more than 80 per cent of all persons from 5 to 18 years of age. It is probable that a rigorous exclusion of duplicate enrollments, such as is practiced in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, would somewhat alter this showing. In addition to what has been already said upon this subject in previous reports of this office, reference may be made to certain wholesale duplications to which State Superintendent Knoepfler, of Iowa, calls attention. In his report for 1892-'93 (p. 133) he says:

Experience shows that many young teachers do not understand how properly to keep a daily register and make a term report therefrom. Frequently the enrollment for three separate terms is added to get the enrollment for the year, when in fact the majority of the names have thus been counted three times, thus giving a greatly exaggerated enrollment.

Iowa, it will be observed, stands next to the highest in Diagram 3. The relation of enrollment to school population is given in the fol lowing table for each year since 1870-'71, and illustrated further by Diagram 4:

TABLE 6.--Showing school population of the United States and number of pupils cnrolled each year since 1870-'71; also per cent of school population enrolled in each geographic division.

The strong upward trend of the lines of the two Southern divisions in the diagram records a growth in public school attendance during the past two decades of epoch-making proportions. The close coincidence of these two lines throughout their length indicates a similarity of conditions obtaining simultaneously over a wide extent of territory.

DIAGRAM 4.-Showing the per cent of the school population enrolled in the common schools

since 1871. (See Table 4.)

There are grounds for apprehending that these two Southern lines will not rise much higher than at present. The small proportion of adults in the South compared with the number of children to be educated (see Diagram 1), and the fact that of this small proportion fully one-third are negroes who contribute a minimum to the support of the schools, are circumstances adverse to the highest development of a public-school system. Those who are familiar with the educational history of the North are aware of the widespread repugnance that has been exhibited of one class of people to support schools for the benefit of another; of the rich for the benefit of the poor; of those having no children for the benefit of those having them; of the people of one locality to be taxed for the benefit of those of another. Instances have occurred of lawsuits being instituted over the petty question of whether a child should be educated in this or that district school. It is inevitable that these antagonisms should be intensified in the South, with its sharply defined race contrasts; one race with little property being dependent for education largely upon the financial resources of another. That the lines of the Southern divisions have approached so near the Northern, as is the case in the diagram, is a testimonial to the existence in that section of a widespread determination to secure the benefits of education to all the people, and shows that it has in a large measure been effective in bringing the children into the schools. chief drawback is the short school term. (See Diagram 6.)

The

The line of the Western States also bears strongly upward. The twenty years covered by the diagram have witnessed the change of many of these States from frontier communities to more settled conditions. Here the great preponderance of adults and sparsity of children render the financial burden of providing education for all youth peculiarly light.

The North Central States have about held their own in the last two decades as regards proportion of school population enrolled. In the North Atlantic States there has been a marked loss. When it is considered, however, to what extent enrollment statistics were formerly inflated through duplicate registrations, there is reason for supposing that the loss in the North Atlantic States is more apparent than real. A complete eradication of duplicate enrollments would probably bring both the northern divisions down still lower in the scale. The low position of Rhode Island in Diagram 3 must be attributed, at least in part, to rigidly correct reports of enrollment, each pupil being reported only once, no matter in how many schools enrolled.

TABLE 7.—Average daily attendance at various periods, and its present relation to the average attendance of the preceding year, to the enrollment, and to the school population. Average number of pupils in attend.

ance each day.

Increase or decrease

since last year reported.

Per cent of increase or decrease.

Average number at-
tending for every
100 enrolled.

Average number attending for every

100 children 5 to 18

years of age.

AVERAGE DAILY ATTENDANCE.

The average number of pupils in attendance upon the schools of the United States each day, according to the most recent reports (mainly 1891-292), was 8,547,551.

By comparing the reports of each State for the next preceding year, the aggregate increase is found to be 142,539, or a gain of 1.70 per cent, against a gain in enrollment of only 1-56 per cent. This indicates, if the reports are correct, a more regular attendance of enrolled pupils. The average attendance forms 64.73 per cent of the enrollment; that is, 64-73 pupils attended school each day for every 100 enrolled; or, viewing the matter in another light, each enrolled pupil attended school on an average, 64.73 days out of every 100 the schools were in session. This percentage indicating regularity of attendance, being the relation of the average attendance to the enrollment, is affected by any error in either of these quantities. If the enrollment, which is the divisor, is too large, through containing duplicates or other cause, the resulting percentage will be too small. On this ground it is probable that the percentage, 64.73, is less than it should be. Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which are known to exclude duplicates, show a high regularity of attendance, the former State over 74 per cent.

A high regularity of attendance may, however, and probably does in some cases erroneously appear, through inflating the average attendance, i. e., increasing the dividend. This may occur in the case of computing the average attendance of any single school, for instance, through adding together the three reports of the average attendance of the school for three consecutive terms, instead of taking the average of them.

The phenomenally low regularity of attendance in Minnesota (47-11) probably results from some method of ascertaining average attendance in that State not in uniformity with the general practice in that regard. The following table shows the per cent of regularity of attendance by five-year periods since 1870-'71.

Ratio of average daily attendance to enrollment since 1870-'71.

The increase in the North Atlantic Division from 59.3 to 66-4 is probably due in part to more correct records of enrollment in recent years. Where the same pupil is registered twice during the school year, he