CALIFORNIA CHAPTER XVIII. STATISTICS OF NORMAL SCHOOLS. This chapter presents the statistics of schools devoted to the professional training of teachers. There were 264 public and private normal schools reporting to this Bureau for the year ending June, 1906. In the regular training courses for teachers in these schools there were enrolled 68,937 students, as compared with 65,300 the preceding year. In 1906 there were 10,996 graduates, as compared with 10,360 in 1905. In 1906 there were 181 public normal schools reporting to this Office, an increase of two since the preceding year. In these schools there were 3,059 instructors, as compared with 2,957 in 1905. The number of students in teachers' training courses increased from 54,521 in 1905 to 59,429 in 1906. The number of graduates from public normal schools in 1906 was 9,680, as compared with 9,274 the preceding year. There was a decrease of six in the number of private normal schools reporting in 1906, the number being 83, as compared with 89 in 1905. In the same time the number of instructors decreased from 694 to 597, the number of students from 10,779 to 9,508, while the number of graduates increased from 1,086 in 1905 to 1,316 in 1906. The following comparison with the statistics of 1890 will indicate the progress made by public and private normal schools in the sixteen years: Public normal schools have had a steady growth since 1890, while the progress of private normal schools in the same period has been fluctuating. The largest number reached by the latter was in 1897, when there were reported to this Bureau 198 private normal schools, with 24,181 students. For the last nine years there has been a gradual decline in the number of schools and enrollment of students, although the quality of the work done by the remaining schools is undoubtedly superior to the average of 1897. Many of the weaker schools closed, while many others ceased to be distinctively training schools for teachers, becoming private secondary schools or business schools. The 264 public and private normal schools in 1906 had 97,257 students in training courses for teachers. There were 972 other institutions in 1906 in which 28,340 students were pursuing courses of study preparatory to teaching. These included 269 universities and colleges, 464 public high schools, and 239 private high schools and academies. The following table shows the number and classes of institutions offering professional instruction to teachers, and the number of students in each class for the last four years: ED 1906-VOL 2- -1 645 Students in teachers' training courses reported for four years. The 10,996 graduates of public and private normal schools in 1906 comprised about 16 per cent of the total number of students in training courses for teachers in these institutions for the year named. If the percentage of graduates from such courses in other institutions was about the same there must have been at least 14,500 trained teachers added to the teaching force of the country in 1906. Undoubtedly as many more with partial professional training joined the great army of more than half a million teachers. This estimate does not include the thousands who began teaching without any professional training whatever. Tables 19 and 20 of this chapter show by States the distribution of students training for teaching, according to the classification in the above table. PUBLIC NORMAL SCHOOLS. Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming make provision for the professional training of teachers in the State colleges. All the other States and Territories have public normal schools supported by taxation, direct or indirect. For the school year ended June, 1906, the States and Territories paid $4,643,365 for the running expenses of their public normal schools, an increase of $511,759 over the preceding year. In addition, the expenditure for new buildings and improvements aggregated $1,549,906. The following table, which is a synopsis exhibiting the aggregate of State appropriations for public normal schools for each year since 1889, will illustrate the growth of these institutions in this country: 1889-90. 1890-91. 1891-92. 1892-93. 1893-94. 1894-95. 1895-96. 1896-97. 1897-98. Public appropriations to public normal schools for seventeen years. The statistics of the 181 public normal schools will be found summarized in Tables 1 to 11, while Tables 21 and 22 give in detail such information concerning these schools as could be collected by this Bureau. In 1906 the 181 public normal schools had 3,059 teachers engaged in the instruction of students pursuing teachers' training courses, 1,214 men and 1,845 women, as shown in Table 1. There were 1,016 teachers wholly in other departments, making the total number of teachers giving instruction in these institutions 4,075, the number of men being 1,352 and women 2,723. Table 2 shows that there were 59,429 students in the teachers' training departments of the 181 schools, 12,539 men and 46,890 women. There were 803 students in business courses and 6,599 in other courses of secondary grade. There were 35,708 pupils in elementary grades, making an aggregate of 102,539 enrolled in these schools, as shown in Table 3. The number of colored normal students was 2,373, the number of men being 862 and women 1,511, most of them being in normal schools for the colored race in the Southern States. Table 3 also shows that the number of children in the model schools connected with public normal schools was 49,404. As shown in Table 4 the public normal schools had 9,680 graduates from teachers' training courses, 1,216 men and 8,464 women. Tables 5 and 6 show that 159 of the 181 public normal schools reported their financial statistics to this Office. The aggregate of $4,643,365 was received from public appropriations for support by 157 schools; 120 received $631,680 from tuition; 16 received $142,941 from productive funds; and 37 received $341,167 from sources not named. The aggregate income of 159 schools was $5,759,153 for the year. This does not include the $1,549,906 appropriated from public funds for buildings and improvements. The aggregate value of property possessed by 152 of the 181 schools was $31,738,192, as shown in Table 6. The libraries of 167 schools contain 981,033 volumes, of an estimated value of $1,245,086. The annual appropriations for the support of the public normal schools of each State for the past six years are shown in Table 7, while Table 8 exhibits the appropriations for buildings and improvements for the same period. Number and per cent of students in public normal schools pursuing certain studies. The above table is a synopsis showing the number and per cent of the 59,429 students in training courses for teachers pursuing each of the nine leading branches of profcssional training in the public normal schools of the United States. Tables 9, 10, and 11 give the summaries by States, showing the number of students by sex in each of the branches reported. PRIVATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. The statistics of the 83 private normal schools are summarized in Tables 12 to 17, these tables being similar in form to Tables 1 to 6 for public normal schools. The total number of teachers employed in the private normal schools was 1,327, only 597 being teachers of students who were in teachers' training courses, while 730 were wholly employed in other departments. Of the total enrollment of 30,653 in all departments of private normal schools in 1906 only 9,508 were in the departments for the professional training of teachers. The aggregate income of 64 of the 83 private normal schools was $989,771. The total value of property possessed by 59 of the schools was $5,566,008, and 67 had libraries containing 177,095 volumes. A comparison between public and private normal schools is made in Table 18. In public normal schools the male students comprised only about 21 per cent of the enrollment, while they comprised 40 per cent in the private normal schools. Over 16 per cent of the professional students in public normal schools graduated in 1906, while less than 14 per cent of such students graduated from the private normal schools. The statistics of the 83 private normal schools are given in Table 23. TABLE 1.-Summary of statistics of public normal schools in 1905–6. |