School Organization in Recent Textbooks in Education

Abstract

The books examined for their treatment of school organization, which are listed at the end of this article, have dates of publication ranging from 1949 through 1955 and were those on the shelves of the College of Education Library in the University of Florida in March, 1955. This library follows the policy, while building up its collection of older materials, of adding all significant newly published books in education. Included in this analysis are twenty-six recent textbooks which have treatments of school organization. A few recent books dealing with school organization were omitted from the analysis to avoid overrepresentation of individual authors. For example, The American Secondary School, edited by Paul B. Jacobson (Prentice-Hall, 1952), was omitted because it was assumed he had representation through collaboration on the book, Duties of School Principals, written by Jacobson, Reavis, and Logsdon. Several important recent books on school administration were omitted from the list because they did not include even brief consideration of the patterns of school organization. The distribution of dates of publication is as follows: 1949 (2 books); 1950 (6); 1951 (7); 1952 (2); 1953 (3); 1954 (4); 1955 (2). Of the 26 books, nine are new or revised editions of books previously published. The remainder are original editions. The distribution of courses for which these textbooks are intended is: secondary education (often called principles of secondary education), 9; secondary-school administration, 3; school administration, 6; introduction to education, 7; and other, 1. These are fields in which consideration of school organization would be expected, and one need not be surprised that the list does not include textbooks in educational psychology or methods of teaching, which seldom, if ever, touch on the pattern of school organization. Almost all the authors of these books were at the time of publication members of university and college faculties, although a few had previously retired from administrative positions. The geographic distribution of authorship is widespread, including at least seventeen states and the District of Columbia. While there is some concentration of authors in California and in New York City, all sections of the country are represented, from New England to the Far West and from the North Central region to the South.