VI. Expenses of Fixed Charges. 66. Pensions. 67. Rent.... 68. Insurance. 69. Taxes... 70. Contributions, contingencies, etc. 71. Total fixed charges (66-70, inclusive). 72. Total current expenses (Items 19, 30, 41, 48, 52, 65, and 70). 73. Land... VII. Outlays (Capital Acquisition and Construction). 74. New buildings. 75. Alteration of old buildings.. 76. Equipment of new buildings and grounds, exclusive of replacements.. 2. THE SUPERINTENDENT SHOULD KEEP IN ORDERLY AND SYSTEMATIC MANNER STATISTICAL INFORMATION CONCERNING SIGNIFICANT MATTERS RELATING TO THE SCHOOLS. There are a number of things about the schools other than about the finances that the board, the superintendent, and the public need to know, if the schools are to be administered so that there will be a constant increase secured in their efficiency. In a school system that is steadily improving in the quality of its work one will find, among many others, that the following things are happening: CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFICIENT SCHOOL SYSTEM. 1. From year to year the school system will enroll a larger percentage of the children of school age and will carry them further along in the grades before they drop out. 2. The number of over-age pupils and of pupils who are making slow progress through school will decrease. 3. There will be fewer and fewer failures in promotion and fewer who drop out of school because they become discouraged and disheartened in their work. 4. There will be much greater regularity in school attendance and fewer absences. 5. There will be a decrease in the number of pupils per teacher until a reasonable limit has been reached. 6. Teachers' qualifications will be advancing steadily, and the conditions under which they live and work will increasingly make for a more stabilized teaching force. 7. When pupils do leave school it will be known why, in the light of which the work of the schools will be shaped to better meet their needs. 8. Pupils will be followed up after they leave school in order to determine wherein their training could have been improved. 9. Information will be compiled systematically about what other school systems are doing in order that the system in question may profit by the experience of others elsewhere. These are some of the things which characterize the system that is on the alert to improve. Statistical information, and information of nonstatistical character about the system necessary to this end, are secured in large school systems by a group of experts who give their whole time to compiling and interpreting such facts; in small systems this is handled by the superintendent through a carefully devised system of reports which he requires principals and teachers to file at stated intervals and which are tabulated and made available by a clerk working under his direction. INFORMATION WHICH SHOULD BE IN THE SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE. The office of the superintendent of Glynn County is completely lacking in any information which will enable anyone to form any conclusions whatsoever on these matters. It is impossible to compare the system as it now stands with what it was 10 years ago or even 2 years ago from any records anywhere to be found. No one can tell, therefore, whether the system has been steadily improving in efficiency or steadily declining. A private business that knows no more about itself than the records of the Glynn County school system tell about the vital matters affecting the schools would soon be on the rocks. The board of education should lose no time in authorizing the superintendent to inaugurate a system of simple records covering the foregoing elementary matters. Such records could well begin with the following: 1. The age-grade distribution of all pupils for each school and for the entire system, taken annually, from which can be determined facts about retardation and acceleration of pupils. 2. A table compiled annually showing how many children, in each grade and school and for the entire system, have attended school during the year for 100 days, for 110 days, for 120 days, for 130 days, and so on up to the full number of days school has been in session during the year. 3. A table showing the facts about promotions and failures in each grade and in each school of the system. 4. A table showing the number of pupils who have dropped out of each grade of each school before the term or year has closed and the reason for quitting given by the teachers. 5. A card catalogue of the graduates of the high school showing the important facts about the school history of each, where they go and what they do. Every graduate should be followed up as long as possible, and from time to time significant facts recorded on his card. 6. A card catalogue of every teacher entering the system should be kept, showing training, experience, certification, and other facts of importance. 7. Charts should be kept showing the number of seats in every schoolroom in the system and the number of children assigned to each room. These charts should be revised two or three times each term, based on reports of teachers and principals. 8. The annual reports of the superintendents of many school systems should be secured, examined, and a card index compiled of references to those which the superintendent foresees may be of use at a later time in connection with some of his projects. The publications of the educational department of the State of Georgia and of the Federal Bureau of Education should likewise be filed and indexed for future reference. The leading educational journals should be at hand and either filed or their important articles clipped and preserved. In such manner the superintendent can quickly build up a body of useful material. SUCH RECORDS EASILY KEPT. Charts, tables, and records of the kind just enumerated are very easily kept, if the proper forms and filing devices be procured. In the publications referred to there is to be found a wealth of suggestion for each. In passing, it may be mentioned that the school department of Memphis, Tenn., has a particularly valuable system of report blanks which are filled out by teachers and principals and then filed with the superintendent. These cover many of the matters which every superintendent should have at all times in his office subject to call. One intelligent clerk in the superintendent's office can easily take care of all that Glynn County needs in this line in addition to having time for many other duties. 3. APPOINT AN ATTENDANCE OFFICER ON FULL TIME AND REQUIRE HIM TO KEEP A CUMULATIVE SCHOOL CENSUS. Georgia has a compulsory attendance law which requires, under penalty, that all children between the ages of 8 and 14 shall attend school continuously for six months of each year, which period of attendance shall commence at the beginning of the first term of the school year. It provides also that each county and municipal board of education shall employ an attendance officer, this appointment to be made by the board under penalty of the loss of its share of State school funds. Except for the fact that the law should require attend ance for the full period during which school is in session, and except for the method it provides for the taking of a school census, this law is an excellent one. DUTIES OF THE ATTENDANCE OFFICER. There are at least three lines of activity to which an efficient attendance officer will be devoting his time and energies: 1. In visiting employers of school children, in following up the arrival and departure of families, in persuading individuals who think they must drop out of school to remain, in helping worthy and needy students to find work before and after school and during vacations, and in investigating the home conditions of children who are progressing badly in their work, or who may be suspected by the teachers of living in insanitary, impoverished, or immoral surroundings. 2. In establishing a contact between the school and welfare agencies in the community, such as charity workers, judges who try cases of juvenile delinquency, social-service organizations, police officials, and the local board of health. 3. In keeping a permanent record card of every child in the county of school age which should contain, besides other social data, the name, address, sex, age, race; whether attending public, private, or parochial school; the class in said school; the reason for not attending school, if not enrolled; if employed, where and how; together with a brief statement of his school history. Such cards should be made in duplicate, one copy to be retained by the officer in the superintendent's office and one filed with the principal of the school attended by the child. They can be grouped by families if thought desirable. VALUE OF A CUMULATIVE CENSUS RECORD. It is the business of the school to prevent illiteracy. With this in view, the law requires that all children between 8 and 14 shall be in school for a minimum period each year. Surely if the school is going to do the work that it is created expressly to do, it must know who these children are, where they live, and somewhat about the conditions under which they live; else, how can the school know whether it is doing its appointed work or not? A school census taken every five years, as required by Georgia law, is of little value unless it is supplemented by such a cumulative record. A permanent card record of each child, however, always in the making, checked up if desired at intervals of two years or so by a house-to-house canvass, is of inestimable value. Furthermore, a tabulation of such records each year by blocks or by districts, indicating their location by putting pins of various colors in a map of the district, will give valuable information regarding the growth of the city or county, the direction the growth is taking, and the changing and shifting character of the population-information that is essential if the board is to plan wisely far enough in advance to provide the necessary building accommodations by the time they are needed. A TACTFUL AND THOROUGHLY COMPETENT ATTENDANCE OFFICER NEEDED. The board should pay a salary large enough to secure a thoroughly competent person, preferably one who has had experience in socialservice work and who commands the respect and confidence of the community; and a salary large enough, it may be added, to induce the right person to remain in the work for a period of years, for obviously in work of this character favorable acquaintanceship in the county is an important asset, and acquaintanceship is a matter of time. Above all, however, the appointment should not go to some broken-down politician or ex-policeman or to some one whose only claim to consideration is that he can not make a living in any other way. It is being found that women make good attendance officers, but here again, as everywhere, success turns upon personality, sincerity, earnestness of purpose, and special training. The board of education of Glynn County can add greatly to the efficiency of the work of the schools by appointing such an officer and setting him about doing the things suggested in this report. The present arrangement in Glynn County, whereby the superintendent of schools is likewise the attendance officer, should be terminated as soon as possible, for clearly he has insufficient time to perform the duties herein outlined for an attendance officer and at the same time to do efficiently the work which properly falls to a county superintendent of schools. THE NEED IN GLYNN COUNTY. The need for an attendance officer who, in addition to other duties, shall compile the data already suggested is particularly apparent among the rural schools of Glynn County. It has been impossible to secure exact information concerning the enrollment and average daily attendance in the country schools, nor can it be determined with any degree of accuracy what proportion of those who ought to be in school are actually there. However, from observations made in each rural schoolroom, and from an examination of such teachers' registers for the school year 1918-19 as are available, it is clear that the attendance as compared with the school census and the number belonging in school is very low. It is also clear that those enrolled attend very irregularly. Only one of the registers obtained contained any information concerning the reasons why the children left school. In general, the teachers did no know why their children quit, or else, when asked, |