EWP Capstone Report on Ashburn

Title

Tag

teacher, promotion, salary, education, student, segregated, community, operations, conditions, African American

Place

Virginia

Identifier

1005193

Is Version Of

1005193_EWP_Capstone_Report_on_Ashburn.pdf

Is Part Of

Uncategorized

Date Created

2024-01-07

Format

.pdf

Number

ee7967139194bb0b713e1a46ab9819020ffa0753e61d252750137b1b8cb35b3a

Source

/Volumes/T7 Shield/EWP/Elements/EWP_Files/Access Files/Upload temp/1005193_EWP_Capstone_Report_on_Ashburn.pdf

Publisher

Digitized by Edwin Washington Project

Rights

Loudoun County Public Schools

Language

English

Replaces

/Volumes/T7 Shield/EWP/Elements/EWP_Files/source/Ingest One/13 Statistical Studies/13-4 Capstone Statistical Analysis Colored Schools/Capstone Ashburn/EWP_Capstone_Report_on_Ashburn.pdf

extracted text

Ashburn Colored School, 1920-1954
Data in this report was collected from end of year reports filled out by teachers of the
Ashburn Colored School. Due to the nature of these reports, in which questions varied over the
years and some entries were left blank or may have been estimated, the values in the report may
not be consistent or exact. Nevertheless, they give a good indication of the history of the
schoolhouse.
The Building
According to early reports, the building itself was a frame house consisting of one room.
It was ventilated by six windows and heated by a wood stove (later an oil stove). The school
contained 54 square feet of blackboards, which were listed in poor condition. It was situated on a
half-acre lot enclosed by a wire fence. Toilets were listed as being in bad or poor condition.
Number of Days Taught
The number of days taught ranged from 137 days to 180 days. The length of the school
year jumped in 1929 from roughly 140 days to 160 days, and then again in 1938 from 160 days
to 180 days.
Class Size and Attendance
The class size ranged from 18 to 45 students, with a mean of 33.6 students. The average
daily attendance ranged from 11 to 44 students, with a mean of 24.3 students, or 72.3% of the
mean total students. The general trend is a decreasing class size, though there is no obvious trend
between the number of boys and girls who are enrolled or present. A graph is included below.

Furniture
Reports from 1920 indicate only a wood stove and 14 double seat desks as the furniture
in the schoolhouse. The collection grew over time to ultimately include at at least some point in
the school’s history an oil stove, bookcase, teacher’s desk, American flag, dish closet, piano,
radio, maps, globes, a projector, a filing cabinet, and a table and chairs.
Class Library
The class “library” consisted of a single bookshelf which ranged from 45 to 105 books,
with a significant number of books being added each year. The value was estimated to be
between $10 and $100, with a general upward trend. Between eight and 138 books were
estimated to have been read by students each year.
PTA

The school had a PTA or community league for most of the years researched. This
organization contained between 5 and 50 members and raised money for the school.
Age/Grade Distributions
The most detailed and consistent data available is that of the age/grade distribution of
students, with data reported for each year from 1920-1954 (with the exception of years
1951-1952, for which no report was found). First grade students ranged from age 6 to 17 with a
mode of 7. Second grade students ranged from age 6 to 15 with a mode of 10. Third grade
students ranged from age 8 to 19 with modes of 10 and 12. Fourth grade students ranged from
age 9 to 18 with mode 12. Fifth grade students ranged from age 10 to 17 with mode 13. Sixth
grade students ranged from age 10 to 18 with mode 14. Seventh grade students ranged from age
11 to 18 with mode 15.

Teachers
The schoolhouse had 5 different teachers over the years researched. The first was Miss
Helen Ray, who was 19 years old with no years of teaching experience coming into her first year
at the Ashburn School. Miss Ray had graduated from Dunbar High School, but had not attended
college or normal. She had no certificate her first year, but received a local permit in 1921 and a
Second Grade certificate in 1922. She visited an average of 26 students’ homes per year and
attended 3.5 meetings per year. Her salary was $45 per month and $312.75 per term, with $15 of
her monthly salary going towards room and board. Her average promotion rate of students was
40.7%. She taught from 1920-1923.
Mrs. Elizabeth Norton was the teacher for the next six years. She was 37 years old her
first year, and had 18 years of teaching experience. She was a graduate of both high school and
college/normal, and had a First Grade certificate given in 1921. She was the only one of the
teachers to not be a member of the State Teachers Association. She visited an annual average of
26.8 homes with 2.2 meetings. Her salary was between $50 and $60 per month and $350 and
$480 per year, of which between $14 and $18 went to monthly room and board. Her average
promotion rate was 71.3%.
Miss Norton was replaced in 1929 by Miss Bernice Jackson, who taught for only one
year in Ashburn. She was 25 years old and had taught for 6 years. She was a graduate of both
high school and college/normal, with a Normal Professional certificate issued in 1923. She did
not enter a number of homes visited, but did attend 4 meetings. Her salary was $65 per month
and $520 per term, and she paid $18 for room and board. Sixty-point-five percent of her students
were promoted.

The next two years were taught by Mrs. Helen Thomas. She was 26 with two years of
teaching experience, a high school and college/normal degree, and a Short Course certificate
issued in 1929. She visited an average of 7.5 homes per year with 5 meetings per year. Her salary
was between $57 and $60 per month and $456 to $480 per term and $20 owed for room and
board. An average of 49.4% of her students passed.
Mrs. Lola H Jackson taught from 1932 to at least 1954. In her first year at the Ashburn
School, she was 30 with five years of teaching experience, high school and college/normal
degrees, and a Normal Professional certificate issued in 1932. In the years in which her salary
was recorded, she earned a mode of $55 per month and $440 per term with $20 for room and
board. Her average promotion rate was 69.2%.
A graph of total promotion rates is included below.

Standardized Tests
Standardized tests began to be mentioned after 1944 when the Metropolitan Achievement
Test was administered to grades 2-4. Over the next seven years, tests such as the Stanford
Achievement Test and the Progressive Achievement Test were administered, as well as two tests
whose names are illegible.

Lunch
The details of school-provided lunch were only included between 1944 and 1946. The
lunch was listed as supplemental and was provided by the school and PTA with assistance from
the FDA. Twenty students were served free the first year and 23 the second year.
Pupils’ Distance from School
Students lived between 0 and 5 miles from the school.

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