Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-10-16
BIG CHANGE
NEEDED IN
THE SCHOOLS
More Professional Teachers
Are Needed, Says Recent
Report.

in $50 cities of the United
States with a population of 5000 or
more will receive today from their
national committee for cooperation
With the public schools the results Of
nationwide survey relating to salaries,
training and experience of teachers in
which it is declared that in point of
salary the average school teacher is
worse off than before the war" The
report. the first Of foul interpretive
inquiries" will enable these cities, it
is said, to learn for the first time the
truth about their own schools and to
compare them with the schools of
other cities throughout the country.
This survey, which was undertaken
by the American city bureau after a
conference Of superintendent of
; schools, with chamber of : commerce
secretaries at Cleveland, o.. last Feb
ruary "a, has been in progress more
than six months. The questions to
which answe were sought and OBJ
tanned in the $50 cities were: How
much training do your teachers
have?" and How we'll do you pay
your school employees"
One-half Of the men elementary
teachers in>all cities reporting, it was
shown. have had less than the median
OF $40 years Of experience. One
fourth have had less than 81 years
! VI oo,GS O,7o"
have ha | only one years experience
and Of mis- nu~,ber 1853 are men and
women ! Ugh school teachers and 2,735
are men n n elementary grade
teachers. More than 10000 women
and 800 men in the cities surveyed,
however, have been teaching 20
years and over.
Emergency teachers lacking proper
training for their work are said to
compose IAN alarmingly large proper
ton" of those now in the class rooms.
II is a commonly accepted standard
among city boards of education, the
report points out, hat the teachers in
the elementary schools should re at
least graduates OF standard normal
schools, which means a tWo-year pro-
fessional course above graduation
from a four-year high school. 1T is
very significant to note in this con-
| nection," the report says. that more
than one-third of the teachers of
american cities have less training
than this low standard and that there
are thousands Of teachers in the ele-
cities who have even less preparation
than graduation from a four-year high
school course
A Real Profession.
Declaring that national problems
"a AN~AS%A
controversies, equalization Of educa-
tional opportunity, health. industrial
organization, require that the product
of our schools be thinking Americans,
provided with the knowledge and
habits which will make them con-
tributing members of a democratic
society,"" the report says that teach
ing needs to be made a real profess
sion" n that adequate salaries are
an absolute essential for the realiza-
ton of this IDEAL"
The returns disclose what are de-
scribed as "many surprising facts
concerning teachers salaries" The
average increase the country over
since 1854 has been 60 per cent.
meanwhile, it is shown. has been more
than 100 per cent. I'm view of the
decreased purchasing power of the
dollar the average school eacher in
the United States Is, therefore, worse
off than she was before the war" the
report states.
The method Of calculation used in
the report is based OF a median, or
mid-point, in the scale of salaries
which divides it exactly in half. one
half the cases falling below the median
and the other half above it.
Salary Schedule.
The following cities. respectively,
paid the highest and lowest median
salaries during the school year 1919
1920, according to survey charts:
eastern states) Holyoke, Mass, T.
S47; Owego.a N. Y. $3.50. (Great
Lakes states), Chicago, 1894; Gosh
octon and Belle Center, o.. $3.50.
western ssates). Oakland, Cal, ST.
[S14; Standpoint, Idaho, $3.50. tGreat
Plains states), st. Paul, Minn.;,3 $1,505;
Independence, Mo-. $555. .(Southern
states), Greenville. Miss. $1.275;
Jackson, Tenn, $471.
DR.. George d. Strayer, chairman of
the national committee, in speaking
Of the situation. said: What we need
throughout the nation is a better IN
derstanding OF the school situation
based upon careful assembling of the
facts. These inquiries are intended to
serve Just this purpose. The Amer1-
can people believe in the public school
system. That they have not always
supported 1t as generously as they
should is not due to any lack OF faith.
but, rather, because of lack$of infor-
nation. II superintendents Of schools