Normal school curriculum revision committees have been at work and have completed or have in progress new curricula for the institutions concerned in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Virginia, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut. There is also wider recognition of the value of supervision of graduates during their first year of teaching experience by members of the faculty of the training institution.

Despite the fact that there has been a slight falling off in the number of county rural-school supervisors employed, rural-school supervision has made noteworthy progress in improvement of techniques followed, in effective organization of supervisory staffs, in ability to work with and through principals of consolidated and other large rural schools in extending the scope of the supervisor's influence and improving the quality of instruction. The falling off in numbers has been due in large part to the economic depression, aggravated by dependence on local taxation as the chief means of school support, and consequent inability to raise the money necessary to secure and retain adequately prepared supervisors.

The number of State conferences for county superintendents who have no supervisory assistants has increased, and the quality of the conferences has improved. Higher institutions in several States, notably Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, and State departments of education in others-New York, Connecticut, Montana, for example—are providing "short courses" for superintendents in which intensive work in instructional supervision is emphasized. A few States have enlarged their staffs of State supervisors in order that more and more practical assistance can be given county superintendents in improving their teaching staffs. In Connecticut a reorganization of the supervisory force in small towns (under State direction) is taking place. Territories of the more successful supervisors are being enlarged and with them women primary supervisors are being associated.

The second conference for supervisors in the Southeastern States called by the Commissioner of Education, held in Raleigh, N. C., December, 1926, revealed the fact that supervisors in these States had made considerable progress since the preceding conference, particularly in adapting supervision to the varying abilities of teachers classified in homogeneous groups; participating in and using the results of recent research studies for the improvement of supervisory technique; improving cooperation between supervisors and principals. The conference resulted also in the initiation of two important research studies to be carried on during the coming year.

In secondary schools located in rural communities grade reorganization (including some form of junior high school plan) and corresponding curriculum revision in the direction of broadening and enriching school offerings have continued during the year. A num

ber of studies of the small high school have been initiated. One now in progress, in which a subcommittee of the National Committee on Research in Secondary Education is cooperating with the Bureau of Education, is of special importance. The junior college extension of the secondary school has so far reached few rural communities.

Consolidation of school units in the country as a whole has progressed during the year at about the same rate which has prevailed for the past seven years. Mississippi reports unusual progress, with 78 per cent of the rural children enrolled in consolidated graded schools, which have a minimum term of eight months. North Carolina reports about one-third of the rural children enrolled in consolidated schools of seven or more teachers. It is estimated that there are approximately 16,000 consolidated schools in the United States at the present time. Forty-two States reported nearly $31,000,000 spent for pupil transportation during 1925, the last year for which full data are available. Of the 32 States which have so far reported transportation costs for the year ended 1926, all but 4 show larger amounts than for the previous year.

New York and Pennsylvania are among the States which passed important legislation during the year affecting school consolidation. In both, State aid to transportation was materially increased. From several other States minor changes in the laws which facilitate either consolidation or transportation have been reported.

There has been considerable progress in improving the organization of consolidated schools and the quality of classroom instruction. This is indicated by replies received in the Bureau of Education to an inquiry sent in connection with a study in progress concerning organization and quality of instruction in consolidated schools. Of the principals from whom reports have so far been received, 50 per cent or more report classification of pupils in ability groups; participation in educational research; better trained teachers, the majority of whom are now college graduates; and free time for supervision provided for principals.

There has been an unusual output of professional literature of high quality in the field of rural education during the year. A number of theses and dissertations prepared or under way by graduate students in higher institutions of learning concerned with rural education have been reported to the bureau and many articles of high professional quality have found their way into various educational magazines during the year. A recent bibliography of rural education published by the Bureau of Education (Bulletin, 1927, No. 4), compiled by a joint committee of the department of rural education of the National Education Association and the division of rural education of the Bureau of Education, includes approximately 500 titles of important contributions in this field during a five-year period.

CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS

Curriculum revision is one of the movements that have without doubt occupied the attention of superintendents, supervisors, and teachers more than any other movement. For some time professional school people and laymen as well have been of the opinion that the multiplicity of studies and topics crowded into the elementary school curriculum has impoverished rather than enriched it. Curriculum makers are accordingly making careful studies to see what topics may be omitted and what ones may be organized in larger units so that the pupils may have a better knowledge of those things most worth while.

The revised arithmetic courses of the past year illustrate the tendency to eliminate obsolete topics. The old-time arithmetician would scarcely recognize a textbook made to conform with an arithmetic course prepared in 1927. He would find that most of the obsolete problems and most of those used only by specialists have been omitted and that the course is confined largely to the fundamentals and their practical application.

Although progress has been made in curriculum revision, much more remains and always will remain to be done. The new point of view is that the curriculum should be in process of revision all the time, since conditions are continually changing and since our knowledge of child life is being continually modified by new discoveries regarding the child's nature and his individual and social needs.

Questions have been raised not only regarding the elementaryschool curriculum but regarding the secondary-school program of studies as well. It is generally agreed that elementary-school work can be completed in six years, but the question is what can be done within the next six years. As the secondary schools are now being organized three years are devoted to junior high school and three to senior high school work. It thus still requires 12 years (13 years, including kindergarten) to complete the elementary and secondary school courses. The two "lost" years in the American school system have not been found, especially for those students preparing for college.

Time, however, is being economized in the sense that the courses of study in the real junior high schools provide for a better use of the pupil's time than did the courses of the seventh and eighth grades under the 8-4 plan.

In some cities of the country the schools are organized with seven years in the elementary grades and four in high school, making the public-school course but 11 years in length, exclusive of the kindergarten course. In these cities one of the "lost" years has been found. Possibly the other one could be found, too, if careful and comprehen

sive studies were made of the secondary-school program. Possibly those cities now organizing junior colleges could find a way of including the junior college in the six-year secondary-school program.

Interest has been shown not only in the education of children of school age but also of preschool age. One city has added a nursery school for these children as a laboratory for its department of research in which the school workers in psychology, educational theories, and in home economics cooperate. Another has two nursery schools as laboratories for its high-school students registered in home-economics courses, and still another has made the nursery school a part of its department of kindergarten-primary education. In three cities nursery schools are housed and equipped by the publicschool system, while the teachers' salaries and other current expenses are met by cooperating universities or other educational organizations.

Evidence of the tendency to consider the kindergarten an integral part of the school system is shown in the preparation of teachers and in the supervision of teachers in service. Approximately 200 teacher-training institutions make a special point of providing training for kindergarten or kindergarten-primary teachers. Of this number more than 80 per cent combine the kindergarten and primary work in one department, eliminating former tendencies to segregate the kindergarten courses. Approximately half of this work is now given on the collegiate level.

Eighty per cent of the school systems which provide supervision for their kindergartens combine it with that for the primary grades. This helps to unify curricula, methods of teaching, and types of equipment and supplies provided for all grades of the kindergartenprimary unit. This insures greater continuity for the children's educational experiences.

Interest in evening as well as in day schools is growing. In the cities of the country there are thousands of young men and women employed during the day who are attending evening schools, and thousands of others would attend if given the opportunity. Lack of funds is often given as one of the reasons why evening schools are not organized or why those already organized have not been expanded, but no better investment of public funds could be made.

Although millions of dollars are being expended each year on school buildings there are still many children on part time. Many are attending school in basement rooms and portables, and others are required to sit in badly lighted and badly ventilated classrooms in buildings erected years ago when but little thought was given to lighting and ventilation and when the program of studies was limited. to the three R's.

The demand for more school buildings has arisen not only because of the natural growth in population but because a larger proportion

of children remain in school longer. The high-school enrollment has gone forward at such an astonishing pace that few cities have been able to provide adequate accommodations for their secondary school enrollment. Cities that have adopted the junior high school plan are erecting junior high school buildings, which help relieve congestion both in the elementary and high-school grades.

It is gratifying to report that in many cities the new elementaryschool plants include gymnasiums, auditoriums, playgrounds, shops, nature-study rooms, libraries, and the like to meet the needs of the city child of to-day. But in spite of the need for all these facilities some boards of education are not including them in the plans of the new elementary-school buildings on the ground that they add too much to the cost of the buildings.

A plan of school organization known as the platoon plan has, however, been devised whereby auditoriums, gymnasiums, etc., may be included in elementary-school buildings without adding to the cost, since fewer classrooms are needed when a school is organized on the platoon plan. At first the platoon school was looked upon as a radical departure, and predictions were freely made that it would not be adopted by many school systems. To-day, however, 121 cities have one or more of their schools organized on the plan, and others are contemplating organizing platoon schools as soon as possible.

During the year there was no great increase in teachers' salaries, but some salary schedules were revised so as to provide equal pay for teachers with equal training and experience, whether they teach in the elementary school or in the high school. No doubt such schedules will help to place elementary-school teaching on a higher plane if teachers with four years' normal school or college work are employed to teach in the elementary grades. Such schedules should at least offer an incentive to those who are not college graduates to add to their present educational and professional equipment.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SCHOOL HYGIENE

The most important event in the realm of school hygiene has been the public announcement of the methods for combating dental decay evolved in the Forsyth Dental Dispensary, Boston. The dental problem in school children has been so overwhelming that nowhere in this country has it been adequately dealt with. The source of rotting teeth, which 90 per cent of school children exhibit, lies in faulty feeding before and after birth, and while this condition in the developing child will be corrected in time, the next best thing is to find the faults of construction in the teeth (the pits and fissures of the enamel in which decay begins) and remove these at the earliest mo