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Because of the individual authority of each State for its own educational program, practices and policies differ widely among them in many respects. Yet in the midst of differences there are also common elements of development. The U. S. Office of Education, in presenting this series of monographs, has attempted to point out those common elements, to analyze the differences, and to present significant factors in State educational structure. In so doing, it accedes to the requests of a large number of correspondents who are students of State school administration and who have experienced the need for the type of material offered in this series. The present publication is one of the series of monographs dealing with supervision. Essentially it includes discussion of the history and development of secondary school supervision, the supervisory personnel, the functions performed, the activities engaged in, and the working relationships which facilitate supervision at this level. Services rendered by personnel assigned to both high-school supervision and supervision of vocational education are included. Sections in this monograph include: (1) Development; (2) Organization and Personnel; (3) Functions; (4) Activities; (5) Cooperative Relationships; and (6) Some Recurring Practices. (Contains 10 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

This bulletin presents statistics of public high schools from 1937-38. This bulletin contains the following sections: (1) A 99-percent record; (2) Character of the tables; (3) Size of school; (4) Reorganization; (5) 11-year and 12-year systems; (6) Retention in school; (7) Graduates; (8) Professional staff; (9) Equipment; (10) Small schools and evening schools; and (11) Table index. An index is included. (Contains 65 tables and 2 figures.) [Statistical tables prepared under direction of David T. Blose. Best copy available has been provided.]

The period of youth is the real beginning of life's adventure. The individual has secured a background of facts and reaches out for the meaning that lies beyond. Ideals are sullied, powers are expanding, opportunity seems assured, and the romance of existence is undimmed. Red-blooded courage, devoted friendship, and high aspiration are its emblems. Accomplishment and success are hopefully expected and the future beckons with its prospects and its promises. Such is the American dream for youth. Many an adult looking back on its own youth of 40, 30, 20 or 10 years ago will recall the engaging uncertainties, the uneasy suspense. The dream was not all realized, but in its essential features it was. What about the youth of today? What does the future hold for him? What are his conditions, his needs, and his interests? Many communities have tried to find answers to these and other questions regarding their young people. By reference to the bibliography at the end of this bulletin one will find the names of the communities which have undertaken youth surveys and carried them to the point of publication. Naturally, many other communities have made various studies, but the reports are not available for distribution. The principal findings of these youth surveys are brought together in part I of this bulletin. Appended are: (1) Youth Census Schedule; and (2) Youth Survey Schedule. A bibliography is included. Individual sections contain footnotes. (Contains 21 tables.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

For many years the Office of Education has collected and published statistics of private schools. In 1933 there were on the mailing list of the Office of Education 11,515 private elementary and secondary schools in the continental United States. There are, doubtless, more private schools, but no means are available for ascertaining the exact number. In the spring of 1933 an inquiry form was sent to all the private schools on the list in order to collect information for the regular report of the Office of Education. Replies were received from 8,455 schools. Of this number, 123 had closed and 35 had become colleges. Of those whose reports are used in this study, 582 were schools of secondary grade, 5,697 were for pupils below secondary grade, and 2,018 were schools having both elementary and secondary school departments. Of the 3,060 schools not replying, 2,277 were elementary schools, and 783 were secondary or both elementary and secondary. From the reports received supplemented by information secured from other sources, chiefly the National Catholic Welfare Conference, it is estimated that there are at least 2,324,281 elementary and 345,277 secondary school pupils in all private schools of the United States. In the schools reporting there were 68,307 elementary and secondary school teachers, distributed as follows: Elementary (including nursery and kindergarten schools)--49,132; Secondary--19,175. (Contains 17 tables and 3 footnotes.) [This bulletin was prepared with the assistance of Blanche K. Choate, Julia E. Isdell, and Rose Marie Smith. Best copy available has been provided.]

This report includes data on: 23,213 public high schools in the continental United States and on 164 high schools in the outlying parts of the United States. The material was scoured from information blanks sent directly to the principals of the various high schools and returned by them. In some cases where replies were not received from the principals, data were obtained from records available in the files of State departments of education. The term "high school" as here used refers to junior, senior, junior-senior, undivided, and conventionally organized 4-year high schools. "Secondary grades" is used to denote the last 4 years of any public-school system which issues a high-school diploma on completion of the course. This is admittedly an arbitrary definition of secondary grades, but it is one which has been followed through a number of years in biennial surveys and it therefore appears best to retain it. By reference to the list of tables the reader will discover that the first table is in the nature of a summary and the last table a report on material equipment. The other tables divide into four groups, namely: (1) Classification of schools according to size (tables 2 to 4); (2) Enrollments by type of school, grade, sex, urban and rural, white and Negro (tables 5 to 40;); (3) Number of graduates and their continuance in school (tables 41 to 44); and (4) Number of staff members (tables 45 to 52). Many of the tables are for certain types of schools or are otherwise limited to some special group of schools or pupils. Those which contain figures for total as distinct from partial situations are the following: 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 41, 45, and 53. (Contains 62 tables, 4 figures, and 1 footnote.) [Statistical tables in this bulletin were prepared by David T. Blose. Best copy available has been provided.]

Education in the United States faces important problems in the large and increasing enrollments in secondary schools, in the wide variety of interests and the extensive range of capacities represented in the pupils coming to these schools, and in the peculiar needs by pupils of early adolescent age for advice and guidance on social, moral, educational, and vocational issues which they imminently must decide, no matter how inadequately prepared they may be to make the needed decisions. Moreover, since the end of the compulsory school age usually comes within the secondary school period, pupils are withdrawing at all times, thus placing a demand for flexibility in the courses such as is required at no other level. In its effort to record basic facts regarding the development of secondary education through the years the Office of Education includes data on secondary schools in the chapters entitled "Statistics of State School Systems" and "Statistics of City School Systems" which appear in every issue of the Biennial Survey of Education. Quadriennially in the same publication appear chapters on Statistics of Public High Schools and Statistics of Private High Schools. The present chapter on "Trends in Secondary Education" is included to provide opportunity for discussion of significant movements and undertakings which do not lend themselves appropriately to analyses so exclusively statistical in character as those previously mentioned. This chapter was written principally by Carl A. Jessen, senior specialist in secondary education. Certain sections of the chapter were prepared by other members of the Office staff. These contributions are indicated by footnotes at the appropriate places in the chapter. The subjects of the sections and their authors are as follows: (1) Exceptional Pupils (Elise H. Martens); (2) Vocational Education (C. M. Arthur); (3) Small High Schools (Division of Special Problems); (4) Tests and Measurements (David Segel); and (5) Guidance (Maris M. Proffitt). (Contains 5 tables and 37 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

Wartime conditions created a new interest in school-and-work programs for educators because the realities of employment were brought closer to the schools, and for those concerned with the protection of young workers because of the necessity for safeguarding the interests of these young people while on the job. School-and-work programs, under which high school boys and girls are released from some school time to take part-time jobs, gained sudden popularity during the war as a means of meeting demands of employers for young workers and the desire of students to become wage earners, as well as to help in the war effort. The U. S. Office of Education and the Children's Bureau collaborated on a joint study of school-and-work programs in American high schools. The study is not comprehensive in the sense of including all types of programs which involve combined school attendance and employment; rather, it was limited to inquiries to those programs which involved release from school time in order that the student might work for pay. In this report the wartime experiences of 136 school systems in 37 States with such programs are examined, the operation of the programs described, and their strengths and weaknesses analyzed. On the basis of the findings several suggestions are made for the use of school administrators considering establishment of school-and-work programs in the future: (1) The program must be justified on the basis of true educational value to the students; (2) School supervision must be relied on to conserve the health and strength of students undertaking this double program and to protect them from hazardous or unhealthful employment; and (3) A school-to-work program must rest on a foundation of genuine value to industry and to the community. Appended is the letter of inquiry addressed from the U. S. Office of Education to school officials concerning school-and-work programs. (Contains 1 footnote.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

Among the many factors in the recent development of secondary schools in the United States the following appear to be of special significance and for that reason have been selected for treatment in this article: (1) The numbers of schools and pupils; (2) the reorganization movement which presents the junior high school as its outstanding contribution to education; (3) the growth in junior colleges; (4) the important part played by private secondary schools; (5) the interest in curriculum revision; (6) the articulation of units which offers especial difficulties for secondary schools; (7) the cooperative attack on the problems of secondary education through an extensive survey national in scope. (Contains 4 tables and 24 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

During the period 1918 to 1926 the total population of the United States increased somewhat less than 15,000,000, not quite a 14 per cent growth, according to estimates of the Bureau of the Census. During this same time the number of high schools increased 5,400, a 33 per cent increase. The teaching force in these schools practically doubled. The number of pupils, too, came within a hundred thousand of doubling during the 8-year period. Costs increased more than 300 per cent. This bulletin discusses the following topics as they relate to secondary education: (1) Growth in public high schools; (2) The reorganization movement; (3) The Junior College; (4) The curriculum; (5) Articulation between educational units; and (6) Research and secondary education. (Contains 39 footnotes and 4 tables.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

This bulletin sets forth the results of a study of requirements for high-school graduation. It is believed that graduation requirements constitute a better index to a school's objectives than curriculum offerings, for if a subject is required for graduation, it must be studied, without regard to the pupil's desire. One of the important developments in American secondary education during the past 30 years has been the widespread adoption of the elective system. Various devices have been developed to make election of courses a matter for more deliberate consideration and less aimless choice. Advance registration, the counseling system, educational guidance, and similar plans are all designed to cause the pupil to examine values of subjects which he selects. In addition, certain restrictions are imposed which plainly limit his free election of subjects. Regulations of this latter type are usually incorporated into graduation requirements. Graduation requirements as they exist in the various States, and in individual high schools throughout the Nation, form the basis for the investigation. The contents of this bulletin include: (1) Letter of Transmittal; (2) Introduction: The elective system and graduation requirements; (3) Principles governing graduation requirements; (4) State requirements; (5) City requirements; (6) Graduation requirements of individual schools; and (7) Conclusion: The typical graduation requirement. (Contains 18 tables and 3 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

Periodically since 1890 the Office of Education has attempted to catch and keep a sort of survey picture of the developing secondary school curriculum. Each one shows the school's answer to the question of what is good--educationally--for boys and girls. Each one shows, too, through registration figures for electives, what boys and girls think is good for them--educationally. This bulletin now presents the latest study, based on 1934 data, of the secondary school curriculum. Sections cover: (1) Recurring studies of subject trends; (2) Number of subjects; (3) Trends in registrations, 1890 to 1934, including a guide to reading the data, and discussions of academic and nonacademic subjects: (4) Offerings and registrations in 1934, including a discussion of status and the subject areas of languages, mathematics, science, social science, health subjects, drawing and art, music, agriculture, home economics, commercial subjects, and industrial and shop subjects; and (5) An overview, or conclusion. (Contains 4 footnotes and 4 tables.) [Tables in this bulletin were prepared under the direction of Lester B. Herlihy. Best copy available has been provided.]

The publication and wide circulation of the monographs of the National Survey of Secondary Education offer an appropriate background for a statement on research needed in secondary education. The survey itself, comprising in the aggregate more than 4,400 printed pages, is a collection of important research studies relating to organization of schools, the pupil, administrative and supervisory problems and personnel, the curriculum, and the extracurriculum. It is to be noted that a number of important fields were omitted from consideration in the survey. These omissions were made by intention. Among them are history of secondary education, objectives, finance, training of teachers, and buildings and equipment. This limitation on subjects is carried through also in the present publication. This bulletin, in fact, follows rather closely the plan and content of the survey monographs. For instance, quotations and summaries of statements regarding needed research taken from the monographs appear from time to time in these pages. Where, as happens with most of the monographs, no listing of research studies is included, attempt has been made to draw out the implications and suggestions for research studies from the findings reported and the procedures employed. The author, while feeling free to draw his material from numerous sources, nevertheless has throughout maintained the viewpoint that this discussion is principally in the nature of a follow-up of the National Survey of Secondary Education. No effort is made to outline the research undertakings in detail. Such an attempt would carry the project far beyond its purpose and would be unnecessary, since students of education who desire to undertake any of the studies here suggested can secure assistance in planning their investigations from numerous specialists in the various fields covered. It is hoped that the problems recommended may be judged to be both important and susceptible of study by techniques already available or possible of development on the basis of the present information. It is further hoped that the information in this bulletin may have some influence in directing concerted attention to some of the important problems in the uncharted, changing, and growing field of secondary education. This bulletin is divided into three sections. Part I addresses the purpose of this publication. Part II describes some characteristics of research in secondary education: (1) Study of practices; (2) Experimentation; and (3) Coordinated and cooperative research. Part III covers the various fields and suggested studies, including: (1) Horizontal organization of secondary education; (2) Secondary-school population; (3) Reorganization; (4) Smaller secondary schools; (5) Secondary education for Negroes; (6) District organization; (7) Laws and regulations; (8) Articulation of high school and college; (9) Administration and supervision; (10) Selection and appointment of teachers; (11) Individual differences, marking, and promotion; (12) Guidance; (13) Interpreting the secondary school to the public; (14) The library; (15) Procedures in curriculum making; (16) Program of Studies; (17) Subject fields (Investigations applicable to more than one field, English, Social studies, Science, Mathematics, Foreign languages, Music and art, and Health and physical education); (18) The extracurriculum; and (19) Conclusion. (Contains 9 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]