Are the Elementary Schools Getting a Square Deal
- Author:
Gaylee,
Superintendent of Schools, Canton, Illinois.
Tlie study given below is a continuation of the one published last month entitled “Enrolment by Grades in Fourteen School Systems of Central Illinois.” It aims to throw light upon the cause of the continuous decrease in attendance from the first grade to the senior year in high school. The question raised here is whether elimination is due to the fact that boys and girls do not desire an education or is it due to a lack of right conditions caused by the cheapening of the work? Would the elimination, at least in part, be obviated by a more equitable distribution of pupils and funds based on the percentage of children enrolled ?
Much has been said in recent years about the high school and high school education. It is the one part of the system that has been kept constantly before the school public. No objection can be made to this but it should not be forgotten that the elementary graded school is the great bulwark of education. Here is where all the children of all the people go and in any democratic form of government these must be taken care of first. In a democracy the many must be cared for as well as the few, the 85 per cent must receive their due proportion of time and funds.
Table I gives data with regard to the grades only, for thirteen school systems of Central Illinois. In these thirteen systems are enrolled 28,8G5 pupils. These pupils are taught by 853 teachers, an average of 34 pupils to the teacher. Only four school systems (Jacksonville, Quincy, Molinc and Champaign) have a lower average. The average cost of teaching is $17.20 per pupil. Four towns have a higher cost per pupil, the same that have a lower average enrolment than the general average. The average salary per teacher in these thirteen systems is $582.29 per year or $04.70 a month for nine months in the year. Five towns pay above the average. These are Moline, Rock Island, Pekin, Decatur, and Quincy.
Table II concerns the high school only. There are 4999 pupils enrolled in the thirteen systems and 205 teachers employed. This gives on an average 24 pupils to the teacher. The cost of teaching in the thirteen schools for the year (found by adding
TABLE I. Grade Town | Enrol; ment Canton I 1857 Jacksonville.. 1538 Moline 2874 Champaign. . 1698 Rock Island.. 2977 Monmouth. . 1256 Galesburg. . Beardstown. Pekin Clinton.. Mattoon. Decatur. Quincy.. 2722 1116 1689 1011 1947 4685 3495 Grade Teachers Average No. of Pupils 49 58 20 51 83 35 35.8 37.9 26.6 23.9 33.2 35.8 72 28 40 28 45 124 120 Totals 28,865 I 853 37.8 39.8 42.2 36.1 43.2 35.3 29.1 33.8 Average Cost per Pupil 13.18 20.7 25.8 17.3 16.1 15 15.3 12.1 15.24 13.6 11.7 16.1 23.8 17.20 Average Yearly Salary 499.59 Average Monthly Salary 55.51 549.31 61.03 619.47 577.06 614.51 538.57 581.47 482.34 643.75 492.85 510.50 608.70 611.35 582.29 68.83 64.11 68.27 59.84 64.60 53.51 71.52 54.76 56.72 67.63 67.92 64.70 Total Cost of Grade Teachers 24,480 31,860 74,336.39 29,430 51,005 18,850 41,866 13,506 25,750 13,800 22,972.50 75,480 73,362.71 496,698.60 TABLE II. I High Town i School Enrolment Canton…. 255 Jacksonville 354 Moline j 418 Champaign. 387 Rock Island 501 Monmouth Galesburg. Beardstown Pekin… Clinton. .. Mattoon.. Decatur… Quincy Totals. 392 774 193 198 216 229 582 500 High School Teach10 17 19 15 20 14 28 7 9 9 9 28 20 4999 205 Average No. of Pupils 25.5 20.8 22 25.8 25 28 27.6 27.5 22 24 25.4 27.8 25 24.4 Average Cost per Pupil Average Yearly Salary 34.20 ! 872.25 48.08 ‘ 995.26 38.73 852.21 36.55 943 40.50 1014.75 28.88 32.31 24.38 37.87 31.20 33.71 43.61 49.05 37.80 SOS.92 1389.72 672.28 833.33 751.11 857.77 906.50 1226.40 922.28 Average Monthly Salary 96.91 110.58 94.69 104.77 112.75 89.95 154.41 74.70 92.60 83.45 95.30 100.72 136.26 102.55 Total Cost of High School Teachers 8,722.50 16,920 16,192.12 14,145 20,295 11,325 25,015 4,706 7,500 6,760 7,720 25,382.50 24,528.16 189,211.28
salaries of all liigli school teachers) is $189,211.28 or an average cost per pupil of $37.80.
Five schools cost more than the average. These are Jacksonville, Moline, Rock Island, Decatur, and Quincy. The average salary paid is $922.28 per annum or $102.55 a month. Six schools are paying above the average. These are Jacksonville, Champaign, Rock Island, Galesburg, Decatur, and Quincy.
The most interesting points in this study come out in comparing and contrasting the figures given in the two tables. Notice that in the eight grades in these schools 28,8G5 children are taught by 853 teachers, an average of 34 children to the teacher, while in the high schools 4999 pupils are taken care of by 205 teachers or an average of 24 pupils to the teacher. The grades have the children when they are most helpless and when more individual instruction is necessary and yet have on the average ten more pupils to the teacher.
Further it will be seen that the average cost for teaching children in the grades per pupil enrolled is $17.20, while in the high school it is $37.80 or a little over twice as much. When we know that on the average about 85 per cent of the children in these systems never go further than the eighth grade, the question naturally arises as to whether the large majority of the children are getting a fair proportion of the public money expended for education. Are all the children of all the people given an equal opportunity? The average salary of the grade teachers in these schools is $582.29 per annum or $04.70 a month, while the high school teachers receive on the average $922.28 per year or $102.55 per month. In all cases both in the high school and in the grades the salaries of the principals were included, but the salaries of supervisors and superintendents were not. Here we see that the children of the grades do not have as high salaried teachers as pupils of the high school although it is generally agreed that the best trained teachers are needed in the elementary school rather than in the high school.
Table ITT shows the percentage of pupils taught in the grades as compared and contrasted with the percentage cared for by high schools and the percentage of money paid for salaries in the grades as compared with the percentage paid for salaries in the high schools. For example the grades in Canton take care of 88.2 per cent of the total enrolment but receive 73.7 per cent of the total money paid for salaries, while the high school takes 11.8 per cent of the pupils and receives 26.3 per cent of the total money spent for salaries. In the thirteen systems 84.1 per cent of the pupils are taught by the teachers of the grades who receive 71.3 per cent of the total money spent for teachers’ salaries, while in the high schools there are enrolled 15.8 per cent of the students and the teachers receive 28.7 per ccnt of money spent for salaries. This does not take into account money spent for apparatus and other material, which is always greater in the high school than in
TABLE III. Town Per cent of Pupils in Grades Per cent of Money for Grade Teaching Per cent of Pupils in High Schools Per cent of Money for High School Teaching Canton Jacksonville. Moline Champaign. Rock Island. Monmouth.. Galesburg… Beardstown. Pckin Clinton Mattoon Decatur. Quincy Average. 88.2 81.2 87.3 81 85.5 70.2 77.9 84.6 89.5 82.1 89.5 88.9 87.4 73.7 j 11.8 65.3 ! 19.2 82.1 67.5 71.5 62.4 62.5 74.1 77.4 66.6 74.8 74.8 74.9 84.1 71.3 12.7 20.9 14.3 23.8 22.1 14.7 10.5 17.6 10.8 11.1 12.6 26.3 34.7 17.9 32.5 28.5 37.6 37.5 25.9 22.6 33.3 25.2 25.2 25.1 15.8 28.7
the elementary school. After studying these conditions carefully, the very significant question arises?Are the grade children, the eighty-five per cent or more of the total enrolment, getting a square deal ? The facts given above bear out the criticism by Dr. G. Stanley Hall in “Educational Problems” (page 543) that “We have paid relatively vastly too much attention to the few who go on to secondary and higher technical, liberal and professional education, and have wastefully, not to say disgracefully, neglected the needs of the masses of our children and youth.”
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