Teachers Manual for Standard Practice Tests in Arithmetic
Teachers Manual for Standard Practice Tests in Arithmetic
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- Just before World War I, Stuart A. Courtis, a teacher at a private school for girls in Detroit, Michigan, developed the first widely available standardized tests of arithmetic. His goal was to measure the efficiency of entire schools, not the intellectual ability of a few students.
- Courtis went on to become supervisor of educational research in the Detroit public schools. There he developed a set of lesson cards in arithmetic for students in the third through eighth grades. The tests were originally published under his name by World Book Company.
- This is a teacher’s manual for a later edition of the drill cards. Courtis’s name does not appear. Courtis withdrew his arithmetic tests from the market in 1938 because he had come to doubt their validity.
- The manual was the property of Brooklyn school teacher L. Leland Locke.
- Reference:
- Kidwell, P.A., A. Ackerberg-Hastings and D. L. Roberts, Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 43–46.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- pamphlet
- date made
- 1924
- maker
- Detroit Public Schools
- place made
- United States: Michigan, Detroit
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall:.4 cm x 15.4 cm x 23 cm; 5/32 in x 6 1/16 in x 9 1/16 in
- ID Number
- 2011.3051.01
- nonaccession number
- 2011.3051
- catalog number
- 2011.3051.01
- Credit Line
- Gift of Grove City College
- subject
- Mathematics
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- Arithmetic Teaching
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. We apologize for the interruption. If you have a question relating to the museum's collections, please first check our Collections FAQ. If you require a personal response, please use our Contact page.
