EE ee ee Nig” | fe Ee sno. 7 ; ry 7 BULLETIN OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL -» PRINCIPALS Issued Five Times a Year _ January, March, April, May, and October MAY, 1927 Entered as second-class matter, December 29, 1925, at the post office at Berwyn, Tilimoie, under the Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at fate of postage, provided for in Section 412, Act of _ | February 28, 1925, authorized March 30, 1927, & VMS e BULLETIN NUMBER 17” % | . : | Secondary-School | Administration ye BULLETIN of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Issued Five Times a Year January, March, April, May, and October MAY, 1927 Bulletin Number 17 SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS Published under the direction of the National Association of Secondary-School Principals with the co-operation of the Judd Club The Judd Club is a group of principals of the high schools of the suburbs of Chicago who meet once a month during the scholastic year for dinner and the evening with Charles H. Judd, Director of the School of Education of the University of Chicago. At the meetings administrative problems of the secondary school are discussed. Members of the Judd Club contributing to this issue: Editor-in-Chief, W. C. Reavis Under-editors R. J. Beals J. B. Nelson F. L. Biester F. W. Schacht H. V. Church A. L. Spohn D. H. Loree L. W. Smith W. E. McVey Douglas Waples All communications for secondary-school administration abstract service should be directed to H. V. Church, 3129 Wenonah Avenue, Berwyn, Illinois; J. Sterling Morton High School, Cicero, Iliinois, Sec- retary of the National Association of Secondary-School Principals. These abstracts are free to all members of the National Association of Secondary-School Principals. LS eR Ra eS A ea A Sane a Seer rarer EO SP eA amare as TTR ae eee SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS BOOKS Douctass, AuBREY A. Secondary Education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1927. Pp. 649. The significance of this book consists in the fact that it brings up to date the contents of Inglis’ Principles of Secondary Education, which has hitherto been the standard text in the gen- eral field. The new book is perhaps less philosophical than its predecessor but is an equally useful compendium of data concern- ing the practice and policy of high-school administration. Part I describes the system of public education as a whole and the place of the high school in the system. Chapters are devoted to the origins of the high school, its relation to the elementary school and to the college, college entrance requirements, the high schools of Europe, and present problems of reorganization. Part II presents the findings of recent research concerning the high-school pupil. Well selected data are supplied with respect to mental and physical characteristics of adolescence, individual differences, elimination, and guidance. Part III concerns the curriculum and comprises half of the volume. The chapters are organized on the basis of the “seven cardinal principles (or objectives) of secondary edu- cation” instead of upon the conventional basis of different high- school subjects. The nature of this organization will be apparent in the following list of chapter topics: aims and objectives of sec- ondary education, selection of curriculum materials (including an excellent discussion of new theories of transfer of training), the fundamental processes, education for citizenship, home member- ship, moral training, the program of studies, and extra-curriculum activities. Except for incidental mention in connection with fundamental processes, citizenship, health, and vocational training, the effect of the treatment is greatly to subordinate subject matter instruction and consequently to stress other features of the school environment. The chapter on moral training, for example, sum- marizes the literature on character education and describes the various means of providing moral training, both in class and out. The same procedure is followed in the other chapters of Part ITI. The book is consequently of immediate interest to the high-school administrator who seeks a more direct relationship between school organization and social objectives. For the same reasons, the book should also prove helpful to the classroom teacher. Cook, WILLIAM ADELBERT. High School Administration. Balti- more: Warwick & York, 1926. Pp. 378. The median enrollment of all high schools on the accredited lists of the various states is slightly over 100. These schools are in towns of less than 8,000 population. The author presents a tech- nique by which the student body of slightly over a hundred, in- structed by a faculty of five to seven teachers may be intelligently 3 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS managed. The typical principal of the median school is conceived to be a young man who graduated from college with a major in history or science, and only enough professional training to meet certification requirements. This young man who possessed certain natural capacities, and was attracted by a better salary, gravitated into the principalship, with neither professional learning nor ex- perience relative to many of the problems of general organization and administration. The routine problems and the broader aspects of administration are ably discussed. The legal and administrative aspects are covered from both a practical and a theoretical stand- point. Departmental supervision is not mentioned. Some of the most significant chapter headings are: The Origin of the High School, Financial Support and Management, The Teaching Staff, The Daily Schedule, Records and Reports, Discipline, Student Or- ganizations, Physical Education and Athletics. A beginning prin- cipal will find the book invaluable; and one of experience will find much to refresh himself on current practices. Terry, Paut W. Extra-Curricular Activities in the Junior High School. Warwick & York, 1926. Pp. The extra-curriculum activities of the junior high school are most efficient when developed around the idea of training for prac- tical citizenship. Data from eighty-two schools about evenly di- vided between small, medium, and large schools show that a sep- arate building and a separate principal for the junior high school are two factors that make for efficient pupil organizations; that organizations in physical training, English, music, and “all school” predominate in the order named, with eleven other classifications receiving more or less attention; that out of a total of 1,124 organi- zations only thirteen are listed under the head of merely “social” or “a good time.” Many schools for various reasons limit the number of organizations to which a student may belong. Most schools encourage membership by honorable mention or material awards, but such practice is by no means standardized. Few schools keep records of participation in extra-curriculum activities, but nearly all use the records when available for guidance, for de- termining eligibility, for limiting participation in activities, and for determining honors. The use of the home room in developing social skills is recognized by most schools. It is the primary pol- itical unit of the school. Teacher advisers are necessary to the successful carrying out of any extra-curriculum program, and are usually selected because of special interests in particular activities. The greatest problems connected with extra-curriculum programs are those relative to the time of meeting and the selection of advisers. SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS MAGAZINES Garpner, C. A. “A Study of the Causes of High-School Fail- ures’, School Review, XXXV (February, 1927), 108-12. The approximate cost per pupil for a year of schooling is up- ward of one hundred and fifty dollars. Each pupil who fails is costing his school that amount to repeat the work. But even more important than the cost of repeating is the effect which the failure has on the pupil. Many studies have been made in an attempt to fix the reasons for failure. Unfortunately these studies have usually neglected to consider the pupils’ reason for failure; but have dealt almost entirely with opinions of teachers and adminis- trators. This treatise gives both. Reasons for failure as ranked highest by pupils were: lack of home study, dislike of subject, little studying, discouraged, insufficient effort, dislike of teacher, and timid in recitation. Reasons for failure as ranked highest by teachers were: Irregular attendance, failure on tests, lack of study generally, lack of effort, mentally slow, lack of home study, poor foundation, and laziness. The writer concludes that while the data seems to show that there is a conflict between teacher and pupil in many instances; and while it would be unreasonable to conclude that the pupil’s opinion should predominate at every point, the principal and teacher would do well to consider student opinions regarding failure. Emphasis must be placed on the indi- vidual pupil rather than on the school program. The program is made for the pupil; not the pupil for the program. Davis, C. O. “Our Justification of the Junior High School”, School Review, XXXV (March, 1927), 174-83. The junior high school has made a sudden and remarkably rapid growth. It was the desire of the writer to sectire ‘irst-hand information as to whether the junior high school was justifying itself. He communicated with twenty-five of the best known schools in the Central West. Three specific questions were asked: “1. Is the junior high school justifying itself in your community? 2. If so, what is your evidence? 3. By what means are you making the articulation with the senior high school smooth, easy, and effective? He received replies from twenty different schools. Of these, eighteen were emphatic in their belief that the junior high school was justifying itself. Numerous short quotations from the replies are given in the article. Longer replies are cited from: Logansport, Indiana; Detroit, Michigan; Youngstown, Ohio; Jackson, Michigan; Holland, Michigan; and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Two adverse criticisms are given. 5 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS FEELHAVER, Cart T. “The Duties of High-School Principals in the State of Nebraska,’ School Review, XXXV_ (March, 1927), 188-93. The purpose of this study was to determine the duties of high-school principals in the state of Nebraska. By questionnaire of the work-sheet type information was obtained from 144 prin- cipals of high schools accredited by the state university. Reac- tions were obtained on seven daily work sheets (including Satur- day and Sunday), and two additional sheets: one for seasonal duties; the other, for personal information. Table I summarizes the data regarding: instructional load, administrative load, in- structional supervision, professional load, other supervision, cler- ical load, extra-curriculum load, community activities, and other ac- tivities. Table two shows data pertaining to: educational prep- aration, experience, and salary. Brewer, JoHN M. “The Argument for Junior Business Training,” School and Society, XXV (January 1, 1927), 7-8. A course in junior business training is advocated by this Harvard professor as an exploratory or tryout course for any or all children in the junior high school. The purpose of the course is twofold: First, to discover the students who are fitted to take advanced work in commerce; and second, to find those who have wrongly chosen and who, therefore, should not engage in a com- mercial occupation. Elementary work of an extensive nature gives a complete view of business as a basis for choice and later speciali- zation. Textbooks and class discussions in junior business training can give the social understanding necessary for success in business, and this in much better form than is possible in the usual courses of a commercial curriculum. STRICKLAND, V. L. “Causes of Waste in Education,” School and Society, XXV (January 1, 1927), 15-16. This author echoes Dr. Buckingham’s ideas on wasteful edu- cation by insisting that our educational system needs to have a checkup on permanent mastery. For instance, the high-school student upon graduation should show reasonable mastery of the subjects covered in his course. Such a requirement would un- doubtedly result in getting away from the present emphasis on the part of the student on “immediate use only”, and would demand that students really use the products of learning which they are supposed to have mastered. The practice would encourage per- manent mastery and would foster the habit of using the resources available. 6 Sg SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS a LEONARD, STERLING ANDRUS, “English Teaching Faces the Future,’ School and Society, XXV (January 15, 1927), 60-64. The author appeals to alert English teachers to make real con- tributions toward the solving of some of the real problems in the teaching of English such as: revision of courses, re-examination of methods, and a serious consideration of actual outcomes or ob- jectives. The old standards of fluency and accuracy are set aside as insufficient. There must be more thought about experience and its organization to meet social needs. The attention must be fixed on a wide interpretation of essentials, including clarity of thought as a matter of social adaptation in expression, and with some notion of the order in which to attack these fundamentals. Power of thought through its expression must be the ultimate value of courses in composition, just as measurably matured and enriched experience should be that of literature. ZEIGEL, Jr., Witt1AM H. “Achievement of High-School Honor Students in the University of Missouri,” School and Society, XXV (January 15, 1927), 82-84. In order to help settle the question as to whether a university is justified in awarding scholarships to high-school honor graduates, comparison was made of achievements of high-school honor gradu- ates in the University of Missouri with those of regular students in scholastic attainments, mental ability, extra-curricular activities, age, time in school, number graduating, major subject, occupation, and marriage. The honor students were found to be superior to the regular students in all phases of the questions studied and were the leaders in a majority of school activities. Horn, Joun Louis. “Five Proposals for the Improvement of Sec- ondary-School Instruction,” School and Society, XXV, (Jan. 22, 1927), 91-99. The five proposals converging toward one objective, namely, the improvement of secondary-school instruction, are grouped as follows: FIRST, The Improvement of Methods of Certification. Certificates are not only too general, being given for teaching sub- jects for which the teacher has had no adequate preparation, but they are also given for just one classification. SECOND, The Motivation of High-School Teachers: The fact that a man goes into the high-school field should not necessarily mean that he is doomed to stay there always. THIRD, The Teaching Load: The teaching load of the college teacher and that of the high-school teacher are organized quite differently. The work of the former is organized with a view of his engaging in scholarship. The work of the latter is organized with a view to choking off forever any impulse he may have had in his student days for further study and creative contribution to his field. FOURTH, The Woman Teacher Who Marries: The experiment at Smith College, to find a solution 7 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS for the problem which confronts almost every educated woman today,—how to reconcile a normal life of marriage and motherhood with a life of intellectual activity, professional or other,—concerns the scholarship of the secondary-school teacher group. FIFTH, The Problem of Salary: Redistribution of salaries is necessary. The extremes of minimum and maximum are too near together; the entrant reaches the limit of possible increase too soon, and the ultimate salary is too low. The entering salaries should be much lower; the maximum salaries should be much higher. AnonyMous ITEM IN “EDUCATIONAL EvENTs.” “CLASSIFICATION oF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN ACCORDANCE WITH ABILITY,” School and Society, XXV (February 5, 1927), 158. The results of a questionnaire submitted by the United States Bureau of Education to all superintendents of schools in cities of over 10,000 population, imparted the following information con- cerning ability grouping in high schools. Of the 163 cities re- porting, 119 classify some or all of the junior high-school pupils into ability groups; 81 classify some or all of the senior or regular four-year high-school pupils according to ability. Of 89 cities of 30,000 to 100,000 population reporting, 57 classify pupils in the junior high school into ability groups, and 36 in the senior high schools. Of 40 cities of 100,000 or more, 28 employ ability group- ing in some or all of the junior high-school classes, and 26 in some or all of the senior high-school classes. The bases of classification of pupils are various combinations of teachers’ judgment, intelli- gence quotient, mental age, educational age, and other bases, such as chronological age or health. ANONYMOUS ARTICLE IN “EDUCATIONAL Events.” “EDUCATIONAL Courses FoR INDUSTRIAL Emp.oyees, “School and Society,” XXV (February 5, 1927), 158-59. “Money-back” education is proving an incentive for employees of utility companies in Chicago to obtain high-school and college credits in their spare moments. When a student can show his employer a high-school report card or a college course-book with credit duly registered and a satisfactory grade, he is given a check to cover half the cost of tuition, the check being signed by the company. Tuomas, EpitH. “The Problem of the Library in Secondary Schools.” School and Society, XXV (February 19, 1927), 233-35. The author who is in charge of the library extension service at the University of Michigan, presents a complete and useful outline of procedure in the study and survey of library conditions, particularly in the smaller high school. The discussion deplores the common condition of insufficient library facilities, and the gen- 8 rn etn ae SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS eral indifferent attitude of administrators in the smaller secondary institutions. “It must be obvious that this state of affairs exists largely because the schoolmen have not been educated to the point where they consider a properly housed and supervised library as an essential.” TuHompson, L. L. and O’Brien, F. P. “Student Activities in Small High School.” School and Society, XXV (March 12, 1927), 318-20. Through a comprehensive study by the authors of conditions prevailing in four typical large high schools and in one hundred and sixteen small high schools, the contention that “Student Activities” tend to lower grades of participating students is proved unsound. The study takes into consideration all types of “Student Activities,” debating, school paper, orchestra, student body offices, etc., but the most interesting discovery is in the field of athletics, where three-fourths of the high schools considered, reported the medium school grades of the boys who had participated in athletics to be higher than those of the boys who had not participated in athletics. A similar condition prevailed with the girls of these high schools. Lester, JoHN A. “A Bureau of Research for the Independent Secondary Schools,” School and Society, XXV, (March 19, 1927), 344-46. A very convincing and logical argument for better coopera- tion and a higher type of harmony among independent secondary schools is presented. The work of the Secondary School Exam- ination Board is highly commended as a unifying element, but the article states that much more progress toward harmony and unity is now being made through the Bureau of Research established last October on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Second- ary School Examination Board at Lawrenceville School. The work of this Bureau is three fold: (1) To collect and to compile information from member schools of interest and value common to these schools; (2) To undertake research in any educational field which promises information of value to the member schools; (3) To report to each member school the results of such inves- tigation. U. S. Bureau oF Epucation. “Government Regulation of Sec- ondary Education in Mexico,” School and Society, XXV (March 21, 1927), 321-23. New regulations for secondary education in Mexico were issued on November 26, 1926, by President Calles, and have just been received by the United States Bureau of Education. It is apparent that Mexican educators are attempting to raise standards 9 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS of education throughout the entire republic. The new regulations set the secondary schools of the federal district as a standard for the country below which the private schools may not fall if they are to have their students admitted to university courses. The standard federal, secondary school system has a varied program consisting of two cycles, a general course of three years followed by a special professional preparatory course of two years. Ac- cording to the report there are 10,518 secondary students in the Republic, 8,359 boys and 2,159 girls. General standards set by the new regulations compare favorably with the best schools of the United States. BisHop, W. W. “Adult Education—A Challenge to Phi Beta Kappa,” School and Society, XXV (April 2, 1927), 385-94. Men are beginning to see what increased leisure means. Some men and women who have this leisure sre beginning to grops toward ways of improving themselves. Still others are using it to increase their own chances of a promotion and a better livelihood. Out of these desires has grown the urge to self-improvement. Many adults have entered upon either university class work or correspondence study. There are also many labor colleges, open forums, people’s and other institutes, schools and classes con- ducted by numerous organizations, such as the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. The conscious urge toward adult education has become a real and potent force in American life. On the education of grown folk rests most of our hope of security, of progress, of national happiness, and of continued prosperity. EpucaTIONAL Events: Anonymous. “The Schools of Monterey, Mexico,” School and Society, XXV (April 16, 1927), 449- 450. The Bureau of Education has been making a study of educa- tional courses of schools in Mexico and has submitted recently a survey of the schools in the Monterey district. Due to the fact that the schools of this district are modeled after the European system, their comparison with those of the United States is dif- ficult. They have six grades in their primary schools and four grades in their preparatory schools, the latter corresponding to our high schools. The Mexican children have been found to excel in handwork and memory work but their reasoning powers are said not to be as well developed as in children attending American schools. More time is devoted there to theory rather than to practice. This may be due to methods of teaching rather than to nationality. 10 SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS SmitH, Frances M. “What's Wrong With the American High School?” School and Society, XXV (April 16, 1927), 459- 460. The American taxpayers are spending half a billion dollars annually for education. By elaborate organization, attractive text- books, rich curricula, palatial buildings, competitive athletics, and all manner of devices for social contacts, educators have sought to bring about an educational miracle. Miss Smith thinks the tax- payers are being cheated ; she thinks that the taxpayers are getting not a real piece of cloth, but only a gorgeous pattern stamped upon a piece of cloth which turns out to be of rather inferior quality and of poor workmanship. Some of the trouble comes from the wrong kind of teachers. Too many of them have the laboring man’s view of the job, and that is to get all you can and to give as little as possible in return. They come tardy, stumble over the pupils in their hasty exit at closing time, seek the rest room at the first free period, avoid the reading of both general and profes- sional books, and consider a teachers’ meeting an instrument of torture devised by the superintendent. Democracy is fast resulting in a mediocrity of tastes, scholarship, training, ideals, and standards. SEASHORE, CaRL E. “Education for Democracy and the Junior College,” School and Society, XXV (April 23, 1927), 469-478. Mr. Seashore fears that we are educating for aristocracy, and not for democracy, as we should. He thinks we are violating two fundamental natural laws—the law of supply and demand for men in learned careers and the law of the distribution of mental capa- city. We should give higher education to each individual in pro- portion to his capacity, and we should provide higher education for every occupation to the extent that the expenditure can be justified in terms of the needs of the community, both economic and cultural. Two-year courses in arts and sciences, technological or semi-vocational work at the collegiate level are needed to serve the most general vocational needs of the community. We need to provide junior colleges for those classes of the community or those types of students that are not now represented in college. Stopparp, A. J. “Administration of Junior High School,” Amer- ican Educational Digest, XLVI (January, 1927), 197-99. The objectives of junior high schools of large cities are: (1) To provide a range of curriculum sufficiently broad and varied to meet the type needs of the boys and girls of early adolescent years ; (2) To bring together an adequate number of pupils in order that classes may be organized according to ability to progress; (3) To promote by subject or subject groups rather than by grades; (4) To develop better insight into social needs and to insure better 11 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS training for the meeting of those needs. Too often the junior high school merely segregates the seventh, eighth, and ninth years with- out offering a program set up according to the objectives. The “constants-with-variables” type of program is presented as best both in theory and practice. And finally, rigidity and formality defeat the type of social training which should be the essence of the junior high school. Macxean, R. B. “High School Course and Teacher Training,” American Educational Digest, XLVI (January, 1927), 206-07. Because such a large number of high-school graduates are entering teachers’ colleges or colleges of education, the training of teachers, from the standpoint of numbers, is a secondary-school as well as a college problem. The high percentage of failure of teachers’ college students in English is particularly distressing. The lack of vocabulary and inadequate conception of the funda- mental matters of syntax seem to be conspicuous reasons for fail- ure. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of high-school students who maintain high standards of scholarship is their ability to study. High-school teachers should encourage pupils of ability and character to choose teaching as their life work. Mapsen, I. N. “The Prediction of Teaching Success,” Educational Administration and Supervision, XIII (January, 1927), 39-47. After quoting at some length Plato’s division of all workers into three classes, the author feels that Plato’s plan of using gen- eral behavior as a measure of probable success is better than measuring the detailed elements. Various schemes of rating teachers find but scant favor. He suggests objective measurements of the traits thought desirable, and the determination of their rela- tion to teaching success. He refers to Knight’s Study of Qualities Related to Success in Teaching and calls attention to the fact that it deals with teachers already in service. In order to get qualities desirable in a student, and the range of these qualities, he ob- tained from county superintendents, the names of 31 teachers who had been failures, and obtained their normal school records. The following facts were determined: (1) Their grades were mate- rially below the normal school average; (2) They were among the lowest 10% in intelligence tests and in subject tests given at the same time; (3) In the Army Alpha Test the scores ranged from 72 to 85, and in the Terman Group Test from 40 to 100. Some of the principal reasons for failure as given by county superin- tendents were: poor knowledge of subject matter, 14; lack of instructional skill, 13; poor discipline, 12; inability to systematize work, 10; etc., and in only two cases was physical defect men- tioned. Of all reasons for failure 80% are closely related to intelligence; the other 20% have to do with personal qualities. 12 ee SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS The most promising measures to predict teaching success are: (1) Reliable and valid measures of general intelligence; (2) Mea- sures of proficiency in previous school career, particularly in the elementary subjects which the candidate will be called upon to teach; (3) Measurement of achievement while in normal school. A fourth desirable, namely a rating of teaching ability while in training school, but this needs to be on valid objective ratings, not usual school marks. Outson, Davin. “School Marks Vs. Intelligence Rating,” Educa- tional Administration and Supervision, XIII (February, 1927), 90-102. In 1924-5 a study was made of 506 graduates of the Everett, Washington, High School for whom Terman test scores were available. The purpose was primarily to find the correlation be- tween the mental ability of the student and the marks received in high school. Investigations were also made between the markings of the various departments, marks and age of graduation, the rela- tive standing of boys and girls, and the percentage of the various marks. Four tables offer data leading to the following conclu- sions: (1) Departments giving the largest percentage of high marks show least correlation between intelligence and marks; (2) Home economics, art, and manual arts, show poor correlation with the Terman test scores; (3) English, history, mathematics, and science, show in that order, the highest correlation with the Terman test scores; (4) Of the academic subjects, foreign lan- guages show the lowest correlation with the Terman test scores; (5) The Terman test is a better prognosis in the case of girls than of boys; (6) Either the boys in general are not working to the limit of their capacity or there are other factors than the score on the Terman group tests which operate decidedly in favor of the girls; (7) Intelligence scores alone would not have been a very good basis for determining the capacity of the students in this group for doing satisfactory high-school work, or the marks given are no evidence of capacity to do work in the various subjects; (8) Low correlation may be in part due to special interest in certain subjects, and an entire lack of interest in other subjects included in the particular course the student has followed; (9) The correlation between grade points in English and grade points in the various departments is higher than between the Terman test scores and marks for the several departments; (10) From this study it is clear that for the 506 students involved in this investi- gation the girls have been notably more successful than the boys in obtaining high marks; (11) The girl may be more conscientious about doing the school work each day, while the boy, although equally intelligent, or even more so, as shown by the medians of the intelligence scores, nevertheless, is more inclined to be happy- go-lucky, and trusts that everything will come out all right in the end. It may be due in part to the fact that girls are more quiet and tractable, and are, therefore, less irritating to the teachers. 13 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Ciem, OruieE M. and McLaucuiin, SaMuet J. “A Study of the Professionalization of the High School Principalship in Maine,” Educational Administration and Supervision, XIII, (January, 1927), 1-12. For the purpose of the study the high schools of Maine were divided into four groups, with enrollment as follows: I, 10-100; II, 100-300; III, 300-900; IV, 900-1500. The number in each group was as follows: I, 112; II, 44; III, 16; IV, 3. The principals in groups III and IV are exclusively men, and of the total 94.3% are men. The salaries of the men are notably higher and show a consistent trend to advance from the smaller to the larger schools. This is not true of women’s salaries. Except in group I, few principals have less than four years of college training. Only nine principals held a master’s degree, all in groups I and II, and only one the doctor’s, and curiously, no one in group IV held either. Only 43% attended summer sessions in 1923 or 1924; and 44.5% had never attended a summer session. Some principals, 38%, had taken only one, two, or three graduate courses. The courses stated to be most useful were, in decreasing order ; educational psy- chology, high-school administration, methods, history of education, and supervision. Of academic subjects taken English, mathematics, and history ranked first with 100% ; French 95% ; chemistry 94% ; physics 91; Latin 88; German 83; etc. down to shopwork 7%. Of the professional magazines taken, three led, namely The Na- tional Education Association Journal, School Review, and School Board Journal, but 34.5% took no magazines at all, and these were largely in the same group that had never taken summer work. All of the principals in group IV plan to remain in the high-school principalship, and over 66% of the total number plan to do so. The time the principals have available for supervision varies from 0% in some of the smaller schools to 100% in group IV. Respon- sibility for initiating certain activities is divided among principal, superintendent, board, etc., to varying degrees, ranging from or- ganizing class schedules, which is 99% in the hands of the principal to 10% in the selection of teachers. Taytor, Georce D. “Some Problems of the Assignment of Pupils to Grades and the Formation of Classes of Mixed Groups,” Educational Administration & Supervision, XIII (January, 1927), 53-58. Six arguments in favor of organizing classes according to the mental ability and school accomplishment of pupils are presented in the article: (1) The teacher can adapt methods of instruction more efficiently; (2) The teacher can make more efficient use of time allotted to development, drill, and application; (3) Each pupil has more equal opportunity for recitation, self-expression, and in- dividual participation; (4) Satisfactory activity on the part of 14 SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS slower pupils tends to give feeling of progress and accomplishment ; (5) Homogenous grouping encourages pupils to do their best, and tends to develop latent initiative, originality, and leadership; (6) Children of more than average ability tend to form habits of idle- ness, inattention, and mental laziness in mixed groups. PALMER, GeorGE Hersert. “The Junior College,” Atlantic Monthly, CXXXIX, (April, 1927), 497-501. There are grave fears that ultimate damage will be done by the development of the junior college while people are giving their attention to its immediate benefits. The junior college has had a long period of gradual development and is at present in an epoch of rapid development. In this whole period of change the growth has not been subjected to adequate criticism. If the movement at- tains what may logically be expected of it, the universities will drop two years of their college work and ultimately add two more to their professional training. The college of arts and sciences which is the unique and distinctive American educational institu- tion will disappear and with it that group of amateur scholars who have graduated from these institutions and who have been a great benefit to the development of community life in America. If the American college is destroyed, the tendency to grant private gifts to educational institutions will disappear ‘and all of our higher institutions will be supported by the state as on the conti- nent in Europe. School superintendents should keep these ulti- mate effects of the growth of junior colleges in mind, rather than be completely absorbed in the immediate benefits coming from the establishment of junior colleges. 15 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS REPORT Report of the Bureau of Educational Counsel of the La Salle-Peru Township High School, La Salle, Iilinois. This report gives the history and description of the student personnel department of the La Salle-Peru Township High School, La Salle, Illinois, the object of which is the careful study of the individual student. The Bureau has been in operation since Sep- tember, 1923, and is under the direction of a psychiatric social worker, aided by an assistant and a secretary. The behavior clinics in connection with the Bureau are conducted by psychiatrists and psychologists from the Illinois Institute of Juvenile Research of Chicago. The Director of the Bureau, Miss Elma M. Olson, de- scribes the object of the activities of the student personnel depart- ment as follows: “General emphasis falls on the study of behavior, the development of personality, and the adjustment—or better, the foreseeing and preventing—of emotional conflicts common to adolescent life. The principal aspects of the program include edu- cational, vocational, health, social, and ethical guidance. Although the work is essentially educational and ethical in scope, advanced mental hygiene is the chief instrument of research and psychiatric social work is the technique employed”. Principal T. J. McCormack prefaces the report of his director by a discussion: (a) of old and new concepts of school discipline ; (b) of general objectives of education and of educational, ethical, and vocational guidance. He considers the school as an ethical laboratory, the purpose of which is the formation of personality or character in the individual pupil. A short history is also given of the prescientific stages of mental hygiene as practiced for genera- tions by skilled educators. The report, which ought to be of interest to all high-school principals, may be obtained for postage (three cents) by writing to the Bureau of Educational Counsel, La Salle-Peru Township High School, La Salle, Illinois. 16 SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS The paper below was delivered at the St. Louis meeting but was received too late to be published in the proceedings, Bulletin, No. 15. DIRECTING PUPILS’ STUDY HABITS R. L. LyMAn PROFESSOR OF THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The supervised study movement has passed through its initial stages which may be called the period of administrative devices and the period of injunctions or exhortations. Brownell’ asserts that a very large share of the literature of supervised study has been de- voted to the exposition of fourteen devices ranging from “special study halls” and “the double period” to “the Seattle plan” and “the Pueblo Plan.” When we add to this the discussion of more or less vague “aims” and “purposes” of supervised study, and the commands like “begin promptly,” “concentrate” and the like, here termed “study exhorta- tions”, we have easily more than seven-eighths of the literature of this important subject devoted to superficialities. The fact is that the literature has dwelt on the machinery of administration, the disposition of the recitation, the distribution of pupils’ time and effort, and to a large extent has failed to touch the core of the movement, or at best has given but incidental attention to the actual direction of pupils study habits, the guidance which Inglis called “supervised learning” and Miller calls “directing study.” As an example of a seemingly important discussion which in re- ality is far off the mark because it fails to get at the heart of the matter, may be cited a recent article by B. F. White?. His "WittraAm A. BrowneLi, “A Study of Supervised Study”, University of Illinois Bulletin, Vol. XXII, No. 41, June 8, 1925. °B. F. Waite, “Effect of Supervised Study in Kansas High Schools,’ The School Review, XXXV, No. 1 (Jan. 1927) Pp. 55-58. 17 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS investigation follows the career in the freshman year of 270 stu- dents in the University of Kansas, estimating success there by scholastic standing. Half of the freshmen had been trained in “supervised study” high schools, half in traditional “recitation” schools. The comparison shows a very slight but quite negligible superiority in favor of the supervised study group, upon which data the writer concludes “the advantage is so small that for this group alone reorganization of a school system to provide for supervised study would hardly be worth while.” Of this article and its con- clusions it may be said (1) that scholastic marks at the University of Kansas, no more reliable than similar marks in other univer- sities, are hardly a fair evidence of real power; (2) that Breed and others have shown that poorer students profit more from supervised study than do good students, and undoubtedly Kansas freshmen are largely a “picked” group; and (3) that the failure of the supervised-study group may in all probability be due to an imperfect technique of directing pupils work habits in the con- tributing high schools. No article discrediting supervised study can be given much credence unless it investigates and analyzes the ac- tual direction of the learning processes which was used. To be brought through high-school life under the name of supervised study is no more valuable than to be brought through the early adolescent period in an institution named “the junior high school.” This paper will consider the actual help given pupils in the activ- ities we call study, the supervision of the business of learning, here assumed to be the one element of supreme importance in the great hybrid that masquerades under the title “supervised study.” The chairman of this meeting has rightly affirmed that the key note of the junior high school is “guidance”; it may be added that the heart of scholastic guidance is inducting pupils into economical and efficient habits of work in their various fields of scholastic endeavor. Upon this as yet largely untouched problem two general methods of attack seem to be profitable. They may be named the “indirect or negative” procedure, and the “direct or pos- itive” procedure. For a vital reason to be presented later, the speaker prefers to dwell largely upon the second alternative. In brief the indirect or negative procedure consists of (a) an adequate diagnosis of the work habits brought into the class lab- oratory by the group as a whole and by individuals and (b) suit- able remedial instruction or guidance definitely directed toward the improvement of weaknesses revealed in the diagnosis. Here it may be remarked that in this paper the speaker is concerned far more with work habits than with detailed skills. No one will question the fundamental value of diagnosis and remedial work centering around essential skills like word-recognition or adding, subtracting and dividing skills. Gray’ and other pioneer workers like Ander- *W. S. Gray, Remedial Cases in Reading, School Review, Monograph No. 22 (June, 1922), University of Chicago. 18 SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS son’ have in this field broken ground in such ways as to indicate how they and other investigators must experiment in the larger and more difficult problems of work habits, study procedures on the level of intellectual activities of a higher order than word rec- ognition or skills in addition. To illustrate the work of a teacher who is proceeding by the in- direct or negative method of teaching study habits, the work of Beauchamp? may be cited*. He set an eighth grade general science class to work on the first chapter of a textbook with the usual direction, “study.” He found, what any teacher discovers, that the pupils set about their task with a miscellany of procedures, some very wasteful, some the opposite. Burr‘ has pictured a similar scene: “Henry recited on a rapid reading of the lesson once, Mary read it carefully three times; Jane went over every paragraph with recall of word for word; John read and made notes of main points ; Susan tried to picture the scene; Charles thought of what the thing or scene was like; George found examples or uses; Julia saw only the page and the place of the words on it. . . . How they get ready to recite is all out of our sight. If they fail, we do not go back to the cause of the failure. They have failed and that is the end of it. . . . We cannot excuse a failure by saying ‘I cannot see into my pupil’s mind and know how he studies’.” By means of critical observation of his group enjoined to study, and by tests designed to ascertain the errors of their intellectual proc- esses in the acts of study (tests should evaluate processes not prod- ucts), Beauchamp obtained and listed a number of major short- comings common to many members of his group. Of these it must suffice to name here only three, and to discuss briefly only one. (1) The pupils failed to get an over-view of the entire unit assigned for study. (2) They failed to see the relationship of a general con- cept and of the various details used in the text to de- velop that concept. (3) They failed to translate verbal descriptions into visual representations. Now these and similar errors are very vital, because in the realm of intellectual activities they indicate failure to see relationships *C, J. ANDERSON and Expa Merton, “Remedial Work in Reading,” Elementary School Journal 20 (May-June, 1920). Pp. 685 and 772. *W. L. Beaucnamp, “Supervised Study in Elementary Physical Science,” School Review XXXII, (March ’24) pp. 175-81. *The case or example method in the field of directing pupils study habits has been followed by Miller in what is to the speaker altogether the most valuable book for teachers and staff meetings. See H. F. MItter, Direct- ing Study, Charles Scribners Sons. ‘A. W. Burr, “Finding Out How Our Pupils Study,” Pamphlet privately printed, Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin. 19 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS which Freeman’ had said is the very essence of intelligence. To illustrate in the case of the third point. In the science text book used by Beauchamp’s class is a diagram of a lift-pump with the handle up and the valves open. Beneath that visual representa- tion is a verbal description of a lift-pump with the handle down and the valves closed. An essential feature of study at this point is the ability to make of the verbal picture a visual representation to contrast with the diagram. The pupils failed to do so. Suppose they were left in that failure. The result would be that in the scores of similar emergencies to be met later in that text, in ad- vanced science books in advanced school life, and in reading sim- ilar materials all through life, they would be correspondingly weak, unless by trial and error processes they stumbled on the mental economy involved. Here we have a teacher who is concentrating for the time being on details in the mental activities of study, and is subordinating or even neglecting the learning of a lesson. The major theme of this discussion is that until this level of diagnosis is reached, supervised study is an empty name. And now follows the constructive remedial teaching, which of course is the indispensible corollary of diagnosis. Not that the corollaries are generally practiced together. Indeed, common classroom prac- tice substitutes criticism for diagnosis, and has no remedial em- phasis except the entering a mark of condition or failure. This is the fatal weakness of our teaching methods from elementary school to college: We appraise products and neglect processes; we think our duty is done by failing pupils. In reality, and ironically, the verb “fail” is an intransitive and not a transitive verb. The only way we teachers can “fail” pupils is by our own shortcomings in relation to them, by falling below the level of assistance we ought to be able to render them. In this strictly grammatical sense we succed very well in failing pupils. But the teacher who replaces criticism by diagnosis and follows diagnosis by constructive remedial guidance is the rare individual who can be classed as a supervisor of learning processes. Picture the work in Beauchamp’s how-to-study class room. The principle of translating a verbal exposition into a visual representation is ex- plained to the class with their books open at the lift-pump page. A conscious understanding of that process and its utility in further work of that science year will be an asset ever after. Imagine the intellectual curiosity of that group as they look for other passages in the first chapter and the second chapter, the efficient study of which involves an application of the same principle. In short by explanation, pupil activity in wisely directed practice, this class learns a study habit. The assumptions here are two: (a) that the junior high school is the time to begin with pupils the analysis of processes *F, N. Freeman, “What Is Intelligence?” School Review, XXXIII, (Apr. 1925). Pp. 253-63, | 20 | | | | j SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS within their understanding, and (b) that constructive remedial work of this order, while it certainly will help the individuals who are weak in a specific study habit, will at the same time do no harm to the pupils who happen already to be skillful without under- standing why they are skillful. In short, group drill on the level of intellectual activity is not open to the objection that lies against drill on an error in grammar or spelling. Extensive drill on “have gone” or “receive” is far worse than waste for the children whose language habits are correct in these two items. Such work must be individualized. But explanation and practice in an intellectual activity may safely be generalized. The junior high school is the place to begin conscious learning, supplanting the unconscious learn- ing appropriate in the lower grades. The major job of supervised study in the next decade is to discover what work habits to teach. May we turn now to the direct or positive supervision of learn- ing processes. Such supervision avoids what is altogether too prevalent, the practices of correcting errors. Why do we insist al- most invariably that we must teach children by dwelling on their mistakes? Why would it not be profitable to recognize that growth lies primarily in success, in achievements? Is it not the primary business of a teacher who guides growth in power rather than ap- praises products, to create many situations in which pupils can at- tain relative success, and be aware of that success before their products are turned in for grades, if grades we must have? Direct -OF positive supervision takes a junior high school group where they are and works out with them or for them from the very be- ginning an understanding of good and efficient habits of work. The major difficulty is, of course, that we do not as teachers know what good habits of work are; the truth is that we ought to know, and the hope is that in due time we shall know both what good habits are and how to give pupils practice in them. At present this is more or less unsurveyed territory. Wide investigation and experimentation is needed. At once we face the undoubted fact that good habits of study cannot be reduced to formulae. Students and materials to be studied present such an infinite number of combinations that study processes can never be formulated like (a—b)? = a? + 2ab + b?. Granted that this is true, it is likewise equally certain that expert teachers in any field ought to be able to work out procedures of study that permit adjustment to individuals and materials, and yet are far better than the utterly unreliable habits our “stumbling- up” learners are acquiring. If pupils are to be wisely led into good study habits, such guid- ance must come either from textbooks organized adequately as laboratory manuals, or from the teachers themselves. Unfortun- ately both sources of guidance are lamentably unreliable. One re- cent set of readers for the junior high school which purports to direct study habits yields the clearest kind of evidence that the 21 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS authors have no equipment whatever for the task. Ninety per cent of the study guidance throughout the set for the three years stresses one single reading skill. Obviously such guidance, if followed, is even more harmful than urging pupils in a study hall to concen- trate, when, to obey that injunction, merely confirms them in a miscellany of bad habits which they happen to have. Recently the speaker reviewed three sets of readers for the middle grades which fortunately give evidence that the atrocity named above is an ex- ception that tests the rule. A careful analysis of the study direc- tions of a 4th grade book from one set, a 5th grade book from a second set, and a 6th grade text from a third indicates, not perfec- tion, far from it, but decided steps in advance. While none of the sets presents a very definite or logical analysis of reading habits, the contrast with the ninety per cent-one-tract guidance is obvious’. Fourth-grade instruction and practice: No. of repetitions 1. Choosing specific parts of a selection............... 26 2. Mastering the meaning of new words............... 6 3. Forming individual judgments based on the reading.. 10 4. Grasping and remembering all the ideas............ 3 5. Asking questions about reading.................0.- 2 Fifth-grade instruction and practice: Finding the main thought in a selection.............. 6 Finding exact information quickly.................. 3 Reading to increase rate............cccccscccccces 7 Testing adequate comprehension................... 6 abet TF DORNER. oo on cccccscccevcccscevvve 4 oe ee 5 Exercises in practical thinking.................... 10 Special types of reading; for example, charts....... 2 Suggestions merely to motivate reading............. 9 CONAW AWN Sixth-grade instruction and practice: Finding the author’s main idea................00005 10 Careful reading to follow directions............... 4 Picturing the whole and related parts............... 12 Selecting the most significant ideas................. 4 Making comparisons and contrasts................ 3 Intense reading for memorizing................++. 3 Practice im M00POnGin FOOG... oo. cccccccccccencvces 4 I hn ccencnenkde nine ones nud ued ceninewes 4 Suggestions for motivated reading only............. 12 CONAN RWN *R. L. Lyman, “Teaching Middle Grade Pupils Study Habits,’ Elementary School Journal, XXVII (Feb. 1927). Pp. 476. 22 SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS In 1925, Moore? made a detailed analysis of all the study helps in 18 recently published junior high school texts, six in English, in history, and in science, respectively. Without elaborating her method here, it may be said that she reaches the apparently valid conclusions that texts are not safe guides as to the types of mental activities into which pupils should be guided; that 40 per cent of the activities call for sheer memory; that 15 out of 18 books single out one type of thought questions (whatever happens to be the hobby of the authors) ; that certain types of mental activities are neglected or challenged all too infrequently. In short the choice of study directions has not been made with due recognition of modern principles of method. Moore concludes that school au- thorities should subject textbooks to painstaking analysis in order to choose the books which most adequately outline activities in keeping with effective work habits. She pertinently suggests that similar analysis of teacher-made, spur-of-the-moment directions would show even more inadequate guidance. In the field of spell- ing our investigators and makers of teaching materials have progressed more rapidly than in any other subject: Some 60 dif- ferent study activities in spelling evaluated by classroom experi- mentation have been reduced to the few most effective and have been more or less formulated into definite procedures. The dis- tribution of these activities in weekly units is familiar to all. Visual, auditory, and motor impressions in suitable relations are now worked out, as well as systematic and regular pretesting and testing programs. “All this is admirable provided it does not in- stitute an orgy of spelling instruction, which after all is not con- ducive to extensive growth in intelligence. The point here is that similar careful work needs to be done for the textbooks and the teachers of other subjects more significant than spelling or grammar. At present junior high school textbooks in any subject should be studied by departments; among other tests should be applied this: what study habits lie in the teaching conception; do the directions lead into good habits? If, perchance, the answer is af- firmative, what an opportunity for departmental evaluation of their own pupil-directing resources. Finally, no teacher will ever be an efficient director of study habits, unless he himself has worked out reliable procedures which he deliberately tries to pass on to his pupils. To an illustration of this point we may turn in closing. Say that a ninth grade English composition teacher has turned his classroom into a work- 4NELLE E. Moore, “An Analysis of Study Questions Found in Text Books.” Unpublished Masters Thesis, Department of Education The University of Chicago, 1925. *See F. S. Breep, “Curriculum Construction in Spelling’, The Phi Delta Kappa IX, No. 4 (Feb. 1927). Pp. 118-123. 23 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS shop, and thinks of oral and written expression as an opportunity to teach pupils to think and to express that thinking fluently in correct symbols, oral or written. Suppose also that this teacher has a philosophy of expression, knowing that it consists of five processes : 1. The selection of a topic within this author’s vital ex- perience. 2. The formulation of a simple plan, at least seeing the whole in relation to its parts. 3. A fluent and careful first writing free from anxiety about language niceties. 4. A very careful appraisal of this rough draft by the writer with the teacher’s help. 5. A finished final copy, thoroughly proof read. While an older worker may fuse these processes, the learner may wisely think of them as separate; each may be made the subject of a separate laboratory exercise. To be noted in this program is the relation of accuracy to planning and fluent writing without which no one ever learns to present ideas effectively. Robert Burns said “My poems are the result of fluent expression and of painstaking revision.” The laboratory procedure thus outlined will obviate the pestiferous conviction of pupils who think as one boy said, “We have oral composition to learn how to place the feet”, or as one girl said “We write stories to learn where to put in the commas”. It will obviate also the highly industrious but unintel- ligent covering of pupil’s finished products with red marks indi- cating petty errors; it will make each pupil under guidance the appraiser of his own work, supplanting the idiotic “Excuse-me- John-but” formalities of a socialized recitation; and above all, it will enable the teacher to supervise pupils in the processes of pro- duction, and lessen by far the laborious but unrewarded hours of midnight theme correction. This example suggests that every ¢cpartment study its teaching processes, as the Social Science group of Los Angeles Junior high schools have done’. There are good habits of learning a Latin paradigm, a demonstration in geometry, of studying a social science text, of reading a poem, of consulting a reference book,—of all school tasks. Directing study consists in placing pupils in the ways of practising such good habits, understandingly, and increasingly conscious of their own growing abilities. *Heten W. Pierce, “Directing Study in the Social Studies”, Jan. 1, 1927, Bulletin of Dept. of Psychology and Educ. Research, Los Angeles City School District. 24 SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS After a decade of floundering, supervised study is settling down into its stride for something worth while. Even at its worst, the movement has reduced the waste of recitation; it has stressed the need of laboratory equipment in all classrooms; it has focused attention on processes instead of products. Both the negative and the positive methods are being experimented with in thousands of schools. Some day the admirable pioneer attempts of O’Hern’ and similar workers will be refined and perfected. Then with suitable textbooks and trained teachers we shall really teach our pupils to be good workmen, and many pupils will say of many teachers what our little girl said recently, “Daddy, Mr. teaches us how to work.” Ce *}. a > ema Attainments in Reading, Privately Printed, Rochester, New ork. 25 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS BOOK NOTICES OF ACCESSIONS GENEVIEVE DARLINGTON Eaton, THEODORE H. Education and Vocations: Principles and Problems of Vocational Education. New York: John Wiley & Sons; London: Chapman & Hall, 1926. Pp. 300. $2.50. The purpose of this volume is to assist in defining the bases and clarifying the theory of vocational education with a view of proposing a unified program. INSKEEP, ANNIE DoLMAN. Teaching Dull and Retarded Children. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1926. Pp. 455. $2.00. Concerned with the objectives which should be kept in mind when planning school work for dull and retarded children; and the teaching procedure which should be used in carrying out this work. Jones, THomas J. Four Essentials of Education. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926. Pp. 188. $1.50. Dr. Jones, the Educational Director of the Phelps-Stokes Fund for Negro Education, offers the four essentials: (1) Health and sanitation; (2) Appreciation and use of the environment; (3) Household and the home; (4) Recreation, with the purpose of presenting consciousness of community on the part of the teacher as a controlling educational attitude which should color school pol- icies and methods, and determine school aims. KinsMAN, Detos O. Economics; or, The Science of Business. Boston: Ginn & Co., 1927. Pp. 366. $1.72. Presents the facts and principles of the science of economics in such a manner as will prove intelligible, interesting, and helpful to the student, realizing that for many it is their only opportunity to study in an orderly and scientific way the present complex economic society. LANGMACK, Hoicer C. Football Conditioning, An Illustrated Handbook for Coaches, Students, and Players. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1926. Pp. 48. $1.50. The three football conditioning drills, dual work, individual work, and football tumbling, were arranged and demonstrated for the 1925 Springfield Y. M. C. A. College Summer School students of Mr. Knute Rockne, Football Coach at Notre Dame University. LeicH, RANDOLPH. Oratory, a Handbook for Participants in the National Oratorical Contest, Containing the Winning Orations of Each Year. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1927. Pp. 130. $1.50. The National Oratorical Contest, organized and directed by Mr. Leigh, has for its object “to increase interest in and respect 26 SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS for the Constitution of the United States.” The rules for the 1927 contest are stated. MAaNLy, JoHN M., Rickert, EpItH, and Leusriz, Nina. Good Reading: Fourth Reader. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927. Pp. 352. $0.88. The material is extended to much that concerns this larger world of reality—accounts of real heroes, true stories about ani- mals, and an increasing amount of the fact that is as interesting as fiction. Illustrated by Blanche Greer. PALGRAVE, Francis T. The Golden Treasury, with an Introduc- tion, Notes and Reading Lists and Topics for Study by Max J. Herzberg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1927. Pp. 466. $0.80. (Riverside Literature Series, 166.) Practically all of Palgrave’s interpretive notes and historical introductions have been retained in the present edition. Much new material for classroom use has been added which will be a help in creating backgrounds and inciting the pupil to further reading of poetry. Rice, Emmett A. A Brief History of Physical Education. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1926. Pp. 276. $2.00. A textbook for normal schools of physical education based on several years of classroom experience. One-half of the text is devoted to the history of physical education in America, and the newer health movements: playground, scout, camping, etc. Itlus- trations and bibliographies are included. TROXELL, ELEANOR. Language and Literature in the Kindergarten and Primary Grades. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927. Pp. 264. $1.25. (Series on Childhood Education, edited by Patty Smith Hill.) Miss Troxell has recorded some of her experiences with young children and the teachers of young children in providing opportu- nities for continuity of growth in English literature in the kinder- garten, first, second and third grades. Brace, Davin K. Measuring Motor Ability, a Scale of Motor Ability Tests. New York: A..S. Barnes & Co., 1927. Pp. 138. $2.00. Planned to assist physical educators in the classification of their pupils, in furnishing a basis upon which to evaluate achieve- ment, and in gaining a better understanding of the motor side of human reactions. 27 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Bowen, Wixsur P. The Conduct of Physical Activities in Ele- mentary and High Schools. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1927. ‘Pp. 173. $2.00. This course in the technique of handling classes in physical activity for students who are preparing to teach physical training has been tested in the Michigan State Normal College. Problems for a class period, and plans for the activities of each grade for the school year are included. onde walt SECONDARY-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACTS ADDRESSES of PUBLISHERS WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS BULLETIN A. S. Barnes and Company 7 West Forty-fifth Street New York City Ginn and Company 15 Ashburton Place Boston, Massachusetts Houghton Mifflin Company 2 Park Street Boston, Massachusetts The Macmillan Company 60 Fifth Avenue New York City G. P. Putnam’s Sons 2 West Forty-fifth Street New York City Charles Scribner’s Sons 597 Fifth Avenue New York City Warwick and York 10 East Center Street Baltimore, Maryland John Wiley and Sons 440 Fourth Avenue New York City z ; le ren a