The distribution of illiteracy between the sexes was very even. Among males it amounted 7.6 of the total, among females to 7.8. There was less of it among white females, however, than among white males, the percentage for the former being 4.9, for the latter 5. White girls and women born outside of this country show more illiteracy than men and boys of the same class, but those born in the United States show less than native males, as follows:
| Whites | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign born | 11.8 | 13.9 |
| Native | 3.1 | 2.9 |
The New England and the Middle Atlantic groups of states changed places in the illiteracy column between 1900 and 1910. At the former period New England was fifth and the Middle Atlantic states, comprising New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, fourth, but by 1910 New England had displaced the latter group. In both years the West North Central, comprising Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, showed the least illiteracy of any of the geographical divisions, while the East South Central, comprising Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, had the worst record,
The section known as the West almost caught up with the North during the decade, the respective percentages being 4.4 and 4.3.
Mr. Monahan’s bulletin goes briefly into the whole rural school problem. The author found 226,000 one-teacher schoolhouses in the United States, of which 5,000 are log buildings still in active use. Although more than 60 per cent of the children in the United States are enrolled in country schools, the rural aggregate attendance is only 51 per cent.
With the help of recent appropriations made by Congress the Bureau of Education has undertaken to make a careful study of the needs of the rural schools, and the bulletin just issued is one of the first definite results of the work.
WOMEN IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
How women have advanced from the educational ranks to the highest administrative positions in the public schools is revealed in figures just compiled by the United States Bureau of Education. Four states, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming, have women at the head of their state school systems, and there are now 495 women county superintendents in the United States, nearly double the number of ten years ago.
In some states women appear to have almost a monopoly of the higher positions in the public-school system. In Wyoming, besides a woman state superintendent and deputy superintendent, all but one of the fourteen counties are directed educationally by women. In Montana, where there are thirty counties, only one man is reported as holding the position of county superintendent.
The increase in the number of women county superintendents is most conspicuous in the West, but is not confined to that section. New York reports forty-two women “district superintendents,” as against twelve “school commissioners” in 1900.