least alleviated by the creation of a rental fund, such as was given us for the current year by Congress at its last session, by the aid of which the accommodations we have can be supplemented by such as can be rented. These are frequently, and indeed generally, not well adapted to the purpose, and should be availed of only by reason of emergency, until adequate and suitable accommodations can be provided.

No such temporary relief, however, can be afforded the pupils of the overcrowded High School. In it the instructors teach, not classes, but subjects. The same teachers instruct in due rotation, in the same class-rooms aud with the aid of the same apparatus, all the classes in the natural sciences, for example; and so it is with the instructors in language, in mathematics, and in each of the other subjects taught. It is. consequently, indispensable that the High School Building should accommodate all High School pupils. Supplemental accommodations in the way of rented school-rooms would necessitate supplemental sets of teachers, apparatus, and appliances, which it would, of course, be impossible to provide.

In the light of these facts and with a view to the due accommodation and advantage of all the school-going population of the District, the enlargement of the High School Building before the opening of the next school year is, in the opinion of the Board, a public necessity, urgently calling for prompt attention at the hands of the Commissioners and of Congress.

For the school year just ended, the number of pupils restricted to half day attendance, as shown by the report of the principal, Dr. F. R. Lane, was 400, out of a total attendance of 997. For the current year the total attendance bids fair to approximate 1,200 pupils, with accommodations for about 750; so that, inasmuch as to afford accommodation for any part of the day to the 400 students in excess of the capacity of the building a like number of the 750 must be unseated for such part of the day, it is obvious that the entire institution will prob ably be limited to half-day instruction by the next school year unless relief is afforded. Notwithstanding the impossibility of appropriate relief through the renting of other rooms for the High School pupils pointed out in the foregoing extract from last year's report, the Board has been compelled to resort to it, with all its disadvantages, for the presentschool year, and still the school facilities of 400 of its pupils have unavoidably been cut down to one-half of each school day.

THE PAY OF TEACHERS.

Upon this subject we beg to reproduce from last year's report the following considerations, changed only to show the conditions existing at the time embraced by this report:

The salary of messengers throughout the departments of the Government is fixed by Congress at $-40 per annum-that of what are known as assistant messengers is $720 per annum; while the average salary of the cultivated men and women who constitute the teachers of our public schools is limited to $670 per annum, or only $10 per annum more than that of a laborer in the departments. All reside in the same community and are subject to the same general conditions which regulate the cost of the necessaries of life. That the average salary thus allowed teachers is, in the city of Washington, barely adequate to the comfortable and decent support of a single person occupying that position in life, and that it affords no possible margin for provision for sickness or old age, to say nothing of the maintenance of a family, must be apparent, not only to every citizen, but to every temporary sojourner in our midst.

Whatever difference may exist upon other subjects, the Board feels that it represents the entire community in expressing its regret at the remarkable discrimination against this most important, useful, and meritorious body of workers above pointed out. Nor is it for a moment believed, if only its attention to the subject can be secured, that the Congress of the United States will accord inferior consideration and recompense to the educating class, the teachers of our public schools, than to others whose duties are neither so important nor exacting, whose qualifications are of a less difficult order, and to whom the cost of living certainly is not greater.

The statistics contained in the report of Superintendent Powell point to a curious peculiarity of the public schools of the District of Columbia, and one which should be given due consideration in fixing the average salary to be allowed our teachers. In the public schools of all cities to whose statistics access has been had, the attendance largely preponderates in the lowest grades; the higher grades, which are the most costly, being comparatively thinly attended. But in the District of Columbia, in the white schools, while attendance in the primary grades, as compared with the population of school-going age, is fully equal to that of the most favored of our sister cities, the attendance in the higher grades is surprisingly uniform with that of the primary grades, and would indicate that, in this District, the children generally continue in school throughout the first five grades, and that substantially half of them continue throughout the entire eight grades. Thus, in the first six divisions for the last school year, there were enrolled in the first grade 4,018 pupils, in the second 3,197, in the third 3,250, in the fourth 3.329, and in the fifth 3,041; while in the sixth there were 2.457, in the seventh 1,905, and in the eighth 1,576. The enrollment in the High School was 997.

In the schools for colored children there is a diminished attendance as the grades ascend, more in accordance with the statistics of other cities. Thus, during the past year, the number of colored children in attendance in the first grade was 4,228, in the second 2,070, in the third 1,481, in the fourth 1,013, in the fifth 854, in the sixth 460, in the seventh 308, and in the eighth 225, with 361 in the High School.

The peculiarity of the white schools of the District in the particular here pointed out is easily explained, As stated, the attendance in the primary grades as compared with the population of school-going age, is equal to that of the most favored of our sister cities. But the absence of large manufacturing and other industrial enterprises deprives us of a class of pupils common to other cities, whose educational privileges are usually limited to the lowest or primary grades. With fewer accumulations of 1 rge fortunes, the wealth of the District is more equally distributed than in most large cities; and with us the average citizen is able to afford to his children opportunity to take the full course of instruction provided in the public schools. The result, and the conditions which give rise to it, are matters of cong atulation to the community, and can not fail to be gratifying to all friends of education; but, as the salaries of teachers in the higher are necessarily larger than those in the lower grades, it is a self-obvious proposition that the relative cost of maintaining the schools must be greater, and that the average salary of the teachers should be proportionately higher. If in the white, as in the colored schools, three-fifths of the pupils were in the first and second grades, it would be perhaps quite possible to organize and to efficiently and satisfactorily conduct the public schools of the District upon the basis of an average salary of $570 per annum per teacher. Under the conditions as they exist, it is respectfully submitted, a material increase in the prescribed averaged salary should be made.

After careful consideration of the matter, the board unanimously recommends an increase of $15 in this prescribed average salary, making it $685 instead of $670 per annum. Such an enlargement would but slightly increase the total expenditure for the support of the schools, but would add greatly to the satisfaction of our teachers and to the

efficiency of the schools, and, we are very sure, would be cordially approved by the tax-payers of the District.

In this connection, your attention is also called to the necessity of the removal or modification of the restriction accompanying the appropriations for the last three school years, prohibiting the increase in the number of teachers in any grades now receiving $900 or more. As pointed out in last year's report, our eighth grade schools share in the general increased attendance of pupils from year to year, and, as the result of this restriction, we now have 14 schools of this grade, to which we have been unable to assign eighth-grade teachers. In addition, our High School has grown from 827 pupils, when the restriction first went into effect, to nearly or quite 1,200 now; the result being that, with the salaries we have been compelled to offer, we have lost nearly all of our more experienced teachers, and have been compelled to form a teaching force composed almost wholly of young college graduates, of marked ability and acquirements in many instances, but wholly inexperienced, and whom we can not hope to retain at salaries less than $900 when they have acquired experienced efficiency in their vocation. We are compelled to admit that the High School has suffered from the causes here recited, and that its high and well-earned character can not long be sustained if it shall continue to be subjected to their operation. We submit, further, that no reason exists in the financial condition of the District which necessitates, or, in the opinion of the board, will justify, such curtailment of appropriations for its support as will impair its efficiency, or deny to the youth of the National Capital, in the final years of their educational course, the benefit of experienced instructors, such as, in all other large cities, are intrusted with the conduct and management of similar institutions. We urgently recommend that, if any limitation whatever of this character is thought necessary, the limitation now be fixed at least as high as $1,200 instead of $900.

IN MEMORIAM.

In concluding this report it is our melancholy duty to note the serious loss which the public schools and the cause of education in the District of Columbia have sustained in the death of W. W. Curtis, trustee of the fifth division, which occurred on the 3d day of September, 1888. For fourteen years and more a member of the board of trustees, a zealous and untiring friend of the schools, bringing to this service and to the promotion of their best interests a rare degree of intelligence, practical judgment, tact, wisdom, and fidelity, his long, faithful, and most efficient services entitle his name to honorable and enduring remembrance and gratitude upon the part of both the public schools and the people of this District.

Respectfully submitted:

A. H. WITMER, M. D.,

JAS. M. GREGORY,

J. J. DARLINGTON,

Committee, Board of Trustees.

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 1, 1888.

IN BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE DISTRICT OF

COLUMBIA, JANUARY 12, 1839.

Ordered, That 2,500 copies of the Report of the Board of Trustees of Public Schools of the District of Columbia to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, for the school year ending June 30, 1888, be printed for the use of this Board.

Attest:

J. G. GURLEY,
Secretary.

REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT POWELL.

To the Board of Trustees of Public Schools of the District of Columbia. GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to present a report of the schools under my supervision, which comprise the white schools of the city and the white and colored schools of the District outside the city, for the year ending June 30, 1588.

It gives me pleasure also to hand to you the reports made to me by the supervising principals of the six divisions, the reports of the directors of music and drawing, and those of the principals of the Washington High School and of the Washington Normal School. These reports show you the condition, as understood by their respective authors, of all the kinds and departments of schools. A study of these reports will show not only what the schools are doing and what the pupils accomplish, but also the purpose of the efforts made to educate the children as well as many of the means by which the work is done.

ATTENDANCE.

There were enrolled in the schools during the year 23,810 pupils, 22,054 white, and 1,756 colored children. This is an increase of 737, or 3.1 per cent. over the number registered the preceding year.

The average enrollment was 19,762, which is 477 or 2.4 per cent. more than that of the previous year.

The number of pupils in daily attendance was 18,210, being 300 or 1.7 per cent. in excess of that of the preceding year.