LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, August 28, 1916. SIR: At the request of the code committee appointed by the governor of the State of Wyoming in compliance with an act of the legislature of that State creating the committee for the purpose of studying the school system of the State and recommending new legislation, I detailed A. C. Monahan, specialist in agricultural education and rural school administration, and Katherine M. Cook, assistant in rural education in this bureau, to make a careful study of the laws of the State pertaining to education, the administration of the State school system and certain phases of the work of the schools, and to make such recommendations for the improvement of the schools through legislation and otherwise as the facts revealed by this study might seem to justify. This they have done, and the report submitted to the code committee has been approved by me. For the use of the people of the State of Wyoming and for the use of students of education throughout the country I recommend that this report, a copy of which I am transmitting herewith, be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education. Respectfully submitted. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner. 5 LETTER TO THE COMMISSIONER. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, SIR: There are submitted herewith the results of a survey and study of the public-school system of Wyoming, with recommendations concerning the legislation needed for its improvement. This work was undertaken at your orders as a result of a request for assistance from the State of Wyoming. The thirteenth general assembly of the State, meeting in 1915, acting on the suggestion of prominent educators of the State under the leadership of the State superintendent of public instruction, enacted a law which provided for the formation of a school code committee to make a thorough investigation into the needs of the public schools of Wyoming and the laws under which they are organized and operated; to make a comparative study of such other public schools as may be advisable; and to report to the fourteenth Legislature of the State of Wyoming recommending a revised code of school laws. In compliance with this act, the governor of the State appointed the following men and women to constitute the Wyoming school code committee: Miss Edith K. O. Clark, State superintendent of public instruction, Cheyenne, chairman; Miss Jennie McGuffey, county superintendent of schools, Park County, Cody; Mr. John T. Hawkes, principal of the Sheridan High School, Sheridan; Dean J. O. Creager, of the College of Education, State University, Laramie; and Mr. J. J. Underwood, ranchman, Underwood. The undersigned were designated as representatives from the Bureau of Education to assist in an investigation and to make a report with recommendations for transmittal to the committee. The first meeting of the school code committee was called at Laramie in July of 1915; all members but one were present. A representative of the Bureau of Education attended this meeting. After careful discussion of various plans and procedure, a general survey of educational conditions in the State was decided upon and tentative plans were laid for collecting material for such a survey. Method and scope of the survey.-The school code committee held a second conference in Cheyenne early in November of the same year. All members and both representatives of the bureau were present. |