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Cage 31
Cliff W. Stone
Papers, 1918-1947

The Washington State University Library acquired the papers of Cliff W. Stone, professor of education at Washington State University, as part of a deposit of College of Education Records during the Summer of 1974. They were processed by Robert A. Catale in February and March 1975.

BIOGRAPHY

Cliff Winfield Stone was born in Wisconsin in 1874. After graduation from the State Normal School at Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1899 he later attended Columbia University where he took the B.S. in 1904 and the Ph.D. in 1908. He served as a teacher, school principal, and director of teaching in such diverse places as Indiana, New York City, Virginia, and Iowa. During World War I Dr. Stone was a member of the American Expeditionary Force University at Beaune, France. Directly following his service in France he came to Washington State University as Professor of Education. He served in this capacity from 1920 to 1946 when he retired as Professor Emeritus of Education.

An early pioneer in testing children's arithmetical abilities, Dr. Stone published a work on this subject in 1908 which he followed several years later with a series of reasoning tests in arithmetic. The New Stone Reasoning Tests in Arithmetic (1927) was published by Columbia University's Teachers' College. His knowledge in this field served him well when he chaired the Washington Education Association's school survey of the graded school and the one-room "little red schoolhouse" which was typical in rural areas of Washington State. The study was to survey and then compare progress made by pupils of one-room schools with progress made by pupils of equal ability from graded schools. Dr. Stone completed such a study, albeit on a limited basis, in 1927 (cf. Journal of Educational Research, November, 1927). The state-wide survey he and his associates made was published as "The Subject Progress of Pupils in Different Types of Schools" in the Washington Education Journal, April 1930.

DESCRIPTION AND ARRANGEMENT

The papers of Cliff W. Stone consist of approximately 2,800 items of correspondence and research materials pertaining to his various activities while at WSU. Series 1 reflects Dr. Stone's work as a college teacher, researcher into arithmetical reasoning in school children, and friend to hundreds of WSU students seeking teaching positions. Series 2 contains the specific work Dr. Stone undertook for the Washington Education Association in the late 1920s. He and several associates attempted a state-wide educational analysis of students in graded school houses as opposed to those students who were still attending the one-room school made famous as the "little red schoolhouse."

This collection of papers presents a contemporary researcher with unique evidence of raw data collection, statistical analysis, and report writing for a state-wide educational project completed during an era of swift social and economic change in the state of Washington.

His obituary was published in the Oct. 30, 1958 Pullman Herald.

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