowledge of local conditions that the interests of textbook pub- lishing firms have been a powerful force in control- ling school elections and influencing appointments. Some of the charges made are substantiated by re- liable evidence. In other cases it is clear that the power of such influences has been greatly exagger- ated. In general the whole situation is left largely in 74 the dark because charges and countercharges are freely made and no definite facts brought forward to support the claims of either side. In reporting on the administration of the Cleve- land system the survey presented in detail all the more important facts concerning textbook purchases from the leading publishers during the past 14 years. The study showed in an impressive way that fluc- tuations in the amount of business done with the different firms have been coincident with changes in the educational administration of the system. These comparisons are presented in the volume entitled "School Organization and Administration, " and the principal table and diagram are reproduced in the summary of that report which is Chapter XIX of the present volume. 9. THE PENSION FUND AND TEACHERS WHO ENTER LATE The report on the teaching staff introduced an in- novation in making a study of the probable effect on the city pension fund of bringing into the system outside teachers who are no longer young. By means of studies based on actuarial tables it showed that the probabilities are that the city will pay in present salaries and future pensions about $200 more for each year of teaching service rendered by each of the teachers it is now bringing in from the outside than it would pay for corresponding service rendered by younger people, such as the comparatively recent 75 graduates of its own or other normal schools. The principles involved have large importance for every city that has a pension fund and follows the policy of recruiting its teaching force in some measure from outside sources. These findings are reported in the volume entitled "The Teaching Staff." 10. SPEED AND QUALITY IN HANDWRITING AND READING The survey developed a method by which to measure and record for each school the progress made from grade to grade in both speed and quality in subjects where both elements enter as factors in achievement. The new method was applied to results in handwrit- ing and reading. Formerly the records of speed and quality have been made separately and not simultaneously. By this new device the teachers and principals of any school can readily see whether or not their classes are making the sort of satisfac- tory progress that does not sacrifice speed to quality or quality to speed, but rather goes fonvard in both of them. Moreover, the survey discovered and mapped out the neutral ground between speed and quality in handwriting. In general children who write rapidly write poorly and those who write well write slowly. Nevertheless there is a point to which quality may be developed without reducing speed and a point to which speed may be increased without hurting qual- ity. The survey discovered these points for Cleve- 76 land for each grade. All these findings are pre- sented in the volume entitled "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools," and diagrams illustrating combined speed and progress records are reproduced in the summary of that report contained in Chapter VIII of the present volume. 11. STANDARDIZED TESTS IN READING In conducting its series of careful and extensive studies of reading the survey developed a series of standardized tests that constitute a measure for oral reading. For the most part the tests themselves had been used previously and developed elsewhere, but they had not been standardized and compiled into a reliable measuring instrument. In the course of the Cleveland work it was possible to do this because of the advantages offered by the unusual extent and comprehensive nature of the work that was made possible in this large city. The use made of these reading tests is described in the volume en- titled "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools," and the details as to their development are explained in the Appendix of the same volume. The survey emphasized the central importance of reading in the curriculum. 12. A SPIRAL TEST IN ARITHMETIC For the purposes of the Cleveland survey a new series of tests was devised for measuring arithmetical 77 accomplishments and progress from grade to grade. The chief advantage of this new test is that it is a better instrument for educational diagnosis than former tests have been. It analyzes progress in the arithmetical processes. It tests each child in the very simplest forms of each fundamental arithmetical operation. It then retests him in a slightly more complex form of the same fundamental operation. A third time and fourth time it takes the child through exercises involving the same operations, and each time it adds the new complexities that are de- manded by more advanced work. Because of this spiral nature of the test the records indicate just where any individual child begins to get into difficulty in performing each fundamental sort of arithmetical operation. This test and its applications are ex- plained in the volume entitled "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools." 13. ANALYSIS OP FAILURES IN SCHOOL SUBJECTS For the first time in survey work non-promotions have been made the subject of critical study. They have been analyzed by grades, by particular subjects of instruction, and by individual schools. The results indicate that failures increase with school training, that certain subjects cause so many failures that it is perfectly certain that these subjects ought to be taught in a different way, and that different schools in the system are discordant in their prac- tices and need more nearly adequate supervision. These methods and findings are reported in the first 78 chapter of the volume entitled "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools." 14. RELATION OF HIGH SCHOOLS TO REST OF SYSTEM The survey introduced an innovation hi devoting some 60 pages of one report to a study of the rela- tions existing between the high schools of the city and the rest of the school system. One principal feature of this study consisted in the use of a statis- tical device for studying the relationship between the elementary schools and the high schools. The de- vice itself was not developed in the course of the Cleveland work, but it was there utilized on an ex- tensive scale for the first time. The importance of the study of high school conditions and relationships was demonstrated by the nature of the results which emphasized the great need of a more intimate ce- menting of elementary schools and high schools and of more consistent achievements by the different high schools and closer cooperation between them. These findings are presented in the last two chapters of "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools." SUMMARY 1. During the conduct of the survey some 14 new contributions to educational knowledge were de- veloped that are considered of sufficient importance to deserve special mention. 79 2. Four of these relate to the organization of the curriculum and concern the education of exceptional children, the education of immigrant children, the education in commercial subjects, and the organiza- tion of industrial education. 3. Five new methods and sets of facts have been developed in the field of educational administration. These relate to comparisons of expenditures for business and educational purposes, to the working of duplicate school plans, to units of cost for school buildings, to factors affecting the purchase of school textbooks, and to the effect on the pension fund of the employment of outside teachers. 4. Five new steps were taken in the measurement of school work. These relate to improved methods for recording accomplishment in handwriting and reading, the development of a new measure for oral reading, the devising of a new series of tests for meas- uring and analyzing accomplishment in arithmetic, methods for analyzing the records of non-promotion, and methods and devices for studying the relation- ships existing between the high schools and the rest of, the school system. 80 CHAPTER V CHILD ACCOUNTING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Leonard P. Ayres) Every year, in the month of May, Cleveland counts its children of school age (six to 21) and finds out which ones are attending public school, parochial school, private school, or no school. According to law, all children between the ages of eight and 15 should be in school, but nobody knows whether they are or not, because the returns of the yearly census are not tabulated so as to tell the essential facts about the children of any given age. For 1915, the returns tell us that there are about 171,000 chil- dren of school age in the district, that nearly 88,000 of them are in public schools, 34,000 in parochial and private schools, and more than 49,000 are not in any school. This last group is largely made up of those who are not of compulsory attendance age. Each year after the census has been taken the city reports to the state the number of children of school age who were enumerated, and receives about $2.00 from state funds for each one so reported. This is almost the only use made of the census re- turns. Each year much valuable information is e 81 gathered at large expense but the figures are not so tabulated as to yield the important information that they contain. The census returns should be tabulated so as to show how many boys and girls of each age are in each kind of school or in no school. This would make it possible to check up the effectiveness with which the compulsory education laws are being enforced, for it would show how many boys and girls of each compulsory attendance age were not attending school. At present the returns are not so tabulated. ACCURACY OF SCHOOL CENSUS According to the evidence of the United States Census, the Cleveland school census has seriously fallen short of enumerating all the children of school age. These shortages appear to aggregate about 79,000 in the past six years. Since the city re- ceives about $2.00 from state funds for each child enumerated, these shortages are equivalent to seri- ous financial losses, amounting to more than $150,000 in the past six years. Recent improvements in meth- ods of taking the school census are rapidly bettering these conditions. NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS In the spring of 1915 the school system enumerated nearly 6,000 more pupils as being in the public schools than the schools reported as being enrolled 82 at that time. This is a serious discrepancy which is probably to be accounted for in three ways. In the first place a few of these extra pupils were prob- ably six-year-old children enrolled in the public kindergartens. In the second place it is probable that there are serious inaccuracies in the census due to a failure to verify the returns by comparing them with the school records. The third and most impor- tant reason for the discrepancy is probably to be found in the Cleveland practice of dropping a child from the roll as soon as he has been absent for three consecutive days. This removes him from the school record, but does not prevent his parent from report- ing to the census officer that he is still attending public school. Whatever the causes of this dis- crepancy may be, it is clear that the census figures should be regularly checked with the school records so as to discover and eliminate such errors in the future. A MORE ACCURATE AND USEFUL CENSUS There should be established in the offices of the Board of Education a permanent Division of School Census in charge of a thoroughly competent census clerk. This office should be charged with the duty of tak- ing a truly complete and accurate census annually. The work of this office should be closely coordinated with that of the truant officer. The office should pre- pare maps showing the increase or decrease of child population in the different districts of the city. This 83 information should be used as an aid in shaping the building policy of the school system. Since the city receives from the state about $2.00 for each child enumerated, complete accuracy and efficiency in the work will result in increasing this income by an amount much in excess of the salary- costs involved. AGES AT WHICH PUPILS LEAVE SCHOOL The number of boys and girls of each age enrolled in the public schools in June, 1915, is shown in Table 1 and Diagram 8. In the diagram the upright col- umns are proportionate to the number of pupils at each age. The portion in outline in each case represents the boys and that in black the girls. From the age of seven to the age of 10 there is a steady falling-off of pupils at each age. This is due to the fact that there are fewer children in the schools as well as fewer in the city at each upper age than at each lower one. The number of pupils in school at the ages of 11, 12, and 13 is almost exactly con- stant. At the age of 14 there is a distinct falling-off, indicating that not a few children anticipate the conclusion of the compulsory attendance period and drop out of school without waiting. At the age of 15 there is a notable falling-off in numbers, and the impressive feature of this falling-off is that it is as great for the girls as it is for the boys. This reveals an important situation, for the compulsory atten- dance law requires all girls to remain in school up to 84 TABLE 1. PUPILS ENROLLED IN PUBLIC ELEMENTARY. HIGH AND NORMAL SCHOOLS IN JUNE, 1915 Ace Boys Girls Total 6 4,255 4,180 8,435 7 5,012 4,815 9,827 8 4,496 4,407 8,903 9 4,268 4,103 8,371 10 4,093 3,951 8,044 11 3,747 3,593 7,340 12 3,700 3,646 7,346 13 3,676 3,631 7,307 14 3,445 3,271 6,716 15 2,358 2,291 4,649 16 1,190 1,163 2,353 17 672 680 1,352 18 403 358 761 19 135 156 291 20 41 52 93 Over 20 22 22 Total 41,491 40,319 81,810 9000 HJOO 1*000 jjoo 3000 ajoo 2000 1500 1000 500 C 7 9 10 11 12 13 iu 15 16 17 u 19 to Diagram 8. The columns represent the pupils enrolled in the public elementary and high schools in June, 1015. The columns in outline represent the boys and those in black repre- sent the girls at each age from six to 20 85 the age of 16, whereas it permits boys to leave at the age of 15. The figures present convincing evidence that this feature of the law is almost entirely in- operative, and indicate that if the provision requiring 100 97 5 33 21 12 12 13 1U 15 16 17 18 IS 20 Diagram 9. Columns represent number of pupils among each hundred beginners who remain in school at each age from 12 to 20 86 an added year of attendance for girls had not been enacted, the results would be much the same as they are now. Careful computations have been made to find out at what ages the pupils drop out of school in this city. An approximately correct answer is presented in Diagram 9, in which the upright columns represent the number of pupils among each hundred beginners who remain in school at each age. In general terms, the figures show that practically all remain to the age of 12. By 14 one in six has left; by 15 nearly half of them have gone; by 16 two-thirds have dropped out; and by 17, only one in five remains. There is good evidence that these figures are sub- stantially accurate, and if they are, they indicate serious failure on the part of the attendance officers to enforce the compulsory attendance law. If the data of the school census were accurately gathered and adequately tabulated, they would reveal the real facts with respect to the enforcement of the legal provisions for compulsory education. GRADES AT WHICH PUPILS LEAVE SCHOOL Careful computations indicate that the numbers of pupils remaining to each grade and high school class in Cleveland are substantially as shown in Diagram 10. In this diagram the upright columns are pro- portionate to the number of pupils among each hundred beginners who survive to each one of the upper grades. The figures indicate that almost all 87 the pupils complete the fifth grade. By the time the seventh grade is reached, one in five has left. Nearly two-thirds of them reach the eighth grade. More than four in every 10 enter the high school and nearly one-half of these finish the course. 100 100 100 100 99 80 2 3 5 6 7 8 I II ill Diagram 19. Columns represent number of pupils among each hundred beginners who remain in school at each grade from the first elementary to the fourth high This showing is a creditable one. Few of the larger cities do better and many of them make much poorer records. Moreover, there is clear evidence that these conditions have been rapidly improving in Cleve- land during the past 10 years. 88 REGULARITY or ATTENDANCE The school records indicate that pupils attend school with unusual regularity in Cleveland. These records are unreliable because in this city the children are considered as having perfect attendance during six weeks of every year regardless of whether or not they are absent. This method of counting attendance should be modified so as to show the real facts, and steps are being taken toward this end. CHILDREN WHO ARE MISFITS The survey has made a careful study to determine how many of the Cleveland children are over-age for their grades and how many are making slow progress through the grades. In order to make these compari- sons, it has adopted certain standards. The stan- dards for classifying children according to age are as follows: A child who is seven years old and is hi the first grade is considered as being of normal age for that grade. If he is eight or more years old, he is classi- fied as over-age. In the same way children who are nine or over in the second grade and 10 or over in the third grade are classified as being over-age for their grades. The same rule applies to the children of the other higher grades, one year being added for each successive advancing grade. The criteria for classifying the children according to progress are the following: A child who has been in school four years and is in 89 the fourth grade is classified as having made normal progress. If he has been in school only three years, he is considered to have made rapid progress, while if he has taken five or more years, he has made slow progress. Following similar rules for all the other grades, we may classify the children into three groups according as they have made rapid progress, normal progress, or slow progress through the grades. TABLE 2. AGE AND PROGRESS CLASSIFICATION OF CHIL- DREN IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AT CLOSE OF YEAR 1914-15 Age for Grade Young Normal Old P R G R E 8 8 Rapid 4,574 1.034 871 Normal 21,262 16,637 4,136 Slow 480 6,451 15,344 If we classify all of the children according to age so as to divide them into children who are below normal age, of normal age, and above normal age for their grades, and if we again classify them accord- ing to progress into groups that have made rapid progress, normal progress, and slow progress, we shall have a three-times-three classification of all the children into nine age and progress groups. Such a classification of the children in the elementary schools of Cleveland in June, 1915, gave the results shown in Table 2. The same facts are shown in 90 graphic form in Diagram 11 in which the figures have been reduced to a percentage basis and the circles are proportionate in size to the percentage of chil- dren in each of the age groups. Under age and rapid progress Under age and normal progress Under age and slow progress Normal age and rapid progress Normal age and normal progress Normal age and slow progress Over age and rapid progress Over age and normal progress 22 Over age and slow progress Diagram 11. Per cent of children in each age and progress group in elementary schools at close of year 1914^15 Of all the children considered in this tabulation, those who constitute the greatest problem for themselves, for society, and for the school system, are the 22 per cent who are both over-age for their grades and are making slow progress. These are the pupils who ap- 91 pear in the lower right-hand corner of the tabulation. Unless special provision is made for them, these are the children who clog the lower grades of the school system, largely constitute the great mass of repeaters, and finally fall out without completing the course. Frequently they leave school permanently without ever having had those studies which have been put into the curriculum for the express purpose of fitting the young people for citizenship. The most important and effective provision which can be made to care for these children consists of an adequate system of child accounting that shall continually tell the school officials how many such children there are in each room and each building, who these children are, and why they have not gone forward with their fellows. This is a matter which can be solved in the mass only by taking care of the individuals who make up the mass. All the schools of the city contribute some chil- dren to make up the 15,000 who are both over-age and slow, but they differ greatly in the size of their contributions. The records of the 96 elementary schools in this respect are shown in Table 3, which gives the percentage that these children are of the entire enrollment in each of the schools. At one ex- treme are the Kennard, Miles, and Pearl schools, with only about 10 per cent of their children in the slow and over-age group, while at the other extreme are the Fullerton and Longwood schools, with more than 40 per cent of their children in this class. In this connection it should be noted that the member- 92 TABLE 3. PER CENT OF CHILDREN IN EACH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WHO ARE BOTH OVER-AGE FOR THEIR GRADES AND MAKING SLOW PROGRESS 1. Kcnnard 9.5 51. Tod 21.2 2. Miles 10.4 52. Harmon . 21.7 3. Pearl 10.5 53. Mt. Pleasant 21.8 4. Parkwood 11.2 54. Fruitland 22.1 5. Wade Park 11.2 55. Buhrer 22.4 22.7 22.7 22.8 22.0 23.0 23.8 24.2 24.4 24.6 24.9 25.1 25.2 25.2 25.5 25.6 25.7 25.9 25.9 26.6 27.2 27.5 27.6 27.6 27.7 27.9 28.7 29.2 29.5 29.6 30.0 31.1 31.3 32.1 33.2 33.3 34.5 34.5 35.9 37.1 43.1 47.4 93 6. Addison 11.6 56. Clark 7. Mill 12.3 57. Fairmount 8. Central 12.6 58. Sackett 9. Case Woodland 12.6 69. Walton 10. Doan 12.9 60. Miles Park 11. Dike 13.2 61. Orchard 12. Bolton 13.7 62. Sterling 13. Fowler 13.8 63. Tremont 14. Columbia 14.2 64. Murray Hill 15. Giddinga 14.4 65. Watterson 16. South Case 14.7 66. Alabama 17. Kentucky 14.8 67. East Boulevard 18. Gilbert 14.8 68. Observation 19. Hough 15.3 69. South 20. Chesterfield 15.8 70. Lawn 21. North Doan 15.8 71. Stanard 22. Roscdale 16.1 72. Barkwil! 23. Memphis 16.2 73. Memorial 24. Boulevard 16.5 74. Warner 25. Willard 16.5 75. Broadway 26. Outhwaite 17.0 76. Brownell 27. Huok 17.3 77. Waring 28. Quinoy 17.5 78. Kinsman 29. East Denison 17.5 79. Scranton 30. Sibley 17.8 80. Nottingham 31. Hodge 17.9 81. Case 32. Wooldridge 17.9 82. East Clark 33. Woodland Hills 17.9 83. Union 34. Waring 18.0 84. Eagle 35. Washington Pk. 18.0 85. Woodland 36. Sowinski 18.1 86. Detroit 37. Landon 18.2 87. Rockwell 38. Mayflower 18.4 88. St. Clair 39. Denison 18.6 89. Rice 40. Waverly 18.9 90. Euclid Park 41. Hazeldell 19.0 91. Hicks 42. Dunham 19.7 92. Mound 43. East Madison 19.7 93. Lincoln 44. Milford 19.7 94. Harvard 45. Gordon 19.9 95. Fullerton 46. Halle 20.1 96. Longwood 47. Dawning 20.2 48. Marion 20.4 49. Willson 21.0 60. Moulton 21.1 ship of the Longwood School is partly made up of children enrolled in special classes for the retarded and backward. SIZE OF CLASSES The number of children in Cleveland classrooms ranges from 16 to 60. The average number in actual attendance in each classroom is 38. Among 1,791 classrooms in use in March, 144 had less than 30 children in attendance, while 631, or more than one- third of them, had more than 40 children in at- tendance. Every endeavor should be made to reduce these latter figures. COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE The Ohio compulsory attendance law requires boys to attend school until they are 15 years old and girls until they are 16. There is much opposition to this law, and many people claim that children should be allowed to go to work at 14, especially if they have completed the eighth grade. This report is opposed to amending the law so as to shorten the compulsory attendance period. The findings of the survey show that industry and busi- ness have almost no desirable openings for boys or girls under the age of 16. The Truancy Division of the Cleveland school system should increase the efficiency and thorough- ness of its work by systematically checking up the work of its officers and by developing better meth- 94 ods for locating children who are not enrolled in any school. The provisions of the law requiring health cer- tificates for children who receive their working papers are at present disregarded. They should be complied with. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. School census methods should be reformed so that the returns will show how many boys and girls of each compulsory attendance age are attending pub- lic schools, parochial schools, private schools, or no schools. 2. Shortages in census returns have probably cost the city more than $150,000 of state funds in the past six years. Future losses should be avoided through more accurate returns. 3. Census figures should be regularly checked against school records to avoid the serious inac- curacies that have existed in the past. 4. There should be established a permanent school census bureau in charge of a thoroughly competent census clerk. 5. The compulsory attendance law is not well en- forced with respect to children in the upper com- pulsory attendance ages. This is particularly true with respect to the attendance of the older girls. The law should be enforced. 6. Conditions with respect to the falling out of children before the completion of the course are better than in many other cities. 95 7. Methods of recording attendance should be modified so as to yield more accurate data. 8. In Cleveland there are fewer children over-age for their grades and fewer making slow progress than in the average large city. 9. Some of the schools have several times as many slow and over-age children as other schools. Ener- getic steps should be taken to make available for all normal children the educational advantages that are successfully employed in the schools making the best records. 10. The survey is opposed to any legal amend- ment shortening the compulsory attendance period. It finds that industry and business offer few oppor- tunities for boys or girls under the age of 16. 11. The legal provisions requiring health cer- tificates for children receiving working papers have been disregarded. They should be complied with. 06 CHAPTER VI THE TEACHING STAFF (Walter A. Jessup) For purposes of salary adjustment there are five classes of teachers in the elementary schools of Cleve- land and five classes in the normal and high schools. The board regulations concerning the salaries of principals are based on the number of classrooms in their buildings. Special provisions are made for the employment of substitute teachers in elementary and high schools. There is opportunity for a regular elementary teacher appointed to the probationary class at an initial salary of $550, to advance from one salary class to another during a minimum period of 10 years to a salary of $1,000 per year. The salaries paid to sub- stitute teachers vary with conditions of service. High school teachers begin in the first probation- ary class at an annual salary of $800 and may ad- vance to a salary of $2,000 after 17 years of service. SALARY SCHEDULE OF ELEMENTARY PRINCIPALS The board regulation concerning salaries paid to elementary principals is based on the number of regular standard classrooms in the building or build- 7 97 ings over which they have charge, according to a regularly graded schedule. For example, the prin- cipal of a four-room building is eligible to a salary of $1,000. The principal of a 36-room building is eligible to a salary of $2,000. Assistant principals receive an extra stipend of $50 each year in addition to the amount fixed by their regular classification on the payroll. TABLE 4. SALARIES OF CLEVELAND TEACHERS. PAYROLL AT CLOSE OF 1914-15 High school teachers Elementary principals Elementary teachers 2 at $2,640 4 at $2,000 1 at $1,650 1 2.530 1 " 1,980 2 " 1,540 1 2,500 1 " 1,960 4 " 1,500 I 2.400 1 " 1,880 1 " 1.430 2 2,300 3 " 1,840 1 " 1.400 4 2,280 4 " 1.800 8 " 1,300 4 2.200 6 " 1,740 1 " 1,210 2 2,160 1 " 1,710 7 " 1,200 7 2,100 3 " 1.700 1 " 1,155 3 2,040 4 " 1.680 71 " 1,100 22 2.000 3 " 1,650 83 " 1.050 7 1,920 3 " 1,620 3 " 1,045 20 1,900 1 " 1,600 762 " 1.000 37 1.800 8 " 1,590 108 " 950 4 1,700 13 " 1.560 196 " 900 14 1,680 7 " 1.520 112 " 850 24 1.600 2 " 1.500 2 " 825 24 1,560 10 " 1.480 130 " 800 19 1,500 3 " 1,440 1 " 770 27 1,440 8 " 1,400 133 " 750 23 1,400 1 " 1.325 4 " 718 12 1,320 8 " 1,320 164 " 700 17 1,300 1 " 1,300 145 " 650 66 1,200 2 " 1,200 136 " 600 10 1.100 4 " 1,160 20 " 550 12 1,000 1 " 1,120 110 " 500 17 800 1 " 1,080 1 " 400 1 650 Two high school principals at $3.500 and eight at $3.000. THE SALARIES ACTUALLY PAID TO CLEVELAND TEACHERS Table 4, based on the payroll at the close of the year 1914-15, shows the different salaries paid to the different types of teachers. This table should be read as follows: There were two high school teachers who received $2,640, four elementary principals who received $2,000, and one elementary teacher who re- ceived $1,650. TABLE 5. SALARIES OF SUPERVISORY OFFICERS IN 1918 Officer Men Women Salary Superintendent 1 $6,000 Assistant superintendent Supervisor of requisitions and reports Assistant superintendent (physical education 4 1 3.750 3,000 part time) 1 1,500 General supervisor '2 2,400 General supervisor 1 2,300 General supervisor 1 2.000 Supervisor of German 'i 2,000 Supervisor of drawing and applied arts 'i 2,100 Assistant supervisor of drawing and applied arts 3 1,050 Assistant supervisor of drawing and applied arts 1 1,000 Supervisor of music 'i 2,400 Assistant supervisor of music Assistant supervisor of music Assistant supervisor of music 'i i 2 1,200 1,050 1,000 Supervisor of writing i 2,300 Assistant supervisor of writing Assistant supervisor of writing Assistant supervisor of writing Supervisor of manual training 'i 'i i i 1,200 1.050 1,000 2,500 Assistant supervisor of manual training Supervisor of domestic science i i 1,000 2,000 Supervisor of physical education 'i 2,400 Supervisor of indoor recreation 'i 1,200 Supervisor of work for the blind 'i 1,500 Total 12 19 $65,650 99 NUMBER AND SALARIES OF SUPERVISORY OFFICERS Table 5, based on the payroll at the close of 1914-15, shows the salaries paid to the various supervisory officers of the Cleveland schools. TABLE 6. MEDIAN SALARIES OF ELEMENTARY TEACHERS, HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS. AND ELEMENTARY PRINCIPALS IN CLEVELAND AND IN 13 OTHER CITIES OF MORE THAN 250,000 INHABITANTS. THE CLEVELAND DATA ARE FOR 1915 AND THOSE OF OTHER CITIES ARE FOR 1913 City Elementary teachers High school teachers Elementary principals San Francisco $1,200 $1.680 $1,800 Boston 1,176 1.620 3,300 Chicago 1,175 1,600 2,800 St. Louis 1,032 1,520 2,500 Cincinnati 1,000 1.300 2,200 Minneapolis 1,000 1,400 1,600 Newark 1,000 1,900 2,600 Cleveland 900 1,500 1,650 Philadelphia 900 1,400 1,600 Milwaukee 876 1,260 1,980 Indianapolis 875 1.100 1.300 Washington 750 1,800 1,510 Baltimore 700 1,200 2,000 New Orleans 700 1,100 1,250 SALARIES IN CLEVELAND COMPARED WITH SALARIES ELSEWHERE Table 6 presents a comparison between the salaries paid teachers in Cleveland and those paid in the 13 other large cities. These data are from the payroll of the Cleveland schools at the close of the school year in 1915 and from "Tangible Rewards of Teach- ing," published by the United States Bureau of Education in 1914 and giving data for the school year 1912-13. This comparison is unduly favorable to 100 Cleveland for it takes into account the salary in- creases made here from 1913 to 1915, but does not take into account those that have been made in the other cities. The data of the table show that in comparison with salaries paid in other cities of similar size the remu- neration of elementary teachers is somewhat low; that of the high school teachers is somewhat high; and that of the elementary principals is distinctly low. SALARY INCREASES During the past 10 years salary increases in other cities have been decidedly more substantial than in Cleveland. This is true in the case of both the elementary teachers and the high school teachers. INCREASE IN THE COST OP LIVING There is convincing evidence that during the past few years the cost of living has been advancing far more rapidly than salaries. The purchasing power of a dollar in Cleveland is not very different at the present time from its prevailing value in Boston or Chicago. Nevertheless the salaries in those cities are decidedly larger than they are in Cleveland. SALARIES OF TEACHERS AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF OTHER WORKERS The report presents interesting data showing the annual wages of artisans, such as plumbers, brick- 101 layers, plasterers, carpenters, etc., compared with the salaries of teachers in different cities. These show that in Cleveland the teachers are less highly paid than the artisans. Further comparisons show that such municipal employees as policemen and firemen are better paid than are the teachers. SCHOOL FUNDS AND TEACHERS' SALARIES The salaries of the public school teachers are a matter of vital concern to the Cleveland public from the standpoint of service. In the general competition for teachers Cleveland cannot hope to hold her own unless adequate salaries are paid. The Board of Education now finds itself in a difficult situation. Teaching is a necessity, not a luxury. If it is to be adequate in quality, it must be paid for at rates which are in the long run fixed by the salaries paid in other cities and in other forms of employment. The funds available in Cleveland are not adequate to pay such salaries as are now being received by teach- ers elsewhere. The first step in remedying the situa- tion is to economize in other expenditures. This process has probably been already carried about as far as is wise. The next step is for the Board of Education to present these needs to the public in so convincing a manner that they will insist on their representatives in the state legislature changing the laws so that the Board can secure funds adequate to purchase the teaching services that are imperative necessities in a modern educational system. 102 EXPERIENCE OF TEACHERS One-half of the elementary teachers in the Cleveland schools have had between five and 18 years of ex- perience. One-half of the high school teachers have had between six years and 19 years of experience. The experience of elementary teachers in Cleveland is not strikingly different from that found in other large cities. It is the same, for example, as that of the teachers of New York City. Three-fourths of the teachers in the high schools in cities of 50,000 or over on the accredited list of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools have had five years' experience or less. This would seem to indicate that the teachers in Cleveland high schools are somewhat more experienced than the teachers of the high schools in other cities. EXPERIENCE OP PRINCIPALS The median experience of principals is 32 years, which means that half of the principals of the ele- mentary schools of Cleveland have had 32 years or more of experience. One-fourth of the principals have had 37 years of experience or more, and one- fourth have had 27 years of experience or less. Ex- pressed in another way, half of the principals have had between 27 and 37 years of experience. The fact that the median experience of the ele- mentary teachers is 10 years, and the median ex- perience of elementary principals is 32 years, and that no principal has had less experience than 13 103 years, leads to the generalization that the expectancy of becoming a principal of elementary schools in Cleveland is limited to those who have stayed in the system for a long time. It has become a traditional practice in Cleveland to appoint teachers to princi- palships on the basis of seniority rather than on the basis of preparation and professional qualification. In view of this it may be safe to hazard the opinion that the elementary school principals in Cleveland are likely to be somewhat conservative in regard to the administration of education. AGES OF PRINCIPALS Of the 94 principals listed, half are 52 years of age or older; one-fourth are 57 years or older; one- fourth are 47 years or younger. The middle 50 per cent of these principals are between the ages of 47 and 57 years. In many instances there is a striking contrast be- tween the professional attitude of the principals who are 50 years of age or younger and that of the principals who are 50 years of age or older. In other words, there is a deep educational significance hi the fact that one-fourth of the elementary prin- cipals are 57 years old or older. EDUCATION OP ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS AND ELEMENTARY PRINCIPALS It has become the universal practice of America to set up certain arbitrary educational qualifications 104 No Konaal training 16* ELEMEHTARY TEACHERS Hormal training per cent Hot college graduate* 22' per cent HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS College graduates 78 per cent ELEMENTARY PRINCIPALS Normal graduates 73 per cent Diagram 12. Professional training of elementary teachers. high school teachers, and elementary principals in Cleveland 105 for the position of teachers. These qualifications are checked either by examination or by reports on teaching. Some significant conditions as to the professional training of the teaching force of Cleveland are re- flected in the figures of Diagram 12. These figures indicate that one-sixth of the elementary teachers, nearly one-fourth of the high school teachers, and more than one-fourth of the elementary principals have a less adequate professional preparation for their work than should be required in a truly high- grade city school system. One of the unfortunate conditions existing in the Cleveland school system is that a great majority of the force of the elementary schools of the city have been educated at home and have done all their work here. It is now almost universally recognized that "inbreeding" of a teaching force is accompanied by seriously detrimental results. It is a most valuable part of a teacher's training to secure at least a por- tion of her professional preparation in some other city and thus to get in contact with other schools and other teaching methods. The facts as to home training among Cleveland teachers are graphically presented in Diagram 13. THE PENSION FUND AND TEACHERS WHO ENTER LATE During recent years many teachers have been brought into the school system from outside locali- 106 ELEMENTARY TtACHERS Home trained 83 per cent ELEMENT ART PRINCIPALS ROM trained per cent Diagram 13. Per cent of elementary teachers, high school teachers, and elementary principals in Cleveland who are home trained and not home trained 107 ties. In a seriously large number of cases these teachers have had most meager educational qualifica- tions and have entered the city's service at relatively advanced ages. There are two important reasons why the practice of employing such teachers should be discontinued. The first of these is, of course, that only well- qualified teachers should be employed. The second reason is that the employment of outside teachers who are no longer young has a most serious effect on the future of the pension fund. A pension system providing a maximum of $450 per year has been in operation for a decade. An average of 10 teachers retire on this each year. With respect to the future of the pension fund, there is a great difference between the employment of a teacher who is over 40 and bringing in a teacher who has recently graduated from a normal school and had a year or two of teaching experience. Figures for 10 recent appointments of teachers from outside of Cleveland show that their average age is 43 and that they have had an average teaching experience of 16 years. The salaries paid to teachers are really of two sorts present salary paid from month to month while the teacher is in active service, and deferred salary, which is paid as pension benefits. In the case of the teachers brought in from outside at the age of 43, the probabilities are that the deferred salary will be so large in aggregate amount that each year of teaching service rendered will cost the city 108 more than it would if the teachers were about 20 years younger. The Board would surely deem it a great hardship if it were now forced to pay these outside teachers with their meager qualifications $200 per annum more than the standard salaries paid to graduates of the local Normal School. Neverthe- less this is what it is actually doing and receiving no adequate ben'efit for its heavy investment. For this reason, as well as from considerations of the wel- fare of the children, every endeavor should be made to insist on high qualifications and relative youth as requisites for admitting new members to the teach- ing force. MARRIED TEACHERS Marriage is equivalent to a resignation, but such teachers are re-employed as substitutes. There are at least 250 such substitutes on the payroll. The present arrangement in regard to married teachers is not, in the opinion of the writer, conducive to pro- fessional growth. A better plan would be to employ them outright, giving them the same incentive to superior service and improvement as that given other teachers. TRAINING IN SERVICE Although there is a general statement by the Board encouraging growth in professional knowledge, there has been little definite provision for stimulating teachers in service to improve themselves. In view of the fact that the teachers in Cleveland have been so largely trained at home, have had so 109 much of their experience at home, and are relatively mature, it would seem highly advisable that the Board of Education follow up their suggestion of professional study by a definite organization ade- quately financed, whereby teachers might be stimu- lated to a continuation of professional growth by means of extension courses. The presence of a large number of well-trained men and women in- structors in the normal school, colleges, and near-by state normal school and the strong colleges and uni- versities within the city makes it easily possible for the rapid development of strong extension courses. The St. Louis plan of extension courses for im- proving teachers in service is commended and the suggestion is made that Cleveland might profitably institute similar work. Again it would seem worth while for the city of Cleveland to cooperate with other educational agencies nearby with the view of developing a strong and attractive summer course for teachers. While it is true that the teachers who have had all their experience and schooling in Cleve- land might be profited more by going to a summer school outside of Cleveland, yet there are many teachers who would find a summer session in Cleve- land a valuable means of increasing professional equipment. TEACHERS' MEETINGS Section 10 of the 1915 rules governing the Board of Education reads: "General meetings: teachers' meetings and grade meetings may be called by the 110 superintendent or assistant superintendents from time to time as conditions of the school and work may necessitate." Here we have a general formulation of the policy so far as teachers' meetings are concerned. How- ever, it is a fact that the teachers of Cleveland have had relatively few meetings. Indeed, neither gen- eral, district, nor special meetings have been common during recent years. Only one general meeting has been held during the present administration. Dis- trict teachers' meetings, bringing together all the teachers, are rare. There are few if any meetings calculated to bring together all the teachers of a given subject, say of Latin or English, as is the case in Cincinnati. Building meetings are common in the larger buildings, although some of the smaller buildings have no such meetings. Grade and de- partment meetings in each district are held from time to time. Teachers are not permitted to dismiss early in order that they may have an opportunity to attend these meetings. The general feeling among the teachers and principals seems to be that these meet- ings are a benefit, but that they are also a burden, so much so, indeed, that there is a noticeable degree of hesitation about calling such meetings. Surely there is a decided value in having the teach- ers of Cleveland brought together from time to time for purposes of organization, to say nothing of the value of having frequent meetings for instruction and organization in smaller instructional groups. Ill PROMOTIONS FOR MERIT AND SERVICE Reference to the Board rules in respect to the classi- fication of teachers on the basis of salary reveals the fact that a teacher may be advanced from one class to another with a fixed number of years of experience and the approval of the Board of Education after the recommendation of the school superintendent. Thus, in effect the school superintendent is respon- sible for the promotion of teachers from one salary classification to another. As a basis of judgment the superintendent requires the principal and the super- visor to report on the qualifications of the teachers. This report involves an estimate of teaching ability, executive power, personal influence, professional sin- cerity, general culture, and evidence of professional growth. Although teachers are not promoted on the salary list as soon as and just because they have served the time in each class on the salary schedule, yet it is a fact that relatively few teachers fail of promotion at the expiration of the time limit. In 1914, only 20 failed of promotion. In 1915, 31 failed of promo- tion. In the long run it should be said that Cleveland cannot hope to have the best possible teaching force until adequate salaries are paid and an adequate system of promotion based on evidence of growth in professional ability is established. The present system is not calculated to enable the school officials sharply to draw the line between ordinary and extra- ordinary ability. 112 THE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL The Normal Training School was established in 1874. At the outset provision was made for about 200 students. For many years there have been 10 teachers and a principal on the regular staff of the school. At present it may be said that the Normal Training School is one of the best equipped city training schools in the country. An Observation School employing 11 regular teachers is maintained in connection with the Normal Training School. In addition to the Observation School there are addi- tional facilities for practice and observation in two other elementary schools in the city. The combined teaching staff of these schools is about 50. For the past few years they have been furnishing about 100 new teachers each year. In view of the fact that there are now more than 200 vacancies annually, it is possible that the facilities of the Normal Training School should be extended so as to accommodate a larger number of students. However, it is by no means certain that over 200 new teachers will be required each year in Cleveland for any length of time; neither is it desirable that all the new teachers be trained in Cleveland. An expansion of the training school facilities should be made only after a most careful analysis of conditions. HEALTH OF TEACHERS The average number of absences in the teaching force on account of illness in Cleveland now amounts s 113 to about 80 absent for one session each day. Since a majority are absent for both sessions of the day, this means that more than 40 individuals are out on account of sickness every school day, on the aver- age. These figures apply only to those who receive pay although absent and the real figures are largely in excess of those given, for many are absent without pay and many exceed the 10 days of absence allowed and paid for. Since the Board of Education pays not only the salary of the absent teacher but also that of the substitute as well, the cost of these ab- sences is large, amounting to over $200 a day and to about $40,000 per year for services which the school system pays for but does not receive. TEACHERS' CERTIFICATION The City Board of School Examiners may grant provisional certificates for one year and three years. The system of certification is so administered as to serve only as a minor barrier to entrance to the teach- ing profession of Cleveland. A more rigid system of selection of teachers is recommended. TENURE It should be borne in mind that, despite the fact that appointments are for one year only, relatively few teachers in Cleveland are dropped. In other words, the Cleveland elementary teacher, notwithstanding the fact that she is subject to annual appointment 114 with the possibility of a new assignment of duties, generally finds a steady task teaching the same grade in the same building. Indeed, there are instances on record of teachers being in the same building for more than 40 years. SUBSTITUTES Cleveland has an unusual number of teachers who are called substitutes. There are three types of teachers in this class: first, the beginners; second, married teachers, known as " permanent substitutes " ; third, substitutes who work from day to day and shift from place to place. On January 1, 1916, there were 967 teachers on the substitute list, of whom 96 were high school teachers, 774 elementary teachers, 65 kindergarten teachers, and 32 special teachers. There were more than 600 substitute teachers who were neither on the list of new appointments nor on the list to be called out for ordinary substitute service. This remarkable situa- tion is of concern to the city chiefly in connection with the question as to whether or not this large proportion of substitute teachers on the list of total appointments serves as a help or hindrance toward building up a professional consciousness among the teachers. Cleveland should face this question frankly with a view of either justifying the situa- tion or changing it. It should not go on unchal- lenged. 115 APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS The board rule for the qualifications of teachers sets a high standard, but provides a loop-hole which makes it possible for teachers of widely varying qualifications to be appointed. The superintendent is given the responsibility for the appointment of teachers, but he has neither been adequately safe- guarded by requirements for teachers nor has he until recently been given sufficient means to go outside the city to search for the best teachers available. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. In Cleveland regular elementary teachers begin at a salary of $550 and may advance during a minimum period of 10 years to a salary of $1,000 per year. 2. High school teachers begin at an annual salary of $800 and may advance to $2,000 after 17 years of service. 3. Salaries of elementary principals vary from $1,000 to $2,000 and are based on the number of rooms in the building. 4. In comparison with salaries paid in other cities of similar size, the remuneration of elementary teach- ers is somewhat low, that of high school teachers somewhat high, and that of elementary principals distinctly low. 5. The funds available in Cleveland are not ade- quate to pay such salaries as are being received by teachers elsewhere. The survey urges the board to work for legislative amendments that will result in 116 increased school funds and make possible larger sal- aries. 6. Principalships largely go to the survivors in the system. Half of the elementary principals have had 32 years or more experience. One-fourth of them are 57 years old or older. 7. Seriously large proportions of the teachers have had less adequate professional preparation than should be required in a truly high grade city school system. 8. About five-sixths of the elementary teachers and principals received all their regular training in Cleveland. 9. The future of the pension fund is jeopardized by the present practice of bringing in outside teachers of relatively advanced age. 10. The survey recommends the adoption of more vigorous measures for the improvement of teachers in service. 11. A more rigid system of selection of teachers is recommended. 12. The survey recommends changes in the present practice of employing substitute teachers and arrangements for dealing with married teachers. 117 CHAPTER VII WHAT THE SCHOOLS TEACH AND MIGHT TEACH (Franklin Bobbitt) The fundamental social point of view of this dis- cussion of the courses of study of the Cleveland schools is that effective teaching is preparation for adult life through participation in the activities of life. THE POINT OP VIEW In very early days, when community life was simple, practically all one's education was obtained through participating in community activities, and without systematic teaching. From that day to this, how- ever, the social world has been growing more com- plex. Adults have developed kinds of activities so complicated that youth cannot adequately enter into them and learn them without systematic teach- ing. One of the earliest of these too-complicated ac- tivities was written language reading, writing, spelling. These matters became necessities to the adult world, but youth under ordinary circum- stances could not participate in them as performed 118 by adults sufficiently to master them. They had to be taught; and the school thereby came into ex- istence. A second thing developed about the same time was the complicated number system used by adults. It was too difficult for youth to master through participation only. It too had to be taught, and it offered a second task for the schools. As community vision widened and men's affairs came to extend far beyond the horizon, a need arose for knowledge of the outlying world. This knowledge could rarely be obtained suffi- ciently through travel and observation. There arose the new need for the systematic teaching of geog- raphy. What had hitherto not been a human neces- sity and therefore not an educational essential be- came both because of changed social conditions. Looking at education from this social point of view it is easy to see that there was a time then no particular need existed for history, drawing, science, vocational studies, civics, etc., beyond what one could acquire by mingling with one's associates in the community. These were therefore not then essentials for education. It is just as easy to see that changed social conditions of the present make necessary for every one a fuller and more systematic range of ideas in each of these fields than one can pick up incidentally. These things have thereby become educational essentials. Whether a thing to- day is an educational "essential" or not seems to depend upon two things: whether it is a human necessity today; and whether it is so complex or 119 inaccessible as to require systematic teaching. The number of "essentials" changes from generation to generation. The normal method of education in things not yet put into the schools is participation in those things. One gets his ideas from watching others and then learns to do by doing. There is no reason to believe that as the school lends its help to some of the more difficult things, this normal plan of learning can be set aside and another substituted. Of course the schools must take in hand the difficult portions of the process. Where complicated knowledge is needed, the schools must teach that knowledge. Where drill is required, they must give the drill. But the knowledge and the drill should be given in their relation to the human activities in which they are used. As the school helps young people to take on the nature of adulthood, it will still do so by helping them to enter adequately into the activities of adult- hood. Youth will learn to think, to judge, and to do, by thinking, judging, and doing. They will acquire a sense of responsibility by bearing responsibility. They will take on serious forms of thought by doing the serious things which require serious thought. The social point of view herein expressed is some- tunes characterized as being utilitarian. It may be so; but not in any narrow or undesirable sense. It demands that training be as wide as life itself. It looks to human activities of every type; religious activities; civic activities; the duties of one's call- ing; one's family duties; one's recreations; one's 120 reading and meditation; and the rest of the things that are done by the complete man or woman. READING AND LITERATURE The schools of Cleveland devote far more time to reading than do those of the average city. During the course of his school life, each pupil who finishes the elementary grades in Cleveland receives 1,710 hours of recitation and directed study in reading as against an average of 1,280 hours in progressive cities in general. This is an excess of 430 hours, or 34 per cent. The annual cost of teaching reading being about $600,000, this represents an excess annual in- vestment in this subject of some $150,000. Whether or not this excess investment in reading is justified depends upon the way the time is used. In too large measure this investment of time and money is devoted to mastering the mechanics of reading and to the analytical study of the manner in which the words are combined in sentences and the sentences in paragraphs. The main object of the reading should be the mastery of the thought rather than the study of the construction. Through it the children should gain life-long habits of ex- ploring, through reading, the great fields of history, industry, applied science, life in other lands, travel, invention, biography, and wholesome fiction. To this end the work should be made more extensive and less intensive. One final suggestion finds here its logical place 121 Before the reading work of elementary or high schools can be modernized, the city must purchase the books used in the work. Leaving the supplying of books to private purchase is the largest single obstacle in the way of progress. Men in the business world will have no difficulty in seeing the logic of this. When shoes, for example, were made by hand, each work- man could easily supply his own tools; but now that elaborate machinery has been devised for their manufacture, it has become so expensive that a machine factory must supply the tools. It is so in almost every field of labor where efficiency has been introduced. Now the books to be read are the tools in the teaching of reading. In a former day when a mastery of the mechanics of reading was all that seemed to be needed, the privately purchased text- book could suffice. In our day when other ends are set up beyond and above those of former days, a far more elaborate and expensive equipment is re- quired. The city must now supply the educational tools. It is well to face this issue candidly and to state the facts plainly. Relative failure can be the only possible lot of reluctant communities. They can count on it with the same assurance as that of a manufacturer of shoes who attempts to employ the methods of former days in competition with modern methods. SPELLING In most respects the work agrees with the usual practice in progressive cities; the teaching of a few 122 words in each lesson; the frequent and continuous review of words already taught; taking the words to be taught from the language experience of the pupils; following up words actually misspelled; studying the words from many angles, etc. The teaching of spell- ing should aim to give the pupils complete mastery over those words which they need to use in writing and it should instil in them the permanent habit of watching their spelling as they write. Drill on lists of isolated words should give way to practice in spelling correctly every word in everything written. The dictionary habit should be cultivated, and every written lesson should be a spelling lesson. LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION, GRAMMAR The schools devote about the usual amount of time to training for the correct use of the mother tongue. Most of the time in intermediate and grammar grades is devoted to English grammar. Composi- tion receives only minor attention. In the teaching of grammar too much stress is placed on forms and relations. Of course it is ex- pected that this knowledge will be of service to the pupils in their everyday expression. But such practi- cal application of the knowledge is not the thing to- ward which the work actually looks. The need really achieved is rather the ability to recite well on text- book grammar, and to pass good examinations in the subject. As a matter of fact, facility in oral and written 123 expression is, like everything else, mainly developed through much practice. The form and style of ex- pression are perfected mainly through the conscious and unconscious imitation of good models. Techni- cal grammar plays, or should play, the relatively minor role of assisting students to eliminate and to avoid certain types of error. Since grammar has this perfectly practical function to perform, probably only those things needed should be taught; but more important still, everything taught should be con- stantly put to use by the pupils in their oversight of their own speech and writing. Only as knowledge is put to work is it really learned or assimilated. The work in technical grammar should be con- tinued for the purpose of giving the pupils a founda- tion acquaintance with forms, terms, relations, and grammatical perspective, but this training need not be so extensive and intensive as at present. The time saved should be given to oral and written expression in connection with the reading of history, geography, industrial studies, civics, sanitation, and the like. MATHEMATICS Cleveland gives more time to mathematics than does the average city. The content of courses in mathe- matics is to be determined by human needs. A fun- damental need of our scientific age is more accurate quantitative thinking about our vocations, civic problems, taxation, income, insurance, expendi- tures, public improvements, and the multitude of 124 other public and private problems involving quanti- ties. We need to think accurately and easily in quantities, proportions, forms, and relationships. Arithmetic teaching, like the teaching of penman- ship, is for the purpose of providing tools to be used in matters that lie beyond. The present course of study is of superior character, providing for efficient elementary training and dispensing with most of the things of little practical use. The greatest improve- ment in the work is to be found in its further carry- ing over into the other fields of school work and in applying it in other classes as well as in the arith- metic class. In the advanced classes mathematics should be differentiated according to the needs of different pupils. Algebra should be more closely re- lated to practical matters and developed in connec- tion with geometry and trigonometry. HISTORY The curriculum makers for elementary education do not seem to have placed a high valuation upon his- tory. Apparently it has not been considered an es- sential study of high worth, like reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and arithmetic. To history are allotted but 290 hours in Cleveland, as against 496 hours in the average of 50 progressive American cities. This discrepancy should give the city pause and concern. If a mistake is being made, it is more likely to be on the part of an individual city than upon that of 50 cities. The probability is that Cleve- land is giving too little time to this subject. 125 History receives much less attention in this city than in the average city. The character of the work is really indicated by the last sentence of the eighth grade history assignment: "The text of our book should be thoroughly mastered." The work is too brief, abstract, and barren to help the pupils toward an understanding of the social, political, economic, and industrial problems with which we are con- fronted. It should be amply supplemented by a wide range of reading on social welfare topics. This reading should be biographical, anecdotal, thrilling dramas of human achievement, rich with human in- terest. It should be at every stage on the level with the understanding and degree of maturity of the pupils so that much reading can be covered rapidly. The textbooks of the present type can be employed as a part of this preliminary training. Read in their entirety and read rapidly, they give one that per- spective which comes from a comprehensive view of the entire field. But they are too short and too ex- clusively devoted to the presentation of bare facts to afford valuable concrete historical experience. They are excellent reference books for gaining and keeping historical perspective. Reading of the character that we have here called preliminary should not cease as the other historical studies are taken up. The general studies should cer- tainly continue for some portion of the time through the grammar grades and high school, but it probably should be mainly supervised reading of interesting 126 materials rather than recitation and examination work. We would recommend that the high schools give careful attention to the recommendation of the Na- tional Education Association Committee on the Re- organization of the Secondary Course of Study in History. Civics Civic training scarcely finds a place upon the ele- mentary school program. The manual suggests that one-quarter of the history time 10 to 20 minutes per week in the fifth and sixth grades should be given to a discussion of such civic topics as the depart- ment of public service, street cleaning, garbage dis- posal, health and sanitation, the city water supply, the mayor and the council, the treasurer, and the auditor. The topics are important, but the time al- lowed is inadequate and the pupils of these grades are so immature that no final treatment of such com- plicated matters is possible. For seventh and eighth grades, the manual makes no reference to civics. This is the more surprising because Cleveland is a city in which there has been no end of civic dis- cussion and progressive human-welfare effort. The extraordinary value of civic education in the ele- mentary school, as a means of furthering civic wel- fare, should have received more decided recognition. The elementary teachers and principals of Cleve- land might profitably make such a civic survey as that made in Cincinnati as the method of discover- 127 ing the topics that should enter a grammar grade course. The heavy emphasis upon this subject should be reserved for the later grades of the elementary school. GEOGRAPHY Geography in Cleveland is given the customary amount of time, though it is distributed over the grades in a somewhat unusual way. It is exception- ally heavy in the intermediate grades and corre- spondingly light in the grammar grades. As geog- raphy, like all other subjects, is more and more humanized and socialized in its reference, much more time will be called for in the last two grammar grades. A new course of study in geography is now being put into use. The work as laid out in the old manual and as seen in the classrooms has been forbiddingly formal. It has mainly consisted of the teacher as- signing to the pupils a certain number of paragraphs or pages in the textbook as the next lesson, and then questioning them next day to ascertain how much of this printed material they have remembered and how well. The new course of study recognizes, on the contrary, that the proper end of geographical teach- ing is rather to stimulate and guide the children to- ward an inquiring interest as to how the world is made, and the skies above, and the waters round about, and the conditions of nature that limit and determine in a measure the development of man- kind. To attain this ideal will require in every school 128 10 times as adequate provision of geographical read- ing and geographical material as is now found in the best equipped school. DRAWING AND APPLIED ART The elementary schools are giving the usual propor- tion of time to drawing and applied art. The time is distributed, however, in a somewhat unusual, but probably justifiable, manner. Whereas the subject usually receives more time in the primary grades than in the grammar grades, in Cleveland, in quite the reverse way, the subject receives its greatest emphasis in the higher grades. Drawing and applied art have been taught in Cleveland since 1849. The object of the teaching is to develop an understanding and appreciation of the principles of graphic art and ability to use these principles in practical applications. Where this work is done best, it shows, in both the elementary and high schools, balanced understanding and com- plete modernness. What is needed is extension of this best type of work to all parts of the city through specially trained departmental teachers. MANUAL TRAINING AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS In the grammar grades manual and household train- ing receives an average proportion of the time. In the grades before the seventh, the subject receives considerably less than the usual amount of time. 129 It is easy to see the social and educational justi- fication of courses in sewing, cooking, household sanitation, household decoration, etc., for the girls. They assist in the training for complicated vocational activities performed in some degree at least by most women. Where women are so situated that they do not actually perform them, they need, for properly supervising others and for making intelligible and appreciative use of the labors of others, a consider- able understanding of these various matters. Where this work for girls is at its best in Cleveland, it ap- pears to be of a superior character and should be ex- tended along lines now being followed. When we turn to the manual training of the boys, we are confronted with problems of much greater difficulty. Women's household occupations, so far as retained in the home, are unspecialized. Each well-trained household worker does or supervises much the same range of things as every other. To give the entire range of household occupations to all girls is a simple and logical arrangement. But man's labor is greatly specialized throughout. There is no large remnant of unspecialized labor common to all, as in the case of women. In the case of men the unspecialized field has disappeared. There is nothing of labor to give to boys except that which has become specialized. A fundamental problem arises. Shall we give boys access to a variety of specialized occupations so that they may become acquainted, through responsible performance, with the wide and diversified field of 130 man's labor? Or shall we give them some less spe- cialized sample out of that diversified field so that they may obtain, through contact and experience, some knowledge of the things that make up the world of productive labor? Cleveland's reply, to judge from actual practices, is that a single sample will be sufficient for all except those who attend technical and special schools. The city has therefore chosen joinery and cabinet- making as this sample. Much of this work is of a rather formal character, apparently looking toward that manual discipline formerly called "training of eye and hand," instead of consciously answering to the demands of social purposes. The regular teachers look upon the fifth and sixth grade sloyd which they teach with no great enthusiasm. Seventh and eighth grade teachers do not greatly value the work. The report recommends that manual training be continued, extended, and diversified with the double object of helping solve the problems of vocational guidance and of acquainting boys with the nature of work and work responsibility through experience. ELEMENTARY SCIENCE This subject finds no place upon the program. No elaborate argument should be required to convince the authorities in charge of the school system of a modern city like Cleveland that in this ultra-scien- tific age the children who do not go beyond the ele- mentary school and they constitute a majority 131 need to possess a working knowledge of the rudi- ments of science if they are to make their lives effective. Elementary science finds no place in the course of study of Cleveland. The future citizens of Cleveland will need an understanding of electricity, heat, ex- pansion, and contraction of gases and solids, the mechanics of machines, distillations, common chemi- cal reactions, and the multitude of other matters of science met with daily in their activities. The schools should help supply this need. PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE Teaching in matters pertaining to health is assigned little time in the elementary schools, and the time that is assigned to it is frequently given to something else. The subject gets pushed off the program by one of the so-called "essentials." The survey recom- mends that four steps be taken to help remedy the situation: 1. A course in hygiene and sanitation, based upon an abundance of reading, should be drawn up and taught by the regular teachers in the grammar school grades. 2. The schools should arrange for practical appli- cations of the preparatory knowledge in as many ways as possible. Children in relays can look after the ventilation, temperature, humidity, dust, light, and other sanitary conditions of schoolrooms and grounds. 3. The corps of school nurses should be gradually 132 enlarged, and after a time they can be given any needed training for teaching that will enable them, as the work is departmentalized in the grammar grades, to become departmental teachers in this sub- ject for a portion of their time. 4. The things recommended for the elementary schools need to be carried out in the high schools also. PHYSICAL TRAINING Physical training is given about as much time as in the average city, but without adequate facilities for outdoor and indoor plays and games. At present the work is too largely of the formal gymnastic type. Desirable improvements in the course are being ad- vocated by the directors and supervisors of the work. They are recommending and introducing, where con- ditions will permit, the use of games, athletics, folk dances, and the like. The movement should be pro- moted in every possible way. Music In the elementary schools Cleveland gives more than the average amount of time to music, but in the high schools the subject is developed only incidentally and is given no credit. It is a question whether this arrangement is the right one, and in considering possible extensions it should be remembered that there are other subjects of far more pressing immedi- ate necessity. 133 FOREIGN LANGUAGES It is impossible in the brief survey report to discuss adequately so complicated a matter as that of the teaching of foreign languages in the high schools, but some of the most important of the questions at issue have been indicated as matters which the school authorities should continue to study until satis- factory solutions are reached. DIFFERENTIATION OF COURSES In a city with a population so diversified as is that of Cleveland, progress should be made steadily and con- sciously away from city-wide uniformity in courses of study and methods of teaching. There should be progressive differentiation of courses to meet the widely varying needs of the different sorts of chil- dren in different sections of the city. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. A fundamental principle of the curriculum should be that effective teaching is preparation for adult life through participation in the activities of life. 2. The work in reading should be made more ex- tensive and less intensive, and as a means toward this end the city should adopt the free textbook policy. 3. Work in spelling needs further modernization through concentration on the words most frequently used in adult life and through the development of a 134 habit of watchfulness over spelling during the process of writing. 4. Less time should be devoted to formal grammar and more to oral and written expression in connection with the reading of history, geography, industrial studies, civics, sanitation, and the like. 5. The present course of study in arithmetic is of superior character, providing for efficient elementary training and dispensing with most of the things of little practical use. 6. The work in history should be made less brief, abstract, and barren by providing an abundance of reading on important and interesting social topics. 7. The teaching of civics receives too little atten- tion. 8. The development of a new course in geography is commended, and attention is called to the need for greatly increased provision of geographical read- ing and material. 9. The teaching of household arts is commended and the recommendation is made that manual train- ing for boys should be extended and broadened with a view to giving the pupils real contact with more types of industry than those represented by the pres- ent woodwork. 10. Courses in elementary science should be estab- lished. 11. Teaching in matters pertaining to health should be given more time and a course in hygiene should be drawn up. 12. More of the time devoted to physical training 135 should be devoted to plays and games and less to formal gymnasium work. 13. More attention should be given to the pro- gressive differentiation of courses to meet the widely varied needs of the different sorts of children in the different sections of the city. 14. Where school work in Cleveland is backward, it is because it has not yet taken on the social point of view. Where it is progressive, it is being developed on the basis of human needs. There is much of both kinds of work in Cleveland. 136 CHAPTER VIII MEASURING THE WORK OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Charles Hubbard Judd) The studies included in this report are in an im- portant sense of the term the central studies of the educational survey. Seven members of the Survey Staff devoted a large part of their time to the collec- tion and interpretation of the data presented. In the latest report of the superintendent of schools, it was stated that in June, 1914, 10,000 pupils in the elementary schools failed to be pro- moted. This is a record of 10,000 educational and social problems. Furthermore, the same report states that nearly 1,400 of these 10,000 pupils were repeating the work of their grades and were, there- fore, failing for a second time in the same courses. This means that in 1,400 cases repetition of the work was unsuccessful in overcoming the trouble. These figures present in a striking way one of the questions which all who are interested in the schools must face. The teachers and principals find, when they try to administer the present course of study to children of the type who attend the Cleveland schools that 10,000 children, or on the average every seventh 137 child, fails for some reason to meet the normal ex- pectation that a half year's work can be done during each semester. The result of non-promotion is that the schools become congested in the lower grades; children become discouraged and give up trying to do their work; and the whole machinery is clogged by these failures. AGGREGATE FAILURES IN ALL GRADES Diagram 14 shows the percentage of failures in each grade for the whole system and for three successive June promotions. It will be seen that in June, 1913, there was a failure of 17 per cent of all the pupils in the first grade. In the same year there failed in the second grade only 12.6 per cent. The high percentage of failures in the first grade is partly explained by the fact that children have some difficulty during the first year in adjusting them- selves to school conditions. It is true almost every- where in the country that there are many failures in the first grade. The decrease in percentage of failures in the second grade is also in keeping with the experience of other school systems and indi- cates that school work is going forward better after the adjustments made in the first grade. The favorable promise of the second grade is, however, not fulfilled by the subsequent grades. Steadily the third, fourth, and fifth grades show an impressive increase in non-promotions. This means that problems are multiplying and are not being 138 solved. The sixth grade seems to be better, though it will be noted that the situation is no better than it was in the first grade. Furthermore, the apparent Per cent 20 10 \ A X ^1 191U 1915 1913 123^567* GRADES Diagram 14. Per cent of failures in each grade for three successive June promotions improvement in the sixth grade is partly deceptive, because by this grade some children have been eliminated. In the seventh grade conditions grow 139 no better. In the eighth grade the situation is better than elsewhere. MENTAL INCAPACITY AS AN EXPLANATION The superintendent's published reports contain each year a table showing the reasons assigned by the teachers for non-promotions. The most conspicuous cause of non-promotion is "mental incapacity." A study of the figures of the reports shows that in- capacity follows the same general lines as non-pro- motion. One can hardly escape the conclusion that if mental incapacity steadily increases in the third, fourth, and fifth grades, and stands at a high level in the sixth and seventh, there must be some ques- tion about the appropriateness of the demands made upon the pupils in these grades. FAILURES IN SUBJECTS Non-promotion means, of course, that pupils have not met the requirements of their grades in the par- ticular subjects taught in these grades. Our study of the problem can, therefore, be carried further by examining the records of pupils in some of the lead- ing subjects in the course of study. FAILURES IN READING In reading there is a very large percentage of failures in the first grade. The percentage drops in the second and third grades, and from this point on the number 140 of failures is relatively small and steadily decreasing. This represents what would naturally be expected in any subject which is carried throughout the grades, and is successful in its training of the children. The results in reading thus stand in sharp contrast with the general results presented in Diagram 14. There is no evidence in the records of reading that men- tal incapacity increases in the intermediate grades. Evidently we may infer from the reports in reading that the schools look upon their work in this subject as in the main successful. FAILURES IN ARITHMETIC The reports on arithmetic are altogether different from those on reading, and bring us back to the strik- ing problems raised by a study of Diagram 14. It should be noted that a new course in arithmetic went into operation with the opening of the present school year. The records relate to the old course. In the first grade only a little arithmetic appeared in the course of study. After this grade arithmetic becomes an important subject, and the number of failures increased enormously through the third, fourth, and fifth grades. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades there was a decline, although the per- centage of failures remained relatively high. The striking resemblance between many of the characteristics of these arithmetic results and those of the general curve of non-promotion can hardly escape the most casual observer. It is obvious that 141 one of the major reasons for the increase in non- promotions from the third to the fifth grades was the difficulty which children encountered in arith- metic. As indicated above, the course in arithmetic has been modified, and it is to be hoped that in the future no such record of failures will be possible. The sig- nificance of such studies as those which are set forth here is thus illustrated. If such comparisons are made up from year to year and adopted as a basis of supervision, those subjects which are giving the chil- dren serious difficulty will immediately be recog- nized. The change in arithmetic is to be commended. RECORDS OF INDIVIDUAL GRADES AND SCHOOLS In the complete report the comparisons that have been mentioned are fully illustrated by diagrams and tables. Moreover, they are supplemented by a pres- entation of the records of failures in other sub- jects. All of this is rendered still more illuminating by carrying the study down to the individual schools. The results of these comparisons show that: (1) The per cent of failures varies from none in some schools to more than 30 in others. (2) In some schools practically all the children have regularly been sent forward at each promotion period over a series of years. (3) In other schools a large proportion of all children have failed of promotion at each period for several years. (4) Some schools have had almost no 142 failures at certain promotion periods and a great many at other periods. (5) In some schools there are numerous failures in the lower grades. In others they occur in the intermediate grades and in still others in the higher grades. THE NEED FOR SCIENTIFIC SUPERVISION It is perfectly clear that the facts of non-promotion show a lack of complete organization and unity within the school system. An analysis like that pre- sented in the report represents a type of supervision, based on fact, which must come in every school system. There was a time when small school sys- tems and relatively simple courses of study could be governed and supervised by central school officials who could keep under direct personal observation all the activities of the teachers. Opinion was the basis of action. That time has passed. In a system of one hundred elementary schools, methods of supervision must be worked out and put in operation which are impersonal. Cleveland should at once set up the administrative machinery for making con- stant, exhaustive studies of non-promotions and of other problems of a similar nature. There is a special technique of administrative inquiry which should be cultivated in school systems, as it is being culti- vated in all great business concerns. Money spent in central administration is well spent if it produces a system of scientific general supervision. 143 OBSERVATIONS IN THE SCHOOLS As a preliminary to more exact studies of the results of classwork, members of the Survey Staff visited TABLE 7. RECITATIONS ON WHICH WRITTEN REPORTS WERE MADE BY MEMBERS OF THE SURVEY STAFF Elementary schools High schools Reading 453 English 34 Arithmetic 146 Domestic science 18 Language Domestic science 83 57 Drawing German 18 16 Geography Spelling History 52 44 42 Shop work Civics History 16 15 13 Manual training 30 Latin 13 Writing 27 Physics 11 Physical training 25 Geometry 10 Music 19 Algebra 9 Sewing 11 Bookkeeping 9 Sense training 10 Manual training 9 Drawing 9 Physical training 8 Nature study Supervised study 8 8 Physiology Arithmetic 8 7 German 7 Geography e Physiology 7 Chemistry 6 Unclassified 5 Supervised study I Total 1.043 Typewriting Botany 4 Oratory 4 Printing 3 Evening schools Shop work English 21 12 Writing Banking Salesmanship 3 2 2 Drawing Dressmaking 8 8 Total 253 7 Reading History 7 4 Special classes Millinery 4 Backward 34 Grammar 3 Defective 33 Agriculture Chemistry 2 2 Deaf Industrial 20 15 Geography 2 Cripple 14 Spelling 1 Blind 13 Total 81 Training centers Boys' school 12 Steamer 11 Open air 10 Epileptic 1 Total 176 144 all the schools of the city. Table 7 shows the number and distribution of these visits, 1,553 in number. Every building in the city was visited at least once and many of them were visited repeatedly. The largest number of visits to any single building was 31. The total number of building visits was 632 and that of school room visits 1,553. METHODS OF RECORDING VISITS Each visit was recorded on a card. The upper part of the card, after locating the visit by school and date, described the visitor's first impression about the physical conditions of the building. Then came a description of the pupils and their reactions. Third, the teacher and the methods employed in instruc- tion were reported. Finally, there were remarks on the course of study, the character of supervision in that school, and matters in general. These cards were filed in the office of the survey. Whenever a spe- cialist studying some other phase of the work came to join the staff, these cards gave him an opportunity to learn something of the instructional side of the work. Whenever something of special interest about a school turned up, the cards were consulted for further light or for confirmation. In some cases re- peated visits were made. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS FROM VISITS Among the general conclusions repeatedly noted by those who observed the work in the classrooms there are several that stand out as being particularly im- 10 145 portant. The first of these is that the Cleveland schools face a grave problem in the number of chil- dren from homes where the influence of European life is still very strong. The problems which grow out of a lack of English training at home are numerous and urgent. Especially in the lower grades it is evi- dent that the reading matter supplied to foreign chil- dren is often ill adapted to their needs. Attention to the needs of foreign children ought to bring into the schools more studies of a social type which will acquaint all the children with the organ- ization of the city and the duty of the individual to the community. Many such studies could profitably be prepared by the pupils themselves. EMPHASIS ON TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS Even the casual visitor in the Cleveland schools notices the great emphasis which is laid on the tra- ditional subjects. The course of study has been very little expanded. This is sometimes expressed in the statement that "Cleveland has not gone after fads." So conservative has the system been that many new and productive lines of work have not been taken up. In the light of present-day experience, the pres- ent course of study appears to be narrower than Cleveland ought to have and the emphasis on formal training is excessive. BEHAVIOR IN CLASSES EXCELLENT One fact noted on all sides is that the order in most schools is excellent. The children seem to be docile 146 and willing to do what is asked. To be sure, there is at times a lack of spontaneity and enthusiasm; but quiet, orderly conduct was everywhere the rule. FLUCTUATIONS IN QUALITY OF TEACHING AND SUPERVISION An impression which was reported by every observer is that the quality of the instruction exhibited throughout the system is very uneven. Here and there some teacher stands out as full of energy and as thoroughly in command of his or her sphere of action. On the other hand, some cases of teaching were observed which are so bad that it is surprising to find them in the system. OBSERVATIONS ON SUPERVISION It is the judgment of the Survey Staff that super- vision is one of the weakest phases of the school system of Cleveland. There are principals in both the elementary and the high schools who are with- out sufficient training for their duties, without ade- quate information as to what is going on about them, and without comprehensive grasp of educational problems. Many of the elementary principals have had little contact with the current educational move- ments. Many of them have been in the system for a long, long time and are conducting the schools today on the basis of opinions about school organization which originated before the stirring developments in 147 education which have brought new and better equipped buildings, a richer course of study, and scientific methods of supervision. The high school principals spend too much time and energy in the discussion of matters that smack of competition be- tween different high schools. In the meantime it is obvious that the high schools of Cleveland are very much in need of supervision. Good supervision would eliminate some of the very bad teaching that was seen and would unify the high school system so that it would become a cooperating system of institutions. DEARTH OF MEN IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Another impressive characteristic of Cleveland is the dearth of men in the elementary schools. The boys of Cleveland suffer by not having men to con- sult, especially in the upper grades. In other sec- tions of the report the salaries paid to principals are discussed. Men would cost more than Cleveland is now paying for elementary principals. The invest- ment would undoubtedly pay. CENTRAL SUPERVISION One other matter which falls under the head of com- ment rather than under the head of observation in the schools may be formulated in the statement that the central administrative officers who are in charge of the schools have in their hands a great body of information which lies undigested year after year. The statistical department is burdened with re- 148 quisitions for supplies and there is no surplus energy to do more than collect and tabulate reports. Cleve- land has a body of statistical material now on hand which is not paralleled for richness and value any- where in the country. This material ought to be used for administrative purposes and not merely pub- lished from year to year without comment. TESTS AND STATISTICAL STUDIES As soon as the visiting of classes was well under way, the Survey Staff asked the superintendent and the teachers to cooperate in bringing together a body of material which should exhibit in detail what was going on in some of the simpler phases of school work. This request met with a most cordial response and papers were collected showing the ability of pupils to write, spell, and work out simple arithmetical combinations. Tests were also carried on by the teachers and others in reading. The principals pre- pared certain reports, especially full reports of the standings of all pupils in the eighth grades and high school. This cooperation brought to hand abundant evidence on which to base a wholly impersonal view of the classwork of the schools. TESTS SHOW WIDE VARIATIONS IN GRADES The impressive fact which always stands out in examining the results of a series of tests is the need in schools of more definite standards of work. 149 Teachers are working in ignorance of what they ought to accomplish and of what others are ac- complishing. The fifth grade in one school spells a certain list of words with the high average of 88 per cent, while three fifth grades in other schools spell the same list with the low average of 58 per cent. In measurements of handwriting it was found that one fifth grade writes more than twice as fast as another and one shows twice the excellence in quality shown by another. In arithmetic and read- ing there are wide differences. TESTS REVEAL LACK OF DEFINITE AIMS AT MANY POINTS Second, every test shows that progress from grade to grade can be clearly defined. When the results are put together, they show that there is a law of progress. Once the law is exhibited, it is possible to judge how far individual schools conform. That this method of checking school work has not been used by teachers and supervisors appears from the erratic and often retrograde scores made by suc- cessive grades in the same school. Thus the fourth grades in Cleveland schools average less well than the third grades in ability to interpret what they read. Certain schools overemphasize speed in writ- ing, while others overemphasize perfection of form. In arithmetic, some sixth grades fall below the fifth grades in the same school and even below the fourth grades in mastery of the fundamental operations. 150 TESTS AS A BASIS OF ADMINISTRATION No school system can free itself entirely from the difficulties which are so clearly revealed by these tests and comparisons. The children in different schools differ one from another; teachers of different degrees of efficiency are sure to be found in all parts of the system. But every school system should make comparative studies the basis of supervision. In a certain sense this has been done in the past by the supervisor who has visited from room to room to impress on teachers the standards which in his judg- ment are proper for each school. Comparisons of this type must be superseded in a great school system by more general comparisons and by comparisons more nearly exact in method. The motive of the survey is to exhibit the need of such exact general comparisons so vividly that the community will be prepared to support a continual survey of all the work done in the schools. TESTS OF HANDWRITING It is relatively simple to gather samples of hand- writing from all the schools. This was accordingly undertaken as the first test of the series. UNIFORM CONDITIONS Even in the case of handwriting, it is necessary, if the results are to be compared, to secure material 151 that is produced under conditions as nearly uniform as possible. The teachers who were to administer the test were therefore asked to prepare for the text in advance by requiring the children to memorize a familiar passage so that they might write the words without the distraction which would come from attempting to write from dictation or from copy. The first three sentences of Lincoln's Gettysburg speech were used for this purpose. When the day for the test arrived, all the children in the fifth to the eighth grades were asked to write as much as possible in exactly two minutes. SCOPE OF THE CLEVELAND TEST Specimens were collected from 25,387 children in the fifth to eighth grades. For purposes of this report a part of the results were worked up in full. About 10,000 of these results were used. They were taken entirely at random, and since they were drawn from 36 schools, they may safely be regarded as repre- sentative of the whole system. INDIVIDUAL RATES OP SPEED A tabulation was made of the writing speeds of all the children supplying specimens. The results showed that some pupils wrote at a rate of less than nine letters per minute while others wrote almost 130 letters per minute. The fastest writers wrote more than 25 times as fast as the slowest ones. 152 SPEED IN VARIOUS GRADES The average results for entire grades were scarcely less surprising than those showing the great variation between individuals. The slowest fifth grade proved to be only one-half as fast in its writing as the fastest fifth grade. A corresponding condition was found in the case of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Moreover, the figures show so great an overlapping in speed of writing among the different grades that if the upper half of the fifth grades should change places with the poorer half of the eighth grades the general record of the latter grades would actually be improved. METHOD OF RATING QUALITY Up to this point only speed has been considered. More important than speed is quality. It is, however, a more difficult task to determine the quality of a specimen of handwriting. The device in common use for such rating is to compare a given specimen with a series of specimens which have been arranged in order of legibility. It would be possible to get a scoring for quality by comparing the Cleveland specimens with one another and grading each with such marks as "excellent," "good," etc., but the use of a standardized series has been found to give greater precision to the ranking, because judgment is supported by constant references back to the standard series of specimens. It also makes possible comparison with writing in other school systems. Furthermore, the standard series of samples has 153 been so arranged that the successive steps upward in quality may be regarded as equal. The satis- factory rating of specimens depends on some practice even when the standard series is used. As a matter of practical procedure the Survey Staff spent some time and effort training a group of Cleveland teachers in the rating of specimens of handwriting. For the purposes of this report, however, 10,528 specimens were graded by a member of the Survey Staff espe- cially trained in the work. VARIATIONS IN QUALITY The results of the rating for quality show that here, as in speed, the most striking variation exists be- tween grades which are officially recognized as parallel. Furthermore, there is the same overlapping of grades, several of the fifth grades ranking higher than the average eighth grade. RELATION OP SPEED AND QUALITY After determining the speed and quality of each specimen, it becomes possible to work out with great exactness the relation between these two character- istics. It is evident from ordinary experience that quality commonly deteriorates when speed is empha- sized, and that speed is slow when one tries to write especially well. The school is constantly in the posi- tion of seeking some reasonable balance between speed and quality. 154 By combining the records for both speed and quality the survey was able to define a model series of both where improvement in one does not seem to interfere with the other. This general area lies be- tween quality 60 and 80 and between speed 60 and 80. Greater speed seems to be purchased at an undue sacrifice of quality and higher quality seems to re- sult in much lower speed. This area probably de- fines the limits of profitable effort to improve pupils. EMPHASIS IN VARIOUS SCHOOLS The relative emphasis on speed and quality actually found in a number of different schools is set forth in Diagram 15. The separate parts of this diagram are made up as follows : The average speed of a grade is represented by distances in the horizontal and average quality by distances in the vertical scale. Thus, taking the first section of the diagram, that of the North Doan School, the fifth grade has an average speed of 71 letters per minute, and an aver- age quality of 41. The sixth grade shows progress in both speed and quality, though speed increases more than quality. The seventh and eighth grades show further progress in both speed and quality, the two changing at about the same rate. The diagram for the Kentucky School shows progress of a slightly different type. In this school the sixth grade, as compared with the fifth, shows progress in quality, but very little in speed. Progress from the sixth grade on is about equal in quality and speed. Me- 155 QUALITY 50 SPEED SO 60 70 80 TO 50(0708090 Diagram 15. Average quality and average speed of hand- writing of pupils of four upper grades in 10 schools. Quality on vertical scale, speed on horizontal scale 156 morial School emphasizes speed almost exclusively up to the eighth grade, while Mt. Pleasant empha- sizes quality. The various schools which have been reported in the four upper sections of the diagram are all regular in the sense that each school shows steady progress from grade to grade in both speed and quality. Without attempting to comment in detail on the special cases, attention is called to the series of re- sults presented in the lower part of the diagram. These exhibit the most extraordinary fluctuations in emphasis. They tell their own story with perfect clearness. Also they illustrate the necessity of an exact study of standards. COMPARISON OF CLEVELAND WITH OTHER CITIES The question will doubtless arise in the minds of Cleveland teachers, " How do the schools here com- pare with those in other cities?" A comparison with available standards from 12 other cities shows that in both speed and quality the Cleveland schools are superior to those elsewhere in the fifth and sixth grades and inferior in the seventh and eighth. RECOMMENDATIONS The best form of supervision is that which can be secured through repetition of the tests. Any school which finds its sixth grade far ahead in speed but far behind in quality has its problem for that grade 157 more clearly defined than it can be by any purely personal judgment of a supervisor. TESTS OF SPELLING Tests of spelling are definite in their results because the words can be given and can be scored with few of the complications which are involved in tests in the other subjects. Furthermore, it is easy to com- pare Cleveland with other cities because a recent study has made available a very large body of results from 84 cities. Two complete spelling tests were ac- cordingly made in all the regular elementary schools in all grades from the second to the eighth. WORDS FOB THE TESTS The words for these tests were selected from the 1,000 words most commonly used in written and printed matter, such as letters, newspapers, and books. These 1,000 words have been divided through elaborate studies into groups of approximately equal difficulty. Accepting the results of the earlier studies, two sets of 20 words were made up for each grade. NUMBER OF RETURNS In the first test 1,068,080 spellings were secured from 53,404 pupils; in the second, 1,033,360 spellings from 51,668 pupils. 158 VARIATION IN SCHOOLS AND GRADES As in the case of handwriting, it appears from the spelling tests that there is great difference in attain- ment in the various schools. These differences are impressive when it is borne in mind, as pointed out in the last chapter, that these are not differences be- tween individual pupils, but between whole grades. For example, all the second grades of one school spell correctly only 44 per cent of the words while those of another school succeed in spelling 98 per cent of them. The fourth grades of one building spell correctly 52 per cent of the words, while those of another building spell 87 per cent of them. It was found that in some schools the lower grades made good records and the upper ones poor records while in others it was the upper grades that did well and the lower grades that did poorly. In still others the intermediate grades excelled. In other cases all of the grades made good showings or all of them made poor ones. CLEVELAND HAS AN AVERAGE RECORD A comparison with other cities shows that Cleveland is exactly at the average. When the large foreign population is considered, this is a good showing. When, on the other hand, the possibilities of improve- ment are considered as clearly set forth in the com- parative tables, it becomes evident that Cleveland ought to aim at a position above the average. The schools which are low ought to be raised to the stan- dard of those which are above the average. 159 RECOMMENDATIONS Supervision should aim here, as in handwriting, to secure greater uniformity throughout the city. If schools continue under supervision to show wide differences, a study should be made of the methods employed in the more successful schools. The words used in the spelling exercises should be selected with a view to training pupils in the mastery of common words which they will use frequently. To this end the vocabulary of ordinary school life should be closely watched and recorded. STUDIES OF ARITHMETIC The tests in arithmetic were made before the new course of study went into operation. This report has the great advantage of being a definite record of con- ditions at the time when the course was changed. From the third grade to the eighth there is here a very comprehensive record of the knowledge which the pupils now possess in the fundamentals of arith- metic. It will be quite possible a few months hence to determine with precision the success of the change so far as fundamental operations are concerned. SPIRAL CHARACTER OF THE TEST The test which was given to all the A grades in the system included a number of different forms of each of the fundamental operations. Thus, in addition 160 the first and simplest exercise of the test consisted in adding pairs of figures. Later in the series, addi- tion appeared again, but in a more elaborate form. It was here required that a short column of figures be added. The third case of addition consisted in the adding of fractions of like denominators. The fourth case consisted in the addition of a longer column of figures. This differs from short-column addition in the fact that a greater effort of attention is required in order to complete the addition. Addition of four- place figures, which requires carrying forward from one column to the next, and addition of fractions of unlike denominators, constituted the final and most elaborate stages of the addition process. The purpose of introducing these various types of addition was to test the ability of the different grades to perform increasingly elaborate operations. Similar spiral tests in subtraction, multiplication, and division were interwoven with the exercises in addition. TEST OF SPEED In the second place, the test was so presented that the rate of the work in the different grades could be determined. For example, taking the simplest of the processes of addition, the opportunity was pro- vided on the test sheet for the pupil to perform a large number of operations. The time during which he was allowed to work on this part of the test was limited to 30 seconds. The result was that no child ex- hausted the possibilities that were offered on the " 161 test sheet. The test shows, therefore, both the com- plexity of the processes which a given grade can master and also the number of examples of a given type that can be performed in the specified time. A detailed description of the test can be coupled with a presentation of the results for the city as a whole. We turn, therefore, directly to the general results. These are presented in Diagram 16. Each horizontal line in the diagram is proportionate in length to the median number of examples solved in a given grade. In the short sections which follow the tests are briefly described and some indication given of the interpretation of the results. It is, however, im- possible to give in this summary any full interpreta- tion and the student who wishes to understand fully the outcome of the tests and the conclusions derived must study the fuller explanation presented in Pro- fessor Judd's volume. TEST A Test A dealt with the addition of simple one-place numbers. These numbers were printed one above the other in pairs and the pupil was required to write the results as fast as possible for a period of 30 seconds. The results show that ability to add simple figures had reached a relatively high stage in the third grade. From this point on the improvement exhibited grows relatively less as we approach the end of the ele- mentary course. 162 Diagram 16. Median records for all schools in 15 arithmetic tests. Figures at the left end of each line indicate grades; figures at the right end show the median score of the grade 163 TEST B Test B required the pupils to subtract one-place numbers from one-place and two-place numbers. It is interesting to note to what extent subtraction is a more difficult process than addition as shown by the lower median scores in subtraction. Furthermore, it should be noted that in the upper grades the record in subtraction begins to overtake the record in ad- dition. TEST C Test C deals with multiplication. One-place num- bers are multiplied by one-place numbers. The resemblance between the general rates of improve- ment in multiplication and addition will be obvious from an inspection of the diagrams. TEST D Test D deals with simple division of one-place and two-place numbers by one-place numbers. Divi- sion evidently is more difficult throughout the schools than addition and subtraction. TEST E Test E deals with the addition of short single columns of figures. There were in the columns of this section of the test five figures to be added. Since there are five numbers in each column to be added, we may multiply each of the records in Test E by four and 164 compare the results with those for Test A. All the grades will then show a slightly higher record in Test E than in Test A. TEST F Test F consists of a more elaborate process of sub- traction. We note here again the fact that the eighth grade shows a sharp increase over the seventh grade in its ability to perform subtraction operations. A coincidence such as we find in comparing the dia- gram for Test B with the diagram for Test F, and the marked difference in form between these diagrams and all the others examined up to this point, give us confidence that an analysis based on results of a city- wide test will bring out essential facts with regard to the nature of arithmetical operations. It does not seem possible that a characteristic difference which recurs in two tests dealing with the same kind of operation can be a mere accident. TEST G Test G requires the multiplication of four-place numbers by one-place numbers. The conspicuous fact here is the slight progress recorded in the sixth and seventh grades. TEST H Test H deals with the addition and subtraction of simple fractions which are of like denomination. 165 TEST I Test I involved the dividing of five-place numbers by one-place numbers. It is interesting, in view of the fact which came out in comparing simple division with simple multiplication, to note that the record for this more elaborate type of division never passes the record for the corresponding type of multiplica- tion. TEST J Test J was a test in the addition of long columns of figures. The form of the diagram showing the prog- ress is of interest, revealing, as it does, marked progress in the highest grades. The intellectual ma- turity which comes in the upper grades evidently redounds more to the advantage of long-column addition than it does to the advantage of short- column addition, as we see if we compare the record of Test J with the record of Test E. TEST K Test K is a test in long division. Three-place and four-place numbers were divided by two-place num- bers. One hundred and twenty seconds were al- lowed for this work. The high record made in this kind of division makes it appear that when it is ultimately mastered it is the simplest of all the highly complex operations. A partial explanation of this latter fact is doubtless to be found in the relief which comes in long division from the breaking up of the operation into a succession of short steps. 166 TESTS L, M, N, AND O Tests L to may be commented on together. All of them deal with the more complex forms of the fundamental processes. In Test L four-place num- bers are to be multiplied by two-place numbers. In Test M five four-place numbers are to be added. Test O is a test in the application of the four funda- mental operations to fractions where the fractions to be subtracted or added must first be reduced to a common denominator. COMPLEXITY OF EDUCATIONAL PROCESSES A spiral test such as that which has been described in the foregoing paragraphs exhibits, more clearly than any formal argument possibly could, something of the complexity of arithmetical processes. Each grade is confronted even in the fundamental opera- tions with complexities that can be overcome only gradually. The teacher who assumes that addition is always the same process, whether it is encountered in the simple tables or in the addition of long columns of figures, has no adequate comprehension of the difficulties which children are really encountering as they go through the grades. The analyses suggested by the arithmetic test also indicate the only intelligent method of organizing the course of study in this subject. If arithmetic is complex, the child must not be left to make his own way through this complex maze. He must be guided step by step by a teacher who understands the com- 167 plexities of the subject. While our analyses explain failures in arithmetic, they do not justify these failures. Rather they point out the way of avoiding them. It is urged that the results of the new course be closely studied and that those modifications which the results show to be needed be introduced without delay. The course of study should be subject to f re- quest revisions in minor details. Such constant re- vision should depend on the precise knowledge of results which can come only from systematic tests. STUDIES OF READING It is hardly necessary to discuss at length the im- portance of reading. It is unquestionably the most important subject taught in the public elementary school. It occupies the first place in the program, consuming more time than any other subject. It furnishes the pupils with the instrument which they must use throughout the school course. CONDUCT OF READING TESTS With the aid of the members of the senior class of the Cleveland Normal School careful tests of oral and silent reading were given to the children of the dif- ferent grades in 44 schools. In preparation for this task the normal school students were trained by demonstrations, discussions, and trial. They went to various schools and were allowed to try the tests 168 in suitable rooms where they could work with indi- vidual children without distraction. The passages used were the products of extended studies previ- ously made in other cities. TESTS OF ORAL READING The exact tests were divided into tests in oral reading and tests in silent reading. In oral reading the rate was considered and also the following types of error: a. Gross mispronunciations, which include such errors in pronunciation as indicate clearly that the word is too difficult for the pupil. b. Minor mispronunciations which involve the mispronunciation of a portion of a word, wrong ac- cent, wrong syllabication, omission of a syllable, etc. c. Omission of words. d. Insertion of words. e. Repetition of words or groups of words. f. Substitution of one word or group of words for another. A composite score based on all these items was made up, thus reducing the record of each child and each grade to a series of convenient numerical ex- pressions. VARIATIONS IN SCHOOLS It was found that in reading as in other subjects the results from different schools varied greatly. As compared with the standard derived from the records 169 of all the schools tested it was found that there were some which excelled in lower grades; others which were better than average in the upper grades; still others which did notably good work in the lower Average all girls Average all pupils Average all boys Diagram 17. Average scores in oral reading for girls and boys in each of the eight grades 170 grades and poor work in the upper grades, and so on through all the possible combinations. ANALYSIS TO SHOW INFLUENCE OF SEX, BOOKS, AND NATIONALITY Analysis of the results brings out several important facts. First, in all grades girls do better than boys in oral reading. The facts are exhibited in Diagram 17. Systems of readers do not exhibit any striking differences when all results are taken into account. The two systems which have been in use for the last two years and a half, namely, Ward and Aldine sys- tems, are compared in Diagram 18. The influence of nationality on achievement in oral reading is shown in a general way by Diagram 19. The results shown can be accepted only in a very general way for two reasons. The first is that the number of schools involved in some cases is limited. The second is that it is not certain in all cases that all the pupils tested from a school in which a given nationality dominated were of that type. The results are, however, accurate enough to serve in suggesting explanations of some of the earlier results reported for individual schools. ACHIEVEMENT IN CLEVELAND AS COMPARED WITH OTHER CITIES In Diagram 20 the average achievement of the grades in Cleveland is compared with the scores of 23 typi- 171 cal Illinois schools. Comparative data are at hand only for the grades from the second through the seventh. The figure shows that the second, third, Ward System Aldine System Diagram 18. Average scores in oral reading in each grade of pupils using the Ward system and of those using the Aldine system 172 American schools Cleveland average Italian schools Hebrew schools Cleveland average Diagram 19. Average scores in oral reading in each grade in Cleveland schools in general and in eight American schools, two Italian schools, and three Hebrew schools 173 and fourth grades in Cleveland are making dis- tinctly more rapid progress than the same grades in 70 70 10 -I 10 Cleveland average Illinois school* Diagram 20. Average scores in oral reading in six grades in the Cleveland schools and in 23 Illinois schools Illinois, while the upper grades in each case repre- sent approximately the same level of achievement. 174 Third grade pupils in Illinois are more than one-half year behind third grade pupils in Cleveland. When it is considered that the school population of Cleve- land is largely foreign, while that of Illinois is largely American, the fact that Cleveland has developed a high degree of efficiency in teaching the mechanics of reading in the lower grades becomes doubly impressive. Gratifying as these results seem, there is a danger which must be pointed out. It is sometimes found that a pupil who has reached the third grade in a school which emphasizes oral reading has acquired an ability to pronounce words which is much in excess of his ability to secure meaning from what he reads. Tests in comprehension show that Cleve- land pupils are behind pupils of other cities in ability to interpret what they read. TESTS IN SILENT READING At the same time that the pupils were tested in oral reading, they were also tested in silent reading. The silent test was omitted in the case of the pupils of the first grade. All others were given a new set of passages and the rate of reading and ability to understand what was read were carefully scored. Since three passages were used in order to suit the subject matter to the maturity of the different grades, a readjustment is necessary in the figures. The points of this readjustment are between the third and fourth grades and between the sixth and seventh grades. In Diagrams 21 and 22 dotted lines are drawn dividing the curves of progress at these points. 175 Diagram 21. Average scores in the rate of silent reading of 1,831 Cleveland pupils and of 2,654 pupils in 13 other cities. Data are for grades from second through eighth. Dotted line shows Cleveland scores and solid line those of other cities o 30 to 3SZ 23*56 7 8 Diagram 22. Average scores in the quality of silent reading of 1,831 Cleveland pupils and of 2,654 pupils in 13 other cities. Data are for grades from second through eighth. Dotted line shows Cleveland scores and solid line those of other cities 176 COMPARISON OF CLEVELAND PUPILS WITH OTHERS The first matter which may be taken up in reporting on the tests of silent reading is that which was dis- cussed in the last paragraphs dealing with oral read- ing, namely, the meaning of the superiority of the Cleveland pupils when contrasted with the pupils in other cities. The comparison in silent reading is exhibited in Diagrams 21 and 22. Diagram 21 shows, as did the score in oral reading reported in Diagram 20, a marked superiority in the rate of reading on the part of Cleveland pupils in all grades. In quality, on the other hand, the results are not in favor of the Cleveland pupils. In fact, the results here are decidedly low for Cleveland schools. These comparative facts raise a most important question. Does quality of reading always fall when the rate rises? GENERAL RELATION BETWEEN RATE AND QUALITY OF SILENT READING For the purposes of this study of the relation be- tween rate and quality, all the individual records of Cleveland pupils were divided into classes. First the speed records were arranged in order from the most rapid to the slowest. The most rapid of these records were designated by the single term "rapid." In this class of "rapid" records were included the most rapid 25 per cent of all the records. In like fashion the slowest 25 per cent of all the records were 12 177 set aside and designated as "slow." This left half the records, or the middle 50 per cent, which were designated as of "medium speed." In like manner the 25 per cent of all records which were qualita- tively the best were designated "good"; the 25 per 10 Rapid speed and good quality Rapid peed and medium quality Rapid speed and poor quality Medium speed and good quality Medium speed and medium quality Medium speed and poor quality Slow speed and good qua! i t T Slow speed and medium quality Slow speed and poor quality Diagram 23. Per cent of 1,831 Cleveland pupils found in each of nine speed and quality groups in silent reading cent which were qualitatively worst were designated "poor," and the term "medium" was applied to the middle 50 per cent. It becomes a very simple matter to assign all records in each grade to the appropriate class and 178 determine the percentage of the grade which falls into this class. Diagram 23 gives the results, the percentages being in each case the nearest whole number to the calculated figures, and the size of the circle being proportionate to the size of the class in- dicated. For the purpose of this survey the general fact that high rate and good quality are commonly related, and that low rate and poor quality are commonly related, is of great importance. This general prin- ciple, which stands out as impressively evident in spite of exceptions, leaves us with the complex prob- lem of explaining how Cleveland pupils who are rapid are less able to give back what they read than are the pupils in other schools tested with the same pas- sages. EXPLANATION OF THE CLEVELAND RECORD The problem which is here encountered is solved by a consideration of the relative emphasis on speed and quality in the different grades. Rate and quality may be represented in a single diagram. Thus in Diagram 24 the rate of reading is represented by horizontal distances and quality by vertical dis- tances. The facts in regard to Cleveland and the other cities are presented in the upper part of the diagram. Here we see that the rate of the second grade in Cleveland is nearly two words per second, while the speed of the corresponding grade in other cities is about one and a half per second. The quality of Cleveland's second grades, on the other 179 60 50 40 20 OTHE R CH IES NP e y ^ />CLE VELA jr 7 1 1 i y 3 A^ s ;> i i / i/ * V 1.0 2.0 3.0 40 20 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 Diagram 24. Average scores in speed and quality of silent reading in each grade in Cleveland and in 13 other cities and in three selected Cleveland schools 180 hand, is 25, while that of the grades in other cities is over 30. Following the progress of the Cleveland curve, it is noticed that there is a rapid gain in speed up to the fourth grade, shown by the fact that the curve turns sharply toward the right but is irregular in the ver- tical. Quality is thus shown to be irregular. There is a relapse to a lower level in passing from the third to the fourth grade. Indeed, even after improve- ment in quality begins hi the fifth and sixth grades, it is relatively slow and irregular. The curve for the other cities has a wholly differ- ent character. During the early years rate improves relatively more than does quality, but there is steady progress in both. In the middle of the elementary course there is a definite change in relation, the upper grades showing greater improvement in quality. This would seem to mean that the mechanical phases of reading have to be mastered first and their mas- tery is shown by the attainment of satisfactory speed; thereafter the greater emphasis should fall on quality. The solution of our problem regarding the high speed and deficient quality of Cleveland is now clear. There is not sufficient attention to interpretation in the grades up to the fourth. There is, indeed, a high degree of success in perfecting the mechanical opera- tions, but the ultimate achievement of the schools is below what it should be in quality because the qual- ity is not adequately stressed in the lower grades. 181 RECORDS OF VARIOUS SCHOOLS The lower part of Diagram 24 shows the results obtained in three individual schools. These records of individual schools are made up on the basis of the results of only a few representatives of each grade and might be modified if the whole school were tested. The diagrams are, however, suggestive of a kind of study which would be productive in every school. KINDERGARTENS AND PRIMARY GRADES In order to get information about the kindergartens and the first grades and especially the cooperation existing between the two, the survey secured written discussions of conditions and problems from all the teachers of these classes. In the full report these comments are summarized and discussed. It is pointed out (1) That the kindergartners are unsupervised and dominated by a training school which is outside the school system; (2) That the equipment of the kindergartens is superior to that of the primary grades; (3) That the effects of kindergarten training are by no means clearly defined and that they are often regarded by primary teachers as of doubtful value; (4) That the teachers are not in close touch with one another and not, in general, in sympathy with the mode of sending children from the kindergarten to the first grade. 182 RECOMMENDATIONS It is recommended that the training of kindergarten teachers be more intimately related to the work of the City Training School for Teachers. It would be well if the training of kindergartners could be made a part of the work of that institution. It is recommended that the first grade and the kindergarten be organized in such a way that there shall be a more equitable distribution of teaching staff and material equipment. It is recommended that promotion from the kin- dergarten to the first grade be based on maturity of pupils and not merely on age. It is recommended that the work of the kinder- garten and of the first grade be reorganized so that each shall have much natural play and each shall have systematic training in the fundamental social arts. Since these changes require vigorous, unified cen- tral supervision, it is recommended that a single supervisor be put in charge of the kindergartens and primary grades. *************** RELATION BETWEEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND HIGH SCHOOLS The first step in such a study is to determine in terms of the elementary records what kinds of pupils go to high school. The expectation of suc- cess in high school work is, of course, very different in the case of a child who has done excellent work in 183 the lower school from the expectation of success in the case of a child who has made a low elementary record. The elementary records of all pupils en- tering the high school in 1914 were accordingly collected. This was done by securing individual record cards for each pupil. Full returns were secured from 84 elementary schools. Since it is difficult to compare the grading systems in use in different schools, the simple device was adopted of dividing each eighth grade into three subdivisions, each made numerically equal to the others. The first third included the best pupils, the second third the mediocre pupils, and the last third the lowest pupils in the eighth grade. When the returns from all the schools were combined, it was found that many more pupils from the highest third of the ele- mentary grades go on to high school than from the lowest. The comparison is given in Diagram 25. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL SCHOOLS The records from various schools were next taken up, and it appeared here, as in all the studies reported in preceding chapters, that there is the greatest differ- ence between schools. Some send only their best pupils on to high school; others send their poor, their medium, and their good pupils in substantially equal proportions; still others send forward sur- prisingly large proportions of their poorest pupils. In the full report the results of this comparison are presented in complete tabular form for all the ele- 184 mentary schools. The results show that the pupils from some schools fall far short of maintaining in the high schools the relative standings that they had in the elementary ones. On this basis some schools show little more than 70 per cent of efficiency. At Middle third High third Diagram 25. Per cent of eighth grade pupils entering high school from the low third, the middle third, and the high third of their classes the other extreme there are schools which send for- ward pupils who are so well prepared that their rela- tive standing in high school is much improved over what it was in the grades. Some of these schools show a per cent of efficiency as high as 130. *************** 185 HIGH SCHOOLS It is a much more complex problem to determine the efficiency of a high school than to form an estimate regarding the character of the work done in an ele- mentary school. The best basis on which to at- tempt an estimate of high schools is the routine record of ordinary work. The examination of such a record yields many facts which go far toward justi- fying final judgments. TABLE 8. PER CENT OF PUPILS ENTERING EACH HIGH SCHOOL IN 1914 WHO WERE IN THE HIGHEST, MIDDLE, AND LOWEST THIRDS OF THEIR EIGHTH GRADE CLASSES IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Per cent Per cent Per cent High school marked 1 by elementary marked 2 by elementary marked 3 by elementary school school school West 51.5 34.1 14.4 Lincoln 50.9 35.1 14.0 Glenville 47.5 30.9 21.6 East 44.9 34.1 21.0 Central 44.6 34.9 20.5 West Commerce 44.2 39.5 16.3 South 36.8 42.1 21.1 Collinwood 34.8 39.1 26.1 East Commerce 29.7 43.7 26.6 West Technical 28.7 37.3 34.0 East Technical 27.9 39.2 32.9 RANKS OF ENTERING STUDENTS The investigation which was described in the last section yielded facts showing that the students who enter the different high schools are of different types. It will be recalled that the elementary school records were secured for all pupils entering the high schools 186 in 1914. These were distributed so as to show the ranks of pupils entering each of the high schools. The results are presented in Table 8. In this table rank 1 means that the student is in the highest third of the elementary class, rank 2 that he is in the middle third, and rank 3 that he is in the lowest third. AGES OF STUDENTS IN VARIOUS SCHOOLS A significant body of facts is printed from year to year in the report of the superintendent. Table V in the seventy-eighth report gives the ages of all students in high school. This table throws light on our problem, because it shows how many students entering each type of high school have been either fast or slow in completing their elementary educa- tion and continuing their high school work. Two facts stand out clearly. First, the academic schools have the largest number of students who have made rapid or normal progress, while the technical schools have the largest number of students who have been delayed. The commercial schools stand between the extremes. Second, the girls are always younger than the boys in all the schools. The facts here reported confirm the conclusion based on Table 8. The academic schools get more of the pupils who have made rapid progress. WITHDRAWALS AND NON-PROMOTIONS A further set of facts important for this discussion may be extracted from Table V of the superinten- 187 dent's report. Withdrawals and non-promotions in the different types of high schools are significant, because they show what students cannot carry on the work of the high school or are not interested enough to do this work. This table presents clear evidence that the students of the commercial and technical high schools cannot satisfy the require- ments of these schools as readily as the students who go to the academic schools succeed in satisfying the requirements of those schools. Students fail in the technical schools in very large numbers, and the rate of withdrawal in these schools is somewhat higher than in the others. HIGH SCHOOL GRADES IN THE FIRST YEAR Some further light is thrown on the practices of the different high schools by a study of the way in which they grade members of the first-year classes. The results of this comparison indicate the greatest di- versity among the different schools. In some schools a grade of 85 means that the pupil is in the highest third of the class while in others the same grade means that he is in the lowest third. The impor- tance of this diversity is well illustrated by the fact that students who receive the grade of 85 or more are admitted to the City Normal School without exami- nation. Under this rule a student would have to be well up in the highest third of the class in West Commercial and East Technical in order to qualify. At Central the student could qualify from the foot 188 of the highest third, while at Lincoln students from the foot of the middle third would be accepted under the rule. NUMBER OF REPEATERS, STUDENTS DROPPED, AND FAILURES These details show that the grading systems of the various schools are sufficiently different to require further investigation. In order to make this in- vestigation, reports were secured from the Depart- ment of Statistics showing for each high school the following facts: (a) the total number of students registered in each subject, such as first-year English, first-year mathematics, etc.; (b) the number of students registered in each subject as repeaters, that is, taking the course a second time; (c) the number of students who dropped the course for any cause whatsoever during ths semester; and (d) the num- ber of failures. These comparisons contribute further evidence that there is widest divergence in standards among the different high schools. Some schools fail an in- significant percentage of pupils while others fail them in surprisingly large numbers. In some the number of repeaters is very large while in others there are almost none. These differences are important. It is certainly significant for the city school system, for example, that West Commercial fails in a required class 37 per cent of the students and over in the corresponding class in Lincoln only two per cent 189 failed. It is hardly conceivable that under these conditions both schools are conducting the same type of work and serving the community equally well. COMPARISONS BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE YEARS Similar conclusions are inevitable when comparisons are drawn between the records of successive years of work with the same students in the same subject. In some schools a large percentage of the pupils fail in the beginning classes and a small percentage in the advanced work; in other schools the opposite policy is followed. Whatever explanations and excuses are offered for these conditions, it is certainly contrary to good public policy that there should be the wastage represented by some of the records. RECOMMENDATIONS Central supervision of the high schools should be re- inforced in some radical way. Some plan of equaliz- ing and raising standards of instruction should be devised. Conferences between departments would be a first step. Inspection of departments would be a second, and reorganization of departments a third step which could be taken if necessary. Commercial courses and technical courses should be made available in the academic high schools. Detailed reports on the new English course should be required of every school. These reports should set forth the quality of students registering, the 190 standing of such students, especially in courses where they mix with other students, and the length of the school attendance of such students. It is recommended that the project of building a new commercial high school be given careful and thorough reconsideration. APPENDIX An appendix of some 55 pages is added to the report for the purpose of presenting in full an account of the scales and tests used in the measuring of work. The different letters of instruction issued to the teachers are reprinted and the word lists, arithmetic tests, and reading scales are reproduced in full. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. The studies of non-promotions in the grades show that they increase rather than decrease with the progress of school work. There is an astonishing increase of so-called mental incapacity through the intermediate grades showing that this diagnosis of the difficulty as offered by the school officials is not right. 2. In the matter of non-promotion different schools have widely varying records and some show an im- pressive lack of accord with their own past practices. 3. In handwriting some schools show regular progress in both speed and quality while others are without consistent policies of development. There is wide variation between different schools. 191 4. The progress of children in spelling in successive grades of different schools presents striking con- trasts and marked deviations from the average for the whole system. 5. Tests of arithmetic reveal divergencies between different grades and different schools similar to those noted in the study of penmanship and spelling though in less degree. 6. In reading marked variations and divergencies appear between different schools and grades as they do in the cases of the other subjects. 7. In general the Cleveland pupils are ahead of those of other cities in speed of reading, but behind them in the ability to interpret what is read. 8. A study of the relation between elementary schools and high schools brings to light many strik- ing divergencies tending to decrease the intimacy between the two kinds of schools. 9. Studies of high school conditions show that the work of these schools is marked by wide differences in their ability to hold pupils, in marking systems, in policies in failing pupils, and in their standards of satisfactory work in the different subjects. 10. Without exception the different tests of school work indicate that there exist in Cleveland wide diver- gencies between grades of the same denomination, marked differences in the standards and practices of different schools, and fundamental variations in the policies of different principals in both elemen- tary schools and in high schools. This shows the necessity for a new type of scientific supervision and 192 administration which shall constantly bring to the consciousness of school officers and the community the chief problems of school organization through comparative studies and tables of definite fact. A vigorous policy of comparative study should be adopted as a regular part of the routine administra- tion of the system. 193 CHAPTER IX HEALTH WORK IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Leonard P. Ayres and May Ayres) Cleveland employs 16 physicians, one oculist, and 27 nurses to take charge of the health of her school chil- dren. The city spends $36,000 a year on salaries and supplies for these people. There are 86 school dis- pensaries and clinics. Cleveland is making this heavy investment because she finds it pays. THE ARGUMENT FOB MEDICAL INSPECTION Through medical inspection the educator and the physician join hands to insure for each child such conditions of health and vitality as will best enable him to take full advantage of the free education of- fered by the state. It recognizes the intimate rela- tionship between the physical and mental conditions of children. It realizes that education is dependent upon health. It betters health conditions among school children, safeguards them from disease, and renders them healthier, happier, and more vigorous. How THE WORK STARTED The first work of this kind in Cleveland started in 1900 when tests were made of defective vision. In 1906 the Health Department provided inspectors for 194 contagious diseases in the schools. In the same year inspection for physical defects was undertaken; the first dispensary in the United States was established at the Murray Hill School, and school nurses were appointed. In 1909 the Division of Health Super- vision and Inspection became part of the regular school system. The Committee on Sanitation of the Chamber of Commerce was influential in forwarding the whole movement. THE PRESENT SYSTEM As it is at present organized, the Division handles inspection for contagious disease, inspection for physical and mental defects, follow-up work for the remedying of defects, health instruction, recommen- dation of children to schools for the physically and mentally handicapped, school lunches, gardens, and playgrounds. Either the nurse or physician reports at each school every day of the year. Once during the year each child is given a careful physical examination, and fur- ther examinations are made when they are needed. All serious defects are reported to parents, and in cases where treatment is important, parents are urged to consult with the school doctor concerning the nature of the difficulty and the best means of curing it. To supplement these interviews, the school nurse spends a large part of her time in visiting homes, talking with parents, noting conditions under which children live, and making suggestions as to home care. 195 THE SCHOOL NURSE The value of the school nurse is one feature of the medical inspection of schools about which there is no division of opinion. Her services have abundantly demonstrated their utility, and her employment has quite passed the experimental stage. The introduc- tion of the trained nurse into the service of education has been rapid, and few school innovations have met with such widespread support and enthusiastic ap- proval. CLEVELAND'S DISPENSARIES Cleveland has 86 dispensaries. In every case light- ing, ventilation, and equipment are good. It is prob- ably true that these dispensaries are of better grade than those of any other large city in the United States. DENTAL CLINICS Dental clinics are now conducted in four public schools by the Cleveland Auxiliary of the National Mouth Hygiene Association. This work has now reached a point where it should be taken over and administered as a part of the public school system. The function of a private organization is to experi- ment and demonstrate. It cannot eventuate on a large scale, and it should not if it could. The function of a public organization is to eventuate on a large scale. It can seldom experiment, and it lacks free- dom and flexibility in demonstration. The Mouth Hygiene Association has experimented and demon- 196 strated successfully. Its work should now be as- sumed, continued, and extended by the Division of Medical Inspection. EYE CLINICS The eye clinic conducted by the Division at the Brownell School is doing excellent work. As the sys- tem grows, this clinic should be supplied with more workers. There are no other clinics. Mental ex- aminations are made by a special teacher appointed for that purpose. All surgical cases are referred to family physicians or local hospitals for treatment. THE MEDICAL INSPECTION STAFF Medical inspectors are mature men, graduates of well-known medical schools, with a fairly wide pri- vate practice. The school nurses are all registered nurses. Medical inspectors receive $100 a month during the school year. They are required to give three and one-half hours a day, five days a week, to work in the schools, inclusive of traveling time be- tween buildings. Nurses are paid on the schedule of the Visiting Nurses Association and salaries range from $60 to $80, depending upon length of service. The upper limit will probably be raised to $85 in the near future. Nurses are on duty from 8:30 to 4:30 every weekday except Saturday, when work ends at noon. Nurses are regularly employed only during the school year, but two are retained longer for ser- vice in summer schools. 197 The number of school nurses should be increased as rapidly as possible until one nurse is provided on full time for every 2,000 children enrolled in school. This would mean the employment of 11 additional nurses, increasing the staff from 27 to 38. As the population increases, more nurses should be added. Office consultations between parents and physi- cians are among the most important activities of the Division and should be systematically encouraged To this end arrangements should be made whereby definite hours for parent consultations are assigned to each school. THE PLAN OF CONCENTRATING INTERESTS The Division of Medical Inspection has so organized its work that the attention of the staff is concentrated upon a different set of problems each year. This method is unquestionably effective in promoting growth and maintaining the interest of the staff. Care should be taken, however, to provide that with- in each four-year period special emphasis be laid upon the discovery and cure of each of the more important defects. Some plan should be adopted by the staff whereby effort may be concentrated on discovering and remedying defects at those ages where such ex- penditure of time and energy will secure the largest returns. SPEECH DEFECTS Speech defects are very common among children. At first they yield readily to treatment, but if allowed 198 to continue through the adolescent period the habit becomes fixed so that trying to cure it is a difficult and often fruitless task. Judging from the experience of other cities, about 800 boys and 200 girls in the Cleveland public school system are suffering from some form of speech defect. There are few fields in which the medical inspection department has such an opportunity for effective work and in which so little has been done. Effort should be made to locate these children, and form them into groups for daily train- ing, under the direction of a teacher specially pre- pared to handle speech cases. VACCINATION There are probably more than 50,000 unvaccinated children now in the Cleveland schools. Immediate steps should be taken to see to it that every child now in school is vaccinated, and that no child is ad mitted to school hereafter without similar protection. Principals, teachers, and parents should be held re- sponsible for violation of the vaccination ordinance. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT The Division of Medical Inspection should plan steadily to enlarge its field of activity in order to pro- vide in constantly increasing measure better working conditions in the schools and to train the children into habits of health that shall be life-long. It is probable that the health work in the Cleveland public 199 schools is unsurpassed by that of any other city in the country. The city now has an opportunity to lead the way into vastly important forward exten- sions looking toward the provision of health insur- ance for future generations. HEALTH AND EDUCATION AND BUSINESS There is one condition in the Cleveland school sys- tem which rises like a mighty barrier against the possibility of completely fulfilling any ideal program of health education. This is the fundamental fact that the Cleveland school authorities have not yet conceived of health work as being an integral part of education. Under the present organization, the official in charge of health work is responsible to the director of schools in part of his activities and to the superin- tendent in the rest of them. He should be respon- sible to the city superintendent alone, for health work in the public schools is education and not business. Sooner or later serious difficulties are bound to arise from an administratively unsound arrangement in which a school official in charge of a most impor- tant division of work is responsible to two entirely independent chiefs. The opportunities for honest but irreconcilable conflict of views are so numerous that they will surely arise in time. One chief may favor vaccination and the other be opposed to it on principle. One may deem it the duty of the schools to have the doctors and nurses give instruction in sex 200 hygiene while the other may be utterly against any- thing of the sort. One may hold that the only useful physical exercise is that gained through games and athletics, while the other may favor formal gym- nastics. One may believe in school gardens, and the other deem them a waste of time and money. One may believe that courses in infant hygiene should be provided for the girls in the upper grammar grades, while the other may hold that such instruction should be reserved for continuation classes for young women. All these are matters on which educational au- thorities are sharply divided in opinion and there are many more of the same nature. The present direc- tor of schools, the present superintendent of schools, and the present chief medical inspector have so far worked successfully under the present arrange- ment of divided duties and responsibilities, but a reorganization along sounder administrative lines should be made before, instead of after, serious trouble arises. Eventually, if not now, Cleveland must realize that health work in education must be placed under the direction of the city's highest edu- cational official who is the city superintendent of schools. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Cleveland has a comprehensive and efficient sys- tem of medical inspection, employing 16 school phy- sicians, one oculist, and 27 nurses, and entailing an annual expenditure of some $36,000. 2. The work includes inspection for contagious 201 diseases, inspection for physical and mental defects, follow-up work for the remedying of defects, health instruction, examination of physically and mentally exceptional children, school lunches, school gardens, and playgrounds. 3. Cleveland probably has more well-equipped school dispensaries than any other large city in the country. 4. The work of the dental clinics has been con- ducted by a private association, but has reached a point where it should be taken over and administered as a part of the public school system. 5. The number of school nurses should be increased until there is one full-time nurse for every 2,000 chil- dren enrolled. 6. Work should be undertaken for the remedying of speech defects among the children. 7. Immediate steps should be taken to bring about the vaccination of the 50,000 unvaccinated children now attending school. 8. The health work should be reorganized so as to bring it under the direct supervision and authority of the superintendent of schools. At present it is partly under the superintendent and mostly under the director. 9. It is probable that the health work in the Cleve- land public schools is unsurpassed by that of any other city in the country. The city now has an op- portunity to lead the way into vastly important for- ward extensions looking toward the provision of health insurance for future generations. 202 CHAPTER X SCHOOLS AND CLASSES FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN (David Mitchell) Cleveland has been a pioneer in providing advantages for children who do not fit into the regular grades. In more than one instance this city had the first class of a type in the country. Table 9 shows the enrollment in each sort of school and class in the spring of 1915. SPECIAL SCHOOLS AND CLASSES IN 1915 Number of Number of children teachers Boys 273 14 Deaf 107 14 Backward classes 330 15 Backward School 472 17 Steamer 404 18 Defective 240 18 Epileptic 11 1 Crippled 90 7 Elementary Industrial Industrial training centers 232 134 11 11 Blind 48 6 Open air 218 8 Total 2,559 140 WHY WE HAVE SPECIAL CLASSES With universal compulsory education the special class became a necessity. As compulsory attendance 203 laws were more strictly enforced, children of all types were brought into school. Not only the dull and the bright, but also the weak and strong were forced into a scheme of things which had not been planned to include all. The schools were arranged for the so- called average child, but here were brought together many who for various reasons could not possibly be included in a group of normal children. Since the state has decreed that every child shall be educated, it has laid upon itself the obligation of providing suitable instruction for all the different types of chil- dren found in a community. DIVISION OP EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN IN Two GROUPS The so-called exceptional children may be divided into two groups. On the one hand we have those who in many ways are defective and different from the majority, but who will become independent, self- supporting units of society. These children are so- cially competent. On the other hand, we have those whose defect is such that the individual must always be dependent on others and more or less supported by them. These children are socially incompetent. Those exceptional children of normal mentality who are suffering from physical defect belong to the socially competent group. They must take their places in a world of normal people. These children are the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the tuberculous, etc. In the same group of socially competent we 204 place certain of those who for some reason other than physical defect do not fit into the scheme of things. This group is only temporarily debarred from the activities which the normal child enjoys. The reason for the separation may be found in environmental con- ditions. A child who does not come to this country until after the usual time for commencing school does not know how to communicate with his schoolmates or with his teacher. For a time he is a social misfit. In the same way a child who has not had the train- ing which would make him an acceptable member of society may require temporary segregation. This class of children we recognize as incorrigible and delinquent. In all these cases the common charac- teristic is that eventually they will become self- supporting members of the community. For this reason we designate them as socially competent. The other exceptional children are the socially in- competent. These are the ones who, no matter what the opportunity given them, are incapable of self- support. They will always be more or less dependent on others for their welfare. They lack ability to control their own affairs with "an ordinary degree of prudence." This group contains the insane, the epileptic, and the feeble-minded, those known as morons, imbeciles, idio-imbeciles, and idiots. The criterion by which we distinguish the two groups of exceptional children is that of social fitness. Can a child be educated for self-support and an in- dependent existence in the community? If so, he is socially competent. If not, he is socially incompetent. 205 A child of normal mentality may be so badly de- formed that he will require certain assistance, but this does not make him socially incompetent. The fact is that a child of normal mentality must live in a world of normal people and should be educated for normal associations. The child who can not become an independent member of the community should be trained for his life of dependence. The difference in treatment accorded to the two groups must be based on this fundamental difference between social competence and social incompetence. The socially competent will spend the greater part of their lives in close association with other self- supporting units of society the normal people. They will not be segregated in institutions. Because of this fact their education should aim to make them capable of normal associations. For this purpose their education should take place in the regular school buildings and as much as possible with normal chil- dren. Much of the instruction will necessarily be given to groups of similarly handicapped children, but wherever it is possible they should be taught in the regular classrooms. The policy for the training of the socially incom- petent is in sharp contrast to that for the education of the socially competent. Their distinguishing char- acteristic is that they are unable to exist as indepen- dent units of society. Some of these are insane, some are epileptic, and some are feebleminded. In the case of the insane we have fully recognized the dependence and have eliminated them from the schools. The 206 necessity for a segregation of the epileptic and the feebleminded has not yet been universally recog- nized. Nevertheless modern science shows that when these people reach the age of maturity they should become permanent residents of institutions. For this reason their training should be directed toward their own maintenance in a place where most of their actions are directed by others. Since the aim is segre- gation of all those who will find it impossible to main- tain an independent existence, it is not desirable to attempt to train them for association with normal people. No benefit is derived by the normal nor by the socially incompetent child from an enforced asso- ciation in the regular school or classroom. On the contrary, such an association is harmful rather than beneficial. The training of the socially incompetent should take place in separate classrooms, and, if pos- sible, in separate buildings. CLASSES FOR THE BLIND There are two kinds of classes for the blind. One is for children totally blind and the other for children frequently called semi-blind. There are three classes of each type. A class is in session for six hours a day in a regular school building. The instruction follows closely that of the regular grades, each blind child being supposed to cover the same work as the normal child. This arrangement of having the blind taught in the classes with seeing children has been called the 207 "Cleveland plan." It is one of the several instances in which this city is a pioneer. In adult life the blind and the semi-blind will not be segregated in institu- tions but will spend their lives in association with normal people. They are prepared for participation in normal social intercourse by education, as far as possible, in classes with seeing children. Precisely this principle leads us to recommend similar treat- ment for all other socially competent but exceptional children. The classes are supervised by one who is listed in the superintendent's annual report as the "Special Teacher of the Blind." He is recognized by the teachers assigned to the classes as the supervisor of the work. The arrangement is not conducive to the best development. With the duties of an office to perform, it is always more satisfactory for the re- sponsible person to have a position which is clearly distinguished from that of his assistants. A division for the instruction of the blind should be created, and the office of "Supervisor" of this department should replace that of the "Special Teacher of the Blind." There are two ways in which the work for the blind and semi-blind could be greatly helped and at a rela- tively slight cost. In the first place, more generous provision should be made for printing school texts in very large type so as to supply adequate reading material for semi-blind children. A good beginning has been made in this work, but the supply of these books is not as yet nearly adequate. A second important step would be the appoint- 208 ment of a visiting teacher who could effectively co- ordinate the work of the school and the home in behalf of these handicapped children . The work with the children would give far greater results if it could be wisely followed up through systematic visiting in the homes of the children. CLASSES FOR THE DEAF For the deaf liberal provision has been made in the construction of a modern, well-equipped building. Unfortunately it was not realized that the deaf as well as the blind would be better fitted for associa- tion with normal people if their education were given in close relation with those who would later be their regular companions. Every deaf child needs all the contact possible with normal children. For this reason deaf children should receive their education in special classes in the regular schools rather than in a special school. By the present arrangement the deaf child is sepa- rated from the normal during the entire period of the school sessions. He is educated in an abnormal en- vironment, an environment in which all his com- panions have a similar affliction. This is the wrong sort of education. He should be as much as possible in the same conditions in which he will have to live. This means that a considerable number of classes should be established in the regular school building. When this is done, a certain part of the instruction will be given to a group of deaf children in a group H 209 by themselves. As in the case of the blind, as much of the instruction as possible should be given in classes with normal children. In the early part of school life the time that the deaf are in the same room with hearing children may well be limited to physical exercises, simple manual work, and similar activities. As the children develop and become skilful in lip- reading, more and more of the time may profitably be spent hi classes with normal children. Classes for the deaf should be established in a con- siderable number of regular schools. Sufficient com- pensation should be offered to attract adequately trained teachers. Probably more than 700 children should have the advantages of the special instruction now given to one-seventh of this number. CLASSES FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN The school for crippled children is located in a tem- porary frame structure in close proximity to a regular school. The work of the children in this school is similar to that of children in other schools. The prin- cipal has the same duties as a regular elementary school principal. At the present time plans are being considered for the erection of a building which will include all modern facilities for the instruction of the crippled. Before this plan is put into effect it would be wise to consider whether or not the city is getting into the same difficulty with the crippled children as it has with the deaf. All children admitted to these classes 210 should have sufficient ability to learn trades or pro- fessions by which they may make their own living. If a selection is made which will bring about this result, every child will eventually take his place in the world in close association with normal people. For this reason his education should be given in circumstances most likely to develop normal reac- tions. Ideally this will be in the same surroundings as provided for the well-formed and strong child. Classes for the crippled children should be conducted in regular school buildings, each class being organized where it is most convenient for a sufficient number of children. The greater value of the special class should lead to its adoption in spite of the fact that the actual expenditure will be greater. Probably several hun- dred children should be sent to these special classes for cripples. OPEN AIR CLASSES By providing open air rooms in the regular schools Cleveland had adopted the wise method of educating together those who must live and work together. The success of the children is sufficient to warrant the extension of the opportunity to all who might profit by it. "STEAMER" CLASSES Children who do not speak English come to every large center of population. For a time these children are misfits in the regular grades. They should be 211 given the opportunity to learn the language before they are placed in a class with 30 or 40 other children who are not similarly handicapped. In 1901 the principal of Harmon School recognized this necessity and organized the first "steamer" class. The purpose of the steamer classes is the rapid acquirement of the English language. The progress of the children amply justifies the expense of all advantages given to them. The advantages should be given to every child who does not speak English. The work of the classes should not be handicapped by the presence of feebleminded children. SPEECH DEFECTS No provision has yet been made for the children with defective speech. Probably more than 1,000 Cleve- land children require special speech training. Speech classes should be organized in many schools. The teacher should be a qualified articulation teacher, with special training in pedagogy and psychology. A beginning in the work should be made immediately with the best teachers obtainable. State funds may pay for the instruction of a considerable number. No feebleminded children should be admitted to the classes. RESTORATION CLASSES Irregularity of attendance frequently causes retarda- tion. A diagnosis of mental grade in children whose ability is doubtful may usually be made after a period 212 of intensive training. Restoration classes should pro- vide opportunity for the retarded to advance, and for the doubtful ones to prove their ability. The teachers of these classes must be among the very best in the school system and because of this should re- ceive extra compensation. CLASSES FOR INCORRIGIBLES Cleveland was the first city in the United States to organize a class for incorrigibles. The present school is doing excellent work, but the treatment of these children requires a more social point of view. Special classes where the children would not be altogether separated from other types of children should be tried. A diagnosis of mental status should precede transfer to a class for incorrigibles. THE SOCIALLY INCOMPETENT For socially incompetent children Cleveland has organized different types of classes. In some of these classes the proportion of feebleminded is high, in others very low. It is probable that a considerable number of feebleminded are still in the regular grades. In most cases liberal provision has been made for the classes. For many of the children the expenditure is out of all proportion to the results obtained. The socially incompetent are the insane, the epi- leptic, and the feebleminded. Socially the epileptic do not differ from the feebleminded. Lack of ability 213 for self-maintenance distinguishes the feebleminded from the normal. In Cleveland, 2,077 children, ap- proximately three per cent of the school population, have been in the schools three or more years longer than the grade in which they are would indicate. All these children may be considered suspects. THE SELECTION OF FEEBLEMINDED CHILDREN The Division of Medical Inspection is now respon- sible for the selection of all children assigned to classes for defectives. The mental status of the chil- dren is determined by means of the Binet-Simon tests of intelligence. These tests, though desirable as additional evidence in many cases, should not be used as the only available ultimate criteria for deter- mining whether a child is an idiot, feebleminded, a moron, or normal. Such a decision is too conse- quential to be entrusted to the verdict of a single and restricted type of mental test. In many respects there is a fair analogy between the sputum test in the case of suspected tuberculosis and the Binet-Simon test in the case of suspected mental subnormality. In both cases the test involves a technique which may be mastered without pro- longed preparation. In every large city sputum examinations are regularly conducted by laboratory workers who are not physicians and who are not com- petent to conduct any of the other tests for tuber- culosis. In a corresponding way the Binet-Simon tests may be and are being conducted in Cleveland 214 and elsewhere by examiners who have thoroughly mastered this special technique, but who are not trained psychologists and who are not able to ad- minister the other available tests in the same field. Just as it would be foolish to entrust the final verdict in the case of the tuberculosis suspect to the micro- scopic examination and not be able to employ the other tests in case of doubt, so it is unwise in the case of suspected mental subnormality to have only the Binet-Simon tests as the final resource in reaching a decision. The mental tests should be conducted by a thor- oughly trained psychologist well versed in the use of many different sorts of tests and possessed of pro- fessional equipment sufficient to enable him to keep fully abreast of the rapid developments in this field of science. The psychologist will need assistants well trained in the investigation of home and environ- mental conditions. After the most urgent cases have been cared for, the school system should undertake a systematic testing of all children who are making seriously slow progress or encountering unusual difficulties in their school. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE FOB THE FEEBLEMINDED This report recommends the establishment of special schools for the feebleminded. At the present time Cleveland cares for these children in special classes located in regular schools. It also has a school for the backward in which some of the lower grade rooms 215 are filled with normal children. There should be a reorganization through which the seriously defective children would be segregated. In order to bring about such a reorganization, there should be a careful re- classification of the children. Those of approximately the same ability and of about the same ages should be grouped in classes. The abilities of the pupils should determine the type of teachers who would be selected for the differ- ent classes. There seems to be no reason why the teachers of the feebleminded should be given greater compensation than teachers of the regular grades. The organization of all classes should be under the direction of a supervisor. THE SPECIAL SCHOOL FOB FEEBLEMINDED The cost of instruction for children in special classes in the regular schools is considerably greater than the cost if the children are properly grouped in special schools. The size of the classes in the special schools would be greater than that of the present special classes, but in each class there would be only that number which might be successfully handled. Little if any benefit is derived by the feebleminded from the associations of the regular schools. The special school will recognize only a segregation al- ready put into effect by other children. The cost for special schools for these children should be less than the expenditure for rooms in the regular schools. 216 AN INSTITUTION FOR THE FEEBLEMINDED For the welfare of society all the feebleminded should be permanently segregated when they reach maturity. Cleveland is in a favorable position for the beginning of an institution. The outlay for an institution is considerable, but in view of the present expenditure of the schools and the future cost of the feebleminded to the community, the expenditure should be under- taken by the state, or by the city, or by both in cooperation. To meet the cost of maintenance, the state might be persuaded to contribute, as it has in the case of the deaf, the blind, and the crippled. The establish- ment of an institution need not be postponed until there is legal provision for the commitment of the feebleminded. Many parents would be glad to be relieved of responsibility for the care of these unfor- tunates. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Cleveland was a pioneer in establishing special classes, and their development has been rapid but irregular. There are now 12 kinds of special schools and classes enrolling more than 2,500 children and cared for by 140 teachers. 2. Children of feeble mentality are socially incom- petent and should be sent to special schools to be trained for permanent segregation. 3. Children who are of normal mentality are so- cially competent even though physically handi- 217 capped. They should be placed in special classes in the regular schools to be trained for association with normal people. 4. All children who do not speak English should be given the advantages of training in special classes, and this work should not be handicapped by the presence of feebleminded children. 5. Provision should be made for the training of children with defective speech. 6. A diagnosis of mental status should in every case precede the transfer of a child to a class for incorrigibles. 7. Tests for the mental diagnosis of children should be conducted by a thoroughly trained psychologist possessed of sufficient professional equipment to en- able him to keep fully abreast of the rapid develop- ments in this field of science. 8. Cleveland should seriously consider the feasi- bility of establishing a municipal institution for the feebleminded. 218 CHAPTER XI HOUSEHOLD ARTS AND SCHOOL LUNCHES (Alice C. Boughton) The monograph report bearing the above title is in reality a collection of five separate reports dealing respectively with household arts in elementary schools and in high schools, with the administration of the lunch service in elementary schools and in high schools, and with the instruction given in the subject of infant hygiene. This summary gives the findings of these five sections separately and in the order just indicated. HOUSEHOLD ARTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Field work for the report was begun in May, 1915, when visits were made to all cooking centers then in operation, and to special or regular classrooms while sewing lessons were in progress. When possible, each visit included a short conference with teachers and principals, and occasionally the visitor made an op- portunity to talk with the children. In conference with the supervisor of household arts, a study was made of what material was on record in the superin- 219 tendent's office. Other persons in this office and that of the director of schools furnished or checked infor- mation received elsewhere. This is the first separate report on household arts made by any school survey. Its purpose is to serve educational needs by studying present conditions and forecasting future developments. HOUSEHOLD ARTS TRAINING The first household arts and science classes were es- tablished in the United States in eastern cities in the early eighties. The movement spread rapidly; nor- mal schools and colleges established special classes; and in 1909 the American Home Economics Associa- tion was formed. Household science courses in Cleveland date from 1884. In 1893 the first grade centers for cooking were established in the regular public schools. PRESENT CONDITIONS IN CLEVELAND There are at present 20 regular and seven special cooking centers in the public schools. Cooking is taught to all girls in the seventh and eighth years. Each center cares for approximately 300 children a week. The estimated cost of initial equipment is $1,200, with $22 a year for upkeep. The household science centers are cheerful and well kept. In older centers the hollow square arrangement of tables with single gas burners is used. In newer 220 schools the small group of six children with one family-size gas range is more frequently found. Cleve- land for the most part has these kitchen laboratory centers but has placed model apartments in a few of the newer schools. Several schools have special rooms for household arts, with sewing machines, lockers, display cases, and other equipment. SUPERVISION The supervisor of household arts is an educational officer responsible to the superintendent of schools and appointed on his recommendation. She prepares the course of study; supervises the work of the spe- cial teachers of those subjects and the elementary teachers in sewing; and selects equipment and plans arrangement of new centers. Clerical assistance is inadequate to handle the necessary routine clerical work of her office. As a consequence the supervisor is forced to neglect her supervisory duties for clerical work. THE TEACHING CORPS The household arts corps consists of a supervisor, 27 cooking teachers, and four sewing teachers. They are well liked by principals and children, are inter- ested, conscientious, painstaking, and well trained. In the opinion of the writer, teachers of household science in Cleveland fail to appreciate the wider aspects of their work. They are interested in methods but pay little attention to selection of subject matter, reasons, or results. 221 TEACHERS' SALARIES Cleveland schools have secured well-trained teachers at bargain prices. They have had on the average longer preparation for their work than have the manual training teachers, but their salaries begin at $500 per year with a maximum after 10 years of $1,000, while the manual training teachers begin at $900, with a maximum of $1,500. Twenty out of the 31 household arts teachers receive $750 a year or less. This salary is seriously inadequate. ATTITUDE OF PRINCIPALS, PARENTS, AND PUPILS TOWARD HOUSEHOLD ARTS The elementary school principals are uniformly in favor of household arts teaching in the grades. In most cases they have paid little attention to the educational values aimed at, or the results actually achieved. In general parents, club women, and social agen- cies are interested and favorable in their attitude toward household arts teaching. Many parents are immensely "practical" about it. They say that it teaches girls to be more useful at home. In foreign districts the parents will sometimes let girls stay in school longer if they are getting something useful. Cooking is generally popular with girls. Sewing they do not like so well, for it offers less variety and delayed returns. In cooking at least one or two new dishes are prepared each lesson, but it takes many lessons to make an apron or an undergarment. Then, too, the sewing is generally taught in the regular 222 classrooms, and for cooking the children leave the room and frequently the building. So the cooking lesson is something to look forward to. The rooms are different and attractive, the lesson, by its very nature, is much less formal than the routine work, and it is part of the game to eat the product of one's own hands COURSE OF STUDY The course of study for both household science and arts was being reshaped when the survey was in progress, and with the opening of school in Septem- ber, 1915, a new course went into effect. The old course in household science has already been aban- doned, so it would be a waste of time to criticise it. The new one is only tentative and will be all year in the making. A new course of study is now being used which will certainly be a decided improvement over that formerly used. Since it has not yet been tried in detail, it cannot be discussed at length. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS REGARDING THE WORK One-piece cooking aprons and caps which cover the hair would be more hygienic and could be made fully as attractive as those now in use. Printed lesson leaves distributed at each lesson and kept in loose-leaf notebooks are preferable to the hand-written recipes and notes now in use. The present method is inaccurate and time consuming. 223 MODEL HOUSEKEEPING APARTMENTS There are two types of housekeeping apartments in Cleveland schools. One represents conditions com- monly found in the neighborhood; the other has the equipment found in the best modern apartments. The apparent antagonism between these two methods is one of appearance only. The model apartment should train girls to make the best of what they have and at the same time show them how much more can be accomplished in less time with less effort when suitable tools are used. The model apartment should arouse girls to strive for better conditions, and is a valuable adjunct to the teaching of domestic science and arts in the schools. RELATION OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS TO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The argument most commonly advanced in favor of household arts teaching in the elementary schools is that it trains girls to be good homemakers and housekeepers. The two are thought of as overlap- ping, intermingling, as being almost synonymous. Courses dealing with the subject matter of household arts are announced in different cities under names such as homemaking, home economics, household economy, household science, housewifery, household arts, and similar captions. In reality homemaking and housekeeping are different and distinct. 224 HOMEMAKING VERSUS HOUSEKEEPING Housekeeping and homemaking are not synonymous. They are separate in life and distinct in education. Housekeeping is a business and a vocation, and is subject to rules and standards just as objective as those of any other business. Homemaking is an art, an avocation, and a marginal activity. It is not a matter of rules, but of human preferences in combi- nations unlimited. Housekeeping is woman's eco- nomic contribution to the family income. Home depends upon such factors as social organization and use of marginal time. BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS NEED EDUCATION FOR HOMEMAKING The invention of machinery has made two great contributions to mankind more goods and free time. This free time to be enjoyed must be organized for fruitful use. If free time is not to become an evil, fruitful activity must be devised to replace work which once kept all men busy. To function effectively in one's leisure time one must be educated for leisure. Provision of such education is one of the most im- portant tasks of the public school. Homemaking must be an active process for every person therein concerned. The school can in large measure equip boys and girls to be homemakers; but this highly socialized education should not be confused with strictly technical vocational courses now offered by departments of household arts. 225 FUNCTION OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS AND ITS Two ASPECTS First it can give skill in doing household work. Such training is vocational in character. It is not the best kind of education for elementary school children. The second division of household arts enables people to form correct judgments regarding the use of food, clothing, and shelter as they relate to their daily life. This is the more important aspect of household arts for the elementary school. SELECTION OF SUBJECT MATTER The previous discussion would confine the main line of attack for household arts in the elementary school to problems directly involved in giving children standards for right living. This necessitates search- ing study. Problems must be isolated and separately analyzed in a conscious effort to find out those which must be handled, wholly or in part, by the school because children do not get the needed control over them elsewhere, and those which may be omitted because children have sufficiently close contact with them outside of school. A HOUSEKEEPING COURSE IN THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL As one phase of the social insurance that each genera- tion takes out in behalf of the nation, it seems the part of wisdom for the public schools to organize a 226 one-year housekeeping course for all girls designed especially to meet the needs of the majority who drop out of school in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Such a course might well be a part of the work of the second year of the junior high school, which cor- responds to the present eighth grade. It should be practical and intensive in nature and endeavor to give the girls training in meeting the universal every- day problems of housekeeping. It should especially stress labor-saving methods and devices. HOUSEHOLD ARTS IN HIGH SCHOOLS Field work for the report on household arts in second- ary schools was done while the survey was in prog- ress. The writer visited both academic and technical high schools. Principals and teachers put at her disposal all printed material, such as school an- nouncements or courses of study they had, and sup- plemented it by valuable comments and suggestions relating to problems involved in the education of girls. SPACE, PHYSICAL EQUIPMENT, AND COSTS Generous space is allotted to household arts. Classes vary from 15 to 30 girls and average about 24. Equipment is excellent and kept in good repair. Costs of equipment and maintenance cannot be given as they are included in funds set aside for in- dividual buildings. 227 COURSE OF STUDY IN TECHNICAL SCHOOLS General topics considered at academic and technical schools are alike, but the latter schools go into greater detail and make a conscious effort to correlate each year's work with academic subjects. The two tech- nical high schools house 22 per cent of all high school girls. Teaching in the technical high schools follows the so-called laboratory method. Girls are required to keep notebooks in which they record work as they might a laboratory experiment in chemistry. The Cleveland technical high schools have as their im- mediate end "to prepare youths of both sexes for a definite vocation and for efficient industrial citi- zenship." This study seems to indicate that these schools do not give girls the kind of education that fits them for jobs open to them when they leave school. WEST TECHNICAL LUNCHROOM USED FOR VOCA- TIONAL WORK At West Technical High School about 15 senior students take major courses in lunchroom manage- ment. They do a large share of the work of the lunch- room, but they do not acquire a sense of responsi- bility for the conduct of the work as a whole. This course teaches well the scientific basis, but neglects the business and art of lunchroom management. A study of high school lunchrooms where students are intimately connected with the conduct of their lunch 228 service, as in Los Angeles or Gary, should furnish valuable practical suggestions for developing and strengthening the course. TRADE WORK IN FOODS AND SANITATION At East Technical High School senior girls who spe- cialize in foods and sanitation take trade order work in that subject. The class is popular. There are al- ways more applicants than can be accommodated, and girls who enter do good work and progress, but available positions are not considered socially de- sirable by parents and teachers, or else they call, in addition to specific technique, for maturity which 18-year-old girls do not possess. Although the course does not serve the purpose intended, it has a very real cultural value. The writer would advocate this type of teaching through- out the four years, and certainly its extension to in- clude all regular fourth year students, for in her judgment, trade work in foods and sanitation repre- sents the city's best teaching in household arts. COURSES OP STUDY IN ACADEMIC HIGH SCHOOLS In September, 1915, a two years' course in household arts was organized for third and fourth year girls in the six academic schools. About one-sixth of the girl's school time for two years is allotted to this subject. Money was appropriated to defray neces- sary expenses, but apparently no policy was out- lined regarding the nature and scope of this work. Junior high schools were opened a little later, in 229 the fall of 1915, and those girls also are obliged to study household arts. This course is planned after that given in the elementary schools, but will proba- bly expand in the future. TEACHING FORCE The high school force in household arts numbers 26. In preparation for their work teachers vary widely among themselves. They are as well paid as teachers of the academic subjects. In Cleveland their salary scale progresses in 18 years from $1,000 to $2,000. Teachers are distinguished by their faith in house- hold arts and their eagerness to make sacrifices for it. Emphasis should be laid upon the necessity for broader cultural background and more active staff discussion of the wider problems concerning the edu- cation of girls. SUPERVISION At present there is no satisfactory form of super- vision for household arts teaching in Cleveland's secondary schools. This city has yet to delegate to some one person or group of persons, as their most important responsibility, the task of grappling with the highly complex problems involved in the general and vocational education of girls. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LUNCH SERVICE This report is based on visits made to each of the various types of schools where lunch is served; on 230 interviews at the schools with principals, class teach- ers, and cooks; on careful study of minutes of the Board of Education which relate to elementary lunch service since its beginning in 1909; on study of all available material issued by the Federated Clubs; and on conferences with the chairman of the Philan- thropy Committee, the superintendent of lunches, the director of medical inspection, the school archi- tect, supervisor of requisitions and supplies, and the director of schools. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LUNCHES FROM Two POINTS OF VIEW There are two viewpoints regarding school feeding: the one, Cleveland's, that it is a duty imposed upon the school by the particular needs of a particular group; the other, that school lunches meet a natural need of all children, normal and exceptional, and afford at the same time an opportunity to teach them to choose wisely the food they buy. SCHOOL MEALS AS SUPPLEMENTS OB SUBSTITUTES FOR HOME MEALS School lunches are of two kinds: those which supple- ment the home dietary, and those which take the place of meals at home. Recess lunches generally fall into the former class, noon lunches into the latter. Recess lunches present the simpler feeding problem and are cheaper to provide. Noon lunches are much 231 more complex. Cleveland is far in advance of most cities in providing lunches, served under sanitary conditions, for all members of classes for blind, crip- pled, and open air children. KINDS OF LUNCHES AND BY WHOM PROVIDED The Board of Education pays for meals which the Philanthropy Committee of the Federation of Wo- men's Clubs and the Society for Promoting the In- terests of the Blind provide. Responsibility for de- tails of work is divided among the two organiza- tions, the principals, and the supervisor of high school lunches. Food is wholesome and plentiful, but not uniform in quality. It is prepared by women en- gaged by the two organizations. They use their judgment regarding recipes, methods of preparation, and results to be obtained. Cleveland's lunch service is costly because: 1. Lunch is served to exceptional children only, in small and widely scattered groups. 2. Authority and responsibility for the service are divided, making impossible any definite and cen- tralized contracts or planning. FOOD NATURAL NEED OF ALL CHILDREN The school exists for all children and must care for all. Food is a natural need of all children. Morning recess provides a good opportunity for all children to get food when they want it at a time when it is 232 good for them. Through food clinics it can care for under-nourished children, who are a menace, not only to themselves, but to all other children. Food is the treatment for malnutrition. SCHOOL LUNCH OR STREET LUNCH Children spend money for food. Given the oppor- tunity, they will spend it at school for wholesome food, otherwise on the street. The street lunch is of cheap material priced high. Every time they buy it, children get wrong impressions about what con- stitutes food and how much good food a penny or a nickel will buy. LUNCH SERVICE A BIG BUSINESS The annual food expenditure of children is very great. In June, 1915, Cleveland had 77,833 children in her public elementary schools. Judging from other cities, each one of these children spends about $1.50 for food each school year, or a total of approximately $116,750 per school year. / CONSOLIDATED LUNCH SERVICE RECOMMENDED The Philanthropy Committee of the Cleveland Federation of Women's Clubs has rendered a public service. It began its work in 1909 with the avowed purpose of pointing out the need for a lunch service for exceptional children, and of showing how such a service could be administered. 233 The Committee has successfully accomplished its purpose. It should now be relieved from further re- sponsibility for the lunch service. The function of a private organization is to experiment and demon- strate. It cannot eventuate on a large scale, and it should not if it could. The function of a public or- ganization is to eventuate on a large scale. It can seldom experiment and it lacks freedom and flexi- bility in demonstration. The time has come for Cleveland to eventuate on a large scale. To organize lunches throughout the elementary schools would require no great outlay beyond initial equipment, since with proper management the busi- ness will be big enough to pay its own way, par- ticularly if it is combined with the high school lunch service. The latter is organized on a large scale; the elementary service is partially organized; the two should be centralized and consolidated. HIGH SCHOOL LUNCH SERVICE This report is based on at least one visit made to every school during the lunch period, on interviews with concessionnaires and principals at all schools; on careful study of minutes of Board of Education since 1909 and of lunch records on file in the division of medical inspection; and on conferences with the supervisor of lunches, the director of medical inspec- tion, the school architect, the supervisor of requisi- tions and supplies, and the director of schools. 234 The most progressive cities have consciously for- mulated a method of meeting the school lunch prob- lem. This group includes Boston, Philadelphia, Co- lumbus, Pittsburgh, Toledo, and Cleveland. Two DISTINCT POLICIES WITH REGARD TO SCHOOL LUNCH SERVICE In the United States high school lunchrooms are of two sorts those run by concessionnaires who try to make them yield the largest possible personal profit, and those run by educational employees with the aim of putting extra profit back into increased food and better service. Cleveland's lunchrooms are of the first sort. Cleveland has an exceptional opportunity to do good work in this field. Six years ago the school board adopted a progressive policy regarding high school lunch service. It supplied all necessary equip- ment free of charge and three years ago appointed a supervisor paid by school funds. Lunch is served by concessionnaires who apply for the privilege ; they give their time and receive in return all profit from the lunch. Last year this service was provided for 83 per cent of Cleveland's high school students. PLACE OF LUNCH SERVICE IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM The high school lunch service is a midday service and takes the place of home meals. It has a double 235 task : to serve a light lunch for children whose main meal comes at night, and a substantial dinner to children who miss the family dinner by being at school. Cleveland performs this task in certain of her high schools, but in the majority the menu is not well enough standardized to offer daily an acceptable noon dinner. The remedy for this condition lies in centralization and close supervision of each indi- vidual school. The physical condition of lunchrooms is good and the relations between concessionnaires and cus- todians are cooperative and harmonious. Principals and teachers are interested and are ready to cooper- ate in any plan to extend and improve the service. Lunchroom patronage varies greatly from school to school. Where children are thoroughly satisfied with the service lunch wagons do a comparatively small business. HIGH SCHOOL LUNCHES A BIG BUSINESS The school lunch division should reach all children; it should provide wholesome and nutritious food for them at cost, train them in sane habits of eating, and teach them to choose wisely what food they buy. In Cleveland last year 6,715 students spent $36,777 at school, or $5.44 apiece. In Philadelphia the same number spent $56,070, or $8.35 apiece. Cleveland can equal this record and increase the usefulness of her plant by consolidating her system, and including in it service in the elementary schools. 236 CONSOLIDATED SYSTEM RECOMMENDED Administration of a consolidated system requires the service of a highly trained and experienced dietitian who will be able to centralize all buying and account- ing, organize and standardize equipment, service, labor, wages, and food, and combine old methods and originate new ones for the conduct of the service. Increased expenditure involved in reorganizing high school lunches will be met by increased profits from lunchrooms due to bigger business and better management. Cleveland's opportunity to do significant and con- structive work through her school lunchrooms is exceptional. She has all the necessary equipment, but at present lacks the proper organization and neces- sary enthusiasm. One competent person with author- ity equal to the responsibility of the position and a vital interest in the work could make Cleveland a leader in this field. INFANT HYGIENE This report is based on classroom observations; on discussions with teachers and nurses; on like con- ferences with the supervisor of household arts, the director of medical inspection, and the head school nurse, as well as with other persons in Cleve- land and elsewhere, whose interests and work lie in the field of public health education. 237 ORIGIN OF INFANT HYGIENE INSTRUCTION Infant hygiene is one of the important phases of the conservation movement. It has its roots in the early part of the 19th century, but was brought into promi- nence in 1912, by the creation at Washington of a Federal Children's Bureau. The 1913 Cleveland Child Welfare Exhibit fo- cussed attention on baby saving. This resulted in a campaign by the Babies' Dispensary, the Visiting Nurses' Association, and like organizations. One year later infant hygiene was introduced into the public schools. In April, 1915, there were 2,500 eighth grade girls receiving a regular eight lesson course in infant hygiene. ARGUMENTS FOR TEACHING INFANT HYGIENE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS The arguments which put infant hygiene in the schools are briefly: 1. Thousands of babies die every year because mothers do not take proper care of them. 2. Girls at school can be taught how to care for babies. 3. It costs little to give such a course. 4. Teaching can be given by household arts teach- ers and school nurses who are already on the payroll. INFANT HYGIENE AND THE WORK IT DISPLACES The survey asks the questions: Does elementary school teaching further this work to the extent that its advocates believe? Does it duplicate work which 238 may better be carried by existing organizations, such as milk stations and babies' dispensaries? Does it offer either in an immediate value to the girl, or in a future value to her child, returns equal to or greater than those of the work which it displaces? The costs of infant hygiene are two-fold: the money cost of teaching time, and the loss of other work in foods and sanitation and medical inspection displaced by infant hygiene. ADULT RESPONSIBILITY AND THE ADOLESCENT GIRL The care required by young children is of a highly technical kind. It is too difficult for girls to master, and the penalty for non-mastery has grave conse- quences. Grammar school girls should no more be expected to carry full adult responsibility than they are to do full adult work. Therefore infant hygiene should be taught only to those girls who must actually be responsible for the care of little babies. HYGIENE FOB BOYS AND GIRLS ALIKE In advocating that the teaching of infant hygiene be limited to those girls who will make immediate use of such training the writer wishes to urge the further extension of hygiene education, which should be taught to boys and girls alike. Such a course involves thoughtful planning and skilful teaching. If nurses are to help teach it they should be trained in effective methods of classroom 239 instruction. Household arts teachers, on the other hand, need not only skill in teaching method, but a broad and suggestive background in public health matters. Hygiene, whether taught to all children or only a few, should be as well taught as any other sub- ject in the curriculum. TEACHING OF INFANT HYGIENE AN EMERGENCY MEASURE From time to time society is forced to make unfair demands upon individuals or classes in behalf of the group as a whole. Infant hygiene teaching in the elementary school is based on one of those demands. It is a kind of class education given to girls who are obliged to carry responsibility beyond their age, be- cause mothers are too ignorant, too stupid, or too heavily burdened to care for their babies, or because mothers are dead and society shortsightedly sacri- fices one child in the interests of another. Such a program is justifiable only as an emergency measure, but it cannot be justified as a universal program of education. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Household arts teaching is carried on in 20 regular and seven special cooking centers in the regular ele- mentary schools. Each center cares for approxi- mately 300 children per week. Cooking is taught to all girls in the seventh and eighth years. In general the centers are well equipped. 240 2. The work is in charge of a competent and skil- ful supervisor. She should be furnished with addi- tional clerical assistance which would enable her to spend more time on supervisory duties and less on clerical work. 3. The teachers of household arts are well trained and underpaid. 4. The survey extensively analyzes the spirit and purpose of the work and challenges the Cleveland assumption that housekeeping and homemaking are synonymous. 5. The teaching of household arts is carried on in both the academic and the technical high schools. 6. Generous space is allotted for the work and equipment is excellent and kept in good repair. 7. The high school force in household arts numbers 26. In general the teachers are well equipped and are paid much more adequately than those in the elementary schools. 8. At present there is no satisfactory form of su- pervision for household arts teaching in the high schools. This lack should be supplied. 9. The survey analyzes the purpose and status of household arts in the high school course and con- cludes that the work ought in greater measure to contribute to the promotion of economic indepen- dence, the understanding of social institutions, and the development of individual personality. 10. Cleveland is far in advance of most cities in providing lunches served under sanitary conditions 16 241 for all members of classes for blind, crippled, and open air children. 11. The survey recommends that the school sys- tem take over the organization and management of the elementary lunches and make their service avail- able for all children, both normal and exceptional. 12 Lunches in the high schools are run by conces- sionnaires. The efficiency of the work varies widely in the different buildings. 13. The survey recommends that the system take over and consolidate the administration of a general lunch system under the direction of a well-trained dietitian. 14. Courses in infant hygiene are given to some 2,500 eighth grade girls in the elementary schools. The work displaces eight weeks of teaching about food and sanitation. 15. The survey questions the pedagogical effi- ciency and the social and educational value of this work as now conducted. 242 CHAPTER XII EDUCATION THROUGH RECREATION (George E. Johnson) No principle in home life or school life has received more universal recognition among English-speaking people than that expressed in the old saying, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Following the example of the earliest school systems of America, Cleveland long ago made provision for the play of the pupils. Thus physical equipment and supervision for recreation have been more definitely and systemati- cally included in the plans of school administration in Cleveland than is usual elsewhere. What is more, the city has invested large sums of money in provid- ing recreational facilities for the pupils. The school yards surpass in size, equipment, and adaptability for play those of most of our large cities. Forty-six of the school buildings have two playrooms apiece, 18 others one playroom; 44 have gymnasiums; seven have space prepared for swimming pools, two of which are installed; 94 have regular auditoriums, or else use the lower hall for auditorium purposes, the total combined seating capacity being 43,797; and 243 25 of the school yards are provided with playground equipment. The total playground area is 4,716,997 square feet, or more than 108 acres. For a more detailed statement of equipment, see Table 10. TABLE 10 RECREATIONAL FACILITIES OF THE CLEVELAND SCHOOLS School Audi- torium Area of play- ground Pieces of play- ground appara- tus Play- rooms Gym- nasium Swim- ming pool Addison yes 21,250 yes Alabama 11.325 Almira yes 59.904 '2 yes BarkwUl yes 27,431 1 yes Bolton yes 56.520 1 Boulevard yes 20,000 2 yes Boys' yes 8,207 yes Broadway yes 59.077 12 Brownell yes 31.713 21 i yes yes Buhrer yes 13.635 12 b Case yes" 34.262 Case Woodland yes 46,211 2 Central yes 30,300 2 yes yes* Charter Oak 14.869 Chesterfield yea 59,000 2 yee Clark yes 29,715 2 Columbia yes 46,907 1 yes Corlett 59,000 2 Dawning yes 65,400 2 yes Deaf yes 24,000 2 Denison yes 39,770 Detroit yes 34.065 2 Dike yes 21,174 yes Doan yes' 41.721 2 Dunham 25,564 10 Eagle yes 19,600 21 2 yes East Boulevard yes 36,300 yes East Denison yes 40.700 '2 yes East Madison yes 79.834 17 1 Empire yes 35,000 yes yes Swimming pool left unfinished. b Playground apparatus not installed in summer of 1915. Lower hall used as auditorium. 244 TABLE 10. (Continued) Pieces of School Audi- torium Area of play- play- ground Play- rooms Gym- nasium Swim- mine ground appara- pool tus Fairmount yes" 29,840 Fowler yes 46,978 Fruitland 70,648 'i Fullerton yes 48,825 Giddings yes c 38.768 'i Gilbert yes 39,200 12 b yes Gordon yes 32,786 12 '2 Halle yes 56,451 1 yes Harmon yes 26,186 Harvard yes 51,560 '2 Hazeldell yes 23,800 2 Hicks yes" 26,341 20 2 Hodge yes 46,000 16 Hough 57,342 Huck 32,311 2 Kennard yes 44,000 14 yes yes Kentucky 17,836 Kinsman yes 47,035 '2 Landon yes 44,065 Lawn yes 45,585 i Lincoln yes 32,209 Longwood Marion yes yes 40,000 26,815 i?" '2 2 yes yes Mayflower yes 30,000 3i b 2 yes Memorial yes 80,000 18 b Memphis yes 35,000 2 yes Meyer 16,492 Miles Miles Park yes yes 50,000 81,437 12 '2 1 yes Milford yes 66,674 20 4 yes Mill yes 34,970 2 Moulton 29,856 Mound yes 42,463 '2 Mt. Pleasant yes 74,000 2 yes Murray Hill yes 26,600 2 yes yes * North Doan yes 43,915 Nottingham yes 35,000 2 Oakland 37,864 Orchard yes 35,805 '2 Outhwaite yes 49,653 2 yes Swimming pool left unfinished. b Playground apparatus not installed in summer of 1915. Lower hall used as auditorium. 245 TABLE 10. (Continued) Pieces of School Audi- torium Area of play- ground play- ground appara- Play- rooms Gym- nasium Swim- ming pool tus Parkwood yes 22,200 2 Pearl 25.000 1 Prescott 16,966 Quincy yes 29,721 12 2 Rawlings yes 36,600 2 yes Rice yes 39,422 1 yes Rockwell 19,945 Rosedale yes 64,901 2 Sackett yes 72,813 12 2 St. Clair 43,602 20 b Scran ton yes 27,213 Sibley yes 36,816 '2 South Case yes" 34,408 2 Sowinski yes 34,134 1 Stanard 31,628 i6 b Sterling 37,534 20 b Tod yes 38,057 17 2 yes Tremont yes 72,000 yes Union yes* 25,468 i2 b '2 Wade 5i021 Wade Park yes 62,958 1 Walton yes 30,953 1 Warner yes 50,600 2 yes Warren yes 50,111 i? yes Waring yes 34,612 2 Washington Park 60.000 1 yes Watte rson yes 10,542 2 Waverly 32,865 1 Willard yes . 17,000 2 yes WilJson yes 55.200 ie b 2 Woodland yes" 42,241 Woodland Hills 21,700 Wooldridge yes" 39,580 i HIOH SCHOOLS Central yes 75,858 yes Collinwood yes HO.IMKJ yes Commercial yes 31,500 ye* East yes 69,846 yes East Technical yes yes Swimming pool left unfinished. b Playground apparatus not installed in summer of 1915. Lower hall used as auditorium. 246 TABLE 10. (Continued) Pieces of Area of play- Swim- School Audi- play- ground Play- Gym- ming torium ground appara- rooms nasium pool tus Glenville yes 54,886 yes Lincoln yes 41,240 yes Normal yes 40,000 yes South yes 61,285 yes West yes 47,807 yes West Technical yes 225, 000 A 12 yes d Includes West Side Athletic Field. ORGANIZATION OF RECESSES The most natural and historically the first use of the recreational facilities in the schools was at recess. Nominally, 15 minutes during each morning session is allowed for recess through all the grades. As a matter of fact, the morning recess is often omitted, or regularly done away with, at the discretion of the principal. The afternoon recess of former genera- tions has entirely disappeared from the upper four grades of the elementary schools. The recesses should not be omitted, and they should be organized. This does not imply formality at recess. It does imply study and organization so that the recess may count for the most possible, phy- sically and socially. More "steam" is blown off in a skilfully organized than in an unorganized recess, and the social value is certainly far greater. Better still, groups might take their recesses in rotation; outdoors in pleasant weather, in the gym- 247 nasiura or playroom in unpleasant weather. This would increase the value of the recess and might be made the means of relieving congestion. To some extent this has already been done. SCHOOLROOM AND INDOOR RECREATION In the first four grades, periods of "rest and recrea- tion" are given several times daily. These play periods do not come at regular intervals, but at the discretion of the grade teacher. They are from two to five minutes in length. The activities of these periods are exclusively formal games as distinguished from plays, such as climbing, swinging, tetering, playing in the sand, doll play, and the like. Pri- marily the purpose of these periods is for rest and recreation, but the games are chosen with some re- gard for their correlation with school subjects and for mental development. Valuable and desirable as the indoor play periods may be, they are not a complete substitute for out- door play during the school session. When the recre- ational activities of children are transferred from out- doors to indoors their value is lessened through : 1. Loss of fresh air 2. Lack of sunshine 3. Restriction of space and full freedom of activity 4. Diminished pleasure 5. Narrowed range of activities 6. Extreme brevity of the period 7. Dust raised by the running and jumping 248 Schoolroom and indoor recreation should, so far as possible, become outdoor recreation. The play periods should be longer. The plays and games should reflect the deep, instinctive interests of chil- dren of the ages concerned. They should perpetuate the play traditions of the nation. The plays and games employed should not be devised at the desk manufactured out of whole cloth; they should be the growth of generations. KINDERGARTENS AND LOWER GRADES There should be a relatively larger element of free play in the kindergarten and lower grades. The waste places, between wings of buildings and else- where, small and at present for the most part useless, should be thoughtfully equipped for the little tots of the school. With a slight expenditure these desert places can be made to blossom as the rose education- ally and socially, to the relief of congestion, to the aid of teachers, and to the immeasurable benefit of the children. PLAYGROUNDS IDLE MOST OF THE YEAR "Pupils will not be allowed to ... remain on or revisit the premises after dismissal of the school, except by special permission of the principal of the building." So read the rules of the Board of Educa- tion. Whether under the circumstances this is a wise rule or not, it suggests disuse of the school play- 249 grounds, and generally, though happily not univer- sally, the suggestion is taken and children are accus- tomed to leaving the school premises out of their minds in their hours of leisure, and to substituting the street, the vacant lot, the back yard, and the moving-picture show instead. Another great "unwelcome" is the playground ap- paratus entirely denuded during the school year, all except the bare frames being put away in storage. As if to add to the gloom of the bare appearance of the playground, one sees the worn and empty sand- bins, from which the children, as one principal re- ported, had "carried away the remaining sand in tin cans and pails that they might play with it at home." Unthinkable as "stripped apparatus" is in the vaca- tion school period, it is really more pathetic and in- consistent in term time, when the freedom of activity is curtailed and there is even greater need than in vacation time to invite children from sedentary to active occupation. The apparatus should be taken from storage and the school playgrounds made inviting to pupils out of school hours. This will necessitate additional supervision, which should be provided. MANY GYMNASIUMS UNEQUIPPED Twenty-five out of 31 gymnasiums in the elementary schools lack equipment. An unequipped gymnasium is essentially an additional playroom. It fails in the quality which is supposed to distinguish it. It is somewhat like a house without furniture, or a shop 250 without machinery. Data are lacking as to exact use made of the gymnasiums, but so far as available they indicate that many of the gymnasiums are compara- tively little used. It was not until several members of the Survey Staff had made over a thousand class- room visits, covering all the schools of the city, that they found one gymnasium being used for gymnastic purposes. SWIMMING POOLS UNFINISHED OR UNUSED Swimming is perhaps the best of all exercises for bringing the fundamental muscle groups into exhila- rating and vigorous activity. By some authorities it is claimed to be the most quickly recuperative of all sports. Cleveland has wonderful natural facilities for swimming. But natural facilities alone are not suffi- cient for the universal acquirement of swimming, except among primitive peoples. The Board of Education started to move in the right direction and then halted. The physical structure of seven or more schools provides space for swimming pools, but in only two instances have the pools been completed and put in actual operation. The swimming pools that have been begun should be completed and both swimming pools and gymna- siums should be justified by the use made of them. HARDY GAMES IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES Far more attention should be paid in the elementary grades to hardy, organized games. There both num- 251 bers and needs (even the adolescent needs) predomi- nate, as compared to the high school. In Cleveland, schools can do larger service with plays and games in the grades than in the high schools. It would be better to turn the whole corps of physical training teachers into the elementary grades and neglect the high schools than to practise economy so unequally at the expense of the grades as at present. The whole system of play and recreation for the grades should be revised with reference to educational and social aspects. THE CONDUCT OF SCHOOL RECREATION Supervising officers, teachers, and employees con- cerned in the administration of recreation in the schools include practically the whole public school corps, from the superintendent to the custodians. The organization of this corps for the conduct of recreation is, naturally enough, rather loose and in- definite, since play and recreation are conducted more or less independently by several different de- partments. While the duties of the various members of the corps are definite, their inter-relations and responsibilities to one another are not. The diagram on page 253 shows some conflicting lines of the relationship and some duplications of responsibilities. Some reorganization of the educational corps should take place with a view to efficient administra- tion of play and recreation from a broad educational 252 253 and social standpoint. This would lead to a far greater influence of the school upon the out-of-school life of the community. Through lack of greater in- fluence of the school during out-of-school hours, there is a great social leakage for which the city must pay. RECREATIONAL INFLUENCE OF SCHOOLS OUT OF SCHOOL HOURS The school is the natural and logical agency for the safeguarding of the great fundamental interests of children and youth. Each year discloses more and more clearly that the school is the one institution we have yet received that is best fitted adequately to conserve these interests and utilize them for educa- tional and social progress. Opportunities that came as a matter of course to children a generation ago do not come to many children now unless they are specifically planned for by some agency other than the home. Met wisely by the community, this seem- ing handicap may, in the end, result in a great and new-found social strength. PLAY AND RECREATION DISTINGUISHED Play is more than recreation. If its educational sig- nificance is real in the kindergarten period, it is real in every subsequent stage of growth and develop- ment. Rightly conceived, play is a most efficient method of education for life, for work, for social 254 service. The fact that we do not know how to make full use of play in education need not and should not prevent the utilization of play, to the full extent to which we are prepared, for the tremendous social service it can render. ORGANIZATION FOR EDUCATION THROUGH RECREATION In the Cleveland school system, as in that of every large progressive city, there should be: 1. An officer whose entire time should be devoted to giving a social interpretation to educational work and an educational interpretation to social work. He should know the general fields of sociology and edu- cation, and should know intimately the fields of play and recreation. He should be to the social functions of the school what the director is to the business management and what the superintendent of in- struction is to the academic work. He should or- ganize and utilize the physical properties of the school and, so far as practicable, the existing educational corps for the directing of the play and recreational interests of the pupils and the community towards constructive education and social progress. 2. An officer whose function it is to organize and direct especially the active plays, games, sports, pas- times, and athletics of the system. He should have a general knowledge of the social and educational aspects of play and recreation and a technical knowl- edge of physical training. Cleveland has at present 255 a supervisor of physical training having but limited authority in the elementary schools, and almost none in the high schools. 3. An officer whose function it is to supervise the play of young children to eight or nine years of age. She should have a thorough training in the funda- mental principles of the kindergarten plus the general social and educational background of a thorough knowledge of play and recreation. She should be a part of the Division of Physical Education and not independent of it, as she now is in Cleveland. 4. Besides the officers mentioned above, there should be one who is trained to organize and direct the almost universal, but greatly wasted or misused, dramatic interests; one who can utilize similarly the musical interests for educational and social progress; one the nature and nurturing interests; one the con- structive; one the aesthetic. These great lines of human interest and endeavor are replete with recreational as well as educational opportunity; they have their place as avocations quite as truly as vocations. The various official functions mentioned might, of course, be delegated to existing officers, and sometimes several might be combined in one person. But educational and recre- ational problems must be seen from each of these angles by some one who feels the burden of respon- sibility. Education needs play, and play needs edu- cation. The problem of adult recreation is but a phase of the problem of the play of children and youth. 256 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Cleveland is extraordinarily well equipped in plant and teaching force for the conduct and administra- tion of recreation in the public schools. Many of these advantages, however, are neglected. 2. The recesses should not be omitted. They should be organized. 3. School room and indoor recreation should, so far as possible, become outdoor recreation. The play periods should be longer. 4. There should be a relatively larger element of free play in the kindergartens and lower grades. 5. The apparatus should be taken from storage and the school playgrounds made inviting to pupils out of school hours. 6. The swimming pools that have been begun should be completed and the existence of both swim- ming pools and gymnasiums should be justified by the use made of them. 7. Far more attention should be paid in the ele- mentary grades to hardy organized games. 8. A reorganization of the educational corps should be made with a view to securing efficient administra- tion of play and recreation from an educational and social viewpoint. 257 CHAPTER XIII EDUCATIONAL EXTENSION (Clarence A. Perry) The after-class and evening utilization of the Cleve- land school edifices has taken, during recent years, two main forms (1) regular night-school sessions under the direction of the educational department, and (2) lettings to various clubs and organizations for miscellaneous gatherings, entertainments, and indoor games under the general supervision of the business department. In addition to these there are a small number of affairs entertainments, dances, or bazaars gotten up either by or for the pupils of the respective schools. Many of these are for the purpose of raising funds for some kind of school furnishings or equipment. The board rules at present permit a school to hold only two admission-fee enter- tainments a year. In 1915 there were in the public schools of the city 94 auditoriums and halls with a total combined seat- ing capacity of 43,797. These accommodations are used for school entertainments and for the meetings of outside educational, civic, and recreational or- ganizations. The meetings of both sorts held in the assembly halls during 1914-15 were 719 in number. 258 They were conducted under the auspices of 292 dif- ferent organizations and the aggregate attendance was more than 173,000. About 40 per cent of the meetings were held in the afternoon and the remain- ing 60 per cent in the evening. There was only one building in which the evening meetings occurred as frequently as once a week. The average probably was only five per building for the entire year. If one were to hazard three times a week as the frequency with which citizens might well be expected to resort to their schoolhouses after supper for in- tellectual entertainment and the discussion of their common problems, that rate of use carried on for 38 weeks in the 94 auditoriums would amount to 11,716 occasions. Whether this number, or one- third of it, be taken as the measure of the evening utilization which should be made of Cleveland's school halls it is evident that the 1914-15 record of 432 occasions leaves ample margin for a considerable extension of use. In this connection it is to be noted that the auditoriums represent large financial out- lays amounting in the case of the newer schools to as much as $20,000 apiece. Thirty-three elementary schools and 10 high schools have gymnasiums but it does not appear from the records that 12 of them had any after-school use during 1914-15. The reports show that the other 31 gymnasiums were used after class hours 1,975 times and that these occasions were conducted under the auspices of 197 different organizations. The total attendance was nearly 97,000. More than half of 259 these after-school uses were confined to the gymnasi- ums of the 10 high schools. Of the 1,975 occasions recorded, 322, or about 16 per cent, occurred in the afternoon before six o'clock and 1,653 took place after that hour. The time of the use varies greatly with different schools. All the gymnasium occasions recorded for the Eagle School happened during the after-supper period, but 102 of the 107 credited to the Warren School took place before the evening meal hour and a majority of those at the Memphis School also happened during the afternoon period. Suppose that four nights a week be taken as a fair standard of use for a public school gymnasium. That frequency of use in 33 gymnasiums during 38 weeks would give 5,168 occasions, nearly three times Cleve- land's recorded utilization for 1914-15. If there is also taken into consideration how inadequately most of the schools are meeting the need of indoor play opportunities in the hours just before supper, it will be seen that there is plenty of room for a further development of the recreational resources of the Cleveland school plants. BY WHOM SCHOOLS WERE USED According to the custodians' reports the total after-class lettings of school accommodations during 1914-15 numbered 3,469. Of these, 462 were for mothers' club meetings, class dances, pupil society meetings, pay entertainments, bazaars, or some other kind of purely school function and 3,007 were lettings 260 to outside organizations. A large part of the latter consisted of clubs or Sunday-school classes connected with some 27 different churches which, along with two dozen or more specifically named athletic so- cieties, sought the use of school gymnasiums and showers for basket-ball and similar indoor games. The varied character of the bodies which hired the auditoriums, club and classrooms can best be dis- covered from a perusal of the following partial, but representative, list. GROUPS USING SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS Twentieth Ward Improvement Association East End Chamber of Commerce East End Neighborhood Club Women's Suffrage Political League Spanish War Veterans Ladies' Relief Corps Knights of Pythias Lodge Public School Association D. A. R. Clubs G. S. R. Post Garment Workers' Union Warner Civic Association Normal Alumni Alumni Club Sanitation Club Social Center Club Teachers' and Mothers' Club Civic League Western Reserve Dental Club Thespian Dramatic Club South End Choral Society Mendelssohn Choir 261 Boys' Glee Club Boy Scouts Boy Cadets Camp Fire Girls Y. W. C. A. Mothers' Club Anti-Fly Campaign Boys' Chef Club Patrons' Club Social Club German Club Latin Club Syrian Club In the majority of cases these groups were obliged to pay custodians' fees ranging from $.30 to $5.00 an evening, depending on the size of the quarters used. That fact attests the genuineness of this demand and its vigor is further evidenced by the rapid growth in volume which, as shown in Table 11, has practically doubled during the past two years. TABLE 11. GROWTH OF AFTER-SCHOOL USE OF SCHOOL FA- CILITIES BY NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZATIONS 1913-14 1914-15 Per cent increase Organisations using buildings 298 596 100 Total lettings 1.932 3,007 56 Fees paid to custodians by organi- zations $1,729.91 $2,813.55 62 Aggregate attendance 120.511 276,253 129 CLEVELAND'S MOST INTENSIVELY USED SCHOOL An impressive object lesson as to the great educa- tional value of an intelligently socialized and in- tensively utilized educational plan is furnished by the Eagle School. The physical facilities of the building are remarkable. There is a model flat, a lunchroom, superior shop and kitchen facilities, shower room, gymnasium, open air classrooms and a spacious auditorium. These splendid accommodations have been utilized by the Eagle School people in the organization of different forms of educational extension that have permeated and affected the entire neighborhood. Beginnings came about naturally in connection with the medical inspection work, when the school nurse visited parents to explain why their boy needed his adenoids removed, why their daughter required glasses, or how a discharging ear should be treated. The contact further broadened by occasions which brought mothers and fathers to the school. Do- mestic science classes were opened for housewives and the manual training shop was thrown open to the men. Mothers were invited to bring their daughters to a dancing class and to sit and crochet in the library while waiting for them. The gymnasium and game- room were thrown open to the children of parents who could attend the mothers' club or the citizen- ship class only if there was some place where their youngsters could be left in the meanwhile. Among the school's organizations is one known as the Sanitation Club. Any boy of the neighborhood who has reached 15 is eligible for membership and its purpose is "to keep this community clean and 263 sanitary and promote the physical, mental, and moral advancement of its residents." The club meets weekly at 7 p. m. in the school building and there perfects plans for carrying on its work. Through its endeavors a vacant lot was filled in and made into a playground, stables have been cleaned up, and in- sanitary shacks have been razed. An athletic committee arranges basketball games and another group gets up social affairs. Chewing- gum, tobacco, and profane language are banned by the by-laws and infractions are penalized by the abrogation of gymnasium and other desirable privileges. Among other features of the evening program at the Eagle School which help to protect the after- supper period the time which is perhaps most filled with pitfalls for the unguided may be mentioned a boys' brass band, a boys' chef club, a girls' club, a dancing class, a cooking class, and several other organizations for young people. PLANT WELL EQUIPPED FOR EXTENSION WORK Few cities in the country have school buildings which are more generally and more completely adapted to recreational, cultural, and civic uses than those of Cleveland. Of the 114 public schools, over four- fifths have auditoriums, nearly one-third possess gymnasiums, while about one-half have one or more inside playrooms. If placed side by side, these special rooms would cover 10 acres of ground and 264 they have cost the taxpayers more than a million dollars. The auditoriums and interior halls of the elementary schools, all fitted with electric lights, have seating capacities for an aggregate of about 35,000 people. About four out of five of the Cleve- land schools possess large, well-lighted kindergarten rooms. Some 30 of the schools are manual training centers and have equipments for shop work or cook- ing and sewing, and in most cases for both. PAST ADMINISTRATION OF EXTENSION WORK The rules of the Board place upon the director of schools the control of all uses of buildings for other than "the regular school work." Besides permitting teachers and pupils to hold after-class occasions per- taining to school interests the director is empowered to grant the use of school quarters to mothers' clubs, improvement leagues, gymnasium classes, patriotic clubs or similar groups for gatherings which "are helpful to the intellectual, physical, and moral wel- fare of the pupils and patrons of the various dis- tricts," provided such use does not interfere with the regular school activities. For working out matters of policy and a kind of general supervision of after- school occasions the director has had the assistance of the head of the Division of Medical Inspection and Physical Education. The routine handling of the vast number of applications for the meeting- place and play privileges, the verification of the resi- dence qualifications and general responsibility of 265 the five citizens who join in the petition, the scrutiny of the purposes of the meeting, the prevention of con- flicts between the uses of the outside organizations and the local school staffs, and all the telephoning and office interviews which are incidental to the letting procedure this work has fallen upon the director's secretary and other members of his reg- ular office staff. Despite the notable efficiency of the director's organization, this extra work has produced a burden it was not designed to bear. During the last two years a compromise policy has been followed. The public has been allowed to come into school buildings, but no organization has been provided to care for them after they got in. Administrative strain and friction have been at- tendant upon this practice and the annoyances generally resulting from the maintenance of a pas- sive attitude toward a strong popular demand have been experienced. Therefore, on November 15, 1915, the Cleveland board created the Division of School Extension, whose function it is to administer the evening use of school buildings for all purposes other than night schools. THE NEW DIVISION OP SCHOOL EXTENSION The resolution creating the Division of School Ex- tension authorizes the director of schools to ap- point a supervisor of community centers, a clerk, and a number of supervisors and assistant super- visors of individual and special activities. The board assumes responsibility for the heat, 266 light, janitor service, and supervision at these 16 centers, but in lieu of the custodian's fees, which were formerly exacted from the clubs to which facili- ties were let, individual fees to the amount of 25 cents a month will be collected from all persons who regularly avail themselves of the privileges of the center. These provisions apply to the use of gym- nasiums, manual training shops, domestic science and club rooms, and swimming pools in the selected schools. The auditoriums in these centers are made available for neighborhood meetings on the nights when the building is open without cost to the users. The assembly room of any other school building may also be let for a community gathering upon the re- quest of five citizens who are willing to pay the cus- todian's fee of $2.50 and assume responsibility for the supervision of the meeting and any damage which may happen to school property. The fundamental significance of the new division, however, lies in the fact that it marks the adoption, on the part of the board, of an active and construc- tive policy in an important field of education and establishes the nucleus of what is destined to be a development of greater and greater magnitude. The two needs, more centers and more workers without a proportionate increase of expenditure, are going to lead the Division of School Extension to adopt as a part of its plan, if the experience of New York and other cities is a trustworthy guide, the formation of a local neighborhood association at each center. If the experience of other systems holds true in 267 Cleveland there will be, as time goes on, an increasing effort to introduce different varieties of cultural op- portunities along with the athletics and games. As the local directors search for means of putting changes of this character into effect it is inevitable that they will develop the club or group method which simply means the endeavor to bring groups together in the center on the same basis as any nor- mal social life, that is, in some form of congeniality. There is every reason for believing that the Divi- sion of School Extension will also be able to utilize the vast resources of leadership that exist among Cleveland's public-spirited citizens. As the list of the organizations making use of school facilities has shown, the city is full of groups of young people al- ready organized on a club basis. In connection with the letting of school audi- toriums for community gatherings there are likely to occur now and then discussions which will provoke public criticism. Some people will feel that another class of people is promoting abhorrent doctrines through the use of commonly owned and supported public buildings. The right way of satisfying public interest in controversial questions is to make them the subjects of fair, able, and dignified discussions at the community center, and to supply information upon them by means of lectures and illustrated talks. Experience will eventually show the wisdom of transferring the Division of School Extension from the business department to the educational de- partment. While the former is well organized and 268 unusually efficient, its standpoint is necessarily that of the custodian and preserver of school property. By its nature it is not designed to promote an organ- ization whose main purpose must be not merely the utilization of school facilities but their utilization for educational and social ends. While the business Department will undoubtedly maintain an active and expert organization the Division will not be in a position to attain its full normal development until it is regarded as an educational enterprise and placed under its natural control. It will be found advisable also to extend the work of the Division of School Ex- tension to cover that of the evening school. These two activities are now handled by the same bureau in a number of cities and the results seem to favor the combination. INTERNAL REASONS FOR THIS NEW DEVELOPMENT Educational extension is in keeping with the princi- ple of efficiency already well exemplified in the medi- cal inspection surveys of Cleveland, the open air classes and the school lunches which reflect society's demand that an increasing percentage of the school's product in the form of future citizens shall arrive at its destination in good condition. This principle translated into practice calls for three new lines of educational endeavor: (1) mea- sures designed to overcome so far as possible those influences of the home and street upon the pupil's character; (2) steps of a nature to extend, beyond the limits of the high and evening schools, the city's 269 care over its future citizens through the adolescent years to the period of adulthood; (3) the means of a greater closeness of contact between themselves and the public, so that their purposes might be more widely and sympathetically understood, with the hope that thereby the money for new service would be forthcoming. If during any of the turns of adolescence the boy escapes from the influence of the school or comes under other influences which neutralize or con- taminate, the main purpose of the school's activities will have been defeated. A youth does not vote or fill office. He has no civic status except that of a ward of the state. It is important that he be orderly in his public behavior, and the processes of elemen- tary education do undoubtedly contribute to that end, but their great fruitage cannot, in the nature of the case, appear until he arrives at the years of citi- zenship. The school may have given a lad an ex- cellent theoretical training in civics and in the habits of industry, but if he reach his majority twenty- one a drunkard and a gambler, its labor will have been in vain. It is to obviate such social wastage that Cleveland is extending its educational over- sight to the end that contact with its youth shall not be broken too early. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. The Cleveland school plant is well equipped for a wider use. 2. The actual after-class use of Cleveland school 270 facilities leaves a considerable margin for further utilization. 3. The variety and number of the clubs and organ- izations to which school facilities were let last year are evidence of a strong public demand for such privileges. 4. The miscellaneous evening occasions have im- posed an undue strain upon the school organization. 5. The new Division of School Extension will grow through the natural effort to overcome administrative difficulties and to satisfy increasing public demands. 6. Local neighborhood associations should in due course be organized to help in the support and direc- tion of community centers. 7. The organization and development of clubs in community center work should be initiated and en- couraged. 8. Organizing public meetings in the schoolhouse is the best way of overcoming the friction sometimes generated by discussions held under the auspices of outside groups. 9. The administrative control of the Division of School Extension ought to be transferred from the business department to the educational department. 10. The school forum offers the educational au- thorities a needed point of contact with parents and citizens. 11. Offering young people activities that reveal and develop ability while at the same time satisfying the instinct for play is an effective method whereby public education is now extending its oversight through the teen-age. 271 CHAPTER XVI THE SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT (Herbert Adolphus Miller) Cleveland is one of the most foreign cities in the United States. Of the 50 cities having a population of over 100,000 inhabitants at the time of the last census, only seven contained a larger proportion of foreign inhabitants. Cleveland's foreign population would constitute by itself a city larger than any other in the state of Ohio except Cincinnati, and equalled or surpassed in size by only 28 other cities in the en- tire country. A LARGE PROPORTION CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH Without going into a detailed study of the social and educational characteristics of the old and the new immigration, we may take up briefly two points of peculiar significance from the standpoint of public education. The first relates to the ability to speak English. The successful assimilation of the immi- grant, his adaptation to American customs and ways of thought, and to a marked degree his economic and social status, depend on his ability to read and speak the English language. Nearly every disadvantage 272 under which he labors during his first years in this country can be traced in the last analysis to igno- rance of English. Cleveland's foreign population is becoming in- creasingly foreign from the standpoint of ability to read, write, speak, and understand the English lan- guage. In 1900 less than one-fifth of the foreigners in the city 10 years old and over were unable to speak English; in 1910 the proportion of non-English- speaking foreigners had risen to nearly one-third of the total. FEWER BECOME AMERICAN CITIZENS There are at the present time between 60,000 and 65,000 men in Cleveland who are not citizens of the United States. Of every 100 men of voting age in 1910, approximately 30 possessed no political rights or interests in this country and owed no allegiance to the government of the United States. In recent years there has been a marked change for the worse in this respect throughout the entire country, but in few of the larger cities has the downward trend been more pronounced than in Cleveland. The present standing of the city in this particular is less disquieting than the marked retrogressive trend the data reveal. The fact that the social and political assimilation of the great mass of aliens in the city is proceeding at a steadily decreasing pace is of the gravest import in its relation to the future welfare of the city. is 273 SCHOOL CHILDREN FROM NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING HOMES In the course of the survey an investigation was made to determine the number of children enrolled in the public school who were from homes in which English is not regularly spoken. Each child in the schools above the kindergarten age was asked to fill out a blank containing two questions: first, "What is the language of your home?" and second, "What language besides English can you read?" The data were collected from all schools on a single day, and the totals represent the attendance for that day, not the entire number enrolled in the schools. In all, replies were obtained from 75,046 children in the elementary schools, and from 9,088 attending the high schools. Almost exactly one-half of the children in the elementary schools came from homes in which English is not regularly spoken. The distribution is shown in detail in Table 12. FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING IN PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS Data relating to private schools were secured only from those supported by the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. The Lutherans have 15 schools, of which one is Slovak and the rest German. The Slovak school, enrolling 359 pupils, comprises but three grades, although it is proposed to open addi- tional grades as soon as capable teachers for them can be secured. Eleven of the 14 German schools re- 274 TABLE 12. LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN HOMES OF PUPILS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CLEVELAND. 1915 Language Elementary High Total English 37,454 6,325 43,779 German 8,118 1.093 9,211 Yiddish 6,219 576 6,795 Bohemian 5,325 374 5.699 Italian 4,493 108 4,601 Hungarian 3,686 102 3.788 Polish 3,523 113 3,636 Slovak 1,558 40 1,598 Slovenian 1,217 22 1,239 Russian 913 44 957 Hebrew 656 120 776 Swedish 328 40 368 Croatian 218 218 Dutch 173 "9 182 Roumanian 151 8 159 Lithuanian 147 1 148 Syrian Finnish 140 103 2 6 142 109 Welsh 80 26 106 French 79 12 91 Norse 59 8 67 Greek 56 1 57 Danish 55 9 64 Ruthenian 43 43 Albanian 40 "2 42 Serbian 30 1 31 Armenian 27 27 Bulgarian 17 17 Chinese 15 "2 17 Spanish 12 5 17 Other foreign languages 111 23 134 Total 75.046 9,088 84,134 ported an attendance of 2,074 in all. The three from which data were not secured are small schools, but it is doubtless well within the actual figures to put the total, in round numbers, at 2,500. It was somewhat more difficult to secure informa- tion from the Catholic schools, but the figures here 275 presented are approximately correct, although in many cases they are probably too low. Of the 52 parochial schools from which data were obtained, 30 may be classed as foreign language schools. Table 13 shows the number of children enrolled in the for- eign language Catholic schools. The total enroll- ment in the Catholic schools is slightly over 28,000, so that the proportion of foreign-language-speaking children is nearly 60 per cent. This, including the 2,859 children in the German and Slovak Lutheran schools, gives a total of at least 20,000 foreign-lan- guage-speaking children in the parochial schools. Adding this number to the enrollment in the public schools gives a grand total of approximately 57,325 children from foreign-language-speaking homes. Those from English-speaking-homes enrolled in both public and parochial schools number approxi- mately 50,000. TABLE 13. NUMBER OF PUPILS STUDYING THE DIFFERENT FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. CLEVE- LAND. 1915 Language Number of schools Pupils enrolled Polish German Bohemian Slovak Slovenian 6 7 5 6 3 4,170 3.977 2.850 2,377 1,846 Hungarian Croatian Lithuanian 2 1 1 1.300 352 260 Total 30 17.172 276 WIDE VARIATION IN DIFFERENT SCHOOLS Children from foreign-speaking-language homes are found in every public school in Cleveland. Doan School, with four German children, three Swedes and one Russian among 795 pupils enrolled, is the least foreign, and Murray Hill, with 1,171 Italians, five Albanians (who also speak Italian), and one German in an enrollment of 1,348, is the most homogeneously foreign of the elementary schools. Both the percen- tage of foreign pupils and their distribution by na- tionality and language vary widely among the differ- ent schools, so that the relation of racial and lin- guistic characteristics to teaching methods and school management becomes a separate problem for each school. EFFORTS OF NATIONAL GROUPS TO PRESERVE THEIR LANGUAGES Each national group expresses its group conscious- ness in varying degrees of effort to preserve its lan- guage by providing more or less adequate instruction for the children in the mother tongue. Generally there are very strong traditional and historical rea- sons for devotion to the language. Often the immi- grant comes from countries where attempts have been made to substitute the language of foreign rulers for the mother tongue with the result that the preser- vation of the language has become a matter of pa- triotism. It has been shown that a very large proportion of 277 the inhabitants of Cleveland possess a reading and speaking knowledge of some language other than English and that more than one-half of the children in the public schools speak, and more than one-third read, some other foreign language. The economic and social value of this knowledge cannot be denied, and in every case, excepting that of German, it has been obtained absolutely without cost to the school system. The possibility of conserving this economic and cultural asset should not be lost to sight, even though we recognize that the main duty of the school is to give the child a thorough English education. TEACHER SHOULD KNOW CHARACTERISTICS OF NATIONAL GROUPS A teacher should know something of the social life to be found within the various immigrant groups, both in order that she may understand her pupils better and that she may be able to use these social forces to the advantage of the school and the com- munity. In addition she ought to know something of the history of the region from which her pupils or their parents have come. If she knows even a few words of their language, it might prove of inestimable value in establishing a sympathetic relationship be- tween the teachers and the children, but more espe- cially between the parents and the school. A knowl- edge of the geography of the child's native land would be an asset to teacher and principal. 278 THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION FOR THE FOREIGN CHILDREN The problem of educating children of recent foreign origin divides itself into two major phases and almost innumerable minor ones. The two main divisions of the problem have to do respectively with education for the recently arrived non-English-speaking chil- dren, and with the far greater number of children scattered throughout the school system who come from homes where English is not spoken but who have themselves acquired some familiarity with American customs and standards. STEAMER CLASSES Fifteen years ago, in 1901, the Cleveland school sys- tem first recognized the necessity of making special provision for teaching English to recently arrived immigrant children. In that year the principal of Harmon School organized the first class for non- English-speaking children and termed it a " Steamer Class" because it was made up of pupils who had come to Cleveland directly from the steamer which brought them to this country. Under the present arrangements steamer classes are organized in the schools that regularly receive large numbers of new immigrants. Here they meet an important need, but they do not help the pupil whose parents have found a place to live a little removed from other recent arrivals and so have sent their children to a school where there are not 279 enough foreign children in attendance to warrant the establishment of special classes. This is one of the problems which the school system has never satis- factorily solved. In general the steamer classes are valuable and fairly effective. Provisions should be made for trans- ferring non-English-speaking children to them when such children enroll in schools where steamer classes have not been organized. The work could be ren- dered much more effective by adopting methods of English teaching such as have been developed in New York and Boston, or the superior methods in use in Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. ENGLISH-SPEAKING CHILDREN FROM NON-ENGLISH- SPEAKING HOMES It has already been shown that more than half of the children in the schools of Cleveland come from non- English-speaking homes. A study of the figures showing how these children are distributed through the different grades and among the various schools leads to the conclusion that the only uniform condi- tion permeating the entire situation is the universal heterogeneity of the school population. There are very few schools indeed having anything approaching a homogeneous student body. In every school there are children from non-English-speaking families, and in most of them these children are divided among a large number of nationalities. Moreover, some schools have large numbers of foreign children in the 280 upper grades, while in others they are mainly in the lower ones. In some schools one nationality pre- dominates among the older children and another among the younger ones. The school population is a synthesis of the most varied elements. Table 14 is introduced to show the numbers of children of the more important nationality groups in the different schools from which data were gathered by the survey. A study of Table 14 reveals conditions that are not only interesting, but constitute a very puzzling edu- cational problem. The data were gathered from 98 elementary schools. In a majority of cases the chil- dren from non-English-speaking homes outnumber those from English-speaking homes. It would thus seem on first consideration that it would be a com- paratively simple matter to modify the instruction given in each school so as to meet most adequately the needs of the pupils. In point of fact, this is ren- dered exceedingly difficult by the complex character of the group from non-English-speaking homes. In the city as a whole the only homogeneous ele- ment in the different school populations is the group of children from English-speaking homes. They do not constitute a majority of all the children, but, ex- cept in a few cases, they constitute a larger group than any other single group. In the entire city there are 26 schools in which there is a group of one na- tionality outnumbering the children from English- speaking homes, but in most cases these children do not constitute a majority of the children enrolled in the school. 281 TABLE 14. CHILDREN IN LEADING NATIONALITY GROUPS IN EACH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ON BASIS OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE HOME School 3 1 H German Yiddish Bohemian Italian a s a a %* J3 3 o CH 3 S 53 4) W S'K 0.2 1 Addison 508 24 1 7 7 547 Alabama 42 65 "e 1 "2 3 '94 "2 91 306 Barkwill 139 15 359 10 523 Bolton 910 82 "s 45 "2 "3 "l '60 1.111 Boulevard 361 84 39 27 "3 14 9 537 Broadway 436 33 15 2 3 258 68 815 Brownell 248 11 "8 1 650 1 1 "e 38 964 Buhrer 491 110 3 10 5 3 7 9 638 Case 220 252 3 20 44 46 165 750 Case-Woodland 100 39 448 132 15 47 10 24 22 837 Centra 363 27 440 5 16 3 29 883 Chesterfield 438 9 "2 12 1 462 Clark 342 162 198 '22 '20 6 750 Columbia 1,043 28 "10 "5 2 6 1,094 Corlett 93 9 191 5 14 "12 "e 330 Dawning 318 368 81 7 37 7 18 24 860 Denison 895 85 11 6 2 2 3 84 1,088 Detroit 508 85 " 1 3 12 28 1 1 82 721 Dike 277 58 659 3 15 2 49 1,063 Doan 787 4 4 795 Dunham 672 59 7 2 6 1 18 765 Eagle 26 6 2 "2 88 13 23 116 380 656 East Boulevard 349 76 1 126 122 44 5 19 742 East Clark 306 23 1 13 5 59 407 East Denison 389 80 18 24 100 " 1 9 621 East Madison 487 164 1 6 3 8 15 39 260 983 Empire 567 93 1 1 1 3 9 1 25 701 Fail-mount 400 6 1 192 1 J 603 Fowler 282 56 248 2 10 '24 "l2 j 637 Fruitland 266 26 2 2 14 310 Fullerton 10 17 67 684 t 780 Giddings 402 84 158 74 "4 '24 16 85 847 Gilbert 405 294 26f i 84 5 "26 11 1,088 Gordon 414 128 7 * 15 j 19 588 Halle 658 152 "4 4 \ e 4 13 746 Harmon 34 t 31 1 542 f 4 69 677 Harvard 218 33 38 j 415 i 5 714 Hazeldell 936 101 '4 { " 1 22 1,068 Hicks 294 102 4 j 6 472 '36 114 42 1,071 Hodge 508 205 4 4 4 10 24 7 75 841 Hough 782 37 4 1 1 5 1 1 7 841 Huck 169 114 16< ! 18 J 471 Kennard 162 33 847 j 63 17 J 71 1,196 Kentucky 367 51 ] i 5 '90 6 J 66 689 Kinsman 543 200 11 12 6 247 15 49 95 1,178 Landon 692 87 4 2 j ] 16 810 Lawn 374 6 j "5 11 10 462 Lincoln 299 66 "l2 133 ; 321 a B "i 22 864 Longwood 131 \ 427 8 47 11 j I 1 661 Marion 149 132 271 14 80 63 723 282 TABLE 14. (Continued) a s rt ' kd .2 a .3 s J 03 boa S 1 o M 3 Schoo "3 P T3 "3 =3 > o J3'5> o a W O i O 9 w' n 53 0.2 H Mayflower 127 34 494 34 184 28 42 98 136 1,177 Memorial 300 130 2 15 33 75 6 336 897 Memphis 415 67 12 1 16 1 2 9 523 Miles 380 32 122 2 2 22 1 12 573 Miles Park 488 49 49 37 1 28 35 13 700 Milford 389 391 304 5 51 2 47 4 1,193 Mill 342 151 " 8 3 3 5 4 5 521 Moulton 189 53 4 16 5 20 14 301 Mound 91 34 183 1 256 1 566 Mt. Pleasant 334 39 "e 126 "18 2 2 "5 11 543 Murray Hill 171 1 1,171 5 1,348 North Doan 612 40 9 2 2 3 20 688 Nottingham 342 99 2 3 25 28 "3 70 572 Observation 166 15 1 10 98 9 299 Orchard 539 205 4 5 2 171 "2 "13 39 980 Outhwaite 245 58 1,033 1 8 50 9 3 33 1,440 Parkwood 582 6 4 1 593 Pearl 170 49 17 2 '38 "5 281 Quincy 418 84 "10 138 6 "23 7 "7 24 717 Rawlings 62 61 2 4 537 21 16 21 724 Rice 227 68 5 347 27 294 5 66 21 1,060 Rockwell 92 5 2 2 2 23 126 Rosedale 750 33 "25 9 817 Sackett 692 195 225 26 "17 "5 "7 6 1,173 St. Clair 359 163 "3 5 10 16 109 7 90 762 Scranton 446 167 1 7 2 22 11 43 25 724 Sibley 624 41 147 6 20 7 1 57 903 South 478 43 1 4 218 4 158 906 South Case 247 15 638 50 8 2 960 Sowinski 502 127 10 3 185 65 892 Stanard 235 133 6 1 2 8 5 5 280 675 Sterling 481 21 60 114 1 3 42 722 Todd 265 83 1 '46 3 13 '45 5 6 467 Tremont 276 202 4 10 22 20 483 266 495 1,778 Union 275 55 1 440 1 103 28 31 934 Wade Park 653 40 2 1 23 719 Walton 382 219 " 1 '56 66 '22 1 '20 8 775 Warner 335 50 37 40 1 8 471 Waring 357 165 " 1 3 15 "21 50 612 Warren 250 110 1 438 8 87 '55 12 961 Washington Pk. 110 11 131 20 4 276 Watterson 356 44 i'oi "4 19 524 Waverly 381 48 "3 "l 2 7 "l 48 491 Willard 839 235 3 16 8 19 "3 4 27 1,154 Willson 682 75 1 2 3 9 1 21 794 Woodland 218 63 2 59 6 504 5 97 66 1,019 Woodland Hills 393 96 185 2 8 9 80 27 800 Wooldridge 477 91 527 19 4 37 8 3 45 1,211 37,454 8,118 6,219 5,325 4,493 3,686 3,523 1,558 4,670 75,040 283 Such facts as these, together with the data of Table 14, indicate the great difficulties involved in attempting to modify instruction to meet the special needs of special national groups. In a single class- room there may be pupils of a dozen different na- tionalities. In most of the classrooms of the city the largest single group is made up of children from English-speaking homes. In only a few cases are there classes in which practically all the children are of the same nationality. Nevertheless the very complexity of the problem points the way with some definiteness to certain wise courses of educational procedure. It is apparent that the most important subject in the schools of Cleveland is English. This would probably remain true if there were no foreign children enrolled, but under the present conditions it is doubly true. The one educational certainty is that the ability to read, write, and speak the English language easily and cor- rectly is the ability which will conduce most effec- tively to the moral welfare, the cultural develop- ment, the vocational prosperity, and the individual happiness of this great mass of children now in the public schools of this city. THE ADULT IMMIGRANT AND THE SCHOOL The most important instrumentalities for the in- struction of the adult immigrant are the public night schools. They have increased in scope and im- portance until they have become a large educational 284 enterprise, enrolling in the school year of 1914-15 more than 11,000 students. These schools open in October and continue in session for 20 or 22 weeks, being open four nights each week. At the close of the regular term in March most of them suspend work, but a few are continued for a further period of several weeks. The experi- ment has even been tried of continuing a few of the night schools through the summer months. The classes are held in regular elementary school build- ings and about one-fourth of the teachers are also employed as teachers in the day schools, while the remaining three-fourths are people working at other occupations during the day. CITIZENSHIP CLASSES In addition to their regular work, the evening schools established, two years ago, classes in citizenship for the benefit of aliens desiring to secure naturaliza- tion papers. During that winter these classes en- rolled more than 1,400 men. Last year the total en- rollment was about 1,300. During the winter of 1915-16 the number was less than 600. The motives which prompted the establishment of the citizenship classes are deserving of the heartiest approbation and support. Socially and educationally this innovation is wisely planned and worthy of continuation and extension. Nevertheless the fact is that these classes are making a most meager con- 285 tribution toward helping aliens to become American citizens. Their enrollment is progressively decreas- ing and their attendance is but a small fraction of their enrollment. In the opinion of the members of the Survey Staff the causes of these unsatisfactory conditions are to be found in the character of the instruction given in these classes. The trouble is that the teaching does not follow any well matured plan and is not skilfully done. It suffers from the same sorts of weaknesses that restrict the value of the instruction given in the regular evening schools. The nature of these short- comings is considered in detail in the following sec- tion. QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION IN EVENING SCHOOLS The typical characteristics of the work of the regular evening classes are well illustrated by that observed in five successive classrooms in one school visited in March, 1916. The pupils were almost entirely young foreign men of from 25 to 30 years of age. Many of them were employed in one of Cleveland's great steel manufacturing establishments. They were not illiterate, but they had almost no knowledge of Eng- lish. They were all weary from their day's work and they kept awake only by the exercise of apparent effort. In the first of the five classes a writing lesson was being conducted, and these husky laboring men were busily engaged in copying, " I am a yellow bird. I can sing. I can fly. I can sing to you." 286 In the second class the teacher was barely able to talk English and the work was almost entirely con- ducted by the translation method. The teacher made several fruitless attempts to get the pupils to speak English. He did this by telling them repeatedly, "Think the sentence in your own language and then try to translate it into English." After this had failed to produce satisfactory results, the teacher gave it up and had them read a selection about making pickles from cucumbers. The third class was taught by a bright young foreigner who had apparently received a classical education. The work was continued just as are many classes in Latin. The teacher spoke English almost perfectly, and although his pupils could neither speak nor understand it, he carefully explained to them about inflections, voices, moods, tenses, numbers, and persons. He then told them that they were to conjugate "to have" and "to be." After this was explained to them in their own language, the pupils all went to the board and began to write "I have, thou hast, he has," and "I am, thou art, he is," etc. The teacher explained that "art" was the second person singular, indicative mood, present tense, of the substantive verb "be." After this the class had a reading lesson from the third reader about a robin that said, "God loves the flowers and birds too much to send the cold to freeze them." In the fourth room the pupils had a reading lesson about "Little drops of water, Little grains of sand." They then had a spelling lesson of the words in 287 the reading selection. The teacher was interested, vivacious, and expended a great amount of nervous energy in talking very rapidly and almost inces- santly. She took up most of the time with her own activity and most of the pupils could not understand what she was talking about. In the fifth and last class the teacher was also most voluble and talked more than all the students combined. It was a reading lesson and the 14 men present were engaged in reading a selection beginning "Oh, baby, dear baby, Whatever you do, You are king of the home And we all bend to you." Similar examples might be multiplied from the writ- ten records of the work observed in the evening classes, and classes of the sort described may be seen by any one who will take the time to visit the evening schools of the city. Perhaps the most im- pressive characteristic of it all is that every teacher appears to be entirely free to teach whatever he pleases by any methods that he wishes to use. The lessons assigned and the methods employed in the different rooms are astonishingly varied. There seems to be no effective supervision, no plan for im- proving the teachers in service, and no effort to find out which of the many methods used produces the best results. REORGANIZATION ESSENTIAL In the opinion of the Survey Staff it is essential that the evening school work of Cleveland be reorganized. 288 Some of the results of the work as at present con- ducted are revealed by the attendance records. The records of attendance show that only a small pro- portion of those who enroll remain more than a few weeks. The tragic part of the situation is that every year thousands of earnest and hopeful foreigners flock to the night schools in keen anticipation of learning English, and after a few weeks become discouraged and drop out because the teachers do not meet their needs. Since they cannot understand what is going on, their interest flags. As the weeks pass by, physi- cal weariness overcomes them more and more each night. Finally they sink into despondency and dis- couragement as they see their cherished dream of mastering the new language depart. This is no matter of casual import for these men and women. They are not children and most of them are not students. Concentrating their minds on the lesson implies painful effort. If this intense application does not bring them within a few weeks some results that the immigrant can appreciate, he begins to realize that his constructive ideal, his dream of becoming an American, are not to be attained through the public school. There are 70,000 people in Cleveland who cannot speak English, and there are few social, civic, or educational problems more important than to make it possible for this tenth of the city's population to understand and communicate with the other nine- tenths. The number of unnaturalized adult foreign 19 289 men is nearly as large as that of the non-English- speaking inhabitants. Moreover, these conditions are becoming worse rapidly and steadily. Again Cleveland makes a poorer showing in these respects than any other large city. For these reasons the survey deems it essential that the elementary evening schools of this city should be reorganized so as to do efficient work in teaching English to foreigners. What is most needed is leadership. One thoroughly competent supervisor, charged with responsibility for making the work efficient, and given greatly increased power in the selection, training, and direction of his assistants, could work a rapid reform in the whole situation. While increased appropriations are needed for sup- plies and for teachers, they are not nearly so im- portant as skilled and enterprising leadership. The city cannot afford to be indifferent, or inefficient, or contented in its attitude toward helping its aliens to help themselves. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Cleveland is one of the most foreign cities in the United States. 2. The foreign population is becoming increasingly foreign from the standpoint of the ability to speak and read English. No other large city makes so poor a record in this respect. 3. In 1910 nearly one-third of all the men of voting age in Cleveland were aliens. In this respect Cleve- 290 land makes a poorer showing than most of the other large cities of the country. 4. Approximately one-half of the children in the elementary schools and one-third in the high schools come from homes in which some foreign language is the "language of the home." About 20,000 children are receiving instruction in some foreign language in the parochial schools of the city. 5. In order that the schools may do the most ef- fective work it is essential that the teachers should know something of the history and characteristics of the different national groups represented by the pupils. The survey report furnishes the most neces- sary elements of this information in conveniently condensed form. 6. The foreign children are distributed among so large a number of national groups and scattered through the schools all over the city in so complex a manner as to make it almost impossible to modify instruction so as to meet the special needs of separate national groups. 7. The one educational certainty in the situation is that the most important educational asset that the schools can give all children is a mastery of speaking, reading, and writing the English language. 8. The survey recommends that the work for non-English speaking children be made more effec- tive by adopting methods of English teaching such as have been developed in New York and Boston or the superior methods in use in Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. 291 9. Cleveland maintains evening classes in which almost all the students are foreigners whose main object in attending is to learn English. 10. The survey finds that the work in evening elementary schools has not been well and efficiently conducted. It recommends a thorough reorganiza- tion. The most important factor in reorganization is efficient leadership. 292 CHAPTER XV THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Leonard P. Ayres and Adele McKinnie) Two significant conditions characterize the place of the public library in the community life of Cleveland. The first is that the public library has always been closely connected with the public schools. The second is that the people of Cleveland support their public library more generously and use its facilities more extensively than do the citizens of other cities. LIBRARY BRANCHES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS The present city librarian has held office for more than 30 years, and during that entire period work has been continuously under way looking toward the establishment of increasingly intimate relationships between the activities of the two great educational forces in the community. Beginning in 1887, the public library put small collections of books into some schools. Less than 10 years later a special branch library was established in the Central High School. Since its inception the work has steadily proceeded, with the object of carrying to all the school children 293 the opportunities afforded by the library. At the present time the public library maintains branches in eight high school buildings and in the Normal School. It also has branch libraries in seven elementary schools and classroom libraries in 68 schools. More- over, the public library endeavors to reach school children through the public branch libraries situated in different parts of the city and through its library clubs maintained in these branches. The city has schools and libraries, children and books. The purpose of the present report is to con- sider how the city can most effectively get the city's children into the habit of reading the city's books. SEVEN ELEMENTABY SCHOOL LIBRARIES There are seven libraries in elementary schools. The educational authorities furnish the rooms, light, heat, and janitor service, while the public library furnishes the books and the services of trained librarians. School libraries of this type have been in existence for 18 years. During this time 20 have been estab- lished and 13 of them given up after varying terms of existence. WORK OF SCHOOL LIBRARIES WITH CHILDREN Most of the work of the school libraries is with the children, although some of it is for adults. Many books are drawn by the parents and relatives of the children and some by the teachers and by the pupils 294 in the evening schools. The school librarian not only issues and receives books, but secures reference ma- terial for the teachers, conducts story-telling classes, and gives lessons to the older pupils in the use and care of the volumes. With two exceptions, the school libraries are not open every school day, and most of them are not open in the evening. In four out of seven of the school libraries pupils are permitted to get or return books only before or after school. Be- cause of this regulation most of the children reach the library together and this results in issuing and receiving the books so rapidly that little individual attention is possible. BOOK SUPPLY The number of books in the different school libraries ranges from a little over 1 ,000 to nearly 5,000. Where the shelf room is adequate, the juvenile book supply in relation to the volume of work done is above the average for the entire library system. Only 17 per cent of the books are for adults. In the libraries in the foreign districts there is a generous supply of books in the languages which are spoken in the neigh- borhood. CONDITIONS OF BORROWING As soon as a child can write his name and gets the endorsement of his parent and his teacher's signa- ture, as a matter of verification of address, he may have a library card. Even smaller children come to 295 the library to look at picture books, waiting anxiously for the time when they may get a card and take the books home. ADMINISTRATION OF LIBRARY WORK The work of the school libraries is almost entirely directed and supervised from the main library. All the librarians in charge of school libraries have had special training or wide experience in children's li- brary work. They have part time assistants, the number varying in the different libraries with the volume of the work. In general the principals and teachers are in favor of the library work and maintain a friendly and ap- preciative attitude toward the librarians. Neverthe- less library and librarian are incidental and not inte- gral parts of the school and its work. This is not the fault of any person or set of persons. The school authorities and the library authorities have always maintained friendly and cordial relations toward each other. They have cooperated in the work they are both doing. Nevertheless that part of their work which takes form in the elementary school library is not contributing as much as it could and should to the welfare, happiness, and education of the children. Some of the respects in which the work falls short of its possibilities have been set forth. Part of the remedy is to be found in modifying the organization and administration of the school library work so that it shall become an essential feature of the work of 296 the school. The rest of the remedy will be found some time in the future in an educational leadership fundamentally convinced that an invincible love for reading is the most important single contribution that the school can give the child. BRANCH LIBRARIES About seven-tenths of all the children reached by the whole library system are cared for by the 26 branch libraries. These branches not only issue books to children, but equip reading-rooms for them, compile book lists, organize clubs, have story-telling hours, and supplement their work by home visiting. The most valuable work for children is now done through these branches. The activities are constructive and vital. There has been some duplication of equip- ment in the way of auditoriums and special rooms. In the future the two boards should consider building the branch libraries and schools together or close to each other, so that the library can carry on its valu- able extension work without duplicating equipment. CLASSROOM AND HOME LIBRARIES The classroom and home libraries are small collec- tions of books sent into the schoolrooms and homes of the children, where there is no branch library with- in easy reach. They are considered supplementary to all other ways of getting books to children, and, broadly speaking, are probably transitory. During the past school year there were 381 classroom libra- ries and 38 home library clubs. 297 An indirect way that children's reading is influ- enced is by a constant effort on the part of the library to help the teachers and to cooperate with them. HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARIES Cleveland was one of the first cities to install a library room in a high school. All the high schools in Cleve- land have them at present except the two commercial high schools. The schools supply the rooms, a large part of the books and magazines, and the library gives the services of the staff and a part of the books. The high school librarians in the main have had college training besides library training and experience. The work of the high school library is to supple- ment the school work in every way possible. This is done by supplying reference material for school courses and debate work. Instruction is given to freshmen and sophomores in the use of the library and books. In general the high school libraries have largely limited their work to supplying reference ma- terial and pupils are encouraged to go to branch libraries for recreational and even some reference reading. Although this contact is made for some pupils, it seems advisable for the high school library to supply all library needs for as many pupils as possible. THE NORMAL SCHOOL LIBRARY A library is maintained in the Normal School under the joint auspices of the Library Board and the Board 298 of Education. It is used by faculty and students of the training courses as well as by teachers and pupils of the Observation School. The librarian is respon- sible to the Library Board and the Board of Educa- tion and receives part of her salary from each source. She is a member of the English Department of the school and instructs the students in library work with children. The work is done efficiently and well and its results indicate that the pupils in the rest of the school system would profit from a similar close rela- tion of library work to school work. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS The survey's study of the library and the schools led to one major conclusion and several minor ones. The major conclusion, which embodies the principal recommendation of this report, is that in their rela- tions to each other both schools and libraries should subordinate every other consideration to the single aim of implanting in every child an invincible love for reading. The survey holds that despite the good work done by both school and library in the matter of guiding pupil's reading, the most worthy and important ob- jects of both organizations can be secured only through combining efforts with the single purpose of teaching children to read widely, enthusiastically, intelligently, and discriminatingly. There is only one way in which this can be accomplished and this is by introducing the children at an early age to a great variety of well chosen books and encouraging them 299 in every possible way to read them. In order to do this most effectively, the library and the schools to- gether will have to adopt the same policy that the library has for years been following in its work with other classes of the community. The basis of this policy has been to take the books to the people who ought to read them. As a part of this policy libraries have been established in branches, in private dwell- ing houses, in fire and police stations, and even on boats. The survey believes that the policy is valid and that it should shape and control the work with the public schools. READING AND EDUCATION Reading is the most important thing the child can learn in school. It is the key that opens most of the doors through which the adult will wish to pass. In order that children may really learn to read, they need large numbers of books. Their progress in reading will be almost entirely dependent on the number of interesting books at their command. They must learn to read as they learn to talk through un- remitting exercise. They must read and read and continue to read. For these reasons the schools and the library must combine in united and concerted effort to bring to every boy and girl compelling stimulus to varied and voluminous reading. SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND THE PLATOON PLAN The Board of Education is now experimenting with the platoon plan in several of its elementary schools. 300 Under this plan one room is especially equipped and set aside for music, another for art, another for liter- ature, others for shops, and so on. The survey recommends that the library board and the Board of Education consider the establishment of a school library in each school building reorganized on the platoon plan or any similar plan. Such a school li- brary would differ from the present ones in that the library room would be a session room accommodating several different classes of pupils during the day. LIBRARIES IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS The school system is now establishing junior high schools for the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Even if the system should cease to grow it would require about 15 junior high schools for the whole city. The survey strongly recommends that a li- brary be established and a librarian appointed for each of these new schools. INADEQUATE SALARIES OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS As a class the librarians in both the elementary and high schools are well equipped and underpaid. Most of them have graduated from high school, gone through college, taken a two-year course in a training school for librarians, have worked for several more years as librarians, and some of them have had sev- eral years of teaching experience. Those in the ele- mentary schools are as a class as well educated and better paid than those in the high schools. 301 The salaries of both elementary and high school librarians are seriously lower than those of the teachers in the same classes of schools. In the case of the high school librarians the contrast is particu- larly serious. In general terms it may be truly said that the high school librarians have better profes- sional preparation than the high school teachers and are paid less than half as well. Every argument for the adequate payment of teachers applies with equal force to the school librarians. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. The survey recommends that the Library Board advise with the Board of Education as to the possi- bility of erecting new branch libraries in connection with public school buildings. It recommends that the two boards consider the establishment of a school library in each new school building reorganized on the platoon plan or any similar plan. 2. The survey recommends that the two boards immediately undertake the establishment of well- equipped libraries and the appointment of trained librarians for all junior high schools. It recommends that the book collections of the senior high schools be expanded so as to include works of inspiration and recreation as well as reference books. 3. The survey recommends that the salaries of school librarians be increased so as to be on a level with those paid teachers doing correspondingly re- sponsible work. 302 4. The survey recommends that there be estab- lished a corps of teacher librarians, certified by the Library Board as librarians, by the Board of Educa- tion as teachers, paid by both boards, and appointed to their positions by the Board of Education. It recommends that a supervisor of school libraries be appointed in charge of all library work with the pub- lic schools. This official should be nominated by the Library Board, appointed by the Board of Educa- tion, and paid by both boards. 303 CHAPTER XVI SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT (Leonard P. Ayres and May Ayres) The school buildings of Cleveland are evidence of a wise and progressive policy, having its inception before the organization of the city, and growing in accordance with growing educational ideals. The amount of money expended on school plants has increased from $12,000 in the decade from 1840 through 1850, to nearly 800 times as much in the 10 years just ended. This enormous increase in invest- ment is partly due to enlarging population, but in a far greater degree to a determination that the fullest possible educational opportunity shall be open to Cleveland's children. BUILDING FOR EDUCATION The building policy has been shaped by five watch- words of progress. The first is "education." The earliest and most fundamental developments in schoolhouse construction came through changing methods of teaching and learning. Children were sent to school for the purpose of acquiring skill and knowledge. Any change in building or equipment which would lead to efficiency in the learning process 304 was held to be therefore desirable. Cleveland schools show a steadily progressive growth in providing ade- quate educational facilities for teachers and children. BUILDING FOB ECONOMY The second watchword by which building policy has been shaped is "economy." From the first, Cleveland seems to have pursued a fairly economical policy of schoolhouse construction. Plans have been elaborated as needs grew. Architects and engineers have been employed as regular members of the staff, and uniform standards of building construction are gradually being adopted to secure beauty, durability, and usefulness at the lowest ultimate cost. BUILDING FOB SAFETY The third work which has been of influence in formu- lating the building policy is "safety." This is a mat- ter of recent growth the direct result of the disas- trous school fire at Collinwood. Ten years ago there was comparatively little concern about the safety of school buildings. Today there is active and con- structive interest. Cleveland is one of the few cities in the United States where the Collinwood disaster could never be repeated. Cleveland parents may send their children to the public schools and have no un- easiness as to their safety. BUILDING FOB HEALTH The fourth slogan is "health." One of the influences most potent in changing types of school architecture 20 305 in recent years is the realization that the health of the children is a public trust, and as such provision for its care is properly a function of the public school. Cleveland was one of the pioneers in this field, and in the matter of indoor planning and equipment still holds place as one of the leading cities in the country. BUILDING FOB HAPPINESS Education, economy, safety, health, and happiness these are the five watchwords of educational prog- ress. The element of happiness is perhaps the newest conception, and it is in this field that some of the most striking innovations of the future will surely come. The school of today is beginning to recognize that play is a necessary activity of growth, and is placing increasing emphasis upon space, equipment, and instruction within school properties for recrea- tional purposes. DEVELOPMENTS IN SEVEN DECADES Cleveland is now using school buildings erected in each of the past seven decades. During this entire period the cost of accommodating each child in a schoolhouse has steadily and rapidly advanced. A study of the types of buildings erected in each decade shows that this increasing cost has been caused by such successive changes as building rooms to accommodate fewer children, supplying running water, indoor toilets, and coat rooms; making build- 306 ings more beautiful; fireproofing; and providing special equipment such as auditoriums, gymnasiums, playrooms, swimming pools, shower baths, teachers' rest and lunch rooms, dispensaries, libraries; and rooms for the kindergarten, blind, backward, man- ual training, domestic science, and open air classes. Cleveland has 109 elementary, one normal, and 11 high school plants. Of 192 elementary buildings and annexes now in use, 65 were built within the past 10 years, 48 are 25 years old or more, and eight were erected before the beginning of the Civil War. LOCATION OF BUILDINGS Many school buildings are located on corners facing one or more street car lines. If the school is so located that children are compelled to cross car tracks in coming and going, it is probably safer to have those tracks in streets immediately adjacent rather than one block away. Where most of the children are not compelled to cross the track, it is undoubtedly better to place the school upon a quiet side street. The greatest endeavor should be made to have the neigh- borhood of every school a zone of quiet. Asphalt should take the place of brick and stone. Car tracks should be kept in good repair, and rails frequently greased at corners to prevent loud screeching of wheels. LIGHTING Except in a few houses used temporarily to relieve crowded conditions, there is no case of front lighting 307 or three-sided lighting in any regular classroom. Some special rooms, such as those used for kinder- gartens, domestic science, etc., have light on three sides. In the newer buildings windows are on one side only. They are of good size and reach well up towards the ceiling, but they are sometimes too far front so that light strikes into the eyes of some of the pupils. Windows should be arranged along the left wall beginning near the back, but not running all the way up to the front of the room. In many schools, new as well as old, there are rooms which receive light from the north side only. Such lighting is pedagogically desirable but hygienically doubtful. North light is restful but lacks the health- giving qualities of direct sunshine. Contagious dis- ease spreads among children by minute drops of mucus sprayed into the air in coughing or sneezing. The best way to render these drops sterile is to flood every corner of the schoolroom with sunshine. School buildings should, when possible, be placed so that every room may receive sunshine during some part of the day. BLACKBOARDS Every regular classroom in Cleveland (except those in temporary quarters) is equipped with natural slate blackboards. This is an unusually fine record, and an evidence of wise investment. In some schools, first and second grade children are occupying rooms intended for upper grade children, and the black- 308 boards are consequently too high for them com- fortably to write upon. A study should be made to locate these rooms. Where possible, boards should be lowered. In other rooms narrow platforms might be constructed so that little children would be able to write upon the blackboard without undue reach- ing and straining. FURNITURE Nearly three-fourths of the schoolrooms are equipped with adjustable seats and desks, and more of the same type have been ordered. This is an excellent record. Care should be taken, however, not only to purchase furniture of good type, but first, to see that desks and chairs are placed with the edge of the chair extending one and a half inches under the desk, so that children can sit comfortably well back on the chair; and second, after every promotion period, to see to it that chairs and desks are raised or lowered to fit the needs of the children who have just been assigned to them. Teachers should be trained to notice incorrect seating and report it to their princi- pals, and in addition regular inspection should be made by members of the medical inspection staff. These matters have not as yet received sufficient attention in the Cleveland system. SPECIAL ROOMS The schools of Cleveland are unusually well supplied with auditoriums, gymnasiums, playrooms, swim- 309 ming pools, showers, teachers' rest and lunch rooms, dispensaries, and rooms for the kindergarten, blind, backward, manual training, domestic science, and open air classes. These rooms are well planned and usually well equipped. The dispensaries are espe- cially interesting because in old buildings many of them represent an ingenious adaptation of waste corners to the needs of nurse and doctor. Newer buildings are planned so that the auditorium, gym- nasium, playroom, pools, showers, toilets, and li- brary can be opened to the public without opening the rest of the school. This makes such buildings particularly convenient for community center uses. Libraries are frequently housed in basement rooms, portable buildings, and hallways. In the near future arrangements should be made whereby branches of the public library may be located on school property, but directly accessible to the public so that they may be open in the evening as well as during school hours. TOILET FACILITIES Toilet facilities in the elementary schools are not extremely bad, but neither are they good. Rooms are frequently dark, crowded, poorly arranged, and ill smelling. They are well cared for by the cus- todians, but it is difficult to keep them clean or hy- gienic. A study of the toilet rooms in elementary schools leads to the following suggestions: 1. Wherever possible, seats should be placed around the walls of the room and urinals down the 310 center, because this arrangement avoids cutting off light from the windows. In the few schools where this has been done, improvement is marked. 2. Most of the newer buildings provide drinking fountains outside the toilet rooms. This practice is preferable to placing them inside, because it separates the children into groups, and lessens the tendency toward loitering and confusion. 3. Floors should not be of cement. A few of the newer schools have asphalt floors in the toilet rooms. This is wise because uric acid sets up a chemical ac- tion in cement which cannot be corrected, and for this reason cement should not be used near seats or urinals. 4. The members of the Survey Staff believe that in all new buildings toilets should be provided with doors, such as are now installed in the girls' toilet of the new Empire School. These should be arranged to swing in when not in use. Urinals should be separ- ated by partitions. At present in most of the schools there are no doors or screens of any kind. The citi- zens of Cleveland would not tolerate such exposure in their own homes, and there seems to be no good reason why they should demand it of their children. 5. In planning toilet rooms in new buildings, a careful study should be made of individual flushing systems, in an effort to find something more satis- factory than the present system of latrines. Probably a more effective method would be the individual flush, where water is released by the removal of weight from the seat. The porcelain open-front seat 311 now being introduced into a few schools is a marked improvement over the old style wood. 6. Care should be taken to provide seats of differ- ent heights from the floor for different sizes of chil- dren. At present there is no such provision. 7. Metal urinals are now being replaced with por- celain and glass. This policy is strongly to be com- mended, and should be carried to a completion as rapidly as possible. 8. In some of the buildings toilet facilities are strikingly inadequate. Whenever extra classes are established in ground floor rooms, auditoriums, port- ables, etc., the provision of toilets should be cor- respondingly increased. 9. In planning new buildings, the board should consider locating toilets on upper floors as well as in basements. This makes the lighting problem much simpler. FIRE PROTECTION There is probably no city in the country so large and so old as Cleveland where the danger of fire is so slight. All new buildings are fireproof. In old build- ings basements have been completely shut off by metal or concrete ceilings, walls, and doors. Wooden stairs have frequently been replaced by fireproof stairs. Handrails have been supplied on each side. Square corners and alcoves at landings and exits have been cut off by wooden bars. Every room has been provided with an outside exit to the ground or fire escape. Fire escapes are commodious and of good 312 SQUARE FEET OF FLOOR SPACE FOR EACH CHILD CUBIC FEET OF AIR SPACE FOR EACH CHILD PER CENT WINDOW AREA 16 OF FLOOR AREA SQUARE FEET OF PLAYGROUND AREA FOR EACH CHILD NUMBER OF BOYS PER URINAL NUMBER OF BOYS PER TOILET SEAT NUMBER OF GIRLS PER TOILET SEAT CHILDREN PER DRINKING FOUNTAIN Diagram 27. Some standards used in judging buildings 313 design. Many principals provide that children shall regularly use the fire escapes on clear days instead of going down stairs. (It would be well if this were made compulsory in all non-fireproof schools.) Attics are clean and kept locked. Fire alarms are plainly labeled. Every precaution is taken against panic. In guarding against the fire hazard, Cleve- land has done a remarkable piece of work. HEATING AND VENTILATING Heating and ventilating in Cleveland are probably as well handled as in any other large city. Engineers are doing the best they can, but here, as elsewhere, satisfactory results have not as yet been secured. The New York State Commission on Ventilation is now studying the problem, and it seems the part of wisdom for other authorities to suspend judgment on what constitutes the best school heating and ventilating system until the Commission publishes its final report. The engineers charged with this matter in Cleveland are holding their own plans tentative in nature, until the results of this study are made available. COSTS The survey made a comparison of the costs of the Cleveland buildings with the costs of similar schools in Boston, Detroit, Newark, and St. Louis and reached the conclusion that this city is erecting modern socialized school buildings at a moderate 314 cost and is receiving large values in return for its investments. The details of this comparison are presented in full in the separate report on "School Buildings and Equipment." A summary of the results is given in Table 15. TABLE 15. COST DATA FOR 46 FIREPROOF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN FIVE CITIES Per City Num- ber of build- ings Average cost per class- room Average cost per cubic foot Average cost per pupil Special rooms for 20 class- Average cost per room special and cent for plans, specifi- cations class and in- spection Detroit 10 $4,972 $.156 $125 7.4 $3,629 4.76 Newark 9 6,641 .196 156 4.7 5,232 4.76 Cleveland 11 7,765 .171 175 13.5 4,678 3.42 St. Louis 7 9,054 .193 209 7.0 6,584 3.96 Boston 9 7,878 .256 210 6.2 6,012 9.10 BUILDING PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE If the present rate of growth continues, in order to care adequately for its children under the present plan, the school board will have to erect one new schoolroom for every school day in the year. A modern schoolroom costs $10,000. This means for new buildings alone an annual expenditure of over one and a half millions. In deciding how the build- ing funds of the system shall be spent, there are four especially difficult problems to be met: 1. Schools must be located near the homes of the children. When the city grows or population shifts, new quarters must be provided to meet new needs. 315 2. Schools must be placed so that children will not have to pass dangerous grade crossings. Rail- ways enter from 13 different directions, and cut through the city. Many of the crossings are pro- tected only by watchmen and wooden gates. Schools must be so located that in going to them children will not run the danger of accidents while crossing rail- way tracks. 3. Cleveland is divided by several deep runs or gullies across which there are few bridges. Build- ings must be placed so that children on one side will not be obliged to make a wide detour in order to go to school on the other. 4. Schoolhouses rapidly go out of style. Parents feel that they have the right to demand the best that is known for their children, and no matter how sound structurally a building may be, if it fails to provide gymnasiums, libraries, lunchrooms, and other modern features, they look upon it with dis- favor. The board is faced by the necessity not only of providing new buildings to house increasing num- bers of children, but of discarding old buildings and replacing them by others which will more nearly accord with modern ideas of correct educational housing. FORECASTING FUTURE NEEDS In order to provide adequate schoolroom facilities, the Board of Education must be able to estimate how many additional children may be expected in a given 316 year, and to what parts of the city they will go. One way to aid in judging such changes and trends in population is to use the school census which the law provides must be taken under the direction of the clerk of the board. By comparing results from year to year future growth can be predicted and new buildings planned accordingly, while smaller unex- pected shifts can be handled through emergency methods during the summer vacation immediately following the census returns. The school census should be one basis for shaping the building policy of the board. THE TESTING OF BUILDING POLICIES There are two principles upon which building policy should rest. First, rooms should be built for use. No matter how loudly demanded they may be, rooms which are not going to be used should not be built. The school architect in making each new plan should ask himself, "Is this a good way to utilize this space? What definite purpose will it serve? Is there any better use to which it can be put?" The second principle is that children should not be expected to fit the plan of the building, but build- ings should be planned to fit the needs of the chil- dren. Just as teaching, supervision, administration, business policy, and other parts of the school sys- tem, so also the school plant must be plastic in char- acter, changing and developing for one single pur- pose to provide the best possible environment for 317 the children whom it serves. For, through all the complexity of modern education, the fact remains that schools and school systems exist for the sake of the children, and whatever educators do, must be for the ultimate purpose of meeting more fully the children's needs. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. The school buildings of Cleveland are evidence of a wise and progressive policy that has grown in ac- cordance with growing educational ideals. 2. The building policy has been guided by five watchwords of progress: education, economy, safety, health, and happiness. 3. Efficient work has been done in modernizing old buildings and the newer ones are unexcelled in design and quality. 4. There is probably no city in the country so large and so old as Cleveland where the danger from fire is so slight. 5. All new buildings are fire proof. Careful pre- cautions have been taken in old ones. 6. The survey has gathered comparative data indicating that the city is erecting modern socialized school buildings at a truly moderate cost. 318 CHAPTER XVII OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS AND THE PLATOON PLAN (Shattuck O. Hartwell) The problem of maintaining suitable housing condi- tions in a growing school system is persistent and always urgent. In Cleveland the problem is now acute both on the side of financial pressure and be- cause of the fact that temporary accommodations are now in use for about 7,500 pupils. PART TIME PLANS Within recent years efforts to secure better adjust- ment between buildings and curriculum have brought many experiments in the intensive use of the school plant. The best known of these newer plans for grade work is that in operation at Gary, Indiana. In order to increase building capacity, Superinten- dent Wirt has used the following methods in varying proportions: 1. Shops, gymnasiums, and an auditorium are added to the school building; playgrounds and school gardens are provided outside. 319 2. Through administrative readjustments all special rooms as well as all classrooms are used throughout the school day. 3. Several classes are accommodated simultaneously in auditoriums and gymnasiums. 4. Different groups of children come to school at different hours. 5. Libraries, churches, the Y. M. C. A., etc., are allied with the schools to the extent of caring for part of the children part of the time. Gary is a new city. It was built with unusual rapid- ity in a new locality, and these innovations could be tried out without conflict with educational custom or traditions. The true tests of these innovations are educational: numerical results must be regarded as secondary. The change most generally applicable in other locali- ties and most likely to improve educational procedure and housing conditions is the development of the use of special rooms and equipment throughout the school day. THE PLATOON PLAN This development has been worked out in the platoon plan. Under this plan the subjects in the curricu- lum are divided into two groups which may be termed the fundamental or regular group and the auxiliary or special group. Each regular teacher takes charge of two groups of pupils, having each for one-half of the school day. The regular teacher is relieved of responsibility for the special subjects. 320 These are taught by special teachers who take charge of successive groups from different grades. In this way, both regular and special rooms are used steadily throughout the day. The platoon plan aims to secure : 1. Better instruction and improved results in special branches without sacrificing the fundamental subjects of the curriculum. 2. The filling of important gaps in the present curric- ulum without the increase of cost that often prohibits such additions. 3. A more constant use of the whole school plant, and especially of facilities usually considered "ex- tras," such as gymnasiums, auditoriums, and manual training rooms. 4. A larger enrollment within the same building. The methods used by the platoon plan include: 1. Rearrangements of the teaching force. 2. A slight change of emphasis on teaching values. 3. The increase of work in physical training and the arrangement for other fines of auxiliary work, such as music and drawing, in charge of special teachers. 4. A new division of the daily time-schedule which may or may not involve lengthening of the school day. 5. Devices and equipment to facilitate more inten- sive use of individual rooms. The plan may be made operative in all grades from the first to the eighth, or in upper grades only, ac- cording to local situation and needs. Where the methods of first grade work have been modified by 21 321 kindergarten influence, that grade may wisely be left under individual teachers. A grade room is required for each double group of classes. Each class occupies this room during half of the school day. Enough special rooms and occupa- tions must be provided to accommodate one-half of the classes throughout the day. These accommodations will include gymnasiums, playrooms, auditoriums, and special rooms for music, art, literature, manual training, domestic science, library work, or such other subjects as the local authorities wish to emphasize. From the nature of some of these occupations, and because classes are hi these rooms for short periods, rooms hitherto un- available for regular use such as ground-floor rooms may be utilized, while special rooms previously saved for occasional classes may be used through the entire session. The platoon plan concentrates preparation, effort, and attention for both pupil and teacher. LENGTH AND ARRANGEMENT OF DAY The platoon plan does not change to any considerable extent the conditions of dividing pupils into recita- tion divisions for the regular rooms, nor does it neces- sarily involve a longer school day. Each of these factors is to be settled, not as a necessary part of this plan, but on the basis of the educational advantages to be secured by one procedure rather than another. Rearrangement of the time-schedule involves only 322 slight variation in the amount of time given to regular subjects. Three factors help to secure this result: 1. Transfer of a part of the regular subjects from the regular rooms to the special rooms. 2. Absorption of recesses into the time allotted for physical training. 3. Alternation of certain subjects, such as music and drawing. On a two-weeks' schedule these subjects can be given a fair allotment of time and a period long enough to secure definite results in each recitation. The readjustment of time divisions gives pupils a day of more variety and interest. Practical experi- ence does not show the scattering of effort that is sometimes feared. Supervision is concentrated and reduced with good effect. EQUIPMENT OP SPECIAL ROOMS Two consecutive half-grades will usually occupy a grade room. Hence practically no change in seating arrangement is needed in regular rooms. Equipment, such as lockers or boxes, must be added to insure a separate storing place for the books of each pupil. In the special rooms desks or chairs of two or three sizes must be provided. For the literature and music rooms movable furniture is preferable. COSTS Five factors must be considered in comparing the cost of running a school in the conventional way with 323 the cost of operating the same school after it has been reorganized on the platoon plan. These five factors are expense of equipment, supplies, teaching, super- vision, and building space. The expense of altering the equipment of a modern building preparatory to installing the platoon plan may often be held down to $1,000. The cost of sup- plies under the platoon plan is somewhat less than under the ordinary plan. Teaching costs under the platoon plan will be the same as under the old plan if the size of classes re- mains unchanged. If playground groups are doubled, the teaching cost will be reduced. Economies in the cost of supervision under the platoon plan are both of the direct sort, resulting through decreased expenditures, and of the indirect sort, resulting from increased efficiency. The actual amount of room saved and the conse- quent saving of investment cost in buildings of from 10 to 24 rooms will vary from 15 per cent to 35 per cent, according to the construction of the building and the application of standards of distribution of pupils in classes. The smaller saving may sometimes reflect truer economy from the educational point of view. EQUIPMENT OF BUILDINGS The saving in investment justifies liberal provision for the equipment needed to meet changed conditions. Four sorts of equipment are essential. These are equipment for comfortable seating, care of wraps, 324 storage of books, and for an adequate signal system. Failure to prepare for these needs will jeopardize any experiment with the platoon plan, since small centers of friction may easily defeat the application of good methods. PROBLEMS OF ADMINISTRATION The responsibility for keeping attendance and class records of double groups should be apportioned be- tween regular and special teachers. The most difficult problem is to determine the number of pupils to be assigned to double groups. From 70 to 75 as an average will result in some saving of room and will assure good results in teaching. Higher numbers will produce greater immediate economies at the cost of poorer results. BUILDING PROBLEMS IN CLEVELAND Cleveland's buildings are above the average in ac- commodations and up-keep and many of them have good facilities for special lines of instruction. In the 105 buildings listed in the 1915 directory of the Board of Education, there are 30 manual training centers, 91 auditoriums, and 43 gymnasiums. Play- grounds are larger than those usually found in cities. Thus the city has a large investment which the platoon plan would cause to yield increased returns. The use of special facilities for their intended pur- poses is now infrequent and desultory. Playground use is only partly developed. At every playground visited by the writer the special equipment was found 325 dismantled and the movable parts stored in the school buildings. The Ohio tax legislation, a low valuation of local property, and the rapid growth of the city, combine to make the present funds for building purposes entirely inadequate. The chance to demonstrate a saving by using the platoon plan is clearly available. Indeed, it will require careful administration to avoid the tendency to secure a greater financial saving than the best educational standards will warrant. TEACHERS FOR THE PLATOON PLAN The regrouping of the teaching corps into regular and special teachers, as those terms are used in this re- port, will be a matter of little difficulty and will involve slight hardship to teachers if the change is undertaken gradually. Experienced teachers with special equipment for teaching music, drawing, and even physical training, can be found in considerable numbers in the present force. Through special courses in the training school and care in filling va- cancies further needs may be met. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTATION ESSENTIAL Experiments with the platoon plan should first be made in a few schools. This will develop a body of teachers who can help in the practical adjustments needed as the plan is extended. During the progress of the school survey, Cleve- land undertook an experiment with the platoon plan in one of its largest schools. Ample provision was 326 made for equipment and personnel and the work went forward under most favorable auspices. At the time of publishing the present report, the results of this experiment are most hopeful and the Board of Education has taken steps to reorganize several other schools on the platoon plan. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. The so-called Gary plan for utilizing school build- ings is not a single plan, but rather a combination of five varying factors. 2. The true tests of the innovations introduced into the typical school plant are educational. Numerical results must be regarded as secondary. 3. The most valuable savings are to be secured through using special rooms and equipment through- out the school day. 4. This development has been worked out in the platoon plan. 5. Rearrangement of the time schedule involves only slight changes from current practice in the amount of time given to the regular subjects. 6. The platoon plan brings about small economies in expenditures for teaching. 7. It results in considerable economies in the cost of supervision. 8. Savings in room vary from 15 to 35 per cent. 9. The cost for equipment is increased for each building, but the per capita expenditure is reduced. 10. Experiments with the platoon plan should first be made in a few schools and never until careful and thorough preliminary preparations have been made. 327 CHAPTER XVHI FINANCING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Earle Clark) In the past twelve years the expenditures of the Cleveland Board of Education have mounted rapidly. The Board spent $2,360,000 in 1902-03, while the figure for 1913-14 was $4,770,000. In this period school revenues advanced from $2,110,000 to $4,510,000. Diagram 28 shows the course of revenue receipts, of expenditure for operation and main- tenance, and of outlay for permanent improvements. The revenues of the Board of Education have grown less rapidly than its expenditures. As a result, there are at present deficits in the tuition and con- tingent funds which together amount to over $700,000. In recent years the board has been forced to borrow money on short term notes in order to meet its current obligations. An inquiry as to the causes of this unsatisfactory condition and as to the remedies which should be applied, leads to consideration of the following sub- jects: (1) The amounts spent for all school purposes; (2) The distribution of expenditures for the opera- tion and maintenance of schools; (3) Economies in administration; (4) Means of increasing school revenues. 328 Operation, maintenance, and out ley Revenue receipts Operation and maintenance > Outlay 1903- 1905- 1907- 1909- 1911- 1913- 1904 1906 1908 1310 1912 1914 Diagram 28. Expenditures and revenue receipts of the Cleve- land Board of Education. 1902-14 EXPENDITURES FOR ALL SCHOOL PURPOSES The expenditures of the Board of Education for all school purposes and for the different classified pur- 329 poses of school operation and maintenance have been measured by comparing them with the corresponding expenditures of 17 other large American cities. In many important respects Cleveland's educa- tional expenditures fall below the standard set by cities of similar size. The amount spent for opera- tion and maintenance of schools per inhabitant is about the same in Cleveland as in the average city, while the amount spent per $1,000 of wealth is above the average. The most significant basis for com- paring school expenditures in the different cities is supplied by figures showing amounts spent per child in average daily attendance. Ratios of this sort indicate the relationship between expenditure and the work that is actually being done in the schools. For permanent improvements of the school plant Cleve- land spends rather less per child in average daily at- tendance than the average city. Moreover, Cleveland spends less than the average city for the operation and maintenance of schools. In 1913-14 Cleveland's per capita expenditure for operation and maintenance was $46.38, as compared with an average for the group of cities of $49.04. This relatively low expenditure is partly due to the fact that free textbooks are not supplied. The expenditures of the different cities for operation and maintenance are shown in Diagram 29. DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENDITURES FOR THE OPERA- TION AND MAINTENANCE OF SCHOOLS Analysis of figures for operation and maintenance per child in average daily attendance shows that 330 2 -a e 9 ** o I 2 S ^ 9 a 1 k *> -a 8 fita yg o3 3 >Ja _ e -u ^ -9*5 T3 M 173 O IS o S9 r^ flii.) ** 9 1 5j T3 So o g -,1 o x O5 X 5 -5 S3 op3 > 3 ^ B 2 ^ aj 4J a o nj o -3 -H flj ^ TO W P-i O 9 O *^* *>434>a>c js^rt-^P ViS * e al -P o c 6 .gHSTlWG+ > <'-'S'H .S'S oa)-HOrt-^i-* J iopC>-]n>-^'fl)w QQ, 331 Cleveland stands relatively high among the cities in expenditure for certain purposes and relatively low in expenditure for other purposes. A comparison of classified expenditures in Cleveland with averages for tne group of cities is made in Diagram 30. Cleveland spends more than the average city for: Office of board and other business offices Wages of janitors and other employees Fuel Maintenance repairs, replacement of equipment, etc. The items for which Cleveland spends less than the average city are: Superintendent's office Salaries and expenses of supervisors Salaries and expenses of principals Salaries of teachers Stationery, supplies, and other instruction ex- penses This list shows that Cleveland ranks much higher in the group of cities with respect to expenditure for business purposes than with respect to expenditure for such educational purposes as salaries of teachers and salaries and expenses of principals. For every important business purpose Cleveland spends more than the average city; for every important educa- tional purpose it spends less. The employment of a director of schools, who has charge of all the business activities of the Board of Education and of the construction and maintenance of the school plant and is entirely independent of the 332 I! !!!!!! superintendent of schools, is a distinctive feature of Cleveland's system of school administration. It seems not impossible that this plan, through empha- sizing business activities, has obscured the financial needs of distinctively educational work. In Cleveland, as elsewhere, teachers' salaries constitute the largest single item of expenditure for operation and maintenance. In expenditure for this purpose per child in average daily attendance Cleve- land stands twelfth in a group of 17 cities. Analysis of available data shows that Cleveland's low expenditure for teachers' salaries is mainly due to over-large classes in elementary schools. In Cleve- land the salaries of teachers in elementary schools, despite recent increase, are somewhat lower per teacher employed than in the average city, while the average salary paid secondary school teachers is slightly above the prevailing standard. Diagram 31 shows the salaries of teachers in elementary schools. The salaries of principals of elementary schools are distinctly lower in Cleveland than in the average city. It seems clear that the unsatisfactory condition of the finances of the Cleveland school system is not due to excessive expenditures. The Board's rela- tively large expenditures for business purposes are warranted by the needs of the schools, while the amounts spent for important educational purposes are distinctly too low. The situation demands an increase rather than a diminution in total disburse- ments. 335 ECONOMIES IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION Whether a city's expenditure for school purposes is large or small, a Board of Education should en- deavor to obtain full value for every dollar spent. In the main, the affairs of the Cleveland school system are administered efficiently and with econ- omy. It appears, however, that small amounts might be saved by eliminating duplication in the keeping of accounts, by utilizing superfluous cash balances, and by obtaining larger interest returns on money deposited in banks. A substantial gain in efficiency might also be made through the adop- tion of the platoon system of school administration. Most of the bonds issued by the Board of Educa- tion have been issued for uniform terms of 20 years, and the payment of principal and interest has been provided for by the creation of a sinking fund. It seems that the board would do well further to con- sider the advisability of issuing serial bonds, thus doing away with the necessity of maintaining a sinking fund after the dates of maturity of bonds already issued. But the most favorable results that could be ob- tained through changes in administrative methods would not materially relieve the board's financial embarrassment. The only satisfactory remedy for the difficulties of the situation is to be found in in- creasing the school revenues. MEANS OF INCREASING SCHOOL REVENUES The income of the Board of Education should be sufficient to meet the real needs of the schools. Stated in general terms, these needs consist in (1) adequate expenditure for operation and mainte- nance, (2) adequate expenditure for permanent im- provements, (3) provision for paying for the greater part of necessary improvements from current revenues rather than from the proceeds of bond sales. The sources of the board's revenue are: income from the Western Reserve Fund, income from state taxation, income from local taxes, and earnings. Of these sources, the first and the last are of rela- tively small importance. Local taxes yield over 90 per cent of the board's total income. Funds raised by state taxation for school purposes are apportioned among the communities of the state on the basis of school census returns. Cleveland has not always received its maximum income from this source because of the incompleteness of the school censuses, but there has lately been a gain in ac- curacy. By taking further steps to obtain a complete enumeration of all children of school age within the school district, the board will be able materially to increase its revenue. The board's income from local taxation is limited by provisions of the state law. The law provides that boards of education, except as authorized by vote of the people or to meet interest and sinking fund charges, shall not levy taxes at rates in excess of five mills on the dollar. Moreover, the total tax for all ordinary expenses of government, including in- terest and sinking fund payments and expenditures 22 337 specially authorized by the electors, imposed by all governmental bodies within each taxation district the county, the municipality, and the board of educa- tion, is limited to a rate not in excess of 15 mills on the dollar. In practice it is the second of these legal limitations that has restricted the income of the Board of Education. Boards of budget commissioners, consisting of county officers, have some discretionary authority in adjusting the budgets of the several governmental bodies. The decisions of these boards affect, within definite limits and under certain circumstances, the incomes of boards of education. The rulings of the local budget commissioners have been, on the whole, distinctly more favorable to the Board of Educa tion than to the other governmental bodies within the taxation district. Diagram 32 shows the rela- tion of school expenditures to total municipal ex- penditures in Cleveland and in 18 other cities. The most recent assessment of Cleveland property was made in 1910. In the past few years, property has been assessed by deputies of the State Tax Com- mission; but a new law provides that the assess- ments are to be made in the future by locally elected officials, working under the direction of the county auditor. For a considerable part of its income the Board of Education is dependent upon special taxes, which, under the law, must be authorized at intervals by the voters of the district. The revenue of the schools may be reduced as the result of some future election. 338 $ S "> - *? < r- I As it is never certain that the authorization will be continued beyond the current term of years, the board finds it difficult to formulate and to follow a far-sighted educational policy. It is believed that the situation would be improved by a modification of the state law, giving to boards of education wider powers and responsibilities in determining what taxation is needed for the support of the schools and freeing them from the necessity of appealing to the voters for periodical authorizations to raise funds for routine and essential expenditures. An increase in the revenues of the Board of Educa- tion may be brought about either through the repeal of the law limiting tax rates or through an advance in the assessed value of property within the school district. The modification of restrictions on the tax rate is an end to be worked for, but it may be diffi- cult to secure the repeal of the present law. A change in valuations may occur either as the result of an advance in the actual market value of property in the district, or through a change in the ratio of assessed value to market value. The popula- tion of the city of Cleveland is increasing rapidly. It seems probable that taxable wealth is increasing also, and at a rate not less rapid. Ohio law provides that taxable property shall be assessed at its true market value rather than at some fractional part of this value. The enforcement of this provision of the law rests with public officers, and these officers may be aided in their duties by the co- operation of the public. 340 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. The finances of the Cleveland Board of Education are in an unsatisfactory condition. 2. In the past 12 years expenditures have mounted rapidly. The revenues of the Board of Education have grown less rapidly than its expenditures. 3. There are at present deficits in the tuition and contingent funds which together amount to over $700,000. In recent years the Board has been forced to borrow money on short term notes in order to meet its current obligations. 4. The expenditures of the Board of Education are not excessive; they are lower than the average ex- penditures of large American cities. 5. In the distribution of expenditures for school operation and maintenance, business functions have, apparently, been favored at the expense of educa- tional functions. 6. It should be possible to effect economies, or to increase efficiency of administration, by: a. Eliminating duplication in the keeping of ac- counts b. Utilizing superfluous cash balances c. Obtaining larger interest returns on money de- posited in banks d. Adopting the platoon system of school admin- istration 7. In creating bond issues to obtain money for the construction of school buildings serial issues should be used in preference to issues for uniform terms of years. 341 8. The most favorable results that could be ob- tained through changes in methods would not solve the financial problems of the Board of Education. 9. A substantial increase in school revenues is urgently needed. 10. Local taxes constitute the principal source ol the income of the Board of Education. 11. The Board's income from local taxation is limited by provisions of the state law. 12. Increased revenues can be secured through modification of the law limiting taxation for school purposes or as a result of an advance in the assessed value of taxable wealth. 342 CHAPTER XIX SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMIN- ISTRATION (Leonard P. Ayres) For many years educational conditions in Cleveland have been unsatisfactory. There has been a series of administrations with differing policies and a suc- cession of superintendents having widely diverse methods and aims. There has been much criticism of school procedure in the public press and in popular discussion. This report on organization and administration has only one purpose, and that is to answer the double question, "What is the matter with the Cleveland schools and what should be done to remedy the situa- tion?" The difficulties pointed out and the remedies suggested are many and diverse, but in final analysis all the difficulties have their origin in the methods of board control and all the suggested remedies are directed toward changing those methods. Some of the suggested remedies are immediately available and may be enacted by the board itself, while others are dependent on changes in state law and must be post- poned to the future. 343 METHODS OF BOARD DETERMINE CHARACTER OF SCHOOL SYSTEM Attention is called to the fundamental fact that the quality of the public education that Cleveland re- ceives is largely determined by the leadership that directs it. Here, as in every other human organiza- tion, the character of the whole is conditioned, shaped, and largely determined by the person or the board at the head. In this city it is now the Board of Education rather than the director or superintendent that occupies this position of leadership and is re- sponsible for the results. At the present time and for some years past the Board of Education has been mainly engaged in deal- ing with little problems of specific application instead of considering and deciding large problems of general policy. Because of this the executive officers of the board are mainly occupied in referring such minor matters to the board, being authorized to act upon them, acting on them, and being confirmed by the board for having so acted. Concerning most of these minor matters of business and educational detail the board members can have no intimate knowledge al- though they are called upon to render decisions con- cerning them. In addition to the many hundreds of matters so referred to the board, there are other much more numerous and still smaller decisions continu- ally reached by the executive officers in the conduct of their daily work. Nevertheless, except where the law or a board rule decides the matter, there is no way by which any one can be sure which matters are 344 to be referred to the board and which are to be de- cided without being so referred. For this reason there is always doubt as to where the authority for many necessary acts and decisions is really located. Because of this condition there exists at headquar- ters a chronic vagueness as to just who is responsible for reaching a decision concerning any question that is a little out of the ordinary. As a result of this vagueness concerning new problems, and because all concerned feel a sense of greater security concerning old ones, we find most of the board members and board employees devoting themselves to specialized interests and avoiding contact with new problems. Since this condition characterizes the leadership of public education in Cleveland, its results permeate the community and the school system. As the mat- ters considered by the board are mostly those of specific detail, the newspaper reports of board meet- ings deal with just these considerations and the public discusses them under the impression that they con- stitute the real problems of public education. Since the employed executives at the head are not quite sure as to just what they have power to do and are responsible for doing, they cannot definitely delegate authority and responsibility to their assistants and subordinates. This same condition extends all the way down the line. The general result of it all is a community interest and an educational system char- acterized by over-emphasis on differences concerning minor matters. Combined with this is the habit on the part of almost all concerned of thinking that 345 some one else should be responsible for facing the real and larger problems. This is a drastic charge to make in such sweeping terms, and it does not fairly represent the attitude of every individual in the school system, for there are marked exceptions to the general condition described. It does, however, seem to indicate the nature of Cleveland's great educational problem and many in- stances and illustrations in corroboration of this are given in the report of which this is but a brief sum- mary. WHAT THE BOARD SHOULD Do If the present educational troubles of the city are due to the methods of the Board of Education, then the first step in remedying them is for the board to decide what its activities ought to be. Reduced to simplest terms these may be stated as follows: The board should decide what it wants to have done, select people to do these things, study results to see how well they are being done, and keep telling the public about the problems faced and progress made. To put this simple formula into effect involves ultimately almost every reform that has been sug- gested. They are not all immediately available, but the more essential steps may be taken at once if the board decides to do so. It is worth while to consider in some detail the different steps involved in such a program of reform and to note which ones are at once possible of accomplishment and which must be postponed until changes in state law have been secured. 346 How THE BOARD SHOULD BE SELECTED Under the present law board members are chosen at popular elections held at the same time as the elec- tions for city officers. It is clear that this is not the wisest method of selecting a board of education. In the excitement of the general election the welfare of the schools becomes temporarily a matter of minor consideration and school interests become obscured by political interests. A much better way is to hold the school elections at a separate time from the other elections. This change has been put into effect in a number of cities and has been found a great improvement over the old way. If the school elections are held quietly each spring in public school houses and with a simplified form of ballot, it is found that the expense is slight in comparison with the beneficial results that are brought about. Another device for securing the same results is to have the board members appointed by the mayor or elected by the city commissioners instead of hav- ing them elected by the people. Under a commission form of government, election by the commissioners gives exceedingly satisfactory results, but under the ordinary form of city government popular election on a special election day is probably the best plan. Under any plan of election or appointment it is of the utmost importance to secure board members of first-class ability. This involves the selection of a rather unusual type of citizen. The efficient board of education does its work by deciding on problems 347 of policy, expansion, and expenditure and it employs skilled experts to administer the details. The valu- able school board member is the one capable of doing these difficult things. In general such efficient board members are men who are successful in handling large and difficult undertakings. They are often mer- chants, manufacturers, bankers, contractors, and professional men of large practice. Such men can generally think independently, explain the reasons for their actions, take the advice of experts, and spend money intelligently. Many students of municipal government believe that it would be better to do away with boards of education entirely and trust the direction of the schools to a superintendent who would have some- thing of the same relationship to the work as exists between the chief of police or the chief of the fire department and their assistants and subordinates. If the proper work of the board of education were to deal with a mass of routine business detail, this view would be sound and the board of education might well be dispensed with. In the opinion of the Survey Staff a board of education is needed in this city simply because its proper work is so very differ- ent from the conduct of routine business details. To an exceptional degree the educational system of the city demands continuously intelligent policy-making activity. The city is growing with unremitting rapid- ity. Its economic life is exceptionally varied and mobile. New and large alien communities spring up almost periodically and in unexpected places. All 348 these conditions combine to make it necessary that its educational government shall be flexible and adaptable. It is more likely to have these qualities if it has the advantages of lay counsel than if its policies are exclusively decided by its professional officials. A requisite for unbroken progress in public government is to go forward rapidly enough to enlist the confidence and support of the people, but not so rapidly as to arouse their suspicion and distrust. In the conduct of public education the function of the layman is to moderate the transports of the experts. It is to keep the professional schoolman from exceed- ing the educational speed limit. All this is far from meaning that the deliberative work of the board should be limited to telling the superintendent what the public wants, and the work of the superintendent limited to putting these orders into execution. In addition to his work &s executive, the main business of the superintendent is to think, to plan, and to propose, and the business of the board is to make decisions about these proposals. This is the way that educational progress is made, but if the superintendent and the board successfully unite in this kind of team-work they will constantly be taking forward steps that will appear as questionable inno- vations to the public at large. Because of this fact one of the most important tasks of the board consists in a continuous policy of public education for the pur- pose of carrying the community. One of the essen- tials in this process is full discussion in board meet- ings of educational policies and contemplated im- portant changes. 349 The remedy for this part of the problem is a double one. In the first place Cleveland ought to give the greatest care and attention to the selection of board members. In the second place the city should en- deavor to secure from the state legislature permission to provide for the election or appointment of board members by some method other than through elec- tions held in conjunction with municipal elections. The board on its part should bear constantly in mind the importance of carrying the community. BOARD SHOULD DELEGATE DETAILS A large part of the first three chapters of the full report is devoted to an analysis of the business and procedure of the board. The results show that the board transacts a great deal of business mostly re- lated to the business management of the system. Most of the time and energy of the board is spent in the faithful, monotonous, unanimous transaction of routine details. Little time is left for considering matters of educational policy. Moreover, the amount of such business transacted is growing so rapidly from year to year that some reform of board proce- dure will be essential before long. This growth is illustrated in Diagram 33.' Part of the reason for this situation is to be found in the state laws which require the board to deal with many matters of routine which would be much better delegated to its employed officials. Nevertheless it is clear that the bulk of such business could be greatly reduced through a careful and vigorous attempt by 350 the board to limit, combine, and condense the items of routine detail. Wherever possible resolutions should be printed and read by title and brief instead 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 I9i>* 1915 Diagram 33. Number of roll call votes each year for 10 years of being read aloud in full. The executive officers of the board should not be permitted to introduce need- lessly numerous or complex communications or to 351 take up the time of the board by referring to it mat- ters that they should properly decide themselves. The problem that the board faces in attempting to divest itself of detailed routine calls for two remedies. The first is for the board to make a careful study of its own activities with the definite purpose of con- densing, abridging, and delegating detail. The second remedy is for the board to lend its hearty support to every wisely considered bill introduced in the state legislature that has as its object the simplification and systematizing of the conduct of board business. SCHOOL PROBLEMS REQUIRE BOARD DELIBERATION There is another fundamentally important reason why the Board of Education must by some means or other change its methods so as to find tune for dis- cussion and deliberation in regular meetings and with the full membership present. This is because the school system is now facing a number of problems of policy so far-reaching in importance that they cannot be decided by the executive officers alone, so difficult of solution that they should not be decided by sub- committees of the board, and so complex that solu- tions can be reached only through discussion and not by the private investigation and study of individual members. Among such problems the following are typical: The city has academic, technical, and commercial high schools and soon more high school accommoda- tions must be provided. Is the best policy to build 352 another school of one of these three types, and if so of which type? Or would it be better to build a high school of music, or a high school of art, or a high school of agriculture? Or would it be better to change the present high schools into cosmopolitan high schools? The city has experimented with junior high schools for one year. What are the results of the experiment and should the system be extended throughout the city? The city has experimented with the platoon plan for one year. What are the results of the experiment and should the system be extended? Should Cleveland adopt the Gary plan in whole or in part? Should school libraries be located in each junior high school? In each elementary school? Should branches of the public library be located in school buildings or in separate buildings? Should mentally sub-normal children be segregated in special buildings and physically exceptional chil- dren of normal mentality taught in classes in regular school buildings, thus reversing the present policy of the system? Should a new commercial high school be erected or commercial courses be established in all high schools, and in either case should boys and girls receive the same training? By what methods may the city best solve the prob- lems of teaching English to non-English-speaking immigrants? The city now needs annually many more new teachers than there are graduates from the local normal school. Shall the city enlarge the normal school or secure part of its teachers from outside? 23 353 If it follows the latter course, how may it locate and select the best teachers? Changes in the salary schedules of teachers have been planned to go into effect next fall. By what methods may salary increases be made to stimulate professional improvement and reward teaching skill? How can the city make sure that the elementary principals keep abreast of modern educational progress? How can the system secure sufficient revenues to place its finances on a "pay as you go" basis? Should new school buildings include shops, audi- toriums, swimming pools, gymnasiums, and the like, and does the use of such special facilities justify their great expense? Should the compulsory attendance law be so inter- preted as to compel boys and girls to remain in school until they are 15 or 16, even if they graduate from the eighth grade before reaching these ages? Such questions as these require for their solution the careful consideration and mature deliberation of the whole board. In order to be free to discuss and decide them, the board needs to reform its procedure so as to spend less of its time in disposing of the great mass of matters that do not need discussion or delib- eration. DIRECT ACTION AS A SUBSTITUTE FOB COMMITTEE ACTION In Chapter III of the full report a considerable sec- tion is devoted to considering committee organiza- tion and the way in which the board transacts its 354 business through its committees. As a conclusion of this consideration the statement is made that the present procedure through committees is one of the factors mainly responsible for loading up the board with a mass of routine and detailed work. There is ample evidence that the board's business would be far more simply and readily conducted if most of it were transacted directly by the board as a whole without being referred to the committees. The rec- ommendation is there made and is here repeated that the Board of Education consider this problem in connection with the recommended study of its own procedure. By this means an important im- provement could be brought about without waiting for new legislation. UNIT INSTEAD OF DUAL ORGANIZATION A considerable part of the third chapter of the report is devoted to a consideration of the inseparability of business and educational matters. This is important in Cleveland because at the present time the Board of Education is so organized that there are two major independent departments under two independent executives of equal rank. One of these is the business department under the Director of Schools and the other is the educational department under the Super- intendent of Schools. This form of organization is in considerable measure responsible for the general vagueness as to responsibility and authority that characterizes the system. The business department 355 is steadily growing in relative importance and threatens to dominate the school system. Already Cleveland spends decidedly more than other similar cities for the business activities that directly concern the work of the Director of Schools and decidedly less than other similar cities for the educational pur- poses immediately related to the work of the super- intendent. The conduct of educational affairs would be bettered by substituting a unit system of control under the leadership of one man for the present dual system under the leadership of two men. If this fun- damental change is not made, the board should at least effect such a reorganization as will do away with such overlapping of authority and uncertainty as to responsibility as is referred to in the closing sections of Chapter III of the full report. The suggested reform is one that can be brought about under the existing law. It is not so essential as the reform of board procedure, and many of the present undesirable tendencies could be checked by administrative readjustments and without abolishing the office and department of the director. In this connection attention must be called to the fact that the salary of the superintendent in this city is inadequate. The average salary of superintendents of schools in cities of 250,000 or over is approximately $8,000. In Cleveland it is only $6,000. With such cities as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Cincinnati paying their superintendents salaries of $9,000, $10,000, and $12,000, this city cannot expect to secure and retain 356 the services of equally able leaders without paying a corresponding salary. There are cities of scarcety more than 20,000 inhabitants that pay their super- intendents the same salary as is paid by this city of three-quarters of a million. AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY SHOULD BE DEFINITELY LOCATED There should be worked out a systematic plan for the definite placing of authority and responsibility throughout the school system. The purpose of such a plan would be to bring about a condition under which each person in the system would know just what he or she was responsible for doing. The object would be to make the impersonal rule of duties and responsibilities take the place of the personal rule of superiors over subordinates. This reform is one which would largely come as a consequence of adopt- ing the several reforms that have been advocated. FREE TEXTBOOK SYSTEM SHOULD BE ADOPTED In Cleveland textbooks are adopted for five-year periods, purchased by the Board of Education, and sold to the pupils. Since the expense is borne indi- vidually by the parents, it has assumed extraordinary importance and changes in textbooks are secured only with difficulty. This results in a stability of the text- book lists that in turn makes it most important for the textbook publisher to have his books placed on 357 the accepted list when the five year adoptions are being made. These conditions combine to produce on the part of the textbook publisher a periodic intense interest in the results of school selections. As a result pub- lishing firms have in the past wielded large influence in the election of school board members and execu- tive officers. For the purpose of the present study it is fair to say that during the period from 1902-06 the work of the schools was directed by Superintendent Moul- ton; during that from 1907-12 it was in charge of Superintendent Elson; and during the period from 1913-15 it was headed by Superintendent Frederick. The principal facts with respect to textbook pur- chases during this period are shown in Table 16 and Diagram 34. Attention is called to some general facts concerning textbook purchases during this period. The average expenditure was about $60,000 a year. The per capita cost was about 88 cents per child enrolled in the day schools. The total annual pur- chases varied from a little over $23,000 to nearly $114,000, and the per capita expense varied from 40 cents per child in 1904 to $1.78 in 1907. During this period books were purchased from 38 different companies, but so many of the orders were given to a few firms that the seven publishing con- cerns mentioned in Table 16 secured nearly 80 per cent of the business. The sharp fluctuations in the amount of business done by the different companies in different years are shown by both table and dia- 358 Diagram 34. Amounts of textbook purchases (in thousands of dollars) from various publishers over a series of years 359 i O^*U5Cpi-H cO^cOi-ttO O & O ** i -< O t^ O 00 C*J CO O 10 * CO Oi COOOOOCO OOO-HON i-ilQCN-* s o < w 1 OSOWCOU5 CO C << O 00000000 t~T) 0> 03 w 5 6 CO OO O *O *O *1* CO CO 00 CO CO CO * ^ Uj * a OiOOiOt* TJI c^ -^ Ol O CN *-H u6 t-^ s 5 ^ w i go w i'* i CO a S5o!jSS SSooSS co?cS i CO s 3 JOU5COW* ** CO^jtNO i B :RENT co si I s * ^H CO 00 O O CO CO Oi CO O> ^H QO ** %^ ^ 10 s 1 ii C4