Methods and Standards for Local School Surveys

by DON C. BLISS '92, superintendent of schools, Montclair, New Jersey. (Introduction by George Drayton Strayer, Professor of Educational Administration, Teacher s College, Columbia University) D. C. Heath & Co., 1918.

Mr. Bliss has written a book that is of great value to the superintendent who wishes to make a scientific study of the schools under his charge.

The book is based upon the solution of problems that the author has met in administering the educational system of Montclair, New Jersey, a city of over 25,000 inhabitants, and in surveying other large city systems.

Questions of costs, personel, progress of pupils through the system, efficiency of instruction, plant, hygiene, social centers and future needs are raised and answered by gathering and assembling of pertinent data from different school systems and basing the conclusions upon a careful analysis.

Suggestions are given for making effective analysis of statistical material and for graphical presentation that may be readily interpreted by the layman. While the treatment of these last two topics needs to be supplemented by reference to the; works of Rugg and Brinton, it has the merit of including much that has hitherto been unavailable outside of these two special treatises.

The concluding chapter contains an outline for a complete educational survey and includes information that every superintendent should have available and present to his constituents in his annual reports. The men who are conducting these continuous surveys are making a valuable contribution to the solution of community problems.

The profession is indebted to Superintendent Bliss for this excellent treatment of that phase of social engineering which pertains to the administration of education.

"International Aspects of Christianity" by Ozora S. Davis '89 and Grace T. Davis, published by the Association Press, will be reviewed in a later issue of the MAGAZINE.

Edward J. O'Brien's "Best Short Stories of1918" contains "imagination," by Gordon Hall Gerould '99. In his Roll of Honor for 1918 Mr. O'Brien lists "Right Whales' Flukes" by Ben Ames Williams '10.

"Some Aspects of Japanese Feudal Institutions" by Kan-Ichi Asakawa '99 was printed in Part I of Volume 86 of the Transactionsof the Asiatic Society of Japan.

"Oxford Poetry 1918" contains "On a Birthday," by Eugene Parker: Chase '16.