zation or State clearing house, but rather that the State office should realize its responsibility in assisting the pupils to dispose of their products as well as to produce them. It is merely suggested that the State office assist agricultural teachers and pupils to join or to form some sort of organization for the disposal of products.

Teacher-training program.

In order that newly appointed teachers may be familiar with the program for supervised practice, the State supervisor should see that trainees are given instruction in it. Supervised practice is not, as a rule, given the prominence that it deserves in the teacher-training program, since upon supervised practice and its proper correlation with vocational instruction in agriculture rests in a large measure the success or failure of such instruction. Teacher trainees should, therefore, be given instruction in supervising farm practice and in the special features of the supervised-practice program contemplated by the State. Supplementing instruction, the trainee should be given practice in actually supervising the work of two or more pupils in the practice school during one of the last two years of his college work. Such practice will give the teacher trainer an opportunity to enlarge on his instruction in such work and the trainee more confidence in his own ability when he goes on the job as an agricultural teacher.

What has been said with reference to the resident teacher trainer might be said also with reference to the itinerant teacher trainer. Supervised practice never will receive the attention that it deserves by teachers in the States until concerted action is taken by State boards of vocational education and by teacher-training institutions to formulate and realize a definite program.

Uniform methods of keeping records in State office.

As record keeping by the vocational pupil is considered one of the important phases of his work, and as it is necessary to compile these records both in the schools and in the State offices, State supervisors should adopt a uniform method of record keeping to be followed by all concerned. A very large percentage of the States at the present time have adopted a uniform project record book for the all-day pupils, and in a few cases States have adopted uniform methods of record keeping for part-time and evening pupils. The need of uniformity in this work is evident, and State boards should insist that the pupils provide themselves with record books just as they require them to procure textbooks or laboratory manuals. In like manner State supervisors should require uniform methods of reporting by the agricultural teachers. State boards can best accomplish this, perhaps, by issuing forms upon which data are to be reported.

One of the values of a report to the State office is the use to which such data can be put in making studies and investigations. Data for one year are not of sufficient value to warrant any definite con

clusion, and State boards should, therefore, consider carefully any change in their reports or in the character of the data required in successive years. It is only when data are found to be of no considerable value that they should be dropped from the report. Likewise, State boards should consider carefully every new inquiry proposed, and should not include any new question until convinced that the information called for will have value and will be desired for a period of years. Agricultural teachers should be acquainted with the use to which such data are put, in order that they may more intelligently prepare the data for submission.

Studies and investigations.

Men charged with the responsibility of agricultural education in a State should make studies of the supervised practice for at least three definite purposes-First, for summarizing statements to boards of education, to State legislatures, and to the Federal Board for Vocational Education; second, for determining State programs; and, third, for aiding teachers and pupils. State boards of education and State legislatures are entitled to know something about the results of the work for which expenditures of Federal and State funds are made, and can become acquainted with the work as a whole only as summarized in the State office. Such studies have a far-reaching value and serve not only as bases for reports but as material aids in the promotion of work in the State. Inquiries in the field of supervised practice undertaken to develop a basis for formulating a State program should set forth the principal weaknesses of present procedures and should indicate where efforts of State supervisors and itinerant teacher trainers should be expended. Very little has been done along this line. No statistics are available at present as to the relation existing between scope of project and capital invested or between scope and mortality, or as to the comparative productivity of vocational project work and of similar work on farms of the State as a whole. Such information, if properly compiled and analyzed, should be of considerable assistance to the agricultural teachers in their immediate localities. The following items might be studied to advantage in connection with this work:

1. Mortality in each school.

2. Mortality and scope of project.

3. Yields per unit in each enterprise as compared with average yields in the State.

4. Relation of the supervised practice of the State to the
yearly plans of the teachers.

5. The rating of the total scope in each enterprise as com-
pared with the rating of the enterprise in the State.
6. The maximum value of land which can profitably be used
for each enterprise based upon pupils' returns.

In addition to the above items, it would be well to consider in this connection Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, and 20 on the list of items which a teacher should include in the analysis of the work in his own school. (See p. 39.)

School credit for supervised practice.

Though it is not the purpose of vocational education in agricul ture to prepare boys for college or higher institutions of learning, nevertheless many of the pupils will and should go on to college and, therefore, should be given proper credit for the work done as supervised farm practice. The State supervisor, therefore, should be held responsible for effecting a proper affiliation of this work with high-school units and for making satisfactory arrangements to this end with high-school departments. In this case an agreement definitely specifying what credit such work is to receive should be drawn up with high-school authorities. Second, the State department should withhold school credit for agricultural work until the supervised practice is completed. It should do this because it is inadvisable to separate, as a few of the States have done, credit for the supervised practical work from that given for instruction in the class room. Teaching through supervised practice is simply one phase or device of instruction and should not be divorced or separated from the other phases of vocational agricultural teachingas it would be if it were given separate school credit. The pupil has not completed his vocational agricultural course. until he has completed and made a report on his farm practice. Pupils who have failed in their supervised practice should not be given credit as vocational agricultural pupils.

Approval of teachers' programs for supervised practice.

State supervisors are charged with the responsibility of approving or disapproving the supervised practice contemplated in each vocational class of the State. Such approval is usually given upon information furnished by the teachers in their annual reports. For approval of the supervised practice the State office should have on file information relative to the pupil, covering his age and the scope of his work. The State office also should receive periodically information as to how thoroughly the practice of the pupil is being supervised by the teacher. The above responsibility of the State board representative necessitates the development of a system of recording data reported by each school to insure that such data are properly filed and available for frequent use.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION

Though school boards are held directly responsible for all of the work of their agricultural teachers, the responsibilities mentioned under "Responsibility of the teacher," page 29, as resting upon the

agricultural teacher are those that may normally be delegated. Besides these responsibilities there would appear to be at least three others that can not be delegated, namely:

1. That of providing for supervised practice for all pupils admitted to classes.

2. That of giving moral support to teachers in their work. 3. That of giving moral support to pupils in their work. The national vocational education act is mandatory with respect to directed or supervised practice in that "schools shall provide for directed or supervised practice in agriculture, either on a farm provided for by the school or other farm." Responsibility for the supervised practice is therefore placed directly in the hands of board members. Where school boards have enrolled pupils without having available any land, animals, or equipment, they must be held responsible for failure to comply with this provision of the act. As a rule, school boards, in communities where schools have not already provided school farms, have been able to meet this requirement of the act by allowing to be enrolled in classes only those pupils who have the facilities for carrying out the work. It would seem, however, since we are dealing with a form of public-school education, that where any considerable number of pupils request entrance into a class in vocational agriculture the school board should make an attempt to provide for these pupils under the requirement noted above.

Moral support due the teacher.

Frequently local school boards are not thoroughly informed regarding the purposes of the vocational education act and have an inadequate understanding of the factors making for success in the work of the agricultural teacher. While there are many exceptions, it would seem, nevertheless, that the attention of school boards should be called to the necessity of making conditions favorable for their teachers and such as will enable teachers to render service as efficient as can be provided for the money expended. If the agricultural teacher is worth his salary, he certainly is worthy of the support of the board of education that employs him, and the board should make every attempt to further the work of the agricultural department by consistently upholding the teacher; also, the local board can further the work of the agricultural teacher by taking a direct interest in the work of pupils, visiting pupils with the teachers, and encouraging the boys in their project work. Occasionally in a new community the agricultural teacher is ridiculed by farmers without just cause. This would not happen if the officers of the school themselves had a favorable impression of the work.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE FEDERAL BOARD FOR VOCATIONAL

EDUCATION

ANNUAL REPORTS TO CONGRESS

YEARBOOK, 1923

General Description of Outstanding Developments and Summary of Progress by States. Vocational Education. Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation. On sale by Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office. Price, 60c.

Agricultural Education, 1923 (published separate from General Survey). General Description of Outstanding Developments and Summary of Progress by States. On sale by Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office. Price, 15c.

CONFERENCE REPORT

Report of Proceedings of the First National Conference on Vocational Rehabilitation of Persons Disabled in Industry or Otherwise, St. Louis, Mo., May 15, 16, 17, 1922.