Fund." Ten years later, Missouri provided for a similar organization known as the State Board of Education. Besides these two, and those of Connecticut and Massachusetts, there was only one other established before 1850, that of Maine, which was abolished six years later and has not since been revived.

It is only within recent years that provision has been made for real state supervision of elementary and secondary schools. The possibilities here are great if the work is done with intelligence and skill. If the inspector gives his attention, not to minute details of management of school and classes, but to the vital work of the school, if he is in possession of the best that thought and effort have produced anywhere bearing on teaching, organization and school administration to place at the service of the schools, if he has the power of adaptability to circumstances, so that he may readily see the relative fitness of things, if he is animated with a spirit of helpfulness, so that he will suggest improvement, encourage honest efforts, inspire the teachers with energy, enthusiasm and zeal, he will be a most potent force in raising the standard of elementary and secondary education.

That it has been necessary for the welfare of society that the state direct and control more and more the educational interests cannot well be denied.

"Unless the state is moving, the purposes of the state are not being fulfilled. The state which is not inspecting and improving its schoolhouses; which is not preparing, regulating, and advancing its teaching service; which is not shaping and stimulating and systematizing the work of its schools, through a department of the state government, and through universal expert supervision, to which it has given a dignity of standing and authority sufficient to justify the theories upon which its very act is taken, is a state whose government is in hands that are nerveless, or whose people are strangely and basely indifferent to the evolution of educational thought and to the stern logic of educational events."

Whatever may be the view as to the degree of centralization desirable, it cannot be gainsaid that the supervision of the state has become closer and closer. To enforce the principle of equality underlying American education this has been found necessary.

"The public schools stand in precisely the same relation not only to every citizen, but to every inhabitant of the land. What

the high seas are to the sailor, what the king's highway is to the landsman, the public schools are to every child on the road to knowledge. Equality of obligation in maintenance, and equality of right in enjoyment, is the legend which the law would write across the front of every public schoolhouse."35

To insure this sovereign prerogative the state, in the interest of society as well as the individual, has assumed greater and greater control of education.

35 Draper: American Education, p. 57.

CHAPTER VIII.

INFLUENCE OF HIGHER INSTITUTIONS ON
SECONDARY COURSES OF STUDY.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS DISCUSSION.

In the treatment of the subject of this chapter, it is not the intention to make a comprehensive study of the relation of secondary schools and colleges, but rather to consider the question only in so far as it is affecting the secondary courses of study. While the control thus exercised by higher institutions is not strictly state control and may possibly be better characterized as extra-legal (with the exception of the University of the State of New York), yet the consideration of state supervision and inspection would hardly be complete without reference to this relationship between high schools and colleges which has had a marked effect on secondary instruction.

HISTORICAL RESUME.

Originally, high schools and colleges had no relationship, unless possibly one of rivalry. The high school, as has been shown, originated as an outgrowth of elementary schools to answer the demand for more extended training. In time, however, these people's schools added to their aim of preparing for life that of preparing for college. In the effort to make the educational system continuous, there has sprung up a relationship between high schools and colleges which has given rise to many problems resulting in much discussion and readjustment. Though opinions differ widely as to what should be the nature of this relation, four methods of admission to college are in general use. The cldest method, that of examination, aside from its use by the college entrance examination board, is now confined to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Bryn Mawr, and a few other eastern institutions. The certificate plan, by which the candidate from the preparatory school is admitted on a statement from his principal, certifying

that he is considered qualified for college work, prevails generally in New England. By the diploma method pursued in the south, the candidate is considered qualified by virtue of his diploma. Admission by accrediting prevails in the north central and western states. The most perfected system of examination is that carried on by the University of the State of New York, the only one of the kind in the country. The University is an organization embracing practically all the provisions for secondary and higher education. The governing body is the board known as the Regents of the University of the State of New York, whose function includes general control and inspection but not instruction. The work of the University is divided into six departments, one of which is that of the high school. The nature and character of the latter is indicated in the following:

"The college and the high school department of the university are under a single department director. He is assisted by nine inspectors of schools, one of whom is employed as an inspector of apparatus, and by a large staff of examiners. On the basis of reports made to this department, the regents distributed in 1901 a total of $292,311.81 to the secondary schools of the state. Formerly a portion of the money distributed by the regents was apportioned on the basis of credentials obtained by pupils in the schools who had passed regents' examinations-a method, that is, of payment by results. The report of the director of the high school department for 1898 says of the examinations: 'In June, 1898, the secretary stated to the regents that 10 years' experience had confirmed his views, given to the board in 1889, that examinations have the highest educational value and that the small minority which would abolish them are extremists. It is believed, however, that these tests would be more valuable if they were used for their educational value and not at all as a guide in distributing public money. Inspection will enable us in most cases to determine satisfactorily without regents' examinations whether a school is maintaining a standard deserving aid from state funds.'

"In accordance with this recommendation the method of payment by results has been discontinued and apportionments are now made as follows: (a) $100 is allowed to each school approved by the regents without regard to its size or special attainments; (b) a sum not exceeding $250 for the purchase of approved books and apparatus is allowed to each school raising for the same purpose an equal amount from local sources; (c) the

of academic students, provided that each student whose attendance is so counted must hold a 'regents' preliminary certificate' for admission to the school, or the school must have been approved by two university inspectors as having a higher entrance requirement than the minimum prescribed for the preliminary certificate. Of the $350,000 appropriated for this purpose under the present laws, about 20 per cent will be distributed under item (a), about 15 per cent under item (b), and about 65 per cent under item (c).

"Regents' examinations are held in January and June in seventy-three subjects, covering all the subjects in the high school curriculum, and in March twenty-six subjects only. In 1901, these examinations were taken by 699 of the 741 secondary schools in the University. Each diploma issued by the regents to a graduate of a secondary school shows on its face the subjects in which its holder has passed regents' examinations. These diplomas are accepted in lieu of entrance examinations in the subjects which they cover by institutions of higher education not only in New York state but also generally throughout the United States. As the regents' preliminary examinations furnish the standard for admission to the secondary schools, their influence extends to all the lower grades, and large numbers of pupils from the ungraded rural schools take these tests in the neighboring high schools and academies.1

THE ACCREDITING SYSTEM.

While the system of examinations with all its imperfections has had its beneficial effect (and still has where in use) in compelling advance on the part of preparatory schools to meet the increasing college requirements for admission, it is the accrediting system which has done more than any other agency in raising the standards and efficiency of secondary schools.

No two universities pursue in detail the same method of accrediting, but the general policy is the same. No school is placed on the accredited list, unless on examination it is found to meet the University requirements for admission and the continuation of such relation is dependent on the maintenance of such character determined by subsequent periodical inspection by University authorities. The benefits derived from this system have been many It has enabled communities to see the deficiencies as well as excellencies of their schools and been instrumental in securing better school accommodation, better equipment, and better teach

1 Brown: Making of Middle Schools, p. 362.