Book -. P .r CopyiigkJJ!' CORfRIGHT DEPOSIT. THE VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION THE VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION Demonstrated with the Zone Plan in Rural Schools By MARVIN SUMMERS PITTMAN Head of the Department of Rural Education Michigan State Normal College Ypsilanli, Michigan BALTIMORE WARWICK & YORK, Inc. 1921 v^-''' r^ Copyright, 1921, By WARWICK & YORK, Inc. 0)CI,A630353 SEP24'2A ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer is indebted to many people for assistance ii. connection with the experiment upon which this discussion is based and the formulation of the data which present the results in their final form. He wishes to make special aacknowledgment to the fol- lowing : Dr. H. W. Foght, President of the Northern Nor- mal and Industi-ial School, Aberdeen, S. D., and Miss Lucile Trott, Coun't}^ Superintendent of Brown County, for their administrative support and personal assistance ; Misses Ida Buchert, Edna Luke, Martha Pabst, Birdie Williams, Mildreth Nolen, Lennie Cox, Vivian Neiger, Myrtle Wineland, Louise Low, Beulah Wil- liams, Marie Schrimpf, Ida Gunderson, Alma Wiedi- busch, Bessie Freeman and Mr. R. H. Rhoades for their co-operation as the teachers of the schools in which the experiment was conducted ; Various members of the faculty of the Northern Normal and Industrial School and especially Miss Ivy Husband and Mr. J. W. Thomas, who assisted in administering and scoring all tests and without whose help the experiment would have been practically impos- sible ; and Dr. W. C. Baglev ior^ constructive criticism, Dr. Fannie Wyche Dunned lor '•• jniost constructive sug- gestions and criticism, Dr. Wm. A. McCall for his V vi the; VAI.UE of SCHOOL SUPERVISION guidance in all of the statistical computation, and Dr. Frederick G. Bonser, whq served as chief advisor to the writer in the selection of the problem, the field activities of the experiment, and the writing" of this book. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction by Frederick G. Bonser i Chapter I. — The Problem, the Method, and the Results Stated A. The Problem 5 B. The Method 5 C. The Results and Conclusions 6 Chapter II. — The Determining Conditions of the Ex- periment. A. The Conditions Required 9 B. Required Conditions Found in Brown County, S. D 10 Chapter III. — The Equivalence of Groups A. Locations of the Two Groups 12 B. Particulars in which Groups Were Com- pared. 1. Types of Schools 13 2. Length of School Term 14 3. Social and Economic Status of Com- munities 14 4. Parentage of Children — Nationality, Education, and Wealth 15 5. Character of Teachers Employed — Age, Education, Experience, Certification... 16 Chapter lY. — The Zone Plan of Supervision Used A. The Zone Plan Defined 19 B. Calendar of Events for the Year 19 1. Supervisory Tours 20 2. Teachers' Meetings 21 vii viii table; oi^ contents C. A Sample Supervisory Letter 23 D. What the Supervisor Did While on a Tour 25 E. What Was Done at the Group Teachers' Meetings 30 F. Discussion of Teacher's Classroom and Demonstration Teaching 37 1. The Limitations of the Individual Con- ference 38 2. Advantages of the Group Conference. . . 38 Chapter V. — Community Activities of the Super- visor A. Visits in the Homes of the People 41 B. The School Newspaper for the Zone 42 C. Social Phases of the Teachers' Meetings. . 44 D. The "Health and Happiness" Meetings. ... 45 E. The Spelling Matches 47 F. The Crusade Against Gophers 49 Chapter VL — The Statistical Data of the Experi- ment A. The Tests 51 1. Functions Tested 51 2. Tests and Scales Used 51 3. When Tests Were Given 52 4. By Whom Tests were Administered 52 5. By Whom Tests were Scored 53 B. How the Data Which Used were Secured. 53 C. How the Data Are Presented 54 D. What Tables I-VH Show. 55 Table L Third Grade. . . : 57 n. Fourth Grade 58 in. Fifth Grade 59 IV. Sixth Grade. 60 TABI.E OF CONTe;nTS IX V. Seventh Grade 6i VI. Eighth Grade 62 VII. Summary — All Grades 63 E. What Tables VIII-XXI Show 64 Table VIII. Speed in Reading- 65 IX. Speed in Answering- Ques- tions on Reading 66 " X. Index of Comprehension. . . 67 " XI. Number of Questions An- swered Correctly on Al- pha 2 68 XII. Spelling 69 XIII. Composition 70 " XIV. Speed in Penmanship 71 " XV. Quality in Penmanship.... ']2 XVI. Number right in Addition. . 73 " XVII. Number right in Subtraction 74 " XVIII. Number right in Multiplica- tion 75 " XIX. Number right in Division. . yd " XX. Number right in Fraction . . yy " XXI. Summary of Equated Dif- ferences 78 " XXII. Summary of Percentages of Pupils Improving 80 F. Summary of Statistical Results 81 Chapter VII. — Other ResuUs Not Shown by the Standardized Tests A. Resuhs Indicated by the Children. ....... 83 B. Results Indicated by the Patrons 84 C. Results Indicated by the Teachers 89 D. Resuhs of Special Campaigns 91 X table: of contents Chapter VIII. — The Results of Supervision Re- stated and Discussed A. The Results 94 1. Amount of Superiority of Improvement 94 2. Monetary Value of the Supervisor's Service 100 3. Professional Reading of Teachers loi 4. Effect upon School Attendance loi 5. Effect upon the Progress of various Grades 102 6. Effect upon Retention in School of Older Pupils 103 7. Effect upon Social Life of Community. .104 B. Special Related Conclusions 104 1. Progress in Supervised Subjects not Det- rimental to Other Subjects. 104 2. Supervision Must Fix Attention upon Elements to Be Improved 106 C. General Conclusions from the Entire Study. 107 Chapter IX. — Further Elaboration of the Zone Plan Looking Toward Its Application A. The Sphere of the Supervisor 109 B. The Schedule of the Supervisor's Work.. 112 C. The Supervisor's Assistants 119 D. The Supervisor's Use of Publicity 123 Bibliography 127 INTRODUCTION Among all of the forms and grades of schools under public administration, there are none as much in need of supervisory guidance and help as the district schools in the open country. Such schools represent the most difficult supervisory problems found in our school sys- tem. Country schools are distant from each other and from county seats. Country roads are aften poor. To visit country schools is enormously expensive in time, money, and energy. It is difficult to bring teachers together frequently for group conferences. To develop any plan by which supervision of country schools may be made more efficient and at an expenditure of time and money which does not make it prohibitive is therefore to make a very genuine contribution to the progress of country school education. There is involved here, however, a very fundamental question as to the values of school supervision itself. Under whatever plan proposed, is supervision worth its cost.? Hitherto there has been no answer to this question supported by adequate evidence in concrete, scientific form. There has been no definite, measurable comparison of the progress of children and teachers who were supervised and of those who were unsuper- vised under conditions otherwise the same. The two problems, that of the worth of supervision and that of a plan of supervision sufficiently definite to measure the results of its operation were inseperably connected. The worth of supervision could not be I 2 THE VAI^Ui; OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION determined without an adequate plan for supervision, and such a plan could not be tested as to its worth without means for measuring school progress, thereby ascertaining whether there were values assignable to the supervision. Fortunately, we have now reached a point in the development of measurements in some school achievements which makes comparisons in prog- ress possible. Professor Pittman has succeeded in devising a "Zone Plan" of supervision by which he has been enabled to supervise a group of representative country schools much more intensely than is usual, and to measure the result of such supervision. For comparison he has had an equally representative group of relatively unsu- pervised schools with conditions other than those of supervision approximately the same. The results are highly gratifying. Positive values of supervision, sufficiently substantial to give them much weight have been demonstrated. The plan devised has been found practicable and not sufficiently expensive to make it prohibitive. While the advances in school progress clearly assign- able to supervision constitute the most definitely scien- tific evidence of the values of supervision, the evidences through the increased interest in school life by the children, the development of wider cooperation between home and school, the more intelligent and sympathetic interest of parents in education, and the enlarged professional spirit and growth of the teachers are all of significance in attesting the values of the work. These evidences are not yet measurable by reference to standards as are gains in the school subjects used INTRODUCTION 3 as bases of measurement. But that such evidences, when described, are clearly appreciable as quantitative- ly larger than the same types of interest and activity in unsupervised schools adds materially to the sense of value of supervision. In the plan used, there are elements of supervision which are distinctly new and which commend them- selves as highly worth while. The direct contact of the supervisor with both children and parents as well as with teachers is a feature of supervision in which Professor Pittman has made a pioneer contribution. He appealed to worthy incentives of both children and parents which elicited their cooperation and support in promoting the educational progress of the children and the community, both in school and out of school. The plan which he devised and employed makes this possible as no other general plan of county or district supervision has done. The experiment has therefore yielded two distinct though vitally related contribu- tions to the field of country school supervision — scien- tific evidence that supervision has positive values in a degree worth while, and a plan that is both practicable and educationally commendable. This plan of supervision requires the expenditure of more money than is usually devoted to rural supervi- sion. But this is also true of any plan of successful supervision of rural schools. There are very few coun- ties or districts in the United States in which there is an adequate number of supervisors to give proper help to the schools under any plan. By this Zone Plan, together with the methods of supervision employed by Professor Pittman, the cost would be as low as that 4 THE VALUE OE SCHOOL SUPERVISION of any plan yet devised, and it has the virtue of tested efficiency which gives reasonable promise that the money spent will bring results well worth all that they cost. District, county, and state superintendents should find this study of great value in working out their problems of rural supervision. The evidence which it contains should help them materially in convincing the authorities, whose financial support they must secure, of the values of supervision and of the practi- cability of a plan that has been found to work with demonstrated success. The experiment and its results inspire one with optimism and a renewed hope that the difficult and pressing problem of rural supervision has been brought very near to a satisfactory solution. The country schools and the country school authori- ties are placed under great obligation to Professor Pittman for his plan and the demonstration of its efficiency. All interested in elementary school super- vision are indebted to the study as furnishing positive evidence of the values of supervision in terms that are measurable and in degrees of worth sufficient to justify its reasonable cost. FREDERICK G. BONSER Teachers College, Columbia University Chapter I TKE PROBLEM, THE METHOD, AND THE RESULTS STATED A. the: problem Does the supervision of schools pay? If so, to what extent, in what ways and under Vv^hat condition? These are questions which the school administrators, the teachers and the taxpayers of America have been asking with increasing earnestness and frequency dur- ing recent years. With a view to giving at least partial answers to these important educational questions, the investiga- tion uiscussed in the following pages was undertaken. Since it was necessary to limit the scope of the inves- tigation, it was restricted to the following question : IVhat is the effect of supervision upon the zuork of rural schools zvhen the supervision is done' according to the Zone Plan? (The Zone Plan will be described later) B. the; method The equivalent groups method was used in conduct- ing the experiment upon which this discussion is based. The method is a familiar one to those acquainted with educational investigation. To others it is sufficient to say that two groups whose equivalence is determined, or whose difference is evaluated and allowed for, are compared in their ability to perform certain work. Ideally, the only element of difference between the 5 ■ • 6 the; value: op school supervision two groups is the one factor, the effect of which is being tested. In practice, this cannot always be abso- lutely the case but the differences can be determined in advance of the experiment and taken into account in evaluating the results. In this experiment the standings of the children in thirteen school functions were determined in the early days of October 1919 for both groups, the experimen- tal (the group under investigation) and the control (the group with which the experimental was com- pared). This was followed by seven months of super- vision of the school work of the experimental group only. The standings of the two groups were again determined in May, 1920. The differences in the amounts of improvements made by the two groups in the functions under investigation during the interven- ing seven months were credited to the effect of super- vision. C. THE RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS I. Results. The results of supervision in the ex- periment hereafter described were positive in the par- ticulars and to the extent stated below : (a) Children in the supervised schools, when measured by equated differences and by percentages of progress of the experimental group measured in terms of progress of the control group, advanced approximately 194 per cent, as far during the seven months in the particular functions under investigxation as did the children with whom they were conipared. (b) Upon this as a basis and assuming the social value of this type of educational material, the value of THE PROBIvEM 7 the service of one supervisor, who would produce such a difference in the total results of the school work for forty-five schoolrooms similar to those supervised, would be $45,102.15 per school year for that service alone. (c) The teachers under supervision did, approxi- m^ately, four times as much professional reading" as they themselves had done during the previous year and four times as much as the group of teachers with whom they were compared during the year of the experiment. (d) The average attendance, measured in terms of total enrollment,' was 76 per cent for the year in the supervised schools as against 70.7 per cent, in the unsupervised schools. (e) In the schools under supervision all of the children in the grades from three to eight, inclusive, made excellent progress with greater gains usually in the lower grades. In the schools not having super- vision, the children in the grades below the seventh did not make the progress which might have been expected if the progress of the seventh and eighth grades were taken as a standard by which to compare them. (f) Supervision served to keep in school childreir who were in the seventh and eighth grades. Of the children who entered those grades of the supervised schools, 92 per cent continued in school to the end of the year. In the unsupervised schools, only 69 per cent completed the school year. (g) Supervision promoted the social life of the community. 8 THE value; of school supervision 2. Supplementary Related Conclusions. (a) While supervision gave positive results in sub- jects supervised, it did not interfere with the progress of subjects not especially supervised. (b) In order to get the best results from super- vision, the attention of all concerned must be centered upon the particular phases which it is desired to improve. Chapter II DETERMINING CONDITIONS OF THE EXPERIMENT A. THE CONDITIONS REQUIRED Having decided to test the value of supervision of rural schools, to find a suitable place for conducting the experiment was the first problem which confronted the writer. Three conditions seemed necessary in order that the experiment might result in a successful performance, provide reliable data, and yield results of educational significance. These three conditions were : 1. The supervisor must have freedom to conduct the experiment according to conditions necessary for its scientific success. For this, two groups of schools having practical equivalence in all particulars, except the one factor of supervision, were required. What was done with the supervised schools should not be known or copied by the unsupervised schools. 2. The co-operative assistance of competent edu- cators was necessary at the time of administering and scoring the tests. 3. A territory, genuinely rural in character, was desired. The schools should be small, far apart, and •taught by teachers no more efficient than the average rural teachers of the nation. The weather conditions should be such as to test the determination of the super- visor. The travel conditions should be as difficult as that confronting the average supervisor of rural schools in any section of America. 9 10 TH^ VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION B. the; required conditions eound in brown coun- ty, SOUTH DAKOTA All of the conditions set forth above were happily met in Brown County, South Dakota. 1. Through the co-operation ot Miss Lucile Trott, the county superintendent of schools, the writer was privileged to conduct the experiment according to con- ditions mentioned in "A" above. Because of the large number of schools in the county and the lack of field deputies, Miss Trott was unable to make more than one visit to each school during the year. This visit was made to the supervised and unsupervised schools alike. No other supervisory assistance was given by the superintendent to the schools ot either group except that which was given through the regular institutes which were given to all teachers alike. Miss Trott very kindly gave permission to work with the teachers and children in any way which would improve the character of the work. 2. Through the co-operative assistance of President H. W. Foght and the faculty of the Northern Normal and Industrial School and of the county superintendent, sufficient competent assistance was provided for admin- istering the tests and scoring the papers. This assist- ance was rendered at such times and in such quantities as to give the most reliable statistical data. 3. Brown County, outside of the town of Aberdeen, is genuinely rural territory. A very large percentage of the schools of the county are one-teacher schools. They are located, on an average, about four miles apart. The one-teacher schools have an enrollment of from six to twenty pupils with an average of about CONDITIONS OF THE EXPE;riMENT II twelve. The teachers of these schools are usually young with 'limited training and experience. In order that the travel conditions in Brown County during the year of the experiment may be known, the following facts are given : The temperature ranged continuously below fieezing from October 25th to March 20th. A zero temperature or lower was registered during much of the time. The roads were impassable for anything but sleighs during several weeks of this time because of drifted snow. Travel was very difficult during the first month after the spring thaw. Chapter III THE EQUIVALENCE OF GROUPS A. I.OCATION OF TWO GROUPS COMPARE;d Two groups of schools located in Brown County were' selected for comparison. One group, known throughout this discussion as the experimental group, was composed of fifteen schoolrooms located south of Aberdeen. Another group, known throughout this discussion as the control group, consisted of twenty- five schoolrooms located north of Aberdeen. The writer was told by the county superintendent that in so far as she could tell the two groups were very much alike, with no advantage to either. They were arbi- trarily selected, therefore, being the fifteen schoolrooms most closely situated to each other in the one group and the twenty-five schoolrooms most closely situated to each other in the other group. The schools which formed the experimental group were located within an area whose measure was eight miles by twelve miles. The schools which formed the control group were within an area whose extent was about twice the size of that of the experimental group. B. PARTICULARS IN WHICH GROUPS WERE COMPARED In order to determine the extent of equivalence of the schools which formed the two groups, comparisons were made in the following particulars : 1. Types of schools. 2. Length of school terms. 3. Social and economic status of communities. 12 the; equivai^ence; of groups 13 4. Parentage of children — nationality, educa- tion, wealth. 5. Character of teachers employed — age, edu- cation, experience, certification and sal- ary. I. Types of Schools — Of the fifteen schoolrooms in the experimental group, eleven were one-teacher schools, four were in two-teacher schools. Of the twenty-five schoolrooms in the control group, fifteen were one-teacher schools, ten were in two-teacher schools. From another study made by comparing the work in all of the one-teacher schools in the two groups with the work in all of the two-teacher schools, the writer found that the work in the two-teacher schools was superior to that in the one-teacher school. The study upon which this conclusion was based compared 194 children in twenty-eight one-teacher schools with 182 children in fourteen schoolrooms in two-teacher schools. The children were compared by one test in each of thirteen functions. Out of a total of seventy-eight median scores, the scores of the two- teacher school group were equal or superior to the scores of the one-teacher school group fifty-eight times. From the results of this related study of the same children who are involved in the expperiment under discussion, the writer concludes that whatever advan- tage there was to one of the groups — the experimental or the control — the advantage in this particular was with the control group. This is true because a larger percentage of the children of the control group was in two-teacher schools than there was in the schools of the experimental group. 14 The value oe school supervision Considered from the point of view of the amount of taxable property supporting each child in school, the schools of the control group were also better situated. For each child enrolled in the schools of the experi- mental group, there was assessed property to the extent of $26,940.00, while for the children of the control groiip there was a property valuation for each child of $32,310.00, giving an advantage to the control group of $5,362.00 per child. 2. Length of School Terms — The control group had considerable advantage in the length of school terms. Seventy-six per cent of the schools of the control group had nine months terms while only sixty per cent of the schools in the experimental group had nine months terms. All of the other schools of both groups had eight months terms. The effect of longer school terms of previous years, taken with other fac- tors of superiority, was quite evident at the time of the initial tests, the median scores of the children in the control group almost uniformly ranging higher than that for the children of like rank in the experi- mental group. 3. Social and Economic Status of Communities — The social and economic status of the people living in the areas which formed the two groups was very similar.- To a casual observer there was practically no difference. From the data quoted under the last topic, ic appears that there was more wealth per child in the area of the control group. This was not perceptible to a superficial observer. There were five communi- ties in the control group where the people were closely enough associated to make two-teacher schools possi- THE EQUIVALE:nCE of GROUPS 1 5 ble, but since the area favored was fully twice that of the experimental group area, the advantage in this particular was slight. The people living in the two groups were removed about an equal distance from Aberdeen, the nearest trading center. There seems, therefore, no commercial advantage to either group. The social life of the people, outside of that provided by business contact, consisted chiefly of parties held at the homes of the people and of religious services conducted at the little centers of population. At no place in either area was there a very progressive social or religious organization which caused it to be a source of special influence. Taking all of the influ- ences combined in each group, but slight advantage to either group could be seen. 4. Parentage of the Children — nationality, educa- tion, zvealth — The people of Brown County are largely of German extraction. To the German element may be added about an equal number of people of Scan- dinavian and of English origins. The two sections of the county used in this experimenv seem to dififer very little in this particular. While there was an occasional school district in which the people were almost exclu- sively of German, Scandinavian, or English origin, usually there was a population composed of represent- atives of each nationality. The educational equipment of the people of the county is quite limited. Probably the fourth or fifth grade standard would be the average for the academic equipment for the adults of the rural sections in both groups studied. Of course there .were exceptions. There were some men with high school or college i6 the; vaivUE of school supervision training, but they were very few. A number of the women of the rural communities had been teachers before they were married. These few better educated people could be found in each of the groups studied but in neither were they sufficiently plentiful to perceptibly aflfect the results. In each of the groups, the people were financially comfortable. No extereme poverty was anywhere manifest. Exactly fifty percent of the patrons of the schools in each group owned their homes. The other fifty per cent, were renters. It was not evident to the casual observer who were renters laid who were owners of land. Some difference might be observed if the condition of the farm and residential upkeep were taken into consideration. It was not evident, though, tc anyone who met the people at public gatherings or who observed the children in the schools. The renter dressed just as well, rode in just as good an automo- bile, and used language that was just as nearly correct as did the average land owner. Practically all of the people were progressing from renters to owners, the younger people usually being the renters. 5. Character of Teachers — Age, education, experi- cnce, certification and salary — Important as are the four preceding topics discussed, not one of them is so important, possibly, to the reliability of the experiment as is that of the teacher. Here, again, we shall see that whatever advantage there is to one of the groups of schools arising out of the character of the teachers employed, that advantage accrues to the control group, rather than to the experimental. As is the case throughout the entire nation, so in THE EQUIVALENCE OF GROUPS I7 Brown County, South Dakota, it is the young teachers who teach in the rural districts. In practically every one-teacher school in both the experimental and con- trol groups, a teacher was in charge who was doing her first, second, or third year of teaching. After two or three years of experience the rural teacher usually marries or becomes a teacher in a school of more than one room. Such was the case in the two groups of this experiment. In no case was a teacher doing her first year of teaching in a two-teacher school. Since there was a higher percentage of teachers in two- teacher schools in the control group than in the experi- mental, it follows that in general a more mature group of teachers were teaching in the control than in the experimental group. The median educational training for the teachers of the experimental group was 4.2 years above the eighth grade, while the average was 3.74 years. The median for the control group was 4.36 years above the eighth grade, while the average was 4 years. Here again we see that the control group of teachers had a slight advantage. The median experience of the experimental group was 2 years, that is, the median teacher of the group was then teaching her second year. The average for this group was 4.74, due to the fact that one teacher in the group, Mr. Rhoades, was teaching his twenty- sixth year. This one case of long experience removed the average very far from the median of the group. The median experience of the teachers in the control group was 2.33 years. The average was 4 years. These facts would seem to give a slight advantage to i8 the; value; of schooi. supervision the control group since the median teacher of that group had had one-third of a year of experience more than had the median teacher of the experimental group. In the matter of certification, the experimental group had a slight advantage, since 46 per cent of the teachers held first grade certificates and 54 per cent of them held second grade certificates, v/hile in the control group only 36 per cent held first grade certificates and 64 per cent held second grade certificates. The salaries of the teacheYs average $96.25 per month for those in the experimental group and $94.50 for those in the control group. This advantage is possibly due to considerable increases received by some of the teachers of the experimental group during the year — due possibly to the interest resulting from the experi- nient itself. Summing up all of the conditions considered under our study of equivalence of groups, we see that the differences are not very great. The two groups seemed to be equivalent in the nationality and educational equipment of the people. Their social and commercial opportunities seemed not to differ perceptibly. The percentages of land owners and land renters were equal in the two groups. The experimental group was superior in the certi- fication and salary of the teachers. The control group had the advantage in having a higher percentage of two-teacher schools and a higher percentage of its pupils in two-teacher schools. The control group had more taxable property for the sup- port of each educatble child and a slightly longer school term. The teachers of the group had more "academic equipment and more experience. Chapter IV THE ZONE PLAN OF SUPERVISION USED A. THE ZONE PIvAN DEFINED A plan of supervision in which the supervisor divides his entire supervisory district into territorial units, each of which serves as the territoral limits for one week of supervisory effort has been designated by the writer as the zone plan. The purpose back of such territorial organization is to provide for systematic supej^ivison of classroom instruction, for convenient, effective, and democratic teachers' meetings, and for the development of a community consciousness on the part of rural communities with a view to inspiring and facilitating more effective social, educational and com- mercial action. Such a plan was used in this experi- ment. Since only one week out of each month was used by the writer for field service in the capacity of supervisor in the performance of the experiment, only one zone was used. If full time had been devoted to the experiment, three zones of about equal territorial area and number of teachers would have been taken as the supervisory load. B. CALENDAR OE EVENTS FOR THE YEAR The zone plan of supervision implies a calendar of the major events for the year's work. A college announces its calendar of events a year in advance. Why should not a supervisory district do so? Such a calendar was made for the zone in which this experi- ment was conducted. The calendar was made in the 19 20 the; value; of schooIv supe;rvision early days of September and carried out exactly as planned without the change of a single major item. Many minor details were introduced from month to month. The major plans and dates for the year gave stability and continuity to the work. The minor plans and dates provided variety and freshness. The major events of the zone calendar consisted of (i) supervisory tours and (2) teachers' meetings. The calendar as made, announced and carried out with only a single exception was as follows : I. Supervisory Tours Sept. 28h to Oct. lOth Initial survey of the experi- mental and control groups of schools. Oct. 27th to Nov. 1st First supervisory tour. Im- provement in the speed and comprehension of silent read- ing. . _ Nov. 17th to Nov. 22nd Second supervisory tour. Lan- guage : The elimination of spoken errors. Dec. 15th to Dec. 19th Third supervisory tour. Spell- ing : agricultural words as an agency for awakening a com- munity interest in schools and developing a group conscious- ness. Jan. i8th to Jan 23rd Fourth supervisory tour. Arith- metic : how to teach the four fundamental operations. Feb. 15th to Feb. 19th Fifth supervisory tour. Read- ing : how to secure effective oral reading. March 15th to March 19th Sixth supervisory tour. Lan- guage: how to develop a love for good literature. Health : how to develop the habits of ■ health. April nth to April 17th Seventh supervisory tour. Spelling: forming the habit of correctly spelling the words most often used. the; zone plan of supervision 2i 2. Teachers' Meetings Oct. 4th— First Meeting— at Warner lo A. M. to 3 P. M. (a) Grading some standard test papers in reading and interpreting the scores. (b) Noon. (c) Reading demonstration by supervisor suggesting methods of increasing speed and comprehension in reading. (d) Discussion of demonstration. Nov. 1st — Second Meeting — at Rondell No. 5, 10 A. M. to 3 P. M. (a) Demonstrations in reading by three teachers showing their methods of improving speed and comprehension. (b) Discussion of questions on reading developed during the month. (c) Language demonstration by supervisor. (d) Discussion of demonstration. (e) Noon — Community dinner. (f) Brief talk by supervisor explaining the plans for year. (g) Songs by children. (h) Readings by teachers. *Nov. 22nd— Third Meeting— at Highlands, 10 A. M. to 3 P. M. (a) Language teaching demonstrations by three teachers. (b) Discussion of language problems arising during month. (c) Spelling teaching demonstration — Supervisor. (d) Discussion of demonstration. (e) Language games conducted by the children. (f) Book Reviews — "The Brown Mouse" and "The Fair View Idea," by teachers. (g) Humorous readings — Supervisor, (h) Group singing. Dec. 19th — Fourth Meeting — at Warner, 10 A. M. to 3. P. M. (a) Brief reports of language work by teachers. (b) Brief demonstration by supervisor of methods of teaching fundamental operations in arithmetic. (c) Community spelling match in the spelling of agricultural words. (d) Noon. Zone Community Dinner. (e) Zone champions for each subject and grade in- troduced. (f) Two minute stunts by each school in the zone. 22 THE VALUE OE SCHOOlv SUPERVISION (g) Brief addresses by visiting educators. Jan. 24th— Fifth Meeting— at Warner No. i, 10 A. M. to 3 P.M. (a) Two arithmetic demonstrations by teachers. (b) Discussion of questions on arithmetic arising dur- ing the month. (c) Demonstration by supervisor in teaching oral reading. (d) Discussion of demonstration. (e) Noon. Community Dinner. (f) Penmanship demonstration by specialist. (g) Program by children. Feb. 2ist — Sixth Meeting — at Warner, No. 2, 10 A. M. to 3 P. M. (a) Demonstrations of teaching oral reading by three teachers. (b) Discussion of questions arising during the month on the teaching of oral reading. (c) Demonstration : How to memorize a poem. Miss Gallager. (d) Demonstration: How to tell a story — Miss Wil- liams. (e) Noon. Community Dinner. (f) Discussion: What I think of supervision. The teachers. (g) Discussion : What I think of supervision. The patrons. (h) Discussion: What I think of supervision. The supervisor. Mar. 20th— Seventh Meeting — at Warner No. 6, 10 A. M. to 3 P. M. (a) Language teaching demonstrations by three teachers. (b) Discussion of language question arising during month. (c) Spelling teaching demonstration by supervisor. (d) Discussion of demonstration. (e) Noon. Community Dinner. (f) Art exhibit and lecture by specialist. (g) Discussion : Why we cannot spell. By a specialist. (h) Industrial demonstration by children: How we make things. (This meeting had to' be cancelled because of a very deep snow which fell on March 19th.) April 17th— Eighth Meeting— at Mansfield, 10 A. M. to 3 P- M. (a) Written spelling match between the Blue and Whites. THE ZONE PLAN OF SUPERVISION 23 (b) Oral spelling match between the Blue and Whites. (c) Noon. Zone Community Dinner. (d) Addresses by visiting educators. (e) Stunts by the schools of the zone. (f) Announcing the winners in the contests. C. A SAMPLE SUPERVISORY LETTER While the schedule of visits of the supervisor was announced at the beginning of the year for the entire year, the writer felt that this was not definite enough tc serve the best interest of effective supervision. He, therefore, sent out a letter about one week in advance of his tour each time announcing the details of the tour. He gave the exact time that he would arrive at each school and the length of time that he would devote to each school. About an equal length of time was devoted to each school without reference to the efficiency of the teacher, the number of children, or the character of work found. Reasons for this will be discussed in a later section. The letter also contained a few pertinent suggestions with reference to the subject that would be under investigation during the tour. Announcements and other matters of general importance to the Zone were communicated through the letter. Below is given, as an illustration, the first letter announcing the exact dates of the supervisor's visits. October 20, 1919. Dear Teachers : — Below is given the schedule for my first regular visit as Helping Teacher. I have stated the time just as definitely as possible so that there may be as little lost time as possible and so that you may be able to present just what you want to present when I am with you Monday, Oct. 27th, Miss Buchert's school— 10 A. M. to 12 M. " , Miss Luke's School— i P. M. to 2 P. M. " , Miss Pabst's School— 3 P. M. to 4 P- M. 24 THE value: oi' school suplrvision Tuesday, Oct. 28th, Miss Knudson's School — 10 A. M. to 12 M. " " " , Miss Lowe's School — i P. M. to 2:15 P. M. " " " , Miss Wineland's School —2:15 P. M. to 4 P. M. Wednesday, Oct. 29th, Miss Birdie Williams' School —9 A. M. to 10:30 A. M. , Wednesday, Oct. 29th, Miss Nolen's School, 11 A. M. to 12 M. " , Miss Cox's School — i P. M. to 2 P. M, " " " , Miss Schrimp's School — 2 -.30 P. M. to 4 P. M. Thursday, Oct. 20th, Miss Beulah Williams' School — 10 A. M. to 12 M. " " " , Miss Neiger's School — i P. M. to 2 P. M. " " " , Miss Gunderson's School — 2 :30 P. M. to 4 P. M. Friday, Oct. 31st, Miss Weidebusch's School — 10 A. M. to 12 M. " " " , Miss Freeman's School — i P. M. to 2:15 P. M. " , Mr. Rhoades' School— 2:15 P. M. to 4 P. M. Saturday, Nov. ist, SECOND REGULAR TEACHERS' MEETING, HELD AT MISS PABST'S SCHOOL, RONDELL NO. 5, 10 A. M. to 3 P. M. I shall keep the above schedule just as nearly as possible and will be at the place named at the appointed hour PROVIDED (i) The Ford runs; (2) the temperature is not below zero; (3) I am not ill. While I am with you, I hope you will teach reading classes. If there is any time left, I trust that you will teach a lan- guage or grammar lesson. I hope you have found the suggestions that were made on sheet III distributed at the last teacher's meeting, helpful to you during the month. I trust that you have been making notes dailv on your efforts, results and observations. Will you be good enough to write all questions that you wish to ask help on either from me or the other teachers and give them to me when I come? This will helo you to write out your questions, will help me in studying them and be of help to all of the other teachers also. I shall compile all of these questions and have them ready for the Teachers' Meet- in ?■ on November ist. Of course vou are planning to be present at the Teachers' Meeting. The last one wag very interesting and profitably. THE ZONE PLAN OE SUPERVISION 25 Let's make each of the others even better. We want 100% present EVERY time. That will guarantee successful meet- ings. Miss Pabst and her people are to be our hostesses and we want to show them how we can show our appreciation. Will you please send me an item or two for the Zone Joy Maker (Monthly Bulletin) about your school that you think might be of some help to other schools and in which your own children and community take pride. I am looking forward to my visit to your schools with great pleasure and am sure I shall see some excellent reading. With best wishes, I am Yours very truly, M. S. PITTMAN, Helping Teacher. D. WHAT THE SUPERVISOR DID WHILE ON A TOUR I. The background and the cutlook for the tour. At each teachers' meeting" the supervisor taught a demonstration lesson in the subject which would be under special investigation during the month immedi- atel}' following the meeting. The supervisor's demon- stration had for its purpose the setting up of the problem for the month. It was not a model lesson but a suggestive lesson. There was a particular prob- lem to be solved. His demonstration was an attempted solution, not a conclusive one. After each demonstra- tion there was a conference at which questions were asked and difficulties pointed out. The teachers went back to their schools and had three weeks in which to experiment, read and think over the problem before the supervisor would visit them. Each teacher was asked to keep her eyes open tc difficulties and to discoveries. She was urged to experiment, to try her hand at new things. If she made a discovery it was to be given to the rest of her group, 26 THE value; of school supervision The teacher usually secured the co-operation of the children with some such statement as this : "Children, what is our subject for special study this month." "I wonder if we can do that subject better this month than we have ever done it before?" "Would you like to try some new ways of doing it?" 'Would you like to have the supervisor feel that our school can do that subject just as well as any school in the zone, or even better than any other?" With this background and this outlook the teacher and the children set to work. After three weeks of work they were prepared to be observed. They had lived through, in prospect, the visit of the supervisor. They had worked on their subject for a sufficient length of time to gain ease in doing what they did and to discover the difificulties which they had not yet mas- tered. They, both the children and the teacher, looked forward to the visit of the supervisor, therefore, as an opportunity to be both appreciated and to be helped. 2. Three or More Recitations of the Same Subject Observed. The teacher and tJie children knew in advance just when the supervisor would be with them and just what particular work he was coming to see. All of the people of the school community also knew. So did the supervisor know. This unity of purpose on the part of all concerned did much to stimulate effective work and to clarify the aims and the methods of work for all concerned. For the purpose of stimulating good work on the part of both teachers and children, there is perhaps The zone plan oe supervision 27 110 better means than the approaching visit of the supervisor. In the early stages of supervision this may cause a little nervousness and may lead to a dispo- sition to make an exhibition. These undesirable reac- tions soon disappear under sympathetic professional treatment and poise of manner and a high standard of regular work take their place. When the supervisor arrived at the school he was asked which class he would like to see first. All classes were prepared. Those classes were most happy which were called for. Not always did all classes get an opportunity to recite during the supervisor's visit. In some schools, certain classes were observed in the par- ticular subject under investigation and then a class or two in some other subject not under investigation were observed. This was regulated by the diagnostic indications in that particular school. As a usual practice, the supervisor observed at least three classes in the particular subject under investi- gation, one class each from the primary, intermediate and grammar sections of the school. This gave a good sampling of the school work and provided suf- ficient data for a clear diagnosis of the character of the work done in that school in that particular subject. The supervisor took brief notes, as unobtrusively as possible, of the work observed. This was for the purpose of living over later the details of what was observed and for conferring with the teacher. 3. Talked to the School — At tl.^e close of the super- visor's visit, he usually took about five minutes for talking to the school about the work. He desired to leave the children and the teacher pleased because of 28 the; value; o? school suPE;RvisiaN the work that they had done well and unsatisfied, not dissatisfied, with themselves over the work which they had not done so well. The remarks were addressed to the children. What was meant for the teacher was usually implied in what was said to the children. It was constantly the aim of the supervisor to inspire and to guide the schools rather than to criticize them. To leave the school feeling- that it had done well in certain particulars and ambitious to do even better the next time in other particulars is, in the writer's opinion, a better means through which to secure improvement than to leave the school conscious of the supervisor's disapproval and crestfallen because of its own failure 4. Conferred 7mth the Teacher — The supervisor's conference with the teacher while visiting the school was usually very brief and quite superficial. Only those matters of local and immediate importance were discussed at the classroom conference. The larger matters of professional importance were reserved for the general conference to be held with the entire group of teachers at the close of the week. (The group conference will be discussed later.) The reservation of the larger subjects for the general conference stimu- lated the attendance of the teacher at the group con- ferences. 5. Played tvith the Children — It is the belief of the writer that the children in the schools may be used very effectively as one of the agencies of supervision. This may be done by making the children aware of their standings in the various subjects and what their standing is compared with what it should be. When this is done, it serves to fix a goal of attainment for THE ZONE PLAN OF SUPERVISION 29 the children. The children thus develop a different attitude toward the school, the teacher, and the super- visor. The confidence and the good will of the children must be won and held in order to keep them in this attitude toward the school, its vvork and its officials. One of the most effective means through which this may be done is play. Believing strongly in play as an agency through which to get the confidence of the children, the writer tried to have at least one game with the children upon each visit to the school. Some- times it was a game with a pedagogical purpose such as a language game, a folk dance, or a physical drill. Sometimes it was an indoor game whose only purpose was a trick and a laugh. Sometimes it was an outdoor ''rough and tumble." Sometimes the children served as the leaders, sometimes. the writer led the game. The play developed a spirit of comradeship which carried over from the play to the work. It eliminated that reserve and self-consciousness on the part of children while in the schoolroom which prevents them from doing themselves credit while in the presence of visitors. 6. Visited the People— li the supervisor's visit to the school affects only the school, then, one of the largest agencies of and for rural betterment has been overlooked — the home. It was the writer's hope that his visit to a school community might bear the maxi- mum of good results. It was with this purpose in mind that he advertised the exact date and purpose of his visits to the schools. Every parent of the com- munity knew exactly when ahd for what purpose the 30 TH^ value: of school supervision supervisor's next visit would be. This made it possible for any of them to visit the school at the same time the supervisor did, if they so desired. They were enabled to confer with him upon any matter with which they thought he might give assistance. This informa- tion stimulated constant interest on their part in the particular work which was being carried forward at the school. It provided for a constant change in the topics of family and community discussion. The supervisor met and visited, briefly, many parents while at the school buildings and while traveling along the roads. He visited a far greater number, though, in their own homes. He always had more invitations than he could accept to visit in the homes of the people. It was while on these visits that the close personal friendships were formed, educational possibilities were discussed, and support for progressive school measures was secured. E. WHAT WAS DONE AT THE GROUP TEACHERS' MEET- INGS The group meetings of the teachers held monthly had a number of purposes. The major purpose, of course, was the professional improvement of the teach- ers. The meetings were held on Saturdays, with one exception — ^December. Attendance was entirely volun- tary. The meetings began at lo a. m. and closed at 3 p. m. From io-to-12 was devoted strictly to the pro- fessional part of the program and was attended only by the teachers and such children as were present for demonstration purposes. The afternoon session from i-to-3 was devoted to work of a less professional nature and had for its purpose the entertainment of fHE zone; plan of suPERvigioN 31 the general audience. The forenoon part of the pro- gram usually consisted of ( i ) a teaching demonstra- tion by the supervisor, (2) a conference based upon his demonstration, (3) a teaching demonstration by two classroom teachers and (4) a conference based upon their demonstrations, (5) a summary discussion o-f the subject under investigation. I. The Supervisor's Demonstration — The purpose of the supervisor's demonstration was to initiate the next subject to be emphasized by the group. The special problem for the month was set by means of a brief duscussion led by the supervisor. His demon- stration, then, was an attempt to suggest a way by which that problem might be solved. The following instance will illustrate this point. As stated in an earlier section of this chapter, the first part of the first group meeting of the teachers held on October 4th was devoted to the scoring of some of the standard tests in reading given just a few days before in the schools in which the teachers taught. The teachers were not familiar with standard tests. They did not know how fast children could be expected to read silently and how well they could be expected to understand the things they read. By the time the teachers had each scored a few papers and the scores had been_aranged into a table of distribution, with the quartiles, medians, and averages located, the whole problem of teaching silent reading began to dawn upon them. They saw that some children were reading four times as rapidly as others in the same grade. They began to see that the rapid readers were usually the ones whose comprehension was highest. The natural 3;^ the; value; of school supLrvisioi^ question, then, was "How can the speed and compre- hension of silent reading be increased?" To answer this question then became the major aim of the teachers for the next month. As a further preparation of the teachers for the observation and criticism of a recitation in silent read- ing the following general suggestions were distributed and discussed briefly before the demonstration was given : GENERAL SUGGESTIONS ON READING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS M. S. PiTTMAN, Helping-Teacher, Brown County, S. D. Silent Reading Authorities declare : 1. That we do much more silent than oral reading. 2. That school practice usually retards rapid, thoughtful silent reading, because : (1) The school does not give sufficient emphasis to speed and thought getting in silent reading. (2) Schoolroom practice fixes a very slow reading rate. (3) It too often fixes the habit of lip reading. (4) The limits of the lessons are so fixed that it often deadens interest in reading. (5) It destroys the child's initiative. (6) It too often fixes the habit of overlooking the thought and centers the attention upon less im- portant details. 3. That silent reading can be MUCH more rapid, than oral reading. " 4. That rapid readers can reproduce much more of what they read than slow readers can and do it with a higher percentage of accuracy. If these assertions are true, we should give more thought and time to teaching silent reading and less to teaching the type of lessons of which the critics complain. In our silent reading we should have two big purposes : 1. To develop speed. 2. To develop power in thought getting. How to secure these : I. Use literature that is easy for the reader, the; zone; plan of" supervision 33 2. Use literature that has a strong appeal for the reader, 3. Have contests for speed and thought getting, 4. Have large lesson or story aims, 5. Have small paragraph or special thought aims. When the essential phases of the preceding sugges- tions had been located, the supervisor distributed to the teachers the following brief outline of the lesson which he would teach. The teachers were requested to follow the outline as they observed the recitation. TO ILLUSTRATE HOW TO SECURE RAPID THOUGHTFUL SILENT READING Text: Baldwin & Bender's Fifth Reader, Pg. 216-221. Lesson Title: WHO IS THE HAPPIEST MAN? Words to be presented : Croesus, Solon, Tellus, Cyrus, pyre. Children's general aim : To find who is he happiest man and why. Children's specific aim: To find the answers to the follow- ing questions in the shortest possible time. 1. To whom is a wealthy man compared? 2. What did King Croesus say of himself? 3. To whom is a wise man compared? 4. What question did Croesus ask Solon as they dined together ? 5. Why did Solon think that Tellus was so deserving of happiness ? 6. Who did Solon think were the next happiest? Why? 7. How did Solon say we could tell when a man is happy and why? 8. ■ What order did King Cyrus give his soldiers about Croesus? 9. What did the savage soldier say as he ran for a torch? 10. What did Croesus exclaim as he lay on the pyre? II. How did Cyrus decide to treat Croesus and why? 2. Conference on Supervisor's Demonstration — Af- ter the lesson was completed, a brief conference was held. The following are some of the questions asked and discussed : I. I noticed that Clifford was always the first child to find the answer to the question. Would not this 34 the; vai,us op schooi, supervision make him vain? Should he be in this class in reading? 2. I noticed that Mary was always the last one to find the answer. Would this not tend to discourage her? Should she be in this class in reading? 3. What should be done to bring the slow pupils up to the speed of the rapid ones? 4. What should be done with the rapid ones while the teacher is working with the slow ones? Other questions were asked but these are sufficient to show that the group was gettiag at the heart of the problems which confront the teacher of silent reading. 3- Suggestions for the] Folloiving Month — ^This meeting closed by the supervisor giving to the teachers the following list of suggestions for their guidance during the following month. BROWN COUNTY HELPING-TEACHER DISTRICT M. S. PiTTMAN, Helping Teacher Suggestions to Guide the Work in Reading During Month of October 4 — November i 1. Study very carefully the S. D. Course of Study. It is EXCELLENT. We should know ALL that it says on Reading. 2. In addition to the Course of Study, each teacher should study carefully at least one of the books listed below. 3. Become thoroughly conscious that our problem is to teach the child (a) how to get the thought for himself from the printed page and do it easily, rapidly and thoroughly; (b) how to give the thought to others in an effective and pleasing manner. 4. Since SILENT reading is used more in every-day life than ORAL reading, we should cultivate great skill in silent reading. Let's make efficient silent reading our major interest for the next month. 5. Keep constantly in mind your problem, your aim, in the teaching of reading. Vary your devices for accom- plishing your aim. 6. Keep notes on each new device you use as to its suc- cess or failure. Explain its results to yourself. Writ- the: zone plan of supervision 35 ten notes made at the close of each day on your ef- forts will help to clarify your thinking and. will aid you in setting up new standards. 7. When you find a good device, work it HARD until you become expert in its application. Keep daily notes on your own growth in its use. 8. Jot down daily knotty questions that trouble you and ask the counsel of the helping-teacher when he comes. 9. Put down each day some question that you would like to have answered at the next teachers' meeting. 10. Take note of any new solutions to your problems so that you can give them to the other teachers of the group. 11. Remember if you hope to develop speed in the reading of your children, you must (a) Provide material that is easy for them to read, (b) Provide material that is very interesting to them, (c) Have sufficient periods in which you test their power to get thought speedily. (d) Your personal experimentation in this work will aid you in teaching. What is your own rate of silent reading? Are YOU up to standard? SUGGESTED READING FOR THE MONTH: 1. Teaching Children to Read — Klapper. 2. Special Methods for Reading for the Grades — McMurry 3. Reading — How to Teach It — Arnold. 4. Reading in Public Schools — Briggs and Cofifman. 4. Primary Reading — Mcthod\s of Teaching in Ten Cities — Educational Pub. Co. 6. Five Messages to Teachers of Primary Reading — Sawyer. 7. The Story in Primary Reading — Van Ambaugh. 8. The Dramatic Method of Teaching — Finlay-Johnson. 9. How to Teach Reading — Hall. 10. Ho7(.' to Teach the Fundam,ental Subjects — ^^Kendall and Mirick. 11. Teaching the Common Branches — Charters. 12. The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading — Huey. The plan of procedtire above detailed is illustrative of the part which the supervisor performed each month in connection with each new subject taken up for study. Such a detailed statement might be given for all of the seven group conferences but it seems superfluous. 36 the; value: of school suplrvision 4. De'monstration Teaching by the Teacher — ^After four weeks of experimentation and practice upon the subject demonstrated by the supervisor, two teachers usually would teach a lesson in the same subject for the observation of the group. On November ist, four weeks r.fter the supervisor's demonstration discussed above, three of the teachers of the group, Misses Luke, Wineland, and Pabst, taught lessons for the observation of the group illus- trating the devices which they had used during the month in order to improve the speed and comprehen- sion of children in the art of silent reading. Miss Pabst taught a third grade class, Miss Wine- land a fifth grade, and Miss Luke an eighth grade. 5. Sununary Discussion of Silent Reading — The particular demonstrations were not discussed in detail as was the demonstration of the supervisor the pre- vious month, but a general summary discussion of silent reading was had. This discussion was based upon a composite list of questions which had been con- tributed by the various teachers. The questions were answered in the light of the supervisor's and the teach- ers' demonstrations, the four weeks of classroom trial, and the reading and thinking that had' been done during the month. The followinjg questions con- stituted the list : (a) In just what particulars is a recitation which has for its special purpose the development of speed and comprehension superior to the usual "Read next" type of recitation? (b) If a child, in order to gain in speed, fails to get the thought, what is to be done? THE ZONE PLAN OP SUPERVISION 37 (c) If a child reads very slowly and still fails to get the thought, what is the cause? What is the remedy ? (d) Which is the best method by which to improve the speed and comprehension in silent reading — read- ing from a regular text in class, reading other ma- terial such as newspapers, or reading books at home? What is the service to be rendered by each of these? (e) Where there is only one child in a class, what can be substituted for the rivalry for developing speed in reading? (f) What are the principal causes for slow read- ing? How may the particular causes that afifect each child be located? When they have been located, how ir the best way to use that knowledge to improve the speed of the child? P. DISCUSSION OP teacher's CLASSROOM AND DEMON- STRATION TEACHING In general, critical discussion of lessons observed was undertaken in the group meetings only. The dis- cussions in the individual classrooms were of minor consequence, usually encouraging in tone, and but pre- liminary to the thorough-going analysis and discussion of the group conference. The writer adopted this procedure for the following reasons : I. Limitations of the individual conference — When the supervisor visited the school, the situation was rarely such as to make an individual conference with the teacher satisfactory or productive of the greatest results, because 38 THE value: of school supervision (a) The time available was too limited. (b) The physical situation was not conducive to professional poise. The children were usually present. There were many other matters which the teacher had ir mind— the conduct of the children, the temperature of the schoolroom, etc. (c) Intellectually, the teacher was probably unpre- pared for full appreciation of any suggestion which might be given that had any psychological or peda- gogical depth. (d) The mind set of the teacher was not such as to make most profitable an individual conference based upon her own teaching. 2. Advantages of the group conference — In view of those limitations, the supervisor endeavored to sup- ply the greater part of the necessary professional guidance through group conferences. The group con- ference professionalizes the discussion of teaching method in a way that is practically impossible in the individual conference. This is especially true when the individual conference is held at the teacher's own school immediately after the supervisor's observation of her work. The distinct advantages of the group conference were : (a) There was sufficient time to concentrate upon a professional problem, come to realize its nature, depth, and some of the possible methods of procedure for its solution. (b) The physical situation was conducive to con- centrated and continued thought upon the problem. (c) The mind set of the teachers and the supervisor was such as to welcome the presentation and discus- sion of the knotty problems of classroom method. the; zone; plan o? supervision 39 (d) Freed from the responsibilities of the class- room, equipped with one month of professional reading and classroom practice in connection with the idea under discussion, the teacher was intellectually pre- pared for an intelligent consideration and discussion of the problem. (e) Since whatever was done was done explicitly for the entire group, the demonstrations and discus- sions were freed from the personal elements which might have entered to embarrass the teacher or the supervisor and thereby check the frankest discussion of the problem. (f) By means of demonstration for the group and discussion by "the group, the educational principles were stripped of the personal bias that would enter to limit the discussion in an individual conference. (g) In the group conference the teachers them- selves were the critics instead of the supervisor. This not only' relieved the supervisor of the possible odium arising from his criticism but it added power to the teachers. (h) The group conference developed an esprit de corps among the teachers which the exclusive use of the individual conference would not have made pos- sible. (i) The greatest stimulus to professional reading came through the group conference. When one teacher saw another teacher take a professional book to read during the month, she was disposed to do like- wise. When one teacher heard another make an excel- lent report of some book which she had read, or use to good advantage some point which had been gleaned 40 TH^ VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION from a book recently read, she also was fired to similar purposeful reading. (j) The group conference generally led to a more satisfactory individual conference, subsequently, than v/ould have been possible otherwise. Afer the teacher had the principle fixed in her mind upon which the group was working, she was then usually anxious to get definite help and suggestion so that she might put into practice what she had come to understand in prin- ciple. She had a professional background suitable for making a personal conference not only profitable but thoroughly, pleasant both to herself and the supervisor. (k) Finally, the group conference was a great time saver for both the teachers and the supervisor. Within two hours of demonstration for and discussion by the group, the entire group of fifteen teachers had fixed in mind principles that it would have taken each one, working separately, much longer to grasp. Chapte;r V COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES OF THE SUPERVISOR In addition to the work which the supervisor did with the teachers and the children, which had for its immediate purpose the improvement of the character of the school work, the sueprvisor participated in other activities, the purpose of which was to stimulate and help the social and economic life of the community. The purpose of such stimulation and help was to increase the service of the school and to win for the school a more intelligent and whole-hearted support. These activities were along six lines : A. VISITS IN THE HOMES OF THE PEOPEE The writer believes that the best results can be obtained in the supervision of the schools only when the people understand what is being undertaken. With the purpose of informing the people and with enlisting their interest and co-operation, he decided to visit them in their homes. He announced early in the year that he wanted to visit the patrons. He wanted to take a meal or sleep at the home of every child in the zone. By actual count, he did succeed in doing so in fifty per cent of the homes of the zone. The visit in the home served as particularly illumin- ating to the supervisor. He saw what the economic status of the family was. He learned something of the family history. He came to understand its social outlook. He discovered the particular interests of the children in a way that mere schoolroom observations 41 42 the; value; of schooIv supe;rvision could never reveal. He entered into friendly relation with all of the members of the family. He was mitiated into the home life and after that his interest seemed to become their interest. Their interest became his guide to effective work. The visit was the shuttle which knit their several interests into a consistent edu- cational purpose for the community. What they needed determined his action. What he desired became to them a command for support. This relation could scarcely be developed or maintained without the friendly visit of the supervisor in the homes of the people. B. THE SCHOOL ne;wspape;r for thf zone As one of the means by which the supervisor in- formed the people of the educational situation, its needs and its achievements, he used a little paper which, for the purpose of appealing to the children, was called "The Joy Maker." In this little paper he presented, in very simple terms which the smallest child could understand, the aims for the year's work. Here was published the results of the initial survey of the schools with the scores of every child so that he and his family could see how he ranked with every other child of his age and grade in the entire zone. This was explained in terms such that the third grade children could understand them. They understood it so well that any child could tell how he ranked as compared to the median of his grade in all of the thirteen functions in which he was examined. In the paper were published the news items of interest about each school in the zone. The teachers' meetings, the visits of the supervisor to the homes of the people, COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES OF THE SUPERVISOR 43 the community meetings held at any school building, and all such items were told about in this little papeT. One copy of the paper was sent to every home in the zone where there were children. There were a number of requests for it in homes from which there were no children in the school. The supervisor de- livered the papers while on his supervisory visits to the schools. The school newspaper seems to have been one of the most effective agencies of supervision used by the su- pervisor. In order to get an estimate of the services which it rendered, the county superintendent sent out a questionnaire to the teachers in which she asked what service it rendered. The following are some of the replies : 'T find that most of the parents themselves read 'The Joymaker,' but as some of them cannot read Eng- lish very well, I urge the pupils to take turns in read- ing it to their parents." "The publication of this little paper, 'The Joy Ma- ker," helps to keep every one interested in the work. The children are simply delighted to see their names or something about their school in this paper. I find that the parents are just as pleased as the children are." "I know some people who read more English when they read 'The Joy Maker' than they do during the rest of the month put together." The supervisor felt that it served to introduce the people and the progress of one school community to all of the other school communities in the zone. He felt that through it the community was prepared for any approaching event that was to occur later. The 44 THE VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION entire zone was, as a result of the little paper, not only reviewing the events of the past and understanding the happenings of the present, but it was living, educa- tionally, in the future. If the old statement is true that anticipation is more delightful than realization, the school people have been very remiss in the past in that they have not made large enough factor of antici- pation. "The Joy Maker" made anticipation, perhaps, the largest element of the school work. As the writer recalls the year's work, he feels that he heard more expressions of joy arising out of the things which came as a result of the school paper than from any other phase of his work. The humorous supplement to the paper ("The Smil- ing Sheet") was another means for educational propa- ganda. In it were presented little educational sermons in humorous fashion. Each month's issue carried a theme — presented in cartoon form. School buildings were presented one month. At other times school at- tendance, the shifting of teachers, the hospitality of the people and such ideas were dealth with. The peiple, in general, enjoyed the humorous section of the paper and saw the serious point presented by it. C. SOCIAL PHASES OF THE TEACHERS' MEETINGS The teachers' meetings had a purpose beyond the improvement of the technique of teaching. The im- provement of technique of teaching was the chief pur- pose and was the idea around which the program was made, but it was not the sole purpose. Community attitude toward education is as important as the teach- ers' technique. Each meeting of the teachers, there- COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES OF* THE SUPERVISOR 45 fore, was so arranged that the educational attitude of some community might be influenced. The place of the meeting was changed each time. There were eight meetings during the year. Seven communities served as the hosts for these meetings. The place was determined by invitation. There were more invitations than there were meetings. The professional part of the meeting started at 10 a. m. on Saturday morning and continued until noon. At noon the people of the community in which the meeting was being held came and brought dinner for the crowd. The noon hour was always a delightful one, not only because of the bountiful and delightful dinner served, but because of the cordiality of the people. The afternoon meetings were for the pleasure and inspiration of the people of the community. To this the teachers, children, outside speakers, and the people themselves contributed. Usually some theme of rural interest was discussed as a part of the program. To these meetings came some of the leading educators of the state as speakers. When the meetings first began there was a timidity on the part of the teachers, chil- dren, and people, but much of this was overcome be- fore the year ended. Many of them came to have an ease characteristic of people accustomed to participa- tion in public discussion. D. THE "health and HAPPINESS^" MEETINGS In connection with the county health forces the su- pervisor made a health survey of his district during the month of March, 1920. "The Joy Maker" for the 46 the; VAtui; of school supervision month of February had prepared the pubHc for this survey. It had presented the need for knowledge of the situation. It had boosted the work that was being done by the Health Crusaders. It had given good health recipes in the form of rhymes. It had presented through the humorous section of the zone paper the difference between the sickly and the healthy child. Five meetings had been planned for in various parts of the zone, one for each school night of the week. There had been some discussion of the approaching event at the teachers' meeting in February. Language was the school subject which was to be emphasized during the month of March, but health was the sub- ject which motivated practically all of the language work. In a variety and number of ways the subject of health had been presented. The teachers had ar- ranged for the entertainment of the surveying party of five in advance of the visit. The entertainment was so arranged that just as many homes as possible were reached by the members of the party. The object of this was to educate the people by contact with them. Every child was given a very careful examination and a report was made to his home. In the zone news- paper for the following month a detailed report was also given. The night meetings at the school buildings were all very successful. An average of seventy-five per cent, of all of the people of each school community attended one of these meetings. The following subjects were discussed by the fol- lowing people: COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES OF THE SUPERVISOR 47 "Animal Health and Its Relation to Man's Health" — County Agent. "Food and Its Relation to Health" — Home Demon- stration Agent. "Teeth and Their Relation to Health"— A volun- teer dentist. "How to Keep Well"— The County Red Cross Nurse. "School Buildings and Their Relation to Health" — Supervisor. E. SPEIvUNG MATCHES An agency used for excellent socializing purposes during the year was the spelling match. These matches were for three purposes : 1. To create a community consciousness among the people in the experimental supervisory zone. 2. To direct the attention of the children and the adults to certain agricultural terms and ideas through spelling as a means. 3. To provide practice in the spelling of certain words that everyone should be able to spell auto- matically. The community in which the experiment was con- ducted lay near the town of Aberdeen — one of the largest towns in South Dakota. The effect of this nearness to the town was to cause the rural people not to meet together or know their rurah neighbors. All of their contacts were with people whom they met in the town. Some of these were rural people but they did not meet in a rural situation. There was little community consciousness or pride. One of the first 48 THE VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION aims, therefore, of the supervisor was to get the peo- ple to thinking in terms of their own community and come to have a pride in their part of the county. With this in view the first month that spelHng was the subject to be emphasized, agricultural words which were of importance to the county were taken as the basis for study. At the end of the month all of the children and people of the district were brought to- gether at Warner for a spelling match — the adults against the children. People who had lived within ten miles of each other for years but were unac- quainted became acquainted on that occasion. The morning was occupied with the spelling match. The afternoon was devoted to addresses by visiting edu- cators. When spelling was emphasized the second time dur- ing the year, it was the last month of the supervisor's work. It was devoted to making automatic the spell- ing of twelve hundred and fifty-three words which con- stituted the "Suggested Minimal Spelling List," by Pry or. On Saturday, April 17th, the final big spelling match and social meeting of the year was held at Mansfield. During the week previous to that event, the supervi- sor held spelling matches each night at one of the schools which he had visited during the day. To these matches came the children and the adults of the three school districts which had been visited during the day. The big spelling match held on April 17th at Mans- field was one of the largest meetings ever held in that section of the county. The social attitude manifest at Mansfield on that day was in striking contrast to that COMMUNITY ACTIVITIE;s OF THE SUPERVISOR 49 shown at the earher meetings of the supervisory zone, not in spirit so much as in extent of interest and broad- ened community outlook. F. THE CRUSADE AGAINST GOPHERS The "flicker tail" gopher is one of the agricultural problems of Brown County. The gopher stays in the ground all winter. In the month of April, he comes out and begins to search for food. The gophers are very numerous in parts of the county, so numerous in fact, that they are a real agricultural pest. The gopher is very easily killed at this season of the year. As succulent food is lacking, they will eat dry oats in most hearty fashion. In the early days of the spring, therefore, is the time to poison them. Practi- cally all of the gophers of a village can be killed in one day at this time if properly poisoned. The supervisor felt that the schools were the proper agency through which to work for the accomplishment of this result because children would look upon the killing of go- phers as a sport and would go at the task with zest. Not only this, but the children would be more likely to profit from the teaching than would the adults and they would most likely reap the benefits of their knowledge for a far longer period of time. With these ideas in mind, the supervisor invited the county agricultural agent to join him on a week of gopher extermination. The week of the series of spell- ing matches discussed in another section of this chap- ter was taken as the most opportune time for this work. The people came together for the purpose of engaging in a local spelling match, but they were told 50 THE value; of school supervision about the gopher poison while there. Discussion and questions were encouraged. The effect was very grati- fying. This was but one of the phases of the supervisor's work which had a direct economic bearing. Not so much was done, though, along economic lines as might have been done and as could easily be done by a super- visor to stimulate the economic life of the community. If the supervisor is alert to his opportunity and to the needs of the territory which he serves, much can be done along economic lines which not only will not in- terfere with the efficiency of his regular work of class- room supervision but which would actually add to the efficiency of it. Such work would give him greater con- tact with the business forces of his territory and would develop in them a confidence in him and his work that classroom work alone could never develop.- Chapter VI. THE STATISTICAL DATA OF THE EXPERI- MENT A. THE TESTS 1. functions Tested. In order to have reliable data from which to draw conclusions as to the value of supervision, standardized tests were given in read- ing, spelling, composition, penmanship, and arithmetic. Thirteen scores were secured for each child with the exception of those in the third and fourth grades for whom the score in fractions was omitted. The chil- dren were tested in the following functions : (a) Speed in reading, number of words per minute (b) Speed in answering questions on material read (c) Index of comprehension in reading (d) Reading, Scale Alpha 2, number of questions answered correctly (e) Spelling, percentage of words correctly spelled (f) Written composition (g) Penmanship, speed, number of letters writ- ten per minute (h) Penmanship, quality (i) Addition, number right (j) Subtraction, number right (k) Multiplication, number right (1) Division, number right (m) Fractions, number right 2. Tests and Scales Used. The following tests and scales were used in both the initial and final tests: Reading : 51 5:2 THE VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION Courtis Standard Research Tests, Silent Reading, No. 2 Thorndike's Scale xA.lpha 2, Part I and Part II Spelling : Ayres' Scale, five words each from columns, L, M, N, O, Q, R, T, U, V. W. Different words from same columns used for final test. Composition : The Nassau County Supplement to the Hillegas Scale. Penmanship : The Ayers' Scale. Arithmetic : The Cleveland Survey Test. 3. When Tests it'ere Given. The initial tests were given between Sept. 28th and Oct. loth, 1919. They were given to the experimental group during the first three days of the first week. During the remainder of that week and the following week they were given to the control group. There were three school rooms in the experimental group and five school rooms in the control group not tested during the days men- tioned above. They were all tested during the week of October 13th- 17th. The final tests were given between May 3rd and May 14th, 1920, and in the same order in which they were given during the initial test. 4. By Whom Tests ivere Administered. The fol- lowing persons administered all tests, the same person testing the same schools in both the initial and final tests : * STATISTICAL DATA OF THE KXPERIMENT 53 Miss Lucile Trott, County Supt. of Brown County. Miss Ivy Husband, teacher of courses in tests and measurements, Northern Normal and Industrial School. Mr. J. W. Thomas, Director of Extension, North- ern Normal and Industrial School. Mr. M. S. Pittman, who served as supervisor while conducting the experiment. The members of the group who administered the tests practiced the giving of the tests so that uni- formity of method might be followed. 5. By Whom Tests zverc Scored. All test papers were scored by the members of the classes in tests and measurements of the Northern Normal and Indus- trial School of Aberdeen, South Dakota, under the direction of Miss Ivy Husband. While a different group of students scored the papers in the final tests from that which scored the initial test, the work was directed by the same person and the same procedure was followed so that the writer feels that the relia- bility of the results could not be affected therefrom. B. HOW THE DATA USED WERE SECURED In the experimental group v»?ere 114 children who constituted all of the children in the fifteen schoolrooms supervised who were in grades three to eight inclusive. In the control group were 225 children who consti- tuted all of the children in twenty-five schoolrooms in grades three to eight inclusive. All of the scores of all of the 114 children in the experimental group were used. The scores of the 114 children in the control group whose initial scores in each subject were most nearly equal to that of the 54 the; value: of school supervision initial scores of the 114 children in the experimental group, were used. By a comparison of the improve- ments made by these 114 children in each of these groups, the tables were derived which are presented in this chapter. C. HOW THE DATA ARE PRESENTED The data are presented in three different groups of of tables. The first group includes Tables I to VII. These tables show each grade of the experimental group compared with the corresponding grade of the control group in all functions in which the grade was tested. A summary of grade comparisons is given in Table VII. In these tables two results are secured — the average experimental coefficient and the median percentage of progress of the experimental group when measured in terms of progress of control group. The second group includes Tables VIII to XXI. In these tables comparisons between the experimental and control groups are presented for all functions taken separately. All children in the experimental group are compared to all children in the control ^roup, in the amount of improvement which was made in each function. Table XXI is a summary of these compari- sons. In these tables, one result is secured — the equated difference between the groups or the amount of time it will take the control group to attain the same position in amount of improvement now held by the experimental group. The third group contains only one table, Table XXII. In it is presented a comparison of the percentage of pupils in each grade in each group who improved in each function. STATISTICAL DATA OF THE EXPERIMENT 55 [NOTE: Because of the great number and length of tables from which the data for Tables I to XXII were secured they are not presented here. The original scores from which they were derived and all test papers and original tables from which these data are derived are filed with Teachers' College, Columbia University.] In offering the tables which follow, the writer pro- poses to present certain facts. What are the questions to which we expect these tables to supply answers? They are — 1. Out of the_ total number of tests given, how many results favored the experimental group? 2. Out of the total number of experimental co- efficient points, how many favored the experimental group ? 3. What was the median progress of the experi- mental group expressed in terms of progress of the control group? In interpreting the meaning of each of the figures given in the following tables, the following key will be helpful. The reader should take the first line of Table I and follow it through. This explanation will apply approximately to all other functions. D. W^HAT TABLES I TO VII SHOW* (la) shows the average improvement in number of words read per minute by the experimental group. (lb) shows the degree of unreliability of (la). (2a) shows the average improvement in number of words read per minute by the control group. ♦All of the tabulated results presupposes scaled data. This is not true of data used in these tables. The excep- tions are Alpha 2 Reading- results, and all arithmetic results in which the number of questions answered and number of examples solved correctly were taken as the basis instead of the scaled measures generally used for those tests. Since the same principles were applied to the work of both groups, the writer feels that this does not lesson the validity of the measures. 56 THE VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION (2b) shows the degree of unreliability of (2a). (3a) shows the difference in the average improve- ment of the two groups. (3b) shows the degree of unreliability of (3a). (3c) shows the degree of certainty that the true difference, if known, would favor the group which the obtained difference favors. Unity is practical certainty. As the experimental coefficient becomes greater or less than unity, the degree of certainty increases or dimin- ishes accordingly. The experimental coefficient is secured by dividing the difference between the two average improvements by 2.78 times the sigma difference. (For fuller discussion of experimental coefficient, see "How to Measure in Education," by W. A. McCall. The MacMillan Co.) (4a) shows the average experimental coefficient for all functions in which the grade was tested. ' (4b) shows the unreliability of (4a). (4c) shows the degree of certainty that (4a) fa- vors the experimenal group and is to be in- terpreted as in (3c). (5a) shows the progress of the experimental group in each function expressed in percentage of progress of control group. (5b) shows median of progress expressed in (5a). NOTE : The explanation given above for reading applies to all other functions listed in the table. Each function has its own unit of measurement. See (A) — Section i, this chapter. STATISTICAL DATA OF THE EXPERIMENT 57 0) 3 0) i; P. fc. s5 0) o P 111 c ao3 o O CO O U z to .!= o Q 3 O i- 3uO Cci ^ W o „• „- "rf _■ lO o ^ <^' <^ T+ "^ '^ '^1 -^ " do o *^oo ^ r^ 0\ ^ f^ fooo 0\^- " c^ o. J^ ^ "? f>^ °°. *> ^ Q II fc I-.' M rt. ^ ^ d d ^ °o CO "25 fo q o Q 00 q> c^' ■ c^ ' Lo r^i 01 M I-' " ~ ^ — On 0\ rr> -I- '^OO "~. " Cn C "~> OS f^.vO lo „ N t^ ^ up q q "p q sq 'S- rfo"-"!-!"^ 'd^-^-^K-iT) rOrvi^ tN.OJ ID— CO O \0 r^ <^'0 fO 0)_ oi_ q i^-' K. oi On ' 0) 'cm 01 " > a < S OON>-it\i"^ Or'.sOcO'^i/} ^<: s i-H q.<55 inco (\i iD\p covq id j^ IN. >-<' CO' ■ 0) ■ ^ M 1-h' W M „• 8vO«V^O^O^01>-;r^ rooi C>im"?i-.0O_ o, Tt d M ^ t<. O t<, 1-; „• 01 01 I >-i — „ 2 c ■J • t, +J dgo ■" r-H lU > C C" S ^ oj'C g c p. o uo ^00 \q c •^ <\ S d "■ IN im' CO 8^ o 00 r^og q, w HH COO d 00 00 ►-< IN. "^ n n ^S»\o " 01 mOO «; ,A co^-O ^ 00 C-) i/j : o| cooq ^- i/j q q .Oroo'tOvCiOil? <^O0 2 r^ SO c^i CO '^ loo' t^od dv d j;^ J^J " -W-. O O II CO ti O O ft .te PS 3 3 oo .5 3 'O o STATISTICAL DATA OF THE; EXPERIMENT 59 O o to X D, t-. rxoo ^00 O\foo^oo f,,-oo ^0\rx ^^ . . in ooOO \OOrfOCy\oooiO\Oro o3 > p. O \q "^ i-H q tx O MD ^_; oj On ^ ^ C "^ S 92- "^ ^'^ ^ 'co'OOH-cK^rxrO >> C rv Cu C -JS rt d..2.i; be be be i3D be't/2 c c CCCCcOoSnJ.i; 01 CO -^ UO^O IXOO O^ O M 01 oo o :i: l-H ^ 01 P a o x^ (U CO "" s Ih o o n > ^ a £ o X W O EO ^ W -. O -f w h4 OJ < -C W O r-H Q U-^ 2a < in -M P Pi O 3 c o O Sh uO Kf5 ^ O X j: oa ■ ^ l§ 1 ! tn t, w rt ftO kj -C X m ^ H < ir^ d oi tJ- oi "' rj-oo ^' li, "" ^ 01 M M ID^ . C\ lo O\0Q 01 Ti- t^ Tt in to ^ "^O S 0^ ' ^' '-.'-'. C) w «< (M 1-1 Tl" l-l cS ^ <1 6 K 0) r'j ^,^^ Li ^ w CO tx o N ^M3 '1 <^ q* *> ". ' ■ LO i-I i-h' l-l 'mm "dt^ ft Q ^y^ o o CO ^ *"< £ rO\d CO ro O ' VO 00 i^' O OO' O 'O wC)t^< a; 03 di 3 c & a, CCCCcOoJrt 'tDtdtD"^ c *-■ ^ lUOJojtucicO'uaj Pi; Pi pc; Pi (XI u Ph Ph G'-S u _ ?:-' .2 ^■•H.2.2 Qfe 31^ ft o- 5 w .2 tJ) iu' on 'O o o f^ • , bus P rt « 00£E-ii3 1-1 iM 00 ■* too r^oo o\ o " ^ "^ StATlSTlCAL DATA 01^ THE) E;XPE;RiMENT 6l O X p. tn ^|5 _ ABLE What Ex: 03 H (^ ro q O N ■^ M 00 0\ fO M lo M II J !w 00 " ^VD TtOO w M t^ 0\ 0\ roOO M Oj IT) 01 r^vS 0)l^i-HfOtxO\CMCXiO Ho ■ ■ ■ w U I -i . W -^00 Tf o o\ lO r<^ i-< m" m" w • X VO O) Q U-) 3- t-^ u^ M CO M t^ 01 l^ COM3 VO 1-1 b S; lo r-N i/^Co q^ co^ o\ '-' ft 3 •-'o ,-1 ^-e c6 oi 1^ C M O ■n ^ o S c g ft X ^S aj o & 5 ^ rt ajSo.o-<" 01 CO 62 THE VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION ft X '^ 'I" "^ 1 1 I— I o o S ?6 w ^ < 1) ^ Eh tij M ft] O 00 <^ M 1-1 (M t^vo 0) M i-i M '-' IN fO ^ ^ 3 <^ ot3 c (vj rg 00 q ro iM. ^. j>. ^_ 00. c^. oq >-; ^ „■ c^ ID ^0\ <^ r^vq o '^ r>i q M o Ov m q IN. w 0 00 0\ C^l i*^ N lO OnVO 1-" ft fo looo fo^ ^. ^. q ''P m '"'.'> " ^ E i-I Ov ' w" m " ■ CO fC Tj- -^ CO ci M \0 ^ b ^ ro M w q (M_ ro t^vq " Roo q< i" q ^00 t^ £ IT) Tf w in cf\ " 00 i- , Tt r<^ i-H o "^00 f"^ O oj (M "73 t« Ctj fti PEi Pii !Xi O Oh PL, P o O ft > 1-1 s ^^ o Oj o e<3 o u d < * 01 « ^^ Pi sr rt ft a •c o o ft CO iH 1 E W f,-, H rt ^ f^- 0) CO i-J 5? fiH ft > -a <^ -S o £ ^ =* S y u - ^. - -. ^1 ^ ^ q - ^ •- <'a ^ ft ^ 00 ^ ^ s -^ *" J- " OJ -.-J r^ O\00 On IT) 10 I VO J2 o 3 ^ ^H H a o s '"i . tLi i2 t- ^ *= h .*^ rn --1 m f- C rt s < ^1 >< I" o tLr< X 2 00 bc&D ffl ^ 'S ftft c2i ^ hi ac .;55 rf C5 QJ ^ 3 C ^(J< •T3 i'' •_g -C J2 be W) bo biD tuo'So n c S C_CCGc!Oa!a3.ii n! nj a! nj (jj C C n -J O n3 ■-^.y r. C T O ^ Boston Public Schools— School Document, No. 18, 1916. National Society for the Study of Education. The Twen- tieth Year Book, Part II (entire). 127 128 THE VALUE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION Thorndike, E. L,. Reading as Reasoning — A Study of Mis- takes in Paragraph Reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 8, June, 1917. Waldman, Bessie. Definite Improvement in Reading Ability in a Fourth Grade Class. Elementary School Journal, December, 1920. Waldo, K. D. Tests in Reading in the Sycamore Schools. Elementary School Journal. Vol. 15, 251-268. III. LANGUAGE Charters, W. W. and Miller, Edith. A Course of Study in Grammar. Educational Bulletin No. 9, University of Missouri. Fillers, H. D. Oral and Written Errors in' Grammar. Educational Review, Vol. 54, 458-470. Sears, Isabel and Diebel, Amelia. A Study of Common Mistakes in Pupils' Oral English. Elementary School Journal, Vol. 17, 44-54. IV. SPELLING Fulton, M. J. An Experiment in Teaching Spelling. Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 21, 287-289. Horn, Ernest. Principles of Method in Teaching Spelling as Derived from Scientific Investigations. Eighteenth Year Book, Part II, National Society for Study of Education. Kirby, J. T. Practice in the Case of School Children. Contributions to Education, No. k8, Teachers College. Pryor, H. C. Testing the Value of Concentrating the At- tention of Children Upon the Order of the Letters in a Word. A Guide to the Teaching of Spelling, Chap. I. Macmillan Book Co. Wagner, C. A. Grouping by Similarity cvis a Factor in the Reaching of Spelling. Univ. of Pennsylvania. Wallin, J. E. W. Spelling Efficiency in Relation to Age, Grade and Sex, and the Transfer of Training. V. PENMANSHIP Freeman, F. N. Practical Studies in Handwriting. Ele- mentary School Teacher, Vol. 14. 167-179. Principles of Method in Teaching Writing as Derived from Scientific Investigation. Eighteenth Year Book, Part II. National Society for the Study of Educa- tion. Judd, C. H. Penmanship in the Cleveland Survey. Starch, D. The Measurement of Efficiency in Handwrit- ing. Journal of Educational Psychology. Vol. 6. 106- 114. BIBLIOGRAPHY 129 VI. ARITHMETIC Ballou, F. W. Improving Instruction Through Education- al Measurement. Educational Administration and Supervision, Vol. 2, June, 1916. Brown, J. C. An Investigation on the Value of Drill Work in the Fundamental Operations in Arithmetic. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 2, 81-88. Vol. ?., 561-570. Bulletin No. 7. School Document No. 3, 1916, Boston Public Schools. Conrad, H. E. and Arp, G. F. An Experimental Sttudy in Economic Learning. Journal of Educational Psy- chology. Vol. 2, 507-529. Drusal, J. A. A Study of the Amount of Arithmetic in the Command of High School Graduates, Who Have Had no Arithmetic in the High School. Educational School Journal, Vol. 17, 657-661. Hahn, W. H. and Thorndike, E. L- Some Result^ in Ad- dition Under School Conditions. Journal of Educa- tional Psychology, Vol. 5, 65-84. Kerr, Mary. The Effect of Six Weeks of Daily Drill in Addition. Indiana University Studies. Kirby, T. J. The Results of Practice Under School Conditions. Contributions to Education, No. 58, Teachers' College. Tlie Results of Three Types of Drill in Arithmetic. Journal of Educational Research, November, 1920. Kirkpatrick, E. A. An Experiment in Memorizing vs. Incidental Learning. Journal of Educational Psy- chology, Vol. 5, 405-413. Mead, C. D. An Experiment in the Fundamentals. The World Book Co. Mead, C. D. and Sears, Isabel. Addiive, Subtraction, and Multiplicative Diviision Tested. Journal of Edu- cational Psychology, Vol. 7, 261-270. Phillips, F. M. Value of Daily Drill in Arithmetic. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 4, Page 159. Pyle, W. H. Economic Learning. Journal of Educa- tional Psychology, Vol. 4, 148-159. Thorndike, E. L. Practice in the Case of Addition. Jour- nal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 21, 483-486. Wilbur, Flora. Experimentis zifith Courtis Practice Pads. Indiana University Studies. Wimmer, H. An Experimental Study of the Effect of Drill in Arithmetic Processes under Varying Con- ditions. Indiana University Studies.