Preparation and Salaries of Teachers in High Schools 105 



something not warranted by the facts. Thus the one salary of 

 $1,150 raises the average for Missouri from $623 to $640. The 

 five salaries of $1,100 and over in Nebraska raise it from $624 

 for the lower twenty-eight teachers to $704 for the thirty-three. 

 The true state of affairs is often better shown by the " median " 

 instead of by the average. The median is the point above and 

 below which there are an equal number of the cases. For 

 example, in Missouri just as many teachers of agriculture receive 

 less than $612 as receive more. For Nebraska, the correspond- 

 ing middle point is less than $600, over $100 less than the 

 average. The " average deviation " shows how much, on an 

 average, the different salaries vary from some central tendency, 

 in this case the average being used. Thus in Missouri the 

 salaries vary on an average about S106 from the $640, and 

 in Nebraska, about $173. The average is not worth much 

 unless we know how much the individual instances deviate from 

 it, and how the cases are grouped or " bunched." The average 

 and median are practically the same for Ohio because the group- 

 ing is pretty much the same toward both extremes. 



Reference to Table 39 will show that the largest number of 

 women teachers in charge of classes in agriculture is in 

 Nebraska, where the median is the lowest, and where the aver- 

 age is pulled up by a few well-paid principals teaching the 

 subject. But in Missouri, with almost as low a salary standard, 

 the subject is nearly always taught by the superintendent or 

 principal who is in every case a man. Full data would pull 

 down this figure still further, for information was not asked 

 of any school credited with less than ten students in agricul- 

 ture in the 1908 report of the Department of Public Instruction. 



It is to be borne in mind, of course, that the higher salaries 

 are paid because the recipients are executive and not because 

 they teach agriculture; for they often do it because none of 

 their teachers can or will. Only one of the no teachers noted 

 in Table 38, who received over $700, was paid more on this 

 account. He is a superintendent in Missouri and receives $100 



