The superintendent, in commenting upon the plan, says:

The departmental work in the seventh grade is conducted very much as the work in the high school, except that the students are kept under closer supervision, and we are able to give them special instruction along the lines of their interests. The present arrangement is very satisfactory and is a great improvement over the old plan. When it was adopted a large number of people petitioned the board of education to have the old eighth-grade system reestablished. They said they would rather have their children have the old-fashioned eighthgrade system than a complete high-school course. They did not want their children sent to the high school at such an immature age. I felt that the opposition was due entirely to the fact that the parents did not like any system that was different from the one employed when they went to school. We have continued this plan and now I think that the community at large is entirely in sympathy with it. In fact, it keeps the children in school, and makes the transition from the grades to the high school easier. It also gradually introduces the student to the freedom of the high school by having the close supervision in the seventh grade and less close when in the eighth and ninth, and greater freedom in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. I could cite many instances showing how boys have been kept in school by getting them properly started in their high-school work in the eighth year. If a boy does not like academic work, we give him more manual training and try to show him the need of having academic work along with it.

Kalamazoo, Mich. S. O. Hartwell, superintendent.—The eleventh and twelfth grades of this department are congregated at one school; and the eighth, ninth, and tenth are at departmental schools, which are studied at points convenient to the several sections of the city. The first seven grades occupy, in one instance, a separate building and in the others the lower floors of the departmental schools. While local conditions have brought about this arrangement, yet a recognition of its educational possibilities is clearly evident.

In the eighties the eighth grades of the entire city were congregated in a building near the high school. In 1902 the need for additional room for the upper grades developed. It was also seen that the high-school building would soon be overcrowded. To meet these difficulties, an eight-room addition, for the lower grades, was made to the building formerly occupied by the eighth grades and the older part was given over to a departmental school embracing the eighth and ninth grades. When these pupils were ready for the tenth year they were retained at the school and not transferred to the high school until the beginning of their eleventh year. The results in increased enrollment, in efficiency of work, and especially in the growth of the ninth grade, through the familiarity of the eighth grade with the work and methods of the ninth, caused the adoption of the same plan when a new building was erected (1906) in another part of the city. This building was designed to provide ten rooms on the lower floor for the lower grades; and an assembly and recitation rooms on the upper floor for the work of the eighth, ninth, and tenth grades. So satisfactorily did this arrangement work that three years ago, when a new building was required in a third section of the city, it was planned on the same lines.

In the departmental schools promotion is made by subject, as in the high school. Before an eighth-grade pupil has completed the whole of his work, he may begin high-school studies, and an increasing number are availing themselves of this opportunity. The superintendent adds:

While we have not departed very largely as yet from the traditional lines of work in the grammar grades, we have secured, I think, this result, the teaching force of the departmentals has been brought near high-school standards in scholarship, and the quality of the work done has been improved.

Roanoke, Va. Harris Hart, superintendent.-The school department is being changed from the eight-four grouping to a five-three-three system. The primary

divisions will embrace five grades; the intermediate division, the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades; and the high-school division the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades. The chief change to be made in the course of study for the present is the elimination of one year of work, the whole course to be covered in 11 years instead of 12. The chief reasons which have led the superintendent to urge this reorganization are: The desirability of separating the older and younger children; the need for providing optional studies for older pupils; and the wish to secure a number of male instructors in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Through the operation of this plan, the superintendent hopes

to secure, as he says:

A better course of training in 11 years than I now have in 12 and a larger percentage of boys held in school beyond the sixth grade. The mere idea of going to a different school building of a higher grade will be an incentive to those students who weary of the same school and the same teachers, and particularly of the same system of discipline for seven or eight years. And by doing some of the high-school work in the intermediate building I expect to so far pave the way into the high school as to eliminate any break.

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Saginaw, Mich. E. C. Warriner, superintendent.-In June, 1898, upon the recommendation of the former superintendent, A. S. Whitney, now of the University of Michigan, a six-year high-school course of study was adopted for the six upper grades of the Saginaw schools. This was probably the first effort made in the North Central States to provide a high-school curriculum covering six years. Two courses were offered, a language" course, providing a broad literary culture with preparation for colleges and universities, and a general" course leading toward business pursuits. Except in the seventh and eighth years of the "language" course, some electives were offered, ranging from 8 hours per week in the ninth year to 34 per week in the twelfth. Pupils, therefore, who pursued either course intensively for the six years were enabled to shorten their university course by one year. A year after the adoption of the plan Supt. Whitney resigned, and the plan which he inaugurated seems to have been modified gradually, until to-day about the only items which remain are the departmental plan of instruction and the option of German, which is offered to the pupils of the seventh grade. Inasmuch as the community contains a large percentage of Germans, it has not been difficult to retain the study of the language, which so many in the community speak.1

Jacksonville, Ill. W. A. Furr, superintendent. This city is in a transition stage from the eight-four grouping to some form of the six-six division. Supt. Furr writes:

A failure to erect a building has delayed a final consummation of our plans for a six-year high-school course. I think we shall have a straight six-six course. We have been talking this plan for a couple of years and have taken steps toward reorganizing our course preparatory to a change in the grouping.

New Albany, Ind. H. A. Buerk, superintendent.-Supt. Buerk has gathered all of the eighth-grade pupils of the city into one building and is conducting the work therein by departments. He proposes, through expanding it, eventually to make the school serve as a transition stage between the grades and the high school.

Alameda, Cal. W. C. Wood, superintendent.-The Alameda plan illustrates an attempt to work out a functional readjustment rather than a reorganization. The elementary division of these schools comprises eight years and the highschool division four years. Without segregating the pupils of the upper grammar grades, however, the effort is being made to shape the course of study in

1 For Supt. Whitney's course see Appendix, pp. 160-162.

the light of the conception of preadolescent and adolescent stages in the psychophysical development of the child. Supt. Wood writes:

We should define elementary education as preadolescent education and secondary education as adolescent education. Elementary education should concern itself chiefly with putting the child into possession of the working tools of knowledge and the development of those faculties and powers which may rightly be developed during childhood. Secondary education should concern itself chiefly with the general adjustment of the individual to the physical, social, and spiritual environment.

With the half-hour period as a basis for assignment, the time allotment under the Alameda plan follows:

Baltimore, Md. James H. Van Sickle, formerly superintendent.—The Baltimore plan, as worked out by Supt. Van Sickle, permits pupils who have done strong work in the sixth grade to take up extra studies of high-school grade while doing the regular work of the seventh and eighth grades of the elementary schools. These studies are Latin, German or French, advanced English, and, with some classes, part of the mathematics of the high-school course. The pupils who wish to take this work are transferred to a convenient center at which sufficient pupils may be congregated to allow the instruction to be organized on the departmental plan. Supt. Van Sickle, writing in 1910, says:

We started in 1902 with one center and 173 pupils, and that year we admitted pupils of the eighth grade as well as of the seventh. In 1903 and later admission was limited to pupils just entering the seventh grade. We now have four centers, with an enrollment of 571 pupils in these preparatory seventh and eighth grade classes. For three years one of these centers has been allowed, by way of experiment, to keep selected pupils for an extra year. Such pupils spend but two years in the high school. Other preparatory pupils ordinarily spend three years in the high school, but in either case the time required for highschool graduation after the sixth elementary grade has ordinarily been five years for the preparatory-class pupils, whereas six years would have been required had it not been for the high-school credits earned by these pupils in the elementary schools.

Two hundred and thirty-six preparatory pupils will have been graduated from the high schools in the four years ending in June, 1910. This is not a large showing when we consider that in these four years the same high schools (three out of five in our city) have graduated 1,342 pupils, but the plan is very new compared with the usual one, and a number of obstacles must yet be overcome. Some parents do not fully understand the plan. Not all teachers can be quite impartial in their attitude toward a scheme of work which takes away from the regular classes some of the more desirable pupils. Furthermore, many pupils entering the seventh grade are timid about going to a strange school located at a point somewhat distant from their homes, and so it happens that only about one-third of those recommended as capable of taking up the extra preparatory work avail themselves of the opportunity offered. If the work were carried on in every large school so that pupils could enter upon it without being transferred away from the home school, doubtless more would attend; but unless there are enough enrolled at one point to form at least three classes the teaching can not be economically provided for. For this reason we are using for the preparatory classes only selected centers, and for the further reason that our plan enables us to utilize schoolrooms in portions of the city where the population is decreasing and where consequently some schoolrooms have become vacant.

There are now enrolled in our preparatory classes in the elementary schools 571 pupils; and in the high school, exclusive of students to graduate in June, there are now 223 students who were promoted from preparatory classes. The belief that ability, or even genius, is not restricted to any rank of life is confirmed in the case of our preparatory pupils by the interesting fact that in these classes are to be found boys and girls representing every rank of the social order and wide variety of home conditions. Judging by the energy and enthusiasm that these selected pupils put into their work, and the marked success which they have so far attained, as measured by school standards, we are quite certain that they will display somewhat more of energy and efficiency in whatever field of life effort they enter than if, during their school days, they had become contented with a lower level of effort and attainment.

Olean, N. Y. S. J. Slawson, superintendent.-All pupils in the school department of this city, upon completing their seventh-grade work, enter the high school. The entire eighth grade and the beginning ninth are assembled in the same study hall, with the exception of the senior class; and the remaining classes, the upper ninth, the tenth, and the beginning twelfth, are broken into sections and distributed about the building, without reference to grade. By this arrangement an elementary period of seven years and a secondary period of five years are secured. Says the superintendent:

During the past four years the course of study for the elementary grades has been so modified as to enable us to complete in seven years what formerly required eight and a half or nine years. For instance, four years ago we were giving eight and one-half years to arithmetic, whereas the subject is now covered in seven years. Geography, now completed in seven years, required eight full years. History, now completed in seven and one-half years, was given, formerly, nine years. The work in elementary English, which formerly required eight and one-half years, has been modified by eliminating the nonessentials of technical grammar and establishing therefor a quantity of literature. We still give eight years to the study of the subject.

Ithaca, N. Y. F. D. Boynton, superintendent.-The department of this city is now organized on the six-six plan. The change which has finally resulted in the present arrangement has been underway in this city for a number of years. The study of geography, as such, is discontinued with the sixth grade. In the seventh, or first high-school grade, the formal study of history is begun; an option in Latin is offered; and two hours of work per week is required in. each of the following subjects: Music, drawing, and manual training. In the eighth grade, options are offered in German, biology, elementary algebra, ancient history, and literature. The superintendent writes:

Our chief difficulty was in getting properly trained teachers, principally because the salary of the old seventh and eighth grades was not attractive. We now have these grades on the same salary schedule as the high school. In consequence, our eighth grade is now taught by college graduates alone, and our seventh grade, either by college graduates or college trained teachers who are normal graduates.

Rahway, N. J. William J. Bickett, superintendent.-In September, 1910, a change was made from the eight-four grouping to the six-six. The reorganization led to the introduction of German, French, Latin, and algebra as electives in the seventh and eighth grades; to promotion by subjects; and to the giving of credit for work in music, woodwork, cooking, and sewing. The superintendent says:

This has been the most successful change ever made in our school system. Formerly a large proportion of our pupils were leaving school at the end of the eighth year, thinking that an eighth-grade education was sufficient. Furthermore, pupils entering the high school were not remaining, the loss in the freshman class, largely due to a change in the methods of teaching employed, amounting to about 30 per cent. The marked increase in high-school attendance under the present plan is evidence of its success.

Richmond, Ind. T. A. Mott, superintendent.—Since 1896 the seventh and eighth grades of this city have been congregated in a separate building, centrally situated, where the work is carried on departmentally, as in the high school. Promotion in this school is made by subjects and credits, rather than by classes. For the past 10 years the department has offered three lines of work in this school, each of which leads to the high school-a Latin course, a German course, and one in which the study of English predominates. The great majority of the pupils divide between the Latin and German courses, for each of which they may receive two or three high-school credits for their work, thus enabling them either to complete their high-school work in a shorter time or to elect additional subjects. Furthermore, pupils in the eighth grade who have done strong work in the seventh are permitted to take high-school algebra in addition to their regular work; thus the pupils of exceptional ability are provided for. "We are more than pleased," the superintendent wrote, "with the plan. We do better grammar-school work than under the old arrangement, and more pupils go on to the high school from the eighth grade than formerly." The size of the building used for the intermediate grades determined that two of the grades only should be assigned to the lower high school and that four should be congregated at the upper high-school building. Had the buildings permitted, the ninth grade would have been kept with the seventh and eighth grades.1

Concord, N. H. L. J. Rundlett, superintendent.-In September, 1910, the old plan of eight years elementary and four years secondary was changed to six years elementary and five years secondary, and the latter division was broken into two groups, one of two years (lower) and the other of three

1 For course of study see Appendix, p. 164.