=Commissioner of Common Schools in Rhode Island.=--This gave Barnard an opportunity to pursue his favorite investigations, and for about a year and a half he was engaged in collecting material for a history of education in the United States. Then he was persuaded by the governor of Rhode Island to become the first Commissioner of Common Schools for that state. While he found in Rhode Island a better educational sentiment and less opposition than in Connecticut, the actual condition of the decentralized and individualistic schools was far worse (see p. 269). But, through his assemblies of teachers and parents and his educational treatises, he soon began to convince the people of the unwisdom of district organization, untrained teachers, short terms, irregular attendance, poor buildings and ventilation, and meager equipment. He also continued to publish his collection of educational material through the foundation of the _Rhode Island School Journal_. As a result of his efforts, when failing health compelled him to resign in 1849, the state no longer regarded wilfulness and personal opinion as praiseworthy independence, and he could honestly claim that Rhode Island had at the time one of the best school systems in the United States. [Sidenote: When recalled, carried out and extended his reforms.] =State Superintendent of Schools in Connecticut.=--But the _clientèle_ that Barnard had built up in Connecticut continued his reforms and constructive work after his departure, and improved upon them. In 1851, they even succeeded in having him recalled virtually to his old duties. He was designated as State Superintendent of Common Schools, as well as Principal of the State Normal School, which had been established through the efforts of his adherents. The state had now learned its error in mingling politics with education, and Barnard was able to carry out his reforms unmolested. Through the normal school he sent out a great body of trained teachers. He revised the school code, checked the power of the ‘school societies,’ consolidated and simplified the organization and administration of public education, made a more equitable distribution of the school fund, and encouraged local taxation. But his most distinctive work, as might be expected, was on the literary side. He prepared a valuable series of documents upon foreign education, normal schools, methods of teaching, school architecture, and other topics, and a long report upon _The History of Legislation in Connecticut Respecting Common Schools up to 1838_. [Sidenote: Published at his own expense,] [Sidenote: in thirty-one large volumes and fifty-two special treatises,] [Sidenote: accounts of educational history and systems, and other themes.]