The log cabin Democrat., 1920-11-09
NORMAL SURVEYS
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS FIND QUALITY OF WORK Standard Tests Applied to Find Grade of Education-Will Show
 State Average.

A further service to public school education in Arkansas has been sue cessfully launched by the State Nor nal School, which has undertaken to assist to make surveys of their work and determine their standing as con- pared with other schools. Surveys of public schools are now being made with the assistance of the State Nor mai at Morrilton, Ozark, Plumerville, Hope and Conway, and preparations are being made to greatly enlarge and extend this service. This feature of the State Normals work is under di- rection of H. l.. McAlister of the cor respondence department and is attract ing considerable attention among edu- catorS.
 The surveys show the quality and grade ofNork being done, and the rela- tive standing of the school as compar- ed with other public schools. As pro- jected by the State Normal, the work will be done by the teachers them selves under instructions furnished by the Normal As the number of schools being surveyed is increased, the aver age for the state will be computed and shown on forms to be published at the State Normal each month.
 A statement by the school on the na- ture of the work is as follows:
 "The interest in educational meas urements has grown to such an extent II IL al Colo tension department, will give help in this work to the teachers in any of the schools in the state who desire it. This help will be given in either of two ways: Q) the course in edu- cational measurements may be taken for credit by correspondence by any individual teacher working alone; @ in the case of schools that desire to put on a survey of the entire school system, instructions will be given for carrying on the work, and a teacher from the Normal School will go and help in the direction of the work as occasion demands.
 Work of the latter kind is now be- ing carried on with such a degree of success that we are warranted in be- lieving that any system of schools can survey itself at practically no eX- pense, while the value of a survey to teachers, pupils and school system is far in excess of the time and energy required. The main value of such survey by means of standard educa- tional tests lies not only in the fact that the standing of the school sys- tenn, as compared with other schools, IS found, but to a much large degree in the knowledge of their pupils, methods of teaching, and an under standing of educational measurements which the teacher gain. It is not our purpose to send some one into the school to examine and pass judgment on 1t after looking aorund for a while. Our purpose is to train teachers to do their own looking over the school so that they can do it in a scientific manner, and tell just how it stands as compared with other schools. For this reason we simply help you do the work yourself the first time, and then you can do it as often as you like by yourself.
 Educational measurement work has long since passed the experimental stage. Not only do all the normal schools have such courses, but the large universities of the country like Chicago, Harvard and Columbia pay much attention to the work, giving several different courses each term. The State Normal School of Kansas sends out more than one million test blanks of one kind and another each year. Nearly all the large cities of the country have been surveyed by means of such tests. Heretofore, the cost of getting an expert to come and do the work has been beyond the reach of small schools. Our plan is to teach you to do the work yourself, and that at practically no cost.
 If you are at all interested in this, either now or in the future, write us so that arrangements can be made for your school to enter into this plan of survey and comparison. If you are already using any tests in your school please write us the scores that you get from time to time. We are compil- ing them, and will send out to those reporting the median scores made by all the schools month by month Names of schools will not appear in our re- ports sent out.