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Bvt. Maj. and Supt. Education.

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467

Bureau Refugees Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
Office Supt. Education, D.C. &c.
Washington, January 1st 1860

[[underlined]] Alvord  Rev. J. W. [[/underlined]]
Genl. Supt. of Education.

Dear Sir:

I have the honor to submit the following report of the work of Education in the District under my charge, for the six months ending Dec. 31st 1869.

As my assignment to the charge of the Dist. embracing the states of Maryland, Delaware, West Va., and the District of Columbia, dates only from the 20th of December - this report will be necessarily meager.

For the number of schools in operation in my District, I beg leave respectively to report the statistical report accompanying this without further reference.

No regular reports have been received from the public schools of the District, since the mo. of March last.  Previous to this blanks were distributed and reports collected from teachers for this office by Superintendent of Board of Trustees;  but as he received no compensation for his services in this direction, and as it required considerable time, he declined to continue the work.

I believe the only practicable method of securing these reports would be to furnish the trustees with a sufficient number of blanks and official envelopes to supply each teacher for the school year, so that he might forward his reports to this office free of postage.

Letters, however, have been addressed to the Board of Trustees of colored schools for Washington and Georgetown, and to the School Commissioners of Washington County, requesting them to report to us monthly the number of colored schools under the respective supervisions, giving the number of teachers, white and colored, with aggregate number

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of pupils.  Also the number of private and Sabath schools within their knowledge.

These reports have been promptly furnished, but they have failed to give us any information respecting private or Sabbath schools.

The whole number of schools not regularly reported is (76) seventy-six:  No. of teachers, seventy-nine (79), of whom forty0six (46) are colored and thirty-three (33) are white:  with an aggregate of thirty-nine hundred and sixty-nine (3969) pupils.  The average attendance in the schools of Washington and Georgetown is reported at ninety per cent (90).

The following is a list of schools regularly reported - Normal and Preparatory Departments of Howard University.  No. of teachers, eleven (11):  No. of pupils two hundred and nine (209).

[[underlined]] Rev. G. M. P. King's [[/underlined]] Normal school, sustained by the [[underlined]] A. Baptist H. M. Society: [[/underlined]] No. of pupils, sixty three, number of teachers three (3).

[[underlined]] Dr. E. Turney's [[/underlined]] Normal school, with branch night school at Arlington, sustained by [[underlined]] Nat. Educational Society - [[/underlined]] No. of pupils, one hundred and thirty two (132).

[[underlined]] Rev. G. N. Harden's [[/underlined]] night school, sustained by American Missionary Association.  Number of teachers, twenty nine (29):  number of pupils two hundred and seventy one (271).

Orphan's Home, sustained by [[underlined]] Bangor F. A. Asso'n, [[/underlined]] one teacher with fifty-two (52) pupils.

Four (4) schools under the auspices of the [[underlined]] N. E. Friend's Society - [[/underlined]] No. of teachers five (5):  number of pupils two hundred and twenty-five (225).

The whole number of schools regularly reported is ten (10), eight day and two night.  No. of teachers fifty-seven (57), of whom forty are colored and (17) seventeen are white.  Number of pupils, nine hundred and fifty-two (952), with an average attendance of 80 1/3.  Of these pupils only 2% are in the alphabet;  38 spell and read easy lessons, and 50% are advanced readers.  There are 498 studying geography, 773 arithmetic, and 79 in higher branches.  Two Sabbath schools are reported with 60 teachers and 602 pupils.  Probably several of those schools are organized in connection with colored churches,