CHAPTER XXXIX. STATISTICS OF NORMAL SCHOOLS. In the scholastic year 1896-97 there were enrolled in various institutions in the United States 89,934 students pursuing training courses for teachers, an increase of 5,534 over the previous year. Of the above total 67,380 normal students were in public and private normal schools, 6,489 in universities and colleges, and 16,065 in public and private high schools and academies. Of the 89,934 normal students a little more than 60 per cent, or 54,039, were in public institutions. The public normal schools reported 43,199 of these students, public colleges and universities 1,839, and public high schools 9,001. Of the 35,895 normal students in private institutions 21,181 were in private normal schools, 4,650 in private universities and colleges, and 7,064 in private high schools and academies. The following table shows the number of institutions of each class and the number of normal students in each class for three scholastic years: The 89,934 students included in the above table are those who were actually pursuing teachers' training courses in these various institutions. Students in public and private normal schools pursuing other courses of study are accounted for elsewhere in this chapter. The 164 public normal schools had more than 48 per cent of the normal students reported by the 1,487 institutions, or an average of 263 students to the school. The average number of normal students to the private normal school was 122. The 196 colleges and universities reporting had an average of 33 normal students to the institution. The 507 public high schools and the 422 private high schools and academies reporting had an average of 18 and 17 normal students, respectively. More than 18 per cent of the students enrolled in the public and private normai schools were graduated at the end of the year, 6,738 in all. It is safe to estimate that a like percentage of normal students in colleges and universities and public and private high schools graduated at the same time. The students pursuing teachers' training courses in the various institutions who graduated or completed their courses of study at the end of the scholastic year 1896-97 must have numbered approximately 16,188. PUBLIC NORMAL SCHOOLS. The statistics of the 164 public normal schools are summarized in Tables 1 to 8 in this chapter. Information in detail concerning the individual schools is given in Table 19. Table 1 shows that there were 1,773 teachers in the public normal schools instructing students in normal courses. This was an average of nearly 11 teachers to the school. There were 703 teachers wholly for other departments. The States of New York and Pennsylvania have 14 schools each, Massachusetts 9, West Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Wisconsin 7 each. No other State reports more than 6, and a few States are yet without public normal schools. The number of students in the public normal schools of each State is shown in Table 2. Of the 43,199 students in training courses for teachers more than 70 per cent, or 30,592, were women. The North Atlantic Division had 17,651 normal students and the North Central 15,818, these two divisions having more than 77 per cent of the students in the public normal schools of the United States. The States of New York and Pennsylvania alone had 13,699 of these students, or more than 31 per cent of the number for all the States in the Union. There were 1,339 students in business courses in 14 of the States. Commercial courses are not maintained in the public normal schools of the other States. In 24 of the States the public normal schools reported 5,145 students in secondary grades. Most of these are students preparing to enter the regular normal courses. In 35 of the States 14,601 pupils were reported in elementary grades of the public normal schools. These pupils are reported as actually belonging to the normal schools, and it is said that thousands of them will go up through the secondary grades and finally enter the training courses for teachers. These elementary pupils now form the model schools in many of the institutions. Table 3 shows that the total enrollment in all departments of the public normal schools was 64,284. In the 43,199 normal students there were included 1,800 colored students. The colored normal schools of the two Southern divisions reported 1,551 of these students; 202 were reported from the North Atlantic Division and 47 from the North Central. The last column of Table 3 shows that 28,038 children were in the model schools used by the public normal schools, 7 of the States not reporting model schools. The number of graduates from public normal schools for the year 1896–97 was 8,032, as shown in Table 4. Of these graduates 6,369 were women and 1,663 men. It was shown above that the two Northern divisions had more than 77 per cent of the normal students. This table shows that they had 6,648 graduates, or nearly 83 per cent of the whole number of graduates from the public normal schools of the United States. Notwithstanding the "hard times" the States continue to increase their support of the normal schools. As shown above in Table 5, the aggregate amount appropriated by States, cities, and counties for the running expenses of the public normal schools for 1896-97 was $2,426,185, an increase of $238,310 over the previous year. This aggregate of nearly two and a half millions was a sum larger than ever before received by the public normal schools for support for a single year. In addition to public appropriations these schools received $466,195 from tuition, $77,720 from productive funds, and $294,828 from sources not named, making a total income of $3,264,928 for the year. It is probable that a large part of the $294,828 mentioned as receipts from other sources really came from public appropriations. Table 6 is a summary showing the value of property of various kinds possessed by the public normal schools. The number of volumes reported in 141 of the schools was 461,075, of an estimated value of $485,383. The value of buildings, grounds, scientific apparatus, etc., aggregated $18,455,742. The schools received from public sources for the year for buildings and improvements appropriations amounting to $743,333. This sum is less than the sum received by the schools for this purpose for any year since 1892. The amount of money received by the public normal schools from public sources for support for each year from 1891-92 to 1896-97 is shown in Table 7. The amounts received in the same years from public sources for buildings and improvements re given in Table 8. PRIVATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. There were 198 institutions in 1896-97 reporting to this office as private normal schools. This was an increase of 29 schools over the number reporting the previous year. These are not new institutions, but are schools transferred from other lists. A few of them were formerly reported by their principals as public normal schools, because they had received certain public aid. Others had been academies, seminaries, and other institutions of secondary grade, which their proprietors transformed into training schools for teachers. The summaries of private normal school statistics are given in Tables 9 to 14, while he information concerning the separate schools is given in Table 20. As may be seen from Table 9 there are 15 States and Territories which do not have any private normal schools. There were 1,030 teachers instructing students in teachers' training courses in the private normal schools. There were 689 teachers for other departments. Table 10 shows that the students in the normal departments of these schools were divided almost equally between the sexes, 12,095 males and 12,086 females, making a total of 24, 181. There were 3,875 students in business courses, 7,585 in other courses equivalent to courses in high schools, and 17,234 pupils in elementary grades. The total enrollment in all grades in these institutions was 52,875. In the model schools there were 4,560 children, most of whom were counted in the elementary grades of the private normal schools. Of the 24,181 normal students in these schools, 2,383 were colored students, 2,347 of whom were in colored private normal schools of the two Southern divisions, and 36 in schools of the North Central division. Table 12 gives the number of graduates from the teachers' training departments of the private normal schools as 2,294 men and 1,814 women, a total of 4,108. There were 1,511 graduates from business courses, and 1,706 from the secondary or high school courses. The income of the private normal schools, so far as reported, is exhibited in Table 13. These schools received from tuition $632,218, from public appropriations $49,013, from productive funds $50,564, and from other sources and unclassified $294,282, making a total of $1,026,077. Table 14 exhibits the value of the property possessed by the private normal schools. Only 155 of the 198 schools reported libraries. These had 223,067 volumes, whose value was estimated at $225,069. The value of buildings and grounds and scientific apparatus aggregates $6,911, 131. The value of benefactions received by these schools for the year amounted to $205,238. The endowment of the private normal schools now aggregates $2,880,225. DISTRIBUTION OF NORMAL STUDENTS. The statistics of public and private normal schools are compared in Table 15. It shows that in the public normal schools the male students comprise 29.18 per cent of the total number and the female students 70.82 per cent, while in the private normal schools the students are almost equally divided between the sexes. The percentages for the different States show great variation, the female students in public normal schools comprising from 90 to 100 per cent in at least 10 States. In 1897 the per cent of graduates to the total number of students in the public normal schools was 18.59, while the per cent for the private normal schools was 16.99. Table 16 summarizes the students pursuing training courses for teachers in institutions other than public and private normal schools. Thus 196 colleges and universities reported 2,656 men and 3,833 women pursuing such courses. In 507 public high schools there were 2,490 male and 6,511 female students, and in 422 private high schools and academies there were 3,068 male and 3,996 female students pursuing teachers' training courses, making a total of 22,544 in these institutions. A general summary of the normal students in the five classes of institutions is given in Table 17, showing a grand total of 89,934 such students in the United States for the year 1896-97. A list of the colleges and universities in which courses designed for the professional training of teachers are maintained is given in Table 18. The number of normal students in each institution each year for the past four years is given so far as reported. For a number of the universities and colleges which have regularly organized pedagogical departments the number of students in pedagogy could not be learned. The details of public and private normal school statistics are given in Tables 19 and 20. |