Cumulative Records for Elementary Schools

Abstract

Scientific procedures developed during the past three decades have supplied educators with valuable measuring instruments and observation techniques. However, in most elementary schools the methods of recording the facts obtained by measurement and observation of individual pupils are still in an unsatisfactory stage of development. Only in the larger school systems are attempts being made to keep sufficient records to give a comprehensive picture of a developing child. Most elementary-school teachers are still too much concerned with attendance, tardiness, and enrolment statistics to find time for recording the more fundamental developmental data. It is the purpose of this article to indicate certain types of cumulative records which are desirable for the efficient management of an elementary school. The recording procedures suggested have been developed after a careful analysis of many types of record forms now being used in both private and public elementary schools. The aim of the writers has been to present a system of recording which is more complete than that used by most elementary schools but which is less complex than the systems employed by the best experimental schools. Provisions are made in the forms for types of data which are needed by school systems seeking to render an adequate educational service in the community. A system of records which aims at completeness must use some type of individual, cumulative folder. It is therefore suggested that a large folder of the expanding type be provided for each child. The administrator will find that the efficiency of his records will be increased many times if these individual folders are subdivided into 278