Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 135, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1920 — INDIANA LAGGING IN SCHOOL RANK [ARTICLE]

INDIANA LAGGING IN SCHOOL RANK

Indianapolis, June 3.—Announcement by the - department of education of the Russell Sage Foundation that in the efficiency of its public schools Indiana ranks seventeenth among the states, is causing considerable discussion among educators concerning the factors which place the state below many others. While educational leaders were gratified by the excellent standing of the state the sentiment was expressed that immediate steps ought to be taken to rectify conditions which have kept Indiana from the top in the educational world. - A study of school legislation and policies of Montana, California, Arizona and New Jersey, the four leading states, according to the report of the foundation, reveals many reasons for their advanced standing educators declare. Several reasons are assigned for Indiana’s failure to obtain first rank in educational advancement. Indiana has not kept pace with increased salaries for teachers, although recent agitation resulted in some improvement of conditions. Selection of important education officials, including the state superintendent of public instruction and the ninety-two county school superintendents, has been left in politics. New Jersey has a law which provides for the appointment of the county superintendents by the state commissioner of education. The superintendents are selected from any part of the United States and receive a salary of $3,000 a year. A bill is pending before the legislature ito increase the salary to $4,000 a year. Indiana county superintendents are elected by township trustees, usually for political reasons, it is contended, and have only recently been provided with anything like adequate salaries. Indiana has no state supervisor of rural education and no special attention has been given to rural school problems beyond a rural school campaign inaugurated during the school year by the state department .of public instruction. Leading states in educational work have had experts seeking to bring rural education up to the standard maintained in the cities. There is only one state high school inspector in Indiana to supervise and direct 800 high schools. Many states have made provision for three or more such experts. Compulsory physical education is a feature of the course of study in many of the leading educational states of the country. Physical training work has been carried on only in a limited way in Indiana. Compulsory medical inspection of school children, one of the cardinal points in schools of many states, has been neglected in Indiana: In the leading educational states the legal minimum term for the rural schools is eight months. The Indiana legal school term is six months, and until recently many school corporations have been running only five months, in defiance' of the law. State school officials directed attention to the failure of many trustees to keep their schools in session the minimum term during the last school year and the practice has been stopped to some extent Lax enforcement of the compulsory attendance law in Indiana has long been the subject of discussion by school officials. Attendance officers receive only $2 a day, accord? ing to officials, -and many of them have not performed their duties energetically. States leading Indiana fa education rank have been noted for- the enforcement of attendance laws. Teachers’ training agencies of Indiana have not given special attention to the training of rural teachers. , In many leading educational states normal training schools maintain separate training courses for rural teachers. The fact that Indiana leads many of the states and territories in educational matters is attributed to numerous causes. Among he factors which placed Indiana ahead of many other states are the qualifications demanded of teachers and the consolidation of rural schools. Consolidation in Indiana, however, is confined to several counties and in otters much remains to be done in this work.