reading circle. The teachers' reading circle has not concerned itself much with the reading of other teachers than those in the rural schools.

Normal courses in high schools.-The legislature of the State, session of 1913, made provision for establishing 27 departments in 27 different high schools for the training of teachers, and for paying the cost of the instructor from State funds. Such training departments can not be established in counties which maintain a county training school for teachers, of which there are 27. The law does not specify how much aid may be given, but the State superintendent has practically decided that no school shall receive more than $1,000 of this aid per year, and in no case more than the salary of the teacher who administers the course.

School boards invariably give preference to persons that have completed the course of study offered at a county training school for teachers or at a high school maintaining a similar department.

There is no disposition on the part of the county boards of supervisors to abandon county training schools. In fact, these schools are firmly established as part of the educational policy of the State, and the legislature at its last session made provision for the establishment of four more schools.

State school inspectors invariably report that they are able to tell without previous knowledge whether or not a teacher in a rural school has had professional training at a high school or at a county training school. School boards are willing to pay a higher salary to teachers that have had this training. In late years the teachers writing for State certificates are expected to produce field and laboratory notebooks showing that they have done work in such subjects as biology and physics as given in the schools and colleges. This usually means the necessity of attending such institutions at least for a time.

Connecticut. The puzzling response from Connecticut is an exception and leads to speculation as to what other thing a State department may do in this matter of influencing progress in teacher training. None of the questions touch the conditions in this State.

At the risk of saying too much in response to your interrogatories I venture the following:

1. None of the colleges of the State furnish teachers for the public schools.

2. There are no summer county institutes. Usually we have a State teachers' meeting covering four to six weeks.

3. The reading circle is not organized by the State. There is a voluntary reading circle very limited in its scope.

4. High schools do not undertake teacher training.

5. No means have been provided for making teachers' certificates equivalent to any other certificates.

6. There are no statutes providing for teacher training in high schools.

The foregoing does not mean that we fail in training teachers or that our schools are without trained teachers.

We have no county organization. We have no State system of higher education. Massachusetts. A sort of high-grade service of a technical pedagogical character which a State department can, with great effectiveness and on a large scale, render the schools of an entire State is well typified in the work under the direction of Dr. David Snedden, State commissioner of education for Massachusetts. He distributes to both elementary and high-school workers valuable pamphlets of discriminating advice concerning the principles of curriculum making,

the principles of choice of courses of study, and the essential factors of method in distinguishing functions and fundamentals in different courses and in the organization of teaching material, both as to curriculum and daily schedule making. This service stands, among the activities of State superintendents, on a plane with the work of Dr. McMurray in normal schools, which was discussed at some length on a previous page.

Alaska.-The conditions in Alaska are exceptional and deserve full treatment, which is not practicable here. The following, however, will convey an idea of the state of affairs:

In Alaska there have been no recent changes in the administration of the white schools of the Territory, and there have been few advanced steps. The white schools in Alaska are maintained by direct appropriation for that purpose by Congress, the governor of the Territory being ex officio superintendent of schools. The Territorial legislature has no control over educational affairs in Alaska. That body, however, has memorialized Congress asking that steps be taken to secure a systematic inspection of the schools and the adoption of a uniform course of study in the schools of the Territory.

Alaska has no colleges; but in the graded schools, which are confined to the incorporated towns for the most part, higher standards, academic and professional, are being adopted for teachers employed in these schools. Teachers' institutes are unknown in the Territory, partly because the distances between towns are so great as to make them practically impossible; for the same reason, there are no reading clubs except, perhaps, in local high schools and among grade teachers.

The work done by most of the high schools of Alaska is without doubt thorough, for graduates are admitted to some of the State universities upon their certificates of graduation obtained from the high schools. It is also to be presumed that their efforts at teacher training are more or less successful. While the teachers in the schools of incorporated towns, I believe, are generally required to have certificates from normal schools or colleges before they are employed, in the white schools outside of the towns no examination for teachers' certificates is required. Teachers, however, must have certificates from some normal school or college, upon presentation of which a license to teach is issued by the ex officio superintendent of education for a period of two years.

No statutes were enacted by the recent Territorial legislature providing for teacher training in the high schools for the reason set forth, namely, that the legislature has no control over the Territorial schools.

IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS IN SERVICE.

Not even a partial account of recent progress in teacher training should fail to mention the various policies and plans in operation for the improvement of those teachers already in service. Some of these progressive steps may be mentioned briefly.

There are many instances of the provision for professional improvement of teachers through more systematic direction of their reading. Virginia, West Virginia, and other States wisely differentiate the requirements for reading for the different classes of teachers, elementary and secondary. Rochester furnishes a well-planned teachers' professional library and reading room, opened last September.

Of more professional interest, perhaps, are the steps taken by progressive cities in the provision for constructive classroom supervision which follows in a professional spirit some definite mutually understood standard of teaching. Illustrative of this is the recently published "supervision card" issued by the New York bureau of municipal research, a copy of the Ohio survey card, containing items for recording factors in classroom efficiency. Nothing perhaps so definitely marks genuine progress in training for teachers in service as the repeated indorsements and adoptions of such standards by school supervisors. The same may be said of definite graduated scales for the measurement of merit and for the promotion of teachers. Beyond these signs of the general development of a teacher's professional conscience, significant administrative recognition is accorded teachers' attempts at self-improvement. Many more school boards than ever before are providing "visiting day" for teachers, a step toward other and better plans for teacher improvement. More cities are adopting the policy of paying teachers full salaries while attending teachers' meetings; others recognize summer-school attendance in their promotion policy; others make definite reimbursements for certain outlays for professional improvement; others encourage leaves of absence for travel or study and make provision for automatic reinstatement in position without the formality of reelection. The most advanced cities, Boston, Rochester, Cambridge, and others, make provisions for leaves of absence on salary for such purposes. Another improvement of very great significance is the voluntary organization of teachers of the whole country on a high professional, but avowedly protective basis. The National Council of Education and the National Education Association in its most recent meeting have heard the elaborate plans for guild organization. Several State teacher organizations have made moves in the same direction.

VII. CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS.

Much should be said in any adequate report of progress in teacher training concerning the constructive, extensive, and in a sense gratuitous or at least self-protective work of preparation of teachers done by city systems of education. Many far-seeing city superintendents are adopting Supt. Maxwell's fundamental idea that every school, elementary and high, as well as every city training school, shall contribute in its proper way to the training of teachers. With this conception of the work, many cities are adopting plans by which teachers in training may do practice teaching under the guidance of critic teachers and may observe gifted teachers at their work, while rendering substitute service. Notable among such cities are New York, St. Paul, Rochester, Spokane, Omaha, New Orleans, Paterson, N. J., Louisville, Ky., Kansas City, Mo., Birmingham, Ala., and

others. Almost every one of these cities presents some unique feature either of organization or of educational conviction of the pedagogical principles involved.

The following are extracts from letters sent in response to an inquiry:

Kansas City, Mo.-A normal training department has recently been established to prepare teachers for elementary schools. Two years following graduation from the high school are required, the first year in theoretical work, the second as cadet or substitute teacher.

During the past year no teachers have been employed who have not received professional training. We hope in the near future to advance the requirements both in theoretical and in practical work. This year we are placing our cadets under critic teachers at different places within the city. Two of these cadets are placed in charge of rooms having adjoining grades, and under the exclusive care of a critic teacher. They are required to do consecutive work in some specific grade, for at least 12 weeks, after which they are given an opportunity to do practice work in other grades. We feel that very efficient work is done in preparing our best high-school people for places in our elementary schools.

Louisville, Ky.—When the graduates of the normal school first become teachers in the public schools they are given the title "substitute teacher” and are paid $45 per month for a half year. At the end of that time, if their work has been satisfactory, they are made temporary appointees" and receive $50 per month for half a year. At the end of this year, if their work continues to be satisfactory, they are recommended as permanent teachers in the Louisville public schools at a salary of $55 per month. Thereafter, advancement depends upon the growth of the teacher and the ability of the board to give special increases in salary.

The advantage of this plan is that the normal school graduates do not feel when they receive their diplomas that their preparation for the teaching profession is completed. Now they understand that they must continue to grow in order to receive permanent appointments in the Louisville schools. It is during this first year as teachers that they should be most ready to accept criticism and profit by it. The attitude of these people is quite different from that of the normal school graduate who believes she is going to receive a permanent position the very moment she has completed the two years' work in a city normal school, and that it is not necessary for her to continue to study and improve her technique.

This plan is also followed with the graduates of the Kentucky State normal schools and all persons employed to teach in the city schools. They must spend at least one year on probation before they are given permanent positions. This plan is not very different from the plan followed in other cities, the feature being that the teachers themselves realize that the first year must be a year of growth. After that the most efficient teachers are the ones who receive special increases from year to year.

Paterson, N. J.-Training of teachers for city schools requires a different course of professional study and a type of practice school different from those for training teachers for rural schools, because conditions and problems are essentially different. This applies not merely to special method work, special studies, etc., but to the more general studies-psychology, school administration, history of education, etc., in which, while the two classes of teachers may follow the same general direction, the incidence of attention and application will be different. It is an established fact that elementary school teachers and secondary school teachers can not be trained in the same courses; the difference is no greater than that between rural and urban teachers. Yet, in the average normal school, little distinction is made. The city training school is a specialized institution, doing advanced professional work.

The practice school is the laboratory of a normal school and should be thoroughly coordinated with it in administration. This is our aim. The starting point is in the

practice school for the study of psychology, management, class administration, educational sociology, special method courses, general method, and even, in a way, history of education. Young students take hold of these studies with better understanding of their inner meaning and value, if they approach them through the concrete. Not only this, but professional study should continue through the course, so that, when practice begins, the student will give part time to observation and practice and part to professional study, with the new light thrown on it by actual participation in school work. During the first stage of professional study, students visit different grades for observation and model lessons. Later they take up actual teaching under supervision for from one-half to two-thirds of each day and make a general study of school conditions, school administration, school methods, and school children, and a special study of particular problems of class administration, particular methods, and particular children. At the same time they continue their study of general professional subjects. This correlation between practice teaching and classroom study of great subjects strengthens and broadens each part of a professional course and helps the normal teacher to keep his class work in close touch with the everyday work of the schools and adapt it more fully to the practical needs of normal students. Too long have study and practice teaching been separatedthus tending toward the abstract. Our aim, very imperfectly realized at present, has, I believe, great promise in it.

New Orleans, La.-There is need that practice teaching should be conducted under conditions very similar to those prevailing in the regular schoolroom. A plan should be provided by which the critic teachers and supervisors of practice teaching in the normal school could follow up the graduates of the normal school during their first and second years of teaching. This follow-up plan is needed, since it frequently happens that the principal under whom the new teacher secures her first experience is not sympathetic toward normal-school training. This causes discouragement to the young teacher, and often results in her abandoning some of the very best methods taught in the normal school.

VIII. SUMMER SCHOOLS.

The development of summer schools of all grades has been unparalleled, and it seems to presage an era of all-the-year-round instruction in higher institutions. Whether or not this will be the outcome, it is certain that summer schools are undergoing radical changes in administration and methods, and are also fast becoming a substantial factor in the educational scheme of the country. The larger universities, like Columbia and Chicago and some State institutions, find it practically impossible to provide teaching facilities for the great number of teacher-students who apply. In increasing numbers the normal schools are abandoning the Chautauqua idea and conducting regular summer sessions for teachers. In the same way the large district and the smaller county institutes are becoming summer schools and assuming that name, offering in some cases differentiated courses of a strictly professional character for the teacher groups attending. As an instance of this extension of function of the summer county institute may be cited the "summer school" of Frederick County, Md., under the direction of J. M. Gambrill, "the result of the desire of the public school teachers for 17726° -ED 1913--VOL 1-35