There was a decrease in district school taxes for teachers' salaries, but this was more than counterbalanced by the increase in township taxes. The average salary of men throughout the State was $64.07, an increase of $1.06; the average salary of women was $41.34, an increase of 83 cents.

"This increase in salaries was in part effected by the operation of a law passed by the Legislature during the previous winter, which provides that at the close of the school year any balances of the State appropriation remaining in the hands of township collectors may be reapportioned by the county superintendent among the districts of the county. In some portions of the State, trustees had fallen into a habit of letting a portion of each year's appropriation remain in the hands of the collector, and, in many instances, those balances had accumulated until they aggregated more than the annual appropriation from the State. As the appropriations were made for a definite time, namely, the school year, and for a definite purpose, namely, the purchase of fuel and the payment of teachers' salaries, such accumulation of balances was an evasion of the spirit if not of the letter of the law. The appropriation for any single year is made for the benefit of the school children of that year, and the children of that year are entitled to it all. Very few balances have been taken up and reapportioned under the law, but the trustees have been induced to apply them to increase salaries."

As the Legislature has raised the State tax from four dollars per child to five dollars, and as this fund can only be used for payment of salaries and fuel, the teachers' pay will hereafter be much larger, probably increased from ten to twenty per cent. This is greatly to be desired, as there is no other professional class so poorly paid as the teachers, and none are more faithful and efficient than those of New Jersey.

EXPERIENCE OF TEACHERS.

of

As to the experience of teachers in school-work, the schools of New Jersey will compare most favorably with those of any other State; and when the terms of service in the same school are considered, no better proof of the success and thoroughness of their work could be given, for, however high may be the attainments of a teacher, nothing can supply the place of that knowledge and skill which can only be acquired by practical work in the school-room. In many cases the teachers refused flattering offers in other States, preferring to remain at the same place, although at a small sacrifice in salary. The average experience of all the teachers of the State was seven years and six months, and the average length of service in the same school was four years and eight months. Only about ten per cent. of all the teachers in the State had an experience one year or less, while nearly fifty-five per cent. had an experience of more than five years, nearly thirty per cent. of more than ten years, and a large number had served more than Siteen years. In the city schools, if considered by themselves, the result is still more satisfactory. There the average experience of teachers is nine years and four months, and only six per cent, of them had an experience of one year of less, while more than faty-two per cent. have taught more than five years, and about thirty-six per cent, more than ten years. The average term of service in the same school in cities is seven years retained in the same schools an average of thirteen years. jad four months, the highest average being in Gloucester, where the teachers have been

TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES.

"The State board of examiners has issued during the year nine first-grade State cerhas been exercised to place these certificates in the hands of those teachers who not only tificates, twenty-four of the second grade, and twenty of the third grade. Great care possess the academical qualifications required, but who are also in other respects thoronghly qualified. While scholarship is essential to the teacher, the ability to control and to teach is no less so, and therefore the board has not depended solely upon an examination as a test of qualification, but has required of the applicant a record of successful experience as teacher and as principal. The State certificate of the first grade is the only diploma that marks the holder as one who has fairly entered his profession, and one who is thoroughly equipped for its practice. It should be the aim of every teacher in the State to pass through the stages of apprenticeship as soon as possible, and secure this final guarantee of fitness. "Of county certificates, 1,932 have been issued as against 1,925 during the previous year. About eight per cent. were of the first grade, and about fourteen per cent. of the second grade. This is a decided improvement over the previous year, when only four and one-half per cent. were of the first grade, and only ten and one-half per cent. of the second grade. That seventy-eight per cent. of all the teachers applying for examination a certificate will do very well for a beginner, but no teacher should be contented to reare satisfied with a certificate of the lowest grade is not creditable to the aspirants; such main on this lowest round of the ladder for any considerable time."

66

SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

Fewer districts raised special taxes for building and repairing, and less money was raised than in the previous year, yet thirty-three new houses were erected and other improvements made to the extent of $223,167. Although one hundred and fifty houses are reported as poor" or made in their general condition and that houses which were formerly reported as "good" very poor," it is very probable that a great improvement has been are now returned "poor," their condition now being compared to new and elegant buildings while formerly they were compared to crumbling and leaky buildings which have given place to better ones. Still there are left a great many dilapidated and incommodious houses which should be discarded. Under the law passed in 1886, school districts can borrow money at five per cent. from the State school fund for the purpose of erecting buildings, and make gradual payments until the debt is extinguished. As a large sum of money is spent annually for the erection of school-houses and as many applications are made to the State superintendent for plans and directions for buildings, he recommended that an appropriation be made for this purpose.

Not only are there many school buildings not suitable for the purpose, but there is not a sufficient number of such as there are; particularly is this true in the cities. In the entire State sixty-one per cent. of the school population was enrolled, and if the cities are taken by themselves, fifty-two per cent. were enrolled. As a great many of the schoolrooms were greatly overcrowded, we can conclude that the present school buildings are very inadequate to the comfortable accommodation of the school population, and hence it is not strange that the law for compulsory education is a dead letter.

OVERCROWDED ROOMS.

So great has become the crowding of children into school-rooms, that it was thought advisable to collect the statistics on this subject, and we find that the evil is now diminishing although it has not by any means disappeared. In 1883-84 there were one hundred and sixty-two rooms having eighty pupils or more, in 1885-86 there were one hundred and seven, and in 1886-87 there were ninety-two, and of these fifty-two were in

the cities.

In the entire State there were forty-one rooms having from eighty to ninety pupils, twenty-six having from ninety to a hundred, and twenty-five having more than one hundred. Not only is it impossible for one teacher to properly instruct so many children, and in the overcrowded rooms the children are usually quite young and therefore need much more personal attention, but there is great danger of serious injury to their physical health on account of imperfect ventilation and other unavoidable evils.

FURNITURE AND SUPPLIES.

"In the

In this respect a great improvement has taken place since the last report was made. Fifty-five more school-houses have been furnished with the modern patent desks, but there are still two hundred and forty-six buildings not supplied with them. Quite a number of schools have been furnished with maps, charts, dictionaries, etc. matter of blackboards no improvement has been made, there still being two hundred and seventy-one schools insufficiently supplied, principally in the counties of Monmouth, Middlesex, Morris, Cumberland, and Sussex. The trustees are much to blame for neglecting to supply so important an aid to their teachers, and perhaps the teachers are not entirely blameless for not pressing the matter more frequently upon the attention of school officers."

ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS.

The last school census showed the population of school age to be 374,011. Of this number 61 per cent. attended public schools, 10 per cent. private schools, and 29 per cent. no school at all. This is a much larger number of children not attending school than can reasonably be accounted for, and shows that quite a number of the children are growing up in ignorance. A large part of the non-attending children are in the cities where it has been shown there was a great lack of school accommodations, and no doubt this was, to some extent, the cause of the non-attendance. In thirty-one cities and boroughs only eight had an enrolment of 70 per cent. of their school population, while nine enrolled less than 50 per cent. This is conclusive evidence of the need of greater school accommodations, as even with the present small attendance the schools are overcrowded.

SCHOOL TERM.

The average school term throughout the State was nine months and ten days, the longest being in Mercer County, ten and two-tenths months. Only two counties, Atlantic and Ocean, had an average term less than nine months, as required by law, the averago of the former being eight and eight-tenths months; of the latter, eight and five-tenths

months. In the cities, considered by themselves, the average term was ten and onetenth months, all of them keeping their schools open ten months except Atlantic, where the term was nine and five-tenths months.

TEXT-BOOKS.

"The constant improvement in text-books is a marked feature in the progress of our educational work. The books are now all so good that the task of selection requires a close and critical examination and an intimate acquaintance with educational methods and needs. Thanks to the conscientious care and professional efficiency of our county and city superintendents and to the honest co-operation of the local boards, there is but little to complain of in this direction.

"But however good the text-books may be, they are but little better than none at all if there be a lack of uniformity in any district. Our reports show an improvement in this respect, but there are still one hundred and thirty-four districts where there is not such uniformity.

"Decided progress is also shown in the increased number of districts that furnish text-books to the pupils. In the previous year there were one hundred and eighty-three sach districts; in the past year there were two hundred and forty-four."

The arguments in favor of the free text-book plan, especially in the large cities, are too strong to be neglected, and in no way can the schools be more benefited than by the adoption of free text-books.

LIBRARIES FOR SCHOOLS.

The schools having established libraries now number eight hundred and forty-two; bat, during the sixteen years the law for school libraries has been in force, many more should have been established. The appropriations for the past year amounted to $2,780, which was distributed among two hundred and twenty-four schools. In many districts the libraries have been attended to with much care, and many additions made to them until now they serve a very useful purpose; while in other districts the books have become lost or destroyed, so that a library exists in name only. To make the libraries a success the books should be preserved with great care, and well-selected additions made to them from year to year so that the children would take an interest in them.

EVENING SCHOOLS.

Evening schools were held in eleven cities and were attended by 7,956 pupils, an infrease of 632 pupils over the attendance of the previous winter. The average term of the schools was twelve weeks, and the number of instructors was 191 at an average weekly compensation of $7.17.

NEW LEGISLATION.

Legal holidays.-By act of April 8, 1837, the following are made legal holidays: Febmary 22, Decoration Day, Labor Day (first Monday in September), and any day on which a general election is held for members of Assembly.

Cerpended school funds. Any balances of the State appropriation remaining in the hands of the township collectors at the close of the school year may be re-apportioned by the county superintendent among the districts of the county.

NEW MEXICO.

[From the Report of the Governor, October 10, 1888.]

A

The educational interest of the Territory has not been neglected. Though there has not been that advance that was hoped, yet substantial progress has been made. compulsory school law was passed at the last session of the Legislature, but its defects were such that it has been practically inoperative, yet it was a step in the right direction, and whatever effect it has had has been good.

On the whole, the school attendance has been increased, larger amounts of money have been expended in the maintenance of public schools, the number of these schools has increased, as has also the number of denominational and parochial schools and the attendance thereon. The schools of the Territory generally are in perceptibly better condition, and an increased and increasing public interest in the education of the youth

Tery manifest."

As many of the lands set apart by Congress for school purposes are very desirably lotated, they are constantly appreciating in value, and some of them are already quite rainable, so that if leased they should serve to augment the school funds to a very con

siderable extent.

"The persistent efforts to the education of the Navajo and other Indian children are beginning to show good results. All the Indian schools are well attended, and the children are being satisfactorily inducted into the ways of civilized life and in the establishment of habits and education that can not but have a beneficial effect upon their surroundings as they return to their homes, young men and women to dominate by num bers and educated habits of life their several localities. The establishment of these schools in accessible relation to the relatives of the pupils was a wise and thoughtful measure."

NEW YORK.

UNIFORM EXAMINATIONS.

Through the exertions of Superintendent Draper a bill providing for uniform exami nations of teachers throughout the State was passed by the Legislature, but it was vetoed by the Governor; nothing daunted, however, he provided sets of questions for examinations which were to be held on the same day, and appealed to the school commissioners to use them and thus secure uniformity without legislative compulsion, and in July, 1888, he was able to announce that all the school commissioners had adopted the plan,

[From Report for 1887-88 of State Superintendent Andrew S. Draper.]

GENERAL STATEMENTS.

"It may properly be said that the year has been one of marked educational activity. The department has had its hands more than full, while superintendents in the cities, commissioners in the country, and the great body of trustees and teachers everywhere have been industriously at work. It is more than doubtful if any other year in the history of the State has witnessed so much of interest, so much of effort, and, it may be added, so much of accomplishment on the part of all grades and classes of educational workers as the one which has just closed. While I have frequently said, and now repeat, that we have no such perfect school system as the present and prospective circumstances of our imperial State require, it must also be said that this fact is attributable to difficulties inherent in the organization and framework of the system, to a lack of comprehensiveness, completeness, symmetry, and practical effectiveness in the machinery of the system, rather than to lack of interest or of inclination on the part of the great body of those charged with the duty of administering it. Officers and teachers have, with rare exceptions, attended the conventions, associations, and institutes of the year; they have cordially supported all measures for improvement; they have cheerfully responded to all calls upon their time and effort, and in a thousand ways and upon innumerable occasions have manifested their strong desire for the substantial and intelligent advancement of the work, as well as their readiness to do whatever it was possible for them to do to accomplish it."

"The criticisms of the public schools which have appeared with frequency in the lit erary magazines, whether reasonable or not, just or unjust, have drawn the attention of educators and pointed out the necessity of perfecting a public school establishment which would be above legitimate criticism. This has inspired much thought and frequent conference with a view to a clearer understanding of the exact work which the public schools ought to undertake, as well as to bring about such an adjustment of machinery as will bring the different parts into harmonious action, economize labor and cost, and insure general results in the most satisfactory and effectual way."

"In short, on every side a new and healthful interest in public school work on the part of those charged with the carrying on of that work is apparent. That interest is active, substantial, wide-spread, and conscientious. It is already exerting a perceptible influence upon the schools, and I am confident it will not be long before it will be much more strongly felt."

ATTENDANCE.

The statistics with reference to attendance at school furnish occasion "both for some satisfaction and considerable solicitude. They show that the school work of the State has grown somewhat in substantial character during the last thirty years, but that there is comparatively a smaller attendance upon the schools than formerly." Since 1861 there has been a remarkable increase of 135 per cent. in the school population of cities, but in the towns there has been an actual decrease of 15 per cent. Both the total number of children attending schools and the average daily attendance have gradually increased, but the per cent. of the whole number of children of school age in attendance upon schools has as uniformly decreased. In 1851 the per cent. of school population in attendance upon schools was 75.6; in 1861 it had fallen to 65.2; in 1871 to 68.4; in 1881 to 61.4; and in 1888 it was 58.2, smaller than in any previous year.

COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE.

This decrease in the proportion of children attending school was found to be so continuous and uniform that it was thought by school officers and others cognizant of it that inactivity would no longer be justifiable. Accordingly, after much investigation and labor a bill was prepared by a committee of city superintendents, and pre-ented in the Assembly where it received a favorable report from the committee on education, but it failed to become a law. The failure of the Legislature to pass the bill will not, however, deter the friends of education from further efforts, as it is recognized by all that the present law is inoperative, indefinite, and without adequate provision for its enforcement. The State superintendent was anxious to obtain all information possible as to the best methods of securing full attendance at school, and so he addressed letters to the American ministers at London, Paris, and Berlin, making inquiries as to the methods of education adopted in those countries, and in all of them it was found that the children were required to attend school, and indigent children were furnished with clothing, and meals in the middle of the day.

TEACHERS.

Of the 31,726 teachers in the public schools during the year, the number reported as having been employed for a continuous term of twenty-eight weeks or more was 23,052. A circumstance much to be regretted in connection with the public schools is the frequent changing of teachers. During the past year efforts were made to ascertain the number of terms each teacher had taught in the same district, and of the 10,631 districts reporting this item, in more than one-half of them the teachers had taught the same school but a single term, and in more than four-fifths of them the same teacher had not been employed longer than a single term.

Worthy teachers, practically without power to protect themselves, and deserving nothing but regard and help from the public, are made the foot-ball of school district polities or family feuds, or are persecuted through the petty spite ordinarily aroused in narrow-minded parents by any efficient discipline in the school. There are, moreover, trustees who seem to think that they are chosen to be dictators and a law unto themselves, rather than the administrators of a great system organized and governed by law, and who put their misconceived notions into effect, and, as the most convenient means of showing their authority, gratify their self-importance principally at the expense and

discomfiture of the teacher.

"It is incumbent upon the State to see that only persons of unquestioned moral character, of aptitude for the work, and of ample qualifications, shall be permitted to I shall presently refer. Having secured character and qualifications in a teacher, it is teach in the schools, and it is endeavoring to do this with thoroughness, in ways to which

bound to throw around the position such safeguards as will make it tolerable and self

respecting.

are employed for an indefinite time, the practical effect of which is continuous service so "In cities teachers are employed at least for the school year. Very commonly they de of a school year without good reason would be resented by public sentiment, as it ability to fill the place continues. Any attempt to remove a teacher in the mid

as

ught to be.

་་

6

There the trustee attempts to employ a teacher as long as she suits,' or 'gives satisfacBut this is not so in the country; at least it is the exception rather than the rule. tion for the very purpose of being able to dismiss her at any moment when some simpe incident transpires which is not in accord with his poor ideas, or because he may prefer to give another the place."

TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES.

According to the law of 1875 certificates of the State superintendent can only be issued upon examination. During the thirteen years previous to that time the State superin. tendent issued two thousand and eighty-eight certificates; during the subsequent thirteen years he issued only three hundred and nineteen.

The old certificates are not highly

appreciated by either teachers or school officers; the new ones are regarded as of the highest ralne. These certificates are issued only after a searching examination, and no one s eligible to try this examination until after two years' experience in teaching. States by which the certificates given by the State superintendent or a normal school The State superintendent has made arrangements with the superintendents of several dene State shall be recognized in the other.

The system of uniform commissioners'

examinations has been adopted throughout the entire State, and it is giving entire satition. The whole number of candidates examined was 21,156, of whom 645 received irst-grade certificates, 6,068 received second-grade certificates, and 9,469 received certificates of the third grade. The third-grade certificates are only valid for six months, and are renewable only once upon examination; the second-grade certificates are valid