occupations; or shall we save our half of $140 and let these 300 boys and girls make shift as best they may as unskilled workers? Shall we spend $40 per pupil, or a little more, and keep our elementary school classes of such size that teachers can do efficient work, or shall we save a few dollars per pupil by enlarging these classes until we seriously impair the efficiency of their work? Shall we continue to spend $30 to $32 per pupil for kindergarten training, or shall we abolish this part of the school system and save the cost of it? There are scores of similar questions which might be asked, but these are typical and perfectly fair; because if we are to reduce our school expenditures we shall have to do it through our answers to such questions as these. The Newton School Policy Cannot Be "satisfied."

But where is the end? It is impossible to "satisfy" the demands of the schools, it has been charged. The charge is justified; but so far from being a reproach, it should be regarded as high praise of the school policy and of the spirit of its administration. Satisfaction means stagnation. When any policy or when the administrators of any policy become satisfied, it is high time for a change, for no further progress is to be expected. The policy of the Newton schools does not admit of satisfaction so long as any educable boy or girl of the community is growing up without education, so long as the education provided for any boy or girl is susceptible of improvement.

"The business management of a system of schools is to be judged by the adequacy of the system of accounting and of reporting which is used, just to the degree that such records are a measure of business efficiency in other lines of human endeavor. In so far as we have commonly accepted standards for school buildings, one may judge of the efficiency of the school plant. Efficiency may further be determined by the degree to which the business management has succeeded in standardizing supplies and equipment to the end that waste is eliminated. It cannot be too strongly urged that neither expenditure per unit of population nor expenditure per pupil measures the efficiency of a school system. The question is always not the amount spent, but the return secured for the money expended.” 1

1 1 Bulletin, 1913; No. 13, U. S. Bureau of Ed., p. 5.

Financial Reporting.-A common weak point in the business management of most school systems is that nearly all of the financial reports give too many details and too little real information. This may be because, to prevent suspicion of corruption, all items, no matter how trivial, are listed. This method, however, has little accounting value for the student of accounts.

Financial statements do not have to contain all classes of entries found on the books. Both the educational policy and the business management would be more efficiently worked out under a somewhat different plan of organization than now prevails. The development of standards in business administration will be made possible when we have more adequate reporting in this field.

Qualifications of Administrators. At the present time there is a particular need for higher qualifications for those who seek to enter the important professions of superintendent, supervisor, or principal. Gradually the standards of qualifications have been raised for the teachers, but there has been no corresponding increase in those set for the higher and more important positions. It is not hard to find places where men wholly incompetent for the work they are elected to do have not only been put into office but continued there. Examples are not rare where high school principals whose qualifications for that position were not adequate have been elevated to the position of superintendent of schools, and who pose before the people as, and accept the title of, professor. It means nothing, however, as every teacher of track athletics or manual training is given the same title in small communities. If the same standards of efficiency are to be applied to school administrators as

are applied elsewhere, it will mean that when a man has ceased to be efficient he must give place to another. A further increase in the efficiency of the school administration will come as the result of functional management. The effort should be made to segregate the important educational functions now being performed by the school superintendent, and then to arrange the scheme of management so that he will have an able assistant and coworker to handle the business and financial side of the school. The present situation of the school superintendent with his many and varied duties is the first cause of the inefficiency resulting.

/ Professional Standard for High School Teachers.Again, if the high schools of this country are to have developed a standard of work and a method of organization and administration which will be in any way comparable to those found in the business world, there must be secured, before this result can be brought about, a larger number of better teachers who believe in teaching as a profession and who have a code of professional ethics of as high an order as those of other professions. The teachers of our high schools must be better prepared before being permitted to enter upon the work of instructing the pupils at this most important stage in their development. The teachers, even in our city high. schools, do not spend as much time in preparation for their work as the members of other professions do. Nor has teaching been made a profession with as definite and adequate standards, set by the profession itself, and by law, for entrance to it, as is the case with the professions of medicine, law, and dentistry. Before we can. hope to secure such standards we must improve the conditions for work so that we may attract the best possi

ble teachers. Thorndike1 shows the training of high school teachers to be as follows: "Of a hundred men, ten have had less than four years beyond the elementary school; forty-five have had from four to eight years; thirty have had eight years; and fifteen have had nine years or more. Nearly three fifths have had six, seven, or eight years. Seven per cent had from two to four years of education beyond the elementary schools, and about sixteen or seventeen per cent had from four to six years.'

Need of Men Teachers. In 1900 the number of public school teachers reached 423,062, with approximately 30 men in each 100 teachers. In 1909 there were 506,040 teachers, but the number of men dropped to approximately 21 per 100. This relative elimination of men from the public schools has been going on steadily and rapidly since 1880. There is grave danger in this elimination of men from the profession, throwing, as it does, the education of our boys on the shoulders of women, and immature women often at that. For salaries like those offered to men in the majority of our American high schools, it is clearly impossible to obtain the services of men of good native ability, sufficient scholarship, training, and experience to enable them to do satisfactory work. Teachers are expected to give their entire time to school work, and many boards have rules which forbid the teachers engaging in any other line of remunerative work during the hours the school is not in session. There must, therefore, be an increase in the pay offered men if we would check their gradual elimination from the teaching ranks.

Centralization Tendency.-With the centralization of power and the establishment of small boards of educa1 "Education," p. 255.

tion the tendency has been gradually to lessen the baneful influences of politics on the school system. One of the chief problems of the American school superintendent is first to secure a competent force of teachers and then so to organize them that their continued professional growth is assured. Both of these things are impossible in the city that is suffering from political interference. The teacher, principal, or supervisor who is judged in his or her work by other than educational standards, or retained in office for any other reason than demonstrated efficiency, is preventing the building up of a spirit that will attract teachers to the city because of the opportunities for professional service and secure tenure. Freedom from politics must then be ranked first in the list of things that will result in improved conditions for the teacher in his chosen field of work.

Professional Growth.-To-day more and more emphasis is being placed upon the necessity for the experienced teacher to increase her intellectual development by further study and to restore her health by travel and recreation, so that she will continue to grow and thus to meet the new and more complex conditions that are found each year in every branch of high school work. To bring about this result it is necessary for teachers, principals, and supervisors to be granted leaves of absence for study, or travel, or both. Many cities are considering the plan of granting each teacher one year in seven on full or part pay, with or without a written agreement on the part of the teacher to return to the city granting the leave. The more progressive cities do not exact such an agreement. Teachers are not local in their influence, 1 Spokane.