rate required of counties sharing the Equalization Fund was reduced
to 47 cents during the period from 1934 to 1939. In accordance with
the legislation of 1939 enacted to take care of the requirements of the
new minimum salary schedule for teachers, the county tax rate required
for participation in the Equalization Fund has been 61 cents
since 1940.

During the school year ending in June, 1941, there was at least one
supervising or helping teacher in every county in Maryland. This
is the nineteenth year that this satisfactory situation has existed.
The State pays two-thirds of the salaries according to the minimum
schedule of the county supervising and helping teachers and of county
superintendents. The improvement in the results of the tests in read-
ing and arithmetic is one evidence of effective supervision.

The improvement of instruction through supervision is accomplished
by organizing the content of the curriculum into definite units of in-
struction in the various subjects; by setting up specific goals of accom-
plishment for each grade in the various subjects; by giving standard-
ized tests in the "three R's" to check on the accomplishment of goals
and to plan appropriate remedial teaching for deficiencies revealed; by
analyzing with teachers the achievements to secure more suitable
classification and to provide adequate guidance for individual pupils
who vary markedly from the average; by constantly urging the im-
provement of physical and hygienic conditions in the schools; by stimu-
lating teachers to do the best work of which they are capable through
visits to the classroom followed by helpful conferences and through
participation in professional group meetings of teachers conducted by
the supervisor; by breaking down the isolation of teachers in rural
schools and giving adequate educational opportunity to country chil-
dren; by building up new contact and methods with older experienced
teachers who may be inclined to fall into a dull routine; by utilizing
the strength of superior teachers for the benefit of the entire group
through demonstration lessons; and by helping the public and parents
to understand more clearly what the schools are trying to accomplish
for their children.

In the fall of 1940 there were 48 county supervising or helping
teachers employed for the 2,920 white elementary teachers scattered
over the 9,870 square miles in the Maryland counties, an average of
61 teachers for each supervising or helping teacher. Since there are
very few non-teaching principals in the Maryland county schools, the
counties are helping teachers to improve instruction with a relatively
small corps of supervisory officials.

The average current expense cost in 1940 of educating a day school
pupil in the schools of the twenty-three counties was $64.81. Graded
schools having three or more teachers, with better trained teachers,
more equipment and expenditures for transportation, cost less per
pupil than rural schools having one or two teachers, chiefly because
the classes are larger. Transportation was provided at public
expense for nearly 62,000 county pupils at a cost of $1,285,520.

There were nearly 69 per cent of the white county schools, and
over 90 per cent of the colored schools in the counties which reported
that they had active parent-teacher associations organized in 1940.

BALTIMORE CITY
Board of School Commissioners

Forrest Bramble ............... .Mercantile Trust Building. . . .1944
Dr. Isaiah Bowman. ........... .Oak Place. ................ .1946
Charles O'Donovan, Jr„ M.D.....5 E. Read Street........... 1946