USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1933 > Part 9
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The Intermediate School for educational reasons as well as for economy in cost per pupil should be a centralized school of twelve rooms or more provided with a general assembly hall, a gymnasium, an out-door play ground, a practical arts room for boys, a practical arts room for girls, a cafeteria and other rooms for special purposes. This school should have one session of at least five and a half hours and the teaching should be departmentalized. Departmentalized teach- ing helps the pupils to "grow up" by the experience of adjusting himself to several different teachers in daily contacts; it also makes it possible to provide teachers specially trained for the subject taught by each one. In a centralized school of four hundred or more pupils, many
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exercises may be carried on in the assembly hall such as choruses, mov- ing pictures, radio concerts and lectures, exhibitions, dramatics and other things not feasible in a small school.
The larger school also makes possible the classification of pupils in homogeneous groups according to learning ability and the progress already made, and the organization of remedial classes for those that have fallen behind in some particular subject.
In the Junior High School level of learning the pupil passes to a general survey of the fields of learning from books thus exploring his special abilities and interests preparatory to choosing between the specialized courses of the Senior High School. To some degree the work of the Junior High School is exploratory or try-out, but certain tentative choices are made between college preparatory, commercial and practical arts subjects.
The basal subjects of study in Junior High School are General English language and grammar, General Mathematics, General Social Studies and General Science, Business Practice and Practical Arts. Latin and French are offered as electives for those that have decided on a College Preparatory Course in the Senior High School.
The pupil's education in social responsibility is broadened on this level by participation in clubs in variety, by learning to do team-work in athletics, carrying out the part assigned in a team play, by the stu- dents' council, leaders' club, and citizenship school-letter procedures. The Principal of the Reading Junior High devoted a number of pages in his last year's report (1932) to an analysis of the functions, organ- ization, and costs of the Junior High School. I commend this to the careful study of anyone interested in understanding the advantages of the Junior High School over the older form of organization em- bodied in the 8-4 plan.
It has been contended for some who are not professional educa- tors that it is disadvantageous to pupils preparing for college to have the ninth grade in the Junior High School. This arrangement of the 8-4 plan was tried out for twelve years in Reading, during six years of which I acted as principal of the high school. The 6-3-3 plan has now been in operation six years. There is no material service for ninth grade pupils preparing for college that cannot be rendered just as well by the Junior High School as by the Senior High School. Some be- lieve that a study of Greek and Roman History would be of more value to pupils studying Latin than the ninth year Social Studies. It is a question of opinion of relative values. Is it more important for pupils beginning Latin to know something about the lives of the Ro- mans than to gain some understanding of the problems of our own times? There is nothing to prevent substituting ancient history for ninth grade social studies in the Junior High School if desired. An- other contention is for the beginning of French in the ninth grade.
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That has been tried and found unsatisfactory. At present pupils may take either Latin or French beginning in the eighth grade and con- tinuing through the ninth. There is nothing to be gained for either of these problems by putting the ninth grade back into the Senior High School. Everything proposed could be done just as well under the present set-up if it is desirable to do at all.
The Reading Junior High School costs more per pupil than the state average because it was organized on a higher standard in a number of particulars. These standards have been very seriously cut down in the past three years but are still considerably above the average. In the first place the building itself implies services for pupils far above the average of other junior high schools: 1. An assembly hall two stories in height with gallery; a cafeteria over it seating over three hundred at tables at one time; the heating plant and coal bins under it. These completely occupy one large wing of the building with three stories and a basement. 2. Another wing of the building with two stories containing a gymnasium sixty by ninety feet and a base- ment with lockers and showers occupying the same area under-
neath. 3. In the main building there are four laboratories (two for general science, one for sewing, one for cooking) and a draw- ing room, a library, a corrective gymnasium and an area equal to four class rooms devoted to manual training. 4. There are about fifteen acres in the school grounds landscaped and planted to shrubbery and the whole lawn area is mowed regularly in season. 5. This build- ing is used by the Senior High School for Basketball, Operettas, and Dramatics, and it is used more or less as a community center for lec- tures, concerts, entertainments to raise money for charitable purposes, and for activities of Boy Scouts organized from membership in the school. While charges for use of the building are made to outside organizations, the sum received goes directly to the town treasury and is not applied to reduce the per pupil cost of maintaining the school. All of the above special features of the Junior High School building tend to increase the overhead charges such as heating, lighting, jan- itorial service, and care of grounds. 6. The class rooms in this build- ing were originally provided with seats for only thirty pupils per room. Upon occupancy it was found necessary to increase the num- ber to thirty-five per room. Under the crowded conditions of the Junior High School in the Highland buildings some of the classes had as many as forty-five to forty-eight in a room. Therefore with thirty- five to a room in the new building, four rooms in the new building were required to accommodate the pupils from three rooms in the High- land building. This meant also that four teachers were required in the new building to replace three in the Highland building. This of course added a third to cost per pupil for classroom instruction.
There is a fundamental difference in organization of the school
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for study between the junior and the senior high schools. In the senior high school the pupil recites in four or five subjects, is assigned to study rooms for his spare periods, but is expected to spend two hours or more daily in home study. In 1915 when the six hour day was adopted for grades 7-8 in the Highland School, the concession was made that no home study would be required. Miss Barrows, who was then Principal, organized the school so that study, recitation, and all other class activities were combined in the class periods under the subject teacher. In most cases textbooks were left in the recita- tion room and used by several class groups following one another. This developed into a new procedure in which the class period became a work period much like the procedure in a class in manual training. This plan, developed through the past eighteen years by ideas applied from the Dalton plan, the Winnetka plan, the Miller plan, and the Morrison plan, is still in operation in the junior high school although in the last few years some exceptions have been made in respect to home study. This phase of study time under the attention of the subject teacher adds fifteen to twenty per cent to the number of teach- ers required, depending on the length of recitation periods when sep- arated from study periods and on the method of taking care of study pupils. In the senior high school, with rooms having a seating capacity of 42 to 48, study pupils are to some extent placed in the vacant seats in the rear of the pupils in a regular class in recitation; sometimes a room is not required for a class recitation and is filled with study pupils and any available teacher assigned to keep order. In that case pupils will be studying different subjects with which the teacher in charge does not concern herself. Sometimes a cafeteria or a large assembly hall is used as a study room in which a hundred or two hundred pupils may be kept in order by one teacher. This effects a large saving in the cost per pupil for instruction in the senior high, but this saving is offset somewhat by small classes in advanced pre- paratory subjects. Professional educators in general believe that the class work-period and supervised study pay more than they cost. A book has been published entitled "The Passing of the Recitation".
Another consideration in comparing the cost of the Reading Junior High School with others is the fact that about one-third of the teaching staff are men with salaries ranging from $1,700 to $2,500 (less the de- pression reduction). Some of the smaller junior high schools have a staff composed entirely of women including the principal, and of course their salaries are smaller.
About two-thirds of the teachers in the Reading Junior High School have college degrees and a quarter of the entire staff have master's degrees from universities. There are many other things that might be said in favor of the facilities for educating young adolescents by the Reading Junior High School. If anyone thinks it is too good
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for Reading, one has only to read between the lines to see how costs might be reduced and the price to be paid in loss of efficiency if such reductions should be made. Nothing could be saved in costs by trans- ferring the ninth grade to the senior high school. Probably the cost per pupil would be increased. Ninth grade pupils in the Junior High School as seniors have the experience of leadership in athletic teams, in clubs, in the student council and in other ways that are more stim- ulating and profitable to them than what they could have as freshmen in a four-year high school.
At another time I would be glad to discuss the senior high school, but space does not permit now. The Senior High School is functioning well in its college preparatory work which is the acid test that most people apply to senior high schools. The physical education depart- ment and administration of athletics has been reorganized with Mr. Philip Althoff as Director of Physical Education for the whole system and teacher in the Senior High School. He is also faculty manager of the senior high school athletic teams. Mr. Henry J. Downes as faculty coach of senior high school athletics has set a high standard of train- ing and morale for his teams.
To those who have assisted us and particularly to the teachers who have carried on so successfully in these trying times, I express my appreciation and thanks. To those who have criticised the schools and wished them to reduce them to the average for the state or to cause them to return to a system that belongs to a past generation and is passe, I have listened and tried to understand their motives and their claims and make use of anything that seemed practical and bene- ficial to the schools. The schools speak for themselves to the parent, to the tax-payer, to the public-spirited citizen, and to the professional educator.
For myself I would say to the parent that the schools are trying very hard to adapt their procedures to serve in the best way the par- ticular needs of each child and that the standards of attainment are high. To the tax-payer I would say that the cost of what we are doing is very moderate considering its scope and the results as compared with other places doing equally well by the children. To the public- spirited citizen I would say that the Reading schools have a good reputa- tion and numerous parents have told me that they moved to Reading to educate their children because of the good reputation of the schools. To the professional educators I need only to refer to various profess- ors at the Graduate Schools of Education of Harvard, Boston Univer- sity, Tufts, and the University of New Hampshire with respect to the educational rating of Reading Schools; also to the Presidents of the State Teachers Colleges at Salem and Lowell, from which many students have been sent for periods of observation and practice. It is for the parents and voters to decide what standard of education they
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will support and whose advice they will follow in deciding what is to be done. But the School Committee and the administrative staff of professional educators whom they employ are in the position to deal most intelligently with the complicated problems of modern education.
In closing I wish to thank the School Committee for their gen- erous consideration and co-operation.
Respectfully submitted, ADELBERT L. SAFFORD
REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND ELE- MENTARY SUPERVISION FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEM- BER 31, 1933
Mr. Adelbert L. Safford,
Superintendent of Schools,
Reading, Massachusetts.
My dear Mr. Safford : -
At the time when economy and efficiency in education is the major consideration next to the needs of the children it is well for every department to examine its policies and test their worth in the light of these values.
Educational research means applying scientific methods to edu- cation : discovering by careful investigation what are the best me- thods and procedures to employ in the administration of the public schools in order to carry out the established educational policies of fitting the schools to the child. In the Reading public schools it em- bodies the following duties :
1 Adjusting individual difficulties.
2 Establishing a flexible grading system.
3 Promoting economy by acceleration of gifted pupils and pre- vention of retardation.
4 Avoid causing pupil misfits through the application of sound psychological theories in the classroom.
Promoting mental health.
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6 Discovering the best methods of achieving the aims of elementary education for present living and development of the whole child as expressed by Dewey, Kilpatrick, and others who consider this fundamental.
7 Stimulating the professional growth of teachers.
3 Lightening the teachers' task by determining what things are of major importance in educational value to the child and elim-
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inating the unimportant and useless.
9 Establishing uniform requirements that there may be co-ordina- tion throughout the system.
10 Developing objective measures of the accomplishment of these requirements.
The need of research is clearly shown by the statement of Carter Good that "the superiority of one teaching method has never yet been established. No scientifically established curriculum exists. The best method of marking pupils or evaluating instruction has never been scientifically determined: Size of class, length of recitation, school day and many other important matters have never yet been evaluat- ed."
It is necessary therefore for each local community to study what is best fitted to its particular needs in the light of the most widely recognized objectives and to make its policies, procedures and prac- tices a's near like the norm as possible.
How the Research Program is Administered
In Reading the Research program centers about the TESTING PROGRAM as a core. Through a carefully planned testing procedure we are able to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of the school system. Direct outcome of the testing procedure are :
1 Scientific Promotion and Placement of pupils involving the fol- lowing factors affecting school progress and school success :
1 Scholastic Achievement as measured by Educational and Ob- jective tests, Teachers' marks and recommendations.
2 Intelligence. (Ability to learn in school as measured by Mental Tests).
3 Health: Eyes, Ears, Nourishment, Size, Growth, Nerves, Dis- ease history.
4 Mental Health (Emotional balance).
5 Work Habits (Application, reliability, conditions for work).
6 Attendance.
7 Home Conditions (Physical and Cultural background).
8 Personality of the child.
Reactions to the teacher.
Reactions to the group.
2 Ability Grouping.
An administrative device placing the child where he can work to the best advantage and achieve the best results.
3 Curriculum Construction.
Establishing definite goals and requirements that we may test what we have been teaching.
4 Remedial Instruction.
Avoiding school failure.
Using the results of tests to help individual pupils.
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5 Selection of pupils for classes for Special instruction or Op- portunity schools.
6 Child Accounting.
Permanent records of progress.
7 Conferences with Parents, Teachers, Pupils.
8 Home Visiting.
9 Statistical and Clerical Graphs, Reports, Age-Grade Studies.
10 Pure Research; Summaries of Findings.
In previous reports I have described in some detail the adminis- tration of testing program, ability grouping and pupil accounting. These phases of the work of the department follow an established routine. The outstanding achievements for 1933 have been in the field of Curriculum construction and Scientific Remedial Instruction.
Curriculum Research
In Curriculum making as in other phases of Research it is well to restate the objectives or general policies which guide and direct our efforts. The platform of general theories underlying Curriculum con- struction established by the Director in 1930 was stated as satisfying four trends :
I TRADITIONAL
Logical arrangement of subject matter.
Organization of facts, frequently identified with culture.
II PRACTICAL
Practical man's point of view.
Knowledge as means to an end.
Curriculum based on common use.
III PSYCHOLOGICAL
Interests of learner. Child-Centered or "Dewey" point of view : Learning by doing.
Fitting individual needs.
IV SOCIAL
Organize curriculum and methods primarily for the purpose of enabling pupils to achieve a personal philosophy of life or social outlook as a basis for more effective participation in the life of the community.
Platform Summary:
Keep what there is of value relatively in tradition, and satisfy both the psychological aims and the social interpretation of education believing that Education is a function of the whole life of the indivi- dual, not merely of the hours spent in the schoolhouse. The job of the public school is to give individuals "an outlook, a point of view, a sense of mastery; skill in the circumstances of life and action- Education as a whole which is organized experience which can take care of every particular experience which may happen along." Hart.
The work of organizing subject matter into Units of Work be-
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gun in 1930 is now beginning to show some definite results.
Social Science:
In the Social Studies we have definitely established minimal units for each grade, one to six. The curriculum grade-committees are now working on summarizing and organizing the material on the activity analysis sheets prepared by teachers since 1930 into complete type units for a mimeographed course of study. A chart of unit under- standings and grade objectives has been placed in each school as a definite guide for uniform work. Every teacher is expected to com- plete the minimal units for the grade, but is left free to reach the aims further by employing any activity initiated by pupil interest and fitted to her particular class room situation. The only check is that each additional activity shall be listed on an activity analysis sheet for the supervisor and grade committees.
J. Russell Smith's new series of textbooks in Geography in Grades IV-V-VI were chosen to fit our selection: World Geography in Grade IV, United States Geography in Grade V, and Neighboring Continents in Grade VI. These new basal texts made it necessary for the teach- ers to revise their units of work in Grades V and VI which were writ- ten when J. Russell Smith's two-cycle series of Human Geography was our basal text. It is gratifying to note that our grade placement of subject matter in Geography is that which is approved by the National Yearbook for 1933.
In History in Grade IV we are still enjoying the use of the Social Science Stories by Dr. Howard Wilson. Each fourth grade teacher is also studying other recent publications which give bio- graphies and simplified Old World Backgrounds with the idea in mind of selecting a new History reader giving an overview of History similar to the Wilson readers.
Miss Allard has added to her adaptation of Kelty's course in History for Grades V a series of work sheets devised to cover the year's course.
In Grade VI we have the privilege of using for the first time that section of Dr. Howard Wilson's new course in Social Science which is a fusion of Old World Backgrounds, Geography and Citi- zenship.
We are much indebteded to Dr. Wilson of the Harvard Graduate School of Education for the interest and personal guidance he has given us in the Elementary Social Science courses. He gives us freely of his time and advice whenever we need it. We have learned much through our association with him and Mrs. Wilson.
English:
In Grades V and VI the Clark's "Language In Use" was dropped this year in order that we might have a more flexible English course organization which would allow for more transfer of training and cor-
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relation with the work of the other departments. Miss Quillen is making a careful study of new texts and devising new three-level as- signment units to fit the objectives set up at the beginning of the year. Mrs. Potter is organizing a new course in Grade V in the same way.
The main idea of our curriculum construction is not to educate children in compartments, but to unify and correlate all the subjects with Social Science and basal Reading Units as a core in so far as it is possible. Transfer of training and ability to use the tools of knowledge correctly and easily in any activity is a major aim. With this end in view the whole unitary arrangement is to be fitted by the curriculum committees into the following chart for each of the first four grades :
Reading
Social Science | Arithmetic
Spelling
Language
List units required for passing the Grade with all possible cor- relation. With the exception of Basal Reading, all subjects are sup- posed to be based on the Social Science Units as core material.
,
| Penmanship | Music | Health | Safety | Physical Education | Drawing |
Special subject supervisors will fill out this section at request of the committees.
Spelling Research:
One very necessary field of research undertaken in January of 1933 by the Director, in collaboration with Dr. Donald D. Durrell, of Boston University, was a study of the Spelling needs and weaknesses in school pupils. This is probably nearer the field of pure research than many of our undertakings. It is, in general, a study of the er- rors children most frequently make in their spelling and their causes. Because Spelling is an outstanding weakness of some Reading School children as shown by various tests and drives for the past few years, a study into causes was indicated. A careful selection of pupils who showed outstanding difficulties on a series of tests was followed by studies in handedness, hearing, eyesight, phonic strength, speech de- fects and handwriting, motor co-ordination etc. Miss Wadleigh was assisted in the motor co-ordination tests by Miss Helen Donnelly, a master degree graduate of Boston University. Immediate remedial work was begun and some very definite results have been at- tained. A new spelling textbook aid for teachers, "Creative Teaching in the Field of Spelling" by Miller, Courtis, Watters, has given much needed assistance. More stress on transfer of training and a careful study of spelling methods and teaching techniques employed in all our grades have followed. Our basal text is now under careful scrutiny in the light of our findings by the teachers themselves. We have developed a Spelling consciousness at least. The study is not yet com- pleted, but its results even in this short time have fully repaid the work involved. Miss Wadleigh and Dr. Durrell hope to continue the
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study and summarize the findings before the end of the year.
Reading Research:
At the same time the Spelling Research was carried on the usual definite remedial procedure in Reading was continued in the same way as described in 1932. Following the Sangren-Woody Reading tests of Grade V-VI pupils in December the Director selected all pupils needing special help and collaborated with the special teachers, Miss Brann and Miss Thackleberry, as well as other teachers of reading, in another drive on intensive remedial drills. This year however, Dr. Durrell sent us two master degree students to assist on individual diag- nosis and teaching. Because our children were so well sampled, or care- fully selected on the basis of reading ability as shown by several years of systematic testings, Dr. Durrell found Reading an excellent field in which to standardize his exceptional reading test. Each pupil taking the test had already failed on three or more group tests previously given and was a poor reader in both 'his own and his teachers' esti- mation. The definite suggestions for remedial teaching for each in- dividual pupil following a Durrell Reading test resulted in remarkable improvement in many cases. Because of this the Director was very glad to select pupils and take charge of arrangements for the two days intensive diagnosis of Reading and Spelling disabilities which Dr. Durrell offered us for the summer of 1933. It was a great pri- vilege for Reading pupils to have the Boston University Educational Clinic of some seventeen highly trained and efficient workers come to Reading. That the parents appreciated this privilege is shown by the fact that 48 children came to the Clinic July 11 and 12 and more would have come if we could have accommodated them.
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