ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. 15 CENTS PER COPY CONTENTS. Letter of transmittal_. Preface Chapter I.-Introduction: Scope of the bulletin_-_ Chapter II.-Statistical comparison of colleges and normal schools____ Chapter III.-Purpose, number, and geographical distribution of services of State normal schools_ Chapter IV.-The administrative control of State normal schools. Chapter V.-Practice-teaching facilities_-_ Chapter VI.-Students and graduates__. Chapter VII.-Faculties of State normal schools_. Chapter VIII.-Normal-school costs.____. Chapter IX.-General courses of study for high-school graduates.. Chapter X.-The organization of practice teaching---- Chapter XII.-Training of high-school teachers and conferring of degrees. Chapter XIV.-Program for development of normal-school standards_-_-_ Page. 5 6 7 16 32 47 56 65 75 79 87 97 99 105 126 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, September 27, 1915. SIR: The value of the schools, and especially of the schools for younger children, depends almost wholly on the ability, knowledge, and skill of the teachers. Like every other complex and difficult art, the art of teaching can be acquired only through careful training and the conscious application of underlying principles. The consciousness of these facts has given rise in all culture countries to schools maintained at public cost for the purpose of giving young men and women preparing for teaching such instruction in principles, methods, and devices, and such practice in their application as will enable them to begin the work of teaching with some degree of certainty of success. In this country such schools are called normal schools. Although the United States has done less for the preparation of its teachers than other countries in proportion to expenditures for education and to numbers of children in school, there are in this country 235 State normal schools, with a total attendance of about 89,537 students and an annual expenditure of $8,970,377. These figures do not include municipal and private normal schools. A decade and a half ago appropriations for the support of these State normal schools were $2,510,934 and the annual enrollment of students was 44,808. Because of the large expenditures for normal schools and a growing appreciation of the importance of their place in our systems of public education, there is an increasing general desire for some intelligent accounting of their organization and work. For this reason and for the purpose of laying a foundation for such detailed studies of many specific phases of their organization and work as will aid in such modifications and readjustments as may seem desirable, Dr. Charles H. Judd, director of the school of education of the University of Chicago, and Dr. Samuel C. Parker, dean of the college of education of the University of Chicago, both special collaborators in this bureau, have, at my request, made a general preliminary study of these schools and have reported the results of their studies in the accompanying manuscript. I recommend that this manuscript be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education under the title "Problems Involved in Standardizing State Normal Schools." Respectfully submitted. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner. PREFACE. This study of the State normal schools of the United States was undertaken at the request of the Bureau of Education in the summer of 1914. The material upon which the study is based was furnished by the authorities of the State normal schools and of State departments of education in the fall of 1914, in response to a request sent from the Bureau of Education. The plans for the bulletin were carefully organized by the authors working together. Chapters I and II and the concluding chapter were written primarily by Mr. Judd. The remaining chapters were written primarily by Mr. Parker. Each author revised his chapters, however, after they had been read and criticized by the other. As a consequence the bulletin presents a unified treatment of the whole topic. For the chapter on Administrative Control, Mr. D. R. Henry carried on in the spring of 1915 a rather elaborate study, based on an examination of the educational codes of all of the States and correspondence with many of the officers in charge of the normal schools in the States. Mr. J. B. Shouse rendered valuable assistance in connection with certain of the statistical parts of the study. 6 |