This is the 1883-1884 report of the Commissioner of Education. It begins with a general statement of the work of the Office, with a list of its publications during the year. Contents include: a summary of institutions, instructors, and students; summary of school age, population, enrolment, attendance; legal school ages in the several States and Territories; summary of the teachers employed in the public schools and their average monthly salaries; summary of annual income and expenditure for public schools; summary of per capita expenditure for public schools; generalization of statistics by years and by topics, with remarks; school inspection; union of districts and the township system; course of study and classification in ungraded schools; needs of sparsely settled districts; the teaching force in the public schools of the United States; rural school-houses; summary of the educational condition of the Union; education in the South; Peabody fund; John E. Slater fund; summary of school statistics of cities; instruction in primary and grammar grades in city schools; methods of teaching reading and history; industrial schools; the recess question; summary of normal school statistics, with remarks; abstract of recent correspondence about the salaries of normal school principals; pedagogics in universities and colleges; summary of statistics of commercial and business colleges, with remarks; summary of statistics of Kindergarten, with remarks; the Kindergarten and the public school system; Kindergarten meeting at Madison; summary of statistics of institutions for secondary (including preparatory) instruction, with remarks; summary of statistics of institutions for the superior instruction of women; Harvard examination for women; associations devoted to the higher education of women; coeducation; higher education of women abroad; summary of statistics of universities and colleges, with remarks; summary of persons engaged in agriculture and in manufacturing, mechanical, and mining industries in 1880; summary of statistics of schools of science; summary of statistics of theological schools; summary of statistics of law schools; summary of statistics of schools of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy; resume of census statistics of clergymen, lawyers, physicians and surgeons, dentists, and particularly of pharmacists; summary of statistics of degrees conferred; summary of statistics of additional public libraries for 1883-84, with remarks; summary of statistics of training schools for nurses; summary of statistics of institutions for the deaf and dumb; summary of statistics of schools for the blind; summary of statistics of schools for feeble-minded youth; summary of statistics of reform schools; summary of statistics of homes and asylums for orphan or dependent children, infant asylums, and industrial schools; remarks on summaries of Tables; summary of statistics of benefactions, by States, for 18 months ending June 30, 1884, with remarks; education in foreign countries; school hygiene; International Exposition at New Orleans; and recommendations.