portant. The individual thus employed by the Regents might be required to examine into the entire condition of the departments, and report to them all the information which may be necessary to enable them to determine whether the prescribed plan is carried into complete and efficient execu tion. As the Regents have not now the means of making this addition to the proposed plan, and as it will not be necessary until the departments shall have been organized and put fairly in operation, the committee merely suggested it at this time as a subject worthy of future consideration. In concluding their report the committee beg leave to observe that a matter of so much importance, in which the ground to be occupied is yet untried, many considerations may have escaped their notice which may be disclosed when the proposed plan is put in operation. They do not present it with the confidence that it is perfect, or that experience may not dictate salutary alterations in it, but as the best which, with the lights before them, they have been able after full consideration to devise. All which is respectfully submitted. Albany 8th January, 1835. (A.) DIPLOMA. The Regents of the University of the State of New-York having established in this institution a department for the education of common school teachers. in the WE, the President of the Board of Trustees, and the Principal, of the Academy, do hereby certify that A. B. of the town of in the county of State of has completed the course of instruction and passed a satisfactory examination in all the subjects of study prescribed by the Regents for the department; that he has sustained, while at the institution, a good moral character, and that he is fully qualified to teach a common school of the first grade. In testimony whereof we have hereunto affixed our signatures. together with the seal of the institution at in the county of this day of 1 18 Certificate to be given to students who have not completed the prescribed course of instruction for teachers. I, the Principal of the day of 183 Academy do hereby certify in the county of that A. B. of the town of and State of has attended a course of instruction at this institution in the art of teaching; that he has sustained a good moral character; and although he has not completed the course of study prescribed by the Regents of the University for common school teachers, he has studied, and is competent to give instruction in the following subjects, viz : A. B. Principal. P. S.--If the individual is not well qualified to give instruction in all the subjects of study, those which he is competent to teach should be specified. EXTRACTS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE State of New-York, FOR THE YEAR 1836. It appears by the above Report addressed to the Legislature on the 6th of January, 1836: 1. That there were, on the last day of December, 1834, 10,132 organized school districts in the State, from 9676 of which annual reports have been made to the Commissioners of Common Schools. 2. In all the districts from which reports have been received, schools have been kept during the year 1834-an average period of eight months. 3. The whole number of children over five and under sixteen years of age, residing, on the last day of December, 1834, in the school districts from which reports have been received, was 543,035, and the whole number of children who had attended school during the year 1834 in the same districts was 541,401. It is proper to state that the reports from the school districts do not shew the whole length of time during which each child has attended school. They shew only how long the schools have been kept open, and how many children have received more or less Instruction. 4. The number of children attending the common schools compared with the number of districts from which reports have been received gives an average of about 56 children to each district. This is as large a number as can be advantageously attended to by a single teacher. In a few districts two teachers are employed, but these cases are rare, and the average unmber of children annually instructed by each teacher is at least 50. As the whole number of children are not every day in attendance, the classes will average something less Upon the whole the number of children in proportion to the number of districts may be considered about what it should be. 5. Under any view of the subject it is reasonable to believe that in the common schools, private schools, and academies, the number of children actually receiving instruction is equal to the whole number between five and sixteen years of age. 6. Estimates and Expenditures of the School monies. By the Reports of the Commissioners of Common Schools it appears that the sum of $314,749 36 was paid by them to the trustees of school districts in their respective towns in April, 1835. The amount of public money expended by the Trustees in the year 1834 for the payment of the wages of teachers was $312,181 20, of which sum $100,000 was received from the Common School Fund, $193,590 28 was levied by taxation on the property of the inhabitants of the several towns and cities in the State, and $18,620 92 was derived from the local funds belonging to particular towns. The amount paid during the same period for teachers' wages, besides the above amoun of public money, was $419,878 69, and exceeds by the sum of $21,741 65 the amount paid for teachers' wages, besides public money in the year 1833. The whole amount paid for teachers' wages in 1834 was $732,059 89, except. ing a few thousand dollars expended in the city of New York for school houses, by the public school society. The whole amount therefore expended for teachers' wages in 1834 exceeds the amount so expended in 1833 by the sum of $17.768 92. 7. The actual expense of the common school system may be stated as follows: In this estimate the three first iteins are estimated on the basis assumed in former reports. The others are drawn from the reports of the Commissioners of Common Schools: Interest at 6 per cent on $2,165,200, invested in school houses.. Annual expense of books for 541,401 scholars at 50 cents each. Fuel for 9,826 school houses at $10 each. Public money as appears by the returns.... Amount paid for teachers wages, beside public money as appears by the returns.. Total.... $129,912 00 270,700 00 98,260 00 312,181 20 419,878 69 $1,230,931 89 In this amount the expense of repairing school houses is not in cluded. T 8. By referring to the accompanying table marked B, it appears that public money amounting to the sum of $314,769 36 was distributed to the common schools in April, 1835. The amount distributed from the common school fund is $100,000. The sum required by law to be raised on the towns is also $100,000. By reference to the table marked H, it will be perceived that the local funds of the towns have yielded $18,620 92. The additional sum of $72,674 6 is raised by law in the city of New York, and the sum of $1,262 77 in the city of Albany, for common school purposes. All these sums make an aggregate of $292,557 75, leaving the balance of $22,191 61 to be accounted for in order to make up the sum of $314,769 36 just mentioned. On examination of the reports from the Commissioners of common schools it is manifest that this balance must have been raised by taxation upon the towns, in pursuance of that provision of the Revised Statutes, vol. 1. p. 304, which authorises the inhabitants at their annual town meeting to direct such sum to be raised for the support of common schools as they may deem necessary, not exceeding the amount required by law to be raised in the town for that purpose. The following statement will shew the number of towns in each county in which such sum has been raised by a vote of the inhabitonts, in addition to the amouut required to be raised by law. In most of the cases the additional sum is equal to the amount received from the common school fund, so that double that amount is actually raised in the towns referred to, and the inhabitants have gone to the extent of the authority conferred on them by law to tax themselves for the support of common schools. 9. Commissioners of Common Schools. Three persons are appointed under the title of Commissioners of Common Schools at the annual meeting in each town. Their duties are to regulate the boundaries of the school districts within the towns for which they are chosen, to alter existing districts, and form new ones when it becomes necessary for the convenience of the inhabitants. They receive from the County Treasurer, with whom it is deposited, the quota of the revenue of the Common School Fund to which the town is entitled, and from the collector of the town the equal amount raised upon its taxable property; and they apportion these sums among the school districts of the town according to the number of children over five and under sixteen years of age residing in each district;-provided a school has been kept in it three months by a qualified teacher during the preceding year, and provided also, the school moneys received in that year have been applied to the compensation of such teacher. They receive the annual reports of the trustees of the school districts, and from them prepare a consolidated report setting forth certain particulars specified in the statute to be transmitted to the superintendant. 10. Inspectors of Common Schools. Three Inspectors of Common Schools are annually chosen in each town. Their duties are to examine all persons offering themselves as candidates for teaching common schools in the town; to visit all the common schools at least once in each year, and they may "give their advice and direction to the trustees and teachers of such schools as to the government thereof and the course of studies to be pursued therein." 11. The Commissioners of common schools have by virtue of their office the same powers, so that there are always six porsons in each town authorised to act as inspectors. 12. In the examination of a candidate for teaching, if the inspectors are satisfied that he is qualified with respect to moral character, learning, and ability, they give him a certificate. He is then a qualified teacher for one year, unless his certificate is previously annulled on a re-examination, which the inspectors may require if they deem it necessary. So long as he holds a certificate dated within one year, he may receive the public money as a compensation in whole or in part for his services. Trustees of school districts may employ a teacher who has not been inspected, or who on examination has not been deemed qualified by the inspectors, but no such teacher can receive any portion of the public money for his wages. 13. All examinations must be made at a regular meeting called for the purpose, and attended by at least three inspectors. 14. It must be manifest on the slightest consideration, that the success of the common school system, so far as concerns the great ends of education, will depend in a higher degree on the inspectors than on any other class of officers connected with its administration. With them it lies to fix the standard of qualification for teachers, and thus to determine the amount of ability which the latter shall bring to their tasks. If the requirements of the inspectors are small, the qualifications of the teachers will as a general rule be slender, and to these the standard of education in the town will gradually conform. In practice, the rule has perhaps been reversed The inspectors have usually, in granting certificates, been influenced ly the state of education in the town, and have thus conformed to an existing standard, instead of establishing a new one cf a higher grade. The superintendent has therefore uniformly urged upon the inspectors the importance of assuming a high standard of qualification, and of requiring all candidates to be tried by it. That this duty is not always properly discharged is not to be disguised. Inspector have sometimes given a certificate of qualification to a teacher for a summer school, and, at the expiration of the term, annulled it upon the ground that he was incompetent to teach a winter school, which is usually attended by a larger proportion of older scholars. This distinction is wholly unauthorised by law, and whenever an opportunity has offered it has been condemned in pointed terms. It is no hardship to adopt, in all cases, the highest standard of requirement. School districts, it is true, are often of very small pecuniary ability; but in order to entitle a school district to a share of the income of the Common School Fund, the Statute demands only that a qualified teacher shall be annually employed for three months. It does not even require that a school shall be kept by any teacher for a longer period. There is no school district which is not capable of complying with this rule, even if a teacher of undoubted qualifications were in all cases to be required. Inspectors should therefore aim to advance the standard of requirement for teachers as much as possible. Without their aid opinion may do something, but it is in their power, by setting up a higher rule of qualification, and en |