District supervision; West Virginia and Oregon as examples

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Copyright 1913 By
S. Chester Parker

SECRETARY OF THE SOOETY

All Rights Reserved

Published February IQ13

Composed and Printed By

The University of Chicago Press

Chicago, lUinois. U.S.A.

II. DISTRICT SUPERVISION
WEST VIRGINIA AND OREGON AS EXAMPLES

L. J. HANIFAN
State Supervisor of Rural Schools, Charleston, W.Va.

District, or township supervision has for its object the close and
effective supervision of the rural elementary schools. When a state, or
a community, provides for such rural supervision it but tardily recog-
nizes and adopts those principles of administration that have been found
most effective in all forms of successful organized effort. We need only
to look about us to see these principles in operation. Note, for examples,
the administration of a great railroad system, the organization of a
political party, or the handling of large military forces. Everybody
is made responsible to and is directed by somebody else higher up.
Even the churches are effectively organized and the clergy more or less
closely supervised. Every large university has its president, its deans,
and its heads of departments. Every city or large town has its superin-
tendent, its district supervisors, its supervisors of special subjects, its
principals of buildings, even its head janitors. But as the rural schools
have been the last of all the varieties of schools to undertake any kind
of improvement, so have they been the last to adopt these well-known
principles of administration. That the rural schools have accomplished
what they have and continued as an institution can be explained only
by the fact that our rural teachers have, for the most part, been men
and women of unusual devotion to their work, and that the funds for
the support of these schools have come from an inexhaustible public
treasury. But the time has come when the deplorable condition of
country life in general and of the country schools in particular cannot
longer continue so without seriously endangering the whole fabric of
our national life. The people are, for the first time, becoming aroused
to this fact, and conscious efforts are being made now to build up such
a rural civilization as will be in keeping with the growth and prosperity
of our nation as a whole.

17

l8 THE TWELFTH YEARBOOK

Once this work of developing a rural civilization was begun seriously
and consciously, it was discovered that squarely in front of all progress
in rural life betterment stood the neglected rural school. The problem
came to be, How to improve this rural institution, and through it to
improve country life. For it has been found by experiment that reforms
of whatever sort must come through the growing, not the adult, members
of the population. The lamented Dr. W. S. Knapp demonstrated the
truth of this principle by his experiences in his great work toward
improving agricultural conditions in the South.

In our attempts thus far to improve the rural schools, we have tried
a great many different plans. Some of these plans have succeeded,
others have failed — at least partially so. The success of the best of them
has been limited to rather narrow areas and peculiar conditions. To the
administrative factor of the problem some very definite contributions
have been made, though the adaptation of these contributions has been
varied and rather limited.

It was Horace Mann's idea to train individual teachers for the work
of the rural schools. For this purpose, he opened the first normal
school in this country, at Lexington, Mass. This idea of Mann's
spread rapidly, until today we have normal, or teachers' training
schools scattered all over the land. No one would discount the excel-
lent work these schools have done and are doing today. And yet it
must be admitted that most of the direct benefits derived from these
schools have been reaped by the city schools, which, owing to the larger
salaries they could offer, could outbid the country schools for these
trained teachers.

A little later came the plan of establishing graded schools in the
country by means of consolidating small rural schools into central
graded schools, transporting the pupils by wagons. This movement
has spread through favored sections of a great many states, and with
singular success where conditions were favorable to this plan of rural
school improvement. But good as the plan is, where feasible, it can
never help conditions in the large majority of the rural schools. The
extension of the movement is necessarily limited by bad roads, by
mountains and rivers, and by sparsity of population. This is particu-
larly true in the mountainous sections of our country. It is safe to
say that, for by far the greatest number of our country boys and girls,
the one-teacher school will for many years yet continue to be the best.

DISTRICT SUPERVISION 19

The question is then, what can be done to reach and thus improve
this large number of one-teacher schools ?

As a means of reaching effectively all the rural schools, and espe-
cially the one-teacher schools, district (township) supervision has, within
recent years, come more and more into favor with many students of rural
school administration. For more than a score of years Massachusetts
has had this plan in successful operation. Connecticut and some of
the other New England states have adopted plans similar in character
to that of Massachusetts. West Virginia has had optional supervision
since July i, 1908. New York inaugurated a system of compulsory
supervision of all her rural schools May, 19 10, and Oregon in May,
191 1. Kentucky and Alabama have adopted district supervision within
the last twelve months.

This departure in rural school administration has been made in
recognition of keenly felt needs. In some of the states the ineffectiveness
of the office of county superintendent has emphasized the need of some
more effective plan of supervising the rural schools. This statement
is made not as a reflection upon the holders of this office, for most of our
county superintendents have labored faithfully to meet the heavy
demands upon them. The increased number of schools, the ever-grow-
ing clerical demands, and the enlarged conception of the professional
nature of the work of school superintendent, all have contributed toward
making the office bigger than any one man. Those who advocate district
supervision recognize this changed situation and merely seek to give the
county superintendent relief from some of this vast amount of work by
emplo)dng, as his assistants, as many expert supervisors as are necessary
to insure thorough and systematic supervision of all the schools in his
county.

The aim of district supervision is in general outline fourfold:

I. To improve the administration of the business affairs of the rural
school. — ^The average board of education is composed of men who know
very little about schools. They do not grasp the school situation well
enough to know how most economically and effectively to spend the
school funds at their disposal. They are men busy with their own
affairs and could scarcely be expected to spend as much time with school
affairs as would be necessary to supervise the construction of buildings,
the making of repairs, the buying of supplies, the furnishing of fuel,
and a large number of other things. A general manager, the district

20 TEE TWELFTH YEARBOOK

supervisor, is needed to look after all these matters, always under the
direction of the board. It is safe to say, if observation is worth much,
that without expert supervision of the business affairs of these boards,
twenty-five per cent of the building and supply funds is wasted.

2. To help the teacher in her work. — If we can picture to ourselves a
girl yet in her teens, with no experience, with but little more than an
elementary education, with no professional training, going out into an
isolated rural district to teach a school of from twenty to fifty boys and
girls, many of them larger and some older than herself, having against
her the prejudices of the community and bad conditions generally, this
girl doomed to stay in this community from the beginning of the term
to its close, with little social life, with no one to give a word of encourage-
ment or advice, such a picture will be fairly representative of the situa-
tion in a very large number of rural schools at this time. This teacher
needs, even craves, sympathy and help. In very many such cases the
supervisor turns the tide from failure to success.

3. To train the teachers while they teach. — ^The number of rural
teachers who have had normal training is relatively very small. It
would be folly to ask these teachers to quit teaching and go to a normal
school. They must be trained while they teach in their schools.
District supervision proposes to train one man for each group and send
him out into the district to train these teachers for more effective work.
This plan provides a training school in each district as it were, taking
this training to the teachers instead of sending the teachers away to the
training. The plan has at least the advantage of associating the practice
with the theory of teaching.

4. To provide for effective community leadership. — Leadership in the
rural districts is sadly lacking. There is no logical leader of the whole
community. The minister is the leader only of his own church. The
country doctor seldom assumes the leadership which his superior training
and experience fit him for. The farmer does not have sufficient motive
to cause him to assume community leadership. But the district super-
intendent of schools, by virtue of his office, is a logical leader of all the
people of his district. He comes in contact in one way or another with
every family. He knows neither class nor creed. He assimies leader-
ship in all efforts for the betterment of his people. Without such
leadership it is a difficult matter to carry through any project looking
toward social, educational, or moral uplift.

^

DISTRICT SUPERVISION 21

West Virginia and Oregon as Examples

It may be worth while to note very briefly how each of these states
came to provide for district supervision. In West Virginia the board
of education in one district felt so keenly the need of someone to look
after the interests of the rural schools that they appointed, in 1901, an
experienced teacher for this work. There was no law for such action
at the time, and to avoid complications, this teacher was appointed as a
truant officer, which office the law provided for. This experiment led
to the passage of a law in 1908 making the appointment of district
superintendents optional with boards. The law went into effect July
I, 1908.

In Oregon it was observed that many farmers were moving to town
to educate their children, while others were sending their children to the
towns to be educated. A committee was appointed in 1910 to investi-
gate this situation and discover, if possible, the causes. The committee
reported that the rural schools were really inferior to the town and city
schools and that it was their opinion that this inferiority was due to the
fact that the city schools were well supervised, while the country schools
had almost no supervision. The state superintendent submitted this
report to the legislature in 191 1, with his recommendation that a law
be passed establishing district supervision. The law was accordingly
passed and became effective May, 191 1.

LAWS GOVERNING DISTRICT SUPERVISION IN WEST VIRGINIA AND OREGON

The West Virginia law makes district supervision optional with
boards of education, except that a petition in writing of a majority of
the taxpayers may compel a board to appoint a superintendent. When
it has been decided that any district shall have supervision, it becomes the
duty of the board to appoint a superintendent, fix his salary, and issue
such rules and regulations as seem necessary. The only qualification
specified by law is that the appointee shall hold a first-grade state teacher's
certificate. The powers and duties of the superintendent are defined
by law as those which " are usually conferred upon city superintendents."
These superintendents are required "to make such reports as may be
required by the state superintendent of free schools." It is further
provided that a board of education may employ the principal of any
graded school in the district as superintendent "provided he shall devote
at least half his time to supervision." Furthermore, by decision of the

22 THE TWELFTH YEARBOOK

state superintendent two or more small districts may unite to employ a
superintendent.

The Oregon law makes district supervision compulsory in counties
having over sixty school districts. A "school district" is defined as a
community having fewer than one thousand children of school age.
In such counties it becomes the duty of the county superintendent to
appoint four persons who, with himself as chairman, constitute a county
education board. It is the duty of this board to divide the county into
supervisory districts, having not fewer than twenty, nor more than fifty,
school districts; to employ and contract with a supervisor (the county
superintendent must be the supervisor of one of these districts); to
provide him with all necessary supplies (including stationery and
postage); to make rules and regulations governing the work; and to
serve as an advisory board to the county superintendent. The ap-
pointee shall hold a teacher's certificate valid in Oregon and shall
have taught school for at least nine months in the state of Oregon.
His salary shall be not less than $i,ooo or more than $1,200 per year of
ten months. It is the duty of a supervisor to work under the direction
of the county superintendent; to devote his entire time to the supervision
of the schools; toenforce the state course of study; and to make monthly
written reports to the county superintendent.

THE WORK OF THE SUPERVISORS

The work of the district supervisors varies greatly with local condi-
tions. No two supervisors will attack the problems in the same way, or
get the same results. But there are certain large principles of school
administration that must be followed by all alike, if the best results are
to be obtained.

The work of a supervisor in any district consists in meeting local
needs by adaptation of these principles of administration to conditions
as he finds them. Individual initiative and physical energy determine
largely how well the supervisor will meet and become master of a local
situation.

It should be borne in mind that supervision of rural schools is a
comparatively new profession id the educational field, just as sixty years
ago supervision of city schools was a new profession. It is true that we
have had county supervision for many years. And the county superin-
tendents' work is essentially rural. But owing to the working of politics,

DISTRICT SUPERVISION 23

the increased amount of clerical work, and the large number of schools
in most counties, county superintendents have never been able to raise
their work to the dignity of a profession. So that when the rural super-
visors began their work, they found themselves in a new field. But the
experiences of the past few years have laid some foundations which will
serve as a basis for developing rural school supervision into an attractive,
because of its being a remunerative and interesting, field of work. In
some states students in normal schools and in departments of education of
colleges and universities are consciously preparing themselves for just
this work. This new work opens up a fine field of work for ambitious
young men and young women. Even today it is drawing into its field
many principals of city ward schools and superintendents of small city
schools.

Briefly stated the work of the supervisor of rural schools is the same
as that of the superintendent of a city-school system, only that it is a
means of solving rural-school problems instead of city-school problems.
In each case it is but a matter of providing the best schools that can
possibly be had for the given community. Local conditions are the
guiding factor in every case.

As a concrete example of what some of these supervisors are doing,
let me submit the following outline of the work of one supervisor in
Oregon the year 1911-12.

1. Installed individual drinking cups in several schools.

2. Had sanitary water jar, or cooler, placed in several schools.

3. Secured the analysis of the drinking water in a large niunber of schools,
with the result that in four cases out of five the water was condemned.

4. In all but one school had window boards installed for ventilating
piuposes.

5. Had the stoves jacketed in most of the schools.

6. Secured medical inspection of the pupils.

7. Readjusted the seating of the pupils with reference to health and
comfort.

8. Emphasized the importance of better hygienic conditions and placed a
copy of Dr. Allen's Health Rules in every school.

9. Distributed among the schools four-hundred ninety-nine supplementary
readers for the individual grades.

10. Enforced the state coiurse of study.

11. Helped the teachers in their efforts to use modem methods and
devices of teaching.

24 THE TWELFTH YEARBOOK

12. Encouraged picture study in all the schools.

13. Secured the exchange of pupils' compositions with other school chil-
dren in Oregon and in other states.

14. Assisted boards of education in securing and retaining capable teachers.

15. Persuaded boards to supply better school equipment.

16. Directed the work of the Teachers' Reading Circle and encouraged
many teachers to attend summer schools.

17. Supplied teacher^ with lists of helpful state and government publica-
tions.

18. Held twenty-five public meetings and at ten of these gave stereopticon
lectures.

19. Held a district school exhibit or fair.

20. Helped the pupils plan for vocational work during the summer
vacation.

In West Virginia the State Department of Schools has taken a
directive part in the work of the district supervisors, though in co-opera-
tion with the county superintendent. With the exception of "making
such reports as the state superintendent may require," this feature of
the work is voluntary on the part of the supervisors, but as a matter of
fact they are always glad to get such suggestions and help from the state
department as the time and energy of the members of the department
will allow.

In September, 191 2, a circular letter was sent from the state depart-
ment to all the district supervisors and to the county superintendents
as well. This letter, which follows, was intended as a sort of yearly
outline of endeavor for all the rural schools in the state.

I. Better attendance. — Secure the co-operation of truant ofl&cers and
parents.

II. Better sanitation. — ^Make siure of pure drinking water. Secure
individual drinking cups and closed water jar or cooler.

III. Improvement oj grounds and of wall decorations.

IV. Libraries. — ^Better to secure supplementary readers for the individual
grades than to buy miscellaneous books.

V. Try to secure equipment — globes, charts, wall-maps, etc. Many
schools are very poorly equipped. The teacher cannot work without tools.

VI. Grading of one-room schools according to the new course of study.

VII. Better teaching. — Secured by close supervision of work in the school-
room, by teachers' meetings, and by personal study of methods and devices.

VIII. Exchange of compositions, one school with another in same district
or in other districts, or even in other counties.

DISTRICT SUPERVISION ^5

IX. Encourage the pupils to do their best work in composition, drawing,
paper cutting, etc., by allowing them to exhibit their work on the walls.

X. Parents' meetings. — ^Nine-tenths of all school troubles come from
misimderstandings of one kind or another. These meetings will bring about a
better understanding between the teacher and the parents.

XI. Free publications. — ^Write to West Virginia College of Agriculture,
Morgantown, and the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., for their
very valuable publications on the teaching of agriculture.

This same outline of work for the year 191 2-13 was printed on one
page of the pupils' monthly and term report cards which are in the hands
of all the teachers and pupils in the rural schools of the state and through
the pupils thus reach the parents also.

The major part of the work of the supervisors in West Virginia is
along the following general lines:

1. To assist boards of education in the business administration of the
schools. One supervisor was able to save his district the whole amount
of his salary for the entire year by employing business methods in buying
fuel alone. Until that year the furnishing of fuel had been "farmed
out" to patrons of the individual schools by a process called "selling out
the fuel." Instead of auctioning off the contracts for furnishing fuel
in each school district, the supervisor under the direction of the board
advertised for bids to furnish fuel for the entire district. The cost was
much less, and the service much better.

Another supervisor aided his board in saving between $7,000 and
$8,000 by working out a practical scheme of readjusting the schools to
the population. In this district loi teachers were employed during the
near 1911-12. Many of the schoolhouses had been built from ten to
fifteen years. Meanwhile the population had so shifted that some of
these schools had not over ten pupils, all in walking distance of other
small schools. This year the number of teachers was reduced to eighty-
six, and yet not a single new schoolhouse was built, and no pupil had
to walk over two miles. And strange to say the school population had
increased by seven hundred. This state of affairs had existed for four
or five years but the board did not know it until the supervisor called
their attention to it.

2. District supervision improves the school attendance. By direct-
ing the efforts of the truant officer, and by gaining the co-operation of
parents and teachers, the thirty-six district supervisors for the year
1911-12 were able to increase the average daily attendance by 14 per cent

26 TEE TWELFTH YEARBOOK

above the average for the whole state. A similar increase for the whole
state would have resulted in bringing into the schools at least 25,000 boys
and girls that were out of school for lack of proper attention. Aside
from our duty to these irresponsible boys and girls, we must remember
that the good taxpayers of West Virginia paid for the education of all
these children.

3. The supervision of the teacher's work in the schoolroom has very
greatly improved the quality and effectiveness of the teaching. From
one-fourth to one-third of the rural teachers in West Virginia at any time
are teaching their first school. Many of these new teachers are young,
in addition to being inexperienced. One must see them trying to teach
to understand how helpless they are and how greatly they need assistance.
District supervision makes for them just the difference between "keep-
ing" school and teaching school.

4. The district supervisors of West Virginia are doing fine service
by holding regular bi-monthly or monthly teachers' meetings. At these
meetings formalities are laid aside and the teachers engage in discussions
of the problems that have been confronting them in their schools. One
of the more skilful of the teachers is assigned to teach a class of real live
boys and girls in order to give the less experienced teachers the benefit of
observing good teaching. The work of the Teacher's Reading Circle
is reviewed. One of the most helpful features of these meetings is the
bringing together of work in written composition, drawing, and manual
training for an exhibit of what has been done since the last meeting.

The district supervisors are doing many things that cannot be
enumerated. Their work is nothing less than that of bringing order and
system out of conditions that are more or less chaotic in the rural districts.

A study of these two state systems indicates strongly that supervision
is working a revolution in the schools affected. The Oregon law affects
fourteen counties, and twenty-five supervisors are employed besides
the county superintendents. West Virginia has, for 191 2-13, fifty-eight
supervisors, who have under supervision about one-third of the rural
teachers in the state.

In constructing a scheme for rural supervision it is recommended
that in addition to an academic and professional requirement the super-
visor be required to pass an examination, under the state superintend-
ent, on agriculture and the supervision of the teaching of agriculture;
that the supervisor be employed for twelve months in the year; that he

DISTRICT SUPERVISION 27

devote his time between sessions in the summer as supervisor of school
gardens and practical agriculture on the farms in his district, and that
his salary be supplemented by state fimds so that the state may have
more authority in directing his work, somewhat as is the plan in New
York, except that the office of coimty superintendent be not abolished.
The legal recognition of the county superintendent in the Oregon law
is superior to the West Virginia law, but as a matter of actual practice
the county superintendent in West Virginia not only directs the super-
visor's work, he also virtually appoints the supervisor in most cases.

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