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property, and they are decidedly of opinion, that such responsibility should not be in any degree relaxed. In all cases where the reports have been defective, they have been returned for correction, or have been corrected by correspondence, which has extended to more than one hundred letters.

The greater part of the labor of examining the reports has been expended on the schedule of studies, on which the sum to be apportioned to each Academy depends. The ordinance defining preliminary studies, and directing the mode in which the schedule shall be made, is believed to be as specific as it can be, while the examination to determine preliminary scholarship is left to the discretion of the principals of Academies. While this discretion is permitted, no uniform standard of scholarship will prevail, and those scholars will be claimed for the distribution of the Literature Fund in one Academy, whom a higher standard will exclude in another."

Applying the rules more strictly than had been practiced before, they excluded over twelve per cent of the number claimed.

The prevailing reason of exclusion was, that preliminary studies were pursued, either in whole or in part, by many scholars, showing that such studies had not been completed at the commencement of the course of higher studies, as required by the ordinance of the Regents.

It was evident from this searching investigation that the old system of apportionment involved radical defects. This had been felt for years, and the Regents in their report of 1864 said:

"The apportionment and distribution of the income of the Literature Fund was regulated by law when the system of public education in this State was in comparative infancy, and the Legislature adopted perhaps the best mode which was then practicable. In the judgment of the Regents, that mode of distribution does not now produce the amount of good which the people ought to derive, intended as it was, to operate only as a constantly active and increasing healthy stimulus to higher education. At a more recent period, the State also authorized the Board to distribute moneys to Academies to promote the education of teachers, making certain Academies practically from year to year, Normal Schools. The evident general intention of both these distributions is the same double purpose, of strengthening and sustaining the Academies, and of stimulating higher education and better modes of instruction. Yet merit in learning, and proficiency and merit in instruction are neither of them allowed to enter as an element in the mode of distribution. The Regents suggest the practicability and expediency of making the distribution in both cases to depend upon merit as ascertained by competition and comparative examination, upon which might be

made to depend also promotions and honors in the form of scholarships and fellowships in the Colleges which would be sought with enlightened emulation as honorable distinctions, and also as positive evidences of actual merit.

It is the system of State competitive examinations, which gives to public education in Europe much of that thoroughness and exactness which is wanting in this country, and without which schools fail everywhere to produce their highest results. The Regents are not ignorant that it is sometimes assumed that the best mode of promoting the education of the people is to confine the bounty of the State to the Common Schools. They consider all the educational institutions of the State Colleges, Academies and Common Schools as but dependent parts of one great and harmonious system in which the teaching of the alphabet and of the higher branches of learning are equally important; as incentives, as objects of admiration, emulation and ambition, the higher Seminaries, the Normal School, the Academy, the College and the University are worth to the Common Schools themselves, even in their lower forms, much more than their cost, and when to this we add their value as contributors to the productive power of the State, and to its honor, glory and strength, their value cannot be over-estimated. *Distinguished citizens of this State deeply interested in public education, have urged the Regents to take measures for annual competitive examinations, which the Board would proceed to do if adequate funds were placed at their disposal for that purpose."

*

*

CHAPTER XIX.

WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS IN ACADEMIES.

In accordance with the views expressed in the report of 1864, and under the general powers conferred upon the Regents for establishing rules and regulations for the government of Academies, the Board on the 27th of July, 1864, and as a first step toward a much needed change, adopted the following:

Ordinance relative to the Examination and Classification of Scholars and the Distribution of the Literature Fund. "SECTION 1. The scholars in every Academy subject to the visitation of the Regents of the University, shall be divided into two classes, to be denominated Preparatory and Academic. Preparatory scholars shall be those who pursue studies preliminary to the higher branches of English education - the Academic scholars, those who

having passed the examination in Preliminary studies hereinafter provided for, shall pursue the higher branches of English education, or the classics, or both.

§ 2. At the close of each Academic Term a public examination shall be held of all scholars presumed to have completed preliminary studies. This examination shall be conducted in the presence, and under the direction of a committee of at least three persons, to be appointed by the Trustees of the Academy. A record of the examination shall be kept, with the date at which it was held. To each scholar who has sustained such examination, a certificate shall be given in such form as the Regents shall prescribe, to be signed by the committee above referred to, and the Principal of the Academy, and the possession of such certificate shall entitle the person holding it to admission into the academic class in any Academy, subject to the visitation of the Regents without further examination.

§3. Scholars admitted to any Academy who have not received the certificates of examination as aforesaid, and who claim or are presumed to be academic scholars, shall within one week of such admission be examined by the Principal and other teachers of the Academy, and if found to have completed the Preliminary studies, shall be provisionally admitted to the academic class; but such admission shall not excuse such scholar from the examination above required at the close of the term, and the certificate as aforesaid shall be given only on such examination; but said certificate may have effect as if given at the commencement of the term, provided the committee shall be satisfied that the scholar to whom it is given was at that time entitled to it.

§ 4. Every scholar to be entitled to the certificate of admission to the academic class, as aforesaid, shall on the required examination be found to have attained such proficiency in reading, spelling and writing as is usually attained by scholars at the age of twelve years in the best Common Schools of the State, and to have such knowledge of arithmetic, English grammar and geography that the further study of these subjects in any of the ordinary school treatises is un

necessary.

§ 5. All scholars admitted to the academic class as aforesaid shall be regarded as scholars in the higher branches of English education or as classical scholars; and having after such admission pursued studies usually regarded as in advance of arithmetic, English grammar and geography, as aforesaid, or having become thoroughly proficient in the elementary works usually studied prior to the classics, and in addition thereto having studied the first book of Virgil, or its equivalent in Cæsar, Sallust or Cicero, shall entitle the Academy to which they belong to a share in the distribution. of the Literature Fund, provided they have pursued such studies for four months or upwards of the year for which the distribution is made; the said four months to embrace at least thirteen full weeks of study."

It was afterward, but before the first trial of this method, decided that the examinations should be held simultaneously throughout the State, and by means of printed questions.

There was thus provided a means for knowing the scholarship of students entering upon classical or higher English studies, which had not existed before. The method was first tried in November, 1865, and from the beginning was received favorably among educators, as leading to great improvement in our mode of ascertaining the exact condition of scholarship in the several Academies of the State. The experience of the first year led to some modifications, and the subject presented first as a means for ascertaining the preparation of students at the time of entering upon higher studies was not long afterward employed in determining the progress made, and in fixing the basis upon which the Literature money should be apportioned.

From this beginning to the present time these written examinations upon printed questions have been continued with increasing favor, and steadily improving results, and in 1871 the Regents, in their Annual Report, said:

"Its results, from the beginning, have clearly indicated serious defects in elementary education, while the requirements of preliminary proficiency have not been changed, either by the statute, or the ordinances of the Regents; the number of scholars who have been found to have made such proficiency has been reduced to less than one-half the number allowed before this system of examination was instituted."

Before February, 1870, the certificates were allowed as claimed, but since then they have been reviewed in the office of the Regents. During the three years preceding the adoption of this review, at the central office, all that were claimed were allowed. Since then the percentage allowed has ranged from 64.3 to 90.6.

CHAPTER XX.

APPROPRIATIONS MADE TO ACADEMIES BY THE REGENTS UPON THE BASIS OF ATTENDANCE OF STUDENTS ALLOWED UNDER THEIR RULES TO PARTICIPATE IN THE INCOME OF LITERATURE FUNDS.

Academy of Dutchess County (Poughkeepsie).

1793 1794

1813

$230 00

1824

$229 12

Years. Amount. Years. Amount. Years. Amount. Years. Amount. Years. Amount. Years. Amount. $515 00

1836

$111 83.

1848

$138 27

1859

$159 05

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Addison Academy: (now) Addison Academy and Union School.

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