TABLE 2.-Approximate average salaries in 1923 and 1924

Table 2 shows a fair increase in the average teachers' salaries reported in 1924 over 1923. It shows also slight increases in the average annual salaries of teachers in the one and two teacher schools, a decline in salaries in 24 States which was great enough to amount to an average loss of $23 in the annual salary of the 13,850 teachers reported in the three or more teacher schools. It shows also an increase of $53 in the annual salaries of teachers in consolidated schools reporting, and a very slight increase in the salaries of teachers in village and town schools not consolidated. The number of States showing decreases in salaries is indicated in the table. For the rural teaching group as a whole there is an increase of $24 in the average annual salary paid in 1924 over that paid in 1923. Comparison of the increases shown in Table 2, with increases in salaries of teachers in cities in five population groups as reported to the bureau, can be made by comparing Tables 2 and 3.

TABLE 3.-Salaries of teachers in cities with a population of 2,500 to 100,000

Progress in supervision during the biennium has been concerned more with intensive work toward a higher quality of service than an increase in the number of supervisors or extent of the territory over

which supervision is furnished, although substantial improvements have been made in both these aspects also.

SUPERVISION IN COUNTY UNIT STATES

Among the States which have done notable work in improving the quality of supervisory service under the direction of their respective State departments of education during the biennium are Maryland and Alabama. Both are organized with the county as the administrative school unit, and both include in their State department staffs professionally prepared rural supervisors, two of the desiderata for success in rural supervision. A brief description of the work in these States is presented as representative of the activities in several other progressive States similarly organized.

The plan followed in Maryland. The last biennial report of the Commissioner of Education noted the passage of a law in Maryland in 1922 providing for state-wide rural supervision. This law became operative in the fall of that year. The past two years have seen its accomplishment. Under the terms of this law supervisory officers were provided according to the number of teachers, two-thirds of the salaries to be paid from State funds. Certain standards of educational qualifications for supervisory officers were set up; and two types of supervisors, namely, supervising teachers and helping teachers, the latter more or less under the direction of the former, were provided. From the former, minimum academic and professional qualifications equal to college graduation, with special training for instructional supervision and four years of experience in elementary school work, are required.

For the first time, in 1923-24, there was at least one supervisor or helping teacher in every county in Maryland. One county had six supervisory officers at the close of the biennial period. Some counties have not yet secured the full quota as provided by law, namely, 40 teachers per supervisor, either because qualified persons were not available or patrons were not fully convinced of the value of supervision. It was therefore deemed wiser to enforce the law gradually until both these essentials are attained. In 1923 the 23 counties of the State employed 39 supervisors and helping teachers. In 1924 the number had increased to 44, lowering the number of teachers per supervisor to an average of 50 and approaching somewhat nearer the goal of 40, the standard fixed in the law.

Maryland has 7 counties with fewer than 80 teachers, in each of which one assistant in addition to the county superintendent is now employed; 7 counties having from 80 to 119 teachers in which, under the terms of the law, 2 assistants should be employed; 4 with 120 to 185, in each of which 3 supervisory assistants are allowed; 1

with 186 to 235, with 4 supervisory assistants; 2 with 236 to 285, with 5 supervisory assistants; and 2 with 286 to 335 teachers, with 6 supervisory assistants; a total of 59 supervisors if the quota were filled. The present number, 44, is 15 short of that provided by law. The staff of the State department as a whole, including its research service, and through members especially assigned to rural school supervision, has largely devoted its efforts during the past two years to improving the quality of the work of the supervisors in service. Standard tests in the elementary subjects, notably reading and spelling, have been given throughout the State. Results have been tabulated, studied, and interpreted by specialists in this field, and remedial work has been carried on, all under the general supervision of the State department staff working through the county superintendents, supervisors, helping teachers, and teachers. From August, 1922, to March, 1924, eight pamphlets or bulletins were issued from the State department designed to improve the quality of instruction given and to stimulate achievement on the part of teachers and supervisors.

Special attention has been given to elimination of the excessive amount of retardation and overageness in rural schools. Very complete studies of age-grade and pupil progress have been made throughout the rural schools of the State.

Where the emphasis is placed in Alabama.-Maryland provides for and finances a plan of supervising rural schools which is compulsory for all counties. Alabama provides for a voluntary plan financed by the counties themselves. Approximately half the counties employ instructional supervisors. Supervision, therefore, becomes a matter of finding a sufficient number of trained people to fill the necessary positions, on the one hand, and a method of financing the program, on the other. Apparently further progress in Alabama waits on securing more adequate financial resources. Recent information indicates that there are 65 supervisors (39 white and 26 colored) in 32 counties at the close of 1924, and a total of 13 members of the State department staff engaged all or part time in the supervision of rural schools.

The supervisory personnel has improved in training and through length of service by the setting up of higher standards of requirements for the county supervisors employed. The minimum qualifications are now set at three years' teaching experience, graduation from a standard normal school, and, in addition, a year of professional training. This means the addition of one year of training to the minimum requirements exacted in 1922. The number of supervisors holding bachelors' or masters' degrees has increased during the biennium because of these higher standards. The qualifications of teachers in the supervised counties have also improved in a marked

degree during the biennium and under the influence of supervision At the close of the biennial period 1923-24, 81 per cent of the teachers in supervised counties held second or higher grade certificates and 19 per cent third-grade certificates. For the State as a whole 12.2 per cent of rural teachers held professional (highest grade) certificates, compared with 15 per cent holding them in the supervised counties.

PROGRESS IN NONCOUNTY-UNIT STATES

The Missouri plan.-The 1923 session of the Missouri Legislature made an appropriation for rural education which enabled the State superintendent to provide a type of supervision for rural schools somewhat different from that in any of the other States. Missouri now has six rural supervisors, one in the State department and one in each of five teachers-college districts. The supervisors use the teachers college as a center from which they work among the county superintendents in the district. During the year these supervisors spend a large part of their time in holding demonstration meetings for the teachers under the general direction of the county superintendent. This officer divides his county into five districts. All of the schools in each district, except the one in which the demonstration meeting is held, are dismissed, the teachers of the dismissed schools coming to the center point. The program consists of from six to eight lessons of the usual period length in rural schools. The demonstration is followed by a conference in which the aim of the lessons, the manner of presentation, and the results are discussed. Instructors and professors from the staffs of the State teachers colleges have assisted the supervisors in demonstration meetings and by other means of cooperation. During the year in some counties as many as 99 per cent of the teachers and a large percentage of the school directors have been reached through these meetings.

Plans for supervision in Idaho.-By mutual arrangement the State department of education and the two normal schools of the State inaugurated a system of rural supervision, with two supervisors in the field, throughout most of the school year, each normal school furnishing one supervisor. The supervisors cooperate with the county superintendents of the various counties. Teachers are brought together in small groups and given opportunity for observing demonstration lessons given by or under the direction of the supervisor. General discussion of problems follows. One whole day and an evening session are devoted to each meeting.

Indiana conducts an experiment in supervision.—An experiment in rural supervision of unusual significance has been under way during the past two years under the general supervision of the State superintendent in Indiana. The experiment is financed by the Gen

eral Education Board and directed by the director of the school of education of Indiana University. Two counties were chosen for demonstration work in supervision. Two other counties, with similar school conditions and taxable wealth, were selected as check counties. Tests selected from the Stanford achievement test were given to all pupils in grades 3 to 8 in all four counties, affecting 2,771 children in the demonstration counties and 2,685 in the "control" or check counties. They apparently established the fact that the school attainments of the pupils of the two demonstration counties and those of the check counties were approximately the same at the beginning of the experiment. The training of the teachers, type and equipment of buildings, and other governing factors were also comparable. Two supervisors were chosen for each of the demonstration counties, and in the check counties only such supervision as the county superintendent had time for was given. At the end of a year's work tests were again given in the four counties. The second tests showed that children in the demonstration counties had progressed in school work at a rate 14 per cent higher than in the unsupervised counties. The experiment is to continue through the school year 1924-25 under the same general plan.

Michigan begins county supervision.-During the biennial period four counties in Michigan have established supervision under county direction through one or more of the following: Assistant superintendants, supervisors, and helping teachers. Besides supervision in these counties, a group of 30 or more one-room schools in the vicinity of Ypsilanti are supervised as an established part of the training of rural teachers and supervisors at the Michigan State Normal College. The work is carried on under the direction of the rural department of the college. Tests are made under controlled conditions designed to measure the results of supervision on the quality of instruction and the progress of pupils.

County supervision established in California.-California in 1922 provided an appropriation from State funds for the payment of rural supervisors in a manner similar to that in vogue for the distribution of State money for teachers' salaries. A minimum attendance unit of 300 pupils is required before a supervisor can be employed. Under the provisions of this law, 55 of the 58 counties in California now employ rural supervisors, the number depending upon school attendance. In one county six are employed. Both general supervisors and special supervisors in music and art are employed. There is no state-wide plan of organization of the supervisory staff within the counties. General supervisors, special supervisors, and regional or sectional supervisors are employed, the plan varying among counties.