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(b) Burt's 'Memoranda'—During the first decade of his work for the Council, Sir Cyril
Burt wrote a series of reports to the Education Committee in the form of' Memoranda'
dealing with a wide range of fundamental aspects of educational psychology. Most of
these reports were considered to be of such importance and widespread general interest
that they were published in book form by the Council—a far-sighted step, which Burt
(1946, loc. cit.) has described as follows:
"I should like to record the deep indebtedness of all educational psychologists to the Council itself for
its generosity in publishing at its own expense the results of these numerous researches, and that at a
time when mental testing and educational psychology were a novel, and, in the view of many, a transient,
development, and when the printing of test-materials and long tables of results would have been far too
costly for an author to undertake in his private capacity. In this country psychological and educational
journals have always depended for financial support on lay subscribers who are easily repelled by
formulae and figures; and consequently their editors have rightly been chary of publishing articles of a
statistical or technical nature. As a result, the tables of frequency-distributions and of percentages for
various age-groups to be found in this volume are still almost the only examples available for those who
wish to re-examine such data from various points of view. From time to time they have been used by
American writers like Courtis and Thurstone for illustrating and testing formulae for growth-curves,
and more recently by students and research-workers who wished to try out fresh modes of analysis.
If I may judge from the many requests I have received, they are still in demand for such purposes, as
well as for the purpose of comparison in subsequent surveys."
Amongst the many published works of Sir Cyril Burt the following were based mainly
on work carried out during his period with the Council:
The Distribution and Relations of Educational Abilities (1917).
Mental and Scholastic Tests (1921).
Handbook of Tests for Use in Schools (1923).
The Young Delinquent (1925).
(c) Period from 1932 to 1939—After Sir Cyril Burt resigned in 1932, (to take up his
appointment as Professor of Psychology in the University of London), 'temporary'
arrangements were made, which lasted for 15 years, for carrying on the school psychological
work within the framework of the education inspectorate.
It was during this period that the Council published in 1937 the Report of a Committee
of Inspectors on Backwardness in Elementary Schools, the second such survey to have
been made in London, the first having been carried out in 1915-1917—vide Burt's 'Distribution
and Relations of Educational Abilities'.
It was also during this period, at the October, 1935 examination for junior county
scholarships (11-plus selection), that the Council first used 'intelligence tests' of the type
now quite well known and in common use (e.g. 'Moray House' tests).
(d) Report of the Feversham Committee—As mentioned on page 139, the Feversham
Committee recommended, inter alia, that every local education authority should appoint
a psychologist to advise them on their educational programme and to examine and advise
on the treatment of backward children. In the report on the subsequent comprehensive
review carried out in 1943 there is a paragraph which laments, albeit obliquely, that the
post of educational psychologist to the Council had not been filled since 1932:
"We think it would be an advantage if the Council could take a more active part in shaping the sphere
of psychology in statutory educational provision. It was in the years immediately after the resignation
of Dr. Burt that the Council had to determine its policy in regard to an ambitious voluntary service of
child guidance. We surmise that, if during that period the Council had had a ready means of focusing
the advice of its own officers and teachers who were qualified to speak on this subject, it might have
been more easy to define the types of children for whom treatment by the methods of the child guidance
clinic was suitable and also those types for which the necessary provision could be found within the
Council's own educational or medical or mental health services."
In the event an appointment of this kind was not made, and the setting up of the problem
case conferences was achieved with psychological advice from psychiatrists of the health
department.
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