schools, whose standing (as above determined) in reading, spelling, language, arithmetic, geography, writing, drawing, music, and German (if studied), is good, very good, excellent, or perfect (7 and above), with good deportment, shall be promoted to the next higher grade without examination-the pupils in grade D by the superintendent. The pupils in grades C, B, and A, of the intermediate schools, whose standing in reading, spelling, arithmetic (mental and written), geography, English grammar, composition, United States history (grade A), writing, drawing, music, and German (if studied), is good and above (7 and above), with good deportment, shall be promoted to the next higher grade without examination-the pupils in grade A by the superintendent. "Pupils in either district or intermediate grades, whose standing in not more than three branches is below good (or 7), and in not more than one of these three branches is below tolerable (or 6), may be promoted, provided, that all these lower estimates are not in the daily and more essential studies; and provided further, that their habitual diligence in study, taken in connection with their proficiency in the other branches, constitute satisfactory evidence that, if promoted, they will do successfully the work of the next higher grade. A pupil's fitness for promotion is not to be determined by making a general average of his standing, but by his standing in each of the several branches as above indicated. The pupils in grades H and G are to be promoted without written examinations and without monthly estimates.

"In case the parent or guardian of a pupil is dissatisfied with his or her non-promotion, such pupil's fitness for transfer shall, on the application of the parent or guardian, be determined by a written examination, the results to be considered as additional evidence of the pupil's proficiency; and, in case the parent or guardian is still dissatisfied, it shall be the duty of the principal to report the case, with all necessary information, to the superintendent of schools."

Cleveland, Ohio.-The school year is divided into two terms, and the promotions are made at the close of each term. Pupils in the first half-year of any grade are said to be in the second or lower division of that grade, and those in the second half-year are in the first division. In all grades below the high school, promotions are made from the second to the first division without examination, unless those who are not recommended for promotion desire to take the examination. If such pupils reach a suitable standard in examination they are given a trial in the higher division. In passing from one grade to another, however, all are subjected to an examination, which counts for only half in determining the pupils' qualifications for promotion.

Allegheny, Pa.-Each principal is responsible for all promotions in his own school, but the superintendent determines the fitness of those pupils who desire to enter the high school. The tests in all cases are oral and written examinations combined.

Philadelphia, Pa.-Promotions from the primary to the secondary and from the secondary to the grammar schools are made semi-annually. Such promotions are subject to the direction of the superintendent, except that the promotions from the B to the A classes of the grammar grades shall be under the direction of the principals or supervising principals of the schools containing grammar grades. All promotions from the primary to the secondary schools are made only on the averages obtained at the semi-annual examinations. Promotions from one grade to another of the same school may be made at the discretion of the principal. The examinations are mainly in writing and occur semiannually. Pupils who complete the studies presented for the "senior class," and obtain general averages of not less than 70 per cent. on final examination are entitled to diplomas. Pittsburg, Pa.—“The principals of the several schools have full charge of promotions from grade to grade, except those from the highest grammar grades into the high school. In some of the schools promotions are made from class standing of pupils, in some by written examination, and in others by oral examination. Admission to the high school is by written examination, conducted by the superintendent and the high-school faculty, in orthography, reading, writing, drawing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, and history.' Providence, R. I.-"During the first five years of school life, pupils are promoted from grade to grade solely upon the judgment of their teachers. During years six to nine, inclusive, upon the united judgment of the teacher and the principal of the school, based upon daily work (determined by occasional marking of test exercises) and upon semi-annual examinations, the work counting two-thirds and the examination one-third in this estimate. In the high school the same method is pursued. Pupils whose daily work is credited at 80 per cent. or above are not subjected to the semi-annual examination. Pupils who have been twice over the work of any grade are promoted without reference to their record."

Milwaukee, Wis.-It the duty of the principals to report to the superintendent the results of all examinations for promotion within a week after their occurrence, together

Each "grade" is divided into a B and an A class, representing the first and second half-year's work, respectively.

with duplicate copies of the records of the pupils' regular work during the time they have been in the grade, and with specimens of the penmanship of the pupils examined. No promotions are made until the examination and record of pupils' work have been approved by the superintendent, and the promotions authorized by him. The basis of the regular class promotions is an average of credits obtained by the pupils in the final examination and in their regular work during the time they have been in the grade. An average of 70 per cent. of the combined standings in each of the subjects of reading, penmanship, and arithmetic, and an average of 70 per cent. in all other studies, entitle pupils to promotion, but those who fall below this standard may be promoted if upon re-examination they obtain a standing of 70 per cent. in each of the studies mentioned. Pupils completing the full course of instruction in the elementary schools and obtaining in the combined record of grade work and final examination an average of not less than 70 per cent. in each of the studies of reading, language, spelling, and arithmetic, and an average of not less than 70 per cent. in all other studies, and who obtain not less than 50 per cent. of the maximum standing in either of the records of work and exam-, ination respectively, receive certificates entitling them to admission to the high school. "The superintendent may exempt any pupils from examination and grant promotions or certificates to said pupils upon such written vouchers and upon such records of the pupils' work, presented by the principal and class-teachers, as shall be in his judgment a satisfactory evidence of the fitness of such pupils for promotion without resort to examination."

EXAMINATIONS AS A BASIS FOR PROMOTION.

The discussion of the examination question has continued during the year with unabated vigor, though it is apparent that the movement opposed to examinations has reached a point beyond which its progress must be slow indeed. It may be true, as one enthusiastic advocate of the "teacher's estimate" system has said, that "examinations for promotion will soon be things of the past-an unpleasant memory," but it is not likely that such a condition of affairs will exist for a number of years at least. A large number of sturdy believers in the efficacy of examinations must be converted or removed from their present commanding positions before it may be expected to witness the final decease of the examination system.

In the last Education Report, extracts were presented showing in what esteem the written examinations are held in Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities. The following paragraphs show the favorable opinions of a number of other officers controlling systems of various degrees of importance:

"Examinations of too great frequency, or improperly conducted, or when made the sole test of advancement, may be hurtful, and give plausibility to the charge of cramming; but as a means of putting a pupil to the test, and of compelling him to reduce to written form his knowledge on the subject of his studies, they are almost invaluable and should not be banished entirely from the schools." [Mr. J. E. Sater, president of the board of education, Columbus, Ohio.]

"The semi-annual examination for graduation serves a most important purpose in the school economy. It constitutes a standard toward which all-both teachers and pupilsmay strive; it unifies the work of the schools; it prevents unfit pupils from being graduated into the central school; and it is one of the most powerful agencies in the hands of the superintendent by which to discover and correct abuses and deficiencies in teaching." [Superintendent William H. Maxwell, Brooklyn, N. Y.]

"The superintendent has for two or three years had a special examination under his personal supervision, in order to ascertain the exact condition of each class. Experience has proved that this is the most valuable of all the examinations, and acts as a powerful stimulus on both teachers and pupils." [Report of the Public Schools of Savannah, Ga.] "There are at least two direct and highly beneficial advantages arising from the judicious use of written reviews. They are the one thing needful to reveal to teachers the lamentable and unaccountable misapprehension which some pupils are constantly getting in regard to their studies, from both their own efforts and the instruction of their teachWritten reviews also promote exactness of thought, definiteness of conclusion, and cultivate the power of clear and concise expression. Indirectly they are, when wisely treated, great helps in creating an earnest and high moral tone in the school, and thus often become efficient aids in securing good discipline." [Superintendent W. E. Buck, Manchester, N. H.]

ers.

"It is quite the fashion in certain quarters to denounce the written examination as putting too severe a strain upon the pupils, or as inducing a mechanical sort of work on the part of the teacher. It is true that written examinations may be so conducted as to do harm, and so any other good thing may be abused; but these examinations as they have been carried on in Hingham are a help to teachers and pupils. It is a good thing for a merchant to take account of stock at the end of the year, to balance his books and

see how he stands with the world; it is a good thing for a school-boy once in a while to be called upon to tell definitely what progress he has made, what power he has gained in the time that has passed. The examinations may be used to spur a lazy pupil, without unduly urging the one who studies faithfully; they make very good exercises in the use of language; our pupils do not worry nor fret over them; on the contrary, the children themselves see in the examination a means of finding out whether they really understand what they have studied." [Superintendent L. P. Nash, Hingham, Mass.]

"These examinations are in writing on the subject studied, and are intended to ascertain how much the pupils have been benefited, rather than how much they remember. I have found them valuable; they serve to show improvement and deficiences. The attention of the teacher is called to both." [Superintendent F. E. McFee, Woonsocket, R. I.]

"After all the agitation on the subject of examinations for promotion has had its day and the atmosphere has been cleared of the smoke of the conflict, I predict that the examination, by some other party than the teacher of the class, will survive as a prominent factor in determining the promotion and classification of pupils. It may not be difficult to conceive an ideal condition of things in which such means would be unnecessary and useless, but that condition does not now exist and, I am afraid, will not exist this side of the millennium." [Superintendent A. T. Wiles, Covington, Ky.]

"Well-conducted written examinations, at suitable intervals, furnish to teachers and pupils reliable information upon various matters which it highly concerns them to know, and which could be obtained by no other means. They reveal to pupils their deficiencies and acquaint them with the accuracy and permanency of their knowledge and their ability to express, in writing, what they have labored to acquire. They furnish teachers with the desired information concerning the knowledge or ignorance of their pupils of the subjects pursued, and reveal to them also the efficiency and defects of their own instruction." [Superintendent J. H. Davis, Somerville, Mass.]

Opposing views.-Dr. E. E. White, now superintendent of the Cincinnati (Ohio) schools, is pre-eminently the leader of the anti-examination crusade, and it is but proper to quote his utterances at some length. In his last report is the following:

"In considering, from a wider survey, the evils resulting from stated written examinations when used to determine the promotion and classification of pupils, and to compare schools and teachers, I once used these words:1

""They have perverted the best efforts of teachers, and narrowed and grooved their instruction; they have occasioned and made well-nigh imperative the use of mechanical and rote methods of teaching; they have occasioned cramming and the most vicious habits of study; they have caused much of the overpressure charged upon the schools, some of which is real; they have tempted both teachers and pupils to dishonesty; and last, but not least, they have permitted a mechanical method of school supervision.

"It is not asserted that these results, especially in the degree here indicated, have usersally attended the adoption of the "examination system." These tendencies have ween more or less effectively resisted by superintendents and teachers, and they have been measurably offset, in some instances, by other measures, as the considering of the recitation record of pupils; but the testimony of educators, competent to speak, confirms the writer's experience and observation, and inside facts show that the above indictment of the system, when used for the purposes named, is substantially true. In the very nature of things the coming examination with such consequences must largely determine the character of the prior teaching and study. Few teachers can resist such an influence, and, in spite of it, teach according to their better knowledge and judgment. They cannot feel free if they would. The coming ordeal fetters them more or less, whatever may be their resolutions, and many teachers submit to it without resistance; and this is sometimes true of teachers who have been specially trained in normal schools and are conscious of the power to do much better work. They shut their eyes to the needs of the pupil and put their strength into what will "count" in the exami

nation.'

"On visiting the schools I found on every hand these unfavorable influences of the system, and all efforts to secure the adoption of more natural and rational methods of teaching ran directly against this examination wall. I soon became convinced that no satisfactory change in school instruction could be effected while this hindrance was in the way, and the only remedy that promised relief was a radical one-the disuse of stated written examinations to determine the fitness of pupils for promotion. But this involved the devising of another method as a substitute, one that would afford relief and, at the same time, secure that degree of uniformity of attainment essential to the proper classification of pupils. The disposition to make a change was enhanced by the discovered fact that the examination system was failing to secure this result-the one specially sought to be attained by it. It was found on inquiry that the lower third of the pupils ad

1 Elements of Pedagogy, page 199."

mitted to the high schools in September, 1886, were in attainment more than a year below the pupils in the upper third of the class, and a like difference in attainments was found in the classes in the intermediate schools. The very thing that the 'percented examinations' were failing to secure, was needed uniformity of attainment.

"An impression seems to prevail that written examinations have been wholly dispensed with in the Cincinnati schools. This is an error. The written test is no longer made the basis for the promotion of pupils, and it no longer occurs at stated times, but it is continued as an element of teaching, where its uses are many and important. It is now distributed throughout the year and comes without previous notice.

"There is nothing in the new plan that prevents the superintendent from subjecting the instruction in any branch or in any grade or school to such tests, oral and written, as will in his judgment indicate the success of teachers or suggest and promote needed improvement in methods. It is believed that the use of special tests from time to time, the same being unannounced and unanticipated, are much more effective and salutary than a reliance on stated examinations for which pupils may be specially prepared and even 'crammed,' to use a word which, as an educational term, ought to be obsolete. Besides, it is not easy to prepare tests that will disclose imperfections in teaching and, at the same time, be a fair basis for promotion. An examination employed as an aid in teaching and study is one thing; an examination regularly instituted to determine the transfer of pupils is a different thing."

Other arguments advanced upon the same line are as follows:

"Nothing is more delightful to a teacher than to have his work commended, and if by industrious examination we ascertain the parts of each teacher's work that can be justly commended, he will daily seek to make it worthy of praise in all respects. The teacher is daily finding out the attainments of each member of his class, and when the time arrives for promotion, is it not wise, if we would properly grade the schools and stimulate the scholars, to avail ourselves of this knowledge? If the teacher knows that this opinion of his pupils, ascertained through daily contact with them in the classroom, is going to be the most important item in determining the question of promotion, will he not endeavor all the more faithfully to teach his class and manage it so that his work may have the greatest possible effect in getting his pupils ready for promotion? And will not the pupils, who know that their teacher mainly decides upon their fitness for promotion, be more anxious to work so as to deserve their teacher's good opinion? Under the present system there is no doubt of the fact that our pupils are acquiring not only more knowledge than by the old method, but that they are acquiring vastly more power, and what is most desirable, our teachers are encouraged to use better methods of instruction." [Superintendent H. A. Wise, Baltimore, Md.]

"The factitious importance of high per cents., a superstition in which pupil, parent, and teacher join, and which makes it almost impossible for the superintendent so to prepare for the examination as to have its real purpose carried out, makes it a time of excitement injurious in some instances to health, and injurious in all instances to sane habits of study." [Superintendent J. J. Burns, Dayton, Ohio.]

* *

"The plan of admitting to the high school without a special examination has been in operation for twelve years. * We are told that with our present method the high school will contain some poor scholars. This is true, and we presume this would be the case in any school under any system. A school is maintained for the benefit of the community, not for the purpose of affording a place where certain good scholars may recite daily. The schools must take the material that is found in the community and work with it. A dull child must attend somewhere. We can not select the class of pupils we desire. We can keep a child for years in one grade, but he cannot be denied the benefits of the schools, even if in the curriculum there are studies in which he fails term after term to pass an examination. We are told also that there will be shirking on the part of many unless the members of the class are driven to their work under the spur of an examination. This is a confession of weakness upon the part of teachers and examiners and a charge of lack of capacity and disinclination to work upon the part of the pupils. Not all who are enrolled upon a school register are capable of becoming good scholars. There are many teachers who are doing good work in the school-room to-day that were unable when pupils to pass a good examination. Their efficiency now, however, is not questioned." [Superintendent J. G. Edgerly, Fitchburg, Mass.]

"It seems wise that, if possible, the instruction in our schools should be freed from the narrowing and mechanical influence of the present system of examinations. Any attempt, however, to relieve the situation by freeing some branches from prescribed examinations might intensify the pressure on percented branches. I believe a large percentage of the teachers are decidedly opposed to that cramming and driving for per cents. and to a narrow-rut, routine method of teaching which these percented examinations necessarily impose on the schools." [Superintendent S. S. Taylor, St. Paul, Minn.]

PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Each year adds to the importance attached to the training of the first three or four years of a child's school life. In the last Annual Report of this Bureau the subject was touched, and an intimation given as to the increased attention which the lower grades were receiving at the hands of school boards. During the year just past this movement, if such it may be called, has extended until every city in which this Office has a correspondent has been more or less affected by it.

It cannot be said that the full importance of primary schools is yet universally recognized in the substantial matter of dollars and cents, but that importance is certainly realized; and such is the progressive spirit now manifested by school authorities that the realization of a genuine need is almost invariably the precursor of its recognition in the more substantial way.

It may, therefore, be confidently predicted that primary schools everywhere will soon be placed upon their deserved basis of equality, at least, with schools of higher grades, not only in the matter of equipment but in quality of teachers as well.

The extracts below show the reasons for the efforts that are being put forth in this direction, and in a measure, the progress already made toward the accomplishment of the desired end:

"Nearly two-thirds of the pupils attending our schools receive instruction in the primary department. Considering this, together with the fact that here the foundation of their training is laid, and that many pupils finish their education in them, there can be no question of the fact that these schools should receive the most of our care and attention-every convenience should be supplied, and every inducement held out, so that all the children of proper age in the city might be able to avail themselves of their humanizing influence. As they are equipped, organized, and conducted, so will our system bethey are the vital part, and their improvement or decline will in the greatest degree affect the whole system. They should be amply supplied with inviting school buildings, conveniently located, suitably arranged and furnished, and with experienced and wellpaid teachers." [Superintendent Henry A. Wise, Baltimore, Md.]

The views of Superintendent A. T. Wiles, of Covington, Ky., are expressed by this quotation from the late Joseph Paine, of the College of Preceptors, London:

"Whatever may be done in the case of those children who are somewhat advanced in their course, and who have, to some extent at least, learnt how to learn, it is most of all important that, in the beginning of instruction, and with a view to gain the most fruitful results from that instruction, the earliest teacher should be an adept in the science and art of education. We should do as the Jesuits did in their famous schools, who, when they found a teacher showing real skill and knowledge in teaching in higher classes, promoted him to the charge of the lowest. There was a wise insight into human nature in this. Whether the child shall love or hate knowledge-whether his fundamental notions of things shall be clear or cloudy-whether he shall advance in his course as an intelligent being or as a mere machine- * * * depends almost altogether on the manner in

which his earliest instruction is conducted."

"In a system of schools the primary grades are in many respects the most important. In our own city this is particularly so. In these schools, embracing the work of but three years, we have as many children and as many teachers as there are in all the other grades combined, covering a period of ten years of school work.

"For this reason the teaching in primary schools should be of a superior character, and teachers should be selected for them who are fond of children and who have an aptness to teach. At this age children are most susceptible to impressions, and it is in these schools where right teaching is of greatest value, and where poor teaching is most injurious. In advanced grades indifferent teaching may be endured without serious results, provided the child has had the advantages of good mental training in the lower grades, for this kind of teaching may have so trained his mind to proper habits of study that the pernicious effects of poor teaching in advanced grades will be greatly diminished." [Mr. William Connell, city superintendent, Fall River, Mass.]

"The greatest good to the greatest number demands the best teachers in the primary or first four years of school life. Seventy-four pupils of every one hundred never go beyond the fourth grade." [Report of the Superintendent of City Schools, Cairo, Ill.] "The primary department of our schools has received, as it should, the chief consideration at the hands of this board, and it is not too much to say that its efficiency has been doubled within the past few years.

"Among the first measures of reform in school organization in 1879 was the repeal of a system of salaries that did very great injury to this class of schools. No opportunity should be omitted to extend the efficiency of the primary schools; they are the basis of our system, and constitute that portion of it which carries the benefits of education to the largest number of our people." [Mr. Edward T. Steel, president of the board of education, Philadelphia, Pa.]