Correspondence and annual reports of adult education classes

Chronological by school year (ending June 30). Thereunder reports for 1941 and 1942 are alphabetic by name of city, village, or school district; 1943-1944 are arranged into categories by size of community and thereunder alphabetic by name of city, village, or school district; 1945-1965 alphabetic by name of city, village or school district; 1968-1969 numeric by school district code (see "Code Manual for Public School Districts of New York State" published by the Information Center on Education, State Education Dept., for list of codes).

In 1920 the legislature authorized the Commissioner of Education to establish courses tending to promote "good citizenship" in factories, work places, or other locations, and to fix the amount of teachers' compensation for these courses. A law of 1945 authorized payment of State aid for adult education classes approved by the Education Department. The post-1945 reports in this series also constitute requests for reimbursement under this law.

Series mostly consists of annual reports submitted to the Department by school districts giving information on adult education classes conducted. The reports were used to report statistics and (after 1945) to request reimbursement from the State for expenses related to these classes. Some reports have attached correspondence relating to transmittal of the reports or classification of statistics.

The reports, dating 1921 and 1941-1965, vary slightly over time, but each generally gives the following information: city, village, or school district name; county; name of director of adult education; and school name, address, and principal. For each adult education course, the following information is given: title; teacher's name; teacher's license type; length and number of sessions held; and total number of students registered and attending. Beginning in 1945 the reports also include: salary or wage of adult education supervisors and teachers; and summary report of numbers of classes, teachers, periods, and students attending each type of class.

Reports for New York City from 1948 through 1957 are on computer processed forms and provide similar information except they do not give teachers' names. From 1951 to 1962 each report also includes statements regarding citizen cooperation in planning programs of adult education, qualifications of the director of adult education, and a report of in-service training for teachers as required by Section 213 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. Beginning in 1946 the series also contains folders of summaries of amounts of aid approved and copies of letters approving course offerings for each year.

At the beginning of the series is a small subseries of correspondence (1938-1945) between the Bureau and local school officials concerning adult immigrant education course offerings and a program to use Federal alien registration cards to identify and locate aliens for potential enrollment in "Americanization" classes. There are separate folders for individual communities.

At the end of the series are copies of drafts of narrative annual reports of the Bureau and Bureau personnel (1928-1959) detailing activities and services provided.

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