An important series of resolutions by Hon. J. N. Slaughter was presented by that gentleman for reference to the next General Assembly. They were, in substance, that in view of the great need of normal instruction for the teachers in the public schools it is recommended to the next General Assembly to enact a law for the appointment of a normal instructor in each Congressional district, such instructor (1) to receive a yearly salary and a sum not exceeding $500 annually for contingent expenses; (2) to organize the public school teachers of his district into normal classes without reference to county lines; (3) to spend 32 weeks each year in the instruction of such classes, all the teachers being required to attend and to get from the instructor a certificate of attendance on pain of forfeiting a quarter's pay; and it was also recommended that after 2 years the present grades of teachers be abolished, and certificates of qualification be granted to each teacher only on evidence of thorough qualification.

State Superintendent Palmer was made chairman of a committee to report on these resolutions at the next annual meeting of the association, and in his State school report since published he speaks of them as being in the right direction, and as substantially coinciding with a recommendation of a former efficient State superintendent, the Hon. Joseph Hodgson.

CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICER.

Hon. SOLOMON PALMER, State superintendent of education, Montgomery,
[First term, December 1, 1884, to December 1, 1886.]

a Enrollment imperfectly presented, nearly a third of the districts failing to report in 1884. b Eight counties not reporting.

c Nine counties not reporting.

(From figures furnished by State Superintendent W. E. Thompson for the two years indicated.)

STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

1 ADMINISTRATION.

The system is administered by (1) a State superintendent of public instruction; (2) a board of commissioners of the common school fund; (3) a county examiner for each county; and (4) three district directors for each school district.

District directors are to report school statistics annually to their county examiners, the examiners to the State superintendent, he to the governor, and the governor to the General Assembly. Directors failing to make this report are personally liable for any dam

ages the district may sustain through losing the school revenues that would otherwise have been apportioned to them, while a county examiner failing to make report forfeits $25 to the county.

The State superintendent makes semi-annually to the several counties a pro rata apportionment of the school revenue in the State treasury, on the basis of the number of persons between the ages of 6 and 21 in said counties. Teachers must keep a daily register of school statistics and report the same to their district directors at the close of each term, their last month's pay being withheld until such report is made. They must attend the county institutes held for their improvement, and may not be charged with loss of time while thus attending. There are separate schools for whites and blacks. Books for the common schools are selected by the directors of each school district from a list recommended by the State superintendent, not introducing any sectarian ones. Public schools are required to be closed while the teachers attend the public examinations and institutes held in the counties where they are teaching.

SCHOOL FINANCES.

The means for the support of public schools continue to be: (1) the income of the State school fund; (2) a per capita tax of $1 on males over 21; (3) such appropriations as the legislature may set apart; and (4) optional district taxes limited to of 1 per cent. on the valuation of taxable property in the district. If sufficient revenue cannot be raised to sustain a school for three months, the district may by vote determine that no school be taught.

NEW LEGISLATION.

An examination of the material at the law library of the National Capitol, Washington, shows the following legislation, March 30, 1883, not previously reported to this Bureau: (1) The directors of a school district may, at the instance of a teacher, suspend from school any pupil for gross immorality, refractory conduct, insubordination, or infectious disease; such suspension not to extend beyond the current term. (2) They may permit persons whose age exceeds 21 to attend school under such regulations as they deem proper. (3) The county court, on the petition of any person residing in a particular school district, may transfer the child, children, or wards of such person for educational purposes to an adjoining district, notifying the school officers of both districts. Such children are not to be enumerated afterward in the district from which they are transferred, but in that to which they go, and the district school tax of the transferred pupils must go to the district in which the schooling is received. Such a transfer of children to another district carries with it the right of a parent or guardian to vote on school and tax questions in the district to which their children go to school. (4) The county court is given the right to form new school districts or change the boundaries of existing ones on a petition from a majority of all the electors in the territory of the districts to be affected by such change.

SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF CITIES WITH 7,500 OR MORE INHABITANTS.

ADMINISTRATION.

Any incorporated town in this State may by vote of its citizens become a school district, with a board of six directors, two of them liable to change each year. These boards have power to do whatever pertains to the management of schools within their districts, such as purchase of school sites, erection of buildings, engagement of teachers, establishment of rules, grades of work and study, choice of a superintendent, &c.

As far as is known, Little Rock is still the only school district with a population above 7,500, though graded school systems have been established and well maintained at several minor points, such as Prescott, Bentonville, Russellville, Augusta, Batesville, Lonoke, Fort Smith, Helena, Morrilton, Ozark, Van Buren, Texarkana, and Hope.

LITTLE ROCK.

The course of instruction in the public schools embraces a primary department (4 grades). grammar department (5 grades), and high-school department (4 grades). Two evening schools were maintained, one apparently for boys, the other for girls. Two high schools also, one for white, the other for colored youth, have been for some years in operation. The studies in the former include English language, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, plane trigonometry, Latin, and the elements of physiology, philosophy, botany, and astronomy. The latter school had, up to 1884, graduated three classes, several of the graduates becoming successful teachers, 3 entering colleges at the North to prepare for professional life, and others getting employment under the Federal government. See Table II of Appendix for statistical information.

PREPARATION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS.

GENERAL STATE REQUIREMENTS.

Each county examiner must hold at the county-seat a quarterly public examination of those who propose to teach, after 20 days' notice to every district director in the county. This examination is in orthography, reading, penmanship, mental and written arithmetic, English grammar, modern geography, and United States history. If the examination is satisfactory as to moral character and qualifications to teach, 3 grades of certificates, corresponding to qualifications shown, may be given: the first valid in the county for 2 years; the second for 1 year; the third for 6 months. For life certificates, good throughout the State, the State superintendent has power to examine candidates, who must pass such examination not only in all the branches required for a county certificate, but also in 10 specified higher branches, and in the theory and prac tice of teaching. Without one of these 4 grades of certificates no persons may receive pay for teaching in any public school of the State. But if a license expire by limitation during school term, it does not interrupt the school nor deprive the teacher of stipulated wages.

STATE NORMAL TRAINING.

The normal course at the State university, reported to have been discontinued in 1883-'84, is again presented in 1884-'85. The courses, as outlined, are of 2, 4, and 6 years; the first leads to a certificate of proficiency; the second to a diploma of normal graduate; the third to a degree of A. B.

The Branch Normal College, Pine Bluff, for colored students, reports for 1884-'85 a State appropriation of $2,572.32; resident instructors, 5; normal students, 150 male and female; graduates of the year, 2. The full course of study is 6 years of 40 weeks each. A library of about 1,000 volumes included 27 pedagogical works. Eight educational journals were received. Drawing and music formed a part of the course, and there was some illustrative apparatus to aid in teaching chemistry and physics.

Through aid from the Peabody fund, 1883-'84, institutes were held at 23 points for white teachers and at 9 for colored, all under carefully selected instructors, who were regarded as experts in their work. For scholars from this State at the Southern Normal College, Nashville, the same fund contributed $950 in the same year. In 1884-'85 there was allowed for scholarships at Nashville $1,600; for teachers' institutes $1,500, the State appropriating nothing for them.

OTHER NORMAL TRAINING.

At Southland College and Normal Institute, Helena, the arrangements for instruction in the theory and practice of teaching noticed in the reports for 1882-'83 and 1883-'84, were continued in 1884-'85 under a special teacher. Students in normal class, 61, the same number as in 1883-'84; preparatory, 240; collegiate, 10.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

The State superintendent is required to hold a teachers' institute annually in each of the 11 judicial districts of the State, to be called a normal district institute. Each county examiner must personally or by deputy hold a county institute, which the teachers in the county are required to attend.

EDUCATIONAL JOURNALS.

The Arkansas Teacher, edited by Superintendent J. S. Shinn, of Magnolia, began as an octavo January, 1884, and was enlarged to a quarto in July of that year; it entered its second volume January, 1885, affording much useful information as to educational movements and meetings in the State. In September, 1885, it was transferred to Little Rock.

SECONDARY INSTRUCTION.

PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.

No information has been received by this Bureau as to whether any schools of this grade exist in the State, except in the case of Little Rock. Graded schools, as before stated, have been established in several of the progressive towns, but catalogues and courses of study from such towns, to indicate how far their teaching goes, have not yet been presented. Little Rock has 2 high schools; the Sherman, established in 1869 or 1870, graduating its first class in 1873; and the Union, established apparently in 1876 or 1877, graduating its first class in 1880. The number of pupils in higher branches in both in 1883-84 was 145. The schedule of studies in such branches covers 4 years, subjunior, junior, middle, and senior.

OTHER SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

For statistics of business colleges, private academic schools, and preparatory schools of colleges, see Tables IV, VI, VII, and IX of the Appendix; and for a summary of such statistics for the State, see corresponding tables in the report of the Commissioner preceding.

SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.

COLLEGES FOR YOUNG MEN OR FOR BOTH SEXES.

The Arkansas Industrial University, Fayetteville, like its congeners under the act of Congress of 1862, is primarily for instruction in such branches of study as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. But, as the act forbade an exclusion of other scientific and classical studies, it has "the usual course of studies prescribed in universities," formulated in a language course, an English course, and a general science course, each of 4 years, and each including more or less instruction in industrial art, with some laboratory work in the general science course. Music, vocal and instrumental, also enters into the instruction offered, and 57 pupils in this are reported, with 15 in industrial art. In the collegiate classes were 67, in preparatory studies 241, in 1884-'85, all under 13 instructors, to whom it was proposed to add a superintendent of shops, carpentry, and joiner work. The trustees, at their meeting in July, 1885, appropriated $4,000 for the establishment of a workshop, for fuller equipment of the laboratories, and for instruction of girls in domestic and other industrial arts.

A committee of the legislature appointed to examine the condition of the university in 1884-'85, recommended an appropriation of $55,900 for the purposes above mentioned and for repair of buildings, which are said to have gone much to decay.

Other institutions claiming collegiate rank are Arkansas College, Batesville (Presbyterian), Cane Hill College, Boonsborough (Cumberland Presbyterian), Little Rock University, Little Rock (Methodist Episcopal), and Philander Smith College, at the same place and under essentially the same influences, but for students of every race and color, while the others are for whites. All these present apparently fair arrangements for preparatory and collegiate instruction, except Cane Hill, which in its latest catalogue (for 1883-'84) showed only 2 regular instructors for 120 pupils, primary, preparatory, and collegiate, assistants being employed only "as they are needed." If this be held a sufficient equipment for a college, it would seem that Southland College, Helena, might also be included in the collegiate list, as it, with normal and preparatory training, has since 1872 given collegiate instruction, and since 1876 has had a college charter, has graduated collegiate students, and for 1884-'85 reports "a full corps of competent professors and teachers for all the grades."

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For statistics of the above-named colleges, except Southland, see Table IX of the Appendix; for those of Southland, Table III.

INSTITUTIONS FOR SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION OF YOUNG WOMEN.

The Arkansas Industrial University and the other collegiate institutions above mentioned are open to young women as well as to young men. Should there be any especially designed for young women only, their titles, location, and statistics will be found in Table VIII of the Appendix.

SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION.

SCIENTIFIC.

Agricultural and engineering courses, each of 4 years, are provided for at the State university, the former leading to the degree of graduate in agriculture, the latter to that of civil engineer. Besides these there is a general science course, also of 4 years, with a considerable range of mathematical, zoological, geological, physiological, chemical, botanical, and other scientific studies.

Industrial art and military drill enter into the course of instruction, the former being optional, the latter required.

Arkansas College, Batesville, has a bachelor of science course, which includes one ancient language (Latin or Greek), one modern language (French or German), with history, physiology, chemistry, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, political economy, &c. A fair proportion of the students pursued studies in these lines. Little Rock University, Little Rock, presents also a scientific course of 3 years, mainly the same as the classical course, with Greek omitted. A scientific preparatory course of 3 years leads up to this. Philander Smith College, also at Little Rock, shows good pre

1 Forty-six of the pupils in music and art were enumerated in other classes also. Deducting these, with 9 discharged and 22 that failed to pass the entrance examination, the net attendance for the year was 334.