The superintendent of the Newark schools' says regarding these points:

That there has been no physical or mental injury by reason of the eight weeks of school attendance in July and August may be granted as probably true. The testimony of a large number of teachers is to that effect. Some teachers claim to have felt the strain and others decline to remain to teach in July and August, fearing injury to their health. Those who have taught several successive summers state that they have lost buoyancy and spirit because of the continued work, but they do not condemn the plan. The vice principals of the two schools longest established are now out on furlough because of ill health. It would be difficult to prove that the all-year work was the cause of these two breakdowns. The report of the medical department shows a larger number of exclusions in the all-year than in other schools. That might well be expected, because the schools are open longer and are larger. It is reasonably certain that there is no widespread injury to the health of children or teachers, or if there be injury to anyone it can not be definitely fixed as due to the all-year plan. The facts available are at least not sufficient to contradict the theory.

It is extremely doubtful whether the all-year plan saves an enormous loss of time and energy. It is true that in June much time is spent in the traditional schools in reviews and in helping the children to organize their knowledge into usable form for examinations. That is clearly a part of the educational process, and it is an error to regard it as lost or wasted effort. There is value in going over old examination questions even, for such practice assists in clarifying and classifying what has been learned and in fixing it better in memory. The fact that many immature and unfit pupils have entered the high schools seems to prove that the saving of this time is not justified; in fact, that attempted acceleration for pupils of elementary school grade is doubtful both as to its wisdom and its results.

The theory that pupils can be accelerated to the point of saving two years in an all-year elementary school is not true. There are three important reasons which make the theory fallacious. The first is the constantly changing enrollment in the schools, due to the shifting population; the second, the five reorganizations each year, the additional one due to the summer vacation; the third, the criticism of the immaturity of all-year pupils and their failure in the high schools. The latter criticism is now causing a retardation of the children in the elementary schools.

The failure to secure acceleration of pupils as theoretically claimed for all-year schools, the impossibility of maintaining a stable and satisfactory organization throughout the year and of coordinating well such organization with the traditional school system, the unwise practice of sending immature and poorly prepared pupils into the high schools rather than making them as strong as possible in the elementary studies, are serious faults of the all-year system. The cost of the all-year schools is also a matter for careful consideration. Several of the smaller cities that have tried the all-year plan have discontinued it.

One or two experiments, however, are not sufficient to prove or disprove whether it is desirable to organize the schools of the country

7 Corson, David B., All-year schools: Newark School Bul., pp. 149–150, April, 1924.

on an all-year plan. Other experiments with this type of organization will be watched with interest.

The technical high school of Omaha, Nebr., has been operating 48 weeks a year for the past 7 years, and according to the superintendent of schools the long term has proved very satisfactory. He cites the following advantages of the plan:

1. The continuous use of the school plant, which indicates good business management and economy.

2. The holding power of the school. This school formerly had a twoyear commercial course, practically 90 per cent of the pupils taking the course. We give no two-year courses now-they are all full four-year in every department.

3. It enables the bright and energetic pupil to finish the course in three years.

4. Having a greater use of the school building, pupils are able to move more rapidly through the system and thus make a clearance for others who want to attend again economy.

5. A pupil may of necessity be absent any quarter, fall, winter, summer, or spring, with the loss of only 12 weeks, instead of a full semester's work.

Recently the schools of Nashville, Tenn., were organized on an allyear plan. The superintendent of schools of that city says:

We were not deterred by the failure of the experiment elsewhere, but firmly believed in the necessity for and the flexibility of continuous all-year training. The school year in Nashville has been divided into four terms of 12 weeks each; classes are started at the beginning of each quarter. The summer term differs in no way from the three others in subjects taught or in amount of work covered.

After the brief trial of the all-year plan, the superintendent of the Nashville schools says that the results confirmed the belief that there was real demand for educational opportunities at all times, and that better results through continuous occupation were attained in all the things regarded as of prime importance in the training of the child-regularity, punctuality, attention to duty, contentment, cheerful obedience to authority, health of body, mind, and soul.

Mr. Theo. Fulton, principal, Jefferson High School, Los Angeles, Calif., makes the following deductions from his study of reports and answers to questionnaires regarding the all-year school:"

1. The all-year school is an interesting experiment, differing considerably from the organization of the ordinary 10 months' school. It is yet in the experimental stage but has received more commendation than criticism. 2. Success of the plan may very largely depend upon

(a) Climatic conditions-favorable here.

(b) Desire and need of a section of a city for such a type of schoolinvolving summer idle time and economic pressure for early graduation to enable pupils to become breadwinners.

3. School units involved should include at least one senior high, one junior high, and two or more elementary schools. Schools emphasizing vocational

8 Los Angeles School Journal, Feb. 4, 1924.

training would probably best serve the purposes of such an experiment. The very expensive shop and commercial equipment would thus be utilized for onefifth more of the days in the school year.

4. Benefits of the full-year system would accrue to certain groups of pupils, if results in Milwaukee, Omaha, and Newark may be taken as a basis for any conclusion. These groups are:

(a) Over age.

(b) Mentally slow or inferior.

(c) Mentally superior.

5. Benefits would also accrue to teachers in the all-year school.

(a) Increase in salary would permit plans for further study and improvement in the profession.

(b) After continuous service for two or more years, one or more quarters could be utilized for rest or travel.

6. The more frequent changes of classes and shorter periods between promotion would permit a closer check on curricula and adjustment of details.

7. The expense involved in the operation of a group of four-quarter schools would be greater than the expense of 10 months' schools plus summer-vacation schools.

8. The larger number of pupils graduated, the saving of time in the child's school life, the elimination of long vacations, resulting in great loss of interest and efficiency, and the utilization of expensive plants, now idle in summer-vacation time, could be set up against the expense mentioned in deduction No. 7.

9. The four-quarter plan, properly organized, would represent better business administration as applied to school affairs.

That children should be kept poring over books for five hours a day for 48 weeks can not be defended. But the old-time school with nothing but the three R's has passed away. More and more attention is given to what are termed special activities, and still more time could be given them if the all-year plan were adopted. The real all-year school will come into existence when it broadens its work so as to give more time to play, handwork, and other activities that do not now receive much attention. After such a program children probably would not enter high school so immature, as much immaturity may be due to the fact that they have been held to a narrow program of studies.

IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS IN SERVICE

There seems to be no abatement in the efforts to provide means for the improvement of teachers in service, but the plan of holding a teachers' institute for several days at a time is no longer considered the best means of improving teachers. Attendance at summer school is considered so far superior to attendance at teachers' institutes that many school boards are providing additional increase in salary for those teachers who attend the summer session of such schools. A plan promising much is that of assigning some project, as the preparation of courses of study, to groups of teachers. In Oakland, Calif., for example, more than 700 of the 1,500 teachers have been actively engaged in the work of curriculum revision,

working on committees under the leadership of what is known as the supervision council.

DEMONSTRATION LESSONS

No doubt plans for the self-improvement of teachers originating with the teachers themselves are better than those that are superimposed upon them. As an illustration of a plan for self-improvement that of Oakland, Calif., may be cited. The principal features of the plan are:

(1) A system of demonstration lessons, (2) courses of professional study, (3) a permanent project and exhibit library, (4) a teachers' professional library maintained in connection with the administrative offices of the superintendent of schools.

In a circular issued by the superintendent of the Oakland schools, special attention is given to improvement of teachers by means of demonstration lessons. Several types of demonstration lessons are provided: (1) Demonstrations given by the supervisors as instructors, the teachers acting the part of pupils; (2) demonstrations by supervisors with classes of pupils; (3) demonstrations by the classroom teacher at work in her own room; demonstrations through exhibitions of school work.

SABBATICAL LEAVE

The granting of sabbatical leave seems to be meeting with favor from some of the school boards of the country. Recently the New York Board of Education granted sabbatical leaves of absence to 150 teachers, all of whom had been in the service of the city public schools for 19 years or more. The leaves take effect February 1, 1925, and will continue until September 1, 1925. They are granted for study, travel, or the recovery of health. The plan is financed without expense to the board of education, sufficient amounts being deducted from the salaries of the teachers on leave to pay for substitute service during their absence.

Among the smaller cities that have adopted a plan for sabbatical leave for teachers, Pueblo, Colo., may be mentioned. In that school system a teacher of 10 or more years' service may be granted a sabbatical year to attend an educational institution of higher learning for the purpose of improving her professional equipment as a teacher, and shall be allowed for such year one-half of the annual salary she would receive if actually employed in the schools. No teacher, however, shall receive during the sabbatical leave more than $900. Not more than three members of the teaching force may be absent at any one time for such courses; and the college, university, or normal school attended, as well as the character of the course selected, must be approved by the superintendent of schools.

27301-27-4

RATINGS

One of the purposes of teacher rating is no doubt to show the teacher her strong and her weak points, but too frequently teacherrating schemes have been used merely as a means of determining whether a teacher shall or shall not receive an increase in salary or whether she shall be retained in the school system. A rating scheme that is not open to the inspection of the teachers has practically no value as a means of improving teachers. Rating schemes that may be used cooperatively by supervisors and teachers, not as a means of determining salary increases but as a means of supervision, undoubtedly are of great value in improving teachers in service. Many superintendents are issuing for the teachers' use facsimiles of the rating plans that had formerly been used by the supervisors only. Other superintendents are issuing rating schemes which have been devised for the exclusive use of teachers, so that the teachers may learn to know themselves, to find their strong points and their weak

ones.

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Every child is affected by the elementary school curriculum, since all children are required to attend school for a certain number of years. Many never get beyond the sixth grade, and many of those completing the sixth grade do not enter high school. It is thus evident that the elementary-school curriculum should be given at least as much attention as the high-school curriculum.

Not enough thought has been devoted to the elementary school, but with the advent of better prepared elementary-school supervisors, principals, teachers, and research workers, the elementary school is coming into more prominence.

All authorities in education agree that the time is at hand for a thorough revision of the elementary as well as the secondary program of studies. In fact the entire program from the kindergarten to and including the first two years of college is in need of revision. New studies have forced themselves upon the schools until the question has been raised as to whether the course of study has been enriched or impoverished. Dr. Charles McMurry, commenting upon the necessity of a revision of the elementary curriculum says: "

We have now in the schools a troublesome multiplicity of studies. As we go on increasing the number of studies and topics, the time spent on each subject must be decreased. With twice as many studies on the docket, each can receive only half as much time. In a complete up-to-date school we now have about 16 or 18 studies, twice as many as of old. A seventh grade class was reciting in 11 different subjects in one day. Five or six lessons a day would be far better. This multiplication of studies makes for short and snappy treatment of topics. For important subjects the time allowed is wholly

"How to Organize the Curriculum, by Charles McMurry, Macmillan Co., New York.