ABSTRACTS

OF THE

OFFICIAL REPORTS OF THE SCHOOL OFFICERS OF STATES, TERRITORIES, AND CITIES,

WITH

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

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PREFATORY NOTE.

The following abstracts are derived from a great variety of sources. First among these come the reports of State officials, such as State boards of education and State superintendents of instruction; next, those of county and city superintendents, school committees, school visitors, and principals of State institutions. From these are derived nearly all the information given respecting elementary and special instruction, city school systems, and normal schools, and much of that relating to secondary schools, as the high schools of the States and cities. What concerns private secondary schools is almost wholly from returns made by the principals of these to the Bureau of Education, supplemented by catalogues and other documents.

For the matter relating to universities, colleges, and scientific and professional schools, dependence is placed on the annual catalogues of such institutions, on occasional circulars issued by them, and on special returns, made usually in the autumnal and winter months, in reply to circulars of inquiry sent them by the Bureau.

In every instance official authority only is relied upon for statements distinctly and definitely made, the printed catalogues and reports being chiefly used for this purpose, though sometimes an item of interesting information from other than official sources may be given, with a reference to the quarter from which it is derived. In such cases, however, the effort is always made to verify the statement before it is committed to the press.

The matter derived from the various sources above indicated is formulated, in the abstracts of education for each State, substantially in accordance with the schedule given below.

GENERAL PLAN OF ABSTRACT FOR EACH STATE.

1. STATISTICAL SUMMARY............................................ (a) School population and attendance.

(b) School districts and schools.

(c) Number and classification of teachers. (d) Financial statistics.

(a) General condition, marking specially anything new and noteworthy.

(b) Administration.

(c) School finances.

(d) Other features of the system.

(a) Administration.

(b) Statistics.

(c) Gther particulars.

4. PREPARATION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS.. (a) General State requirements.

5. SECONDARY INSTRUCTION,

(b) State normal training.

(c) Other normal instruction.

(d) Teachers' insti utes.

(e) Educational journals.
(a) Public high schools.

(b) Other secondary schools.

6. SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION..............................................................................(α) Colleges for men or for both sexes.

(b) Colleges and high grade schools for women.

7. SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION.........(a) Training in scientific schools and agricul

8. SPECIAL INSTRUCTION.

tural colleges.

(b) Training in theology.

(c) Training in law.

(d) Training in medicine, dentistry, and phar

macy.

.(a) Education of the deaf, dumb, blind, &c.

(6) Industrial and reformatory training. (c) Instruction in oratory, music, art, &c.

9. EDUCATIONAL CONVENTIONS ................................................................................ (a) Meetings of State associations.

(b) Special meetings of teachers, school principals, and superintendents. ......................................(a) Brief memorials of teachers, superintend ents, and other promoters of education who have died during the year.

11. CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS.................................................................................... (a) State superintendents and deputies. The statistics furnished the Bureau in answer to its circulars of inquiry, for convenience of reference and comparison, are given in tables following these abstracts, while summaries of these statistics may be found under their appropriate heads in the report of the Commissioner preceding. For the general courtesy with which his circulars have been answered, alike by State and city officials, by college presidents and heads of schools, as well as for documents additional to these replies, the Commissioner of Education here tenders his cordial thanks to all concerned.

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Average annual pay of teachers

Expenditure for public schools. ----- 522, 727.00 a538, 950.00 16, 223. 00

a Includes $20,540 disbursed from local funds in Mobile city, not derived from State. (From reports of Hon. H. Clay Armstrong and Hon. Solomon Palmer, State superintendents of education, for the school years indicated.)

STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

GENERAL CONDITION.

As may be seen from the foregoing table, the educational progress in 1884-'85 was very gratifying on the whole. Though the increase of children entitled to instruction in the public schools was only 649, the enrollment of such children in the schools provided for them by the State was 18,331 greater than in the previous year, while the average attendance showed an increase of 10,162. Eight more school districts, 173 more public schools, and a considerably larger expenditure for school purposes, afford further testimony of an advancing interest in school affairs. And as the State, through its now well

assured prosperity from coal and iron mines, as well as from the greater attention given to agriculture, is evidently destined to advance in wealth, it may well be hoped that all these elements will contribute to a still further development of public schools.

ADMINISTRATION.

The school officers are (1) a State superintendent of education; (2) a county superintendent of education for each county; (3) a township superintendent or 3 trustees of public schools in each township or other school district; (4) for each county an educational board of 2 teachers, with the county superintendent as president, to examine applicants for licenses to teach in public schools, to hold examinations in these schools in their respective counties at least once a year, and to certify such pupils as have mastered all the branches taught.

Children between the ages of 7 and 21 are entitled to instruction in the public schools of their own race, but it is not lawful to instruct in the same school both white and colored children.

Enumeration of children of school age of each race and sex is made every 2 years by the town superintendents, who report to their respective county superintendent. The State educational fund is apportioned by the State superintendent to the townships or school districts through the county superintendents, according to the latest official returns of enumeration. Each county retains its own poll tax.

Teachers must have licenses valid for the time of their engagements; must teach annually at least 3 months, of 20 days each; and must, within 5 days from the end of each quarter, report to the county superintendent the required statistics. The scholastic year begins October 1 and ends September 30 following. A State school month is 20 days of 6 hours each.

SCHOOL FINANCES.

The revenue for the support of public schools in Alabama is derived (1) from 6 per cent. interest on funds received through sale of the State and township school lands derived from the United States; (2) from 4 per cent. interest on the State's share of the United States surplus revenue fund of 1836; (3) from the voluntary gifts of citizens or others for school purposes, or from estates of persons dying without will or heir; (4) from an annual poll tax of $1.50 on each male citizen from 21 to 45 years of age; (5) from a special annual appropriation by the State of $230,000 out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated; (6) from license taxes to be retained in the counties in which they are collected.

Not more than 4 per cent. of moneys thus raised may be used for any other purpose than the payment of teachers, and no denominational or sectarian school may receive public school funds.

AID FROM EXTERNAL SOURCES.

From the Peabody educational fund the State received in 1884-'85 for 10 scholarships it the Normal College, Nashville, Tenn., $2,000; for 16 scholarships at the Florence Normal School, $2,000; for the Normal School at Jacksonville, $300; for that at Marion, $400; for that at Huntsville, $300; and for the Peabody school district, $300.

Of the distribution of the John F. Slater fund for the same year the only information received is of the gift of $1,000 to the Huntsville State Normal School for colored teachers, to equip an industrial department, which was successfully established by this means and conducted with fair results; and of a like amount to the Tuskegee Normal School for colpred teachers, also for industrial training in farm work, brick making, carpentry, printing, and sewing.

NEW LEGISLATION.

(1) County superintendents, formerly appointed by the State superintendent, are now to be elected by the people in certain counties of the State; (2) three township trustees for each township in a number of counties are provided for, to have immediate supervision of the public schools in their respective townships; in some instances these are elected by the people, in others appointed by the county superintendent; (3) each county superintendent is to send a duplicate copy of his report to the probate judge of the county, which, after examination by the board of revenue, is to be referred to the State superintendent for final action; (4) no certificate of first or second grade is to be given without an examination in physiology and hygiene with reference to the effects of stimulants and narcotics on the human system, and the pupils of all public schools are to be instructed in the same.

The normal school for colored teachers, Huntsville, is henceforth to be known as the "Huntsville State Colored Normal and Industrial School," $4,000 instead of $1,000 being annually appropriated for its support after September 1, 1885. For the Colored Normal School at Tuskegee the annual appropriation is increased from $2,000 to $3,000.