members were engaged in some form of hobby activity, especially in leather, metal, and wood crafts, dramatics, music, and photography.

The libraries in the camps, consisting originally of 125 books per camp, have been augmented considerably by the efforts of the camp advisers. The circulation of books in the camps now approximates 300,000.

Visual education by means of motion pictures is a widely used educational device. More than 5,000 films are shown in the camps each month.

The broad scope of the educational program is accounted for by the varied training and needs of the enrollees. Although the average years of schooling of C. C. C. students throughout the country is 8.7 years, the educational level differs widely in individual camps. For example, 25 percent of C. C. C. men in the Seventh Corps Area, the region just west of the Mississippi, from Minnesota south through Arkansas, are high-school graduates, whereas only 8 percent of the enrollees in the Fourth Corps Area (the Southern States) have completed high school.

Lesson outlines and materials have been prepared to meet more effectively the needs of the enrollees. With the help of the National Park Service, the Forestry Service, and the Soil Erosion Service, a special committee of the Vocational Division of the Office of Education recently prepared a series of new instruction outlines on agriculture, auto repair, carpentry, concrete construction, conservation of natural resources, cooking, masonry, forestry, house wiring, mechanical drawing, photography, radio servicing, soil erosion, and surveying.

In May 1935 Dr. Marsh resigned as educational director, to become associate director of the Americal Council on Education. Mr. Howard W. Oxley, who had been civilian adviser for education in the Second Corps Area since September 1934, was appointed to succeeed Dr. Marsh.

With the issuing of an Executive order by the President, increasing the number of camps to 2,916 and extending the C. C. C. enrollment to 600,000, the educational budget was increased to $6,000,000. The quota of camp advisers was increased to 2,200, and an assistant camp adviser is to be appointed in each camp.

An assistant director of education in the Washington office and assistant corps-area advisers in the nine regional headquarters have been authorized to assist in the administration of the program. Mr. S. M. Ransopher, formerly the Seventh Corps Area educational adviser, was appointed on June 25, 1935, as assistant director.

Seventy-six district advisers, to be assigned to C. C. C. district offices, will bring the supervisory personnel up to the necessary requirement.

FEDERAL EMERGENCY RELIEF ADMINISTRATION

The request for Federal funds for the purpose of maintaining schools in smaller communities were not so large as last year. This year about 10 million dollars were allotted to 22 States, and in the previous year 32 States were aided to the extent of $15,123,125. In distributing funds for this purpose the Office of Education was consulted, and members of the staff made visits to Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota to study their programs of school relief.

In the emergency situation education has been recognized as a field within which special relief projects can be extensively organized under the policies of the Relief Administration. Expenditures for such projects are largely for salaries of men and women, eligible for relief or already on relief rolls, who can qualify as teachers of emergency education classes or as agents in school-health service. Such projects in education have included the organization of nursery schools for young children, classes to fit the educational needs of adults, vocational-training classes for unemployed adults in need of such training to make them employable, and the vocational rehabilitation of unemployed physically disabled adults.

The fundamental problem in organizing emergency education programs has been to find, among the unemployed eligible for relief or already on relief rolls, men and women qualified by experience to teach emergency classes, and to provide intensive teacher-training for such men and women in the professional technic of teaching. The Office of Education has cooperated in an advisory capacity and through making available the services of experts on its staff, in the organization of these emergency education programs.

SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS

There have been many problems relating to public education in connection with the Government's effort to solve a part of the economic maladjustment through the establishment of subsistence homesteads. The organization in charge of these developments has from time to time come to the Office of Education for information and guidance concerning these problems. The information needed has been both general and specific in type. In selecting the sites for such developments it has been found necessary to take careful account of the types and levels of schools available within

the proposed areas themselves, those available in communities adjacent to the proposed developments, and the accessibility of these various types of educational services. It has been one of the tasks of this office to provide information concerning the schools available and the conditions under which they operate.

PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION

The Office of Education has cooperated during the year with officials of the Public Works Administration in regard to school-building problems throughout the country. Estimates were prepared for the administration of immediate school-building needs and data on the financial condition of school districts were supplied. All State and urban records of school-building equipment and financial status assembled in the Office of Education have been placed at the disposal of the Public Works Administration as a check on the applications the Administration receives for school-building projects.

At the request of the Housing Division the Office has served as a clearing house for the recommendation of local members of national organizations active in the fields of nursery school and day-nursery work to serve local housing-advisory committees. The service has also been desired in determining local needs and permanency for the operation of such educational or supervisory programs for children below school age as might be organized.

CENTRAL STATISTICAL BOARD

In connection with the work of the central statistical board the Chief of the Statistical Division of the Office was assigned to serve on the committee on financial statistics of State and local governments. Members of the staff are consulted from time to time in reference to studies related to education.

II. OFFICE OF EDUCATION

1. RESEARCH AND INVESTIGATION

EDUCATION DURING THE DEPRESSION

Since about 1932 there has been a large demand from various sources for information concerning the effects of the depression on the schools and much time has been spent by the Office in collecting and compiling data to meet these requests.

In order to be certain as to the location and extent of the financial emergency in the public schools we sent, early in the autumn of 1934, inquiry forms to the several State departments of education to ascer

tain the number of schools, pupils, and teachers that would be affected because of insufficient funds to operate a normal or customary school

term.

The replies, which were summarized and published as Circular No. 138, indicated that the emergency in 1934-35 would be as extensive as it was in 1933-34, although in many cases the same schools were not involved. The replies showed that there were 32,139 school districts in 25 States that did not have sufficient funds to operate schools for the number of months in 1934-35 to which they were accustomed and that without additional funds school terms would be shortened by an average of about 3 months in the schools involved. It is too early to show to what extent the emergency was actually met. In some States legislation was enacted to provide more funds for school purposes, but in general the legislation will not be in effect until 1935-36.

Data were also collected regarding the outlook on higher education and published in Pamphlet No. 58, the Economic Outlook in Higher Education. It appears from this report that for institutions of higher education as a whole the decrease in income which had prevailed is about at an end. Comparative reports from more than 500 institutions indicated a change from 1933-34 to 1934–35 amounting to less than 1 percent in expected current and capital receipts, in budgeted expenditures for educational and general purposes, in number of staff members, or in their compensation.

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION PROBLEMS

An outstanding problem which commands the attention of State and local school officials and of lawmakers more persistently today than usual is that of providing economical and satisfactory local school administration and revenue units. Present financial conditions make it imperative to economize in government wherever possible. Obviously one way to economize is to reorganize many of the school districts of the country so that the unit of administration and support may be larger. Larger units would tend to equalize the burden of school support and also to provide better educational opportunities. As it now is thousands of school districts maintain small one-room schools that cannot provide a modern educational program such as is offered in the larger schools of the country. That many of the school districts should be enlarged has been pointed out for years in official State and county school-survey reports. In several of the States educational commissions are studying the problem of local school administration and support, and State legislatures are giving the matter serious consideration.

There is no general agreement as to the best size of local units for administration and support. A type of unit suited to one State

might not be suited to conditions in another State. Each State in which there is apparent need for the reorganization of school districts should make a careful study of the problem. The reorganization of school districts involves several other problems, as the transportation of pupils and the location of school buildings. In order to help State departments of education, and county, city, or district superintendents of schools attack the problem of the reorganization of local school districts the Office has prepared a Handbook of Suggested Procedures for the Reorganization of Local School Units and the Projection of School Building Programs.

The procedures set forth are chiefly applicable to the schools of rural districts, towns, villages, and small cities. The Handbook points out that before school-building programs can be projected plans must be made for the centralization of schools and the reorganization of school districts, and the projection of new school programs. With this principle in view the Handbook shows what data are needed in the planning of school reorganization, how to organize the data, how to project a school-building program in terms of the number of pupils to be accommodated, the educational program to be offered, and the adequacy of the present school buildings, and how to estimate the cost of the projected building program.

A problem in school administration that has received the attention of school administrators for years is that of the enforcement of the compulsory school-attendance laws. In some school districts these laws are loosely enforced owing to the fact that their enforcement is left entirely in the hands of local school officials. In order to answer questions frequently asked regarding certain features of the compulsory-attendance laws in the several States, as to compulsory school age, qualifications of attendance officers, State supervision of attendance enforcement, and other provisions for administering the attendance laws, the Office has prepared Bulletin, 1935, No. 4, Compulsory School Attendance Laws and Their Administration.

Within the past year many requests have come to the Office for information on the extent of expenditures by the Federal Government for education. A study was made primarily to supply such information and was published as Pamphlet No. 45. This pamphlet shows not only the amount of funds the Federal Government usually authorizes for educational purposes but also the amount it expended for emergency educational programs.

Studies in progress relating to the administration and support of education (nearing completion) are State Provisions for Equalizing Educational Costs, and Educational Facilities on Federal Government Reservations.