A clear, practical look at how large city high schools are organized and managed, with lessons for today’s administrators.
This nonfiction study examines the problems of organizing and administering New York City’s high schools. It presents Frank Washington Ballou’s findings from a comprehensive review conducted for the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, focusing on how schools are planned, staffed, and supervised within the city’s budget constraints. The material is framed to help supervisory staff, principals, and educators understand what works in large urban settings and why.
Although rooted in a specific city and era, the work offers a method for analyzing administrative control, the workload of department chairmen, and the distribution of teaching and clerical duties. It also discusses how class size standards, study halls, and classroom assignments affect teaching effectiveness and school finances. The discussion is practical, not theoretical, and aims to support better decision making in school systems of any size.
- Insights into class size, section work, and how standards are applied in large urban high schools.
- Examination of the roles of department chairmen and the balance between teaching and administrative duties.
- Guidance on distributing clerical and administrative tasks to keep teachers focused on instruction.
- Approaches to estimating the number of teachers and aligning budgeting with educational needs.
Ideal for readers involved in school administration, policy planning, and the management of urban high school systems.