CHAPTER II

ACTIVITIES

The activities of the Bureau of Education are not identical with its functions. The latter, in essence are simple, and consist of the provision (collection and dissemination) of information regarding the progress of education in this country and abroad and the promotion of the cause of better education in the United States.

Activities, however, are more numerous, and cover a wider field than the functions. They fall into two broad classes: non-administrative, and administrative.

Under the former head lie, with one possible exception,' all of the organic activities of the bureau. The administrative activities thus, with the exception noted, are extraneous, and however important, in the strict sense, incidental. They are, however, the natural, though perhaps not logical, result of the position of the bureau in the Department of the Interior.

Non-Administrative. The organic, or non-administrative activities may be classified under five general heads:

1. Collecting and disseminating educational information. 2. Collecting and disseminating expert opinion on education. 3. Advising on educational matters.

4. Promoting better educational methods.

5. Carrying on research work."

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1 This exception is the administration of land-grant college funds, which activity might be construed as belonging under the "promotive" functions. In the discussion of the general duties or activities, as outlined in (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) above, the sub-classification by field of interest is not dealt with beyond mention. For example, "collecting and disseminating information" is discussed as it applies to the whole field of bureau work. No separate discussion of collecting and disseminating information" on "school-hygiene or "higher-education" is presented. While it is true these special fields require specially trained personnel, each different from the other, the collection activity, for instance, remains the same, regardless of the field of interest. The distinction lies in the subject with which the information deals. In brief, the special fields constitute administrative conveniences and form what might be termed vertical cleavages of horizontal activities. Hence the method of handling here adopted.

Educational Information. The collection and dissemination of educational information is the prime duty of the bureau and has formed its central activity from the beginning. In carrying out this activity it attempts " to serve as a clearing house for accurate and comprehensive information in respect to all educational agencies and all forms of education in the United States and all foreign countries and to disseminate this information among school officers, teachers, students of education, and all others directly interested in any form of educational activity."

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Collection of data. Collection of data is necessarily precedent to the dissemination of information. It involves wide-spread contact and continuous touch with affairs. Material is obtained by the following methods:

1. Request (This is usually special data, either unpublished or irregularly published).

2. Exchange (Comprises largely annual or periodical reports and applies especially to foreign information).

3. Purchase (Usually books and commercially prepared compilations, abstracts, and indexes).

4. Subscription (Current periodicals and the press).

5. Donation (Includes gratuitous distribution of new works by authors, publishers, and educational organizations).

6. Production (Reports resulting from bureau surveys or research).

General correspondence, reports from the field, and inspection of press and periodical literature reveal new movements, experiments, and activities in matters of education, and give the indication necessary as to how or where to obtain complete information. This is supplemented by visits to the field by various specialists.

The flow of material to the bureau finds its resting place in the files and library, and after classification is ready for the intensive analysis which must be carried out. The volume of material involved is indicated by figures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, during which period the Washington office received 166,746 letters, 45,828 library publications, and 58,287 forms of various kinds. This excludes mail or material received at branch offices,

Commissioner of Education, Annual Report, 1920, pp. 88-89.

research stations, or by special agents, and does not represent the peak load of recent years."

Analysis. The digestion of this material as a matter of process, technically lies between the activities of collection and dissemination, but practically it is part of the former program. An exhaustive study of the data collected is the next step, and this involves such thorough methods as the examination of every school law marking the year's changes and amendments and the inspection of school-board charters and rules. Searches are made for trends and other matters deserving special attention in the reports of state, county, and city superintendents of schools.

The work of both public and private schools is studied and the catalogues and calendars of a long list of colleges, universities, reformatories, and normal and other special schools inspected. Selection is made of what is worthy of note either in the way of defect or virtue.

The bureau also keeps in intimate touch with the growth of libraries, museums, educational journals, and teachers' associations, and the progress of scientific meetings, surveys, and investigations. The results of these inspections, studies, and contacts are preserved in various ways.

Statistical matter is analyzed, reduced when necessary to common or standard nomenclature, and set up on a standard plan for presentation. This sub-activity of statistical analysis and compilation cuts horizontally across the various divisions of bureau work. The method and practice is universal, the activity changing

4 Now discontinued.

"The year 1918-19, due to the war, was a high point, with 227,958 letters, 48,138 library publications, and 103,907 forms and reports received. The table of increase for letters received in ten years is of interest:

in no essential, regardless of whether the subject be higher education, school administration, or sanitation and hygiene.

General matter descriptive of progress is likewise analyzed, digested, and interpreted, but since the interpretative factor enters here the method and practice is not universal, as with statistics. Here the splitting up of a sub-activity occurs, a vertical cleavage which is partly an organization and partly an activity distinction. Each organization unit attends to the analysis interpretation and digestion of information upon its particular interest, such as rural education, school and home gardening, or civic education.

Collection, compilation, and interpretation, therefore, partake of the nature of intramural administrative or clerical activities, though they are in purpose unquestionably organic to the service, or extramural functions. They constitute in effect the manufacturing end of the work, converting the raw material into usuable forms ready for other activities to take up and pass on.

Dissemination of Information. Collection, compilation, and interpretation of data would be futile for bureau purposes unless accompanied by dissemination. This dissemination is accomplished by the following means:

1. Provision of library facilities and loan privileges for those interested in education.

2. Exhibits such as at expositions.

3. Address, speeches, and conferences.

4. Correspondence (Usually in reply to special requests for information).

5. Distribution of printed and mimeographed material.

Library. While the library does not constitute a particularly dynamic method of circulating information, it is an invaluable respository for educational material available to those who seek it. Loan privileges are extended to persons interested, not only locally but throughout the country.

The library represents the store of information on educational matters which has been accumulated since 1867. In 1920 there were 175,000 volumes and pamphlets on the shelves, and 2150 loans were made mostly outside of Washington. Bibliographies

"Only the units performing non-administrative work are here considered.

on various subjects are compiled and distributed to interested persons and organizations and a "library information service "" is maintained.

The Library thus contributes in no small way to the process of disseminating information.

Exhibits. Exhibits play a more or less subordinate part in the process of disseminating information. Charts, tables, and the like are used to present facts graphically, but the exhibit lends itself better to the promotional activities.

Addresses. Personal contact, conferences, speeches, and addresses at conventions, annual meetings, and the like constitute valuable methods of disseminating information, and with increased liberality of appropriations for travel are assuming new importance. Such visits and addresses, it is true, are used primarily for purposes of stimulation and promotion, but from the Commissioner down, advantage is taken of the opportunity to distribute information both in spoken and printed form.

Correspondence. Letters in reply to inquiries and requests for information form an extremely important part of the dissemination program. Correspondence takes care of the irregular flow of information necessitated by special requests and usually conveys information not available in the printed or regularly distributed material.

This method is expensive, however, as it frequently requires special effort in order to obtain the information requested. Numerous commissioners have complained that inadequate funds for publication have forced the burden of information-dissemination upon the Correspondence Division, whereas were the desired printed documents available the inquirer could quickly and cheaply be referred thereto. There are, of course, a large number of inquiries which can be answered in no other way.

The figures on letters received, quoted on a previous page, are indicative also of the amount of correspondence involved in distributing information, since a large proportion of letters received are those requesting information.

'This consists principally of a publication giving public libraries constant information about the organization, activities and publications of the various national departments, bureaus and boards.