the State board for half time. Two departments in day schools, with an enrollment of 64 pupils and 3 teachers, with part-time assistants of 3 other teachers, has been established. Some very good evenings classes in millinery, home nursing, and cooking were opened in one center, but this was not reimbursed from Federal funds. The training of teachers in Vermont is under the direction of the home-economics department of the State university. TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. The State employed a full-time supervisor during the year 1918-19. Two new part-time industrial schools were established, one in Rutland, the other in St. Johnsbury. Both have been successful, and present indications point to an increased attendance for the coming year, with the above classes approved for Federal aid increased to three evening and three part-time centers. The principal industries of Vermont include machine shops, scale works, granite and marble quarries, railroad shops and cotton mills. These are located in cities under 25,000 population. Instructor-training work is under the direction of the State board, and during the year consisted of training given to instructors in service through the itinerant training plan. Studies of conditions in three important cities as a basis to determine the need for evening industrial classes is being made by the State supervisor. MASSACHUSETTS. Membership of State board: Frederick P. Fish, lawyer; Mrs. Ella L. Cabot, author; Frederick W. Hamilton, minister; Sarah L. Arnold, college dean; Michael J. Downey, director of evening schools; Paul H. Hanus, college professor; A. Lincoln Filene, merchant; Walter V. MacDuffee, teacher; George H. Wrenn, arbitrator. Executive officer: Payson Smith, State commissioner of education, Boston. State director for vocational education: Robert O. Small. State supervisors for trade and industrial education: Arthur S. Allen and Louise I. Pryor. State supervisor for home-economics education: Louise I. Pryor. State supervisors for teacher training: William D. Parkinson, M. Norcross Stratton, Franklin E. Heald, Anna A. Kloss, and Anna P. Hanrahan. PROVISIONS FOR COOPERATION. The Federal act was accepted by State statute approved May 2, 1917. The State board of education is designated as the State board for vocational education. Massachusetts provides by statute for the reimbursement from State funds of all approved vocational schools. The amounts so expended are greatly in excess of the amount of Federal funds available. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. Massachusetts has had several years' experience in vocational agricultural education previous to the passage of the Federal vocational education act. The State board continued to employ a full-time State supervisor of agriculture. The State board issued during the year what is known as "Agricultural teaching staff letters." These letters formed a part of the work of improvement of teachers in service. The World War hampered the progress of vocational agricultural education in the State during the past fiscal year. Municipalities have been reluctant to launch any educational enterprises involving increased expenditure of public funds. Needed additions to equipment and buildings have been withheld. Instructors have been lost by enlistment and draft. Pupils have withdrawn to enter the Army and Navy or to engage wholly in farming or other industries essential to the winning of the war. On the whole, however, not much momentum had been lost at the date of the signing of the armistice, and since that date both instructors and pupils have been offering themselves in gradually growing numbers. Though the day-class pupils numbered only 322 in 1918, as compared with 518 in 1917, the earnings for farm work were $108,895.59 in 1918 as compared with $111,500.87 in 1917; and the returns from supervised war emergency gardens increased from $68,004.07 in 1917 to $244,894.62 in 1918. As an index of the patriotic efforts of the day-class pupils, it may be worth noting that the total earnings from all sources of the smaller number in 1918 exceeded those of the greater number in 1917, the totals being $124,669.44 in 1918 as against $120,309.03 in 1917. Seventeen schools, with an enrollment of 452 boys and 6 girls, carried on work this year as against 14 schools, with an enrollment of 505 pupils for the previous year. The State board employed the full time of one man to act as agent for teacher training and professional improvement work for teachers in service. Under the direction of the State supervisor a small group of prospective teachers has been enrolled in the classes of the Department of Agriculture in the State agricultural college. HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION. The supervision of day and evening schools for girls and women is under the direction of an agent and an assistant agent who are employed for full time by the State board. Valuable assistance has been given to the schools through conferences and through home economics material sent out by the State office. There have been 21 municipalities where classes in cooking, dressmaking, millinery, and home nursing have been opened, with a total enrollment of 6,918 students and 267 teachers. Nine independent day schools with a total enrollment of 450 students and 53 teachers, have been reimbursed from Federal funds. The training of teachers is under the direction of a special agent and an assistant for teacher training in household-arts schools. No one institution has been designated for the training of teachers. The State board has established 10 classes in six centers where both day and evening teachers have been trained. The course is 80 hours in length, and a minimum of 20 hours of practice teaching and observation is required of each member of the teacher-training classes. The training given may be professional, technical, or an opportunity for vocational experience, or a combination of these, depending upon the qualifications of the applicants. The State board provides for professional improvement of employed teachers and 10 classes were organized for the teachers in the day and evening schools. Each teacher is required to undertake a definite project as a piece of professional improvement under the supervision of the agent in charge of teacher training. TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. The State of Massachusetts, including among its industries many highly specialized manufacturing plants, is one of the foremost, if not the foremost, in vocational experience. With adequate administrative and supervisory facilities involving specialists in the several lines, evening classes are conducted in 19 municipalities, part-time classes in the city of Boston, and day unit trade classes in 15 different districts. Many instructors are employed in the large number of classes operated in these districts. This has made necessary an extended instructor-training program. The principal industries of the State are included in the manufacture of foundry and machineshop products, boots, shoes, and other leather products, textiles, pulp and paper, and rubber goods. A large number of these plants are located in cities over 25,000. The State has approximately 160,000 population for every evening center. Part-time instructor training includes both shop and related subjects instructors, and the preparation of instructor foremen in industrial plants. In addition to the above courses, improvement in service is carried on through an itinerant training plan. A large number of special studies and investigations have been made by employees of the State office in replying to the requests from local boards of education. These studies were made with a view to determine certain special forms of industrial education which should be established. Among the places in which the studies and investigations were carried on are Lynn, Gloucester, Chicopee, Brockton, and Southbridge. RHODE ISLAND. Membership of State board: R. Livingston Beeckman, broker, governor; Emery J. San Souci, lieutenant governor; George T. Baker, banker; Jos. R. Bourgeois, priest; E. Charles Francis, banker; Frank Hill, banker; Frederick Rueckert, lawyer; Frank E. Thompson, educator. Executive officer: Walter E. Ranger, State commissioner of public schools, Providence. State director for vocational education: Charles Carroll. State supervisor for agricultural education: William T. Spanton. State supervisor for home economics education: Ethel A. Wright. PROVISIONS FOR COOPERATION. The legislature of 1917 did not accept the act. The governor of the State, on December 31, 1917, accepted the Federal act in so far as it related to trade and industrial education. A formal act of acceptance was passed by the general assembly at a session of 1918, and this act was approved by the governor on April 17, 1918. The State board of education is designated by the general assembly as the State board for vocational education. The 1919 session of the legislature appropriated $12,000 for the promotion of vocational education. Through State law providing State aid in support of industrial education, districts maintaining vocational instruction in agriculture and industrial arts may receive State support to an amount not exceeding one-half of the entire expenditures for maintenance. This State aid may be in addition to the aid apportioned under the provisions of the Federal vocational act. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. The man in charge of teacher training at Rhode Island State College devoted 50 per cent of his time for three months to the organization and promotion of vocational agriculture in the State for the State board. Teacher-training work for the State board was organized at Rhode Island State College during the last semester. HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION. The supervision of home economics work in Rhode Island was under the direction of a teacher lent from Rhode Island State College for half time. There were no schools or classes aided from Federal funds this year, but the training of teachers of home economics was carried on at Rhode Island State College. TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. The principal industries of the State of Rhode Island are textiles, jewelry, silversmithing, rubber goods, textile machinery, mill machinery, the manufacture of fine tools and delicate machinery. These plants are usually located in cities of over 25,000 population. To meet the needs of these industries the State increased the number of evening vocational industrial classes from 4 to 10, besides waremergency classes, and the number of part-time classes from 15 to 20. No all-day schools were given Federal aid. No instructortraining classes have been organized in this State. A brief survey of the town of Westerly was made by a Federal agent to determine the advisability of establishing a day unit trade school in connection with metal and wood-working trades. CONNECTICUT. Membership of State board: M. H. Holcomb, governor; C. B. Wilson, lieutenant governor; Frederick S. Jones, dean of university, William A. Shanklin, college president; Charles L. Ames, teacher; Walter D. Hood, teacher; Charles G. Talcott, manufacturer; Charles L. Torrey, lawyer; Julian W. Curtiss, merchant; Henry A. Tirrell, teacher; Frederick M. Adlet, manufacturer. Executive officer: Charles D. Hine, Hartford. State director for vocational education: Frederick J. Trinder. State supervisor for agricultural education: Worthington C. Kennedy. PROVISIONS FOR COOPERATION. The Federal act was accepted by State statute approved May 17; 1917. This act was amended by the 1919 legislature so that additional funds would be available. The State board of education is designated as the State board for vocational education. There is a State appropriation for 1919-1921 for trade schools of $400,000, and to match Federal funds for the same period, $90,000. State funds in addition to those mentioned above are used for the administration of the act. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. The State board borrowed from the teacher-training institution, for supervisory purposes in agriculture, the man in charge of teachertraining work at the Agricultural and Mechanical College. Among other materials prepared was: "Some Suggestions in Regard to the Teaching of the Subject of Poultry Husbandry in Approved Courses in Agriculture." Prior to the passage of the Federal vocational education act no Vocational agriculture was offered in the State. Since then three departments have been organized, with an enrollment this year of 44 pupils in directed or supervised practical work in agriculture. The Connecticut Agricultural College is designated to train teachers. The proposed employment of a State supervisor of agriculture to devote his entire time to the organization and administration of vocational work in the schools is in line with the usual plan of organization in all the States. The vocational work in the schools shows a 149008°-197 |