New York State Education Department Examinations Division Background Statements of Candidates for the Position of District…

Arranged by category of final standing (candidates chosen, candidates qualified but not chosen, candidates not qualified), then in rough alphabetical order by county for candidates chosen and alphabetical by name for candidates not chosen or qualified.

The office of district superintendent was created by law in 1910 (effective January 1, 1912) to replace the position of school commissioner as the local official responsible for supervising the operation of a school district. District superintendents were elected by local boards or school directors, two of whom were elected in each town. Passage of an examination and possession of a teacher's certificate valid in any school in the state were required for election as a district superintendent.

These background statements were completed at the time candidates for the position of district superintendent of schools took an examination on "supervision of courses of study in agriculture and the same."

Each background statement gives the following information about a candidate: name; address; age; name of high school or academy and year graduated; name of state normal school and year graduated; name of college or university, type of course taken, and year graduated; number of years of teaching experience; number of years experience as a school commissioner (including name of district and inclusive dates); number of years experience as principal of schools having academic departments (including names of schools); and narrative statement of "any other educational training or experience". These statements are annotated with the candidates' scores on the examination on teaching and supervising agricultural courses.

Bound in with these statements are occasional testimonial letters submitted by candidates, certificates from county clerks of the election of district superintendents, and questionnaires requesting additional information on candidates' teaching qualifications.

These records were transferred to the State Library at an unknown date. They were subsequently transferred to the Archives in 1978 as part of old collection #638, accession number -471.

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