REVIEW QUESTIONS

How many normal schools are there in the State? When was the first one established? Where? When was it made permanent? What change was made in this school in 1890? In 1914? How many persons have been graduated from these institutions? What is the annual attendance? What does it cost annually to maintain them? What is the value of their property? What is the object of these institutions? How are they established?

Who has general supervision of these schools? What local authority has supervision of these schools? How is the local board chosen? For what period? Who is the executive officer of the board? Of how many members does the local board consist? How may members of this board be removed? What is the board in charge of the State College for Teachers called? Of how many members does it consist? What are the duties of the local board in relation to establishing regulations? In submitting reports to Legislature? In caring for buildings and other property? In appointing special policemen? In supplying schools with equipments? In accepting gifts made to the schools for the State? In employing teachers? In dismissing teachers? State fully the powers and duties of the Commissioner of Education.

Who may be admitted to these schools? By whom are appointments made? By whom approved? What certificates of proficiency are accepted?

To what privileges are pupils entitled? Who may dismiss pupils? For what reasons? Upon what conditions are non-resident pupils admitted? Who are non-resident pupils? What amount.is the State Comptroller authorized to pay each year for the support and education of Indian youth in these schools? How many of such youth may be educated from such fund? How are they chosen? What must be their age? How many years may they attend these schools? Who is made guardian of these pupils? What amount may be expended each year upon these pupils?

What courses of study do these school have? Are these courses uniform? By whom are they prescribed? Who receive diplomas from these schools? By whom are such diplomas prepared? By whom are they signed? What privilege do such diplomas confer? For what may they be revoked?

How may tuition money be expended? Where must money derived from insurance be deposited? What application may be made of such money? "What are academic departments in these schools? How were they created? Who may attend these departments? Can non-resident pupils be admitted? How may a teacher be removed? Give details of the case relating to the removal of Principal Hoose, of Cortland.

What was the first law authorizing the retirement of State civil employees enacted in this State? To whom does it apply? Name the various conditions under which such teachers may retire or be retired. By whom is a retirement certificate issued? When? What amount is to be paid a retired teacher? The maximum to a supervising official or a principal? To a teacher? The minimum amount? When is it payable? What are substitute teachers? By whom are they appointed? What compensation may they receive when employed? When not employed?

CHAPTER XXVIII

TEACHERS' TRAINING CLASSES, TRAINING SCHOOLS

TEACHERS' TRAINING CLASSES

[Article 31]

Historical Sketch.- Training classes were organized in the academies as early as 1821. In 1827 the Legislature increased the amount of the literature fund, and one of the purposes for such increase as specified in the law was to "promote the training of teachers." In 1834 an act was passed providing for the organization of Teachers' Training Classes. They were under the supervision of the Board of Regents from that year until 1889, when their supervision was transferred by an act of the Legislature to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Object. Teachers' Training Classes are organized to give instruction in the science and practice of common-school teaching to persons who desire to become teachers in the public schools of the State. These teachers are trained generally for the rural schools.

Institutions Which May Organize Them.- Academies and union free schools are the only institutions in which these training classes may be organized, and only such of these institutions as the Commissioner of Education designates. So many of the old academies have been merged with the public school system that these classes are now maintained in union free-school districts only.

How Such Institutions are Designated.— The Commisssioner of Education has authority, by law, to adopt regulations by which institutions desiring the appointment to organize training classes must be governed. (As these regulations may be changed at any time by the Commissioner of Education they are not given in this work, but may be obtained from the University upon application.) The regulations are submitted by him to the Board of Regents for approval.

An institution desiring an appointment to instruct a class should obtain a blank application from the Commissioner of Education,

supply the information called for in such blank, and then file it in the State Department at Albany. This application, properly filled out, should be filed not later than May 1st, and appointments made on such applications are for the school year beginning on the first day of August following. From the applications filed the Commissioner of Education selects those institutions which are the best equipped for the work and the selection of which will distribute such classes throughout the supervisory districts of the State so as to give equal advantages, as far as possible, to the people of all parts of the State. The number of appointments which may be made for any year is a matter of discretion on the part of the Commissioner of Education, but cannot exceed 115.

Number of Pupils in Class.- No class can legally be formed with a membership of less than ten or more than twenty-five.

Period of Instruction.-A class cannot legally be organized for a shorter period than thirty-six weeks, and it is within the authority of the Commissioner of Education to require a longer period. Under this authority the Commissioner of Education requires the organization of a class to be for two terms of not less than eighteen nor more than twenty weeks each. The Commissioner has also established a regulation requiring the amount of instruction in these classes for each day to consist of five periods of forty-five minutes each in addition to the observation and practice teaching required.

Tuition. No pupil admitted to these classes and remaining therein the period required under the regulations of the Commissioner of Education can lawfully be charged for such attendance. A non-resident pupil who is a member of a training class and who leaves such class within the prescribed period without the consent of the Commissioner of Education may be charged tuition by the school authorities of the district in which such training class is organized, at the rate charged non-resident pupils who are in attendance upon such school but who are not members of a training class.

Compensation Allowed.-An institution maintaining a training class of not less than ten pupils regularly organized and conforming to the regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of Education is entitled to receive $700 from the State. The teacher employed for training class instructor may also be reported for a teachers' quota and thus entitle the district to an additional $100. In case

a pupil has not been in attendance the required period, or a class has not be held for the full period of thirty-six weeks or there has been less than ten members in attendance upon such class, the Commissioner of Education may, for reasons satisfactory to himself, excuse such default and allow the institution in which such class was instructed equitable compensation proportionate to the number of pupils and period of instruction for the time such pupil was in actual attendance upon such training class.

This money is paid by the State Comptroller on the certificate of the Commissioner of Education to the district entitled to receive it. The money is then the property of the district and may be used for school purposes as the district directs, except that such money cannot be paid as extra compensation to a teacher or teachers who receive a fixed salary.

Training Class Fund. The amount of this fund is determined annually by the Legislature. The Legislature appropriated for 1918-1919 $90,000 from the free school fund for the support of these classes and training schools. Of this amount $32,830 was paid for maintenance of training classes and the balance of $57,170 to cities for support of training schools.

Duties of District Superintendents.- District Superintendents are directed by law to visit and inspect training classes, to advise and assist principals in the organization and management of such classes, to conduct examinations for such classes as directed by the Commissioner of Education and to issue certificates in the form prescribed by the Commissioner of Education to those members of classes who have met the requirements of the law and the regulations of the Commissioner of Education.

Requirements for Admission.- To be eligible to be received in membership in a teachers' training class, an applicant must have completed the equivalent of at least three years' approved work in a high school. Announcement was made that in 1918 the requirements for admission to such classes will be advanced to graduation from an approved four-year course, but these advance requirements will not go into effect until further notice.

Training-class Certificates.-A training-class certificate issued. between January 1, 1896, and August 1, 1905, is valid for three years and entitles its holder to teach in any public school, during its validity, in the commissioner district for which it is issued. Upon its expiration it may be renewed for a period of five years wthout further examination. It must also be indorsed by any district su

perintendent in the State, when presented to him for that purpose. These certificates issued after August 1, 1905, entitle their holders to teach in those schools only which do not maintain an academic department. A holder of a training class certificate who is also a high school graduate and who has taught successfully for two years since completing the training class course, may receive a form of training class certificate which will entitle her to teach in the grades of a school which maintains an academic department. Upon their expiration they may be renewed for a period of five years, provided the holder thereof has taught successfully three of the five years for which the certificate was issued.

Regulations for Classes. To the Commissioner of Education is given the authority to establish regulations, for the instruction and management of training classes, to prescribe the course of study for such classes, and to determine the conditions upon which pupils will be admitted to such classes.

No person can receive a certificate who is under the age of eighteen years, and as pupils are required to be under instruction in a training class one year, candidates for membership in such classes must be at least seventeen years of age. (Complete regulations may be obtained upon application to the. Commissioner of Educa tion.)

CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS

[Section 794, Article 31]

Any city in the State, or any district of 5,000 or more population in the State, employing a superintendent of schools, may establish and maintain schools or classes for the professional training and instruction of teachers for not less than two years.

The law also provides that no person is eligible to membership in one of these training schools or classes who has not been graduated from a high school or academy having a three years' course of instruction approved by the Commissioner of Education, or from some other institution of equal or higher rank. The Commissioner of Education may prescribe higher qualifications and he has exercised this discretion by providing that all persons admitted to training schools shall have completed an approved four years' academic course. The course of study of such training schools or classes must also be approved by the Commissioner of Education.

The Commissioner of Education is also authorized to apportion to each city maintaining a training school or class under the pro