School Reports
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1870
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAAHC.FB.M1053, Series 4
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The records of the Superintendent of Education include eight unbound series and one volume of school reports. Among the records are retained copies of outgoing reports of the Superintendent and originals of reports received from district superintendents, assistant subassistant commissioners, and teachers.

The unbound monthly statistical school reports of the Superintendent, July 1865–June 1870, are arranged chronologically by month. Most of these reports were prepared on printed forms, and all include such data as the names and locations of schools, the dates of their opening and closing, the names of sponsoring benevolent societies or other patrons, and the amount of tuition paid by freedmen. The reports also give information concerning the sex, race, age, and attendance of the pupils as well as the number studying each subject. Related to the unbound reports and providing almost identical information is a volume of the State Superintendent's monthly school reports, April 1869–June 1870, also arranged chronologically.

The monthly reports on school buildings, August–December 1869 and April 1870, are arranged chronologically and contain information on Bureau and non–Bureau buildings. Information about each structure includes its locations; its physical composition, condition, and value; and the owner and value of the land upon which it was situated.

Among the reports received by the Superintendent are monthly statistical school reports of district superintendents (redesignated subassistant commissioner after April 1867), July 1865–April 1869 and January 1870. These are arranged chronologically by month and thereunder numerically by district (or subdistrict after April 1867). Because the reports, which were prepared on forms, give essentially the same kind of information as the monthly reports prepared by the Superintendent of Education, they were evidently used by him in compiling his reports.

The monthly school reports from assistant subassistant commissioners and agents, January 1868–January 1869, are arranged chronologically by month and thereunder by subdistrict and, until August 1868, by division within the subdistrict. They generally contain information on schools within a division. Most of the reports were prepared on forms containing 19 questions relating to the number of schools in operation and teachers employed, the need for additional schools and teachers, the efforts and ability of freedmen and the aid societies to meet the educational needs of the division, and the public sentiment toward the education of freedmen and impoverished whites.

Three miscellaneous series of reports also are among the Superintendent's records. The first of these consists of five inspection reports for March–April 1866, prepared by Chaplain Charles H. Raymond, Inspector of Schools for Virginia, which include tabulated data and remarks about schools visited, teachers and pupils, discipline, and types of studies. A second series consists of a few descriptive school reports forwarded by assistant superintendents and subassistant commissioners, March 1867–July 1868, which are arranged chronologically by month. The reports briefly discuss locations of schools, attendance, financial support, and teachers. In some cases, educational problems and the competency of individual teachers are considered. The remaining series of miscellaneous reports was the result of responses to six different circulars and circular letters issued by the Assistant Commissioner and Superintendent of Education in Virginia and in Bureau headquarters. The issuances, dated between July 18, 1866, and October 6, 1868, requested various types of data concerning schools, teachers, and buildings. The reports are arranged either chronologically according to the circular to which they pertain and thereunder by district or chronologically by date of the response. A copy of each issuance has been reproduced immediately preceding the documents pertaining to it.

Monthly school reports of teachers, November 1865 and January 1866–June 1871, are arranged chronologically and were prepared on forms devised in the Office of the Superintendent of Education. The forms contain statistical data furnished by individual teachers concerning the number of pupils enrolled; attendance; subjects taught in day, night, and Sabbath schools; and the amount of tuition paid by students. Some forms also contain more lengthy narrative remarks by teachers. Some of the reports apparently pertain to non–Bureau schools. Filmed directly after the school reports is a bound register containing the names of teachers to whom forms and envelopes were sent, May 1869–June 1870; the names are arranged alphabetically by name of county.