THE HIGH SCHOOL FAILURES A STUDY OF THE SCHOOL RECORDS OF PUPILS FAILING IN ACADEMIC ORCOMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS By FRANCIS P. OBRIEN Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University PUBLISHED BY Teachers College, Columbia University NEW YORK CITY 1919 Copyright, 1919, by FRANCIS P. OBRIEN PREFACE Grateful acknowledgment is due the principals of each of the highschools whose records are included in this study, for the courteous andhelpful attitude which they and their assistants manifested in the workof securing the data. Thanks are due Dr. John S. Tildsley for hisgenerous permission to consult the records in each or any of the NewYork City high schools. But the fullest appreciation is felt andacknowledged for the ready criticism and encouragement received fromProfessor Thomas H. Briggs and Professor George D. Strayer at eachstage from the inception to the completion of this study. F. P. O. CONTENTS PAGEI. --THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE SUBJECT 1. The Relevance of This Study 1 2. The Meaning of Failure in This Study 3 3. Scope and Content of the Field Covered 4 4. Sources of the Data Employed 6 5. Selection and Reliability of These Sources 8 6. Summary of Chapter, and References 11 II. --HOW EXTENSIVE ARE THE FAILURES OF THE HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS? 1. A Distribution of All Entrants in Reference to Failure 12 2. The Later Distribution of the Pupils by Semesters 14 3. The Distribution of the Failures--by Ages and by Semesters 14 4. Distribution of the Failures by Subjects 19 5. The Pupils Dropping Out--Time and Age 24 6. Summary of Chapter, and References 27 III. --WHAT BASIS IS DISCOVERABLE FOR A PROGNOSIS OF THE OCCURRENCE OR THE NUMBER OF FAILURES? 1. Some Possible Factors--Attendance, Mental and Physical Defects, Size of Classes 29 2. Employment of the School Entering Age for the Purpose of Prognosis 31 3. The Percentage of Failure at Each Age on the Possibility of Failures for That Age 36 4. The Initial Record in High School 37 5. Prognosis of Failure by Subject Selection 39 6. The Time Period and the Number of Failures 40 7. Similarity of Facts for Boys and Girls 45 8. Summary of Chapter, and References 45 IV. --HOW MUCH IS GRADUATION OR THE PERSISTENCE IN SCHOOL CONDITIONED BY THE OCCURRENCE OR BY THE NUMBER OF FAILURES? 1. Comparison of the Failing and the Non-failing Groups in Reference to Graduation and Persistence 48 2. The Number of Failures and the Years Required to Graduate 49 3. The Number of Failures and the Semesters of Dropping Out, for Non-graduates 51 4. The Percentages That the Non-graduate Groups Form of the Pupils Who Have Each Successively Higher Number of Failures 55 5. Time Extension for the Failing Graduates 56 6. Summary of Chapter, and References 57 V. --ARE THE SCHOOL AGENCIES EMPLOYED IN REMEDYING THE FAILURES ADEQUATE FOR THE PURPOSE? 1. Repetition as a Remedy for Failures 60 a. Size of Schedule and Results of Repeating. B. Later Grades in the Same Kind of Subjects, Following Repetition and Without it. C. The Grades in Repeated Subjects and in New Work. D. The Number and Results of Identical Repetitions. 2. Discontinuance of the Subject or Course, and the Substitution of Others 68 3. The Employment of School Examinations 69 4. The Service Rendered by the Regents' Examinations in New York 70 5. Continuation of Subjects Without Repetition or Examination 73 6. Summary of Chapter, and References 74 VI. --DO THE FAILURES REPRESENT A LACK OF CAPABILITY OR OF FITNESS FOR HIGH SCHOOL WORK ON THE PART OF THOSE PUPILS? 1. Some Are Evidently Misfits 76 2. Most of the Failing Pupils Lack Neither Ability nor Earnestness 77 3. The School Emphasis and the School Failures Are Both Culminative in Particular School Subjects 81 4. An Indictment Against the Subject-Matter and the Teaching Ends as Factors in Producing Failures 83 5. Summary of Chapter, and References 85 VII. --WHAT TREATMENT IS SUGGESTED BY THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE FACTS OF FAILURE? 1. Organization and Adaptation in Recognition of the Individual Differences in Abilities and Interests 87 2. Faculty Student Advisers from the Time of Entrance 89 3. Greater Flexibility and Differentiation Required 90 4. Provision for the Direction of the Pupils' Study 92 5. A Greater Recognition and Exposition of the Facts as Revealed by Accurate and Complete School Records 94 6. Summary of Chapter, and References 96 A STUDY OF THE SCHOOL RECORDS OF THE PUPILS FAILING IN ACADEMICOR COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS CHAPTER I GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE SUBJECT 1. THE RELEVANCE OF THIS STUDY As the measuring of the achievements of the public schools has become adistinctive feature of the more recent activities in the educationalfield, the failure in expected accomplishment by the school, and itsproficiency in turning out a negative product, have been forced uponour attention rather emphatically. The striking growth in the number ofschool surveys, measuring scales, questionnaires, and standardizedtests, together with many significant school experiments andreadjustments, bears testimony of our evident demand for a closerdiagnosis of the practices and conditions which are no longer acceptedwith complacency. The American people have expressed their faith in a scheme of universaldemocratic education, and have committed themselves to the support ofthe free public high school. They have been liberal in their financingand strong in their faith regarding this enterprise, so typicallyAmerican, to a degree that a secondary education may no longer beregarded as a luxury or a heritage of the rich. No longer may the fieldbe treated as either optional or exclusive. The statutes of several ofour states now expressly or impliedly extend their compulsoryattendance requirements beyond the elementary years of school. Many, too, are the lines of more desirable employment for young people whichdemand or give preference to graduates of a high school. At the sametime there has been no decline in the importance of high schoolgraduation for entering the learned or professional pursuits. Accordingly, it seems highly probable that, with such an extended andauthoritative sphere of influence, a stricter business accounting willbe exacted of the public high school, as the great after-war burdensmake the public less willing to depend on faith in financing so greatan experiment. They will ask, ever more insistently, for facts as tothe expenditures, the finished product, the internal adjustments, andthe waste product of our secondary schools. Such inquiries will indeedseem justifiable. It is estimated that the public high schools had 84 per cent of all thepupils (above 1, 500, 000) enrolled in the secondary schools of theUnited States in 1916. [1] The majority of these pupils are lost fromschool--whatever the cause--before the completion of their courses;and, again, the majority of those who do graduate have on graduationended their school days. Consequently, it becomes more and more evidenthow momentous is the influence of the public high school inconditioning the life activities and opportunities of our youthfulcitizens who have entered its doors. Before being entitled to beconsidered a "big business enterprise, "[2] it seems imperative that our"American High School" must rapidly come to utilize more of businessmethods of accounting and of efficiency, so as to recognize thetremendous waste product of our educational machinery. The aim of this study is to trace as carefully and completely as may bethe facts relative to that major portion of our high school population, the pupils who fail in their school subjects, and to note something ofthe significance of these findings. If we are to proceed wisely inreference to the failing pupils in the high school, it is admittedly ofimportance that such procedure should be based on a definite knowledgeof the facts. The value of such a study will in turn be conditioned bythe scrupulous care and scientific accuracy in the securing andhandling of the facts. It is believed that the causes of and theremedies for failure are necessarily closely linked with factors foundin the school and with the school experiences of failing pupils, sothat the problem cannot be solved by merely labeling such pupils as theunfit. There is no attempt in this study to treat all failures as inany single category. The causes of the failures are not assumed at thestart nor given the place of chief emphasis, but are regarded asincidental to and dependent upon what the evidence itself discloses. The success of the failing pupils after they leave the high school isnot included in this undertaking, but is itself a field worthy ofextended study. Even our knowledge of what later happens to the moresuccessful and the graduating high school pupils is limited mainly tothose who go on to college or to other higher institutions. One of themore familiar attempts to evaluate the later influence of the highschool illustrates the fallacy of overlooking the process of selectioninvolved, and of treating its influence in conjunction with thetraining as though it were the result of school training alone. [3] 2. THE MEANING OF 'FAILURE' IN THIS STUDY The term 'failure' is employed in this study to signify the non-passingof a pupil in any semester-subject of his school work. The schooldecision is not questioned in the matter of a recorded failure. Andalthough it is usually understood to negate "ability plusaccomplishment, " it may, and undoubtedly does, at times imply othermeanings, such as a punitive mark, a teacher's prejudice, or a deferredjudgment. The mark may at times tell more about the teacher who gave itthan about the pupil who received it. These peculiarities of theindividual teacher or pupil are pretty well compensated for by thelarge number of teachers and of pupils involved. The decisive factor inthis matter is that the school refuses to grant credit for the workpursued. The failure for a semester seems to be a more adaptable unitin this connection than the subject-failure for a year. However, itnecessitates the treatment of the subject-failure for a year asequivalent to a failure for each of the two semesters. Two of theschools involved in this study (comprising about 11 per cent of thepupils) recorded grades only at the end of the year. It is quiteprobable that the marking by semesters would actually have increasedthe number of failures in these schools, as there are many teachers whoconfess that they are less willing to make a pupil repeat a year than asemester. By employing this unit of failure, the failures in the differentsubjects are regarded as comparable. Since only the academic andcommercial subjects are considered, and since they are almost uniformlyscheduled for four or five hours a week, the failures will seem to beof something near equal gravity and to represent a similar amount ofnon-performance or of unsatisfactory results. There were also a fewfailures included here for those subjects which had only three hours aweek credit, mainly in the commercial subjects. But failures wereunnoted when the subject was listed for less than three hours a week. There are certain other elements of assumption in the treatment of thefailures, which seemed to be unavoidable. They are, first, that failurein any subject is the same fact for boys and for girls; second, thatfailures in different years of work or with different teachers areequivalent; third, that failures in elective and in required subjectsare of the same gravity. It was found practically impossible todifferentiate required and elective subjects, however desirable itwould have been, for the subjects that are theoretically elective oftenare in fact virtually required, the electives of one course arerequired in another, and on many of the records consulted neither thecourses nor the electives are clearly designated. 3. THE SCOPE AND CONTENT OF THE FIELD COVERED As any intensive study must almost necessarily be limited in its scope, so this one comprises for its purposes the high school records for6, 141 pupils belonging to eight different high schools located in NewYork and New Jersey. For two of these schools the records for all thepupils that entered are included here for five successive years, andfor their full period in high school. In two other schools the recordsof all pupils that entered for four successive years were secured. Infour of the schools the records of all pupils who entered in Februaryand September of one year constituted the number studied. There isapparently no reason to believe that a longer period of years would bemore representative of the facts for at least three of these fourschools, in view of the situation that they had for years enjoyed acontinuity of administration and that they possess a well-establishedorganization. The fourth one of these schools had less complete recordsthan were desired, but even in that the one year was representative ofthe other years' records. The distribution of the 6, 141 pupils byschools and by years of entering high school is given below. HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS IN: ENTERING HIGH SCHOOL NUMBER IN THE YEARS STUDIED White Plains, N. Y. 1908, '09, '10, '11, '12 659 Dunkirk, N. Y. 1909, '10, '11, '12 370 Mount Vernon, N. Y. 1912 224 Montclair, N. J. 1908, '09, '10, '11, '12 946 Hackensack, N. J. 1909, '10, '11, '12 736 Elizabeth, N. J. 1912 333 Morris H. S. --Bronx 1912 1712 Erasmus Hall H. S. --Brooklyn 1912 1161 ---- TOTAL 6141 As it is essential for the purposes of this study to have the completerecord of the pupils for their full time in the high school, the 6, 141pupils include none who entered later than 1912. Thus all were allowedat least five and one-half or six years in which to terminate theirindividual high school history, of successes or of failures, before thetime of making this inquiry into their records. No pupils who weretransferred from another high school or who did not start with theclass as beginning high school students were included among thosestudied. Post-graduate records were not considered, neither was anyattempt made to trace the record of drop-outs who entered otherschools. Manifestly the percentage of graduation would be higher in anyschool if the recruits from other schools and the drop-backs from otherclasses in the school were included. No attempt has been made to trace the elementary school or collegerecords of the failing pupils, for our purpose does not reach beyondthe sphere of the high school records. In reference to thedifferentiation by school courses, some facts were at first collected, but these were later discarded, as the courses represent nostandardization in terminology or content, and they promised to givenothing of definite value. As might be expected, the schools lackedagreement or uniformity in the number of courses offered. One schoolhad no commercial classes, as that work was assigned to a separateschool; another school offered only typewriting and stenography of thecommercial subjects; a third had placed rather slight emphasis on thecommercial subjects until recently. Only four of the schools had pupilsin Greek. The Spanish classes outnumbered the Greek both by schools andby enrollment. In the classification by subjects, English is made toinclude (in addition to the usual subjects of that name) grammar, literature, and business English. Mathematics includes all subjects ofthat class except commercial arithmetic, which is treated as acommercial subject, and shop-mathematics, which is classed asnon-academic. Industrial history, and 'political and social science'are regarded along with academic subjects; likewise household chemistryis included with the science classification. Economics is treated as acommercial subject. At least a dozen other subjects, not classified asacademic or commercial, including also spelling and penmanship, weretaken by a portion of these pupils, but the records for these subjectsdo not enter this study in determining the successful and failinggrades or the sizes of schedule. Yet it is true that such subjects dodemand time and work from those pupils. 4. SOURCES OF THE DATA EMPLOYED The only records employed in this whole problem of research were theofficial school records. No questionnaires were used, and no statementsof pupils or opinions of teachers as such were sought. The facts arethe most authoritative and dependable available, and are the very sameupon which the administrative procedure of the school relative to thepupil is mainly dependent. The individual, cumulative records for thepupils provided the chief source of the facts secured. These schoolrecords, as might be expected, varied considerably as to the form, thesize, the simplicity in stating facts, and the method of filing; butthey were quite similar in the facts recorded, as well as in thecompleteness and care with which the records were compiled. It may beadded that only schools having such records were included in theinvestigation. After the meanings of symbols and devices and the methods of recordingthe facts had been fully explained and carefully studied for therecords of any school, the selection of the pupil records was thenmade, on the basis of the year of the pupils' entrance to the school, including all the pupils who had actually entered and undertaken work. (Pupils who registered but failed to take up school work were entirelydisregarded. ) These individual records were classified into the failingand the non-failing divisions, then into graduating and non-graduatinggroups, with the boys and girls differentiated throughout. As fast asthe records were read and interpreted into the terms required they weretranscribed, with the pupils' names, by the author himself, to largesheets (16x20) from which the tabulations were later made. There wasalways an opportunity to ask questions and to make appeals forinformation either to the principal himself or to the secretary incharge of the records. This tended to reduce greatly the danger ofmistakes other than those of chance error. The task of transcribing thedata was both tedious and prolonged. This process alone required asmuch as four weeks for each of the larger schools, and without thecontinued and courteous cooperation of the principals and theirassistants it would have been altogether impossible in that time. Some arbitrary decisions and classifications proved necessary inreference to certain facts involved in the data employed in this study. All statements of age will be understood as applying to within thenearest half year; that is, fifteen years of age will mean within theperiod from fourteen years and a half to fifteen years and a half. Theclassification in the following pages by school years or semesters(half-years) is dependent upon the time of entrance into school. Inthis sense, a pupil who entered either in September or in February isregarded as a first semester pupil, however the school classes arenamed. As promotions are on a subject basis in each of the schoolsthere is no attempt to classify later by promotions, but thetime-in-school basis is retained. In reference to school marks orgrades, letters are here employed, although four of the eight schoolsemploy percentage grading. Whether the passing mark is 60, as in someof the schools, or 70, as in others, the letter C is used to representone-third of the distance from the failing mark to 100 per cent; B isused to represent the next third of the distance; and A is used toexpress the upper third of the distance. The plus and minus signs, attached to the gradings in three of the schools, are disregarded forthe purposes of this study, except that when D+ occurred as aconditional passing mark it was treated as a C. Otherwise D has beenused to signify a failing grade in a subject, which means that thegrade is somewhere below the passing mark. The term 'graduates' ismeant to include all who graduate, either by diploma or by certificate. Any statement made in the following pages of 'time in school' or oftime spent for 'securing graduation' will not include as a part of suchperiod a semester in which the pupil is absent all or nearly all of thetime, as in the case of absence due to illness. 5. THE SELECTION AND RELIABILITY OF THESE SOURCES OF DATA By employing data secured only from official school records and in themanner stated, this study has been limited to those schools thatprovide the cumulative pupil records, with continuity and completeness, for a sufficient period of years. Some schools had to be eliminatedfrom consideration for our purposes because the cumulative recordscovered too brief a period of years. In other schools administrativechanges had broken the continuity of the records, making them difficultto interpret or undependable for this study. The shortage of clericalhelp was the reason given in one school for completing only the recordsof the graduates. In addition to the requirements pertaining torecords, only publicly administered and co-educational schools havebeen included among those whose records are used. It was alsoconsidered important to have schools representing the large as well asthe small city on the list of those studied. Since many schools do notpossess these important records, or do not recognize their value, it isquite probable that the conditions prescribed here tended to aselection of schools superior in reference to systematic procedure, definite standards, and stable organization, as compared to those ingeneral which lack adequate records. The reliability and correctness of these records for the schools namedare vouched for and verbally certified by the principals as the mostdependable and in large part the only information of its kind in thepossession of the schools. In each of these schools the principals havecapable assistants who are charged with the keeping of the records, although they are aided at times by teachers or pupils who work underdirection. In three of the larger schools a special secretary has fullcharge of the records, and is even expected to make suggestions forrevisions and improvements of the forms and methods. In view of suchfacts it seems doubtful that one could anywhere find more dependableschool records of this sort. It was true of one of the schools thatthe records previous to 1909 proved to be unreliable. There is noinclination here to deny the existence of defects and limitations tothese records, but the intimate acquaintance resulting from closeinquiry, involving nearly every factor which the records contain, isconvincing that for these schools at least the records are highlydependable. However, there is some tendency for even the best school records tounderstate the full situation regarding failure, while there is nocorresponding tendency to overstate or to record failures not made. Notinfrequently the pupils who drop out after previously failing mayreceive no mark or an incomplete one for the last semester in school. Although a portion or all of such work may obviously merit failure, yetit is not usually so recorded. In a similar manner pupils who remain inschool one or two semesters or less, but take no examinations andreceive no semester grades, might reasonably be considered to havefailed if they shunned examinations merely to escape the recording offailures, as sometimes appears to be the case when judged from theincomplete grades recorded for only a part of the semester. A fewpupils will elect to 'skip' the regular term examination, and thenrepeat the work of that semester, but no failures are recorded in suchinstances. Some teachers, when recording for their own subjects, preferto indicate a failure by a dash mark or by a blank space until afterthe subject is satisfied later, and the passing mark is then filled in. One school indicates failure entirely by a short dash in the spaceprovided, and then at times there occurs the 'cond' (conditioned) inpencil, apparently to avoid the classification as a failure by theusual sign. One finds some instances of a '?' or an 'inc' (incomplete)as a substitute for a mark of failure. Again, where there is noindication of failure recorded, the dates accompanying the grades forthe subjects may tell the tale that two semesters were required tocomplete one semester's work in a subject. Some of these situationswere easily discernible, and the indisputable failures treated as suchin the succeeding tabulations; but in many instances this was notpossible, and partial statement of these cases is all that isattempted. How far these selected schools, their pupils, and the facts relating tothem are representative or typical of the schools, the pupils, and thesame facts for the states of New Jersey and New York, cannot bedefinitely known from the information that is now available. It seemsindisputable, however, that the schools concerned in this study are atleast among the better schools of these two states. If we may feelassured that the 6, 141 pupils here included are fairly and generallyrepresentative of the facts for the eight schools to which they belongand which had an enrollment of 14, 620 pupils in 1916; and if we arejustified in classing these schools as averaging above the median rankof the schools for these states, then the statistical facts presentedin the following pages may seem to be a rather moderate statementregarding the failures of high school pupils for the states referredto. It must be noted in this connection, however, that it is notunlikely that such schools, with their adequate records, will have thefacts concerning failure more certainly recorded than will those whoserecords are incomplete, neglected, or poorly systematized. A partial comparison of the teachers is possible between the schoolsrepresented here and those of New York and New Jersey. More than fourhundred teachers comprised the teaching staff for the 6, 141 pupils ofthe eight schools reported here. Of these about 40 per cent were men, while the percentage of men of all high school teachers in New Jerseyand New York[4] was about 38 for the year 1916. The men in theseschools comprised 50 per cent of the teachers in the subjects whichprove most difficult by producing the most failures, and they were morefrequently found teaching in the advanced years of these subjects. Itis not assumed here that men are superior as high school teachers, butthe endeavor is rather to show that the teaching force was by itsconstitution not unrepresentative. It may be added here that few highschools anywhere have a more highly selected and better paid staff ofteachers than are found in this group of schools. It is indeed not easyto believe that the situation in these eight selected schools regardingfailure and its contributing factors could not be readily duplicatedelsewhere within the same states. A SUMMARY OF CHAPTER I The American people have a large faith in the public high school. Itenrolls approximately 84 per cent of the secondary school pupils of theUnited States. High school attendance is becoming legally andvocationally compulsory. The size of the waste product demands adiagnosis of the facts. This study aims to discover the significantfacts relative to the failing pupils. Failure is used in the unit sense of non-passing in a semester subject. Failures are then counted in terms of these units. This study includes 6, 141 pupils belonging to eight different highschools and distributed throughout two states. The cumulative, official, school records for these pupils formed the basis of the dataused. The schools were selected primarily for their possession of adequaterecords. More dependable school records than those employed are notlikely to be found, yet they tend to understate the facts of failure. It is quite possible that a superior school, and one with a high gradeteaching staff, is actually selected by the requirements of the study. REFERENCES: 1. _Annual Report of United States Commissioner of Education for 1917. _ 2. Josslyn, H. W. Chapter IV, in Johnson's _Modern High School_. 3. _The Money Value of Education. _ Bulletin No. 22, 1917, United States Bureau of Education. 4. New York and New Jersey _State School Reports for 1917_. CHAPTER II HOW EXTENSIVE ARE THE FAILURES OF THE HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS? 1. A DISTRIBUTION OF ALL ENTRANTS IN REFERENCE TO FAILURE With no purpose of making this a comparative study of schools, theseparate units or schools indicated in Chapter I will from this pointbe combined into a composite and treated as a single group. It becomespossible, with the complete and tabulated facts pertaining to a groupof pupils, after their high school period has ended, to get acomprehensive survey of their school records and to answer suchquestions as: (1) What part of the total number of boys or of girlshave school failures? (2) To what extent are the non-failing pupils theones who succeed in graduating? (3) To what extent do the failingpupils withdraw early? The following tabulation will show how two ofthese questions are answered for the 6, 141 pupils here reported on. ALL ALL ENTRANTS FAILING GRADUATES FAILING Totals 6, 141 3, 573 (58. 2%) 1, 936 1, 125 (58. 1%) Boys 2, 646 1, 645 (62. 1%) 796 489 (61. 4%) Girls 3, 495 1, 928 (55. 1%) 1, 140 639 (55. 8%) From this distribution we readily compute that the percentage of pupilswho fail is 58. 2 per cent (boys--62. 1, girls--55. 1). But this statementis itself inadequate. It does not take into account the 808 pupils whoreceived no grades and had no chance to be classed as failing, but whowere in most cases in school long enough to receive marks, and aportion of whom were either eliminated earlier or deterred fromexaminations by the expectation of failing. It seems entirely safe toestimate that no less than 60 per cent of this non-credited numbershould[5] be treated as of the failing group[6] of pupils. Then thepercentage of pupils to be classed as failing in school subjectsbecomes 66 per cent (boys--69. 6, girls--63. 4). In considering the second inquiry above, we find from the precedingdistribution of pupils that 58. 1 per cent (boys--61. 4, girls--55. 8) ofall pupils that graduate have failed in one or more subjects one ormore times. This percentage varies from 34 per cent to 73 per cent byschools, but in only two instances does the percentage fall below 50per cent, and in one of these two it is almost 50 per cent. We may now ask, when do the failing and the non-failing non-graduatesdrop out of school? Of the total number of non-graduates (4, 205), thereare 2, 448 who drop out after failing one or more times, and 1, 757 whodrop out without failing. The cumulative percentages of thenon-graduates in reference to dropping out are here given. CUMULATIVE PERCENTAGES OF THE FAILING NON-GRADUATES AS THEY ARE LOST BY SEMESTERS LOST BY END OF SEMESTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Per Cent 14. 1 33. 9 46. 4 64. 9 72. 9 85. 2 91. 9 97. 6 99. 1 CUMULATIVE PERCENTAGES OF NON-FAILING NON-GRADUATES AS THEY ARE LOST BY SEMESTERS LOST BY END OF SEMESTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Per Cent 61. 1 78. 0 85. 9 92. 1 94. 5 98. 4 99. 5 . . . . Briefly stated, the above percentages assert that more than threefourths of those who neither fail nor graduate have left school by theend of the first year, while only 33. 9 per cent of those non-graduateswho fail have left so early. More than 50 per cent of the failingnon-graduates continue in school to near the end of the second year. Bythat time about 90 per cent of the non-failing non-graduates have beenlost from school. By a combination of the above groups we get thepercentages of all non-graduates lost by successive semesters. CUMULATIVE PERCENTAGES OF ALL NON-GRADUATES LOST BY SUCCESSIVE SEMESTERS LOST BY END OF SEMESTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Per Cent 33. 7 53. 4 62. 6 76. 2 81. 9 90. 7 94. 0 98. 6 These percentages of non-graduates indicate that more than 50 per centof those who do not graduate are gone by the end of the first year, but that there are a few who continue beyond four years withoutgraduating. 2. THE LATER DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS BY SEMESTERS Consideration is here given to the number of the total entrantsremaining in school for each successive semester, and then to theaccompanying percentages of failure for each group. The followingfigures show the rapid decline in numbers. THE PERSISTENCE OF PUPILS IN SCHOOL, BY SEMESTERS END OF SEMESTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 Graduate 6, 141 (Total) 4, 723 3, 893 3, 508 2, 935 2, 697 2, 234 1, 936 Percentages 76. 9 63. 4 57. 1 47. 8 43. 9 36. 4 31. 5 As was pointed out in Section 3 of Chapter I, the above group does notinclude any increment to its own numbers by means of transfer fromother classes or schools. We find, accompanying this reduction in thenumber of pupils, which shows more than 50 per cent gone by the end ofthe second year in school, that there is no corresponding reduction inthe percentage of pupils failing each semester on the basis of thenumber of those in school for that semester. PERCENTAGE OF PUPILS FAILING OF THE PUPILS IN SCHOOL FOR THAT PERIOD Semesters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Per Cent 34. 2 37. 3 38. 5 40. 2 38. 2 37. 1 30. 0 24. 0 There is no difficulty in grasping the simple and definite significanceof these figures, for they tell us that the percentage of pupilsfailing increases for the first four semesters, slightly declines fortwo semesters, with a greater decline for two more semesters. Thesepercentages of failures are based on the number of pupils enrolled atthe beginning of the semester, and are accordingly lower than the factswould really warrant since that number is in each case considerablyreduced by the end of the same semester. 3. THE DISTRIBUTION OF FAILURES That the failures are widely distributed by semesters, by ages, and for both boys and girls, is shown in Table I. TABLE I THE DISTRIBUTION OF FAILURES ACCORDING TO THE AGE AND THE SEMESTER OF THEIR OCCURRENCE[A] SEMES- AGES UNDISTRIB- TERS 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 UTED TOTALS 1 B. 0 20 321 650 575 167 34 16 2 . . . . 10 1795 G. 1 19 356 813 611 236 67 3 0 . . . . 13 2119 3914 2 B. . . 2 95 423 534 256 57 27 4 . . . . 5 1403 G. . . 6 99 483 589 280 91 5 0 . . . . 7 1560 2963 3 B. . . 0 17 267 443 363 96 22 5 0 . . 2 1215 G. . . 1 28 318 548 317 99 15 0 2 . . 1 1329 2544 4 B. . . . . 5 101 437 403 169 32 7 2 . . 5 1161 G. . . . . 4 102 475 425 160 39 6 2 . . 6 1219 2380 5 B. . . . . 1 19 195 377 214 61 13 3 . . 6 889 G. . . . . 0 15 277 438 212 60 15 0 . . 3 1020 1909 6 B. . . . . . . 4 70 322 326 99 33 3 . . 6 863 G. . . . . . . 9 117 407 349 78 33 4 . . 3 1000 1863 7 B. . . . . 1 0 17 155 227 106 16 4 1 4 531 G. . . . . 0 2 14 200 299 127 38 0 0 3 683 1214 8 B. . . . . . . . . 0 42 173 109 49 2 . . 5 380 G. . . . . . . . . 2 58 244 140 49 10 . . 3 506 886 9 B. . . . . . . . . . . 0 31 32 18 1 . . . . 82 G. . . . . . . . . . . 4 39 67 31 5 . . . . 146 228 10 B. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 16 9 3 0 . . 29 G. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 13 10 3 1 . . 30 59 Summary B. 0 22 440 1464 2271 2085 1328 520 156 18 1 43 8348 G. 1 26 487 1742 2633 2365 1563 547 182 26 1 39 9612 17, 960 [Footnote A: The expression of the above facts in terms of percentages for each age group was found to be difficult, since failures and not pupils are designated. But the total failures for each age group are expressed (on p. 36) as percentages of the entire number of subjects taken by these pupils for the semesters in which they failed. Such percentages increase as the ages rise. A similar statement of the percentages of failure by semesters will be found on p. 41. ] Table I reads: the boys had 20 failures and the girls had 19 failuresin the first semester and at the age of thirteen; in the secondsemester, at the age of thirteen, the boys had 2 failures and the girls6. For each semester, the first line represents boys, the second linegirls. There is a total of 17, 960 failures listed in this table. Inaddition to this number there are 1, 947 uncompleted grades for thefailing non-graduates. The semesters were frequently completed by suchpupils but the records were left incomplete. Their previous records andtheir prospects of further partial or complete failure seem to justifyan estimate of 55 per cent (1, 070) of these uncompleted grades aseither tentative or actual but unrecorded failures. Therefore wevirtually have 1, 070 other failures belonging to these pupils which arenot included in Table I. Accordingly, since the number can only beestimated, the fact that they are not incorporated in that tablesuggests that the information which it discloses is something less thana full statement of the school failures for these pupils. In thedistribution of the totals for ages, the mode appears plainly at 16, but with an evident skewness toward the upper ages. The failures forthe years 16, 17, and 18, when added together, form 68. 1 per cent ofthe total failures. If those for 15 years are also included, the resultis 86 per cent of the total. Of the total failures, 65. 7 per cent arefound in the first two years (11, 801 out of the total of 17, 960). Butthe really striking fact is that 34. 3 per cent of the failures occurafter the end of the first two years, after 52. 2 per cent of the pupilsare gone, and with other hundreds leaving in each succeeding semesterbefore even the end of the eighth. In Table II we have similar factsfor the pupils who graduate. TABLE II THE DISTRIBUTION OF FAILURES ACCORDING TO THE AGES AND THE SEMESTERS OF THEIR OCCURRENCE FOR THE GRADUATING PUPILS AGES SEMESTERS 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 TOTALS 1 B. 0 66 84 60 5 2 3 . . . . . . 220 G. 4 68 123 68 23 4 0 . . . . . . 290 510 2 B. 0 30 95 96 41 3 2 . . . . . . 267 G. 1 25 119 121 30 11 2 . . . . . . 309 576 3 B. 0 6 108 98 71 22 1 3 . . . . 309 G. 1 15 101 158 78 20 5 0 . . . . 378 687 4 B. . . 4 54 157 107 36 6 0 . . . . 364 G. . . 1 45 186 143 51 7 2 . . . . 435 799 5 B. . . 1 10 82 142 82 17 4 3 . . 341 G. . . 0 9 145 187 88 22 9 0 . . 460 801 6 B. . . . . 4 34 158 139 32 9 2 . . 378 G. . . . . 2 70 235 178 40 13 1 . . 539 917 7 B. . . 1 0 10 115 140 65 4 4 1 340 G. . . 0 2 7 130 187 69 19 0 0 414 754 8 B. . . . . . . 0 31 122 65 25 2 . . 245 G. . . . . . . 2 45 150 95 37 2 . . 331 576 9 B. . . . . . . . . 0 24 23 13 1 . . 61 G. . . . . . . . . 4 32 40 24 0 . . 100 161 10 B. . . . . . . . . . . 1 11 5 3 . . 20 G. . . . . . . . . . . 3 12 6 1 . . 22 42 Summary B. . . 108 355 537 670 571 225 63 15 1 2545 G. 6 109 401 757 875 724 292 110 4 0 3278 5823 [Footnote: In the facts which are involved and in the manner of reading them, this table is similar to Table I. The mode of the distribution of totals for the ages is at 17 in this table. Further reference will be made to both Tables I and II in later chapters of this study. (See pages 36, 37, 41, 42). ] A further analysis of the failures is here made in referenceto the number of pupils and the number of failures each. TABLE III A DISTRIBUTION OF FAILING PUPILS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF FAILURES PER PUPIL, IN EACH SEMESTER NO. OF SEMESTERS TOTALS FAILURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 B. 459 430 375 352 271 221 157 113 22 11 2411 G. 561 535 428 421 328 261 167 123 35 9 2868 --------------------------- 32. 5% 5279 2 B. 271 242 211 206 149 144 79 68 19 4 1393 G. 271 253 238 204 177 142 127 84 17 6 1519 --------------------------- 34. 9% 2912 3 B. 144 106 81 73 59 60 45 27 6 2 603 G. 207 103 81 75 75 83 52 38 20 3 737 --------------------------- 35% 1340 4 B. 83 39 33 30 27 32 10 10 1 1 266 G. 95 50 38 35 27 39 19 19 3 0 325 --------------------------- 31. 8% 591 5 B. 6 3 5 8 7 8 7 2 0 . . 46 G. 3 2 6 5 1 10 6 5 1 . . 39 --------------------------- 55. 3% 85 6 B. . . . . 3 3 0 1 1 . . . . . . 8 G. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . --------------------------- 25% 8 Tot. B. 963 820 708 672 513 466 299 220 48 18 4727 G. 1137 943 791 740 608 535 371 269 76 18 5488 10, 215 Table III tells us that 459 boys and 561 girls have one failure eachin the first semester of their high school work; 271 boys and the samenumber of girls have two failures in the first semester, and so on, forthe ten semesters and for as many as six failures per pupil. Thefailures represented by these pupils give a total of 17, 960. Adistribution of the total failures per pupil, and the facts relativethereto, will be considered in Chapter IV of this study. The above distribution of Table III is repeated here in Table IV, sofar as it relates to the failing graduates only. TABLE IV A DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAILING PUPILS WHO GRADUATE, ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF FAILURES PER PUPIL IN EACH SEMESTER NO. OF SEMESTERS TOTALS FAILURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 B. 110 131 137 150 162 139 120 118 19 11 1097 G. 136 142 181 200 197 180 121 89 20 3 1269 ---------------------------- 50% 2366 2 B. 34 49 61 69 61 75 47 28 15 3 442 G. 49 64 63 86 81 73 81 62 10 5 574 ---------------------------- 53. 2% 1016 3 B. 10 10 14 18 12 17 27 17 4 1 130 G. 16 9 14 13 27 43 30 20 16 3 191 ---------------------------- 67. 6% 321 4 B. 3 2 2 3 4 8 6 5 0 . . 33 G. 2 3 6 6 5 16 9 12 3 . . 62 ---------------------------- 71. 6% 95 5 B. . . . . 0 2 1 0 3 0 . . . . 6 G. . . . . 1 0 0 4 1 2 . . . . 8 ---------------------------- 78. 6% 14 6 B. . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 . . . . . . 2 G. . . . . . . . . 0 0 . . . . . . 0 ---------------------------- 100% 2 Tot. B. 157 192 214 237 240 240 204 163 48 15 1710 G. 203 218 265 305 310 316 242 185 49 11 2104 3814 This table reads similarly to Table III. There is not the element ofcontinuous dropping out to be considered, as in Table III, until afterthe sixth semester is passed, for no pupils graduate in less than threeyears. The failures represented in this table number 5, 823. This samedistribution will be the subject of further comment later on. Itdiscloses some facts that Table III tends to conceal, for instance, that the greater number of graduating pupils who have 2, 3, 4, 5, and6 failures in a semester are found after the end of the second year. 4. DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAILURES IN REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECTS IN WHICHTHEY OCCUR The following tabulation of failures will show how they were shared byboth boys and girls in each of the school subjects which provided thefailures here listed. NUMBER OF FAILURES DISTRIBUTED BY SCHOOL SUBJECTS Total Math. Eng. Latin Ger. Fr. Hist. Sci. Bus. Span. Or Subj's. Greek B. 8348 2015 1555 1523 917 473 571 850 424 20 G. 9612 2300 1424 1833 812 588 1036 1013 593 13 Per Cent of Total 24. 1 16. 5 18. 7 9. 6 5. 9 8. 9 10. 3 5. 6 . 2 The abbreviated headings above will be self-explanatory by reference tosection 3 of Chapter I. The first line of numbers gives the failuresfor the boys, the second line for the girls. Mathematics has 24. 1 percent of all the failures for all the pupils. Latin claims 18. 7 per centand English 16. 5 per cent of all the failures. These three subjectsmake a total of nearly 60 per cent of the failures for the nine subjectgroups appearing here. But still this is only a partial statement ofthe facts as they are, since the total enrollment by subjects is anindependent matter and far from being equally divided among all thesubjects concerned. The subject enrollment may sometimes be relativelyhigh and the percentage of failure for that subject correspondinglylower than for a subject with the same number of failures but a smallerenrollment. This fact becomes quite apparent from the followingpercentages taken in comparison with the ones just preceding: PERCENTAGES ENROLLED IN EACH SUBJECT OF THE SUM TOTAL OF THE SUBJECT ENROLLMENTS FOR ALL PUPILS AND ALL SEMESTERS Math. Eng. Latin Ger. Fr. Hist. Sci. Bus. Span. Or Subj's. Greek 17. 3 24. 0 11. 9 8. 5 6. 8 10. 2 12. 5 8. 3 . 5 We note that the percentages for mathematics and English, whichrepresent their portions of the grand total of subject enrollments, arevirtually the reverse of the percentages which designate the amount oftotal failures produced by the same two subjects. That means that thepercentage of the total failures produced by mathematics is reallygreater than was at first apparent, while the percentages of failuresfor English is not so great relatively as the statement of the totalfailures above would alone indicate. In a similar manner, we note thatLatin has 18. 7 per cent of all the failures, but its portion of thetotal enrollment for all subjects is only 11. 9 per cent. If thefailures in this subject were in proportion to the enrollment, itspercentage of the failures would be reduced by 6. 8 per cent. On theother hand, if the failures for English were in the same proportion tothe total as is its subject enrollment, it would claim 7. 5 per centmore of all the failures. In the same sense, French, history, science, and the business subjects have a smaller proportion of all the failuresthan of all the subject enrollments. The comparison of failures by subjects may be continued still furtherby computing the percentage of failures in each subject as based on thenumber enrolled in that subject. Such percentages are here presentedfor each subject. PERCENTAGE OF THE NUMBER TAKING THE SUBJECT WHO FAIL IN THAT SUBJECT Latin Math. Ger. Fr. Hist. Sci. Eng. Bus. Span. Or Subj's. Greek 18. 7 16. 0 13. 5 11. 6 10. 4 9. 8 8. 2 8. 0 4. 1 It becomes evident at once that the largest percentage of failures, based on the pupils taking the subject, is in Latin, although we havealready found that mathematics has the greatest percentage of all thefailures recorded (p. 19). But here mathematics follows Latin, withGerman coming next in order as ranked by its high percentage of failurefor those enrolled in the subject. History has the median percentagefor the failures as listed for the nine subjects above. The failures as reported by subjects for other schools and other pupilswill provide a comparison which may indicate something of the relativestanding of this group of schools in reference to failures. Thefailures are presented below for thirteen high schools in New Jersey, involving 24, 895 grades, as reported by D. C. Bliss[7] in 1917. As theschools were reported singly, the median percentage of failure foreach subject is used here for our purpose. But Mr. Bliss' figures arecomputed from the promotion sheets for June, 1915, and include none ofthose who had dropped out. In this sense they are not comparable to thepercentages of failure as presented in this study. Yet with the oneexception of Latin these median percentages are higher. The percentagesas presented below for St. Paul[8] are in each case based on the totalnumber taking the subject for a single semester, and include about4, 000 pupils, in all the classes, in the four high schools of thecity. [B] [Footnote B: It is a significant fact, and one worthy of note here, that the report for St. Paul is apparently the only one of the surveys which also states the number taking each subject, as well as the percentages of failure. Percentages alone do not tell the whole story, and they do not promote the further utilization of the facts to discover other relationships. ] The facts presented for St. Louis[9] are for one school only, with2, 089 pupils, as recorded for the first half of the year 1915-16. Allforeign languages as reported for this school are grouped together. History is the only subject that has a percentage of failure lower thanthat of the corresponding subjects for our eight schools. The figuresfor both St. Paul and St. Louis are based on the grades for all classesin school, but for only a single semester. One cannot avoid feelingthat a statement of facts for so limited a period may or may not bedependable and representative for all periods. The percentages forPaterson[10] are reported for about 4, 000 pupils, in all classes, fortwo successive semesters, and are based on the number examined. ForDenver, [11] the records are reported for 4, 120 pupils, and cover atwo-year period. The percentages for Butte[12] are based on the recordsfor 3, 110 pupils, for one school semester. The figures reported byRounds and Kingsbury[13] are for only two subjects, but for forty-sixwidely separated high schools, whose enrollment for these two subjectswas 57, 680. PERCENTAGES OF FAILURE BY SUBJECTS--QUOTED FOR OTHER SCHOOLS Math. Latin Ger. Fren. Eng. Hist. Sci. Bus. Subj's. 13 N. J. H. S. 's. 20. 0 18. 0 16. 0 . . 14. 0 11. 0 . . 11. 5 St. Paul 21. 8 13. 6 14. 3 17. 0 10. 0 10. 9 7. 3 11. 7 St. Louis 18. 0 [-------16------] 13. 0 7. 0 19. 0 . . Paterson 23. 1 21. 6 23. 4 . . 12. 2 13. 9 18. 3 8. 5 Denver 24. 0 21. 0 12. 0 . . 11. 7 11. 0 17. 0 11. 0 Butte 18. 6 25. 0 24. 0 32. 6 5. 4 7. 0 13. 0 8. 4 R and K 24. 7 . . . . . . 18. 5 . . . . . . Our 8 H. S. 's 16. 0 18. 7 13. 5 11. 6 8. 2 10. 4 9. 8 8. 0 In some schools the reports were not available for all subjects. It isnot at all probable, so far as information could be obtained, that thefailures of the drop-out pupils for any of the schools were included inthe percentages as reported above, or that the percentages are based onthe total number in the given subjects, with the exception of oneschool. Moreover, it is certain for at least some of the schools thatneither the failures of the drop-outs nor the pupils who were in theclass for less than a whole semester were considered in the percentagesabove. So far, however, as these comparisons may be justified, thesuggestion made in Chapter I that the schools included in this studyare doubtless a superior group with respect to failures appears to bestrengthened by the comparisons made above. It becomes more apparent, as we attempt to offer a statement offailures as taken from the various reports, that they are not trulycomparable. The bases of such percentages are not at all uniform. Thebasis used most frequently is the number enrolled at the end of theperiod rather than the total number enrolled for any class, for whichthe school has had to provide, and which should most reasonably formthe basis of the percentage of failure. Furthermore, the failures forpupils who drop out are not usually counted. Yet, in most of thereports, the situation is not clearly indicated for either of the factsreferred to. Still more difficult is the task of securing a generalstatement of failures by subjects, since the percentages are mostfrequently reported separately for each class, in each subject, and fordifferent buildings, but with the number of pupils stated for neitherthe failures nor the enrollment. The St. Paul report[8] is an exceptionin this regard. To present the full situation it is indeed necessary to know thefailures for particular teachers, subjects, and buildings, but it isalso frequently necessary to be able to make a comparison of resultsfor different systems. Consequently, in order to use the varied reportsfor the attempted comparison above, the plan was pursued of averagingthe percentages as stated for the different classes, semesters, andyears of a subject, in each school separately, and then selecting themedian school thus determined as the one best representing the city orthe system. This method was employed to modify the reports, and tosecure the percentages as stated above for Denver, Paterson, andButte. Any plan of averaging the percentages for the four years ofEnglish, or similarly for any other subject, may actually tend tomisstate the facts, when the percentages or the numbers represented arenot very nearly equal. But, in an incidental way, the difficulty servesto emphasize the inadequacy and the incomparability in the reporting offailures as found in the various studies, as well as to warn us of thehopelessness of reaching any conclusions apart from a knowledge of theprocedure employed in securing the data. The basis is also provided for some interesting comparisons byisolating from the general distribution of failures by school subjects(p. 19) the same facts for the failing graduates. That gives thefollowing distribution. THE FAILURES BY SCHOOL SUBJECTS FOR GRADUATES ONLY Total Math. Eng. Latin Ger. Fr. Hist. Sci. Bus. Span. Or Subj's. Greek 5803 B. 660 403 521 241 191 180 251 91 7 6334 G. 782 347 673 257 240 410 394 162 12 Per Cent of Totals 24. 8 12. 9 20. 5 8. 5 7. 4 10. 1 11. 4. 3 . 3 SIMILAR PERCENTAGES FOR THE NON-GRADUATES As above 23. 6 18. 3 17. 7 10. 1 5. 3 8. 4 10. 6. 3 . 1 It is a noteworthy fact that the percentages of failure (based on thetotal failures for the graduates) run higher in mathematics, Latin, history, French, and science for the graduates than for the wholecomposite number (page 19). The non-graduates have a correspondinglylower percentage of failure in these subjects, as is indicated above. The school influences in respect to the failures of the non-graduatesdiffer from those of the graduates chiefly in the fact that thefailures of the former tend to occur to a greater extent in the earlieryears of these subjects, since so many of the non-graduates are in theschool for only those earlier years; while the failures of thegraduates range more widely and have a tendency to predominate in theupper years of the subject, as will be further emphasized in the laterpages of this report (see also Table IV). 5. DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS DROPPING OUT--SEMESTERS--AGES Table V presents the facts concerning the time and the age at which thefailing pupils drop out of school. Table VI furnishes the correspondingfacts for the non-failing drop-outs. TABLE V DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAILING NON-GRADUATES, SHOWING THE SEMESTER AND THE AGE AT THE TIME OF DROPPING OUT AGES UNDIS- SEMESTERS 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 TRIB. TOTALS 1 B. 1 40 49 50 18 0 1 1 . . . . 1 160 G. 3 40 65 47 23 4 0 0 . . . . 3 185 345 2 B. . . 9 56 88 56 22 6 2 . . . . 3 242 G. . . 6 72 119 61 24 3 0 . . . . 6 291 533 3 B. . . 4 30 40 23 10 7 . . . . . . 0 114 G. . . 3 35 51 32 13 7 . . . . . . 1 142 256 4 B. . . 1 16 66 86 34 16 2 . . . . 3 224 G. . . 1 19 60 70 59 18 3 . . . . 0 230 454 5 B. . . . . 2 12 36 21 8 4 . . . . 3 86 G. . . . . 4 17 48 28 9 3 . . . . 1 110 196 6 B. . . . . 1 6 48 52 38 10 . . . . 1 156 G. . . . . 1 11 52 49 26 5 . . . . 2 146 302 7 B. . . . . . . 2 12 35 21 7 0 . . 1 78 G. . . . . . . 2 15 21 15 4 1 . . 0 59 137 8 B. . . . . . . 0 10 23 19 19 2 0 2 75 G. . . . . . . 2 10 31 29 10 4 2 3 91 166 9 B. . . . . . . . . 1 4 4 2 . . 1 1 13 G. . . . . . . . . 1 6 12 4 . . 0 0 23 36 10 B. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 3 1 . . 8 G. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 3 1 . . 11 19 11 B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 0 . . 0 G. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 1 . . 4 4 Tot. B. 1 54 154 264 290 201 120 50 6 2 14 1156 G. 3 50 196 309 312 235 123 34 9 4 16 1292 2448 Table V reads: In the first semester 1 boy and 3 girls drop out at age13; 40 boys and 40 girls drop out at the age of 14; 49 boys and 65girls, at the age of 15. In this table, as elsewhere, age 15 means from14½ to 15½, and so on. Any drop-out, as for the second semester, meanseither during or at the end of that semester. TABLE VI DISTRIBUTION OF THE NON-FAILING NON-GRADUATES, SHOWING THE SEMESTER AND THE AGE AT THE TIME OF DROPPING OUT AGES SEMESTER 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 TOTALS 1 B. 17 118 141 106 39 3 4 1 1 430 G. 11 159 235 160 51 19 4 4 0 643 1073 2 B. 0 7 49 50 18 7 3 0 . . 134 G. 1 1 59 42 31 10 7 2 . . 163 297 3 B. . . . . 7 16 11 5 1 0 . . 40 G. . . . . 14 22 33 15 3 2 . . 89 129 4 B. . . . . 5 13 11 10 1 0 1 41 G. . . . . 7 20 31 16 2 1 1 78 119 5 B. . . . . 1 2 9 1 2 0 . . 15 G. . . . . 0 3 10 9 4 1 . . 27 42 6 B. . . . . 1 4 14 3 2 0 . . 24 G. . . . . 0 5 17 13 7 3 . . 45 69 7 B. . . . . . . 0 2 2 2 1 . . 7 G. . . . . . . 1 2 7 1 1 . . 12 19 8 B. . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 . . 3 G. . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 1 . . 5 8 9 B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . 0 G. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . 1 1 Tot. B. 17 125 204 191 104 32 16 3 2 694 G. 12 170 315 253 175 92 29 16 1 1063 1757 Table VI reads similarly to Table V. The distribution of the age totalsfor the pupils dropping out gives us medians which, for both boys andgirls, fall within the 17-year group for the failing pupils, but withinthe 16-year group for the non-failing pupils. For Table V the mode ofthe distribution is at 17, but for Table VI it is at 15. Thepercentages of dropping out for each age group are given below. First, all the pupils of Tables V and VI are grouped together for thispurpose, then the boys and the girls for Tables V and VI are consideredseparately to facilitate the comparison of facts. PERCENTAGES IN EACH AGE GROUP OF THE TOTAL NUMBER DROPPING OUT Ages 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Per Cent 0. 8 9. 5 20. 7 24. 2 21. 0 13. 3 6. 8 2. 4 1. 2 It is readily seen from the above percentages that, as would beexpected, the drop-outs are most frequent for the very ages which aremost common in the high school. There is no special accumulation ofdrop-outs for either the earlier or the later ages. But, if in anysemester we consider the drop-outs for each age as a percentage of thetotal pupils represented for that age, the facts are more fullyrevealed, as is indicated below for certain semesters. PERCENTAGES OF DROP-OUTS FOR EACH AGE, ON THE TOTALS FOR SUCH AGE IN THE FIRST, SECOND AND FOURTH SEMESTERS AGES 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Semester 1 6. 8 18. 2 23. 1 32. 6 38. 3 35. 0 40. 0 40. 0 . . Semester 2 4. 0 8. 1 14. 8 18. 3 22. 2 30. 0 40. 0 33. 0 . . Semester 4 0 9. 0 11. 8 12. 5 16. 5 24. 6 35. 2 50. 0 . . If these semesters may be taken as indicative of all, an almost steadyincrease will be expected in the percentages of drop-outs as the agesof the pupils rise. It follows, then, that the older ages have thehigher percentages of drop-outs when this basis of the computation isemployed. We may, however, make some helpful comparisons of the ages ofdrop-outs for boys and for girls by merely using the percentages oftotal drop-outs for the purpose. PERCENTAGES OF FAILING DROP-OUTS IN EACH AGE GROUP, FOR BOYS AND GIRLS SEPARATELY AGES 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Boys 0 4. 6 12. 5 22. 8 25. 1 17. 4 10. 3 4. 3 1. 9 Girls . 2 3. 8 15. 1 23. 9 24. 1 19. 0 9. 5 2. 6 2. 2 Here it appears that, of all the boys and girls who fail beforedropping out, the school loses at the age of 14, for example, 4. 6 percent for the boys and 3. 8 per cent for the girls. As a matter of mereconvenience, the percentages for age 21 are made to include also theundistributed pupils in Table V. PERCENTAGES OF THE NON-FAILING DROP-OUTS IN EACH AGE GROUP, FOR BOYS AND GIRLS SEPARATELY AGES 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Boys 2. 4 18. 0 29. 4 27. 1 15. 0 4. 4 2. 3 0. 7 Girls 1. 1 16. 0 29. 6 23. 8 16. 4 8. 6 2. 7 1. 6 These percentages are computed from the age totals in Table VI, just asthe ones preceding are computed from Table V. It seems worthy of notehere that close to 50 per cent of the non-failing drop-outs occur under16 years of age, for both the boys and the girls; but that the numberof the failing pupils who drop out does not reach 20 per cent for theboys or the girls in these same years. It is likewise remarkable inthese distributions that the percentages for boys and for girls showsuch slight differences in either of the two groupings. SUMMARY OF CHAPTER II If to the recorded failures the virtual but unrecorded ones are added, the percentage of failing pupils is 66 per cent. This percentage ishigher for the boys than for the girls by a difference of 6 per cent. Of the graduating pupils, 58. 1 per cent fail one or more times. Of the non-failing non-graduates 78 per cent are lost from school bythe end of their first year. But the failing non-graduates have notlost such a percentage before the end of the third year. The percentage of pupils failing increases for the first foursemesters, and lowers but little for two more semesters. One third toone half of the pupils fail in each semester to seventh. In the distribution of failures by ages and semesters, 86 per cent arefound from ages 15 to 18 inclusive. Thirty-four per cent of thefailures occur after the end of the second year, when 52. 2 per cent ofthe pupils have been lost and others are leaving continuously. Mathematics, Latin, and English head the list in the percentages oftotal failures, and together provide nearly 60 per cent of thefailures; but English has a large subject-enrollment to balance itscount in failures. Mathematics, Latin, and German fail the highest percentages on thenumber of pupils taking the subjects. In several subjects the percentages of failure based on the totalfailures are higher for the graduates than for the non-graduates. For the pupils dropping out without failure the median age is at 16, with the mode at 15. For the failing drop-outs both the median and themode are at the age of 17. Nearly 50 per cent of the non-failingdrop-outs occur under age 16, but not 20 per cent of the failingnon-graduates are gone by that age. The percentage of drop-outs ishigher for older pupils. REFERENCES: 5. Kelley, T. L. "A Study of High School and University Grades, withReference to Their Intercorrelation and the Causes of Elimination, "_Journal of Educational Psychology_, 6:365. 6. Johnson, G. R. "Qualitative Elimination in High School, " _SchoolReview_, 18:680. 7. Bliss, D. C. "High School Failures, " _Educational Administration andSupervision_, Vol. 3. 8. Strayer, G. D. , Coffman, L. D. , Prosser, C. A. _Report of a Survey ofthe School System of St. Paul, Minnesota_. 9. Meredith, A. B. _Survey of the St. Louis Public Schools_, 1917, Vol. III, p. 51. 10. _Annual Report of the Board of Education, Paterson, New Jersey_, 1915. 11. Bobbitt, J. F. _Report of the School Survey of Denver_, 1916. 12. Strayer, G. D. _A Survey of the Public Schools of Butte_, 1914. 13. Rounds, C. R. , Kingsbury, H. B. "Do Too Many Students Fail?" _SchoolReview_, 21:585. CHAPTER III WHAT BASIS IS DISCOVERABLE FOR PROGNOSTICATING THE OCCURRENCE OF OR THENUMBER OF FAILURES? 1. ATTENDANCE, MENTAL OR PHYSICAL DEFECTS, AND SIZE OF CLASSES AREPOSSIBLE FACTORS Any definite factors available for the school that have a prognosticvalue in reference to school failures will help to perform a functionquite comparable to the science of preventive medicine in its field, and in contrast with the older art of doctoring the malady after it hasbeen permitted to develop. Such prognostication of failure, however, need not imply a complete knowledge of the causes of the failures. Itmay simply signify that in certain situations the causes are lessactive or are partly overcome by other factors. Perhaps one of the simplest factors with a prognostic value on failuremay be found in the facts of attendance. Persistent or repeated absencefrom school may reach a point where it tends to affect the number offailures. It happened, unfortunately, that the reports for attendancewere incomplete or lacking in a considerable portion of the recordsemployed in this study. Consequently the influence of attendance isgiven no especial consideration in these pages, except as explained inChapter I, that the pupil must have been present enough of any semesterto secure his subject grades, else no failure is counted and no time ischarged to his period in school. In this connection, Dr. C. H. Keyes[14]found in a study of elementary school pupils that of 1, 649 pupilslosing four weeks or more in a single year 459 belonged to theaccelerate pupils, 647 to those arrested, and 543 to pupils normal intheir school work. He accredits such large loss of time as almostinvariably the result of illness and of contagious disease. He alsosays, "Prolonged absence from school is appreciable in producingarrest especially when it amounts to more than 25 days in one schoolyear. " But the diseases of childhood, with the resultant absence, areless prevalent in the high school years than earlier. Furthermore, thelosses due to change of residence will not be met with here, for, asexplained in Chapter I, no transferred pupils are included subsequentto the time of the transference either to or from the school. The influence of physical or mental defects also deserves recognitionhere as a possible factor relative to school failures, although thisstudy has no data to offer of any statistical value in that regard. Afew pupils in high school may actually reach the limits prescribed bytheir 'intelligence quotient'[15] or general mental ability, orperhaps, as Bronner[16] so interestingly points out, be handicapped bysome special mental disability. If such be true, they will doubtless befound in the number of school drop-outs later referred to as failing in50 per cent or more of their work; but we have no measurement ofintelligence recorded for them to serve our purposes ofprognostication. In the matter of physical defects alone, the report ofDr. L. P. Ayres[17] on a study of 3, 304 pupils, ten to fourteen yearsold, in New York City, states that "In every case except in that ofvision the children rated as 'dull' are found to be suffering fromphysical defects to a greater degree than 'normal' or 'bright'children. " The defects of vision, which is the exception noted, may beeven partly the result of the studious habits of the pupils. Bronner[16] remarks on the "relationships between mental and physicalconditions, " and also on how "the findings on tests were altogetherdifferent after the child had been built up physically. " But Gulick andAyres[18] conclude that it is evident from the facts at hand that ifvision were omitted the percentage of defects would dwindle and becomecomparatively small among the upper grades. This would probably bestill more true for the high school; but this whole field has not yetbeen completely and thoroughly investigated. It would be very desirable to have ascertained the size of the classesin which the failures were most frequent, as well as the relativesuccess of the pupils repeating subjects in larger or in smallerclasses. But, as such facts were unobtainable, it is permitted heresimply to recognize the possible influence of this factor. It seemsdeserving in itself of careful and special study. From the standpointof the pupil, the kind of subject, the kind of teacher, and the sort ofdiscipline employed will tend to influence the size of class to becalled normal, and to make it a sort of variable. Thirty pupils isregarded by the North Central Association as the maximum size of classin high school. [19] Surely the size of class will react on the pupil byaffecting the teacher's spirit and energy. Reference is made byHall-Quest[20] to an experiment, whose author is not named, in which829 pupils stated that their "most helpful teachers were pleasant, cheerful, optimistic, enthusiastic, and young. " If such be true thenthe very large size of classes will tend to reduce the teacher'shelpfulness. 2. THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE SCHOOL ENTERING AGE FOR PROGNOSIS A promising but less emphasized basis of prognosticating the schoolsuccess or failure of the pupils is found in the employment of theschool entering ages for this purpose. The distribution of all thepupils (except 30 undistributed ones, for whom the records wereincomplete), according to entering age, is here presented, independently for the boys and for the girls. DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS BY THEIR ENTRANCE AGES TO HIGH SCHOOL AGES Undis- Total 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 tributed 2646 B. 16 211 820 900 497 148 23 10 7 14 3495 G. 8 259 1124 1217 614 194 51 10 8 16 The entering ages of these 6, 141 pupils are distributed from 12 to 20, with 30 of them for whom the age records were not given. The median agefor all the entrants is 15. 3. But in order to compare this with themedian entering age (14. 9) of the 1, 033 pupils reported by King[21] forthe Iowa City high school, or with the median entering age (14. 5) of1000 high school pupils in New York City, as reported by VanDenburg, [22] it is necessary to reduce these medians to the same basisof age classification. Since age 15 for this study starts at 14½, then15. 3 would be only 14. 8 (15. 3-. 5) as by their classification. Thepercentages of the total number of pupils for each age are given below. PERCENTAGES OF PUPILS FOR EACH ENTERING AGE AGES 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Undistributed Total 0. 4 7. 6 31. 6 34. 4 18. 1 5. 5 1. 2 1. 0 Boys 0. 6 8. 0 31. 0 37. 8 18. 8 5. 6 0. 8 1. 1 Girls 0. 2 7. 4 32. 4 34. 8 17. 5 5. 5 1. 4 1. 0 We see that 84 per cent of the pupils enter at age 14, 15, and 16, or, what is perhaps more important, that nearly 40 per cent enter under 15years of age. The similarity of percentages for boys and for girls ispronounced. The slight advantage of the boys for ages 12 and 13 may bedue to home influence in restricting the early entrance of the girls, thus causing a corresponding superiority for the girls at age 14. Themode of this percentage distribution is at 15 for both boys and girls. What portion of each entering-age-group has no failures? This questionand the answer presented below direct our attention to the superiorityof the pupils of the earlier entering ages. That these groups ofearlier ages of entrance are comprised of pupils selected for theircapabilities is shown by the successive decrease in the percentages ofthe non-failing as the ages of their entrance increases, up to age 18. DISTRIBUTION OF THE PUPILS WHO DO NOT FAIL, FOR EACH ENTERING-AGE-GROUP AGES Totals 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1061 B. 11 102 320 309 186 56 9 4 4 1575 G. 3 133 522 545 256 73 29 7 6 % of ----------------- Entrants 58. 0 50. 0 43. 4 40. 0 39. 8 37. 7 55. 0 Here is definite evidence that the pupils of the earlier entering agesare less likely to fail in any of their school subjects than are theolder ones. Those entering at ages 12 or 13 escape school failuresaltogether for 50 per cent or more of their numbers. Those entering atage 14 are somewhat less successful but still seem superior to thoseof later entrance ages. It is encouraging, then, that these three agesof entrance include nearly 40 per cent of the 6, 141 pupils. There is, of course, nothing in this situation to justify any deduction of thesort that pupils entering at the age of 17 would have been moresuccessful had they been sent to high school earlier, except that hadthey been able to enter high school earlier they would have representeda different selection of ability by that fact alone. There is also asort of selection operative for the pupils entering at ages 18, 19, or20, which tends to account at least partly for the rise in thepercentage of the non-failing for these years. It is safe to believethat for the most part only the more able, ambitious, and purposefulindividuals are likely to display the energy required or to discern theneed of their entering high school when they have reached the age of 18or later. The appeal of school athletics will in this case seem veryinadequate to explain their entrance so late, since the girlspredominate so strongly for these years. Then it may be contendedfurther that the added maturity and experience of those later entrantsmay partly compensate for a lack of native ability, if such be thecase, and thereby result in a relatively high percentage of non-failingpupils for this group. It is readily conceded that the avoidance of failure in school workserves as only one criterion for gauging the pupils' accomplishment. Itis accordingly important to inquire how the different age-groups ofschool entrants compare with reference to the persistence and abilitywhich is represented by school graduation. A truly striking array ofpercentages follows in reference to the question of how many of theentering pupils in each age-group do graduate. DISTRIBUTION OF THE PUPILS GRADUATING FOR EACH ENTERING-AGE GROUP AGES Totals 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 796 B. 14 115 290 253 99 20 2 1 2 1140 G. 5 151 465 363 121 26 5 1 0 % of Entrants 79. 1 56. 6 38. 8 29. 9 20. 0 13. 4 9. 1 10. 0 13. 3 These percentages bear convincing testimony in support of the previousevidence that the pupils of the earlier entering years are highlyselected in ability. Of all the high school entrants they are the 'mostfit, ' the least likely to fail, and the most certain to graduate. Thepercentage of pupils graduating who entered at the age of 12 isapproximately four times that of pupils who entered at the age of 16. Thirteen is more than four times as fruitful of graduates as age 17;fourteen bears a similar relationship to age 18; and the percentage forfifteen is three times that for age 19, as is apparent from the abovefigures. The fact that the decline of these percentages ceases at age19 is probably due to the greater maturity of such later entrants. When we make inquiry as to what portion of the graduates in each of theabove groups 'goes through' in four years or less, we get the series ofpercentages indicated below. PERCENTAGE OF THE GRADUATES WHO FINISH IN FOUR YEARS OR LESS, FOR EACH OF THE ENTERING-AGE GROUPS Ages 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 % of Each Group 84. 3 85. 7 75. 8 79. 5 84. 3 80. 4 100 It appears that the ones in the older age-groups who do graduate arenot so handicapped in reference to the time requirement for graduationas we might have expected them to be from the facts of the precedingpages. Perhaps that fact is partly accounted for by the not unusualtendency to restrain the more rapid progress of the younger pupils orto promote the older ones partly by age, so that by our schoolprocedure the younger and the brighter pupils may at times actually bemore retarded, according to mental age, than are the older and slowerones. Since the same teachers, the same schools, and the same administrativepolicy were involved for the different entrance-age groups, theprognostic value of the factor of age at entrance will seem to beunimpaired, whether it operates independently as a gauge of rank inmental ability, or conjointly with and indicative of the varyinginfluence on these pupils of other concomitant factors, such as thedifference of economic demands, the difference of social interests, thedifference in permanence of conflicting habits of the individual, orthe difference in effectiveness of the school's appeal as adapted forthe several ages. One may contend, and with some success, that the highschool régime is better adjusted to the younger pupils, with theconsequent result that they are more successful in its requirements. The distractions of more numerous social interests may actuallyaccompany the later years of school age. In reference to the socialdistractions of girls, Margaret Slattery says, [23] "This mania for'going' seizes many of our girls just when they need rest and naturalpleasures, the great out-of-doors, and early hours of retiring. " Butsurely such distractions are not peculiar to the girls alone. Theeconomic needs that arise at the age of sixteen and later are oftenconsidered to constitute a pressing factor regarding the continuance inschool. But VanDenburg[22] was convinced by the investigation, in NewYork City, of 420 rentals for the families of pupils that "on the wholethe economic status of these pupils seems to be only a slight factor intheir continuance in school. " A similar conclusion was reached byWooley, [24] in Cincinnati, after investigating 600 families, in whichit was estimated that 73 per cent of the families did not need theearnings of the children who left school to go to work. Thecorresponding report by a commission[25] in Massachusetts shows 76 percent. The same facts for New York City[26] indicate that 80 per cent ofsuch families are independent of the child's wages. But Holleyconcludes, [27] from a study of certain towns in Illinois, that "thereis a high correlation between the economic, educational, and socialadvantages of a home and the number of years of school which itschildren receive. " It will hardly be denied that even aside from therelation of the family means to the school persistence, the economicneeds may have a direct influence on the failing of the children intheir school work, either because home conditions may be decidedlyunfavorable for required home study, or because of the larger portionof time that must be given to outside employment, with its consequentreduction of the normal vitality of the individual or of his readinessto study. But, in spite of the possible interrelationship of thesefactors, it still appears that the school entrance age of pupils willserve as a valuable sort of educational compass to foretell in part theprobable direction of their later accomplishment. 3. THE AMOUNT OF FAILURE AT EACH AGE AND ITS RELATION TO THEPOSSIBILITY OF FAILING FOR THAT AGE We have considered at some length the prognostic value of the age atentrance. Here we shall briefly consider the prognostic value of age inreference to the time when failures occur and the amount of failure forsuch age. If we were to total all the failures for a given age, asshown in Table I, what part will that form of the total subjects takenby these pupils at the time the failures occur? In other words, whatare the percentages formed by the total failures on the possibility offailing, for the same pupils and the same semesters, considered by agegroups? The summary line of Table I gives the total failures accordingto the ages at which they occurred. The number of pupils sharing ineach group of these failures is also known by a separate tabulation. Then the full number of subjects per pupil is taken as 4½, sinceapproximately 50 per cent of the pupils take five or more subjects eachsemester and the other 50 per cent take four or less (see p. 61). Withthe number of pupils given, and with a schedule of 4½ subjects perpupil, we are able to compute the percentages which the failures formof the total subjects for these failing pupils at the time. Thesepercentages are given below. THE PERCENTAGES FORMED BY FAILURES AT EACH AGE ON THE POSSIBILITIES OF FAILING AT THAT AGE AND TIME, FOR THE SAME PUPILS Ages 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 % 36. 6 38. 0 37. 9 40. 9 40. 8 41. 2 41. 3 42. 0 42. 7 [Footnote: These percentages are computed from the data secured in Table I, as noted above. ] There is an almost unbroken rise in these percentages from 36. 6 for age13 to 42. 7 for age 21. Not only do a greater number of the older pupilsfail, as was previously indicated, but they also have a greaterpercentage of failure for the subjects which they are taking. It seemsappropriate here to offer a caution that, in reading the abovepercentages, one must not conclude that all of age 14 fail in 38 percent of their work, but rather that those who do fail at age 14 fail in38 per cent of their work for that semester. The evidence does not seemto indicate that the maturity of later years operates to secure anygeneral reduction of these percentages. The prognostic value of suchfacts seems to consist in leading us to expect a greater percentage offailures (on the total subjects) from the older pupils who fail thanfrom the younger ones who fail. If it were possible to translate theabove percentages to a basis of the possibility of failure for allpupils, instead of the possibility for failing pupils only, thedisparity for the different ages would become more pronounced, as theearlier ages have more non-failing pupils. But this we are not able todo, as our data are not adequate for that purpose. 4. THE INITIAL RECORD IN HIGH SCHOOL FOR PROGNOSIS OF FAILURE For this purpose the pupil record for the first year, in reference tofailures, is deemed more adequate and dependable than the record forthe first semester only. Accordingly, the pupils have been classifiedon their first year's record into those who had 0, 1, 2, 3, and up to 7or more failures. Then these groups were further distributed into thosewho failed 0, 1, 2, 3, and up to 7 or more times after the first year. From such a double distribution we may get some indication of whatassurance the first year's record offers on the expectation of laterfailures. Table VII presents these facts. Table VII is read in this manner: Of all the pupils who have failuresthe first year (805 boys, and 1, 129 girls) 397 boys and 672 girls havefailures later, 105 boys and 130 girls have 1 failure later, 77 boysand 98 girls have 2 failures later, while 68 boys and 63 girls haveseven or more failures later. The column of totals to the right givesthe pupils for each number of failures for the first year. The line oftotals at the bottom gives the pupils for each number of failuressubsequent to the first year. The table includes 3, 508 pupils, since those who did not remain inschool more than three semesters are not included (1, 120 boys, 1, 513girls). Obviously, those who do not stay more than one year would haveno subsequent school record, and those remaining only a brief timebeyond one year would not have a record of comparable length. It seemsquite significant, too, for the purposes of our prognosis, that of the2, 633 pupils dropping out in three semesters or less only about 43 percent have ever failed (boys--46 per cent, girls--41 per cent). Incontrast to this, nearly 70 per cent (69. 6) of those continuing inschool more than three semesters fail one or more times. Those who dropout without failure, in the three semesters or less, constitute nearly60 per cent of the total non-failing pupils (2, 568), but the failingpupils who drop out in that same period constitute less than 32 percent of the total who fail (3, 573). This situation received someemphasis in Chapter II and will be further treated in Chapter IV, underthe comparison of the failing and non-failing groups. TABLE VII SUBSEQUENT RECORD OF FAILURES FOR PUPILS FAILING 1, 2, 3, ETC. , TIMES THE FIRST YEAR FAILURES OF 1ST FAILURES SUBSEQUENT TO FIRST YEAR YEAR 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7+ TOTALS 0 B. 397 105 77 50 47 37 24 68 805 G. 672 130 98 60 53 27 26 63 1129 1069 235 175 110 100 64 50 131 1934 1 B. 46 43 34 33 35 21 15 46 273 G. 65 43 53 33 33 19 17 67 330 111 86 87 66 68 40 32 113 603 2 B. 22 24 23 23 30 21 13 57 213 G. 42 32 27 21 22 13 15 83 255 64 56 50 44 52 34 28 140 468 3 B. 7 5 16 10 10 13 10 30 101 G. 8 9 7 10 17 6 7 41 105 15 14 23 20 27 19 17 71 206 4 B. 6 8 5 7 7 11 7 23 74 G. 8 7 5 6 10 8 4 27 75 14 15 10 13 17 19 11 50 149 5 B. 3 1 0 2 1 5 3 11 26 G. 5 9 5 6 5 4 2 14 50 8 10 5 8 6 9 5 25 76 6 B. 0 1 4 2 1 1 1 10 20 G. 2 1 2 2 6 2 0 6 21 2 2 6 4 7 3 1 16 41 7+ B. 3 2 1 0 1 0 2 5 14 G. 1 2 1 1 5 2 0 5 17 4 4 2 1 6 2 2 10 31 Tot. B. 484 189 160 127 132 109 75 250 1526 G. 803 233 198 139 151 81 71 306 1982 1287 422 358 266 283 190 146 556 3508 Referring directly now to Table VII, we find that 44. 7 per cent ofthose not failing the first year do fail later. Of all those who failthe first year, 13. 8 per cent escape any later failures. Of all thepupils included in this table 15. 8 per cent have 7 or more failures, while of those failing in the first year 27 per cent later have 7 ormore failures. For the number included in this table 30. 4 per cent haveno failures assigned to them. PERCENTAGE OF FIRST YEAR FAILING GROUPS, WHO LATER HAVE NO FAILURES No. Of F's. In First Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7+ Per Cent of Groups Having No Failures Later 18. 4 13. 7 7. 2 9. 4 10. 5 5. 0 12. 9 About the same percentage of the boys and of the girls (near 60 percent) is represented in Table VII. The girls have an advantage over theboys of about 8 per cent for those belonging to the group with nofailures, and of about 1 per cent for the group with seven or morefailures. No unconditional conclusion seems justified by this table. In the firstyear's record of failures there are good grounds for the promise oflater performance. We may safely say that those who do not fail thefirst year are much less likely to fail later, and that if they do faillater, they have less accumulation of failures. Yet some of this grouphave many failures after the first year, and others who have severalfailures the first year have none subsequently. Generally, however, thelater accumulations are in almost direct ratio to the earlier record, and the later non-failures are in inverse ratio to the debits of thefirst year. 5. THE PROGNOSIS OF FAILURES BY THE SUBJECT SELECTION From the distribution of failures by school subjects as presented inChapter II, this will seem to be the easiest and almost the surest ofall the factors thus far considered to employ for a prognosis offailure. For of all pupils taking Latin we may confidently expect anaverage of a little less than one pupil in every five to fail eachsemester. For the entire number taking mathematics, the expectation offailure is an average of about one in six for each semester. Germancomes next, and for each semester it claims for failure on the averagenearly one pupil in every seven taking it. Similarly French claims forfailure one in every nine; history, one in every ten; English andbusiness subjects, less than one in every twelve. It will be noted thatthe average on a semester basis is employed in this part of thecomputation. Consequently, it is not the same as saying that such apercentage of pupils fail at some time, in the subject. The pupil whofails four times in first year mathematics is intentionally regardedhere as representing four failures. Likewise, the pupil who completesfour years of Latin without failure represents eight successes for thesubject in calculating these percentages. Every recorded failure foreach pupil is thus accounted for. It was also noted in Chapter II that the percentages of the totalfailures run higher in mathematics, Latin, history, and science, forthe graduates than for the non-graduates. This fact is not due to thegreater number of failures of graduates in the earlier semesters, whenmost of the non-graduate failures occur, but to the increase offailures for the graduates in the later years, as is disclosed inTables II and IV. Accordingly, we may say that those two subjects whichare most productive of school failures are increasingly fruitful ofsuch results in the upper years. This does not seem to be the usual oraccepted conviction. Certain of the school principals have expressedthe assurance that it would be found otherwise. Such deception iseasily explainable, for the number of failures show a marked reduction, and the rise of percentages is consequently easily overlooked. It isquite possible, too, that in some individual schools there is not sucha rise of the percentages of failure for the graduates in any of theschool subjects. In a single one of the eight schools reported hereneither Latin nor mathematics showed a higher percentage of failure forthe graduate pupils over the non-graduates. In the other seven schoolsthe graduates had the higher percentage in one or both of thesesubjects. 6. THE TIME PERIOD AND THE NUMBER OF FAILURES The statement that the number of failures will be greater for thefailing pupils who remain in school the longer time may seem rathercommonplace. But it will not seem trite to state that the percentageof the total failures on the total subject enrollments increases byschool semesters up to the seventh; that the percentage of possiblefailures for all graduating pupils increases likewise; or that thefailures per pupil in each single semester tend to increase as the timeperiod extends to the later semesters. Yet radical as these statementsmay sound, they are actually substantiated by the facts to bepresented. PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL FAILURES ON THE TOTAL SUBJECT ENROLLMENT, BY SEMESTERS Semester 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Per Cent 11. 5 13. 9 14. 5 15. 1 14. 5 15. 3 12. 1 9. 9 10. 9 6. 2 The 808 pupils who received no marks, and many of whom dropped outearly in the first semester, are not included in the subject enrollmentfor the above percentages. Otherwise the enrollments taken are for thebeginning of each semester and inclusive of all the pupils. Thesepercentages rise from 11. 5 in the first semester to 15. 3 in the sixthsemester. Then the percentages drop off, doubtless due to theincreasing effect by this time of the non-failing graduates on thetotal enrollment. The graduates alone are next considered in thisrespect. PERCENTAGES OF THE TOTAL FAILURES FOR THE GRADUATES ON THE TOTAL SUBJECT ENROLLMENT FOR GRADUATES, BY SEMESTERS Semester 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Per Cent 5. 9 6. 6 7. 8 9. 1 9. 2 10. 5 9. 1 7. 3 8. 8 5. 2 These percentages are based on the total possibility of failure, andreach their highest point in the sixth semester, where the percentageof failure is nearly twice that for the first semester. These samefacts may be effectively presented also by the percentages of suchfailures for the graduates on the total subject enrollment for only thefailing graduates in each semester. PERCENTAGES OF THE TOTAL FAILURES FOR THE GRADUATES ON THE TOTAL SUBJECT ENROLLMENT FOR FAILING GRADUATES, BY SEMESTERS Semester 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Per Cent 31. 4 31. 2 31. 8 32. 7 32. 3 36. 6 37. 5 37. 4 38. 0 36. 0 The percentages here are limited to the total possibilities of failurefor those graduates who do fail in each semester. They reach thehighest point in the ninth semester, with a gradual increase from thefirst. The high point is reached later in this series than in the oneimmediately preceding, because while the percentage of pupils failingdecreases in the final semesters (p. 14), there is an increase in thenumber of failures per failing pupil (Table IV). This increase of percentages by semesters for the graduates on thetotal possibility of failure, as just noted, is due to an actualincrease in the number of failures for the later semesters. By thedistribution of failures in Table II more than 56 per cent of thefailures are found after the completion of the second year, in spite ofthe fact that about 10 per cent of the pupils who graduate do so inthree or three and a half years. The failures of the graduates aresimply the more numerous after the first two years in school. That thissituation is no accident due to the superior weight of any singleschool in the composite group, is readily disclosed by turning to theunits which form the composite. For these schools the percentages ofthe graduates' failures that are found after the second year range from40 per cent to 66 per cent. In only three of the schools are suchpercentages under 50 per cent, while in three others they are above 60per cent. Further confirmation of how the increase of failures accompanies thepupils who stay longer in school is offered in the facts of Table IV. Here are indicated the number of pupils who before graduating fail 1, 2, 3, etc. , times, in semesters 1, 2, 3, etc. , up to 10. Of all theoccurrences of only one failure per pupil in a semester, 50 per centare distributed after the fourth semester. In this same period (afterthe fourth semester) are found 53. 2 per cent of those with two failuresin a semester; 67. 6 per cent of those with three failures in asemester; 71. 6 per cent of those having four; 78. 6 per cent of thosehaving five; and all of those having six failures in a single semester. One could almost say that the longer they stay the more they fail. The statements presented herein regarding the relative increase offailures for at least the first three years in school are likely toarouse some surprise among that portion of the people in theprofession, with whom the converse of this situation has been quitegenerally accepted as true. Such an impression has indeed not seemedunwarranted according to some reports, but the responsibility for itmust be due in part to the manner of presenting the data, so that attimes it actually serves to misstate or to conceal certain importantfeatures of the situation. Since the dropping out is heaviest in theearly semesters, and since the school undertakes the expense ofproviding for all who enter, it does not seem to be a correctpresentation of the facts to compute the percentage of failure on onlythe pupils who finish the whole semester. Such a practice tends toassign an undue percentage of failures to the earlier semesters, onethat is considerably too high in comparison with that of the latersemesters where the dropping out becomes relatively light. It is notsufficient to report merely what part of our final product isimperfect, instead of reporting, as do most institutions outside of theeducational field, what part of all that is taken in becomes wasteproduct. This situation is sufficiently grievous to demand furthercomment. In his study of the New Jersey high schools, Bliss states [28] that oneof the striking facts found is the "steady decrease of failure from thefreshman to the senior year. " If we bear in mind that Bliss used onlythe promotion sheets for his data, and took no account of the drop-outspreceding promotion, and if we then estimate that an average of 10 percent may drop out before the end of the first semester (the percentageis 13. 2 for our eight schools), then the percentages of failurerecorded for the first year will be reduced by one-eleventh of theirown respective amounts for each school reported by Bliss, as wetranslate the percentages to the total enrollment basis. As aconsequence of such a procedure, Bliss' percentages, as reported forthe second year, will be as high as or higher than those for the firstyear in six of the ten schools concerned, and nearly equal in two moreof the schools. It is also evident that his percentages of failure asreported for the junior and senior years are not very different fromeach other in six of the ten schools, although there is no inclusion ofthe drop-outs in the percentages stated. The only pronounced or actualdecrease in the percentages of failures as Bliss reports them, occursbetween the sophomore and junior years, and it is doubtless asignificant fact that this decided drop appears at the time and placewhere the opportunity for elective subjects is first offered in manyschools. Yet apparently it has not seemed worth while to most personswho report the facts of failure to compute separately from the othersubjects the percentages for the 3- and 4-year required subjects. A rather small decline is shown in the percentages of failure for thesuccessive semesters, as quoted below for 2, 481 high school pupils ofPaterson[29] (the average of two semesters), although these percentagesare based upon the number of pupils examined at the completion of thesemester. It may further be noted that these percentages do not followthe same pupils by semesters, but state the facts for successiveclasses of pupils. The same criticisms may be offered for thepercentages as quoted from Wood[30] for 435 pupils. PERCENTAGES OF PUPILS FAILING, BY SEMESTERS SEMESTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Paterson 17. 8 18. 4 16. 7 15. 0 15. 6 11. 6 9. 4 7. 4 Wood 24. 5 14. 5 29. 5 30. 0 31. 0 7. 9 16. 2 . . OBrien (p. 41) 11. 5 13. 9 14. 5 15. 1 14. 5 15. 3 12. 1 9. 9 The above series of percentages tend to agree at least in showinglittle or no decline in the percentages of failure for the first fiveor six semesters in school. Another tendency to conceal important features in relation to the factsof school failures may be found in the grouping together ofnon-continuous and continuous subjects, the latter of which aregenerally required. F. W. Johnson found in the University of ChicagoHigh School[31] that the percentage of failures by successive yearsindicated little or no decrease for mathematics and for English (whichwere 3- and 4-year subjects respectively). The figures were based onthe records for a period of two years. In regard to St. Paul, it waspossible to compute similar information from the data which wereavailable. [32] The percentages of failure are presented separately ineach case for Latin, German, and French, not more than two years ofwhich are required in the schools referred to above. A contrast is thuspresented that is both interesting and suggestive. PERCENTAGES OF PUPILS FAILING, BY YEARS. (Johnson, F. W. ) YEARS 1 2 3 4 English 18. 1 9. 5 18. 4 14. 4 Math 12. 9 12. 9 13. 6 5. 6 Latin 14. 1 9. 0 2. 9 . . German 12. 4 7. 4 . . . . French 14. 3 9. 6 3. 1 . . PERCENTAGES OF PUPILS FAILING, BY SEMESTERS. (St. Paul) SEMESTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 English and Math 17. 8 18. 0 16. 3 16. 9 8. 1 14. 0 . . . . Latin, German, French 17. 6 17. 5 15. 1 7. 6 3. 0 . . . . . . Apparently the full story has by no means been told when we simply saythat there is a general decline in the percentages of failure by yearsor semesters. First, the failures of the drop-outs should be included, so far as it is at all feasible; second, the percentage should be basedon the total enrollment in the subject, not on the final product, if wewish to disclose the real situation; third, the continuous or requiredsubjects should be distinguished in order to give a full statement ofthe facts. On page 41 are presented the percentages of failure for the1, 125 failing graduates alone, as found in this study, the greaterportion of whose work, as it actually happened, consisted of 3- and4-year subjects continuous from the time of entrance, and for whom thepercentages of failure increase to the ninth semester. 7. SIMILARITY OF FACTS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS Nowhere is there any definite indication that any of these factors ofprognosis operates more distinctly or more pronouncedly on either boysor girls. Some variations do occur, but differences between the sexesin personal attitudes, social interests, or conventional standards mayaccount for slight differences such as have been already noted. Tosimplify the statement of facts, no comparison of facts for boys andgirls has, in general, been attempted where there was only similarityto be shown. A SUMMARY OF CHAPTER III The influence of non-attendance as a factor in school failure is partlyprovided for here, but no statistical data were secured. The percentage of physical and mental defects are doubtlesscomparatively small for high school pupils except in the case ofvision. The facts regarding size of classes were unobtainable. The pupils are distributed by their ages of entrance from 12 to 20, with the mode of the distribution at 15. The younger entering pupilsare distinctly more successful in escaping failure. They are alsostrikingly more successful in their ability to graduate. The older pupils who fail have a higher percentage of failure on thesubjects taken. The first year's record has real prognostic value for pupils persistingmore than three semesters. But 57 per cent of those leaving earlierhave no failures. This includes nearly 60 per cent of all thenon-failing pupils, but less than 32 per cent of the failing ones havegone that early. Prediction of failure by subjects is relatively easy and sure, and thelater years seem more productive of this result. The percentage of failure on the total possibility of failure increaseswith the time period up to the seventh semester. The same facts aretrue for the graduates when considered alone. Fifty-six per cent of thefailures for the graduates occur after the second year. The longer stayin school actually begets an increase of failures. The boys and girlsare similarly affected by these factors of prognosis. REFERENCES: 14. Keyes, C. H. _Progress Through the Grades_, pp. 23, 62. 15. Terman, L. M. _The Measurement of Intelligence_, p. 68. 16. Bronner, A. E. _Psychology of Special Abilities and Disabilities_. 17. Ayres, L. P. "The Effect of Physical Defects on School Progress, "_Psychological Clinic_, 3:71. 18. Gulick, L. H. , Ayres, L. P. _Medical Inspection in the Schools_, p. 194. 19. _Standards of The North Central Association of Colleges andSecondary Schools_. 20. Hall-Quest, A. L. , in Johnson's _Modern High School_, p. 270. 21. King, I. _The High School Age_, p. 195. 22. VanDenburg, J. K. _The Elimination of Pupils from Public SecondarySchools_, p. 113. 23. Slattery, M. _The Girl in Her Teens_, p. 20. 24. Wooley, H. T. "Facts About the Working Children of Cincinnati, "_Elementary School Teacher_, 14:135. 25. _Report of Commission on Industrial and Technical Education_(Mass. ), 1906, p. 92. 26. Barrows, Alice P. _Report of Vocational Guidance Survey_ (New YorkCity), Public Education Association, New York City, Bull. No. 9, 1912. 27. Holley, C. E. _The Relationship Between Persistence in School andHome Conditions_, Fifteenth Yearbook, Pt. II, p. 98. 28. Bliss, D. C. "High School Failures, " _Educational Administration andSupervision_, Vol. III. 29. _Annual Report of Board of Education, Paterson_, 1915. 30. Wood, J. W. "A Study of Failures, " _School and Society_, I, 679. 31. Johnson, F. W. "A Study of High School Grades, " _School Review_, 19-13. 32. Strayer, G. D. , Coffman, L. D. , Prosser, C. A. _Report of a Survey ofthe School System of St. Paul_, 1917. CHAPTER IV HOW MUCH IS THE GRADUATION OR THE PERSISTENCE IN SCHOOL CONDITIONED BYTHE OCCURRENCE OR THE NUMBER OF FAILURES? 1. COMPARISON OF THE FAILING AND THE NON-FAILING GROUPS IN REFERENCE TOGRADUATION AND PERSISTENCE It has been noted in section 1 of Chapter II that 58. 1 per cent of allthe graduates have school failures. Here we mean to carry the analysisand comparison in reference to graduation and failure somewhat further. To this end the following distribution is significant. DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS IN REFERENCE TO FAILURE AND GRADUATION The Non-failing The Failing Pupils--Graduating Pupils--Graduating Totals 2568 811 (31. 5%) 3573 1125 (31. 5%) Boys 1001 307 (30. 6%) 1645 489 (29. 7%) Girls 1567 504 (32. 1%) 1928 639 (33. 0%) We have presented here the numbers that graduate without failures, together with the total group to which they belong, and the same forthe graduates who have failed. By a mere process of subtraction we maydetermine the number of non-graduates, as well as the number of thesethat fail, and then compute the percentage of the non-graduates whofail. Thus we get 58. 2 per cent (boys--62. 5, girls--54. 9) as thepercentage of the non-graduates failing. It is apparent at once thatthis is almost identical with the percentage of failure for the oneswho graduate (Chapter II), but for the non-graduates the boys and girlsare a little further apart. It may be remarked in this connection thatno effort was made to include any of the 808 non-credited pupils amongthe ones who fail. The inclusion of 60 per cent of this number aspotentially failing pupils, as was done in Chapter II, will raise theabove percentage of failing non-graduates by 11. 5 per cent. The above distribution of pupils enables us to determine whatpercentage of the failing and of the non-failing groups graduate. Thesepercentages are identical--31. 5 per cent in each case. The boys andgirls are further apart in the former group (boys--29. 7, girls--33)than in the latter group (boys--30. 6, girls--32. 1). It follows, then, that the percentage who graduate of all the original entrants is 31. 5per cent. This fact varies by schools from 20. 8 per cent to 45. 4 percent. And such percentage is in each case exclusive of the pupils whojoin the class by transfers from other schools or classes. Ourparticular interest is not in how many pupils the school graduates inany year, but rather in how many of the entering pupils in any one yearstay to graduate. The greater persistence of the failing non-graduates, or the greaterfailing for the more persistent non-graduates, has already been givensome attention in both Chapters II and III. In the followingdistribution the non-graduates alone are considered. The numberpersisting in school to each succeeding semester is first stated, andthen the percentage of that number which is composed of the non-failingpupils is given. DISTRIBUTION OF THE NON-GRADUATES ACCORDING TO THE NUMBERS PERSISTING TO EACH SUCCESSIVE SEMESTER BY END OF SEMESTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total (4205) 2787 1957 1572 999 761 390 234 60 23 4 Per Cent of Non-failing (41. 8) 24. 5 20. 0 16. 4 13. 9 12. 7 7. 2 3. 8 1. 6 0 . . Only 20 per cent of the non-graduates who remain to the end of thefirst year (second semester) do not fail. Although the failingnon-graduates outnumber the non-failing ones when all the pupils whofinally drop out are considered, their percentage of the majorityincreases rapidly for each successive semester continued in school. That the non-failing non-graduates are in general not the ones whopersist long in school is shown by these percentages. 2. THE NUMBER OF FAILURES AND THE YEARS TO GRADUATE The following table shows how the number of failures are related to thetime period required for graduation. The distribution in Table VIIIshows a range from 1 to 25 failures per pupil, and a time period forgraduation ranging from 3 to 6 years. It is evident from thisdistribution that the increase of time period for graduating is notcommensurate with the number of failures for the individual. By far thelargest number graduate in four years in spite of their numerousfailures. Nearly 70 per cent of the failing graduates require fouryears or less for graduation. The number who finish in three years isgreater than the number who require either five and one-half or sixyears. The median number of failures per pupil is 4. The pupils withfewer than 4 failures who take more than four years to graduate are notrepresentative of any particular school in this composite, nor arethose having 10 or more failures who take less than 5 years tograduate. TABLE VIII DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS GRADUATING, ACCORDING TO THE TOTAL FAILURES EACH AND THE TIME TAKEN TO GRADUATE NO. OF YEARS TO GRADUATE FAILURES 3 3½ 4 4½ 5 5½ 6 TOTALS 0 Boys 20 23 244 12 8 . . . . 307 Girls 54 26 380 30 14 . . . . 504 1 Boys 2 10 59 7 2 . . . . 80 Girls 5 8 83 13 5 . . . . 114 2 Boys 2 2 64 7 7 0 . . 82 Girls 2 3 88 11 8 1 . . 113 3 Boys 0 6 27 5 4 . . . . 42 Girls 1 1 53 6 3 . . . . 64 4 Boys 1 1 44 0 8 1 . . 55 Girls 4 6 57 8 4 1 . . 80 5 Boys 0 1 41 2 3 . . . . 47 Girls 1 2 26 7 5 . . . . 41 6 Boys . . 0 29 6 3 . . 0 38 Girls . . 1 29 3 8 . . 1 42 7 Boys . . 2 12 7 7 . . . . 28 Girls . . 1 13 4 5 . . . . 23 8 Boys . . 0 17 7 8 . . 1 33 Girls . . 1 16 9 7 . . 0 33 9 Boys . . 0 6 5 5 0 0 16 Girls . . 1 7 8 8 1 1 26 10 Boys . . 1 6 4 6 0 . . 17 Girls . . 1 14 5 2 1 . . 23 11-15 Boys . . 0 9 18 11 0 1 39 Girls . . 1 11 25 14 1 4 56 16-20 Boys . . . . 2 2 4 1 1 10 Girls . . . . 2 5 2 2 0 11 21-25 Boys . . . . 1 0 0 1 0 2 Girls . . . . 0 1 4 3 1 9 Total Boys 25 46 561 82 76 3 3 796 Girls 67 52 780 135 89 10 7 1140 In reading Table VIII, we find that 20 boys and 54 girls who have nofailures graduate in three years; 2 boys and 5 girls fail once andgraduate in 3 years; 10 boys and 8 girls have one failure and graduatein 3½ years, and so on. The median period is 4 years for those with nofailures and it remains at 4 for all who have fewer than 9 failures;but the median time period is not above 5 years for the highest numberof failures. 3. THE NUMBER OF FAILURES AND THE SEMESTER OF DROPPING OUT FOR THENON-GRADUATES The pages preceding this point have given evidence that the failingpupils are not mainly the ones who drop out early. But we may still askwhether the number of failures per individual tends to determine howearly he will be eliminated? This question calls for the facts of thenext table. In this table the semesters of dropping out are indicatedat the top. The failures range as high as 25 per pupil, and it isevident that not all pupils have left school until the eleventhsemester. The distribution includes the 1156 boys and the 1292 girlswho failed and did not graduate; also the 694 boys and the 1063 girlswho dropped out without failing. The wide distribution of thesenon-graduates both relative to the number of failures and to the timeof dropping out, is forcibly brought to our attention by the tablewhich follows. TABLE IX DISTRIBUTION OF THE NON-GRADUATES, ACCORDING TO THE TOTAL FAILURES EACH AND THE TIME OF DROPPING OUT NO. OF SEMESTER OF DROPPING OUT FAILURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 TOTAL 0 B. 430 134 40 41 15 24 7 3 0 . . . . 694 G. 643 163 89 78 27 45 12 5 1 . . . . 1063 1757 1 B. 35 53 25 33 14 9 1 1 . . . . . . 171 G. 46 65 25 34 12 12 4 3 . . . . . . 201 372 2 B. 52 58 18 30 8 17 5 6 . . . . . . 194 G. 49 79 31 36 12 17 3 3 . . . . . . 230 424 3 B. 43 41 22 28 9 10 5 1 0 . . . . 159 G. 54 52 19 34 18 17 0 6 1 . . . . 201 360 4 B. 27 31 13 32 7 11 9 2 . . . . . . 132 G. 34 43 23 29 11 16 5 8 . . . . . . 169 301 5 B. 3 13 14 30 11 16 11 4 . . . . . . 102 G. 2 14 18 24 5 13 3 5 . . . . . . 84 186 6 B. . . 27 8 24 11 16 11 6 0 0 . . 103 G. . . 17 14 25 10 11 3 9 2 1 . . 92 195 7 B. . . 8 7 7 6 16 5 3 0 1 . . 53 G. . . 9 3 15 8 7 5 5 0 0 . . 52 105 8 B. . . 8 3 14 6 11 6 5 1 0 . . 54 G. . . 10 5 15 7 10 6 6 1 1 . . 61 115 9 B. . . 1 1 7 5 8 2 7 3 1 . . 35 G. . . 0 2 7 8 9 2 4 1 0 . . 33 68 10 B. . . 2 2 10 2 7 6 10 0 . . . . 39 G. . . 2 1 6 5 9 4 4 0 . . . . 31 70 11-15 B. . . . . 1 8 7 27 14 22 5 2 0 86 G. . . . . 1 5 12 22 20 23 9 6 2 100 186 16-20 B. . . . . . . 1 0 8 3 6 3 3 0 24 G. . . . . . . 0 2 3 3 12 6 2 2 30 54 21-25 B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 1 . . 4 G. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 3 1 . . 8 12 TOTAL B. 590 376 154 263 101 180 85 78 13 8 0 1850 G. 828 454 231 308 137 191 71 96 24 11 4 2355 4205 Table IX reads in a manner similar to Table VIII: 430 boys and 643girls, having failures, drop out in the first semester; 35 boys and 46girls drop out in the first semester with a single failure; 3 boys and2 girls drop out in the first semester with five failures each. For a small portion of these drop-outs the number of failures isundoubtedly the prime or immediate factor in securing theirelimination. It seems probable that such is the situation for most ofthose pupils who drop out after 50 per cent or more of their schoolwork has resulted in failures. Yet a few of these pupils manage tocontinue for an extended time in school, as the following distributionshows. DROP-OUTS FAILING IN 50 PER CENT OR MORE OF THEIR TOTAL WORK, AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION BY SEMESTERS OF DROPPING OUT SEMESTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 221 B. 81 69 17 24 7 15 4 2 1 1 264 G. 98 68 20 35 14 10 5 8 5 1 % of Total 36. 9 28. 2 7. 6 12. 2 4. 3 5. 2 1. 9 2. 0 1. 2 . 4 This grouping includes 485 pupils, or 11. 5 per cent of the total numberof 4, 205 drop-outs. But whatever the part may be that is played byfailing it is evident that it does not operate to cause their earlyloss to the school in nearly all of these instances. It may be notedhere that it is difficult to find any justification for allowing orforcing these pupils to endure two, three, or four years of a kind oftraining for which they have shown themselves obviously unfitted. To besure, they have satisfied a part of these failures by repetitions orotherwise, but only to go on adding more failures. A device of'superannuation' is employed in certain schools by which a pupil whohas failed in half of his work for two semesters, and is sixteen yearsof age, is supposed to be dropped automatically from the school. Thisdevice seems designed to evade a difficulty in the absence of any realsolution for it, and harmonizes with the school aims that areprescribed in terms of subject matter rather than in terms of thepupils' needs. From the standpoint of the individual pupil his peculiarqualities are not likely to be fashioned to the highest degree ofusefulness by this procedure. It simply serves notice that the pupilmust make the adjustment needed, as the school cannot or will not. Notwithstanding the testimony furnished by the accumulation of failuresshown in Table IX, there are grounds for believing that for the majorportion of all the non-graduates the number of failures is not a primenor perhaps a highly important cause of their dropping out of school. This conviction seems to be substantiated by the statement ofpercentages below. THE PERCENTAGE OF NON-GRADUATES WHO DROP OUT WITH 0 1 or 0 2 or fewer 3 or fewer 4 or fewer 5 or fewer Failures Failures Failures Failures Failures Failures 41. 8 50. 6 60. 7 69. 2 76. 4 80. 8 The fact that nearly 81 per cent of the non-graduates have only 5failures or less, taken in comparison with the fact that approximatelyone fourth of the failing graduates have 8 or more failures, arguesthat the number of failures alone can hardly be considered one of thelarger factors in causing the dropping out. In a report concerning theworking children of Cincinnati, H. T. Wooley remarks[33] that"two-thirds of our children leaving the public schools are thefailures. " This seems to suppose failing a large cause of the droppingout. But this investigation of failure indicates that the percentage offailure for those leaving is no higher than for the ones who do notleave. A similar illustration is credited to O. W. Caldwell[34], whomakes reference to the large percentage of the failing pupils who leavehigh school, without taking any recognition of the equally largepercentage of the failing pupils who continue in the high school. There is in no sense any intention here to condone the large number offailures simply because it is pointed out that they do not operatechiefly to cause elimination from school. The above facts may lead tosome such conviction as that expressed by Wooley, [33] after givingespecial attention to those who had left school, that "the real forcethat is sending a majority of these children out into the industrialfield is their own desire to go to work, and behind this desire isfrequently the dissatisfaction with school. " A somewhat similarconviction seems to be shared by King, [35] in saying that "the pupilwho yields unwillingly to the narrow round of school tasks . .. Willgrasp at almost any pretext to quit school. " W. F. Book tabulated thereasons why pupils leave high school, [36] as given by 1, 051 pupils. Hefound that discouragement, loss of interest, and disappointment affectmore pupils than all the other causes combined. Likewise Bronnernotes[37] that the 'irrational' sameness of school procedure for allpupils often leads to "serious loss of interest in school work, discouragement, truancy, and disciplinary problems. " Still it may bethat the worst consequences of multiplied failures are not to thosedropping out. W. D. Lewis observes[38] that the failing pupil "speedilycomes to accept himself as a failure, " and that "the disaster to manywho stay in the schools is greater than to those who are shoved out. "To the same point Hanus tells[39] us that "during the school periodaversion and evasion are more frequently cultivated than power andskill, through the forced pursuit of uninteresting subjects. " A pupilwho acquires the habit of failing and the attitude of accepting it as anecessary evil may soon give up trying to win and become satisfied toaccept himself as less gifted, or even to accept life in general asnecessarily a matter of repeated failures. In a similar connection, James E. Russell says, [40] "the boy who becomes accustomed to secondplace soon fails to think at his best. " Such psychological results inregard to habits and attitude accruing from repeated failures are bothcertain and insidious. And an education which purports to be for alland to offer the highest training to each must abandon the inculcationof attitudes of mind so detrimental to the individual and to the verysociety which educates him. 4. THE PERCENTAGES THAT THE NON-GRADUATE GROUPS FORM OF THE PUPILS WHOHAVE EACH SUCCESSIVELY HIGHER NUMBER OF FAILURES By merely adding the columns of totals for Tables VIII and IX, we areable to obtain the full number of pupils who have each number offailures from 1 to 25. We may readily secure the percentages for thenon-graduates in each of these groups by referring again to the numbersin the totals column of Table IX. The following series of percentagesare thus obtained. THE PERCENTAGE FORMED BY NON-GRADUATES WITH 0, 1, 2, 3, ETC. , FAILURES ON THE TOTAL NUMBER WHO HAVE 0, 1, 2, 3, ETC. , FAILURES No. Of Failures 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Per Cent 68. 4 65. 7 68. 5 77. 2 69. 0 68. 0 70. 6 67. 3 63. 5 No. Of Failures 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17+ Per Cent 61. 8 63. 6 69. 0 61. 2 66. 0 65. 3 70. 0 61. 5 69. 4 That these percentages would be higher for the non-graduates than forthe graduates (that is, above 50 per cent) would certainly be expectedby a glance at their higher numbers in every group of theirdistribution. But it would hardly be expected by most of us that thepercentages would show no general tendency to rise as the failures perpupil increase in number, yet such is the truth as found here. Thereverse of these facts was found by Aaron I. Dotey, with a smallergroup of high school pupils[41] (1, 397), studied in one of the New YorkCity high schools. Still he also asserts that failure in studies is nota cause of elimination to the extent that it is generally supposed tobe. We may gain some advantage for judging the general tendency of theextended and varied series of percentages above, by computing them ingroups of larger size, thus yielding a briefer series, as follows: (A CONDENSED FORM OF THE PRECEDING STATEMENT) No. Of Failures 0 1 to 4 5 to 8 9 to 12 13 to 16 17 to 25 Per Cent 68. 4 67. 6 67. 3 63. 9 65. 7 69. 4 Not only do the percentages of non-graduates not increase relatively asthe numbers of failure go higher, but there is a slight general declinein these percentages until we reach '17 or more' failures per pupil. Then for '17 to 25' failures per pupil there is an increase of only 1per cent over that for failures. The number of failures does not seemdirectly to condition the pupil's ability to graduate or to continue toin school. 5. TIME EXTENSION FOR THE FAILING GRADUATES We shall now inquire further what extension of time for graduatingcharacterizes the failing graduates in comparison with the non-failingones. The distribution according to the period for graduation for the 1, 936pupils who graduate was shown by the summary lines of Table VIII. Inthe same table the non-failing graduates are included (but distinct). No pupil graduates in less than three years and none takes longer thansix years; 9. 8 per cent of the number finish in less than 4 years; 19. 7per cent take more than 4 years. The small number that finish earlierthan four years may be due in part to the single annual graduation inseveral of the schools. Some of the schools admitting two classes eachyear graduated only one, and the records made it plain that some pupilshad a half year more credit than was needed for graduating. Considering, however, that about 42 per cent of the graduates had nofailures, they should have been able to speed up more on the timeperiod of getting through. They were doubtless not unable to do that. But some principals hold the conviction that four years will result ina rounding out of the pupil more than commensurate with the extendedtime. More than 35 per cent of those who did finish in less than fouryears are graduates who had failed from 1 to 11 times. In theconventional period of four years 77 per cent of the non-failing and 64per cent of the failing graduates complete their work and graduate (seep. 59, for the means employed). The percentages of non-failinggraduates for each time period are given below. THE PERCENTAGES OF NON-FAILING GRADUATES FOR EACH PERIOD Time Period in Years 3 ½ 4 ½ 5 ½ 6 Per Cent of Non-Failing 80. 4 50. 0 46. 5 19. 3 13. 3 . . . . This continuous decline of percentages representing the non-failinggraduates shows that they have an evident advantage in regard to thetime period for graduating. Their percentages are high for the shortertime periods and low for the longer periods. But by reference to TableVIII we quickly find that the slight extension of the time period forthe failing graduates is not at all commensurate with the number offailures which they have. The failures are provided for in variousways, as Chapter V will explain. No striking differences are observedfor the boys and girls in any division of this chapter. A SUMMARY OF CHAPTER IV The percentages of graduates and of non-graduates that fail are almostidentical. The percentages of the failing pupils who graduate and of thenon-failing pupils who graduate are identical (31. 5 per cent); hence, graduation is not perceptibly conditioned by the occurrence of failure. The non-failing non-graduates do not persist long in school, ascompared with the failing non-graduates. The short persistence partlyaccounts for their avoidance of failure. As the number of failures per pupil increase for the failing graduates, the time extension is not commensurate with the number of failures. For 11. 5 per cent of the non-graduates who fail in 50 per cent or moreof their work, failure is probably a chief cause of dropping out. Failure is probably not a prime cause of dropping out for most of thenon-graduates, as 80 per cent have only 5 failures or fewer. The worst consequences of failure are perhaps in acquiring the habit offailing, and in coming to accept one's self as a failure. The number ofdrop-outs does not tend to increase as the number of failures per pupilincreases. The time period for graduating ranges from three to six years, withapproximately 79 per cent of all graduates finishing in four years orless. The failing graduates take, on the average, a little longer timethan the non-failing, but not an increase that is proportionate to thenumber of failures. The boys and girls present no striking differences in the facts ofChapter IV. REFERENCES: 33. Wooley, H. T. "Facts About the Working Children of Cincinnati, "_Elementary School Teacher_, Vol. XIV, 135. 34. Caldwell, O. W. "Laboratory Method and High School Efficiency, "_Popular Science Monthly_, 82-243. 35. King, Irving. _The High School Age. _ 36. Book, W. F. "Why Pupils Fail, " _Pedagogical Seminary_, 11:204. 37. Bronner, A. E. _The Psychology of Special Abilities andDisabilities_, p. 6. 38. Lewis, W. D. _Democracy's High School_, pp. 28, 37. 39. Hanus, P. H. _School Aims and Values. _ 40. Russell, J. E. "Co-education in High School. Is It a Failure?"Reprint from _Good Housekeeping_. 41. Dotey, A. I. _An Investigation of Scholarship Records of High SchoolPupils_. High School Teachers Association of New York City. Bulletins1911-14, p. 220. CHAPTER V ARE THE SCHOOL AGENCIES EMPLOYED IN REMEDYING FAILURES ADEQUATE FOR THEPURPOSE? The caption of this chapter suggests the inquiry as to what are theagencies employed by the school for this purpose, and how extensivelydoes each function? The different means employed and the numberattempting in the various ways to satisfy for the failures charged areclassified and stated below, but the success of each method isconsidered later in its turn. One might think also of time extension, night school, summer school, correspondence courses, and tutoring aspossible factors deserving to be included here in the list of remediesfor failures made. The matter of time extension has already been partlytreated in Chapter IV, while the facts for the other agencies mentionedare rather uncertain and difficult to trace on the records. However, they all tend to eventuate finally in one of the methods noted below. THE DISPOSITION MADE OF THE SCHOOL FAILURES Repeat School Exam. Contin. Both Total No. The Final or Regents' Discon. Or No Repeat Failures Subject Spec. Exam's. Substitution Repet. And or Exam. Exam. 8348 B. 3695 821 1333 2471 259 231 9612 G. 5001 1025 1752 1929 249 344 Per Cent of Total 48. 4 10. 3 17. 2 24. 5 2. 8 3. 2 It is obvious from these percentages that school practice puts aninclusive faith in the repetition of the subject, as 48. 4 per cent ofall the failures are referred to this one remedy for the purpose ofbeing rectified, although one school made practically no use of thismeans (see section 5 of this chapter). We shall proceed to find howeffectively it operates and how much this faith is warranted by theresults. The cases above designated as both repeating and takingexamination (3. 2 per cent) have been counted twice, and theirpercentage must be subtracted from the sum of the percentages in orderto give 100 per cent. 1. REPETITION AS A REMEDY FOR FAILURES We already know how many of the failing pupils repeat the subject offailure, but the success attending such repetition is entitled tofurther attention. Accordingly, the grades received in the 8, 696repetitions are presented here. GRADES SECURED IN THE SUBJECTS REPEATED GRADES Total Repetitions A B C D INC. 3695 Boys 63 547 1863 1003 219 5001 Girls 83 724 2510 1337 347 ----------------- Per Cent of Total 1. 7 14. 7 50. 3 33. 3 Less than 2 per cent of the repeaters secure A's, while only about 1 in6 ever secures either an A or a B. The first three are passing grades, with values as explained in Chapter I, and D represents failure. Of therepeated subjects 33. 3 per cent result in either a D or an unfinishedstatus. It is a fair assumption that the unfinished grade usually borepretty certain prospects of being a failing grade if completed, and itis so treated here. There is a difference of less than 1 per cent inthe failures assigned to boys and girls for the repeated subjects. The hope was entertained in the original plan of this study to secureseveral other sorts of information about the repeaters, but these laterproved to be unobtainable. The influence of repeating with the sameteacher as contrasted with a change of teachers in the same subject, the comparative facts for the repetition with men or with womenteachers, the varying results for the different sizes of classes, andthe apparent effect of supervised study of some sort before or afterfailing, were all sought for in the records available; but the schoolswere not able to provide any definite and complete information of thesorts here specified. _a. Size of Schedule and Results of Repeating_ It would seem plausible that the failing pupils who were permitted andwho possessed the energy would want to take one or more extra subjectsto balance the previous loss of credit due to failure. Then it becomesimportant at once for the administrative head to know whether theproportion of failures bears a definite relationship to the size of thepupil's schedule of subjects. A normal schedule for most purposes andfor most of the schools includes, on the average, four subjects ortwenty weekly hours. In this study the schedule which each individualschool claimed as normal schedule, has been accepted as such, alllarger schedules being considered extra size and all smaller onesreduced. For instance, in one of the schools five subjects areconsidered a normal schedule even though they totaled 24 points, whichis not usual. But in the other schools a normal schedule includes therange from 18 to 22 points irrespective of those carried in thesubjects outside of the classification included in this study; whileabove 22 points is an extra schedule and below 18 a reduced schedule inthe same sense as above. For the most part this meant that five or moreof such subjects form an extra schedule, and that three form a reducedschedule. In this manner all the repeated subjects are classed as partof a reduced, a normal, or an extra sized schedule as follows. SIZE OF SCHEDULES FOR PUPILS TAKING REPEATED SUBJECTS Total Reduced Normal Extra 3695 Boys 132 1762 1801 5001 Girls 164 2684 2153 Per Cent of Total 3. 4 51. 1 45. 5 This distribution indicates that relatively few of the pupils take areduced schedule in repeating. For the succeeding comparison with thegrades of extra schedule pupils, those having a normal or reducedschedule are grouped together. GRADES FOR SUBJECTS REPEATED BY FAILING PUPILS WHO CARRIED A REDUCED OR NORMAL SCHEDULE Total Repetitions A B C D . . 1894 Boys 34 259 894 541 166 2848 Girls 44 361 1319 840 284 ---------------- Per Cent of Total 1. 6 13. 1 46. 7 38. 6 In this distribution are the grades for 4742 instances of repetition. Of these, 38. 6 per cent fail to pass after repeating. It is notpossible to say definitely how many of these pupils actually determinetheir schedule by a free choice, and how many are restricted by schoolauthorities or by home influence. But certain it is that a policy ofopposition exists in some schools and with some teachers to allowingrepeaters to carry more than a prescribed schedule; and in most schoolsat least some form of discrimination or regulation is exercised in thismatter. It will appear from the next distribution that a rule ofuniformity in regard to size of schedule, without regard to theindividual pupils, is here, as elsewhere, lacking in wisdom and is indisregard of the facts. GRADES FOR THE SUBJECTS REPEATED, WITH AN EXTRA SCHEDULE Total Repetitions A B C D . . 1801 Boys 29 288 969 462 53 2153 Girls 39 363 1191 497 63 ---------------- Per Cent of Total 1. 7 16. 6 54. 5 27. 2 Out of the 3, 954 repeated subjects in this distribution, 72. 8 per centsecure passing grades, 27. 2 per cent result in failures. This meansthat the repeaters with an extra schedule have 11. 4 per cent fewerfailing grades than the repeaters who carry only a normal or a reducedschedule. They also excel in the percentage of A's and B's secured forrepeated subjects. In only one of the eight schools was the reverse ofthese general facts found to be true. In one other school thedifference was more than 2 to 1 in favor of the extra schedulerepeaters as judged by the percentages of failure for each group. Itseems that at least three factors operate to secure superior resultsfor repeaters with heavier schedule. First, they are undoubtedly a morehighly selected group in reference to ability and energy. Second, theyhave the advantage of the spur and the motivation which comes from theconsciousness of a heavier responsibility, and from which emanatesgreater earnestness of effort. Third, it is probable that some teachersare more helpful and considerate in the aiding and grading of pupilswho appear to be working hard. It is, at any rate, a plain fact thatthose who are willing and who are permitted to take extra work are themore successful. Excessive emphasis must not be placed on the latterrequirement alone, as willingness frequently seems to be the onlyessential condition imposed. _b. Later Grades in the Same Kind of Subjects, Following Repetition andWithout It_ Next in importance to the degree of success attending the repetition offailing subjects is the effect which such repetition has upon theresults in later subjects of the same kind. By tabulating separatelythe later grades in like subjects for those who had repeated and forthose who had not repeated after failure, we have the basis for thefollowing comparison of results. It should be stated at this point thatby the same kind of subject is not meant a promiscuous groupingtogether of all language or of all history courses. But for languages alater course in the same language is implied, with the single exceptionthat Latin and French are treated as though French were a merecontinuation of the Latin preceding it. Certain other decisions are asarbitrary. Greek, Roman, and ancient history are considered as in thesame class; so are modern, English, and American history. The generaland the biological sciences are grouped together, but the physicalsciences are distinguished as a separate group. The various commercialsubjects are considered to be of the same kind only when they are thesame subject. All mathematics subjects are regarded as the same kind ofsubjects except commercial arithmetic which is classed as a commercialsubject. All the later marks given in what was regarded as the samekind of subject, are included in the two distributions of grades whichfollow. LATER GRADES IN THE SAME KIND OF SUBJECT, AFTER FAILURE AND REPETITION OF THE SUBJECT Total A B C D 2788 Boys 28 308 1441 1011 3489 Girls 33 307 1748 1401 Per Cent of Total . 9 9. 8 50. 8 38. 4 This distribution shows a marked tendency for failures in any subjectto be accompanied by further failures (38. 4 per cent), not only in thesubjects for which it is a prerequisite but in subjects closely akin toit. If this tendency to succeeding failures is really dependent uponthoroughness in the preceding subject, then the repetition of thesubject should offer an opportunity for greater thoroughness and shouldprove to be a distinct advantage in this regard. When we compare thepercentage of failures above with that in the following distribution, we fail to find evidence of such an advantage in repetition. Thecontinuity of failures by subjects and the ineffectiveness ofrepetition are pointed out by T. H. Briggs[42] as found in anunpublished study by J. H. Riley, showing that after repeating andpassing the subjects of failure, 33 per cent of those who continued thesubject failed again the next semester. LATER GRADES IN THE SAME KIND OF SUBJECTS, FOLLOWING FAILURE BUT WITH NO REPETITION Total A B C D 1269 Boys 5 102 639 523 1191 Girls 8 147 669 367 Per Cent of Total . 5 10. 1 53. 1 36. 2 Here the same pronounced tendency is disclosed for the occurrence ofother subsequent failures in the subjects closely similar. But for thisdistribution of grades, secured without any preceding repetitions, theunsuccessful result is 2. 2 per cent lower than that found for those whohad repeated. This group is not so large in numbers as the one above, and undoubtedly there is some distinct element of pupil selectioninvolved, for it is not easy to believe that the repetition should worka positive injury to the later grades. Nevertheless, our faith in theworth of unconditional repetitions should properly be disturbed by suchdisclosures. _c. The Grades in Repeated Subjects and in the New Work, for the SameSemester and the Same Pupils_ If it is granted that the teachers of the repeaters are equally good ascompared with the others, then the previous familiarity with the workthat is being repeated might be expected to serve as an advantage inits favor when compared with the new and advanced work in othersubjects. But the grades for the new and advanced work as presentedbelow, and the grades for the repeated subjects as presented earlier inthis chapter (section 1), deny the validity of such an assumption andgive us a different version of the facts. THE GRADES SECURED IN NEW WORK, AT SAME TIME AND BY SAME PUPILS AS THE GRADES SECURED IN THE REPEATED SUBJECTS Total A B C D 11, 029 Boys 256 2225 5543 3005 11, 941 Girls 198 2064 6604 3075 Per Cent of Total 1. 9 18. 6 53. 1 26. 4 The facts not only show a lower percentage (by 6. 9 per cent) ofunsuccessful grades in the new work, but they also show a higherpercentage of A's, of B's, and of C's than for the repeated subjects. There is definite suggestion here that often the particular subject offailure may be more responsible and more at fault than the particularpupil. Certainly uniformity and an arbitrary routine of tasks ignorethe individual differences of interests and abilities. But by theirgreater and their repeated failures in the same deficient subjects (seep. 66) these pupils seem to have reasserted stoutly the facts ignored. They have been asked to repeat and repeat again subjects which theyhave already indicated their unfitness to handle successfully. Thispursuance of an unsuccessful method is not good procedure in thebusiness world. The doctor does not employ such methods. _d. The Number and Results of Identical Repetitions_ It has become apparent before this that some pupils fail several timesand in identical subjects because of their unsuccessful repetitionsafter each failure. Final success might at times justify multipliedrepetitions, but in such instances it becomes increasingly importantthat the repetition should eventually end in success after the subjecthas been repeated two, three or four times. If such is not the result, then the method is at best a misdirection of energy; or still worse itis an irreparable error, expensive to the individual and the schoolalike, which only serves to accentuate the inequalities and perversionsof opportunity imposed by an arbitrary requirement of the samesubjects, the same methods, and the same scheme of education for allpupils alike, regardless of their capacities and interests. In usingthe term identical it is intended to designate just one unit of thecourse, as English I, or Latin II. The following table will disclosethe facts as to the success resulting from each number of suchsuccessive and identical repetitions per pupil. TABLE X THE NUMBERS AND RESULTS OF REPEATED REPETITIONS, FOR IDENTICAL SUBJECTS NO. OF Grades No Per Cent REPET. A B C D Grade Totals Failing 1 Boys 62 532 1727 880 216 3117 Girls 80 702 2329 1180 342 4633 32. 5 2 Boys 1 15 106 77 3 202 Girls 3 17 154 89 2 265 36. 6 3 Boys . . 0 26 33 0 59 Girls . . 5 19 36 3 63 59. 0 4 Boys . . . . 4 11 . . 15 Girls . . . . 8 25 . . 33 75. 0 5 Boys . . . . . . 2 . . 2 Girls . . . . . . 5 . . 5 100. 0 6 Boys . . . . . . 0 . . 0 Girls . . . . . . 2 . . 2 100. 0 Tot. Boys 63 547 1863 1003 219 3695 Girls 83 724 2510 1337 347 5001 Although a smaller number of pupils make each higher number ofrepetitions, a higher percentage of each successive group meets withfinal failure in the subject repeated, and the facts are indicative ofwhat should be expected however large the numbers making suchmultiplied repetitions. It seems almost incredible that pupils shouldanywhere be required or permitted to make the fourth, fifth, or sixthrepetition of subjects so manifestly certain of leading to furtherdisappointment. It must be understood, too, that five and sixrepetitions means six and seven times over the same school work. Theexistence of such a situation testifies to a sort of deep-seated faithin the dependence of the pupil's educational salvation on thesuccessful repetition of some particular school subject. It shows norecognition that the duty of the school is to give each pupil the typeof training best suited to his individual endowments and limitations, and at the same time in keeping with the needs of society. Suchindiscriminate repetition becomes a matter of thoughtless duplicatingand operates, first, to increase the economic, educational, and humanwaste, where the school is especially the agency charged withconserving the greatest of our national resources. Second, it operatesto fix more permanently the habit and attitude of failing for suchpupils, and bequeaths to society the fruit of such maladjustments, which cannot fail to function frequently and seriously in theproduction of industrial dissatisfactions and misfits later in life. Such probabilities are merely in keeping with the psychological factthat habits once established are not likely to be easily lost. Indiscriminate repetition is an expensive way of failing to do thething which it assumes to do. Surely one finds in the preceding pages rather slight grounds towarrant the almost unqualified faith in repetition such as the schoolpractice exhibits (Table X), or in the importance of the particularsubjects so repeated. There may be evidence in this faith and practiceof what Snedden[43] calls the "undue importance attached to thehistoric instruments of secondary education . .. Now taught mainlybecause of the ease with which they can be presented . .. And which mayhave had little distinguishable bearing on the future achievement ofthose young people so gifted by nature as to render it probable thatthey should later become leaders. " But such instruments will not lackdirect bearing on the productions of failures for pupils whoseinterests and needs are but remotely served by such subjects. A recent ruling in the department of secondary education, [44] in NewYork City, denies high school pupils permission "to repeat the samegrade and type of work for the third consecutive time" after failing asecond time. And further it is prescribed that "students who have failedtwice in any given grade of a foreign language should be dropped fromall classes in that language. " Our findings in this study will seem toverify the wisdom of these rulings. Another ruling that "students whohave failed successfully four prepared subjects should not be permittedto elect more than four in the succeeding term, " or if they "havepassed four subjects and failed in one, " should be permitted to takefive only provisionally, seems to judge the individual's capacitiespretty much in terms of failure. We have found that for approximately4, 000 repetitions with an extra schedule, however or by whomever theymay have been determined, the percentage getting A's and B's washigher and the percentage of failing was substantially lower than forapproximately 4, 700 repetitions with only three or four subjects foreach schedule. It does not appear that the number of subjects isuniformly the factor of prime importance, or that such a ruling willmeet the essential difficulty regarding failure. The failure in anysubject will more often tend to indicate a specific difficulty ratherthan any general lack of 'ability plus application' relative to thenumber of subjects. The maladjustment is not so often in the size ofthe load as in the kind or composition of the load for the particularindividual concerned. The burden is sometimes mastered by repeatedtrials. But often the particular adjustment needed is clearly indicatedby the antecedent failures. 2. DISCONTINUANCE OF SUBJECT OR COURSE, AND THE SUBSTITUTION OF OTHERS Earlier in this chapter appears the number and percentage of failureswhose disposition was effected by discontinuance or by substitution. Twenty-four and five-tenths per cent of the failures were accounted forin this way. This grouping happens to be a rather complex one. Many ofsuch pupils simply discontinue the course and then drop out of school. Some discontinue the subject but because they have extra credits takeno substitute for it; others substitute in a general way to secure theneeded credits but not specifically for the subject dropped. Only a fewshift their credits to another curriculum. In some instances thesubject is itself an extra one, and needs no substitute. For thegraduating pupils only about 5 per cent of the failures are disposed ofby discontinuing and by substitution of subjects. This fact may be dueto the greater economy in examinations, or to the relatively inflexibleschool requirements for completing the prescribed work by repetitionwhether for graduation or for college entrance. In only one school wasthere a tendency to discontinue the subject failed in. So far asfailures represent a definite maladjustment between the pupil and theschool subject, the substitution of other work would seem to be themost rational solution of the difficulty. A consideration of the success following a substitution of vocationalor shop subjects, to replace the academic subjects of failure, offersan especially promising theme for study. No opportunity was offered inthe scope of this study to include that sort of inquiry, but itspossibilities are recognized and acknowledged herein as worthy ofearnest attention. In only two of the eight schools was any shop-workoffered, and only one of these could probably claim vocational rank. Apart from the difficulty in reference to comparability of standards, there were not more than a negligible number of cases of suchsubstitution, due partly to the relative recency in the offering of anyvocational work. In this reference a report comes from W. D. Lewis of anactual experiment[45] in which "fifty boys of the school loafer type. .. Selected because of their prolific record in failure--as they hadproved absolute failures in the traditional course--were placed incharge of a good red-blooded man in a thoroughly equipped wood workshop. " "The shop failed to reach just one. " At the same time theacademic work improved. One cannot be sure of how much to credit thetype of work and how much the red-blooded man for such results. But wemay feel sure of further contributions of this sort in due time. 3. EMPLOYMENT OF SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS The school examinations employed to dispose of the failures are of twotypes. The 'final' semester examination, employed by certain schoolsand required of pupils who have failed, operates to remove the previousfailure for that semester of the subject. The success of this plan isnot high, because of the insufficient time available to make anyadequate reparation for the failures already charged. Of the 1, 657examinations of this kind to satisfy for failures, 30. 7 per cent resultin success. The boys are more successful than the girls by 4. 5 percent. This particular procedure is not employed by more than two of theeight schools. The other form of school examination employed fordisposing of failures is the special examination, usually followingsome definite preparation, and given at the discretion of the teacheror department head. Its employment seems also to be limited pretty muchto two of the schools, because for most of the subjects the Regents'examinations tend to displace it in the schools of the New York Stateand City systems. As only the successes were sure of being recorded inthese tests we do not know the percentage of success attributable tothis plan of removing failures. It probably deserves to be creditedwith a fairly high degree of success, for relatively few pupils (lessthan 200) utilize it, and then frequently after some extra preparationor study--such as summer school courses or tutoring. These two forms ofschool examinations jointly yield 37. 5 per cent of successes on thenumber attempted, so far as such are recorded. 4. THE SERVICE RENDERED BY THE REGENTS' EXAMINATIONS IN NEW YORK STATE Whatever may be the merits or demerits of the Regents' examinationsystem in general for academic school subjects, these tests certainlyperform a saving function for the failing pupils, by promptlyrectifying so many of their school failures and thus rescuing them fromthe burden of expensive repetition. A pupil's success in the Regents'examination has the immediate effect of satisfying the school failurecharged to him. At the same time, it is possible, as is sometimesasserted, that the anticipation of these tests inclines some teachersto a more gratuitous distribution of failing marks as a spur to theirpupils to brace up and perform well in reference to the Regents'questions. However, there is no trace of that policy found so far asthe schools included in this study are concerned. For the three NewJersey schools considered jointly have a higher percentage of failingpupils, and a slightly higher average in the number of failures foreach failing pupil than have the three New York State schools. But it is more probable that the attitude referred to operates toexclude the failing pupils from being freely permitted to enter theRegents' tests in the failing subjects, and thus to restrain them fromwhat threatens to lower the school percentage of successful papers, except that in New York City such discrimination is prohibited. [46] Onthe percentages of success for these examination results teachers andeven schools are wont to be popularly judged. Annual school reports mayfeature the passing percentage for the school in Regents' examinations, with a spirit of pride or rivalry, but with no word of what thatpercentage costs as real cost must be reckoned. It is interesting tonote in this connection that the percentage of unsuccessful repetitionsfor the three New Jersey schools is 13. 7 per cent lower than for thethree New York schools. In addition to this, for the latter schools 22per cent more of the subject failures are repeated than for the formerones mentioned. It is important also to bear in mind that the successpercentage for the Regents' tests is computed on the number admitted tothe examinations--not on the number instructed in the subject. Theregulations are flexible and admit of considerable latitude in mattersof classification and interpretation. Accordingly, if it happensanywhere in the state that those who are the less promising candidates, in the teacher's judgment, are debarred from attempting Regents'examinations by failing marks, by demotion and exclusion from theirclass, or by other means, the school's percentage of pupils passing maybe kept high as a result, but the injustice worked upon the pupil insuch manner is vicious and reprehensible. Yet the whole intolerablenessof the practice will center in the rule for exclusion of pupils fromthese examinations because of school failure. No one can predict withany safe degree of certainty that the outcome of any individual'sefforts will be a failure in the Regents' tests, even though he hasfailed in a school subject. If failure should happen to result, it ischiefly the school pride that suffers; if the pupil is denied a freetrial, he may suffer an injustice to aid the pretension of the school. Our school sanctions are not characterized by such acumen orinfallibility as to warrant our refusing to give a pupil the benefit ofthe doubt. He is entitled to his chance to win success in theseexaminations if he is able, and it appears that only results in theRegents' tests can be truly trusted to tell us that he is or is notable to pass them. The facts depicted here may lead to the belief that the recordedsuccess in Regents' examinations may sometimes be artificially high, due to the subtle influences at work to make it so. In New York Cityabsence is the sole condition for debarring any pupil, since he musthave pursued a subject the prescribed time. Such a ruling is highlycommendable, and it should not in fairness to the pupil be otherwiseanywhere in the state. The following distribution discloses that 72. 8per cent of the 3, 085 failing pupils who were recorded as taking theRegents' examinations were successful, and that 78 per cent of thosesucceeding passed in the same semester in which the school failureoccurred. SUCCESS OF THE FAILING PUPILS IN THE REGENTS' EXAMINATIONS Pass the Pass a Fail First, Same Semester Later Semester then Pass Only Fail 1333 Boys 809 143 38 343 1752 Girls 946 193 117 496 ------------------------------------------ Per Cent of Total 72. 8 27. 2 The divisions of the above distribution are distinct, with nooverlapping or double counting. Of the pupils who pass theseexaminations in a later semester than that in which the failure occurs, a major part belong to the two schools which restrict their pupilsmainly to a repetition of the subject after failing before they attemptthe Regents' tests. Otherwise many of them would pass the Regents'examinations at once, as in the other schools, and would not need torepeat the subject. It was pointed out in the initial part of thischapter that 3. 2 per cent of the instances of failure were followed byboth repetition and examination. In one of the two schools referred to90. 8 per cent of the pupils failing and later taking Regents'examinations repeat the subject first. That most of such repetition isalmost entirely needless is suggested by the fact that only 2. 1 percent more of their pupils pass, of the ones attempting, than of thetotal number reported above, and that too in spite of the loss ofpupils' time and public money by such repetition. It may be, anddoubtless is, true that an occasional omission occurs in recording theresults after such tests have been taken, but, since it is the avowedpolicy of each school to have complete records for their own constantreference (excepting that the practice of the smallest of the fiveunits was not to record the Regents' failures, and for this school theyhad to be estimated), the failing results would not be expected to beomitted more often than the successes, so that only the totals would beperceptibly affected by such errors. One may rightly be permitted to speculate a bit here as to the mostprobable reaction of the pupil in regard to his respect for the schoolstandards and for the judgment and opinion of his teacher, when he soreadily and repeatedly passes the official state tests almostimmediately after his school has classed his work as of failingquality. Perhaps it becomes easier for him to feel that failure is nota serious matter but an almost necessary incident that accompanies theexpectations of the usual school course, just as gout is sometimesregarded as a mere contingency of ease and plenty. If such be true, andthe evidence establishes a strong probability that it is, then it isnot a helpful attitude to develop in the pupil nor one of benefit tothe school and to society. 5. CONTINUATION OF SUBJECT WITHOUT REPETITION A limited number of records were available in one school for the pupilswho failed in the first semester of a subject, and who were permittedto continue the subject conditionally a second semester without firstrepeating it. Not all pupils were given this privilege, and theconditions of selection were not very definite beyond a sort of generalconfidence and promise relative to the pupil. The after-schoolconference was the only specific means provided for aiding such pupils. But 52 per cent of such subjects were passed in this manner, and thesubsequent passing compensated for the previous failure as to schoolcredit. GRADES FOR FAILING PUPILS WHO CONTINUE THE SUBJECT WITHOUT REPETITION A B C D 259 Boys . . 7 133 119 249 Girls . . 3 119 125 ------------------ Per Cent of Total . . 52 48 A difference of judgments may prevail as to the significance of thesefacts. Although the passing grades secured are not high, 52 per centhave thus been relieved from the subject repetition, which on theaverage results in 33. 3 per cent of failures, as has been noted insection 1 of this chapter. A much more ingenious device for enabling at least some pupils toescape the repetition and yet to continue the subject was discovered inone school, in which it had been employed. Briefly stated, the schemeinvolved a nominal passing grade of 70 per cent, but a passing averageof 75 per cent; and so long as the average was attained, the grade inone or two of the subjects might be permitted to drop as low as 60 percent. Then in the event of a lower average than 75 per cent, it mightbe raised by a new test in the favorite or easiest subject, rather thanin the low subject. By this scheme the grades could be so juggled as toescape repetition or other direct form of reparation in spite ofrepeated failures, unless perchance the grades fell below 60 per cent. By a change of administration in the school this whole scheme has beensuperseded. But it had been utilized to the extent that the records forthis school showed practically no repetitions for the failing pupils. A SUMMARY OF CHAPTER V Among the school agencies for disposing of the failures, repetition ofthe subject is the most extensively employed. Thirty-three and three-tenths per cent of the repeated grades arerepeated failures. Few of the repeaters take reduced schedules. The repeaters with an extra schedule are more successful in each of thepassing grades, and have 11. 4 per cent less failures than repeaterswith a normal or reduced schedule. In the later subjects of the same kind, after failure and repetition, the unsuccessful grades are 2. 2 per cent higher than for a similarsituation without any repetition. The grades in new work for repeaters are markedly superior to those inthe repeated subjects, for the same semester. As the number of identical repetitions are increased (as high as six), the percentage of final failure rapidly rises. The emphasis placed on repetition is excessive, and the faith displayedin it by school practice is unwarranted by the facts. Relatively few of the failing pupils who continue in school discontinuethe subject or substitute another after failure. School examinations are employed for 10. 3 per cent of the failures, with 37. 5 per cent of success on the attempts. The Regents' examinations are employed for 17. 2 per cent of thefailures, of which 72. 8 per cent succeed in passing, and in most casesimmediately after the school failure. Of those who continue the subject of failure without any repetition 52per cent get passing grades. No form of school compensation can be considered as adequate which doesnot adapt the treatment to the kind and cause of the malady, asmanifested by the failure symptoms. REFERENCES: 42. Briggs, T. H. Report on Secondary Education, U. S. Comm. Of Educ. Report, 1914. 43. Snedden, D. In Johnson's _Modern High School. _ II, 24, 26. 44. Official Bulletin on Promotion and Students' Programs, 1917, fromAssoc. Supt. In Charge of Secondary Schools, for N. Y. City. 45. Lewis, W. D. _Democracy's High School_, p. 45. 46. Ruling of Board of Supt's. , New York City, June, 1917. CHAPTER VI DO THE FAILURES REPRESENT A LACK OF CAPABILITY OR OF FITNESS FOR HIGHSCHOOL WORK ON THE PART OF THOSE PUPILS? In view of the fact that some of the pupils do not fail in any part oftheir school work, there is a certain popular presumption that failuremust be significant of pupil inferiority when it occurs. Thatconnotation will necessarily be correct if we are to judge theindividual entirely by that part of his work in which he fails, and toassume that the failing mark is a fair indication of both achievementand ability. Although the pupil is only one of the contributing factorsin the failure, nevertheless it happens that cherished opportunity, prizes, praise, honors, employment, and even social recognition arefrequently proffered or withheld according to his marks in school. Still further, the pupil who accumulates failures may soon cease to beaggressively alive and active; he is in danger of acquiring aconforming attitude of tolerance toward the experience of beingunsuccessful. Therefore it is particularly momentous to the pupil, should the school record ascribed to him prove frequently to beincongruous with his potential powers. It has already been pointed outin these pages that the failures frequently tend to designate specificdifficulties rather than what is actually the negative of 'ability plusapplication. ' This does not at all deny that in some instances thereappears to be the ability minus the application, and that in othercases the pupils are simple unfitted for the work required of them. 1. SOME ARE EVIDENTLY MISFITS There is a strong presumption that many of the 485 pupils who failed in50 per cent of their school work and dropped out (reported in ChapterIV) represent misfits for at least the kind of school subjects offeredor required. One cannot say that even hopeless failing in anyparticular subject is a safe criterion of general inability, or thatfailure in abstract sort of mental work would be a sure prophecy offailure in more concrete hand work. It is altogether probable that someof the individuals in the above number were not endowed to profit by anacademic high school course, and that others were the restless ones ata restless age, who just would not fit in, whatever their abilities. But even of these pupils a considerable number display sufficientresourcefulness to satisfy many of their failures and to persist inschool two, three, or four years. There are perhaps at least a fewothers who, without failing, drop out early, prompted by the convictionof their own unfitness to succeed in the high school. Yet collectivelythis group is by no means a large one. This conclusion is in harmonywith the judgment of former Superintendent Maxwell, of New YorkCity, [47] who stated that "the number of children leaving schoolbecause they have not the native ability to cope with high schoolstudies, is, in my judgment, small. " Likewise Van Denburg[48] reachedthe conclusion that "at least 75 per cent of the pupils who enter (highschool) have the brains, the native ability to graduate, if they choseto apply themselves. " With many who fail not even is the applicationlacking, as the facts of section 2 will seem to prove. 2. MOST OF THE FAILING PUPILS LACK NEITHER ABILITY OR EARNESTNESS When we take into account that by the processes of selection andelimination only thirty to forty per cent of the pupils who enter theelementary school ever reach high school, [49] it is readily admittedthat the high school population is a selected group, of approximately 1in 3. Then of this number we again select less than 1 in 3 to graduate. This gives a 1 in 9 selection, let us say, of the elementary schoolentrants. For relatively few general purposes in life may we expect tofind so high a degree of selection. Yet in this 1 in 9 group (whograduate) the percentage of the failing pupils is as high as that ofthe non-failing ones, and the percentage of graduates does not dropeven as the number of failures rise. So far as ability is required tomeet the conditions of graduation they are manifestly provided withit. Following this comparison still further, the failing pupils who donot graduate have an average number of failures that is only . 6 higherthan for the failing graduates (4. 9-4. 3); but barring thosenon-graduates considered in section 1 of this chapter, the average ispractically the same as for the failing graduates. Moreover, thefailing non-graduates continue in school, even in the face of failure, much longer than do the non-failing non-graduates. That gives evidenceof the same quality to which the manager of a New York business firmpaid tribute when he said that he preferred to employ a high schoolgraduate for the simple reason that the graduate had learned, bystaying to graduate, how to 'stick to' a task. The success of the failing pupils in passing the Regents' examinationsdoes not give endorsement to the suggestion that they are in any truesense weaklings. That they succeed here almost concurrently with thefailure in the school testifies that 'they can if they will, ' orconversely, as regards the school subject, that 'they can but theywon't. ' Of course it is possible that differences in the type ofexaminations or in the standards of judgment as employed by the schooland the Regents may be a factor in the difference of results secured. The great difficulty then seems to resolve itself into a technicalproblem of more successfully enlisting the energy and ability whichthey so irrefutably do possess in order to secure better schoolresults, but perhaps in work that is better adapted to them. Again, thesuccess with which these pupils carry a schedule of five or sixsubjects, besides other work not recognized in the treatment of thisstudy, and retrieve themselves in the unattractive subjects of failurepleads for a recognition of their ability and enterprise. Theirdifficulty is without doubt frequently more physiological thanpsychological, except as they are the victims of a false psychology, that either disregards or misapplies the principles which Thorndiketerms the law of readiness[50] to respond and the law of effect, andconsequently depend largely on the one law of exercise of the functionto secure the desired results. Some additional evidence that the failing pupils can and do succeed inmost of their subjects is provided by their earlier and later records, as disclosed by the total grades received for the semester firstpreceding and the one next following that in which the failure occurs. There were of course no preceding grades for the failures that occur inthe first semester, and none succeeding those that occur in the lastsemester spent in school. It is quite apparent from the followingdistribution of grades that these pupils are far from helpless inregard to the ability required to do school work in general. GRADES OF THE FAILING PUPILS IN THE SEMESTER NEXT PRECEDING THE FAILURES Total A B C D 13, 857 Boys 315 2883 6668 3991 17, 264 Girls 245 2868 9509 4642 Per Cent of Total 1. 8 18. 5 52. 0 27. 7 GRADES OF THE FAILING PUPILS IN THE SEMESTER NEXT SUCCEEDING THE FAILURES Total A B C D 14, 724 Boys 319 2772 7406 4227 16, 942 Girls 281 2788 9114 4759 Per Cent of Total 1. 9 17. 7 52. 1 28. 3 More than 20 per cent of the grades in the former and nearly 20 percent of the grades in the latter distribution are A's or B's, 52 percent more in each case are given a lower passing grade, whileapproximately 28 per cent in each distribution have failing grades. Though some tendency toward a continuity of failures is apparent, thereis also evident a pronounced tendency in the main for pupils tosucceed. That these same pupils could do better is not open to doubt. Teachers in two of the larger schools asserted that with many pupils akind of complacency existed to feel satisfied with a C, and to considergreater effort for the sake of higher passing marks as a waste of time. Such pupils openly advocate a greater number of subjects with at leasta minimum passing mark in each, in preference to fewer subjects and thehigher grades, which they claim count no more in essential credit thana lower passing grade. That attitude may account for some of the lowmarks as well as for some of the failures shown above, even though thepupils may possess an abundance of mental ability. Still another element, apart from the real ability of the pupils, which is contributory to school failures is found in punitive markingor in the giving of a failing grade for disciplinary effect. It isprobably a relatively small element, but it is difficult to establishany certain estimate of its amount. Numerous teachers are ready toassert its reality in practice. Two cases came directly to the author'spersonal attention by mere chance--one, by the frank statement of ateacher who had used this weapon; another, by the ready advice of anolder to a younger teacher, in the midst of recording marks, to fail aboy "because he was too fresh. " The advice was followed. Such apractice, however prevalent, is intolerable and indefensible. If theschool failure is to be administered as a retaliation or convenience bythe teacher, how is the moral or educational welfare of the pupil to beserved thereby? It is certain to be more efficacious for vengeance thanfor purposes of reforming the individual if employed in this way. TheRegents' rules take recognition of this inclination toward a perversionof the function of examination by forbidding any exclusion fromRegents' examinations as a means of discipline. Many teachers cultivatea finesse for discerning weaknesses and faults, without perceiving theimmeasurable advantage of being able to see the pupils' excellences. Inone school there was employed a plan by which a percentage discount wascharged for absence, and in some instances it reduced a passing mark toa failing mark. This comes close to the assignment of marks of failurefor penalizing purposes, which is unjustified and vicious. It is certain that some of the pupils are failures only in the narrowacademic sense. Information in reference to a few such cases wasvolunteered by principals, without any effort being made to trace suchpupils in general. One of the pupils in this study who had graduatedafter failing 23 times, was able to enter a reputable college, and hadreached the junior year at the time of this study. Two others with arecord of more than 20 failures each had made a decided success inbusiness--one as an automobile salesman and manager, the other in atelegraph office. It is not unrecognized that the school has manynotable failures to indicate how even the fittest sometimes do notsurvive the school routine. Among such cases were Darwin, Beecher, Seward, Pasteur, Linnaeus, Webster, Edison, and George Eliot, who wereclassed by their schools as stupid or incompetent. [51] In reference tothe pupil's responsibility for the failures, Thorndike remarks[52] that"something in the mental or social and economic status of the pupil whoenters high school, or in the particular kind of education given in theUnited States, is at fault. The fact that the elimination is so greatin the first year of the high school gives evidence that a large shareof the fault lies with the kind of education given in the UnitedStates. " Some of the facts for those are not eliminated so early arestill more definitely indicative that something is wrong with the kindof education given, as the facts of the following section seem to pointout. 3. THE SCHOOL EMPHASIS AND THE SCHOOL FAILURES ARE BOTH CULMINATIVE INPARTICULAR SCHOOL SUBJECTS As soon as we find any subject forced upon all pupils alike as a schoolrequirement we may be quite sure that it will not meet the demands ofthe individual aptitudes and capacities of some portion of thosepupils. As a result an accumulation of failures will tend to mark outsuch a uniformly required subject, whether it be mathematics, scienceor Latin. It was pointed out in section 4 of Chapter II that Latin andmathematics, although admittedly in charge of teachers ranking with thebest, have both a high percentage of the total failures and the highestpercentage of failures reckoned on the number taking the subject. Inboth regards there is a heaping up of failures for those two subjects, but furthermore there is an arbitrary emphasis culminating in these twosubjects beyond any others excepting that English is a very generallyrequired subject. In reference to these two required subjects thepupils who graduate are not more successful than those who do not. Whenthe emphasis is on the teaching of the subject rather than on theteaching of the pupil there is no incongruity in making the subject arequirement for all, but both are incongruous with what psychology hasmore lately recognized and pointed out as to the wide range ofindividual differences. A similar situation is evidenced by thepercentage of failure in science as reported for the St. Louis highschool in Chapter II. A year of physics had been made compulsory forall, and taught in the second year. [53] Its percentage of failuresaccordingly mounts to the highest place. Mr. Meredith, who conductedthat portion of the survey, rightly regards the policy as a mistake, and recommends that the needs of individual pupils be considered. It is indeed striking how failures of the pupils are grouped underparticular subjects of difficulty, and how the pupils fail again andagain in the same general subject. No educational expert would seem tobe needed to diagnose a goodly number of these chronic cases of failingand to detect a productive source of the whole trouble if only thefollowing distribution were presented to him. DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF TIMES THEY HAVE FAILED IN THE SAME SUBJECT No. Of Times 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 Boys 2852 1416 425 196 73 25 2 4 1 1 1 0 1 Girls 2812 1722 501 250 98 31 7 8 3 1 0 3 0 By 'same subjects' the same general divisions are designated, asEnglish, Latin, mathematics. We may be led to note first that a majorportion of the above distribution of pupils belongs to those who failbut once in the same subject; but then we note that by far the greaternumber of failures comprised by that distribution belong to those whofail two or more times in the same subject. To state that fact morespecifically, 68. 5 per cent of the total 17, 960 failures involved inthis study are made by two or more failures in the same subject, while31. 5 per cent of the failures belong to a more promiscuous and variedcollection of failures, of not more than one in any subject. It will benoted here that some subjects do not have a greater continuity than oneyear or even one semester on the school program. Such subjects providethe least possibility of successive failures in the same field. Afurther analysis shows that the failures incurred by three or moreinstances occurring in the same subject form 33. 6 per cent of theentire number; and that 18 per cent of the total is comprised of fouror more instances of failure in the same subject. There is smallprobability that such a multiplication of failures by subjects willcharacterize the subjects which are least productive of failures ingeneral, and such is not the case in fact. Latin and mathematics areagain the chief contributors, and this would seem to be a fact also forthose schools quoted from outside of this study, for purposes ofcomparison in Chapter II. The above distribution speaks with graphic eloquence of how the schooltends to focus emphasis on the subject prescribed and then to demandthat the pupil be fitted or become fitted to the courses offered. Suchheaping up of failures will more likely mark those subjects which seemto the pupil to be furthest from meeting his needs and appealing to hisinterests. In two of the schools studied, an X, Y, and Z division was formed incertain difficult subjects for the failing pupils, by which they takethree semesters to complete two semesters of work. This plan, as judgedby results, is obviously insufficient for such pupils and tends toprove further that the kind of work is more at fault in the matter offailing than is the amount. Frequently a pupil who fails in the Asemester (first) will also fail in the X division of that subject as herepeats it, while at the same time his work is perhaps not inferior inthe other subjects. The data for these special divisions were not keptdistinct in transcribing the records, so that it is not possible tooffer the tabulated facts here. There are numerous recognizedillustrations of how some pupils find some particular subject ashistory, mathematics, or language distinctively difficult for them. 4. AN INDICTMENT AGAINST THE SUBJECT-MATTER AND THE TEACHING ENDS, ASFACTORS IN PRODUCING FAILURES The evidence already disclosed to the effect that the high schoolentrants are highly selected, that few of the failing pupils lacksufficient ability for the work, that they have manifested theirability and energy in diverse ways, and that particular subjects areunduly emphasized and by the uniformity of their requirement cause muchmaladjustment, largely contributing to the harvest of failures, seemsto warrant an indictment against both the subject-matter and theteaching ends for factoring so prominently in the production offailures. There is clearly an administrative and curriculum probleminvolved here in the sense that not a few of the failures seem torepresent the cost at which the machinery operates. This is in no senseintended as a challenge to any subject to defend its place in the highschool curriculum, but it is meant to challenge the policy of theindiscriminate requirement of any subject for all pupils, allowing onlythat English of some kind will usually be a required subject for thegreat majority of the pupils. It is simply demanded that Latin andmathematics shall stand on their own merits, and that the same shallapply to history and science or other subjects of the curriculum. Sofar as they are taught each should be taught as earnestly and asefficiently as possible; but it should not be asked that any teachertake the responsibility for the unwilling and unfitted members of aclass who are forced into the subject by an arbitrary ruling whichregards neither the motive, the interest or the fitness of theindividual. This indictment extends likewise to the teaching method or purposewhich focalizes the teachers' attention and energy chiefly on thesubject. Certain basic assumptions, now pretty much discredited, haveled to the avowed teaching of the subject for its own sake, and oftenwithout much regard to any definite social utility served by it. Thischarge seems to find an instance in the handling of the subject ofEnglish so that 16. 5 per cent of all the failures are contributed byit, without giving even the graduate a mastery of direct, forcefulspeech, as is so generally testified. Strangely enough, except in thelight of such teaching ends, the pupils who stay through the upperyears and to graduate have more failures in certain subjects than thenon-graduates who more generally escape the advanced classes of thesesubjects. The traditional standards of the high school simply do notmeet the dominant needs of the pupils either in the subject-content orin the methods employed. Some of these traditional methods and studiesare the means of working disappointment and probably of inculcating agenuine disgust rather than of furnishing a valuable kind ofdiscipline. The school must provide more than a single treatment forall cases. In each subject there must be many kinds of treatment forthe different cases in order to secure the largest growth of theindividuals included. This does not in any sense necessitate thedisplacement of thoroughness by superficiality or trifling, but on thecontrary greater thoroughness may be expected to result, as helpfuladaptations of method and of matter give a meaningful and purposefulmotive for that earnest application which thoroughness itself demands. SUMMARY OF CHAPTER VI The pupil is but one of several factors involved in the failure, yetthe consequences are most momentous for him. The pupils who lack native ability sufficient for the work are not alarge number. The high school graduates represent about a 1 in 9 selection of theelementary school entrants, but in this group is included as high apercentage of the failing pupils as of the non-failing ones. The success of the failing pupils in the Regents' examinations, andalso in their repeating with extra schedules, bears witness to theirpossession of ability and industry. In the semester first preceding and that immediately subsequent to thefailure, 72 per cent of all the grades are passing, 20 per cent are A'sor B's. Many of them "can if they will. " The early elimination of pupils, the number that fail, and the notablecases of non-success in school are evidence of something wrong with thekind of education. The characteristic culmination of failures for Latin and mathematicscan hardly be considered a part of the pupils' responsibility. Of all the failures 68. 5 per cent are incurred by instances of two ormore failures in the same subject. Much maladjustment of the subject assignments is almost inevitable by aprescribed uniformity of the same content and the same treatment forall. The traditional methods and emphasis probably account for moredisappointment and disgust than for valuable discipline. REFERENCES: 47. Maxwell, W. H. _A Quarter Century of Public School Development_, p. 88. 48. Van Denburg, J. K. _The Elimination of Pupils from Public SecondarySchools_, p. 183. 49. Annual Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1917. 50. Thorndike, E. L. _Educational Psychology_, Vol. II, Chap. I. 51. Swift, E. J. _Mind in the Making_, Chap. I. 52. Thorndike, E. L. _Elimination of Pupils from School_, U. S. Bull. 4, 1907. 53. Meredith, A. B. _Survey of the St. Louis Public Schools_, 1917, Vol. III, pp. 51, 40. CHAPTER VII WHAT TREATMENT IS SUGGESTED BY THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE FACTS OF FAILURE? It is not the purpose of this chapter to formulate conclusions that arearbitrary, fixed, or all-complete. There are definite reasons why thatshould not be attempted. The author merely undertakes to apply certainwell recognized and widely accepted principles of education and ofpsychology, as among the more important elements recommendingthemselves to him in any endeavor to derive an adequate solution forthe situation disclosed in the preceding chapters. The significance ofthose preceding chapters in reference to the failures of the highschool pupils is not at all conditioned by this final chapter. Since asa problem of research the findings have now been presented, it ispossible that others may find the basis therein for additional ordifferent conclusions from the ones suggested here. For such personsChapter VII need not be considered an inseparable or essentiallyintegral part of this report on the field of the research. Indeed thepurpose of this study will not have been served most fully until it hasbeen made the subject of discussion and of criticism; and the treatmentthat is recommended here will not necessarily preclude othersuggestions in the general effort to devise a solution or solutionsthat are the most satisfactory. It appears from the analysis made in Chapter VI of the pupils'capability and fitness relative to the school failures that it isimpossible to make any definite apportionment of responsibility to thepupils, until we have first frankly faced and made an effectivedisposition of the malfunctioning and misdirection as found in theschool itself. It does not follow from this that any radicalapplication of surgery need be recommended, but instead, a practicaland extended course of treatment should be prescribed, which will havedue regard for the nature and location of the ills to be remedied. Anything less than this will seem to be a mere external salve and leaveuntouched the chronic source of the systematic maladjustment. It is notassumed that a school system any more than any other institution ormachine can be operated without some loss. But the failure of theschool to make a natural born linguist pass in a subject of technicalmathematics is perhaps unfortunate only in the thing attempted and inthe uselessness of the effort. We must take into account at the very beginning the fundamental truthstated by Thorndike, [54] that "achievement is a measure of ability onlyif the conditions are equal. " Corollary to that is the fact that thesame uniform conditions and requirements are often very unequal asapplied to different individuals. The equalization of educationalopportunity does not at all mean the same duplicated method or contentfor all. That interpretation will controvert the very spirit andpurpose of the principle stated. Any inflexible scheme which attemptsto fashion all children into types, according to preconceived notions, and whose perpetuity is rooted in a psychology based on the uniformityof the human mind, simply must give way to the newer conception whichharmonizes with the psychic laws of the individual, or else continue towaste much time and energy in trying to force pupils to accomplishthose things for which they have neither the capacity nor theinclination. It is accordingly obligatory on the school to giveintelligent and responsive recognition to the wide differentiation ofsocial demands, and to the extent and the continuity of the individualdifferences of pupils. 1. ORGANIZATION AND ADAPTATION IN RECOGNITION OF THE INDIVIDUALDIFFERENCES IN ABILITIES AND INTERESTS If the school failures are to be substantially reduced, the teaching ofthe school subjects with the chief emphasis on the pupil must surelyreplace the practice of teaching the subjects primarily for their ownsake. This 'subject first' treatment must give place to the 'pupilfirst' idea. No subject then will overshadow the pupil's welfare, andthe pupil will not be subjected to the subject. Education in terms ofsubject-matter is well designed to produce a large crop of failures. Neither the addition or subtraction of subjects is urged primarily, but the adaptation and utilization of the school agencies so as to makethe pupils as efficient and as productive as possible, by recognizingfirst of all their essential lack of uniformity in reference tocapacities and interests, --not only as between different individuals, but in the same individual at different ages, at different stages ofmaturity, and in different kinds of subjects. This conception precludesthe school employment of subjects and methods for all alike which areobviously better adapted to the younger than to the older. Neither doesit overlook the fact that the attitude of more mature pupils towardauthority and discipline is essentialy different from that of theyounger boys and girls; that a subject congenial to some pupils will beintolerable and nearly if not quite impossible for others; or that anappeal designed mainly to reach the girls will not reach boys equallywell. In brief, the treatment proposed here is neither radical nornovel, but it is simply the institution of applied psychology aspertaining to school procedure. What the more modern experimentalpsychology has established must be utilized in the school, at theexpense of the more obsolete and traditional. Psychology now generallyrecognizes the existence of what the general school procedure impliesdoes not exist, namely, the wide range of individual differences. The situation clearly demands that our public schools shall not, byclinging to precedent and convention, fall notably behind industry andgovernment in appropriating the fruits of modern scientific research. As the doctor varies the diet to the needs of each patient and eachaffliction, so must the school serve the intellectual and social needsof the pupils by such an organization and attitude that the selectionof subjects for each pupil may take an actual and specific regard ofthe individual to be served. The change all important is notnecessarily in the school subject or curriculum, but rather a change inthe attitude as to how a subject shall be presented--to whom and bywhom. The latter will also determine the character of the pupil'sresponse and the subject's educational value to him. By securing agenuine response from the pupils a subject or course of study isthereby translated into pupil achievement and human results. Theauthority of the school is impotent to get these results by merelycommanding them or by requiring all to pursue the same subject. Anexperience, in order to have truly educational value, must come withinthe range of the pupils comprehension and interest. Quoting Newman, [55]"To get the most out of an experience there must be more or lessunderstanding of its better possibilities. The social and ethicalimplications must somewhere and at some time be lifted very definitelyinto conscious understanding and volition. " The pupil's responsivenessis then much more important both for securing results and for reducingfailures than is any subject content or method that is not effective insecuring a tolerable and satisfying sort of mental activity. 2. FACULTY STUDENT ADVISERS FROM THE TIME OF ENTRANCE Not only the failure of pupils in their school subjects but the failurealso of 13 per cent of them to remain in school even to the end of thefirst semester, or of 23. 1 per cent to remain beyond the first semester(Tables V and VI)--of whom a relatively small number had failed (about¼)--make a strong appeal for the appointment of sympathetic and helpfulteachers as student advisers from the very time of their entrance. Oneteacher is able to provide personal advice and educational guidance forfrom 20 to 30 pupils. The right type of teachers, their earlyappointment, and the keeping of some sort of confidential andunofficial record, all seem highly important. Superintendent Maxwell mentioned among the reasons why pupils leaveschool[56] that "they become bewildered, sometimes scared, by thestrange school atmosphere and the aloofness of the high schoolteachers. " There is a strangeness that is found in the transition tohigh school surroundings and to high school work which certainly shouldnot be augmented by any further handicap for the pupil. There are nofixed limitations to what helpfulness the advisers may render in theway of 'a big brother' or 'big sister' capacity. It is all incidentaland supplementary in form, but of inestimable value to the pupils andthe school. A further service that is far more unusual than difficultmay be performed by the pupils who are not new, in the way of removingstrangeness for those who are entering what seems to them a sort of newesoteric cult in the high school. The girls of the Washington IrvingHigh School[55] of New York City recently put into practice a plan togive a personal welcome to each entering girl, and a personal escortfor the first hour, including the registration and a tour of thebuilding, in addition to some friendly inquiries, suggestions, andintroductions. The pupil is then more at home in meeting the teacherslater. Here is the sort of courtesy introduced into the school thatcommercial and business houses have learned to practice to avoid theloss of either present or prospective customers. Some day the schoolmust learn more fully that the faith cure is much cheaper than surgeryand less painful as well. 3. GREATER FLEXIBILITY AND DIFFERENTIATION REQUIRED The recognition of individual differences urged in section 1necessitates a differentiation and a flexibility of the high schoolcurriculum that is limited only by the social and individual needs tobe served, the size of the school, and the availability of means. Therigid inflexibility of the inherited course of study has contributedperhaps more than its full share to the waste product of theeducational machinery. The importance of this change from compulsionand rigidity toward greater flexibility has already received attentionand commendation. One authority[57] states that "one main cause of(H. S. ) elimination is incapacity for and lack of interest in the sortof intellectual work demanded by the present courses of study, " andfurther that "specialization of instruction for different pupils withinone class is needed as well as specialization of the curriculum fordifferent classes. " There must be less of the assumption that thepupils are made for the schools, whose regime they must fit or elsefail repeatedly where they do not fit. Theoretically considerableprogress has already been made in the differentiation of curricula, butin practice the opportunity that is offered to the pupils to profitthereby is curtailed, because of the rigid organization of courses andthe uniform requirements that are dictated by administrativeconvenience or by the college entrance needs of the minority. The onlypermissible limitations to the variables of the curriculum should besuch as aim to secure a reasonable continuity and sequence of subjectsin one or more of the fields selected. One of the chief barriers to amore general flexibility has been the notion of inequality between theclassical and all other types of education. This assumption has had itsfoundations heavily shaken of late. The quality of response which itelicits has come to receive precedence over the name by which a subjecthappens to be classified. "France has come out boldly and recognized atleast officially the exact parity between the scientific education andthe classical education. "[58] Indeed one may doubt whether this paritywill ever again be seriously questioned, because of the elevation ofscientific training and accomplishment in the great world wars as wellas in its adaptation for the direct and purposeful dealing with theproblems of modern life. Especially for the early classes in the highschool does the situation demand a relatively flexible curriculum, elsethe only choice will be to drop out to escape drudgery or failure. Inglis maintains that the selective function of the high school mayoperate by a process of differentiation rather than by a wholesaleelimination. [59] The pupil surely cannot know in advance what he isbest fitted for, but the school must help him find that out, if it isto render a very valuable service, and one at all comparable to thesuccess of the industrial expert in utilizing his material and inminimizing waste. The junior high school especially aims to performthis function that is so slighted in the senior high school. Yetneither the organization nor the purpose of the two are so far apart asto excuse the helplessness of the latter in this important duty. There is apparently no constitutional impediment to a still furtherextension of the principle of flexibility and to the minimizing of lossby what has been a costly trial and error method of fitting the pupilsand the subjects to each other. Short unit courses are not unfamiliarin certain educational fields, and they lend themselves very readily todefinite and specific needs. Their usefulness may be regarded as awarrant of a wider adoption of them. Although they are as yet employedmainly for an intensive form of training or instruction to meetspecific needs of a particular group in a limited time, [60] theprinciple of their use is no longer novel. A unit course of anextensive nature is also conceivable, for instance, a semester of anysubject entitled to two credits might allow a division into twoapproximately equal portions. If then both teacher and pupil feel, whenone unit is completed, that the pupil is in the wrong subject or thathis work is hopeless in that subject, he might be permitted towithdraw and be charged with a failure of only one point, that is, justone-half the failure of a semester's work in the subject--or one-fourththat for a whole year with no semester divisions. Even if this schemewould not work equally well in all subjects, it implies no extensivereorganization to employ it in the ones adapted. It is not incrediblethat, as the people more generally understand that physics, chemistry, and biology have become vital to national self-preservation and socialwell-being, their emphasis as subjects required or as subjects soughtby most of the pupils may lead to a high percentage of failures, suchas is found for Latin and mathematics usually, or for science asreported in St. Louis, where it was required of all and yielded thehighest percentage of failures. Now the teaching of most sciences bythe unit plan will comprise no greater difficulty than is involved inovercoming text-book methods and the conservatism of convention. Theproject device, as employed in vocational education, will also lenditself in many instances to the unit division of work. The firstconsequence of this plan will be a reduction of failures for the pupilin those subjects whose continued pursuit would mean increased failure. The second consequence may be to relieve teachers of hopeless cases ofmisfit in any subject, for if the pupils no longer have intolerablesubjects imposed on them the teachers will come to demand onlytolerable work in the subjects of their choice. The third consequencewill probably be to encourage pupils to find themselves by trying outsubjects at less risk of such cumulative failures as are disclosed insection 3 of the preceding chapter. 4. PROVISION FOR THE DIRECTION OF THE PUPILS' STUDY The forms of treatment suggested in the first three sections of thischapter for the diminution of failures will find their naturalculmination of effectiveness in a plan for helping the pupils to helpthemselves. This has been notably lacking in most school practice. Every improvement of the school adaptation still assumes that thepupils are to apply themselves to honest, thorough study. But the highschool must bear in mind that good studying implies good teaching. Itcannot be trusted to intuition or to individual discovery. Real, earnest studying is hard work. The teachers have usually presupposedhabits of study on the part of the pupils, but one of the importantlessons for the school to teach the pupil is how to use his mind andhis books effectively and efficiently. Even the simplest kinds ofapprenticeship instruct the novice in the use of each device and in thehandling of each tool to a degree which the school most oftendisregards when requiring the pupil to use even highly abstract andcomplex instrumentalities. The practice of the school almost glorifiesdrudgery as a genuine virtue. E. R. Breslich refers to this fact, [61]saying, "so it happens that the preparation for the classwork, not theclasswork itself burdens the lives of the pupils. " The indefensiblenessof the indiscriminate lesson giving consists in the fact that it is notthe load but the harness that is too heavy. The harness is moreexhausting and burdensome than the load appointed. The destinationsought and the course to be followed in the lesson preparation are verymany times not clearly indicated, lest the discipline, negative andrepressive though it be, should be extracted from the struggle. Thefact is that discouragement and failure are too often the best oftestimony that teachers are not much concerned about how the pupilemploys his time or books in studying a lesson. The point isillustrated admirably by the report in the _Ladies Home Journal_, forJanuary, 1913, of a request from a hardworking widow that the teacherof one of her children in school try teaching the child instead of justhearing the lessons which the mother had taught. Directing the pupils' study is sometimes regarded as a more or lessformalized scheme of organization and procedure, which requires extratime, extra teachers, and a lesser degree of independence on the partof the pupils. But here too the important things are differentiationand specific direction as adapted to the needs of the subject, thetopic or the pupils. It must be insisted that supervised study is notthe same thing in all schools, in all subjects, or for all pupils. Inother words, its very purpose is defeated if it is overformalized. Anexperiment is reported by J. H. Minnick with two classes in planegeometry, [62] of practically the same size, ability, and time allowancefor study, which indicated that the supervised pupils were the lessdependent as judged by their success in tests consisting of newproblems. The pupils also liked the method, in spite of their earlyopposition, and no one failed, while two of the unsupervised classfailed. William Wiener also speaks of the wonderful self-control whichsprings from the supervised study program. [63] As to the need of extrateachers for the purpose there is not much real agreement, since theplans of adaptation are so different in themselves. Increased labor forthe same teachers will rightly imply greater renumeration. Colvin makesmention of the additional expense imposed by the larger force ofteachers required. [64] But J. S. Brown finds that the failures are solargely reduced that with fewer repeaters there is a consequent savingin the teaching force. [65] With a faculty of 66 teachers, he reports 38classes in which there was no failure, and a marked reduction offailures in general by the use of supervised study. It is interestingand significant to note here that by allowing 100 daily pupilrecitations to the teacher the repeated subjects reported in this studywould require 87 teachers for one semester or 11 teachers for the fullfour years. This fact represents more than $50, 000 in salaries alone. Buildings, equipment, heat, and other expenses will more than doublethe amount. But such expense is incomparable with what the pupils payin time, in struggles, and in disappointment in order to succeed laterin only 66. 7 per cent of the subjects repeated. As none of the eightschools provided anything more definite than a general after schoolhour for offering help, and which often has a punitive suggestion toit, the possibility of saving many of these pupils from failure andrepetition by the wise and helpful direction of their study is simplyunmeasured. A conclusion that is particularly encouraging is reportedby W. C. Reavis to the effect that the poorer pupils--the ones who mostneed the direction--are the ones that supervised study helps themost. [66] There is nothing novel in saying that good teaching and goodstudying are but different aspects of the same process, but it would bean innovation to find this conception generally realized in the schoolpractice. 5. A GREATER RECOGNITION AND EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS AS REVEALED BYACCURATE AND COMPLETE SCHOOL RECORDS It is unfortunate that the detailed and complete records which tell thewhole story about the failures in the school and for the individual arefound in relatively few schools, even when on all sides businessenterprises find a complete system of detailed records, filed andindexed, altogether indispensable for their intelligent operation andadministration. The school still proceeds in its sphere too much bychance and faith, forgetting mistakes and recalling successes. This ispossible because there is no question of self-support or of solvency toface, and because neither the teachers nor the institution are indanger of direct financial loss by their waste, duplication, orfailures. In the absence of records it is always possible to calmlyassume that the facts are not so bad as for other schools which doreport their recorded facts. The prevailing unfamiliarity withstatistical methods may also favor a skepticism as to their properapplication to education, since it is not an exact science. But thefact remains established that it is always possible to measurequalitative differences if stated in terms of their quantitativeamounts. Admirable and complete as are the records for the many schools of theminority group possessing them, their more general value andinformation are still quite securely hidden away in the files whichcontain them. Peculiarly interesting was the surprise expressed by theprincipals at the extensive and significant information which their ownschool records provided, when they received individual reports on thedata collected and tabulated for this study. Yet they received only theportions of the tabulations which seemed most likely to interest them. The principals do not have the time or the assistance to study in acollective way the facts which are provided by their own records, butthey are entitled to much credit for so courteously cooperating withany competent person for utilizing their records for approved purposesand in turn sharing their results with the school. To proceed wisely inthe administration of the school we must have a chance to know anddiscuss the facts. It is not possible to know the facts withoutadequate records. The absence of evidence gives prominence to opinionand precedent. Accordingly, it is entirely incredible that the number, the repetition, and the accumulation of failures would remain unchangedafter a fair exposition and discussion of the evidence presented in acollective and comprehensive form. It may be necessary to admit that afew teachers will hold opinions so strong that they will discredit alltestimony not in support of such opinions. But the high schoolteachers in general seem fairly and earnestly disposed, even aboutrevising their notions concerning the truth in any situation. In regardto the relative number and time of the failures, the actual andrelative success in repeated work, the advantage of repetition forlater work, the relation of success to the size of the schedule, theinfluence of the number of failures on graduation, and numbers of othervital facts, it could be said of the teachers in general that theysimply knew not what they were doing. They even thought they were doingwhat they were not. The school records must be disclosed and utilizedmore fully if their value and importance are to be realized. It will bea large source of satisfaction if this report helps to direct attentionto the official school records, from which a frequent 'trial balance'will help to rectify and clarify the school practice. Both are needed. SUMMARY OF CHAPTER VII The contributing factors found in the school must first be remedied, before responsibility for the failures can be fairly apportioned to thepupils. The provision of uniform conditions for all is based on the falsedoctrine of the uniformity of the human mind. Such conditions may provevery unequal for some individuals, and achievement is not then a realmeasure of ability. By applying a functioning psychology to school practice, moreadaptation and specialization are required to meet the individualdifferences of pupils. No change of subjects is in general necessitated, but a change of theattitude which subjects pupils to the subjects seems essential. The genuineness of the pupil's response depends on the pupil and thesubject. A policy of coercion will usually beget only dislike orfailure. Properly selected student advisers, appointed early, may transform theschool for the pupil, save the pupil for the school, and his work fromfailures. A relatively high degree of flexibility and specialization of thecurriculum will help the pupil find what he is best fitted for, andthereby minimize waste. This will include a virtual parity between theclassical and scientific subjects. The reduction of some subjects to smaller units will tend to facilitateflexibility and a reduction of failures. The provision of directed study will help the pupils to helpthemselves. Good teaching demands it. The harness is often heavier thanthe load. Failures are inevitable. The plan of study direction must be varied according to the varyingneeds of pupils, subjects, and schools. The poorer pupils are aidedmost. They are made even more reliant on themselves. The reduction offailures tends to balance any added expense. Records adequate and complete should be a part of the business andeducational equipment of every school. The exposition and use of thesefacts as recorded will then give direction to school progress, anddethrone the authority of assumption and opinion. REFERENCES: 54. Thorndike, E. L. _Individuality_, pp. 38, 51. 55. Neuman, H. _Moral Values in Secondary Education_, United StatesBureau of Education Bulletin, No. 51, 1917, pp. 18, 17. 56. Maxwell, W. H. _A Quarter Century of Public School Development_, p. 89. 57. Thorndike, E. L. _The Elimination of Pupils from School_, U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 4, 1907, p. 10. 58. Farrington, F. E. _French Secondary Schools_, p. 124. 59. Inglis, A. _Principles of Secondary Education_, p. 669. 60. Committee of N. E. A. _Vocational Secondary Education_, U. S. Bureauof Education Bulletin No. 21, 1916, p. 58. 61. Breslich, E. R. _Supervised Study as Supplementary Instruction, Thirteenth Yearbook_, p. 43. 62. Minnick, J. H. "The Supervised Study of Mathematics, " _SchoolReview_, 21-670. 63. Wiener, W. "Home Study Reform, " _School Review_, 20-526. 64. Colvin, S. S. _An Introduction to High School Teaching_, p. 366. 65. Brown, J. S. _School and Home Education_, February, 1915, p. 207. 66. Reavis, W. C. "Supervised Study, " in Parker's _Methods of Teachingin the High School_, p. 398. VITA FRANCIS PAUL OBRIEN was born at Overton, Pa. , November 12, 1885. He received his early education in the village school of Overton, Pa. , and graduated from the high school at Wilkesbarre, Pa. , in 1904. He wasa student at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. , receiving the Bachelor ofArts degree in 1908. He was a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1915 to 1918, receiving the degree of Masterof Arts in Education in 1916. During 1908-09 he was high school teacher of science and history atSouth River, N. J. ; 1909-10, principal of the high school, and 1910-15superintendent of schools at South River, N. J. He received honors and held offices in college as follows: Competitiveprize scholarship at Lafayette College, and junior oratorical prize atthe same college, 1907; officer in college debating club, 1907-1908;vice-president of Y. M. C. A. , Teachers College, 1907; member of Columbiachapter, Phi Delta Kappa, 1917.