(d) THE SECONDARY SCHOOL OUGHT TO BE SUBDIVIDED INTO TWO ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

AND A SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

A six-year unit in the elementary school is not objectionable. The extreme immaturity of the pupils requires a long period for substantial achievement. The amount of basic knowledge and power to be acquired by them forbids selection of pupils and specialization of their activities at any time within the first six years. But these arguments do not hold in the case of the high school. The students are more mature; they are free from the restrictions of compulsory education; they are already discovering the personal interests and limitations which point toward specific types of training and life work. They feel the pressure that comes from the financial limitation of their families. No matter how varied the offering of studies is, or how adjustable the privileges of election, the six-year course is not an attractive or practical scheme for all those who might be able to pursue their general course beyond the primary school. It ought to be subdivided into two administrative sections: (1) A junior high school of three years, extending from the twelfth to the fifteenth year; and (2) a senior high school, also of three years, covering the period from the fifteenth to the eighteenth year.

Such a subdivision and point of articulation is necessary upon social as well as individual grounds. A three-year junior high school will assure a larger number of citizens possessing some cultural training of a secondary grade than a six-year high school. A point of articulation in the middle of such a high school system would afford an appropriate position for the establishment of vocational schools of a type now largely missing in the proposal for vocational schools.

When we examine the schools' traditional provision for vocational education, we find it almost confined to professional education. The more recent proposals and innovations deal almost entirely with the training for those commercial, agricultural, and industrial occupations which may be entered soon after the completion of the elementary course of study. A casual analysis shows that the middle groups of occupations that are distributed between the industrial trades at one extreme and the professions at the other are not adequately cared for. The scheme of vocational education must finally include these, if our provision is to be efficient.

The period of general education beyond the elementary school

must provide frequent points of articulation, so that the inevitable selective function of the liberal schools may be supplemented by a series of vocational schools into which those who cannot go on may be distributed. Under the scheme thus far discussed, points of articulation between the general scheme of education and a special series of vocational schools would be provided at the twelfth, eighteenth, and twentieth years. The gap between the twelfth and the eighteenth year is too large to suit human nature, economic ability, or social needs, and should be broken in the middle, say, at the fifteenth year. This is in line with tendencies already established, as no other suggested point of articulation within the six-year high school is.

VII. STANDARDS OF ACCREDITING SECONDARY SCHOOLS [From Bulletin of North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, March, 1915, pp. 2-4.]

The aim of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools is, first, to bring about a better acquaintance, a keener sympathy, and a heartier coöperation between the colleges and secondary schools of this territory; second, to consider common educational problems and to devise best ways and means of solving them; and third, to promote the physical, intellectual, and moral well-being of students by urging proper sanitary conditions of school buildings, adequate library and laboratory facilities, and higher standards of scholarship and of remuneration of teachers. The Association is a voluntary organization consisting of representatives of both secondary schools and colleges. It is devoted solely to the highest welfare of the boys and girls of this territory, and it bespeaks the cordial and sympathetic support of all school men. The following constitute the standards for accrediting secondary schools for the present year:

1. No school shall be accredited which does not require fifteen units for graduation. More than twenty periods per week should be discouraged.

(A unit course of study in a secondary school is defined as a course covering an academic year that shall include in the aggregate not less than the equivalent of one hundred and twenty sixtyminute hours of classroom work, two hours of manual training or laboratory work being equivalent to one hour of classroom work.) 2. The minimum attainment of teachers of academic subjects shall be equivalent to graduation from a college belonging to the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools

requiring the completion of a four-year course of study or 120 semester hours in advance of a standard four-year high school course and including at least eleven semester hours in education. This shall include special study of the subject matter and pedagogy of the subject to be taught. Such requirements shall not be construed as retroactive.

3. The number of daily periods of classroom instruction given by any teacher should not exceed five, each to extend over at least forty minutes in the clear. The board of inspectors will reject all schools having more than six recitation periods per day for any teacher. 4. The laboratory and library facilities shall be adequate to the needs of instruction in the subjects taught.

5. The location and construction of the buildings, the lighting, heating, and ventilation of the rooms, the nature of the lavatories, corridors, closets, water supply, school furniture, apparatus, and methods of cleaning shall be such as to insure hygienic conditions for both pupils and teachers.

6. The efficiency of instruction, the acquired habits of thought and study, the general intellectual and moral tone of a school are paramount factors, and therefore only schools which rank well in these particulars, as evidenced by rigid, thorough-going, sympathetic inspection, shall be considered eligible for the list.

7. The association will decline to consider any school whose teaching force consists of fewer than four teachers of academic subjects exclusive of the superintendent. The association recommends the introduction of the so-called vocational subjects, such as agriculture, manual training, household arts, and commercial subjects into schools where local conditions render such introduction feasible, but the inspectors will hold that a sufficient number of qualified teachers must be added to provide adequately for such instruction.

8. No school shall be considered unless the regular annual blank furnished for the purpose shall have been filled out and placed on file with the inspector. Schools in good standing will make a complete report on teachers once in three years; but full data relative to changes should be presented annually.

9. No school whose records show an excessive number of pupils per teacher, based on average attendance, shall be accredited. The association recommends twenty-five as a maximum.

10. The time for which schools are accredited shall be limited to one year, dating from the time of the adoption of the list by the association.

11. The agent of communication between the accredited schools and the secretary of the commission for the purpose of distributing, collecting, and filing the annual reports of such schools and for such other purposes as the association may direct, is as follows: (a) In states having such an official, the inspector of schools appointed by the state university. (b) In other states the inspector of schools appointed by state authority, or, if there be no such official, such person or persons as the secretary of the commission may select.

The association is conservative, believing that such policy will eventually work to the highest interests of all. It aims to accredit only those schools which possess organization, teaching force, standards of scholarship, equipment and esprit de corps, of such character as will unhesitatingly commend them to any educator, college, or university in the North Central territory.

VIII. STANDARDIZATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS BY STATE SUBSIDY MINNESOTA

[From Rules of State High School Board Relating to High and Graded Schools. Bulletin No. 45, 1913.]

HIGH SCHOOLS

1. Application for State Aid.

a. Applications shall be made on the official blank and not later than August 1st of the school year for which aid is asked.

b. Applications shall be referred to the high school inspector. He or an assistant shall visit such schools during the ensuing year, and the inspector shall submit a special report to the high school board at the next annual meeting.

c. The inspector shall not recommend the listing of schools in districts having an assessed valuation of less than $200,000, or a total enrollment of less than 200 pupils. The assessed valuation of associated territory may be counted.

d. High schools hereafter listed are required to maintain two industrial departments in charge of teachers holding special industrial certificates issued by the superintendent of education.

e. A state school shall be defined as a school which has received state aid to high schools, and is under the supervision of the high school board. The application of a school for supervision does not confer a right to the name before state aid has been granted.

2. Granting State Aid.

a. At the annual meeting following a year during which a school has been under supervision, the high school board, taking into consideration the report of the inspector, the report of the examiner, and such other information as may be at hand, shall grant state aid to schools whose work and organization are satisfactory and give promise of permanency. By provision of the law, no school receives aid in excess of the amount expended in carrying out the purposes of the act, exclusive of the cost of buildings and repairs thereon.

b. The high school inspector shall report on the yearly expenditure of each high school. The special report shall include: (1) The part of the superintendent's annual salary in excess of $600.

(2) The salaries of high school instructors. In case of instructors giving part time to high school work, proportionate credit shall be given, but in case the eighth grade is combined with the high school for purposes of instruction, the entire salary of at least one instructor shall be charged to grade work. No part of such salary shall be counted in reckoning high school expenditure.

(3) The cost of library fixtures and library books. No credit shall be given for expenditure already balanced by gift or by state aid to school libraries. School boards are at liberty, of course, to make any purchase they may desire, but no credit shall be given for the purchase of subscription books or expensive sets unless the inspector's approval shall have been secured prior to such purchase. Free texts for ordinary class use shall not receive credit.

(4) The cost of laboratory fixtures and apparatus. No credit shall be given for charts, for unusual or expensive apparatus, for sets of apparatus, or for any devices sold by traveling agents, unless the approval of the inspector shall have been secured prior to such purchase.

3. Removal from the List.

Schools failing to comply with these regulations, or not maintaining the required standard of efficiency may be dropped from the list. The inspector shall advise the local superintendent and the clerk of such possible action.

4. Requirements for Admission to State High School List.

a. A suitable building providing not less than five grade rooms below the high school, and high school quarters consisting of at least an assembly room, a recitation room for each instructor, a laboratory and an office. The conditions for health and other sanitary appointments, including toilets, water supply and disposal