A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

BOARD OF EDUCATIONAL SURVEY REPORT

7

Alexander devoted his time to the problems of finance and administration, finding his material chiefly in Manila. Charge of the scientific
testing and measuring of the school work was in the hands of Doctor
Rugg.
Certain problems were assigned to two or more members of the Staff
for special consideration. Among these were agricultural education,
garden work, school buildings, administration in the field, and the
general problems of elementary education.
Under the direction of Doctor Rugg seven of the research associates
devoted all of their time to giving tests to teachers and children; and
to the tabulation and interpretation results of these tests. The remaining associates were delegated to other forms of research. Four of them
accompanied the Commission on its provincial visits,
For most of the provincial visitations the party consisted of sixteen
members. With the division of labor adopted much could be done in
the course of a day's visit. One of the party heard 125 complete recitations in the high schools; another 168 complete recitations in the intermediate schools; another 460 complete recitations in the primary schools.
Also, innumerable recitations and teachers were visited in a more casual
way.
Educational or achievement tests of standard types commonly used
in the United States were administered to more than 32,000 pupils and
to 1,077 teachers. Since these examinations were group tests usually in
six subjects, 223,710 examination records of school pupils involving
more than 6,000,000 items upon which to base judgment were available.
While to the outsider the Commission's practice of devoting but one day
of visitation to a place might seem quite superficial, it is confidently
believed that sufficient evidence was secured and observations made to
validate conclusions reached.
One-fourth of the number of tests given would have been sufficient to
satisfy a statistician of the validity of the conclusions drawn from the
data collected. But to avoid all questions of such validity by the public
or by teachers and to remove every shadow of doubt on the part of the
members of the Board and of the Commission, the larger number was
given.
These achievement tests will not solve all questions regarding school
work. But on the quality of instruction, the content of the school subjects, the vitality or artificiality of that content, the qualifications and
character of the teachers, the value of supervision, and the many difficult
problems of language instruction much light is thrown. On the significance of attendance, promotion, retardation, repetition, training of
teachers, and quality of textbooks, the evidence is sufficient for a conclusive judgment.