Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature

of Education

VOL. XXXVIII.

JANUARY, 1918

No. 5

Rural School Supervision in New England.

BY LAWRENCE AUGUSTUS AVERILL, A. B., M. A. PH. D., Head of the Departinent of Educational Psychology in the Massachusetts State Normal School at Worcester, Massachusetts and - Editor of The American Journal of School Hygiene.

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¤† O one nowadays, of course, questions in the least the value of expert supervision in every line of activity. In the case of the public school, the significance of efficient supervision is peculiarly felt because of the lack of clearly defined aim, of definite organization, and of concerted local support. The recent movement for superintendency unions proposes to combat this prevalent, unprofessional tendency in the school system of the several states. The union superintendency legislation, first adopted by Massachusetts, in 1870, provided that several small towns might combine in hiring an expert superintendent to have charge of their public schools. The law has since been amended and added to until it provides today that every town in the Commonwealth, whose valuation is not in excess of $2,500,000.00, MUST so unite with neighboring towns in employing a trained superintendent. This official must, in each case, have received the approval of the State Board of Education and hold its certificate. The State assumes a generous share in paying the salary of all superintendents thus employed. The result is that every rural town in the State at the present time is in a union with one, two, three, four or even five other towns to hire an efficient administrator of all the local schools.

Before entering further into a discussion of the good results of

the Superintendency Act in Massachusetts. let us for a few moments note some of the prevailing conditions of school supervision in the other New England states, and so determine the general status of supervision in the whole Section. Vermont is the only other state which has gone so far as making the adoption of union superintendencies obligatory on the part of the towns; each of the other four, however, has followed the lead of Massachusetts in endeavoring to lend impetus to the movement for efficient management of the schools by contributing liberally to the salary of all superintendents thus employed. It is, of course, only a matter of time before the Massachusetts system will be adopted in its essential features by all the other states. Meantime, we can only assail legislative halls and wait.

The latest accessible statistics from Maine (1914) show that altogether some 80 per cent of the school population is now under expert supervision. Obviously, the 20 per cent not thus provided for is that in the small country towns. A glance at the table will show the total rural and urban school population of the State:

TABLE No. 1.

Showing the distribution of Children of school age in Maine.

It seems fair to assume, as we concluded above, that the 20% of school children in Maine not under expert supervision are included in the percentage of the first column. That is, of the 39% of all the children in the State, who are attendant upon rural schools, approximately one half are in schools which have entirely unprofessional supervision. That this estimate is conservative may be inferred from the fact that, of the 525 cities, towns and plantations in Maine, 157-or approximately 30%- paid not more than $50.00 to the superintendent of their schools during the year 1913-14. Of these, 24 towns paid $10.00, or less.

Still, we are not to conclude that superintendency unions in Maine have not been successful. Quite the reverse is true. Up to July 1, 1914, there had been organized 81 unions in the state,

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which included a total of 221 towns and 2,529 schools. pense for maintaining these unions was considerable. The State Superintendent, in his 1914 Report, averaged the costs of supervision thus:

As may be inferred, however, it is probably the very smallest schools, and hence those most in need of it, that are denied expert supervision. That the assumption is a safe one is again evident from the fact that each union comprises, on the average, less than three towns and more than thirty schools. The typical town, then, in Maine, which has joined in a superintendency union appears to be one which has ten schools or more, while those innumerable towns having four, five and six scattered district schools are the ones which are suffering for the want of good schools and good school administrators.

In the town of A—— for example, there are six district schools scattered over a township area of approximately fifty square miles. The latest Maine School Report gives the total number of pupils registered in the public schools of this town as 91, an average of about 15 for each school. When the writer was more closely acquainted with the educational system of this community, five to ten years ago, there were some 25 boys and girls in each school-a fact which illustrates vividly to his mind the great modern tragedy of the New England country town.

The superintendent of schools-who by the way has held his office by common consent since time immemorial-draws an annual check of $40.00 from the treasury of the town. His duties are few and simple. Twice each term he visits each of the six schools. The date never varies; his advent into the schoolroom occurs invariably in the afternoon of the second day, and in the afternoon of the last day of each term. His 'modus operandi' is something as follows: At his first visit, he presents the teacher formally with a town register, wherein she may keep a lawful record of

tardinesses and absences during the ensuing ten weeks. This done, he makes a few inquiries regarding books which may be needed, exhorts the children kindly for a few moments, and then, his professional visit being over, he gives his professional blessing and departs to another district.

At the occasion of his visit at the close of the term, the superintendent tarries for perhaps an hour. During that period he does three things; first, he asks the teacher to 'hear' some of the more advanced classes; during these recitations, he beams reassuringly down upon the faces of the youthful performers, not infrequently stopping them to ask a question or make a mediocre suggestion. Next, he delivers his stereotyped monologue to the assembled school. It runs, in generous abridgment, somewhat as follows, as nearly as the writer can recall:

"Children, it has given me much pleasure to listen to your recitations this afternoon. They show evidence of good scholarship, hard work, and very efficient teaching (with a bow to the chair). You will perhaps not be surprised, therefore, when I tell you, as I now do, that unquestionably the school in this district has been the very best one in town during the last term, (presumably the formula is identical for each of the six schools). I thank you on behalf of the board."

The session closes with a deep bow on the part of the superintendent, and a "Good afternoon, Mr. X-!" on the part of the school. These formalities being completed, the superintendent does the third thing: he takes his hat and his departure!

Instances of this sort of supervision, the writer has abundant reason to believe, are by no means uncommon throughout rural New England.

Let us next make a brief survey of the progress of union supervision in New Hampshire. The history of the movement for more efficient supervision of schools in this State has been similar to that in the other states in the Section. By the law of 1899, it was provided that whenever two or more school districts should unite in employing a superintendent, the State would pay one half of his salary. Since the date of the passage of this bill, its provisions have gradually been adopted by many of the towns, until in the fall of 1914, 96 school districts were profiting by them. Mainly thus

far, however, it has been the larger towns that have taken advantage of the law. This fact is established by the fact that, of the 245 school districts of the State (outside of the 11 cities), only 96 are under competent supervision, and that the school children represented in these 96 districts comprise nearly four-fifths of the total school population. The remaining one-fifth of the pupils of school age must be scattered among the 149 remaining districts. The latest school report of the State gives the number of children of legal school age as 58,248. This means that nearly 12,000 children in the smaller towns of the state are attending schools whose superintendents are untrained and uncertificated.

State Superintendent Morrison had this to say in his 1914 Report:

It therefore appears that, in general, the larger and more compactly settled towns are under supervision, while the smaller and sparsely settled towns are not. Though the law was originally directed toward the improvement of conditions in this last named group of towns, more than two-thirds of their enrollment is still unsupervised. 100% of the pupils in our city schools are under proper supervision. Only 30% of the children in our 155 strictly rural towns are in schools which are in any true sense supervised at all. Experience has shown that, while the present law has done a great deal of good, unions formed under its provisions are apt to be ropes of sand. Districts go in and out of supervision according to the prevalence of local factions. Meantime the schools are thrown into chaos and the children suffer. Compulsory and universal supervision is, I believe, the only adequate remedy."

In this connection, it is interesting to note that a bill, providing for the combinations of "all the several school districts in the State into unions for the purpose of employing a superintendent of the public schools therein" was introduced into the New Hampshire legislature in 1913, but was defeated by a small margin in the House. It had the support, however, of the House Committee on Education, the House Committee on Appropriations and of Governor Felker. A similar bill, if introduced somewhat later, will doubtless become law.

In Vermont, the movement toward certified supervision found