14 BULLETIN 385, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
work as well as on the study. Such a rank might average with the 
recitation rank on the basis of from one-fourth to one-half, according 
to circumstances as previously explained. 
In communities where no home study may be demanded it is 
probable that most parents would encourage home project work so 
closely allied to family interests. In this case the required course in 
agriculture might, if required, be given additional weight for such 
home work. If five credits are given for the recitation course then 
seven or more might be allowed when the project work is completed 
in a satisfactory way. This method dignifies such work and gives 
it the rating of real school work. 
What kind of credit?—In the secondary schools each subject has 
assigned a numerical value based upon the amount of work or the 
number of hours of recitation each week. A minimum requirement 
is made of the total hours of work necessary for promotion or gradu- 
ation, and a pupil who elects to pursue a given subject knows how 
much it counts toward this minimum. 
In the administration of rural schools it is unusual to find such an 
arrangement of credits with a minimum for promotion, so there is 
no obvious advantage to the boy who gets extra credits, so far as 
school advancement is concerned. 
Any scheme of holidays, prizes, or other perquisites is evidently not 
school credit in the sense in which we deal with arithmetic and 
language. Hither the rank given for home work must be applied 
to the correlated study in school or the units of credit given for 
home work must be based on units of credit in academic subjects 
and so arranged that these credits advance him toward a school 
goal. 
Where the home project is a required part of the study of agri- 
culture this is of less importance, since the rank in agriculture in- 
cludes the practical work. Whenever this may be optional, there is 
an obvious advantage in giving credit that means something in 
terms of school work. 
The school authorities may find it desirable to assign numerical 
values to all school subjects and place home projects in the list. 
It is possible to fix a mmimum for promotion and to promote by 
subjects rather than by grades in the rural school. 
In some cases other methods have been used, but the relation to 
academic credit is not as clear. _Among these might be mentioned 
the following: (1) Holidays given for a given number of credits; 
(2) promotion at a lower grade; (3) automatic and arbitrary raising 
of lower grades without reference to their relation to the project; 
(4) honors or ‘‘cum laude”? promotions, and (5) prizes and other 
rewards. Since these credits bear little relation to the work done, 
