secondary schools from all the States. Circular letters were addressed to all county and city superintendents of public instruction and to the officials of schools already on the lists in this office, asking for information concerning new schools. The result was that more than 10,000 schools, public and private, were reported to this office as high schools, including those already known to the Bureau. Blank forms for statistical information were sent to these schools. More than 2,000 of those addressed were never heard from, and it was concluded that most of these were elementary schools. Nearly 2,000 of the schools reporting were found to be below the secondary grade. Many of these were high schools in name, but had no students pursuing high school studies. Some had students in only one study which could be classed as secondary and many others were elementary schools, reporting two or three or more students in high school studies, but giving no evidence that they were organized as secondary schools or making efforts to reach a high school standard.

After throwing out the reports of all schools which should be classed as elementary the result of the investigation was the addition of 1,700 to the list of secondary schools over the number reporting the previ ous year. This was an increase of 1,152 in the number of public high schools and 548 added to the number of private high schools. The increase in the number of secondary students was 78,821. Of this increase 56,323 were in the public high schools and 22,498 in the private schools and academies.

In 1893-94-that is, for the school year beginning in the fall of 1893 and ending in June, 1894-the average number of secondary students to each high school was 69; in 1892-93 the average number was 77; in 1891-92 the number was 74; in 1890-91 it was 69; and in 1889-90 the average number to a school was 71. The fluctuation in these averages is largely due to the manner in which many principals made their reports, in many instances elementary pupils being classed as secondary students. The large difference between the average numbers for 1892-93 and 1893-94 can be easily explained. There was possibly a slight falling off in the attendance in some sections of the country. Many of the new schools had fewer students than the average of the old schools, but the apparent falling off is chiefly due to a more rigid classification of students.

It was supposed that the addition of so many new schools to the lists would lower the average standing, but such has not been the result. The decrease in the average number of secondary students accredited to a school has doubtless contributed to raise the standing of the average school. It is easily shown that the 5,946 schools reporting in 1894 rank higher than the 4,246 reporting in 1893, when the percentages of graduates and the percentages pursuing high school stades are compared. The following tables, comparing percentage figars for the two years in public and private schools and for the two

classes of schools combined, will show that there was decided improvement in the schools of 1894 over the schools of 1893:

The above figures show the percentages for 1893 and for 1894 of students in each of the ten leading high school studies. The per cent studying Latin increased from 43.06 to 44.78 in the public high schools and from 39.23 to 40.77 in the private schools, which was an increase from 41.94 to 43.59 for public and private high schools combined. The per cent studying algebra increased from 52.88 to 56.14 in the public schools and from 42.75 to 44.37 in the private schools, the increase for public and private schools combined being from 49.92 in 1893 to 52.71 in 1894. There was a barely perceptible decrease in the per cent studying Greek in the public high schools, more than counterbalanced by an increase in the private schools. There was the falling off of less than one-quarter of 1 per cent in the percentage of students in German. In all the other studies the percentages for 1894 stand considerably higher than the corresponding figures for 1893. The per cent of graduates was also greater in 1894 than the previous year. In the public schools the per cent of graduates increased from 12.62 in 1893 to 12.90 in 1894, and in the private schools the increase was from 8.65 to 9.40.

It may be interesting to note that the number of pupils in elementary studies in the public and private high schools is considerably greater than the aggregate number of secondary students in the same schools. In 1893-94 the number of elementary pupils in the 5,946 high schools was 677,933, or 114 to each school. In 1892-93 there were 501,035 elementary pupils in the 4,246 schools, or 118 to each school.

The line between the real and the so-called high school is each year becoming more distinct and the classification of students into elementary and secondary is more rigid. The methods of collecting information have been improved, and with the continued growth of high schools the statistics of secondary education show better results. Each year for twenty-three years the report from this Bureau has contained a chapter devoted to secondary schools. A brief survey of the results of this work may prove of interest.

A STATISTICAL REVIEW.

In 1871 the United States Commissioner of Education began to collect statistics of secondary schools. In the report for that year appears a list of 638 private high schools and academies. In these schools 80,227 students were receiving instruction. This number, doubtless, included all the pupils in the schools, those in the elementary branches as well as those pursuing secondary studies. The next annual report shows a list of 811 schools, with 98,929 students, for 1872. The 1873 report had a list of 944 schools, with 118,570 students. It is probable that in 1874 an attempt was made to exclude from the enumeration at least a portion of the elementary pupils, for while the number of schools reported for that year had increased to 1,031 the number of students was less by 20,000 than the previous year and some hundreds less than two years before. The number of students reported in the 1,031 schools for 1874 was 98,179. For 1875 the number of schools was 1,143 and the number of students 108,235.

The Bureau began collecting the statistics of city high schools in 1876. That year the report of the Commissioner of Education showed that there were 22,982 secondary students in the public schools of the 192 cities reporting. From 1876 to 1889 the annual reports contained statistics of public high schools in connection with city systems. During the same period the reports from private secondary schools were published annually. In 1884-85 the number of these schools reporting had reached 1,617, with 160,137 students. Two years later the number of schools had dropped to 936 and the number of students to 101,112. A similar falling off is noticeable also between 1892 and 1893. The violent fluctuations in the printed statistics of different years should not be attributed to rapid increase or decrease in the number of schools, but in part to peculiar conditions affecting the collection of statistics, and in part to changes in the form of inquiry. These changes grew out of efforts to arrive at a somewhat precise distinction between elementary and secondary school work. Such efforts had become necessary both by reason of the great increase in the number of high schools and classes, due to the development of the public school systems of the Southern and Northwestern States, and also in the number of so-called secondary courses of study. From the nature of the case the best means of arriving at the facts desired under the new conditions could not be immediately determined. The statistics and discussions of secondary education for several years indicate the complications of this problem and the progress made toward its satisfactory solution. Considering secondary students without reference to the class of institution in which they are found, the increase in the number of such students has been quite regular on the whole. So far as actual secondary work is concerned, the statistics for the successive years up to 1890 are quite as valuable as the reports of the past five years, and afford proper bases of comparison with the statistics of later years.

The following table shows the number of secondary schools reporting
to this office each year from 1871 to 1894, and the number of high school
students reported each year:

*From 1876 to 1889 the figures given in the public high school column apply to city high schools only.
From 1890 to 1894 all public high schools are included.

Prior to 1889-90 few public high schools outside of the city systems
had been reached. Meanwhile, in the endeavor to sift out pseudo
secondary schools, some private schools had been lost that belonged
properly in the secondary class. But the view of the whole field had
become clearer, and in 1890 a systematic effort was made to collect
statistics from the public high schools and classes not reached by the
city inquiry, and also from private schools not previously reached or
temporarily lost from the list. The result of the effort was the increase
in the list from 713 in 1889 to 2,526 in 1890, and the increase of over
75,000 students reported in the public secondary schools. Of course
there had been no such actual increase in one year, nor in several
years. The Bureau had only reached out and gathered statistics from
a source hitherto overlooked, namely, the independent public high
schools.

Since 1890 a uniform system of collecting information has been fol-
lowed, greatly augmenting the value of the statistics of secondary edu-
cation compiled for the last five years. Similar schedules of inquiry
are sent to public and private high schools, and the form of tabulating
the statistics is the same for each. This facilitates comparison.

In this chapter will be found the statistical summaries for secondary
schools for the scholastic year ended June, 1894. The tables give the
numbers of public and private high schools, the numbers of teachers,
of students, of graduates, and of students pursuing certain studies in
each State and Territory. There are also tables of percentages an
comparisons between public and private high schools. Six diagram.