EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NATION AL. A society of teachers and educators organ ized as the National Teachers' Association at I'hiladelphia, Pa., in 1857. and incorporated under its present name in the District of Colum bia in 1886. The aid which associated teachers might render to the progress of education was recognized in the 'United States early in the nineteenth century and a number of such socie ties were formed, though of somewhat limited scope. Perhaps the best known of these, the American Institute of Instruction, organized in 1830, confined its work to New England; a similar society in the West, the Western College of Teachers, was organized in Ohio in IS31: the American Association for the Advancement of Education was founded at Philadelphia in IS-19, and there were, besides, numerous State educa tional societies. In 1856, however, a call was issued by the presidents of twelve of the State societies, for a general association of national extent to "advance the dignity, respectability, and usefulness" of the teaching profession, and to develop educational science "by distributing among all the accumulated experiences of all." The society thus initiated grew slowly and did not gating* large effectiveness until its work Lo gan to be specialized in 1870. In that year com bination was made with the American Normal Association and the National Superintendents' Association, and departments were instituted of higher and elementary instruction. Other sec tions were then rapidly inaugurated so that the association at present includes the National Council, an advisory body, and seventeen de partments devoted to the special problems of method, organization, and (lie courses of study in nearly every type and grade of educational work. At their annual meetings held in different parts of the eountry the society gives large space to specialized and concrete discussions in the several departments. These proceedings, to
gether with those of the society as a whole, pub lished in the Ammo/ Reports, constitute the most important body of pedagogical literature in the country. In 1892 a committee of tell \'11S ap pointed to report upon the curricula of second ary schools. This report. insisting upon greater intensity and coherence in school work, and upon the more intimate correlation of studies, exer cised wide influence. and its conclusions were very generally adopted. Other reports exercising au influence hardly less wide were those of the committees on elementary schools (1895), on rural schools (1897), on college entrance re quirements (1899), on normal schools (1899), and on public libraries and public schools (1899). The active membership of the society is some ten thousand, hut the annual meetings are usually attended by more than that number. the larger proportion being associate members. The meeting and exchange of opinions of teach ers from all sections of the country has con tributed largely toward unifying educational procedure and in developing an approximately even system of educational theory. Several of the leading educators of the country have taken an active interest in the association's welfare. Among these may be especially mentioned Nicho las Murray Butler (q.v.) and William T. Harris (q.v.). See History of the National Educational Association of the United States (Washington, D. C.. 1S92) : the reports of the Committee of Fifteen, the Committee of Ten, etc.: the Proceed ings of the Department of Superintendence of the National Council; and the annual volumes of the Proceedings of the National Educational Association (Washington, D. C.).