4. HIGH SCHOOL COOPERATIVE RETAIL SELLING COURSES.

The greatest interest throughout the country on the part of merchants and public school authorities centers in the part-time cooperative courses given in the third and fourth years of the high school, for boys and girls preparing to enter the retail business. This work differs from the subject of salesmanship in being a course in which all subjects contribute to the business training of the pupil, with approximately half time given to work in the store. Store practice forms the basis for the classroom work, which should be conducted by a specially trained teacher.

This store work may be done under such arrangements as seem best to the individual high schools. It may be done on the "week-in and week-out" basis, alternate weeks being spent in store and in school, or on the "half-day" basis, the school arranging its program so as to permit the pupil to report for store work each afternoon. Nearly all the cities are at present experimenting with their programs. The difficulties of program arrangement are lessened where retail selling courses are put into the separate cooperative high school, or the vocational high school, or the commercial high school. These newer schools are so organized that the programs are not easily upset by the irregularities of this and similar courses.

In the year's review we note progress in many directions, but particularly in the breaking down of prejudice. It is encouraging to observe how many teachers and superintendents now see that it is not only possible but also distinctly advantageous to the community to have these courses in the public high schools.

High school cooperative part-time retail selling courses are being conducted in the cities listed below. Although these courses may be interpreted as qualifying for aid from Smith-Hughes funds, the majority of them are carried on without State or Federal aid. Boston, Springfield, Worcester, Mass.; Chicago, Galesburg, Ill.; Cincinnati, Toledo, Ohio; Indianapolis, Logansport, Terre Haute, Ind.: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.: Grand Rapids, Mich.; Baltimore, Md.; Richmond, Va.; Houston. Tex.; Providence, R. I.; New Haven, Waterbury, Conn.; New York City, N. Y.; Pittsburgh, Pa.: Duluth, Minn.; Wichita, Kans.

New high-school classes have been organized to begin in the following cities in September, 1920: San Francisco, Stockton. Calif.; Nashville, Tenn.; Battle Creek, Flint, Mich. : Cleveland, Canton, Ohio; St. Paul, Minneapolis, Minn.; St. Louis, Mo.

5. VOLUNTEER RETAIL SELLING CLASSES.

While new courses in retail selling are being offered to high school, Vocational school, and continuation school boys and girls, older

workers in retail stores are not being neglected. The value of training for store service is evidenced by the fact that volunteer classes for sales people have been well attended in many cities, including the following: Lowell and Lynn, Mass.; Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Mich.; Logansport and Terre Haute, Ind.; Galesburg, Ill.; Richmond, Va.; Wichita, Kans.; Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla.; Waterbury, Conn.

D. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

COOPERATION WITH THE STATES.

The abnormal demand for trained men at high salaries for administrative and supervisory positions in the States during the past year had its effect upon the staff of agricultural agents of the Board in that the Board was lacking in three agricultural agents for almost the entire year. In spite of this fact the agricultural education service of the Board continued to take to the States the accumulated experience in agricultural education of the country, and devoted a large part of its time to a study of the principles of job analysis, which is believed to be fundamental to the organization of a course of study in vocational agriculture. The results of this study have stimulated many of the States to undertake similar work.

During the year the three agents spent a combined total of 250 days in the States visiting approximately 105 different schools receiving Federal aid for agriculture, made 59 visits to institutions preparing teachers of vocational agriculture, attended State conferences of agricultural teachers, and aided very materially in the solution of some of the special problems of State supervisors of vocational agriculture. As the State programs develop, there appears to be more and more need for specific assistance to the States in the development of suitable subject matter and adequate courses of instruction. One of the agents has devoted considerable time during the year to preparing a manuscript on the teaching of vocational agriculture. In cooperation with one of the teacher-training institutions a study was also made of the problem of segregation of classes in teacher training. It is hoped that this study will result in a more satisfactory organization of such classes.

COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES.

Under the authority granted in section 6 of the act, the Federal Board has cooperated with the United States Department of Agricul ture in studies resulting in the publication of a bulletin entitled “Lessons in Plant Production for Southern Schools," and also in the preparation of a manuscript entitled "Lessons in Animal Production for Southern Schools." In addition to these two studies the depart

ment has cooperated with the Board in the preparation of "A Unit Course in Poultry Husbandry."

GENERAL SURVEY OF PROGRESS.

The progress in the development of vocational agricultural education in the States during the year 1919-20 has been normal. This is measured by the increase in the number of schools offering vocational work and the number of boys and men reached by such work. The increased interest in vocational agricultural education and the better understanding of its problems, as shown in the setting up of State programs for vocational agricultural education, are also evidences of progress.

The results of a study of the problems of agricultural education and the relation of the school work to farming needs are evidenced by the increased number of men and boys outside of high schools who have been reached by short and part-time courses. Real progress can not be measured in statistics alone, but is better shown by a changed attitude on the part of school people toward the work, and by the growing appreciation of its value to the community aside from Federal reimbursements received.

The ultimate objective in the development of vocational agricultural education is to reach all groups of boys and men on the land with a type of education which will be of immediate use in solving the daily problems of the farm. Most of the agricultural instruction offered by the public schools has been a part of the high school program for boys who are regularly in school. Much of the instruction in agriculture in our high schools has indeed an important place in the general education of a boy, but the aim of a vocational agricultural education differs from this in that it is planned not so much. to improve general information as to train a boy for the specific vocation of farming.

The first and governing motive underlying all vocational agricultural instruction is to prepare men for the farm in the most economical, practical, and efficient manner. Its scope is broader than that of general agricultural instruction in the schools, in that it proposes to reach all groups of boys and men, whether they be attending high schools, graded schools, engaged in farming, either on their own or other farms, or preparing to enter that vocation. Because of this difference of aim and scope, certain demands are made upon any system of vocational agricultural education which are not made upon general agricultural education. Vocational courses must be of varying lengths to meet the needs of all the different groups of boys and men. Equipment, methods, and subject matter must be worked out to cover all the essential phases of the farmers' different enterprises.

The increased interest in vocational agricultural education is evidenced by the number of applications for approval of schools and classes, the desire of school authorities to have more State funds to match Federal funds for work in the States, the increased attention given to supervision and administration, the steps taken by the States to eliminate from their plans the emergency clauses regarding qualifications for agricultural teachers, the increasing number of regional or sectional conferences of teachers, the larger attendance of State representatives at regional and national conferences, and the demands made upon the Federal Board for assistance to the States in the development of their programs of vocational agricultural education.

SUPERVISION.

Experience of the past three years has shown that the most satisfactory supervision is secured when at least one supervisor is employed on full time as a member of the staff of the State board for vocational education. The best results have been obtained where the supervisors can spend their entire time in supervision and in studying the needs of the States. In such States there is better equipment, better instruction, and very much better adaptation of the courses to the needs of the groups reached. In many cases the borrowing of supervision from a teacher-training institution or locating the supervisor at the teacher-training institution has proved of value. It has brought the work of the State board and the work of the teacher-training department into very close touch with each other, and has thus enabled the State board to have the advantage of the services of a well-trained man which it could not otherwise have secured with the limited funds available. During the past year 36 States employed full-time State supervisors; 12 States employed supervisors for part time. The increase in the number of supervisors over the previous year was 16.

Probably the most distinctive progress made in supervision has been in the employment of men for improving teachers in service; some of the important results of this work and of the increased number of supervisors are:

1. Courses of study have been planned more specifically to meet the needs of vocational pupils.

2. A general plan of vocational work, whereby the people of the State may be interested in vocational agricultural education, has been provided in an increasing number of States.

3. The teaching has been decidedly improved by giving individual help, extending over several days at a time, to the teachers in service. 4. A State plan and program are taking form for the development of vocational agricultural education.

5. Better standards for vocational work within the States are being

set up.

There has not been much variation in the methods of supervision of the vocational work in the States, as this depends largely upon the amount of time devoted to supervision and the problems which need most immediate attention. In general, supervision has been conducted by personal conferences of the supervisor with the teachers, special preparation of material in the way of outlines for directed or supervised practice in agriculture, bulletins covering the main points in the administration of vocational agricultural education in the State, blanks for reports from the schools to the State Board; through community surveys to determine how best to adapt the vocational agricultural instruction to the needs of the vocational pupils in the State, and through State-wide, regional, and sectional conferences. Such conferences were held in probably every State and did much to bring the problem of vocational agricultural education before the school people and thereby secure their interest.

SCHOOLS AND CLASSES.

A study of the schools and classes organized during the year shows that there has been a general improvement in all kinds of agricultural education and that the encouraging conditions to be noted at the present time will continue throughout the coming year, with very decided improvement in some States and further general improvement over the entire country.

The three kinds of vocational agricultural education schools and classes developed in the States are growing out of the needs of the following groups of boys and men: (1) Boys who are in school, (2) boys who have left school and are employed on farms as laborers or tenants, but who come back for part-time or short-course instruction, and (3) older men who have left school, are tenants or owners of farms, but who can be reached by evening classes.

Up to the present time most of the agricultural training has been. offered to boys who are in school, but the number of part-time or short courses and evening classes aided from Federal funds in 1919-20 indicates a recognition of the needs of those groups which are not reached through public school courses.

Wherever numbers of boys have left school and entered the vocation of farming without training enough to equip them for their duties as farmers, short courses and evening classes afford the best opportunities for training. There is every evidence to believe that almost every State will give additional consideration during the next few years to the establishment of short courses and evening classes.