Rural school reorganization in Iowa

The recent federal census yields additional evidence of the unequal educational opportunities of the farm and nonfarm children of Iowa. It indicates further that these inequalities may help to account for the decline in the number of children on the farms of the state. During the 15-year period from 1925 to 1940, the total population of the state increased by approximately 118 thousand people. The rate of increase was only about one-third of that for the nation as a whole. Population shifts within the state have also occurred. Thirty-nine counties, or approximately two-fifths of all, suffered an actual decline in population during the same period. More significant for bur analysis, however, are the population shifts which are revealed by a further breakdown of the data

Taxable property per child in farm and non-farm communities of Iowa

There is much evidence that the education provided for the farm children who attend the one-room schools of the state is distinctly inferior to that available to the children who live in the towns and cities. Teachers are not, in general, so well prepared for their work. Repeated tests have shown that the instruction given by them is generally less effective than that provided in the elementary grades of urban school systems. Not so many of the pupils, in proportion to their total number, complete the eighth grade as of town and city children. Those who do so are permitted to attend approved high schools with their tuition paid by their home districts, but they must furnish their own transportation to such schools or live away from home. As a result, the percentage of the children living in these districts who attend high school is less than three-fourths as great as is that of urban children; and the proportion continuing their education beyond the high school is not more than one-third as great

Iowa State Women in Rural Schools

What should be the attitude toward rural life of the young women who go out from Ames? Are they under any obligation to become its champions and advocates by reason of the fact that they are graduates of Iowa State College

A possible intermediate step in the reorganization of rural elementary education in Iowa

Iowa has a very large number of small rural school districts. Of the 4,870 school corporations in the state, 2,807 are rural independent districts and 1,010 are school townships. There are in the state 12,279 public schools of all types, including kindergartens, rural schools, elementary schools (not rural) and high schools. Of this number, 9,223, or about 75 percent, are one-room rural schools. With one exception the number of such schools in Iowa exceeds that found in any other state. The average enrollment in the one-room rural schools of the state in 1932-33 was only 15.8 students; the average daily attendance was 12.6. These ungraded rural schools of the state enrolled 29 percent of the entire number of pupils but employed 38 percent of the teachers. The first class cities, on the other hand, enrolled 23 percent of the pupils of the state but employed only 16 percent of the teachers. The town and consolidated schools, as a rule, also have small total enrollments and small enrollments per teacher. Before the depression the average salary of teachers of one-room rural schools in Iowa was $722 per year, while that of city elementary teachers was$1,573 per year. When the depression brought a demand for reducing expenses, the rural teacher\u27s wage was cut approximately 35 percent, to $465 per year, and the city elementary teacher\u27s wage was reduced 19 percent, to$1,271 per year. From the foregoing it follows that rural people, in general, may have only teachers of inferior training for their children. Yet, in many instances, the per-pupil cost of such instruction is actually higher than that in the elementary grades of city schools; and it appears, on the whole, that there is no great difference in the per-pupil cost of elementary instruction in the two types of schools. This condition clearly reveals the handicap which children face who are born and reared in the country. Moreover a disadvantage also seems to have fallen upon their parents, whose per capita income, even in normal times, is apparently not more than half of that of the non-farm population. Not only must they accept inferior educational opportunities for their children, but they must pay for such facilities a sum more than twice as much, in relation to their incomes, as that paid by people not living in the country. So far no satisfactory solution has been suggested for the problem of how to provide education for rural children that is equal in quality to that which is generally available to the non-farm children of Iowa. Yet with the establishment of the many graded school systems during the past 3 or 4 decades, and with the more recent improvement of the roads of the state, it has seemed that an acceptable solution was gradually becoming possible. In fact, for some time there has been reason to believe that not nearly all of the one-room schools being maintained in Iowa are really needed; many children attending a considerable number of them apparently could be transported to nearby graded school systems and educated at a total cost actually no greater than that being paid at present, provided the patrons of such one-room schools desired to do so. lf arrangements could be made, therefore, whereby the rural and non-rural children of Iowa would attend the same schools they would enjoy more nearly equal educational advantages and opportunities. To remove the present educational handicap of all rural children of Iowa in this manner, however, would entail a considerable increase in educational costs.1 For how many of them it might be removed without additional cost has been determined for a considerable part of the state in connection with an investigation, the results of which are reported in the following pages. Nothing presented in this bulletin, however, suggests any changes in the existing school systems, other than those which would and could at present be taken purely upon local initiative

The Iowa Homemaker vol.3, no.12

Table of Contents A Greeting to Iowa Homemakers by Dr. Louise Stanley, page 3 A New Book on “Meal Planning and Table Service” by Florence E. Busse, page 4 A Bill of Rights for the Child by Lulu R. Lancaster, page 4 Shrubs as a Garden Background by Juanita Beard, page 5 ‘Tis Egg Time Again by Beth Bailey McLean, page 6 The New Domestic System by Claude L. Benner, page 7 A Time Budget for the Homemaker by Ruth M. Lindquist, page 8 Figures That Do Not Lie by Mae L. Kelley, page 9 The Cooking of Meats by P. Mabel Nelson, page 10 The Psychology of Clothing by Eveleth Pedersen, page 11 Iowa State Women in Rural Schools by W. H. Lancelot, page 12 A Yarn about Yarns by Irene Christian, page 13 Tea Room Accounting by George M. Fuller, page 14 Who’s There and Where by Dryden Quist, page 15 Editorial, page 16 Homemaker as Citizen, page 17 The Eternal Question, page 18 Mrs. Purchaser Chooses Upholstery by Lucile Barta, page 1

WDR34, a candidate gene for non-syndromic rod-cone dystrophy

Rod-cone dystrophy (RCD), also called retinitis pigmentosa, is characterized by rod followed by cone photoreceptor degeneration, leading to gradual visual loss. Mutations in over 65 genes have been associated with non-syndromic RCD explaining 60% to 70% of cases, with novel gene defects possibly accounting for the unsolved cases. Homozygosity mapping and whole-exome sequencing applied to a case of autosomal recessive non-syndromic RCD from a consanguineous union identified a homozygous variant in WDR34. Mutations in WDR34 have been previously associated with severe ciliopathy syndromes possibly associated with a retinal dystrophy. This is the first report of a homozygous mutation in WDR34 associated with non-syndromic RCD

Bacterial metabolism of algal extracellular carbon

Measurements of microbial utilization of extracellular organic carbon (EOC) released by phytoplankton commonly consider only EOC fractions subject to rapid uptake. Questions remain whether other EOC fractions are metabolized, what portion is labile, and with what assimilation efficiency this carbon substrate is utilized. 14 C-EOC was prepared by incubation of the natural mixed planktonic community from an oligotrophic lake with H 14 CO 3 in the light. 14 C-EOC which was not rapidly removed by heterotrophs remained in solution and was isolated by filtration. This residual EOC was inoculated with lake microheterotrophs in laboratory microcosms, and utilization kinetics were determined through long-term assays of cumulative 14 CO 2 production. Time-courses for 14 CO 2 production were consistent for all assays and were well described by a deterministic mixed-order degradation model. On twelve sampling occasions, from 29% to 76% of residual 14 C-EOC was labile to further metabolism by lake heterotrophs. First-order rate constants for EOC utilization showed a mode of 0.05 to 0.15 per day. From 33% to 78% of gross 14 C-EOC uptake was respired (mean 50%), indicating appreciable return of algal EOC to the pelagic food web as microbial biomass.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42876/1/10750_2004_Article_BF00015524.pd