STATEMENT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, October 2, 1916. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following statement of the operations of this office for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1916, together with recommendations for the extension and improvement of its work: HIGHER EDUCATION. A large proportion of the time of this division has been devoted to university and college surveys. The specialist in higher education has directed and participated in surveys involving nine State institutions and one private institution. At the request of the administration of the University of Oregon he made a survey of that institution during the month of September, 1915. He served as chairman of a commission of seven persons appointed by the Commissioner of Education to make a survey of the State higher institutions of Iowa (State University of Iowa, Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and Iowa State Teachers' College) at the request of the Iowa State Board of Education. Together with the specialist in home economics he made a survey of the College of St. Teresa, at Winona, Minn. He acted as chairman of a committee of three appointed by the Commissioner of Education to serve as a body of experts, to render a report on the State higher institutions of Washington to the State Commission of Educational Survey appointed by the legislature of 1915. The institutions examined were the University of Washington, the Washington State College, the Washington State Normal School at Cheney, the Washington State Normal School at Ellensburg, and the Washington State Normal School at Bellingham. The reports of the surveys of the Iowa and Washington State institutions (both of which are in press as this statement is written) develop several new measurements for testing the efficiency of the educational and financial administration of higher institutions. It is believed that these will prove helpful not only to the officers of the institutions reported on, but also to the authorities of colleges and universities in other parts of the country. Through the medium of these surveys the Bureau of Education is slowly estab 62656°-INT 1916-VOL 1-21 321 lishing certain norms and standards which should facilitate both the management and the rating of higher institutions. The specialist in higher education has represented the bureau at the inauguration of the presidents of the University of Washington and the Washington State College, at the dedication of the new plant. of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at 11 conventions and association meetings. He has made 12 addresses before associations, faculties, and students of colleges and other audiences. He acted as vice chairman of the section on education of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress, having charge of the arrangement of the programs of the sectional and subsectional meetings and representing the Commissioner of Education on the executive committee of the congress. In cooperation with the committee on higher educational statistics, composed of members of the large National associations directly interested in higher education and already mentioned in my two previous reports, he prepared a detailed inquiry concerning college standards and resources, and has supervised the tabulation of the returns. In addition, the division of higher education is cooperating with six other committees of National associations in the investigation of problems relating to higher education. At the request of the Adjutant General of the War Department, this division has rendered decisions as to the eligibility of 551 universities, colleges, and schools for inclusion in the list of institutions to be accredited by the United States Military Academy. Four bulletins have been prepared by the division, namely: "Accredited Secondary Schools in the United States" (second revision in press), "Registration and Student Records for Smaller Colleges " (in press)," State Higher Educational Institutions of Iowa" (in press), "A Survey of the Educational Institutions of the State of Washington" (in press). In addition, the specialist in higher education has prepared two higher educational letters and a chapter on higher education in 1915 for the Commissioner's Annual Report. His report of the survey of the University of Oregon, submitted to the board of regents of that institution, has been printed by them and widely circulated, the bureau aiding in the distribution. His report on the colleges of North Carolina, mentioned in my statement of last year, has been published by the North Carolina department of public instruction and given circulation within the State. The specialist in land-grant college statistics certified the reports of expenditures of the Federal appropriations made to land-grant colleges, collected and tabulated the reports of presidents and treasurers, and prepared the material for publication as a chapter of the Commissioner's Report. He has prepared the answers to numerous inquiries from the colleges regarding the administration and expendi ture of the funds and revised the pamphlet "Federal Laws, Regulations, and Rulings Affecting the Land-grant Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts." He has completed a history of the 1862 land grant in each State, with a brief statement of the founding of each agricultural college. He has begun a study to be entitled "Financial Records and Forms for Smaller Colleges," and a study of teaching by correspondence in higher institutions. He has also assisted in the preparation of a study of land grants for education in the United States. He collected statistical information for the Iowa, Washington, and North Dakota surveys, especially a study of the expenditures of 14 States for higher education by lustrums from 1890 to 1914 and prepared graphic and statistical charts. The division has conducted a large correspondence, preparing replies to from six to a dozen letters of inquiry daily. The greater proportion of these letters necessitate some investigation or the expression of a carefully matured opinion. SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION. Within the year one member of the division of school administration has completed a study of the history of education in the State of Tennessee begun the year before, and revised his manuscript on that subject. He has also assembled material for a study of the history of education in the State of Delaware, and has brought this study down to the beginning of the present century. Both of these studies will be transmitted for publication as bulletins of this bureau. Another member of this division has completed a digest of all constitutional provisions for education and of all laws pertaining to public education in all the States and Territories of the United States up to the beginning of the year 1915, and a digest of legislation in regard to public education during the year 1915. The first of these digests has been published as a bulletin of the bureau (1915, No. 47, 987 pages), and is the only complete digest of constitutional provisions and laws relating to public education yet published in this country. The second will be published as the first of a series of biennial digests supplementary to the comprehensive digest of constitutional provisions and laws previous to the begining of 1915, mentioned above. By this means the digest of constitutional provisions and laws in regard to public education will be kept constantly up to date. A third member of this division has completed manuscript for a bulletin on reading, English, and literature in the elementary grades; has written a series of English language lessons after the Gouin method for the children of natives in the schools of Alaska, and another series of similar lessons to be recommended for the use |