LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., May 1, 1913.

SIR: Large numbers of young men and women now apply for admission to college, normal school, or professional school in other States and sections than those in which they have received their high-school preparation. Many apply for certificates to examining and certifying boards which have no direct means of knowing the standards of the high schools from which the applicants come. Many parents moving or contemplating moving from one State to another wish to know what high schools are accredited by State universities and recognized by examining and certifying boards. For these and many other reasons there is a demand for such a list of accredited high schools as has been prepared by Dr. Kendric C. Babcock, specialist in higher education in this bureau. I therefore recommend that this list, with the accompanying explanations, be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education.

Respectfully submitted.

The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

P. P. CLAXTON,

Commissioner.

5

ACCREDITED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES.

The lists of accredited secondary schools in the different States which are presented in this bulletin are designed to meet the needs of officers charged with the admission of new students to secondary schools, colleges, universities, professional schools (especially schools of law and medicine), normal schools, etc., of State examining and certifying boards, which are concerned with the status of secondary schools located at a distance, and parents who may want to know about the high schools of any particular State or section.

The improvement during the past two decades in the number, scope, efficiency, and popular estimation of secondary schools of all kinds is unparalleled in the educational history of the United States. From 1890-91 to 1900-1901 the number of secondary schools, both public and private, rose from 4,885 schools, with 309,996 students, to 8,210 schools, with 649,951 students; by 1910-11 these figures had increased to 12,213 schools, with 1,115,326 students. In 1911-12 there were 13,268 schools and 1,246,827 students. The schools belong to many types, ranging from those with only the strictly classical curriculum to those which are essentially vocational high schools organized with little or no reference to higher education. Among them are one-year, two-year, three-year, and four-year schools. From the one-year, one-teacher rural high school, practically without equipment, they reach up to great metropolitan high schools, with buildings, equipment, teaching staff, and registration rivaling universities. In different sections, and even in the same section of a single State, wide. differences appear in strength, stability, soundness of organization, and direction of effort.

High schools change with surprising swiftness, even in the older States. What was last year a registered three-year high school in New York often becomes this year a registered four-year high school. During the past decade a steady stiffening of the requirements for admission has occurred. Only the better high schools have been able to keep pace with these changes and to meet fully these requirements. Strong new schools spring up in sections like southern California, Washington, and Oregon. The whole system of secondary education of a State may undergo in half a decade a thorough reorganization and uplift; the State of Virginia offers an example.

The movement of families for residence, and of individuals for educational opportunities, from one part of the country to another is now

an everyday occurrence. A thousand miles counts for very little. When the principals of such schools as the Los Angeles High School in California, or the Central High School of Washington, D. C., or the registration officers of institutions like the University of Chicago, the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, or the University of Washington, attempt to estimate the standards and standing of secondary schools in Malden, Mass.; Sumter, S. C.; San Antonio, Tex.; or Billings, Mont., large difficulties are fairly sure to arise, especially if such schools do not appear in the lists prepared by organizations like the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. The system of accepting credentials or certificates from secondary schools in lieu of written examinations for admission to colleges and universities began with the University of Michigan, in 1871. Except for a small number of universities and colleges of the East, the majority of universities, colleges, technological schools, normal schools, professional schools, and State certifying boards have now adopted this system in some form, for full or partial satisfaction of admission requirements.

In New York State, which exercises the most thoroughgoing supervision of its secondary and higher education, four grades of schools are registered by the State education department as affording suitable facilities for maintaining approved courses of stated length: Junior (one year), middle (two years), senior (three years), and high schools (four years). Ohio has "accredited schools" (satisfactory four-year schools) and "recognized schools" (doing at least three years of work satisfactorily). South Carolina has class A (four-year curriculum, minimum of 14 units), class B (three-year curriculum, minimum of 12 units), class C (three-year curriculum, minimum of 10 units), class D (three or four year curriculum, with less than 10 units), and class E (with less than two teachers).

Two general methods are in use for carrying on the system of accrediting, both of them involving the direct or indirect authority of the State. In the first, the inspection of the work of the high schools is done through an officer or committee of the State university, and the list of acceptable or accredited high schools is published in the catalogue of the university, and thus made available for other institutions within the same State or for institutions in neighboring States. In the second, the inspection and rating are done by the State superintendent of public instruction, the State board of education, or the State education office, acting through specially appointed officers. Examples of the former method are the Universities of Michigan, California, and Texas; of the latter method the States of New York, Ohio, and Minnesota. Occasionally private institutions in combination, as in the New England College Entrance Certificate Board, or individually, as the Case School of Applied Science, have