so as to make possible a larger degree of continuity in the school work of the children; in the promotion of school and home gardening in cities, towns, suburban communities, and manufacturing villages; toward reorganization of the 12 years of elementary and secondary schooling into 6 years of elementary and 6 years of high school-the so-called six-and-six plan-instead of the present plan of 8 years of elementary school and 4 years of high school; toward more flexible courses in the high schools and their more perfect adaptation to all classes of children; toward helping parents in the early education of their children in the home and in bringing the school and the home closer together; in encouraging boys and girls to continue their education through systematic reading after leaving school; toward the establishment of county libraries, the opening of city libraries to country people, and the establishment of school libraries; for better schoolhouses and the care of the health of school children. This work is done through printed bulletins, leaflets and circular letters, correspondence, consultation with teachers and education officers, and addresses at meetings of associations, commercial bodies, and women's clubs, and mass meetings of citizens.

(5) To determine standards of measurement in education and to conduct and direct experiments in education, to the end that we may finally have a larger body of definite scientific knowledge about education and educational processes and methods. In the first of these the bureau had the assistance during the year of a group of 15 special collaborators working under the direction of Dr. George D. Strayer, of Teachers College, Columbia University. In the second it has been able to do very little, and it can not do much until there are special appropriations for experiments in education under scientific control.

The bureau is now organized under the following divisions: Office of the chief clerk, the Alaska division, mails and files, library, statistical, editorial, higher education, school administration, industrial education and education for home making, agricultural education, rural schools, civic education, education of immigrants, education of negroes, school and home gardening, kindergarten, school sanitation and hygiene, and home education. The division of industrial education and education for home making, with three specialists, the division of school and home gardening, with two specialists and one assistant specialist, and the division of agricultural education, with one specialist, have been created within the year. The division of rural schools has lost one specialist and has gained two assistant specialists. The division of school administration has increased by the addition of one specialist. These additions and some others were made possible by an additional appropriation amounting to $30,600, which became available at the beginning of the fiscal year.

The Alaska division has offices in Washington, Seattle, and Nome. The kindergarten division has offices in Washington and New York. The home education division has offices in Washington and Philadelphia. The division of school sanitation and hygiene has offices in Washington and Nashville, Tenn. All other divisions have offices only in Washington. There are substations under designated directors at Columbia University, University of Chicago, George Peabody College for Teachers, and Leland Stanford Junior University.

Brief statements of the work of the several divisions follow:

HIGHER EDUCATION.

The specialist in higher education has within the year visited 64 colleges and universities, 37 of which have been carefully inspected and reported upon. One was inspected at the request of the President of the United States, August 17 and 18, and a report was rendered to the Secretary of the Interior for transmission to him. Twenty-eight were North Carolina institutions. These were visited at the request of the State superintendent of public instruction, who desired a careful inspection and report upon the colleges of the State. The report was not finished before the end of the fiscal year, but was completed and submitted July 17, 1915. Seven of the institutions visited were Oregon institutions. In accordance with an act of the Oregon Legislature of 1911, authorizing the State superintendent of public instruction to exempt from examination for the State highschool teacher's certificate graduates of those collegiate institutions of the State which the United States Bureau of Education might certify as being of standard college grade, the bureau made an inspection of these institutions in the latter part of that year. The present inspection was undertaken at the request of the State superintendent of public instruction in the belief that the standards of certain colleges of the State had changed since the first inspection was made. The report on the inspection was rendered to the State superintendent in March.

The specialist in higher education cooperated with the commissioner in making a preliminary survey of higher institutions in the State of Washington. He assisted legislative committees of the State in drawing up certain bills embodying recommendations made in the commissioner's report of the survey. One of these bills was enacted into law. The other was not reported from committee.

The specialist in higher education has represented the bureau at the inaugurations of the presidents of the University of South Carolina, Johns Hopkins University, and Tufts College, at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Catholic University of America, and at 15 conventions and association meetings. He

has made 28 addresses before associations, faculties, and students of colleges, boards of trustees, and other audiences. He has acted as vice chairman of the section on education of the Pan-American Scientific Congress, representing the commissioner on the executive committee of the congress.

Two bulletins have been prepared by the division under the direction of the specialist in higher education, one of them on "Accredited Secondary Schools in the United States," 1915, No. 7; the other on "Opportunities for Foreign Students at Colleges and Universities in the United States" (in press at the close of the fiscal year, but issued in August as Bulletin, 1915, No. 27). In addition he has prepared five higher education letters and a chapter on higher education in 1914 for the commissioner's annual report.

At the request of the Adjutant General of the War Department, this division has rendered decisions as to the eligibility of 402 universities, colleges, and schools for inclusion in the list of institutions to be accredited by the United States Military Academy.

The organization of a committee on higher educational statistics, composed of members of the large national associations directly interested in higher education, mentioned in my statement of last year, has been completed and has begun its work. The division of higher education is also cooperating with seven other committees of national associations in the investigation of problems relating to higher education.

The specialist in land-grant college statistics examined and certified the reports of the expenditures of the Federal appropriations made to the land-grant colleges, collected and tabulated the reports of presidents and treasurers, and prepared this material for publication as a chapter of the commissioner's report. He collected the statistical information and designed a series of charts to illustrate the land-grant colleges, the State-aided colleges, and other universities, colleges, and technological schools for the bureau's exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition; also charts to illustrate the changes in administrative organization and academic development of certain classes of universities during 30 years. He has begun a study of the present condition of the principal and income derived from the land grants of the Morrill Act of 1862. Definite information on this subject is difficult to obtain, many of the colleges benefited by the act not having kept records which show the exact status of the fund derived from it. This study will carry with it a brief history of the organization of each of the land-grant colleges. He has visited six land-grant colleges for Negroes and five land-grant colleges for whites in the States of West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, and has examined their business organiza

tion and methods. He has also made a study of the methods of registration in 100 colleges and assisted in an inquiry into the teaching of Portuguese and Spanish in the secondary schools of the United States.

The division has conducted a large correspondence, preparing replies to from six to a dozen letters of inquiry daily. While most of this work is of a routine nature, many of the replies can only be made after somewhat prolonged investigation.

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION.

The division of school administration has completed a bulletin on the administration of schools in cities having a population not less than 2,500 nor more than 30,000. This bulletin was prepared in response to a demand from school officers for a publication setting forth the duties generally required of administrative officers in cities of this size, and the way in which these duties are generally performed.

The division prepared for the commissioner's report a chapter on current progress in education in cities of less than 25,000 population, and began an annotated bibliography of the more important topics in the reports of city schools, which will be helpful to all students of education. It is also preparing a card catalogue of the more important of these reports.

The division issued 15 city school circulars on various phases of city school work. In response to special requests it has criticised and offered suggestions for improvement in many courses of study in the public schools of small cities, and has compiled memoranda on religious instruction and Bible reading in the public schools; school bonds; absence of teachers on pay; high-school fraternities; length of time served by superintendents in the smaller cities; length of daily school sessions in a number of cities; and many other subjects.

It has received, entered, and filed approximately 2,000 reports, courses of study, rules and regulations, and directories of city schools, and miscellaneous publications relating to city school work.

The chief of the division delivered many addresses at college and university summer schools, teachers' institutes, school rallies, highschool commencements, and State educational meetings. These included "Teaching observed in city schools," "Economizing the pupil's time," "A wider use of the school plant," "Interesting a community in its schools," "Educating for new conditions," "The six-year high school," "How a superintendent may survey his own schools." He attended the meetings of four national education associations, and assisted a committee of the National League of Compulsory Attendance Officials in making a study of school attendance in cities.

The division completed the compilation of a digest of the general school laws of all the States, which is now being published as a bulletin of the bureau. Appended sections to the digest treat of "State constitutional provisions relating to public education" and "Public school systems in American territories, districts, and insular possessions." The preparation of the digest has involved the examination and summarizing of approximately 15,000 pages of school law and State constitutions. The subjects treated are arranged according to a logical scheme of classification in use in the bureau for several years, and about 8,000 cross-references are inserted.

The division has also completed an historical study of the development of public education in the State of Alabama, the results of which have been published as a bulletin of the bureau, and has begun a similar study of education in Tennessee. The main purpose of these studies is to give to the people of the States of whose school systems the studies are made information that will be helpful to them in their efforts toward the further development of their school systems. A specialist in educational systems was added to the division in November, 1914, to investigate current methods of teaching reading in the primary grades and to formulate such methods as will improve the teaching of reading in the elementary schools. She has begun an inquiry into the methods of teaching reading in schools in the United States and abroad; she has studied standard tests in reading ability, has investigated the subject of school hygiene in connection with the teaching of reading, and has tabulated the contents and vocabularies of 150 primary reading books. She has conducted an experiment in teaching reading by a "Phonic method" in the primary schools of Washington, D. C., has demonstrated this method in the summer school of the University of Virginia, and has corresponded with many hundreds of primary teachers on this subject.

SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND SCHOOL SANITATION.

The Bureau of Education has no funds wherewith to employ fulltime specialists in the interest of the improvement of school buildings and the health of school children, but during the past year two special agents on part-time appointment have responded to as many as they could of the demands for help on these important subjects. One of these special agents, located at Nashville, Tenn., has on request given specific advice to school authorities in regard to the architecture of school buildings and the hygiene and sanitation of schoolhouses and grounds, particularly in rural communities. He has had charge of the models of rural schoolhouses which the bureau has been lending to communities about to erect new buildings, and