School Reports
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of North Carolina 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.M844, Series 6
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The school reports, which are in five series, include both retained copies of outgoing reports and originals of incoming reports. Included are reports of the Superintendent, district superintendents, agents and assistant superintendents in the subdistricts, and teachers. Two of the series contain bound volumes, and three consist of unbound records.  The series are arranged generally in chronological order.  

One series of five bound volumes contains monthly statistical school reports of the Superintendent, August 1865–July 1869. The bulk of these reports was submitted on printed forms, and all of them are retained copies of originals sent to Bureau headquarters at Washington that give statistical information about schools. They provide such data as the names of locations of schools, the dates they were opened and closed, the names of patrons or sponsoring benevolent societies, the number of schools sustained by the freedmen, and the facilities of the building. The reports also give information concerning pupils' sex, race, attendance, age, and the number studying each subject.  

One volume, July 1868–June 1869, an "Appendix" to the previous series of monthly reports of the Superintendent, may be regarded as a series in itself. It provides financial information for each school not given on the standard report form, such as the amount of money received for tuition, the amount contributed by freedmen, and the amount contributed by societies.

Another series, which is unbound, consists of retained copies of monthly statistical reports of the Superintendent on the standard report form, December 1866–June 1870. Also included is one "Semi-annual" report dated January 1, 1867. While much of the information from the bound series is duplicated in these somewhat fragmentary reports, various figures, totals, and remarks for certain months provided in this series are not found in the other series of similar reports.

A series containing unbound monthly reports received from agents and assistant superintendents stationed in the subdistricts covers the period March 1867–November 1868. Occasionally, a district superintendent's report may also appear here. Although most of the statistical information is also found in other series, the reports in this series contain questions designed for nonstatistical answers, such as, "What efforts are you making to secure support for schools…?"

The lowest level in the hierarchy of reports is represented by a series of unbound monthly reports on printed forms received from teachers during the period February 1868–February 1871. Statistics on the number of pupils, attendance habits, and degree of literacy are given. The reports also provide information about the financial assistance received by the school. These reports were evidently used to furnish information for higher Bureau officials in compiling their reports.