no contract shall be valid without approval by the superintendents, whose only power, as the law now stands, is to sign warrants for teachers' salaries, whereas directors employ teachers, fix their salaries, and buy all supplies. Required by law to visit school districts annually, much of the superintendent's salary is thus expended.

The report recommends that some limit be fixed to the duration of teachers' certificates.

Attention is again called to the inequable apportionment among the districts, and the claims of the Spanish language among those children whose vernacular it is. Some of the language in this appeal is even pathetic, and it certainly makes clear that in some of the districts acquaintance with that tongue is absolutely essential to teachers.

The university, having abolished the subpreparatory classes, is doing reasonably well considering the lack of increase in its appropriations. So with the College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, the School of Mines, and the Institute for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind.

NEW YORK.

Report for 1895, Hon. Charles R. Skinner, State superintendent.

While claiming steady advance in public education, the report admits that school supervision is lacking much in completeness and efficiency. The variously extensive functions of the commissioners render it difficult among so vast a number of applicants to avoid occasional mistakes in selecting. A bill was prepared and submitted to the present legislature providing for additional qualifications in candidates for commissioners, and increasing their salary; but the opposition of the commissioners themselves kept it in the senate committee. The report, with much earnestness, commends the subject to the next legislature, and will recommend that at least the standard of their education be raised and that experience alone, however long, be not regarded sufficient; and it recommended further that salaries of commissioners be not increased, without such rise in qualification being made obligatory.

The report calls attention to the large number of weak rural districts, and the pressing need of consolidation. The following extract gives some noteworthy facts: "There are 2,751 school districts in the State where the total resident population of school age is less than 20, and there are 502 districts in the State where the total resident school population is less than 10. There were 7,529 school districts in this State where the average attendance upon instruction in the public schools during the last school year varied from 1 to 20 pupils, while there were 2,893 where the average daily attendance was less than 10. In 1860, the school population of the State, outside of its cities, was 891,432. At the close of the school year of 1895 the school population of the State, outside of its cities and villages, containing upward of 10,000 people, was 609,146-a decrease of 285,286, or upward of 31 per cent, while the number of school districts in 1860 was 11,358. While the number of school children has decreased during that time nearly one-third, there has been substantially no decrease in the number of rural districts, etc."

Then the report proceeds to argue that the township, or some unit larger than the present, is indispensable. Meanwhile, these small districts should be consolidated with larger, and transportation furnished to those pupils residing at inconvenient distance from the schoolhouses.

Several changes are recommended for a more effective operation of the compulsory school law, among them that attendance officers be appointed by town boards, and their jurisdiction extend over all the school districts in the town not provided with such officers, and the compensation be a town charge, and that any persons committing a truant have power, when seeming advisable, to parole him

The report argues that it is as important that examinations and licenses of teachers for city public schools be under State supervision as those in rural districts. While there is no general law fixing a standard of qualification, the evident need of it has led to its voluntary adoption in quite a number of the cities. The report maintains that out of the nearly $13,000,000 paid annually to teachers, not a dollar should be paid to one who does "not hold a certificate of some form, issued under the regulations of the State department of public instruction;" and it adds: “During the school year ending July 31, 1895, 12, 530 teachers were employed some portion of the school year in the public schools of the cities of this State, and the State had nothing to say in determining the qualifications of 10.966 of these teachers."

Much benefit is claimed to have resulted from the uniform system of examination of teachers, but some modifications in the issuance of licenses are suggested as advisable, as well as that uniformity should be in the time of expiration of certificates. An important movement was in the establishment of a School of Pedagogy in connection with Cornell University.

A large number of decisions in appeal cases is subjoined and elaborate reports of operations in all departments.

1896.

The report for 1896 is from the same superintendent, Hon. Charles R. Skinner. It speaks in high praise of last year's operations, claiming that "the outlook for the future was never brighter." Yet there has been inevitable and expected decline in rural schools owing to continuance of influences herein before mentioned. The district system has been condemned about unanimously by superintendents for many years, and in several other States it has given away to the township. The average of attendance in more than 3,500 of these districts is not over 10 pupils. The law provides for the consolidation of many of these, but is hindered by local sentiment, which is satisfied to cling to the past with all of its clumsiness. This sentiment seems almost obdurate in such a case as the following:

"One of the officials of this department reports visiting a country school in company with the school commissoner of the district, and finding there a teacher at work on a piece of embroidery, but with no pupils in attendance. Inquiry elicited the information that the school had been in session three weeks without any pupils, and that there were only two children of school age in the entire district, both of whom were expected to attend the school later on."

The normal schools are represented as doing finely, between 9,000 and 10,000 being enrolled in all departments. So the training schools. The report says that with existing abundant facilities for training teachers, there is no present demand for additional normals.

With the growing sentiment that commissioners should have teaching experience, a large majority of those elected in the preceding November were thus qualified. Among the most efficient in this force are several women whose work has been done with entire satisfaction. There is a growing general demand that the salaries of these officials be raised to a degree that will attract attention from those whose qualifications are well known to be entirely adequate.

By a law of 1895 the minimum course of study in the high schools has been made three years, and the report makes suggestion of several matters that should be put in the minimum of requirement for entrance. The same legislature put the minimum of age among teachers at 18 years.

There are a few of what are called "exempt districts," wherein local authorities claim the right to examine and license teachers. These districts, fifteen in number, have given considerable annoyance to the department of superintendence which insists that the power of licensing should be uniform and be vested in the State department of public instruction. It is plainly said that the weakest feature in the school system is the different standards employed in different cities. Out of the thirty-four cities in the State as many as twenty-four have adopted uniformity voluntarily.

The compulsory-education law is said to be productive of much good, and some suggestions are made of matters wherein it is in need of additional enactments. Libraries, under generous appropriations, are growing with much rapidity and dispensing great benefits.

BROOKLYN SCHOOL REPORT.

Report for 1895, William H. Maxwell, superintendent.

The number of pupils instructed was 145,998, a gain of 9,497. Per cent of attendance rose to 71.1, while the average number of pupils to a teacher is yet exorbitantly high (being 70 in the lowest primary grade), yet it is considerably lower than a year ago, when in that grade it was 77.

The following is sufficiently plain language about the glut in a certain class of officials:

"Within the schools there is now a supervisor-principal, or head of department, who is not responsible for the work of a class, to about every ten class teachers. As I have separately pointed out, this system is extremely expensive. Supervision within the schools now costs more in Brooklyn than in any other city in the country, with the exception, perhaps, of New York. The expense of this system, however, is only one of the arguments against it. The multiplication of supervisors has withdrawn many of our best class teachers from the active work of teaching to the great detriment of our schools, and without adequate compensatory benefit. Furthermore, it has been the fruitful parent of unseemly wire-pulling for place, bickering, and jealousies that interfere seriously with the work of many schools. There would be decided gain in efficiency, and a decided saving in cost, if one-half of the heads of departments were set to work teaching classes."

It is regarded a salutary law of 1895 that the course of study in the Girls' High School shall be approved by the State superintendent, so as to make their graduate 3 able to enter the training school for teachers. This has served to raise to four years the course heretofore limited to three. Girls are now admitted to the manual training high school which the report believes should have been coeducational from the beginning.

Earnest appeal is made for additional high schools, the superintendent contending that there should be at least six for the support of which provision is entirely practicable.

There are some interesting things in the report about principals' certificates, in the various grades. Congratulation is indulged in for increased school attendance, which is due partly to increased school accommodations and partly to the enforcement of the compulsory law. The truant school, under careful management, is proving a blessing.

The report argues for manual training in elementary schools, and concludes thus: "The tasks that lie immediately before us comprise the building of new schoolhouses, to the end that every child of school age in this city, may, with proper surroundings, and under proper conditions, have the opportunities for education that modern life demands, the establishment of kindergartens for children between 5 and 6 years of age; the extension of our high-school system, the provision for manual training-sewing and cooking for girls and sloyd work for boys-in the grammar schools, and the weeding out of inefficient teachers."

BUFFALO SCHOOL REPORT.

Report for 1895, Henry P. Emerson, superintendent of education.

The registry of children in the public schools shows 46,665, a gain over last year of 1,552. The frequent assertion that there are as many as from 10,000 to 20,000 children in the city who do not attend schools of any sort, the superintendent denies, arguing that many children are not sent to school until 7 years old and past. "It may be stated with confidence," he says, "that there are not more than 1,000 within the meaning of the compulsory law." Regarding this law the superintendent contends that great caution should be used in its enforcement. Unexceptional vigor sometimes puts a hardship upon families for whose support the work of its children are indispensable. He contends that the city ought to create and maintain a distinct institution for detention of incorrigible truants and their reformation. It is believed that such an institution would prevent the incipiency of truancy in very many cases, as boys, foreseeing imprisonment therein, would avoid it by resorting to the schools as a choice of evils.

In the interest of economy, the grades have been reduced from ten to nine, some unnecessary positions in schools abolished, and other such work been done. It has been necessary, however, to construct eight new buildings and put annexes to several others; five other new buildings have been ordered, yet there is need of more because of the continual rapid increase of school population.

Free text-books, within the two years of operation, have proved a great benefit, shown in increased attendance, more speedy organization, holding pupils longer in schools, and preventing dwindling in the upper grades. Besides, books are better preserved and their cost greatly diminished."

Under a law of the last legislature, all applicants for teachers' positions after Jannary 1, 1897, must have had at least three years' successful experience in teaching, or have graduated from a high school, academy, or other equally ranking institu tion, and had at least one year of professional training. The act also provides for the maintenance in cities of one or more classes for such professional instruction. The superintendent intends to ask also for the establishment of a teachers' training class in connection with the high school, the sessions, if appearing necessary, to be held in afternoons. He contends that it is in the high school chiefly that "the young," to use his own words, "become imbued with that civic pride, that public spirit, so essential in the preparation of city teachers."

The report makes an earnest appeal for the creation of a teachers' retirement fund, not only in behalf of humanity, but for the sake of more easily obtained relief from continuance in the profession of teachers who have become superannuated, and who, with the infirmity of mind common in far advanced age, are unconscious of decay and regard it a hardship when asked or forced to retire.

The report speaks of the defects inherent in the graded system, of promotions which necessarily take insufficient note of the numerous inequalities in pupils' understandings and development, and gives some changes which it was believed important to make in the matter.

Doubts concerning the value of manual training in schools have heretofore hindered any general demand for it. Yet, a small beginning was made during the year,

the results of which thus far are too indefinite to be noted in the report. Yet it is believed important to introduce sewing into the schools, and steps to that end are being taken.

Night schools show that registration and attendance are uniformly greatest during the first terin. For this reason the opening is now postponed to October. Appended are full reports of school examiners, directors, subordinate superintendents, etc., and elaborate tables of statistics.

NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL REPORT.

Report for 1895, John Jasper, city superintendent.

The whole number of pupils taught during the year was 355,623. This is ascertained by counting the admissions to the several schools, every pupil counted as often as admitted. The average attendance was 188,575, an increase over the last year of 5,907, decrease being only in the evening and corporate schools. Besides the 4,989 regular teachers, including principals, 129 were employed for the special teaching of drawing, music, German, French, sewing, cooking, physical exercise, and phonography.

For several years past principals, except in very small schools, have been exempt from teaching and do only supervisory work. They are made responsible for all matters in pedagogy and administration, the subordinate teachers being guided by them exclusively. Violations of duty on the part of the teachers are reported to the committee on instruction. No unfavorable action is taken on such reports without giving a hearing to the teacher accused. The rule allows also the city superintendent on his own motion to report any case of dereliction coming within his personal observation.

The law forbids corporal punishment in every form in the public schools, substituting suspension in cases incorrigible by moral suasion. Every principal has the right to suspend a pupil, and must give immediate notice of such action to the parent or guardian, reporting to the city superintendent and the chairman of the board of trustees of the ward. A right of appeal to those trustees within ten days is allowed, and their decision is reported to the city superintendent, whose duty, in case of no appeal or its dismissal, it is to notify the principal of every other school for the same sex, of the name of the pupil thus suspended. Readmission is allowed upon proof of amendment satisfactory to the superintendent. We quote the following under the head "School accommodations":

"For a number of years the steady development of business in certain localities, the demolition of dwellings, and the consequent transfer of the residents to other parts of the city enable the school authorities to judge with accuracy the probable necessity for the erection of additional school buildings. Of late years the varied immigration, combined with a decided tendency to 'colonize' a special part of the city, has led to the removal of old dwelling houses and the erection of large tenements intended to house many more persons. As a result some of the lower wards had shown an abnormal increase in the school population-schools which, but five years ago, were fully adequate to the wants of the neighborhood have been filled to their utmost capacity and have refused many applicants for admission. In this connection it is important to note the fact that, although but 35 per cent of the attendance is in the schools below Fourteenth street, more than 47 per cent of the nonadmissions through lack of room were found in those schools. The whole number of such nonadmissions in the city during the year 1895 was 24,000, of which more than 11,000 were in the down-town wards." The growth has been great, especially in the Eleventh, Twelfth, Seventh, Tenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-second, and Twenty-third wards.

During the year manual training was established in two additional schools. It is pursued now in eighteen grammar schools and twenty-five primary schools. Sewing is taught in all the female departments of the manual training schools, and to the girls in the first, second, and third primary grades in all primary schools for at least one hour in the week. Praise is bestowed upon the results of the introduction of cookery. The superintendent recommends the introduction of new appliances and of charts showing the cuts of meats and specimens of the several food products. Three additional kindergartens were established within the past year, the whole number now being ten.

The register of pupils in the evening schools was 25,922, average attendance at which was 35 per cent. Formerly the evening high schools were under the control of the committee on evening schools, but during the last year they were put under the city superintendent. Under his direction several changes in regulations have been made and the standard of scholarship elevated. The number of students registered was 6,977, average attendance 2,571. The evening is divided into two sessions, each an hour long. Each pupil has one, but may not have over two studies which he elects.

Generous provisions have been made for teachers placed upon the retired list. On a recommendation of the city superintendent, and a two-thirds vote of the board, those women who have taught thirty years, and those men who have taught thirtyive, receive an annuity of half their salaries, provided they do not exceed $1,000. They are empowered, however, when appearing proper, to reduce the annuities, the reduction being required to be at the same rate per annum.

A considerable number of institutions styled corporate schools, as they participate in the school revenues, are under the general superintendence of the board of education. The report says of these:

The instruction and the discipline in the schools of these institutions and societies were, as a rule, quite satisfactory, and the State law prohibiting sectarian instruction and the use of sectarian text-books appeared to have been complied with." Among the recommendations in the report is that on completion of the highest primary schools fitness of pupils for the grammar schools should be determined by the principals of the former; first, because such mode of promotion is that used from grade to grade in any department, and because it would prevent competitive examinations for schools which have insufficient accommodations. Another recommendation is for semiannual examinations in the grammar schools, from the fact that every grade, except the first grammar, is completed at the end of each half year.

ROCHESTER SCHOOL REPORT.

Report for 1896, Milton Noyes, superintendent of instruction.

It claims a larger number of school organizations than ever before, and increased daily attendance of pupils.

A noteworthy fact it is that during the year, in the intermediate grades, pupils have been encouraged to submit to the superintendent short stories written by themseives upon subjects presented to them. The development of originality by such exercises has been very apparent. An additional fact of importance is the habit of taking pupils in the ninth grade to visit industrial and manufacturing establishments in the city.

While the report does not undervalue industrial training-sewing, stenography, and the like-yet it doubts the necessity of introducing them into the public schools, particularly as the Mechanics Institute is in every way adapted for instructing in them. The following extract is from the remarks made by the report on the relative increase of pupils and teachers:

"During the time that the number of pupils has increased 100 per cent, the number of teachers has increased 300 per cent. The average number of pupils to teachers is too small. From a financial standpoint the increase is extravagant. . . . There is a correct average in these matters, which may be arrived at by reducing the whole of the teaching force, and asking all instructors to complete correcting work and necessary reviews after the dismissal of grades." The report insists that, admitting the fact that in small classes instruction may be better than in large, yet in this case the average could be enlarged without subtracting from the efficiency of instruction. It is a noteworthy fact that of the graduates of the university with honors 40 per cent were free academy students.

The enrollment of registered pupils for the year showed 22,518, an increase of about 800 over the year previous. This does not include 1,705 enrolled in the evening schools.

The school for truants was efficiently maintained, the pupils being constantly under the supervision of a male teacher and an attendant. None were received who had been convicted of any crime, great or small. A good exhibit of the work was made at the end of the year. Besides usual text-books pupils were furnished with reading matter and manual training imparted. Children between 7 and 16 years who are habitual truants may be sent either to a truant school or an orphans' home under charge of those having the same religious faith as their parents.

Four evening schools were maintained, but complaint is made of great irregularity of attendance. Out of 1,705 enrolled the average attendance being only 133. An additional kindergarten was started, being the eleventh.

SYRACUSE SCHOOL REPORT.

Report for 1895, A. B. Blodgett, superintendent.

The suggestion of the preceding report regarding the taking of a more accurate census of school population was complied with, but in a very unsatisfactory way. Efforts are being made to introduce an efficient system of manual training, and a line of work has been begun supplemental to at least the work done in the High School. Attention is again called to the continual unsatisfactory condition of the High School building.