Smyrna times., 1932-02-17
DELAWARE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ADVANCE TO TENTH PLACE
SYSTEM MOVES FROM 32ND
POSITION IN LAST DECADE
Issues Statement Showing How
Figures Are Obtained

| l5ohco kJhUWluS T1oW
Figures Are Obtained
Where does our State stand edu-
cationally among the other states
of the Union? How do our schools
compare with those of the neigh
boring states? What progress is
being made in our school system
from year to year? These, and
other similar questions, are fire.
quently being asked by the friends
of education in Delaware. Inter
esting figures are now available.
These figures show that the State
has made rapid strides in educa-
tion during the past ten years and
has moved up from 32nd in 1920 to
10th place in 1880. The following
is a brief account of the methods
which have been used to rank the
various states educationally: One
of the earliest attempts was made
in 1912, using the data for 1910.
The states were ranked in each of
ten points and the final rank then
determined for each. According
to this ranking of the states,
Washington was first and Della
ware 35th. A second and more
serious attempt was made by
Leonard T. Ayres in 1920 In this
study he also selected ten items,
some of which corresponded to
those in the study of 1910 Five
of the items selected by him had to
| do with school enrolment and at
Tendance, and the other five were
concerned with expenditures. In
his ranking of the states, Nevada
was first and Delaware 32nd. In
1922 a ranking Of the same items
placed California first and Della
ware Both. Last May, Frank NJ
Phillips, late of the Office of Edu-
cation. Washington, D. c., assem-
bled data for the school year 1929
1880 from the forty-eight states
and the District Of Columbia, and
calculated the index number of
each state on each of the ten
items previously used by Ayres.
Since the studies Of 1920 and 1880
used the same items in the same
items in the same way, it is pos
sible to see how Delaware has ad-
vanced educationally during the
decade. The figures recently re-
leased by Phillips showed that
New York ranked first, with an
index number of 89.77. This is 81
percent higher than the index of
the United States as a whole,
which is 65.46. Delaware, with an
index number of 1870, which is
IL 1-2 percent higher than the in
dex for the country at large, has
advanced from 32nd position in
1920 to 10th place among the
states in 1880. (F'igures recently
released by the Department of Pub
lie Instruction in Dover, give the
Ayres index of the State as 1O4
This index does not correspond
with that given in this article since
it was calculated upon the pur-
chasing power of the dollar in 1880
and not upon that Of the dollar in
1920, as is the case with the in
dex of Phillips). The states which
are above Delaware in order of
rank are New York, District of
Columbia, Nevada, California, New
Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Washington,
and Massachusetts,. Georgia ranks
lowest. Some of the neighboring
states and their ranks are New
Jersey, 5th; Pennsylvania, 21st;
Maryland, 9th; and Virginia, 43rd.
Objections may be raised to a sys-
tenn of making comparisons be-
tween states having a large city
population and those whose popu-
lation is mostly rural. The Dis
trict of Columbia for example is
chiefly the City Of Washington,
while Nevada has more than 80
percent of her population outside
of cities and also density of less
than 1 percent per square mile.
Accordingly, the various states
have been grouped together with
reference to the density of popula-
tion. In 1920, Delaware was one
of 19 states in the group of states
with from 80 to so percent urban
population. Among these 10 states
Delaware ranked 14th. In 1880
there were IL states in this group.
Among these IL states Delaware
was second, being only surpassed
by Washington, whose index was
1898 as compared with Delaware's
1870. A comparison of the index
number of each item in 1920 and
1880 shows that educational pro-
gress as measured by these items
has not been confined to one or two
Of the ten points used. With the
exception of the item which has to
do with the average number of
days the schools were in session
and which remains approximately
the same since 1920, each item has
shown an increase in IFS index