THE PREPARATION OF PLAN OF THE STUDY It is timely and of considerable importance to pause with 20 years of experience with the institution behind us and to take stock of the extent to which junior high schools are staffed by teachers adequately prepared for their work. In approaching this problem it is evident that one of the most fundamental considerations is the preparation of the teachers in the subjects they teach. In addition to a background in the courses taught, each teacher must also possess a knowledge of the professional literature which has been developed to make more skillful the teaching act and related duties. This study surveys the training of junior high school teachers in professional courses in education as well as in subject-matter courses. Two factors which are very influential in determining the preparation which teachers in any division of the school system bring to their work are the policies of the employing agencies of the local communities and the certificating authority of the States. By setting up minimum standards for employment and by demanding continued professional growth, educational forces of both the district and the State have it in their power to alter materially the character of the teaching corps. The following pages, therefore, consider the regulations of each of these groups as they pertain to junior high school teachers. Teachers can secure adequate preparation only as training facilities are provided by the institutions in which they are educated. This study, then, includes an analysis of the programs of teachers colleges, universities, and colleges of liberal arts in so far as these are concerned with preparing teachers for the junior high school. In brief, the aims of the present treatise may be stated as follows: (1) To discover the extent and quality of the preparation of junior high school teachers now in service, (2) to study critically the facilities afforded by teachers colleges and other institutions of higher learning for the preparation of these teachers, (3) to survey the requirements of State departments of education in certifying junior high school teachers, and (4) to determine the practices of local communities in selecting and administering the junior high school personnel. SUMMARY OF RELATED STUDIES A survey of the literature relating to the preparation of junior high school teachers reveals relatively few studies. Reports which present factual data as bases for the conclusions drawn are here presented. 1 Stayer in 1921 secured questionnaire returns from 1,518 teachers in 99 schools representing 36 States. These junior high school teachers were recruited more frequently from the elementary school than from the senior high school. More than four-fifths were women. The teachers canvassed by Stayer were, on the whole, well trained. All but 9 per cent had normal-school or college training. Twentyeight per cent of the teachers in 3-year schools had completed some graduate study. The 3-year schools employed graduates of colleges and of normal schools in about equal numbers. In the 2-year unit the normal-school graduates predominated, 46 per cent of the teachers being normal-school graduates as compared with 29 per cent who held college degrees. Stayer also investigated the extent to which the work of these teachers was specialized. He found that 69 per cent of the teachers taught one subject only. There appeared to be no generally accepted combinations of two or more subjects on the teachers' programs except such natural combinations as French and Spanish, history and civics, or stenography and typewriting. Gaumnitz in 1925 surveyed the provisions made by training institutions to prepare teachers for the junior high school. He analyzed the contents of the catalogues of 429 colleges and normal schools. Sixty-seven per cent of the professional colleges, 48 per cent of the normal schools, and 4 per cent of the academic colleges were found to be active in training teachers for the junior high school. A school was classified as "active" if its catalogue listed even a single course as especially intended for teachers preparing for the junior high school field. The practice of setting up curricula requiring major and minor electives was more typical of the situation in colleges than in normal schools. On the other hand, complete junior high school curricula of varying lengths were found most frequently in normal schools. Among these the 2-year curriculum predominated at the time of Gaumnitz's study. Only 3 of the 89 "active" normal schools offered a curriculum for junior high school teachers four years in length. Approximately half of the normal schools maintained junior high school practice schools, but this was a feature of the training programs 1 Stayer, Samuel B. The Status of Teachers in Junior High Schools. School review, 29:379–387. May, 1921. 2 Gaumnitz, W. H. Provisions Made by Colleges and Normal Schools to Give a Special Type of Training to Teachers of Junior High Schools. Educational Administration and Supervision, 11:556-571, November, 1925. f only 9 colleges. The study concludes with a tabulation of the rofessional and academic courses found in the curricula for junior igh school teachers and a survey of the writings of 66 educators egarding the qualifications and characteristics which they believed unior high school teachers should possess. Grinnell 3 has more recently (1931) presented material to show the progress made by training institutions in providing facilities for the preparation of junior high school teachers in the decade since the data vere collected for the study just reported. He examined the catalogues of 150 schools selected at random from every section of the country. The institutions were divided into the same groups that Gaumnitz used and the same criteria were employed as tests of the school's activity. His findings indicate that the teachers colleges and normal schools have been most active in providing curricula designed to prepare junior high school teachers. The universities and professional colleges have made some progress since Gaumnitz's study as evidenced by the 14 per cent outlining complete junior high school curricula. The colleges of liberal arts evidently have not yet become interested in this field of training. The number of teachers colleges offering 4-year curricula has increased markedly during the decade. Onefourth of these schools prescribe a full 4-year course. Powers investigated the regulations of State departments of education affecting junior high schools. At the time of the study (1925) 6 States prescribed a type of certificate valid for teaching in this division of the school system. 5 Renfrow found from a study in 1927 of the programs of junior high school teachers that the median number of teaching periods per week was 29.53. In addition the teachers spent 5.37 periods (median) in study-hall duty and had 5.66 free periods each week. Teachers' judgments as to what should constitute a fair load were secured. These judgments are reported as 25 periods in classroom work, 3 to 4 periods of study-hall duty, and 8 to 10 free periods weekly. Another study of teaching load on the junior high school level was made in 1929 by Unzicker. Questionnaires were received from 435 teachers in 16 schools. Teaching load was investigated in terms of pupil hours per week and of class size. Great variation in teaching load among the 16 schools was revealed when measured by pupil hours. General similarity in class size was found for the academic subjects (average class size ranging approximately from 25 to 30) 'Grinnell, J. E. Securing Adequate Training for Junior High School Teachers. Educational Administration and Supervision, 17:279–286. Powers, J. Orin. Legal Provisions Affecting the Junior High School. School Review, 33: 280-291, April, 1925. Renfrow, Laura J. Teacher Load in Junior High School. Unpublished manuscript, University of Cincinnati, 1927. Unzicker, S. P. Study of Teaching Load in the Junior High Schools in Wisconsin. School Review, 37:136-141, February, 1929. 139993°-33- -2 and a somewhat smaller median size of class (about 20) in subjects such as manual arts and home economics. Spaulding in his study in 1927 of the small junior high school includes some material pertinent to the problem at hand. This work is based upon data obtained from 80 teachers located in 19 junior high schools. The teaching load varied from 28.7 hours to 35 hours per week. The lighter loads were found more frequently in the junior-senior high schools. In the combined schools, 60 per cent of the teachers were college graduates and 35 per cent were graduates of normal schools. In the separate junior high schools the percentages were 42.5 and 52.5, respectively. Only a little more than a fourth of the teachers had completed even a single course dealing with the junior high school. Representative writings on the junior high school were examined by Hounchell in 1929 in developing a list of the purposes and features of the junior high school. He then tabulated 317 teaching abilities organized under 37 features. These teaching abilities are treated as training objectives and reorganized into 12 categories to render them useful as aids in constructing curricula designed to prepare teachers for the junior high school. In the same study Hounchell, by means of a questionnaire, obtained data regarding the training of 830 junior high school teachers. The records of 1,863 teachers were available on a single item-that of total training. Foster sent questionnaires in 1922 to about 75 superintendents of schools and to approximately 50 universities and teachers colleges. The superintendents were of cities widely distributed geographically and ranging in size from the largest municipalities to semirural communities. He found that at the time of the canvass teachers of the junior high school were drawn in almost equal numbers from the recent graduates of training institutions and from the forces of experienced elementary-school teachers. There appeared to be a demand for both groups provided they were adequately trained. The superintendents were almost unanimous in the opinion that student teaching in a junior high school should be a part of this training. There were indications that colleges and universities did not offer adequate specific training for junior high school work. Smith 10 examined in 1922 the catalogues of 380 teacher-training institutions representing all sections of the country. The following phases of activity in the training of junior high school teachers were 7 Spaulding, F. T. The Small Junior High School. Harvard University Press, 1927. Hounchell, Paul. The Training of Junior High School Teachers, Nashville, George Peabody College for Teachers, 1929. • Foster, Herbert H. Student Teaching and the Training of the Junior High School Teacher. Educational Administration and Supervision, 8:349-354, 1922. 10 Smith, Homer J. Special Preparation for Junior High School Service. Educational Administration and Supervision, 8: 513-518, December, 1922. |