E.S. Richardson

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Edwin Sanders Richardson, Sr., known as E.S. Richardson (August 31, 1875 – 1950) was an educator who served from August 14, 1936, until 1941 as the president of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish. Previously, Richardson was the superintendent of schools in his native Webster Parish. The E.S. Richardson Elementary School on East Todd Street in the eastern part of Minden, established by a bond issue after World War II, is named in his honor.

[edit] Early years, education, family

Richardson was born in the Gum Springs community near the small city of Minden in northwestern Louisiana to James Sanders Richardson and the former Sally C. Havis. He attended the Minden Male Academy and then in 1900 procured his bachelor of science degree from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. Years later in 1936, he received an LL.D. degree from Methodist-affiliated Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. On May 10, 1903, he married the former Zenobia Longino, and they had five children: Leland, Ruth, Don L., Evelyn, and Edwin, Jr. His kinsmen included two Minden physicians, S. Milton Richardson, Jr., a former member of the Webster Parish School Board, and Thomas A. Richardson, the former Webster Parish coroner who died in 1976. SRichardson began teaching in 1898 and was a member of the Louisiana State University faculty in Baton Rouge from 1911-1916.^[1]From 1916-1920, he was the superintendent of Bienville Parish, based in Arcadia. ^[2]

[edit] Educational standardization

In 1921, Richardson left Bienville Parish for the superintendency in Webster Parish. He implemented a reform and standardization plan in regard to pupil progress. In the summer of 1927, he made appearances at educational conferences in seven states to explain the plan that some had termed the "Webster miracle." His uniform promotion plan rested on four principal points:

1) Promotions in the first three grades were based on work in reading and arithmetic. For the second grade, a student had to perform in two minutes fifteen simple addition problems and nine subtraction problems.

2) In grades 4-7, a pupil had to pass arithmetic, reading, and language before being eligible for promotion. He could be promoted with one failure in either of the other major subjects, history, civics, geography, and health.

3) A pupil absent from school for the last marking period could return for the final examinations provided that he had performed passing work in arithmetic, reading, and language at the time of his withdrawal, and provided that his absence was for sufficient cause.

4) Examinations were given at the beginning of each year to pupils, on request, if they failed two subjects, one of which could be arithmetic, reading, or language. Pupils who withdrew from school after attending as much as one hundred days could hence take examinations in all subjects with a view of promotion, provided they were doing passing work in reading, arithmetic, and language at the time of their withdrawal. ^[3]

Pupils absent during the last marking period and who returned for the final examinations but failed to make passing grades, could again take examinations in the subjects in which they failed. Uniform tests were prepared by the superintendent and teachers and advertised in the newspaper as to when and where they would be administered. By defining this policy, Richardson furthered the standardization he established in nearly all aspects of the parish system, from furniture to textbook acquisition.^[3]

[edit] Later years

In 1926, Richardson was named president of the interest group, the Louisiana Teachers Association. He was a member of the National Education Association and was thereafter affiliated with the National Association of School Administrators. Richardson left Webster Parish schools in 1936 to accept the Louisiana Tech presidency, which he held for five years.^[1]

On June 23, 1942, Richardson, a Democrat at a time when virtually no one in Louisiana was Republican, became the area rent director under the wartime Office of Price Administration, an agency for which Richard M. Nixon once worked in Washington, D.C. He was affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce and the Lions Club in Minden and then Ruston. Richardson was Baptist.^[1]

[edit] References