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THE FUND FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION

Established by The Ford Foundation

BRIDGING THE GAP

BETWEEN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE

A Progress Report on Four Related Projects Supported by

the Fund for the Advancement of Education M'.o YV, k

EVALUATION REPORT NO. 1

June, 1953

Prepared by the Research Division of the Fund for the j
Advancement of Education, in cooperation with the participants

V TT> T> A t)tf

THE BOARD Owen J. Roberts,
Former Associate Ji
OF

Barry Bingham
DIRECTORS President, The Couri<
and Louisville Times

Ralph J. Bunche
Director, Division of

United Nations

Charles D. Dicke 1
Director and Vice-Pr
J. P. Morgan & Comj

James H. Douglas,
Gardner, Carton and
Chicago, Illinois

Alvin C. Eurich
Vice-President, The I
the Advancement of,

Clarence H. Faus'
President, The Fund
the Advancement of '.

PREFACE

private foundation dedicated to the advancement of
education acts as a magnet for good ideas. Within one
year after its establishment by the Ford Foundation in April,
1951, the Fund for the Advancement of Education had received
requests for grants to support studies, experiments and on-going
programs — most of them meritorious — totaling over $300,-
000,000 or nearly twenty times the Fund's available resources in
that period.

To provide a basis for choosing among attractive alternatives
and to insure a cumulative impact on important educational prob-
lems rather than a random dispersal of effort, the directors and
officers of the Fund, after consultation with many experienced
and thoughtful persons engaged in education, selected several
critical problem areas in American education upon which to con-
centrate immediate attention. These include: 1) clarification of
educational philosophy; 2) clarification of the function of the
various parts of the educational system and the improvement of
the articulation of these parts; 3) improvement of the prepara-

tion of teachers at all levels of the educational system; 4) improve-
ment of opportunities for education in the Armed Services of the
country; and 5) development of financial support for educational
institutions.*

A corollary to the Fund's decision to concentrate upon prom-
ising experiments and developments within a few vital problem
areas was the decision that each project should be closely studied
and evaluated as it progressed, so that useful lessons learned could
be made generally available. Accordingly, evaluation programs
are being developed and carried out by the participants in each
project or group of related projects in cooperation with the Re-
search Division of the Fund and where appropriate with outside
experts and organizations such as the Educational Testing
Service.

The present publication is the first in a series of evaluation
reports to be issued by the Fund. It discusses the nature and
progress to date of four projects specifically directed at improv-
ing articulation between school and college and increasing the
efficiency of general education at this level. It is an "interim
report of progress" and not a report of final conclusions, because
three of the four projects are still in an early stage. Because of
the widespread interest in them, however, it has seemed worth-
while to make available at this time a full description of the
projects and of their progress to date.

Chapter 1 presents a summary of the problem and the relation-
ship among the four projects. The subsequent chapters provide
fuller details on the individual projects.

* — A discussion of the Fund's overall program is contained in the First
Annual Report, available upon request.

CONTENTS

Page

Preface

Chapter 1

New Attacks on an Old Problem

— a Summary

Chapter 2

The School and College Study of

General Education

Chapter 3

Meeting the Needs of Exceptionally Endowed

Students in Public Schools

Chapter 4

Admission to College with

Advanced Standing

Chapter 5

Early Admission to College

Appendix

109

Chapter 1

NEW ATTACKS ON AN OLD PROBLEM

— a Summary

Leading educators have long been concerned about two
closely connected defects of the American educational sys-
tem which undermine quality and impose severe waste. First is
the poor articulation among units of the system and the result-
ing lack of clarity as to each unit's function in relation to the
whole. Second is the lack of sufficient flexibility to accommodate
the wide differences of ability, interests and maturity that prevail
among young people of similar age. These defects, though they
occur throughout the educational system, are most prominent
and perhaps most serious in the four year period comprising the
eleventh through the fourteenth grades,. including the trouble-
some transition from school to college. Their net result is a dull-
ing of student interest in learning, a downgrading of educational
results, and a waste of human resources which is far greater today
than before the turn of the century when such educators as Dewey
and Eliot complained against them. With these considerations in
mind, but with no preconceptions as to best solutions, the Fund
for the Advancement of Education has given support to a com- .
bination of four promising experiments which attack this com-
mon problem from different directions.

The Problem

John Deavey pointed out the defect in articulation as early as
1899 in a lecture on "Waste in Education." "AU waste," he said,
"is due to isolation. Organization is nothing but getting things
into connection with one another, so that they work easily, flexibly
and fully. Therefore, in speaking of this question of waste in edu-
cation, I desire to call your attention to the isolation of the various
parts of the school system, to the lack of unity in the administra-
tion of education, to the lack of coherence in its studies and
methods." 1 "The great problem in education on the administra-
tive side," he went on, "is how to unite these different parts." 2

President Eliot of Harvard, in an address to the National Edu-
cational Association in 1888, criticized the growing length of time
required for a young man to graduate from college. 3 He insisted,
as an early exponent of "acceleration," that ways must be found
to save time, not just for the unusually bright student but the
average one as well. As tilings then stood, he noted, ". . . the aver-
age college graduate who fits himself well for any one of the
learned professions, including teaching, can hardly begin to sup-
port himself before he is twenty-seven years old."

More than twenty years later Eliot's successor at Harvard,
President Lowell, was still fighting the same battle. "Disease and
death are not postponed because a man starts upon a practice of
his profession a year or two later than necessary. His period of
active life, his achievements, and his usefulness are simply cur-
tailed to that extent." 4 Citing statistical evidence, Lowell observed

1 Dewey, The School and Society, University of Chicago Press, 1899, p. 78.
*Ibid., p. 84.

3 Eliot, C. W. ? Educational Reform: Essays & Addresses, New York Cen-
tury Company, 1898, pp. 151, 152.

4 Lowell, A. L., At War With Academic Traditions in America, Harvard
University Press, 1934, pp. 255, 256.

that men coming to college younger had a better average record,
both in studies and in conduct. A student is likely to get more
from college if he comes younger, Lowell asserted: "Much has
been said about maturity, but that is the result less of age than of
environment and responsibility. Maturity may easily become
over-ripe." Lowell's observations may need to be qualified some-
what in the light of recent academic experience with veterans
under the G.T. Bill of Rights, but the essential point of his argu-
ment, namely that students should be allowed to progress as
rapidly as their capabilities will permit, has lost none of its
validity. As Sidney L. Pressey pointed out, the veteran presents
a special case, whose bearing on the general problem of age and
academic success can be determined only by careful study. "Be-
cause the veteran of twenty-three does better freshman work than
the boy of eighteen straight from high school," he argued, "one
cannot conclude that the boy should not have entered college
until he was twenty-three, or even that he would have done better
work if he had delayed entrance till nineteen, or poorer if he had
entered at seventeen." Moreover, "a little gain in maturity of
college work might be made at a cost of precious time taken from
[the student's] adult career." 5

The haphazard manner in which the American educational
system grew helps to explain some of its defects. Charles Judd
and John Dale Russell, describing the "inco-ordination" within
the system, point out that our kindergarten was first developed
m Germany, the elementary school followed a Prussian model,
the high school is a unique American product, the college origi-
nated in England and the graduate school was imported from
Germany. "An educational system made up of units so derived

5 Pressey, Educational Acceleration, Bureau of Educational Research
Monograph No. 31, Ohio State University. 1949, p. 67.

may well be expected to suffer from inco-ordinations between Its
units, at least until effective efforts have been made to bridge over
the junctures." 1

At the risk of oversimplification, the situation as it stands
today can be described by saying that we have developed an edu-
cational system of poorly connected parts held together by the
principle of the chronological lock step. By custom, and in most
communities by regulation as well, children are placed on the
starting line at age six, marched along in unison one grade per
year, given a relatively standardized academic diet along the way,
and finally graduated from high school right on schedule with
their age group. Then they either enter the "real world," hope-
fully prepared to be good citizens and breadwinners, or else con-
tinue in the academic lock step through four years of college and
perhaps even beyond to the higher-echelon procession of gradu-
ate or professional school-
Under this rigid linkage of academic progress to chronological
age it is popularly regarded as "abnormal" for a young person to
get out of step with his age group, either by falling behind or
getting ahead, A folklore of child psychology has grown up which
protects the system against heresy. It Is implicitly assumed, for
example, that there is a "right age" for all young people to enter
college, and worried questions are asked about those who break
from the lock step and enter early. "Won't this premature ex-
posure to college life impair their morals, their social and emo-
tional development, and perhaps even lead to serious maladjust-
ment? Won't they be deprived of opportunities to develop
leadership capacities within their own age group? Even if they
are bright and can earn good grades, are their minds ready to

1 Judd and Russell, The American Educational System, Houghton Mifflin
Co., New York, 1940, p. 229.

profit from college?" Comparable concerns are expressed about
the young child who learns to read or play the piano at an "abnor-
mally early age," or conversely is "late" in learning to walk or
talk or master certain civilized conventions.

These are not frivolous concerns and they merit serious in-
quiry, but the truth does not come easily. Such issues have long
been vigorously debated, but without adequate facts to go on.
If past psychological studies have consistently shown any one
thing that offers a guide and warrants a skeptical attitude, how-
ever, it is that the rate of progress toward maturity varies widely
among young people and is not rigidly tied to chronological age.
Thus the proposition that there is a "right age" to enter college
is subject to considerable doubt.

The doubt is underscored by the findings of Professor Pressey's
recent comprehensive review of acceleration studies and experi-
ments. * . . over the past 30 years," he reports, "a considerable
number of carefully controlled studies taking account not simply
of academic success but also of health and social adjustment have
almost all been favorable in outcome to selective acceleration." 1
Then he notes a striking anomaly. "Though acceleration has long
had the approval of many experts and the support of research
findings, efforts to shorten curriculums and to facilitate the prog-
ress of superior students have made little headway, and now seem
almost at a standstill." 2 This discouraging observation perhaps
illuminates another important dimension of the problem — the
familiar difficulty of effecting change, however badly needed, in
any well-established pattern of institutions and practices.

These various considerations suggest the futility of seeking any
panacea for a problem which is essentially very complex. The

1 Pressey, op. cit., p. 18.
^lbid. t p. 27.

problem itself may perhaps be summed up in the following terms,

as a basis for considering various approaches to its solution.

Ideally the education of an individual, viewed as a whole,
should be a continuous and efficient process. Whether he gets his
entire formal education on one end of a log with a Mark Hopkins
on the other, or under a single schooHiouse roof, or in a succes-
sion of institutions, his learning process should go on smoothly,
unmarred by wasteful repetitions, gaps and disruptions. Ideally
also, every young citizen of a democracy should be enabled and
challenged to move along at his own best educational pace and
at all times to perform up to his own full potential, emerging
from the formal educational system eager and able to continue
his education on his own. The United States has made tremendous
progress in the direction of making education universally avail-
able, but we are still falling far short of the ideal of making educa-
tion as rich, as continuous and as efficient as possible for each
individual.

Specifically, in the phase under main consideration here —
the period roughly from the 11th through the 14th grades — the
following shortcomings seem evident. First, a large majority of
our high schools are not flexible enough to enable and challenge
each student to move along at his own best pace, and in many
cases are not giving students an adequate preparation for college.
Second, there is poor articulation between high school and col-
lege, which imposes wasteful repetitions and discontinuities on
the educational process. Third, the programs of most colleges
are not flexible enough to allow for wide individual differences
of aptitude and preparation among entering students. The "under-
prepared" student must use valuable time in college remedying
deficiencies in his high school preparation, while the "over-pre-
pared" student wastes college time duplicating educational expe-
riences he has already had. And perhaps most serious of all, the

abler student whose abilities have not been sufficiently challenged
in either high school or college may have his interest in learning
dampened if not destroyed.

To say these things is not to engage in carping criticism of the
schools and colleges, for they are often their own severest critics
in these matters and they face serious handicaps in attempting to
improve the situation. As the high schools see the problem, it is
largely one of providing the best education they can within the
limited means available to an ever expanding mass of students
who not only vary widely in personal characteristics but who are
heading toward different careers. A large majority are not ex-
ceptionally endowed, and a large though rapidly decreasing
majority are not going on to college. Faced with a heavy and
proper responsibility toward these majorities, and cramped in
teaching staff and budget, the high schools are understandably
unhappy about their failure to do as much as they might for the
exceptionally endowed and the college-bound student (the two
not necessarily being the same). The high schools also make the
point with some force that it has never been made quite clear to
them just what comprises "an adequate preparation" for college,
apparently because the colleges themselves are not altogether sure.

Seen from the vantage point of the colleges, the problem is
largely one of devising, again within limited economic means, a
freshman and sophomore program that will accommodate enter-
ing students of widely varying preparation and aptitude. Almost
inevitably the program becomes geared to the needs of the "aver-
age," as in high school, again with the abler student the principal
victim.

The great issue and challenge here is whether our schools and
colleges, working together and within the practical economic
limits imposed upon them, can devise means for making the

democratic ideal of universal education compatible jn practice
with the equally important democratic ideal of giving each indi-
vidual the opportunity to obtain on an efficient basis the richest
possible education.

The procedures that the automobile industry has developed to
hold down costs by pushing thousands of cars of identical design
through the same production line are not adaptable to education,
at least not in a democracy which depends for its fruition and
survival upon the cultivation and free exercise of varying indi-
vidual abilities. An educational system that fails in this respect
is a hazard to a democracy, and especially to a democratic nation
that has had recently thrust upon it heavy burdens of world leader-
ship for which it is not completely prepared. A broad enough base
to prepare a competent citizenry, and high enough quality stand-
ards to produce effective leadership, is the dual requirement and
the imperative demand upon the American educational system.

Approaches to Solution

If the foregoing statement of the problem is valid, then it
appears that solutions must be sought along the following broad
lines.

First, we need to view the educational process as a whole and
to clarify and arrive at broader agreement on the functions of
each of its institutional parts so that they are clearly and logically
related. Second, we need to re-examine critically the existing
curricular and other arrangements and wherever necessary alter
them to insure a more effective articulation between successive
educational stages. Finally, we need to find economical and effec-
tive ways to incorporate greater flexibility in our educational
system to accommodate the widely differing needs and capabili-
ties of individual students and to promote rather than discourage
their interest in learning.

It was with these general objectives in mind that the Fund for
the Advancement of Education agreed to support the four spe-
cific projects discussed in this report. These four projects are
complementary, yet in some measure they also represent alterna-
tive approaches to the same goal. They cannot be separately
pigeonholed under the labels of "acceleration" and "enrichment"
for in fact they involve both. Their common and basic purpose
is to improve the efficiency and quality of education, especially
from the 1 1th through the 14th years of schooling, both by pro-
viding a richer education during this time period and by acceler-
ating the whole process, especially for more able students. Though
their major focus is upon the better-than-average student who is
perhaps the most seriously damaged by present shortcomings, the
underlying concern and ultimate objective is the improvement of
education for all young people.

The School and College Study of
General Education

The first of the projects involved a joint effort by several school
and college people to seek out the present weaknesses in cur-
ricular arrangements and to devise alternative arrangements that
would insure better articulation and less waste between school
and college. This project recently culminated in an excellent re-
port that speaks for itself, entitled General Education in School
and College, published by the Harvard University Press.

This was a joint undertaking by faculty members of three
preparatory schools — Andover, Exeter and Lawrenceville —
and three universities that receive many of their students from
these schools — Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. The broad pur-
pose of the study, in the words of the report, was "to integrate
the work of the school and college in the area of general educa-
tion/' or, more precisely, "to plan the last two years of secondary

school and the first two years of college as a continuous process,
conceived as a whole." These four years have a certain natural
unity for the American student, the Committee believed, and the
danger is that this natural unity will be lost in the break at 12th
grade between school and college. Their fears were abundantly
confirmed by the evidence derived from a close study of the
academic records of 344 graduates of the three preparatory
schools who had entered the three universities and were seniors
in the class of 1951,

This evidence pointed clearly to three major weaknesses in the
current pattern of connection between school and college. First
was the waste of time and effort involved in doing the same thing
twice, in dropping a subject before it had done much good, and
in placing undue emphasis upon less important aspects of a sub-
ject. The Committee found, for example, that about one-third of
the 344 students whose records were studied had repeated in
college the beginners' course in physics, chemistry or biology
which they had already taken in school. Moreover, the repeaters
seemed to have only a negligible advantage over those college
students taking the subject for the first time. Commenting on
college language requirements that are met and then forgotten
the Committee observed: "It is evident that students are spending
a lot of time not learning to use a foreign language."

The second weakness found was the existence of important
gaps in training and in intellectual experiences. The third was a
failure to communicate to students the meaning, purpose, and
value of a liberal education.

The Committee did not stop with listing and documenting the
weaknesses but went on, with the advice and counsel of many
experienced school and college teachers, to design a blueprint
for action which readers of its report will find challenging. A large

portion of the report Is devoted to a detailed and constructive
discussion of curriculum content and sequence. It also includes a
definition of a liberally educated person that may well become
a classic. One of the Committee's important conclusions was that
it should be possible for better students to complete the eight
conventional years of high school and college in seven years.

The findings of this Committee, it should be noted, aie based
on evidence drawn from six atypical institutions and therefore in
some respects may seem to have an air of unreality for many
school and college readers. Certainly it would be desirable to have
similar explorations undertaken with respect to other types of
secondary schools and colleges. Nevertheless, the findings of this
particular inquiry and its blueprint for action are decidedly rele-
vant to problems universally encountered. It is to be hoped that
the Committee's study, the highlights of which are reviewed by
the Chairman, Mr. Alan R. Blackmer, in Chapter 2 of the present
report, will stimulate constructive discussion among school and
college teachers and administrators across the country and will
encourage a better articulation among their respective institutions.

A Public School Program for Studev.ts
of Exceptional Endowment

The second project supported by the Fund involves the col-
laboration of the public school system of Portland, Oregon, and
faculty members of Reed College on a city-wide program de-
signed to enrich educational opportunities for public school chil-
dren of exceptional endowment. Acceleration may become an
important by-product of this experiment but is not its major aim.
Interestingly enough, this project was prompted in part by a study
of juvenile delinquency which revealed that a surprising propor-

tion of young people getting into trouble were above average in

general competence. The inference was that the school system
was not challenging their abilities and not channeling their ener-
gies into constructive pursuits.

The Portland project has placed much initial emphasis on

developing techniques for identifying the students to whom this
program should apply. Those conducting it are not satisfied sim-
ply to find the young person of high general intelligence as meas-
ured by current tests of aptitude but are seeking out the student
who has unusual creative, intellectual, artistic or social capacities,
and the emotional and moral qualities necessary for their effec-
tive use.

The project also involves development of appropriate methods
and materials of instruction for groups and individuals under the
program, and the encouragement and training of good teachers.
Ways are being sought to coordinate this new program with the
common curriculum of the schools and with other educational
resources of the community to avoid fixed groupings and segre-
gation, with the intention of enabling other students also to bene-
fit. The active participation of Reed College faculty members is
being enlisted in planning, conducting and evaluating the pro-
gram. The cooperation of other colleges is also being sought, to
follow up students from the program, to work out closer articula-
tion of high school and college curricula, and possibly to en-
courage acceleration at either the high school or college level,
or both.

This experiment is far along in its planning phase and is start-
ing to operate in four pilot high schools and ten elementary
schools. Fuller details about the project are provided in Chapter 3
of this report, prepared by Karl D. Ernst, its Director.

The School and College Study of Admission
with Advanced Standing

The third project deals with the often asked question of
whether students, particularly abler ones, could complete the
general education now provided in the last two years of high
school and the first two of college in a shorter period of time and
yet not lose the essential values of a liberal education. The faculty
and administration of Kenyon College asked themselves this ques-
tion and considered whether they could render an important
service to such students by revising some of their requirements
for a B.A. degree. As things stand, many colleges permit the bet-
ter prepared entering student to enroll in ''advanced sections" of
particular subjects, such as languages, mathematics and natural
sciences, usually on the basis of placement tests. Though this may
enrich his education and help keep him from getting bored, there
are few colleges that allow him to save time toward his degree in
this manner. His academic diet may be somewhat improved but
he must remain in the four-year lock step, serving his required
time and accumulating his required quota of credit hours.

Inquiries by Kenyon revealed wide interest among other col-
leges and among many high schools in the idea of giving abler
high school students the opportunity to take courses equivalent
to some now taught in the first year or too of college, with a view
to permitting them to leap-frog as much as the whole first year
of college by getting credit for this advanced preparation toward
a B.A. degree. In short, enrichment in high school would permit
acceleration in college. The consequent saving of time, and the
equally important nourishment of student interest in learning,
would benefit especially those who are going on to graduate and
professional study.

A committee of colleges was formed to explore this idea under
the leadership of Kenyon's President Chalmers — including
Brown, Bowdoin, Carleton, Kenyon, M.I.T., Middlebury, Ober-
lin, Swarthmore, Wabash, Wesleyan, and Williams. Application
was made to the Fund for a grant to support the School and Col-
lege Study of Admission with Advanced Standing. The committee
subsequently enlarged its membership to include twelve head-
masters, principals and superintendents, and established close
working relations with a selected group of 22 secondary schools.
Dr. William H. Cornog took leave of absence from his post as
president of the Central High School in Philadelphia to become
the committee's executive director.

At present a series of working co mm ittees involving the par-
ticipation of more than 100 school and college teachers and ad-
ministrators are giving intensive study to eleven subject matter
fields on the college freshman level in which high school prepara-
tion might be enriched. Another committee is studying the gen-
eral problem of individual development.

These subject matter working committees will submit their final
reports by June, for publication in the fall of 1953. Meanwhile,
to identify and iron out practical operating problems, the central
committee has authorized pilot studies in seven schools and two
colleges during the spring semester of 1953. It is the committee's
intention to put their ideas into practice as quickly and fully as
feasible.

A fuller discussion of this project, prepared by Dr. Cornog,
appears as Chapter 4 of this report.

The Program for Early Admission to College

A somewhat different approach to the same goal — the
goal of saving the student's time while improving the quality of

liis education — Is represented by the fourth project, the Pro-
gram for Early Admission to College.

This project was initiated as a pre-induction experiment by
four universities — Chicago, Columbia, Wisconsin and Yale —
who in 1951 were concerned about the problems raised for edu-
cation by the manpower demands of the nation's military services.
It then appeared that for an indefinite period ahead the general
education of many young men would be interrupted by the re-
quirement of military service at or soon after the age of 18. The
four universities requested support for an experiment designed
to complete the general education of more able and mature young
men before they entered military service, by admitting them to
college before they had completed high school and enabling them
to finish two years of college by the age of 18 to I8Y2. The an-
nouncement of this grant by the Fund evoked widespread interest
from other colleges, not simply in this approach to the draft prob-
lem but in a broader idea of accelerating the education of young
people who had not yet completed high school but who seemed
ready, both academically and in personal maturity, to undertake
1 college work. Accordingly, the program was expanded to include
1 eight other colleges — Fisk, Goucher, Lafayette, Louisville,
Morehouse, Oberlin, Shimer, and Utah — representing a wide
diversity of higher educational institutions.

In the fall of 1951 a total of 420 selected students entered
eleven participating institutions under this experiment and an-
i other 429 entered twelve institutions in 1952. (Morehouse took
I in its first group in 1952.) With few exceptions these special stu-
dents were under 16% years of age and the majority had com-
pleted only the 10th or 1 1th grade of high school. The big ques-
tion was: How will these accelerated students do compared to
conventional college students, not only in their academic per-

formance but in their social and emotional adjustment to college
life?

In an attempt to answer this question the 12 participating col-
leges, in cooperation with the Research Division of the Fund and
the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, have developed an
extensive evaluation program. It will involve close study of the
full college experience and post-college careers not only of these
first two groups of Fund Scholars, but also of two additional
groups that will enter college in the fall of 1953 and 1954 under
an extension of the program recently agreed to by the Fund and
eleven of the twelve participating institutions.

This should provide for the first time the results of a carefully
controlled experiment in early admission to college involving a
large statistical sample and several cooperating institutions of
different types. The evidence obtained should illuminate a num-
ber of basic educational policy questions which have long been
vigorously debated but without benefit of sufficient facts.

The first phase of the evaluation, covering the first year's expe-
rience of the first group of Fund Scholars, has just been completed.
Its results are most encouraging, though it would certainly be
premature to draw any final judgments on the basis of these early
returns. The freshman year academic performance and the social
and emotional adjustment of the Fund Scholars in each of the
institutions has been compared not only with that of their enter-
ing class as a whole but with specially selected "comparison
groups" made up of "matching students" of comparable aptitude
who differed from the Scholars mainly in having graduated from
high school and entered college at a "normal" age. It was impor-
tant to establish such comparison groups because the Scholars
were more carefully selected than the run-of-mine freshman and
had higher average aptitude scores.

The results thus far have shown that academically, the experi-
mental students as a group considerably outdistanced the rest of
the freshman class. What is more, in a majority of the colleges
they also outperformed their comparison groups. There were of
course wide variations in academic performance among the
Scholars, including some failures, but as a group they did strikingly
well.

The question most difficult to answer with objective statistical
evidence is: How well did the Fund Scholars adjust emotionally
and socially to college life in view of their "tender age"? Under
the first phase of the evaluation program evidence was collected
concerning extracurricular activities, the seasoned judgments of
faculty members and other college observers, the opinions of the
students themselves, and the record of withdrawals from college
resulting from academic difficulties or other adjustment failures.
Again it is well to emphasize that the evidence thus far is very
preliminary and certainly not decisive. This evidence on 420
Scholars in their first year suggests over-all, however, that as a
group they made at least as successful an adjustment to college
life as conventional entering freshmen, including the comparison
groups. In extracurricular affairs, athletic as well as non-athletic,
they were as active as other students and in some places substan-
tially more so. They earned the respect of their teachers, and with
few exceptions the Scholars expressed satisfaction with their own
freshman experience and with the program. The picture is not
without its dark spots. Some Scholars did not succeed in their
first year. But in most of the participating colleges, the proportion
of withdrawals due to academic and general adjustment failures
was actually somewhat lower for the whole Scholar group than
for entering students generally.

Chapter 5 of this report, prepared by the Research Division of
the Fund in cooperation with the 12 participating colleges and

the Educational Testing Service, presents a fuller description of
this project and its progress to date, along with basic data gathered
in the first phase of the evaluation.

Some Broader Questions Raised

These four projects, focused on the same problem from
different directions, are interacting upon one another at many
points and have already had the considerable effect of mobilizing
the attention of many competent school and college people upon:
vital issues of educational policy. Often these issues extend well
beyond the imm ediate scope of the projects themselves.

The fermenting effect of such projects as these was well demon-
strated when representatives of all four were brought together in
August, 1952, for a full week of discussion at Aspen, Colorado.
More than two dozen participants — college presidents, deans
and faculty members, high school principals, a preparatory school
teacher, and a public school superintendent — came from all pans
of the country, many of them strangers to each other before then,
to talk about the Program for Early Admission to College and
its relation to the other three projects. Though there were many
details to be covered concerning the operation of the projects,
the participants chose to spend much of their time discussing
larger questions which the projects had provoked and which were
of strong mutual concern to all the schools and colleges repre-
sented.

Following are some of the questions raised, discussed, but by
no means fully answered.

What are the aims and proper content of general education?
What is the appropriate division of labor between school and
college in providing general education?

What are the basic prerequisites of a college education both
academically and in terms of social and emotional maturity?
How can a student be effectively tested and appraised on both
these counts? How can college selection methods be improved?
What kind of student body does the college desire to attract —
what range of aptitudes, what balance of urban and rural stu-
dents, different family income backgrounds, high school and
preparatory school graduates, young men and young women?

What is the best timing and sequence for introducing vari-
ous academic subject matters and methods? How can various
subjects such as mathematics, sciences, and languages best be
fitted into a general education program and best be taught?

Is there any basic conflict between "acceleration" and "en-
richment"? Is there really any difference? If so, is there some
proper balance between the two?

To what extent should the "superior" students be segregated
to expedite and enrich their education? What are the advan-
tages and disadvantages involved? What other ways of achiev-
ing the same results, perhaps with fewer disadvantages, are
available?

What responsibilities do the school and college have for
developing the "non-academic" side of students? What methods
are available and how much practical potential does the col-
lege really have in this matter? What is the best relative empha-
sis on the "academic" and "non-academic" development of a
student? Just what is meant by the "whole man" which almost
everyone says the school and college should seek to develop?
How far should educational institutions attempt to assume
developmental responsibilities traditionally exercised by the
home and church, though not so adequately of late? How can

the student be made more sensitive to ethical values, either by
the curriculum or by other means?

When should specialization begin? How can general educa-
tion best provide a foundation for technical training? How can
impairment of general education by premature encroachment
of technical training be avoided?

To what extent are initial career preferences associated with
aptitude? How much and in what directions do these prefer-
ences change when the student is exposed to liberal education
in college?

Why do some students fail in college and others succeed
outstandingly? What is the connection between academic fail-
ure and social and emotional maladjustment? What can be
done to reduce the failures and to encourage a higher propor-
tion of notable successes?

What can be done to achieve greater equality of opportunity
for a college education, based on ability rather than financial
status? Are colleges doing enough to recruit rural students? In
selecting students should the college endeavor to weed out the
social "misfits" and the emotionally "maladjusted"? If so,
aren't the colleges simply forcing educated people into a mould
of social conformity, and incidentally closing opportunities to
potentially able people? Is it feasible for the colleges intention-
ally to select a fair proportion of such people with a view to
helping them adjust and grow, though not forcing them into
a mould?

Although colleges complain of the poor preparation given
students by many high schools, are the colleges really equipped
to do justice by a well -prepared student when one arrives? If

acceleration is valid in high school, isn't it equally valid in
college?

The very fact that such questions as these are seriously and
humbly asked by representatives of important schools and col-
leges throughout the nation — and that there are few thoughtful
people who would pretend to have many of the right answers — is
proof enough that there is much room for further experimentation
and further improvement in our educational system.

To encourage further experimentation and further improve-
ment, the Fund for the Advancement of Education is supporting
such experiments as those described in subsequent chapters of
this report.

Chapter 2

THE SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDY
OF GENERAL EDUCATION 1

A View, of the Problem

The last two YEARS of school and the first two years of col-
lege appear to have a certain natural unity for the American
student. Somewhere between the time his grounding in funda-
mentals is well advanced and the time he chooses a field of con-
centration in the later years of college, he receives most of his
general education. To be most effective, these four years of edu-
cation should be planned as a continuous process, conceived as
a whole. This is the central thesis of the Co mmi ttee Report,
General Education in School and College, recently published by
the Harvard University Press.

1 This chapter was prepared by Alan R. Blackmer, Chairman of the Com-
mittee that undertook the School and College Study, of General Education.
Mr. Blackmer is Instructor in English at Phillips Academy, Andover.
Other Committee members are: Henry W. Bragdon, Instructor in History,
The Phillips Exeter Academy; McGeorge Buody, Associate Professor of
Government, Harvard University; E. Harris Harbison, Professor of His-
tory, Princeton University; Charles Seymour, Jr., Associate Professor of
the History of Art, Yale University; WeDdell H. Taylor, Chairman of the
Science Department, The LawrencevUJe School.

In a country of the size and diversity of the United States, the
obstacles to sound integration of school and college are formid-
able. They stem in part from the unevenness of secondary school
preparation. Often the college must spend the greater part of a
year in picking up the pieces of a student's fragmented and im-
poverished secondary education. Conversely, many good schools,
both public and private, must carry their ablest boys and girls
into "college work," if they are to offer them any real stimulus.
Too frequently the result is repetition in college of work well done
in school. For well-prepared students this means boredom, loss
of intellectual momentum, and serious waste of time in moving
towards intellectual and professional objectives.

Most colleges are aware of this problem and, within present
limitations, do much to exempt able, well-trained students from
elementary requirements and place them in advanced sections.
But a major source of difficulty appears to lie deeper, in the rela-
tive independence of school and college requirements. The real
need is a concerted attempt on the part of both schools and col-
leges to enable students to move steadily forward through a co-
herent and unified program of studies, with a continuous desire
to learn and at a rate commensurate with their ability. To give
impetus to such cooperative effort was the committee's first
objective.

The Method and Main Findings of the Study

Sponsorship of this study was undertaken by three schools —
Andover, Exeter, and Lawrenceville — and three universities —
Harvard, Princeton, and Yale — with an important fact in mind:
namely, that a large group of students from these schools go to
these universities — 344 in the college graduating class of 1951,
for example. This meant that a great deal of evidence about the

transition from school to college was readily available from this
body of students. It also meant that while the working committee
would be representative of at least three institutions at each level
of education, it would still be small enough to be effective.

This study should then be considered, in the first instance, as
an inquiry into the relations between programs of study in these
three schools and the colleges of these three universities. We of
the committee are aware that there are many schools and colleges
to whom our recommendations may seem unrelated to local
realities. But we are convinced that the issues are not peculiar to
the campuses from which we come, and hope that our conclusions
and suggestions may stimulate discussion beyond our limited aca-
demic circles.

The committee's attempt to discover the facts about the prob-
lem and to devise ways of meeting it included the following
activities:

1. A study of the complete academic records, from the eleventh grade
through college, of each graduate of the three schools in the class o.f
1951 at the three colleges.

2. Detailed surveys of how 10 different subjects, such as English or
mathematics, are actually taught in the upper years of schools and the
first two years of these colleges.

3. A 20-page questionnaire of the essay type to 58 graduates of the
three schools in the class of 1952 at the three colleges. These students
were all of above-average scholastic aptitude; otherwise they were chosen
to represent many fields of concentration and a wide variation in achieve-
ment as compared with apparent intellectual capacity. The questions
were designed to explore the students' feelings about what was good
and what was bad in their school and college experience, what stimuli
or hindrances to intellectual growth they had encountered and why.

4. A series of panel discussions with guest consultants on fields of study
essential to a liberal education and the relation between school and
college in each field. There were 13 such panel discussions and a total
of 58 guests.

These investigations confirmed the opinion that the problem was
worth serious study. The evidence pointed clearly to three major
weaknesses in the current pattern of connection between school
and college: 1) waste of time and effort; 2) important gaps in
training and in intellectual experience; and 3) failure to com-
municate to students the meaning, purpose, and value of a liberal
education.

Because these specific weaknesses seemed to bear with peculiar
force on the superior, or potentially superior student, the com-
mittee was particularly concerned with providing him with maxi-
mum incentives. This concern was partly the result of our belief
that standards can be pulled up from the top more easily than
they can be pushed up from the bottom, but it was more the result
of a conviction that our frequent failure to extend the able student
to the full extent of his abilities is a waste of human resources
which the country can ill afford. Indeed, to develop an education
suited to the exceptional capacities and needs of our ablest stu-
dents is one of the nation's most urgent contemporary needs.

The Concept of a Liberal Education

Before attacking the main problems directly, the Committee

had first to set down briefly what it meant by a liberal education
as a basis for the program of study which follows. In view of the
wide agreement today on the essentials of such education, the
Committee took its task to be not redefinition of goals, but selec-
tion, emphasis, and integration of certain generally-accepted edu-
cational ends.

"The liberally-educated man is articulate, both in speech and
writing. He has a feel for language, a respect for clarity and
directness of expression, and a knowledge of some language other
than his own. He is at home in the world of quantity, number,

and measurement. He thinks rationally, logically, objectively, and
knows the difference between fact and opinion. When the occa-
sion demands, however, his thought is imaginative and creative
rather than logical. He is perceptive, sensitive to form, and affected
by beauty. ... He can use what he knows, with judgment and
discrimination. ... He has convictions, which are reasoned, al-
though he cannot always prove them. He is tolerant about the
beliefs of others because he respects sincerity and is not afraid of
ideas. He has values, and he can communicate them to others not
only by word but by example. His personal standards are high;
nothing short of excellence will satisfy him. But service to society
or to his God, not personal satisfaction alone, is the purpose of
his excelling. Above all, the liberally-educated man is never a
type. He is always a unique person, vivid in his distinction from
other similarly educated persons."

Furthermore, liberal education and freedom are inseparably
bound. "Education designed to free individual human beings
from the limitations of ignorance, prejudice, and provincialism
makes sense only in a free society and can flourish only within
such a society. . . . Liberal education and the democratic ideal
are related to each other in a thousand ways. It is not too much
to say that they stand and fall together."

A Blueprint for Action

To help produce such liberally-educated men and to attack
the weaknesses disclosed in the area of general education, the
Committee proposed a four-point program:

1. An integrated basic program of study which would give
the essentials of a liberal education and at the same time sharply
reduce waste and duplication in the transition from school to
college.

2. Full encouragement to the able student to break out of the
academic lock step and push forward at his own pace in fields
of special interest and competence.

3. A concerted attempt to explore every device to increase a
student's desire to grow in knowledge and understanding, to edu-
cate himself,

4. A seven-year program to get the ablest students through
secondary school and college a year sooner, to be achieved partly
through elimination of waste and partly through allowing the
able to progress at a rate commensurate with their ability and
maturity.

Each of these proposals will be briefly summarized.

A Basic Program of Study

The Committee's suggested program of study, designed to
unify these four years of general education, is based on three main
principles.

1. It should include the skills and knowledge that every stu-
dent should possess, regardless of his tastes, aptitudes, or future
life work.

2. It should be flexible enough to be adapted to individual
differences, to allow for personal choice and a certain amount of
concentration of interest, as early as the 11th grade.

3. The various parts of the program should be organized in
intelligible sequences and related explicitly to each other when-
ever possible.

Its content is organized to give both the skills and the knowl-
edge which, in the judgment of the Committee, should result from
the "general" phase of a liberal education. The skills on which

the Committee concentrated are the ability to read intelligently
and to write effectively, to listen sensitively and to speak clearly;
the ability to reason mathematically; competence in some lan-
guage other than the mother tongue; and the capacity for logical
and objective thinking. Without these skills it is difficult to con-
ceive of anyone's acquiring and continually expanding the knowl-
edge which is considered indispensable to the educated man.

The knowledge thought to be necessary" for such a basic four-
year program includes three broad areas: the world of nature,
the world of human society, and the world of human ideals,
aspirations, and values. This knowledge the Committee organized
into sequential courses in 1 ) both physical, and biological sciences;
2) American history, the history of Western Civilization, and
Contemporary Society; and 3) literature, either the visual arts or
music, and the systematic study of values. One chapter of the
Report shows why, in the Committee judgment, each area should
form part of a basic program of general education and describes
what is of first importance in each and how it relates to the whole.
Specific recommendations for each area must be left to readers
of the full report.

Reduction of Waste

The waste which the investigation found was of three main
kinds: doing much the same thing twice; dropping a subject before
it has really done much good: and concern with less important
aspects of a subject at the expense of the more important. Such
waste was doing double damage, most often to the ablest students,
in loss of time and loss of interest and momentum. Two illustra-
tions will perhaps suffice to establish the point.

Striking evidence of wasteful duplication appears in the sci-
ences. Of the 344 students whose school and college records we
studied, 209 took physics, chemistry, or biology in college. Of

this number, almost half took in college the beginner's course
in the same science they had taken in school. Many of these were
merely fulfilling graduation requirements of their particular school
and college. Some were prospective concentrators in engineering
or the physical sciences. The very great majority of the latter spent
four years, two in school and two in college, completing elemen-
tary physics and elementary chemistry, repeating both subjects.
Yet comparison of the grades of the repeaters with those of boys
from the same schools who tools" physics or chemistry for the first
time showed that the repeaters had only a very negligible ad-
vantage.

If these four years were organized within a single institution,
two successive elementary courses in the same subject would not
be tolerated. Even in separate institutions, in the Committee view,
there is no reason why, instead of repeating physics, for example,
in college, the non-scientist should not be required to take a bio-
logical science. And the prospective concentrator should not
need four full-year courses to complete elementary physics and
elementary chemistry. After an introduction to basic principles
and the "alphabet of science" in the lower years of school, the
student of mathematical and scientific ability could take an in-
tensive one and one-half or two-year school course, say, in chem-
istry, designed to prepare him for admission to the sophomore
college course. Such a program would reduce to at most three
the four courses now normally required for elementary work.

Evidence of another kind of waste — dropping a study before
it has done much good — seems equally clear. For example,
although a foreign language dropped early is usually forgotten,
neither school nor college seems to have enough conviction about
its value to require its mastery. The great majority of the 344
students whose records we examined did not carry any foreign
language to the point of real usefulness.

Two out of three failed to take any work in language beyond
the minimum college requirement. Four out of five started Latin;
only one in five studied it more than two years; only one in 20
took any work in classics in college. Only about one in 10 took
a college course in which the emphasis was upon the literature
of a foreign language or the study of an alien civilization. The
58 students we questioned in the class of 1952 reported little or
no demand for foreign languages in college once requirements
were "passed off/* and only a handful had a language which they
could use. Yet the normal pattern of school study is such that
four boys out of five have had five years .of school instruction in
one foreign language or another, usually two years of one and
three of another. Whatever the by-products of this language in-
struction, it is evident that students are spending a lot of time
not learning to use a foreign language.

The problem here is the reverse of avoiding repetition. It is to
make certain that a study is carried forward to the point of real
usefulness. Therefore, the Committee urges as a minimum re-
quirement in school the thorough and sustained study of at least
one foreign language. An interested student may, of course, bene-
fit from study of two or more languages, but we believe that it
is educationally wasteful to acquire a smattering of two languages
instead of competence in one, if such a choice must be made.
The Committee strongly recommends that the colleges explore
ways of keeping languages learned in school alive in college.
This might be done through general education courses in which
a language learned in school could be used in the study of the
history and literature of a foreign people. Also, readings in a
foreign language might be a normal expectation in many existing
courses, especially in literature and the social studies.

Progression in Strength

"Progression in strength" in this Report means encourage-
ment of the able student to go forward more rapidly than the
average in fields of his particular interest and competence. If in
the course of its discussions, one principle more than another
came to command the Committee's warmest allegiance, it was
this. One of the glories of our society is the value which we
attach to human differences and to the right of each person to
grow at his own pace and according to his own bent, to achieve
his own kind of excellence. Students who find a special intellec-
tual interest early, even when it changes later, are generally the
keenest and most purposeful. If breadth of education is insured,
a certain emphasis on a field of special interest, even in the years
of predominantly "general" education, can give intellectual satis-
factions too seldom experienced by American schoolboys and
undergraduates. Conversely, preventing able students from mov-
ing ahead at their own rate often causes frustration, encourages
habits of idleness, and sometimes even creates contempt for
academic studies.

It should not prove too difficult for some schools to extend

their present limited practice of carrying their better students
through freshman level courses and occasionally beyond, in all
major fields in which they offer instruction. It may also be feasi-
ble to provide students with a variety of outlets for special inter-
ests through research projects and tutorial instruction. The real
difficulty is to make sure that progress already begun is continued
in college through admission into advanced courses. Therefore,
the Committee includes in the Report a specific proposal for an
experimental development of valid advanced placement tests
from school to college. Constructed, we hope, under the direction
of the College Entrance Examination Board, these would be

offered to all qualified students on a national basis and used, not
for admission to college, but for placement, and perhaps college
credit, after admission.

Sharpening the Student's Interest

Of special interest to the Committee was the difficult prob-
lem of student motivation. "We are persuaded/' the Report states,
"that the greatest single failure which appears from the evidence
of our study is a failure to communicate to students the full
meaning and purpose of a liberal education. Too many students
never know what a liberal education is. Too many more find out
only after they have passed unaware and unawakened through
the bulk of their years in school and college."

Our interest in the problem of motivation was accompanied by
an increasing awareness of its magnitude and complexity, of a
scope beyond the resources of the project. Yet we wished never-
theless to set down the following convictions which came from
the frank and thoughtful replies to the student questionnaires,
confirmed by our own observations and experience.

First, we believe that both school and college should give top
priority to recruiting and encouraging imaginative, creative teach-
ers. ... In a sense, all else is peripheral.

Second, we think that the schools should encourage and stimu-
late more independent work on the part of their ablest seniors.

Third, we hope for a strong and continuing interest on the part
of the colleges in finding ways to increase personal contact be-
tween college faculties and undergraduates. In our view, the
opportunity for "mind to meet with mind" provided by tutorial,
seminar, conference and small courses organized within colleges
and houses has exceptional educational values.

Lastly, we are persuaded of the soundness of the desire ex-
pressed by the students we questioned to be forced to more active,
independent, and personal thinking through increased use of
papers, discussion, and problem-solving.

This section of the Report concludes: "The problem of moti-
vation is difficult, but we should not dismiss it as insoluble until
we have seen what can be done with a tightened, sharpened, and
coherent curriculum, taught by first-rate men with an urgent sense
of their profession, and organized to encourage students to think,
to work on their own, to educate themselves. Such a program, we
believe, might command an increased respect for the life of the
mind which would be reflected in every area of a student's life."

A Seven-Year Program: Planned Acceleration

Perhaps the most controversial Committee recommendation
is that a way should be opened for certain qualified students to
complete the conventional eight years of high school and college
in seven. In our view, such a conclusion is hard to escape if we
assume that duplication and overlap can be markedly reduced and
that opportunity can be given the able student to move at his own
speed. Here, however, we can merely summarize our broad posi-
tion and leave the bulk of the evidence and reasoning to readers
of the full Report.

The highly-endowed students with whom we are here con-
cerned are for the most part headed for graduate study. For them
the road to special training and to advanced degrees is becoming
inordinately long and expensive. The value of such prolonged
formal education, often into the late twenties, may be questioned
from two points of view, that of society and that of the individual.
Shortening the conventional process for some students, by even
one year, if it could be done without significant educational loss.

and even possible gain, would add thousands of fruitful profes-
sional "man years" of service to the nation's communities. For
the individual, it appears doubtful to the Committee that the extra
academic education of the able student (extra in the sense that
his superior powers have brought him well ahead of his fellows)
compensates for the delay in his taking on the adult responsibili-
ties of home, community, and job. Even when staleness and frus-
tration do not result from continuation of education beyond the
middle twenties, such lengthy academic life may well impede
growth in maturity. Therefore, moving ahead may be more bene-
ficial in every way to able and well-balanced students than staying
where they are in the academic lockstep. It goes without saying
that such a group would be carefully selected, with emotional
stability, good social adjustment, and good health as important
as intellectual qualifications.

For boys following this faster schedule, the Committee pro-
posed that the shift from one "class" to another "class" take place
at the end of school and the beginning of college, by entering
college as a freshman after the third year in school, by entering
college as a sophomore after graduation from school, or by some
temporary compromise status. If this program were accepted in
principle, each institution would work out its own ground rules.

Whatever method might be adopted, "the one principle we
should like to see rigidly adhered to is that the essential values
of a liberal education shall not be lost or compromised." Merely
to lop off a year or two of secondary school, without adequate
compensation in the form of an enriched and tightened curricu-
lum, does not, in our judgment, offer promise as a long-range
solution of our problems. If a community is not willing or able
to support an educational program which can really stretch the
top-level student, it is probably best for him to move on to college
at the earliest opportunity. Scholarships which make this proce-

dure possible are accomplishing splendid work, but they appear
to us to constitute only a sort of "salvage" operation. "To pluck
a good student out of a poor school and put him early into a better
college is to save the individual but to jeopardize long-range at-
tempts to create a coherent, challenging pattern of general edu-
cation for the superior student."

"Whatever the immediate fate of the proposal," the Report
states, "we are convinced that the pressures we have described,
both civilian and military, will sooner or later force consideration
of the general problem of acceleration in the high school and
college years. When that time comes, we think our schools and
colleges will be in a better position to tackle the problem intelli-
gently if they already have some experience with a carefully con-
trolled experimental program on which to base judgment. The
immediate argument for such an experiment, however, is its pos-
sible benefit to the unusual student,"

Summary

In overall summary, the program which the Committee pro-
poses is intended to demonstrate the advantages of designing a set
of requirements which apply to the years of general education as
a whole, not merely to graduation from school or to the first years
of college. Problems of balance which seem insoluble in two years
of a crowded curriculum, whether in school or college, become
easier to solve when the span dealt with is four years and over-
lapping requirements and repeated courses are eliminated. A high
degree of integration can be attained if school and college facul-
ties can be persuaded to look at these years as a unit, as we have
tried to do.

Many beneficial results might follow from this kind of integra-
tion: the breadth essential to a liberal education and, with it,

some depth; sharp reduction of waste and loss of momentum,
particularly in the first two years of college; a clearer conscious-
ness of the meaning of a liberal education through earlier intro-
duction to an intelligible plan of general studies; real challenge
to the able student and heightened pride in work well done.

Our dominant concern has been with quality: quality of sub-
ject taught, quality of instruction, quality of student. As indi-
viduals we are proud of the quantitative achievements of educa-
tion in America. We believe in the "Jacksonian" ideal of extend-
ing the benefits of education as far down the scale of ability as
it is possible. But our task in the present study is to emphasize the
"Jeffersonian" concept of the right of every able student to the
best education from which he is capable of profiting.

Our concern for quality extends not only to the student but to

what he is taught. We make no secret of our belief that there is a
hierarchy of knowledge, that some tilings are more important for
the ablest minds to know than others. Over half of the Report is
devoted to the content of our program of studies. We have tried
to show why, in our judgment, each study included should form
part of a liberal education and the relation of each area to the
whole.

Lastly, our whole set of recommendations is designed to raise
the standards of college preparatory education throughout the
country. The colleges must be relieved of the elementary work
they now offer in order to prepare intelligent but poorly-trained
students for further education. At the same time, able, well-
trained students must be kept from getting bogged down in an
introductory college program necessarily designed for the average.

Chapter 3

MEETING THE NEEDS OF EXCEPTIONALLY
ENDOWED STUDENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 1

fJ^HE pressing need for broadly informed and responsible
X leadership and for a more adequate supply of specialized
talent in many fields makes it imperative that the resources of our
abler youth not be wasted. Conservation is of great concern to us
as a people but most of our efforts toward its realization are aimed
at our natural resources. The most important resources we have
are not material but human. The development of distinctive ca-
pacities of many students is encouraged by the programs of col-
leges and universities, including earlier admission of undergradu-
ates. The decisive experience, however, for most students must
inevitably be in the public schools.

For years educators have been aware of the problem presented
by gifted children. Various efforts have been made in different
communities toward its solution. Such efforts have included both
acceleration and segregation, but the problem is a complex one
and no single plan has yet appeared which might be widely ac-
cepted as a satisfactory answer. Historically, public schools in the

1 This chapter was prepared by Karl D. Ernst, Administrative Director of
the Gifted Child Project of the Portland (Oregon) Public School System.

United States are geared to the average student. Little special help
has been given to children varying far from the norm. Above-
average students have generally been left to shift for themselves.
Some of them who possess an inner drive and whose environment
has by chance developed motivation rise to the top, but the idea
that the genius will emerge in spite of difficulties is probably
fallacious.

Along with other educators, Portland teachers have wrestled
with this important yet elusive problem. Several years ago
Mrs. Idella Watson, a mathematics teacher in Grant High School,
became interested in gifted students and sought the cooperation
of Reed College. Reed personnel saw possibilities in her sugges-
tion and offered to cooperate through a series of lecture-sympo-
siums for selected high school students. Lectures were given by
members of the Reed College faculty in the field of science, social
science and literature to approximately seventy-five talented
pupils- The lectures were designed to stimulate the academic in-
terest of gifted students of pre-college age. After the first year the
plan was extended to include a few students from several other
Portland high schools. Although the symposiums covered many
topics, they had a common theme, described as "Methods of
weighing evidence, analyzing theories and detecting errors in the
natural sciences, the social sciences and humanities."

During the years 1951-52, Superintendent Paul A, Rehmus
with his staff began a series of informal discussions with members
of the Reed College staff in order to explore the possibilities of
augmenting this program. These discussions led to the outlining
of a joint plan which would include activity on the elementary as
well as the secondary level. This plan was then submitted as a
memorandum from the Portland Public Schools and Reed Col-
lege to the Fund for the Advancement of Education for approval

and support. On April 18, 1952, Superintendent Rehmus was
notified that the Fund had approved the program as outlined in
the memorandum and had appropriated $78,000 to the Portland
Public Schools for use during the 1952-53 academic year.

The essential features of the plan as approved were as follows:

1. Provision for many kinds of unusual ability so that the traits and
talents selected for identification and for development shall not be
limited to general intelligence as currently tested and shall include cre-
ative, intellectual, artistic and social capacities, and the emotional and
moral qualities necessary for effective use of these capacities.

2. Experimentation with methods and materials of instruction for
groups and individuals that will challenge and develop unusual abilities
of various kinds, and to this end the encouragement and training of

good teachers.

3. Coordination of the teaching and the programs of promising stu-
dents with the common curriculum of the schools and with other edu-
cational resources in the community to avoid fixed grouping, with the
intention of enabling other students (and in some measure all students),

to profit from the experimentation.

4. Cooperation with other colleges for following up the students from
the program and for working out closer articulation of college curricula
with those of the high schools, and with possible acceleration at cither
the high school or college level, or both.

5. Close collaboration with a college of liberal arts and sciences in a
strategic position for assisting in shaping and evaluating the program
and for actively particpating in important aspects of it.

The Portland project is administered by a Liaison Committee
composed of two representatives from the public schools, two
from Reed College and the administrative director, who as a mem-
ber of the staff of the superintendent of schools heads the project.
Activities are being concentrated in four of the system's nine high

schools and in ten elementary schools. Each school is provided
through the Fund with a small amount of released teacher time
which is divided among a number of teachers constituting a project
committee for that school.

The principal task for the year is the development of proce-
dures of identification. Most previous attempts to identify the
gifted have made major or exclusive use of intelligence test scores.
Studies of the careers of individuals so identified have shown, how-
ever, that outstanding achievement cannot reliably be predicted
by this means, and that many without such scores surpass them
in accomplishment. Other criteria are needed which in combina-
tion with that of general intelligence may prove more successful
in identifying those whose potentialities merit special attention.
Selection of pupils is made in each school by a teacher committee
and is based upon a study of intelligence and achievement test
scores, interest finders, check lists, and teacher reports. These
testing devices have been grouped in three general areas: (I) in-
tellectual; (II) personality characteristics; and (III) special apti-
tudes. No student is ever selected permanently. A]] selections are
tentative and students may be added or dropped as further evi-
dence becomes available. At the present time no standard or city-
wide norms are being used as a basis for selection. Instead each
school after a careful consideration of its resources determines
the number of pupils that may be handled in the program. In a
general way teachers are this year evaluating the abilities of chil-
dren on all grade levels, but the concentrated program of identi-
fication and statistical analysis is being confined to the fifth and
ninth grade levels. Next year the new fifth and ninth grade pupils
will be included and within a four year period a complete analysis
of the abilities of all pupils, grades four through twelve, will be
available.

In the first area the school system's regular program of intelli-
gence and achievement testing is being used as a basis for the
screening of pupils. Additional ceiling tests have been given to
approximately the top one-third of all fifth and ninth graders in
order to give a more complete picture of their intellectual and
achievement abilities.

In the second area the identification committee for the project
has developed a check list of personality characteristics which are
considered to be important in determining the achievement abili-
ties of children. Originally this check list mentioned six general
characteristics: drive, self-direction, creativity, curiosity, ability
to generalize into new situations, and individualistic performance.
Refinements of the original check list have been made on the basis
of teacher suggestions and the present one consists of a series of
approximately twenty specific personality characteristics. Teach-
ers rate their pupils in reference to these characteristics. All pupils
who receive high ratings on these personality characteristics are
given careful consideration even though the scores made on in-
telligence tests might be quite ordinary. In the same way, those
who score high on intelligence and achievement tests are given
careful consideration even though the ratings on the personal
characteristics are quite ordinary.

This rating device is basically one of teacher judgment, which
of course is not infallible. It is our intention to check carefully
from year to year the correlation of the teacher judgment as ex-
pressed on these check lists with the evidence as shown on intelli-
gence and achievement tests. As pupils move through the grades,
we will also be interested in comparing the evaluation which dif-
ferent teachers make in terms of these same personality charac-
teristics. In this area it will be necessary to engage in a continuous
program of teacher education, aimed toward a better understand-

ing of the nature of the gifted child. The bright child is not always
the conforming type of individual who gets along well with his
teacher. On the contrary, he may be a problem in the classroom
and a consequent threat to the security of the teacher.

The third area for identification is that of special aptitudes.
Here we have grouped seven different specialized aptitudes or
talents which might not necessarily be discovered through intelli-
gence tests. They include art, music, dramatics, dancing, creative
writing, mechanical skill and comprehension, and social leader-
ship. There is very little now available in the way of tests which
covers these fields. In order to meet this problem, the identification
committee has designated seven sub-committees, one in each of
the above-named fields, to study the problem, and to produce
tests or criteria which might be used by the classroom teacher in
screening for talent. These committees include not only teachers
who are specialists in their respective fields but also lay members
with specialized interests and abilities. During the first three weeks
in January they worked under the general direction of Dr. Robert
F. DeHaan of the University of Chicago staff on Human Develop-
ment, who served as a consultant to the Portland project. Dr. Rob-
ert J. Havighurst, chairman of the Department of Human Devel-
opment of the University of Chicago, will visit our project during
the first part of April and continue work with these committees.
It is our plan to have specific proposals from each committee
ready for use in the schools by the opening of school in September.

Each committee is directing its attention to some particular
grade level where there is general agreement that that particular
talent might be quite readily discovered. Because talent discovery
will center in the elementary grades, our plan is to make the screen-
ing instruments in these fields as simple as possible so that they
may be applied by the classroom teacher. Such devices will be

made a natural part of the regular curriculum making it possible
for pupils to perform freely and easily and without the tension
which often accompanies formal tests.

On the elementary level in addition to the development of pro-
cedures for identification, groundwork has also been laid for a
program designed to meet better the needs of the gifted. A teacher
consultant has been spending full time during the year in a regular
program of visitation to the ten pilot schools, counseling with
principals, coordinators, and classroom teachers. Special meet-
ings have been arranged for interested teachers with various sub-
ject matter supervisors who have suggested possibilities of enrich-
ing the program within the homeroom. The classroom teachers
from two of the schools have arranged informal meetings after
school to which they have invited all of the teachers from the
remaining pilot schools to meet with them on grade levels and
discuss the various techniques they use in meeting the needs of
the gifted. Professional meetings in all the pilot schools have
centered on this theme. Teachers are showing a healthy interest
in the project and there are many evidences of professional growth.
Arrangements have been made with the public library to enable
selected pupils to borrow certain types of books above the level
of children's books. Most of the schools have conducted interest
surveys among their pupils and on the basis of the information
gained along with that discovered by tests, have established spe-
cial interest groups in such areas as science, music, art, creative
writing, foreign language, dramatics, dancing. These groups meet
as clubs once or twice a week. During the second year primary
emphasis will shift from identification to evaluation of the needs
of the selected pupils and it is evident that this will result in fur-
ther experimentation which will materially affect the curriculum.

On the high school level a special program for selected juniors
and seniors was inaugurated early in the fall. This group of stu-

dents meets during the last period of the day in a class designated
as a seminar. Here they have been divided according to their inter-
ests and are allowed to worlc on group and individual projects
quite independent of any set curriculum. Their activities during
this period are directed by a number of regular teachers who rep-
resent the various broad subject matter areas. In addition, staff
members of Reed College are available to supplement the instruc-
tional program, to plan projects with high school teachers, to give
special lectures, and to participate in discussions with the students.

As an example of the group activity in one of these junior-
senior seminars, a history project carried on in one school by
seven students is cited. A common interest in phases of govern-
ment led to a review of the study of colonial government and a
more intensive study of the Constitutional period of American
history with special emphasis on the theories and problems of
government at that time. All students read material in Beard's
"Rise of American Civilization" and Parrington's "Main Currents
of American Thought.'* As a background for The Federalist,
special reports on the biographies of John Jay, James Madison,
Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton were prepared by
the students. Several days were devoted to reading and studying
the American Constitution as background material for The Fed-
eralist. All the students read The Federalist. Lively group discus-
sions and special reports which were questioned and criticized by
the group, resulted in a better understanding of The Federalist
and the problems of government in general. Members of the group
became interested in the many references made by the authors of
The Federalist to Plato's Republic, and decided as a result to delve
into Greek history 7 as a background for a later reading of Plato's
Republic. Reed College staff members have contributed signifi-
cantly to this study. Similar projects both of a group and indi-
vidual nature are under way in other subject areas. Students in the

seminar groups are encouraged to develop good research habits,
along with the ability to analyze, think and act creatively, and to
carry on effective group discussions.

One of the primary needs to be met during the first year has
been in the field of teacher education. Part of the role of Reed
College in the project is to administer in cooperation with the
Portland Public Schools a teacher education program, making
available its resources of plant, library, and personnel for summer
workshops and other in-service activities. During the summer of
1952 a workshop was held on the campus of Reed College under
the general supervision of Dr. James T. Hamilton, professor of
Education. This workshop was attended by 75 member of the
Portland Public School staff. Its purposes were threefold:

1. To make specific plans for initiating the program with the begin-
ning of the fall semester.

2. To encourage a preliminary acquaintanceship with the general litera-
ture, research, and previous experience in regard to the gifted.

3. To provide a satisfying psychological basis so as to help assure the
success of the program during the first year.

Special consultants at the workshop included Dr. Fritz Redl of
Wayne University; Dr. Paul B. Diederich of the Educating Test-
ing Service; and Dr. Ernest A. Haggard of the University of
Chicago,

During the year, in addition to activities already described, a
special class in measurement in education is being offered by
Dr. Frederick Courts of the Reed staff through the University of
Oregon Extension Division. Each of the pilot schools is repre-
sented in the class by a test coordinator and the sequence of class
activities is closely related to the testing program now being car-
ried on in relation to the identification program. Dr. Courts acts
as a special consultant in the over-aU testing program. Another

workshop is being planned for the summer of 1953 with special
emphasis on materials and methods of organization within the
school system to meet better the needs of the students identified.
Teachers will be organized in three different areas: elementary,
ninth and tenth grade core, and junior-senior seminar. Id the
latter area, efforts will be made to relate the work in the student
seminar to both the required and elective courses in the last two
years of high school in the fields of social studies, mathematics,
and science.

Another area of importance during the initial year has been
that of interpreting the project to the public. The experiences of
other systems in their efforts to meet the needs of the gifted have
shown that parents are unusually sensitive to and critical of the
method of selection. We recognized early that failure to interpret
properly what is being done might early condemn the project in
the minds of teachers and the public. One of the workshop com-
mittees last summer devoted its full efforts to a study of public
relations, suggesting many helpful policies which have guided us
during the year. A great many talks followed by periods of discus-
sion have been given by the administrative director assisted by the
consultant and various teacher-coordinators to parent-teacher
groups, parent study groups, community and professional clubs,
and professional staff meetings. It has been our purpose to give
basic information and to promote open discussion aimed toward
reaching all interested people in the community, and at the same
time to avoid the criticism which might be easily incurred by
excessive fanfare of a controversial issue of this kind. We feel
at the present time that the project has been well accepted by the
community as evidenced by the healthy interest shown by parents.
Parent criticism has been almost negligible.

As we make plans for subsequent years it is our intention to
continue to evaluate and refine our techniques of identification,

giving increasing attention to the application of multiple criteria,
including moral, emotional, and social factors which are impor-
tant to later achievement and social responsibility. We are also
concerned with developing a better organization of materials and
more effective teaching methods for challenging those of superior
ability and encouraging more efficient preparation in both depth
and breadth for further study and for later roles in our complex
society. Though operating at present in an experimental situation,
we are ever mindful of the fact that our aim is to arrive at prac-
tical and effective methods of operation which might be achieved
by all schools in our own system or by schools in other communi-
ties within tht framework of possible public support. From the
work already accomplished, we are increasingly convinced that
in working to increase the opportunities for the gifted child, a kind
of teacher growth and development is taking place which actually
improves the educational climate for every child in the school.

Chapter 4

ADMISSION TO COLLEGE WITH ADVANCED
STANDING 1

The Program for Admission to College with Advanced
Standing seeks to enrich and accelerate general education in

the 11th through the 14th grades by providing abler students the
equivalent of certain college grade work in their later years of
high school, thus enabling them to "leap frog 7 ' some of the early
work in college.

"G^

The Program for Early Admission to College, discussed in the
next chapter, approaches the same goal from an opposite direc-
tion. It seeks to enable promising students who appear ready for
the experience to "leap frog" the last year or two of high school
and thus get an early start in college.

Under both programs, the aim is to enable and challenge the
student to proceed at his own best pace, but under the program
discussed here the burden of making this possible is placed on

1 This chapter was prepared by William H. Cornog, who is serving as
Executive Director of the project on leave from his post as President of
the Centra] High School in Philadelphia.

both the high school and college. Each must make substantial
departures from well established routines to permit the individual
student to break out of the customary lock step.

Origins and Assumptions of the Experiment

The School and College Study of Admission with Advanced
Standing originated in discussions of the faculty of Kenyon Col-
lege regarding the possibility of revising some of the rules govern-
ing requirements for the bachelor's degree in order to enable very
able students to save time and yet not lose the essential values of
a thorough liberal arts education, President Chalmers of Kenyon
described the plan to friends and associates in schools and colleges,
and in 1951 a group of twelve institutions formed a Committee
on Admission with Advanced Standing. The Committee consisted
of administrative heads and representatives of the following insti-
tutions: Brown, Bowdoin, Carleton, Haverford, Kenyon, Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, Middlebury, Oberlin, Swarth-
more, Wabash, Wesleyan, and Williams. At a meeting in the
spring of 1952 the college presidents and deans agreed to invite
into the Central Committee twelve headmasters, principals, and
superintendents, and in May, 1952 the full Committee met to
organize what was thenceforth known as the School and College
Study of Admission with Advanced Standing. 1

1 The Committee consists of the following : Robert G. Andree, Headmaster,
The High School, Brookline, Massachusetts; Samuel T. Arnold, Provost,
Brown University; Frank D, Asbburn, Headmaster, Brooks School, North
Andover, Massachusetts; James P. Baxter III, President; Williams College;
Victor L, Butterfield, President, Wesleyan University; Gordon K. Chalmers,
President, Kenyon College (Chairman); William H. Cornog, President
Central High School, Philadelphia (Executive Director); Robert N. Cun-
ningham, Headmaster, St. Louis Country Day School, St. Louis; Burton
P. Fowler, Principal, Germantown Friends School, Philadelphia; Stephen
A. Freeman, Acting President, Middlebury College: George H. Gilbert,
Principal, Lower Merion Senior High School, Ardmore, Pennsylvania:

As is the case with all experiments, the School and College
Study began with a series of hypotheses. We made some conjec-
tures about American education and constructed an apparatus to
test them, and to search for solutions to the problems derived from
our postulates. We assumed 1) the continuity of education in
school and college, 2) the virtues of the traditional liberal arts
continuum, 3) the mutuality of interest and understanding of
school and college teachers in the academic disciplines, 4) the
immediacy of the need to revise the timetable and better to utilize
the time of the ablest students, and 5) the possibility of describing
desirable revisions and means of better utilization in terms of
specific subject matter definitions in eleven college freshman
course areas.

From these five basic assumptions I would extract the following
challenging propositions, to which I think the majority of teachers
involved in our study would agree we are committed, or at least
committed to the testing thereof:

1. That able students can and should be given more intensive
preparation in secondary schools and be allowed to qualify for
admission to college at a level higher than freshman entrance in

Harold B. Gores, Superintendent, Newton Public Schools, Newtonville,
Massachusetts; Laurence M. Gould, President, Carleton College; Mitchell
Gratwick, Principal, Horace Mann School, New York City; John W.
Hallowell, Headmaster, Western Reserve Academy, Hudson, Ohio; James
L. Hanley, Superintendent, Department of Public Schools, Providence,
Rhode Island; Nathaniel C. Kendrick, Dean, Bowdoin College; Archibald
Macintosh, Vice-President, Haverford College; Morris Meister, Principal,
The Bronx High School of Science, New York; Lloyd S. Michael, Superin-
tendent, Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Illinois; John W.
Nason, President, Swarthmore College; Frank H. Sparks, President,
Wabash College; William E. Stevenson, President, Oberlin College; B. A.
Thresher, Director of Admissions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
and Eugene Youngert, Superintendent, Oak Park and River Forest High
School, Oak Park, Illinois.

specific subjects in which evidence can be shown of strong prepa-
ration, the equivalent of first-year college work.

2. That committees of school and college teachers can define
requirements for admission with advanced standing acceptable
to the twelve participating institutions, and broadly applicable in
institutions of similar standards and aims throughout the country.

3. That acceleration of able students out of high school after
two years or three is generally less desirable than enrichment of
the high school curriculum and admission to college with ad-
vanced standing at the normal college entering age of seventeen
or eighteen.

4. That the advancement of American education demands the
strengthening of our secondary schools and particularly of those
secondary divisions responsible for college preparation, and that
the colleges have an obligation morally to encourage and tangibly
to support secondary schools which strive to establish and main-
tain high standards of academic achievement.

5. That sound learning is respectable and that academic sub-
jects, the content of a liberal arts education, constitute worthy
intellectual and spiritual nourishment for young minds, if these
disciplines are liberally and wisely taught.

6. That, if procedures for admission of well prepared students
to advanced standing in college can be worked out, the best cur-
rent practices in academic secondary preparation will be sup-
ported and their growth and dissemination fostered, the strong
secondary school teachers and students made stronger, and the
college faculties placed on record in powerful endorsement of the
type of liberal arts education in which they and many secondary
school faculties believe.

7. That this study stands in opposition to trends in secondary
education which have led to the dilution of the high school course,
that it opposes these trends not by directing at their advocates
insult, ridicule, and indignant complaint, but by holding up a
standard of educational excellence to which all schools and col-
leges of good-will and courage can repair,

8. That, finally, this study reaches beyond parochial considera-
tions of departmental regulations and self-interest or even of
college degree requirements; that it may offer a challenge to
American education truly commensurate with the dynamism of
our culture, the wealth of our resources, and the still unawakened
powers of our highly endowed youth.

Progress to Date

To test these convictions and to pave the way for trans-
lating these convictions into action, the Central Committee de-
cided to establish a series of working committees to study inten-
sively eleven subject fields on the college freshman level in which
high school preparation might be enriched.

In the course of the summer of 1952 the newly appointed
Executive Director, William H. Cornog, President of Central
High School, Philadelphia, organized eleven sub-committees of
four college and three secondary school teachers each, in the fol-
lowing subjects: English composition, literature, Latin, French,
German, Spanish, history, mathematics, biology, chemistry ? and
physics. (It is significant that of seventy-seven teachers originally
invited to committee work only four could not serve, and all four
refused only on the basis of prior commitments or impending
leaves which prevented acceptance.) The subject committees were
charged with the task of defining, (in their respective subjects),
the content and standards of achievement of intensive courses in

secondary schools which could be offered to the ablest high school
juniors and seniors and for which the twelve colleges could give
partial or full first-year credit toward their bachelor's degrees. In
addition the Central Committee also established, from its own
membership, a Committee on Individual Development which was
given the task of examining and defining the student himself and
of advising the other sub-committees concerning elements of
development not commonly included in the mere acquisition of
knowledge.

J £p v

To insure close contact with the college faculties at every point
in the study the college representatives of the Central Committee
named correspondents in their institutions in each subject field.
The sub-committees have constantly sought the advice of the cor-
respondents and have kept them informed of the progress of com-
mittee work. 1

Our working committees have recognized from the start the
many difficulties involved in drawing the blue-prints and specifica-
tions by which our principles and propositions may be put to the
test of action. But from the beginning our school and college
teachers have applied themselves to the problems in their several

1 Committees of the study have met and will meet on the following schedule,
in Cambridge, Princeton, Boston, New York, and various host colleges:
September 10, 1952, Committee on Individual Development; Septem-
ber 26-2S, October 3-5, October 10-12, 1952, subject committees; Octo-
ber 30, 1952, Executive Committee and sub-committee chairmen; Novem-
ber 14-16, 21-23, subject committees; December 7, Central Committee;
December 18, Executive Committee; January 9-11, 1953, subject com-
mittees; February 20-2 1. February 28-March 1, March 6-8, subject com-
mittees; February 28-March 1, Executive Committee, Committee on
Individual Development, Sub-Committee Chairmen, Vilot Study directors;
March 27-28, April 10-12, April 17-1 8, April 25-26, May 15-17, subject
committees; April 18, Executive Committee; May 2 and June 13, Central
Committee.

subjects in the firm conviction that the job can be done and is
eminently worth doing. The experience of working together for
a coordinated system of school and college teaching has been most
rewarding to the participants and an invaluable type of seminar
in teacher education.

The subject committees have been encouraged to work toward
definitions of requirements which will present a broad range of
topics, with many options, in order to give secondary school teach-
ers freedom for imaginative teaching and adventurous planning.
The definitions will not, it is hoped, standardize subjects or courses
within narrow limits and thus discourage variety in secondary
school programs for the gifted.

The definitions are planned to be liberal also in terms of aca-
demic achievement expected. The cumulative extracting of the
best practices and highest standards of the twelve colleges may
result in an unrealistic "premium" type of advanced credit, beyond
the normal "high pass" credit given to the regular freshman college
student. College departments would not be wise to raise their ask-
ing price beyond reasonable limits even though their potential
customers are richly endowed. Advanced credit can be priced
out of the market.

Moreover, definitions and examinations can never be allowed
to be the sole criteria for determining the granting of advanced
credit. Much weight must be given to other evidence of unusual
ability and valued personal qualities, such evidence as would be
found in recommendations from principals, guidance officers, and
teachers.

AU subject matter committees have been urged to preface their
definitions with as full a statement as possible regarding the broad
and, it is hoped, liberal objectives of their courses and the relation
of these courses to the whole of liberal arts education in school

and college. The committees have been asked also to make specific
suggestions concerning teaching methods and approaches to their
subjects which would, in their opinion, foster the maturation of
the able student. It is above all important, in the judgment of the
Central Committee, to encourage and challenge the secondary
schools to exercise freedom and a bold use of Imagination in their
teaching and planning, and to avoid as the plague cram courses
for the bright student. Admission with advanced credit should
not be gained by rigorous training in jumping hurdles and bound-
ing through hoops, or even by performing high-scoring feats on
a very objective trapeze. It is, further, incumbent upon the col-
leges to consider how they will deal with able students admitted
with advanced credit and what options for a continuously enriched
education may be opened to such students.

Plans for the Future

Committee assignments have involved the active participa-
tion of more than a hundred school and college teachers and
administrators- So much activity by so many has required that
the Central Committee ask the Fund for the Advancement of
Education for a grant supplementary to the original grant of
$50,000 on the basis of which the study was launched in June,
1952. The Fund has generously given this additional support to
complete the work of the study.

In order to anticipate some of the administrative and organiza-
tional problems associated with a system of preparatory education
for and admission to college with advanced credit, the Central
Committee has authorized a series of pilot studies in seven schools
and two colleges of the study in the spring semester of 1953, Sub-
ject to our receiving a second supplementary grant for these pilot
projects from the Fund for the Advancement of Education, seven
schools of the study are undertaking to assess the import of ad-

vanced credit programs for their school communities. It is clear
from the enthusiasm of ail schools who have been reached by
communications from this study or by participation in it that the
schools are eager to put into action our evolving plans for inten-
sive education of the gifted.

t>*

The subject committees of the study will begin submitting their
final reports at the May 2 meeting of the Central Committee. All
reports will be completed by the June 13 meeting of that com-
mittee. The eleven subject committee reports will then be pub-
lished and in the fall of 1953 will be circulated to the twelve col-
lege faculties for consideration. We expect to have approvals late
in the fall term. It is anticipated that some schools will begin next
fall to introduce courses designed to meet the defined require-
ments.

Some committees may submit with their reports specimen ex-
aminations for the guidance of our colleges. There is general
support in the Central Committee for a series of common exami-
nations for advanced credit to be given to admitted candidates
during freshman week. No decision has been reached regarding
examination procedures. Some committees, and some members
of the Central Committee, incline to a certification plan, based
upon confidence of the college in the integrity and competence
of the secondary school. This system of certification was common
a generation ago and persists today in an analogous form in the
procedures of granting transfer credit, college to college. If the
advanced credit plan proposed by our study attracts the nation-
wide interest among secondary schools which it seems even now
to be attracting, and if more colleges, after reviewing our defini-
tions, wish to accept able and well-trained students on the same
basis, it will inevitably be necessary to ask some national testing
agency to construct a series of honors or advanced credit exami-

nations. It is plain, however, to all school and college people
involved in our study that these examinations, while they may
have some objective, multiple-choice elements, must at core be
essay-type examinations.

We have no way of knowing with any accuracy how many can-
didates may be recommended for admission with advanced credit
even to the present twelve colleges of the study in the first year of
operation. Estimates run from a few hundred to more than a
thousand. Estimates are as varied in regard to the percentile rank:
of eligible candidates in terms of College Board scores or national
intelligence tests. Some schools say that two per cent of their
seniors could qualify; some say ten or twenty per cent.

The one area of agreement is in the field of finance. Everyone
agrees that education of the gifted as they should be educated will
cost money. Our only defense there is that education of the handi-
capped, of the retarded and the slow-learner, also costs money.
We believe that the provision of special services for the handi-
capped are neither to be regarded as merely the discharge of
humanitarian obligations nor to be justified by the arguments of
sentiment. The handicapped are members of this society of free
mejo and should receive these services as a birthright and for these
services this society may not take credit as for some singular or
added grace. By the same token, we hold that it is no less demo-
cratic to provide special educational services for the gifted. This
provision is also their birthright, for democracy has the responsi-
bility to afford opportunity for full personal development to all
its citizens, and to each of them in ways and degrees commensu-
rate with the person's endowment and his needs. If this is truly
the extent of our society's commitment in education, we face the
task of making boards of trustees and boards of education aware
of how far short we are falling in meeting that commitment, and

what necessary and expensive steps we all are going to be called
upon to take to give our gifted students as full a measure of their
educational birthright as we give to their less endowed, and no
more than equally deserving, fellows.

The School and College Study will, we hope, afford one means
of achieving a balance of opportunity in American education by
offering specifications and standards for a more equitable treat-
ment in schools and colleges of a comparatively neglected minor-
ity, our ablest students.

Chapter 5

EARLY ADMISSION TO COLLEGE

r "T 1 HE Program for Early Admission to College got under way
-^ in the autumn of 1951 when the first group of 421 Fund
Scholars entered the freshmen year at eleven participating col-
leges and universities. 1 The second group of 429 entered 12 insti-
tutions in 1952. These students were selected by the institutions
they entered and were granted a two-year scholarship financed by
the Fund for the Advancement of Education. With few exceptions
they were I6V2 years of age or younger at the time of entering
college and the large majority had not completed high school.

Recently the Fund made additional grants to the participating
colleges to be used, first, for providing necessary financial aid to
the first two groups of Scholars in their third and fourth years of
college and, second, to help finance two additional groups of
Scholars, entering in 1953 and 1954. Thus, barring unforeseen
developments- four groups of Scholars numbering well over 1000
in all will have graduated from college under this experiment by
1958. Close observation of their experience compared to that of
other college students should provide a better basis than ever

a A twelfth participant, Morehouse College at Atlanta, Georgia, did not
admit its first group of Scholars until the fall of 1952, and therefore is not
included in the statistics on which this report is based.

before for answering some pressing questions of educational

policy.

This interim report deals solely with the first year's experience
and represents only the first step toward a full scale evaluation.
It would obviously be premature and unwise to hazard any final
conclusions as yet, but in view of the wide interest shown in the
program it was decided to make available as full information as
possible on its results to date.

The first year of this program was apparently just as novel and
profitable an experience for the colleges concerned as it was for
the Fund Scholars. Their faculties and officials, feeling a special
responsibility toward these "unorthodox" students, found them-
selves reexamining the adequacy of various basic policies and
practices, including curriculum and teaching methods, with re-
sulting benefits that will probably extend far beyond the imme-
diate scope of the program. In short, the experiment presented an
occasion for healthy self-appraisal by the colleges, which in the
end could represent one of its most important results.

A considerable body of evidence has been gathered concern-
ing the adjustment of the Scholars to their first year of college,
though there are important gaps yet to be filled. For presentation
purposes, a distinction has been made between their "academic
performance" and their "social and emotional adjustment/' but
it must be remembered that the two interact considerably. Before
reviewing this evidence, it will be well to note the origins of the
program, its unique features, how' the Scholars were selected,
what they were like, and some important characteristics of the
academic and non-academic environment to which they were
exposed.

Origins and Unique Features
of the Program

Thjs project began as a "Pre-Induction Program" involving
four universities which were concerned about the problems cre-
ated for education by the manpower demands of the nation's
military services. Under the military draft regulations of early
1951 it appeared that for an indefinite period young men would
be drafted at age 18 or shortly thereafter for at least two years
of military service, just at the time when they would normally
have entered college. This threatened to squeeze general or lib-
eral education at the college level out of the experience of many
young men. Discussions of the problem by representatives of four
universities — Yale, Chicago, Columbia, and Wisconsin — re-
sulted in a cooperative proposal to the Fund for the establishment
of an experimental program of scholarships to enable young men
not older than 16V& years to enter college for two years of general
education before their military service. The Fund agreed to sup-
port this project. Public interest in the plan was revealed by the
fact that roughly 2 3 000 applications were received at the Educa-
tional Testing Service at Princeton, New Jersey, for the 200
scholarships available at the four universities.

Announcement of the grant also revealed widespread interest
among other educational institutions in the problem of articula-
tion of secondary and collegiate education, and in the idea of
admitting promising young people to college before they had com-
pleted the conventional high school course as one approach to
meeting the problem. Applications to join the program were re-
ceived from a number of other institutions, and grants were made
to eight of them — Oberlin, Goucher, Lafayette, The University of
Louisville, Fisk, Morehouse, The University of Utah and Shinier.
The program was thus extended to a wide variety of higher edu-

cational institutions, including a co-educational liberal arts col-
lege, a women's college, a college specializing in the preparation
of engineers, a municipal institution, two Negro institutions,, and
a state university having unusually close affiliations with high
schools of the state.

This expansion, and the liberalization of military draft regula-
tions to permit college students with good academic performance
records to complete college before being drafted, soon broadened
the focus well beyond the initial pre-induction feature of the pro-
gram to include its larger experimental aspects. All participating
institutions had become keenly concerned over the broad problem
of achieving a better articulation between the last two years of
high school and the first two years of college, though they retained
a lively interest in the more limited pre-induction problem. It was
hoped that the lessons learned might benefit not only young men
subject to draft but all students entering college.

The program represents the first large scale experiment in early-
admission to college involving several cooperating institutions and
is unique in several other respects.

There have of course been many instances in the past where
young people have entered college at an earlier than normal age,
sometimes without completing high school, and several studies
have been made of such students. But these studies have usually
been confined to academic performance, with a post hoc statisti-
cal analysis of grades received by younger students compared to
others. In contrast, the present program has undertaken to study
not only academic performance but also the very important ques-
tion of social and emotional adjustment. The evidence is derived
from systematic observation of younger students from the day
they enter college. The students under study are not only younger
than average entering college freshmen but also have less than

average high school preparation. They are not simply a random
collection of individual cases but a carefully selected group whose
presence has affected the environment of the colleges they are
attending. Their performance is being measured not only against
"all other students" but against selected matching groups of regu-
lar students presumed to be their intellectual equals. This program
embraces not one college but several. It marshals the combined
experience and wisdom of their faculties and administrative offi-
cers in a search for sound answers to vital educational policy
questions. Finally it is not an isolated experiment or statistical
study. It is part of a pattern of experiments which approach in
concert the basic goal of achieving a better articulation of general
education in schools and colleges.

In keeping with the experimental approach, no effort was made
to impose uniformity of policies or practices upon the participat-
ing colleges and universities. There is in fact wide diversity in
such matters as selection standards and procedures, curriculum,
social regulations and the like. This will provide an opportunity
to analyze and compare results under differing conditions.

Selection of Scholars

Each institution followed its own usual selection procedures,
though most exerted additional recruiting efforts, raised their
usual admissions standards, employed extra testing procedures for
screening, and generally appraised candidates more rigorously
than ordinary students, particularly as to their personal maturity
and social adaptability. Most applicants who survived the initial
screening were interviewed personally by college officials or
alumni.

As might be expected, the number of applicants greatly ex-
ceeded the number of available scholarships. The major screen-

mg device employed by all institutions was a scholastic aptitude
test, coupled in some cases with achievement tests. Six of the in-
stitutions used the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB)
"Scholastic Aptitude Tests." The American Council on Educa-
tion (ACE) "Psychological Examination" was used in eight of
the institutions, including four of those who also used the CEEB
tests. One institution used the Ohio State Psychological Examina-
tion. Achievement tests were used in addition to aptitude tests
by six institutions (See Appendix Table I for details). In apprais-
ing academic promise, most institutions also gave considerable
weight to the applicant's high school record.

Final selection of Scholars took various factors into account,
though academic promise and personal maturity were the most
important. In all institutions but Shimer, preference was given to
applicants with higher aptitude scores, and usually none was con-
sidered below a level which had been arbitrarily set somewhat
above the institution's customary minimum. Shimer sought to
select a representative cross section of students with scholastic
aptitude ratings which ranged from well below to well above
average.

Where candidates were relatively equal in academic promise
and maturity, the institutions tended to determine their selections
on marginal factors. Some endeavored to achieve a relatively wide
geographical scatter among their Scholars. Most favored high
school students over private preparatory school students, other
things being equal. Though it was not the intent of this particular
program to give special consideration to financially handicapped
students, it appears that in practice most of the institutions took
financial need into account. Some also considered physical stature
and appearance, in an effort to select young students who would
not be "conspicuous oddities" on the campus. One institution,
reflecting the attitude of most others, said very candidly that it

was anxious not to recruit "simply a bunch of bright young twerps."
It was believed that this type of student frequently encounters
difficulty in adjusting to college regardless of his age or high school
preparation and that it would defeat the purpose of the experi-
ment to load it with young people who were poorly adjusted
socially or emotionally. At least one institution, however, chal-
lenged this idea of trying to avoid "misfits" in the selection of
students, fearing that such a policy might unconsciously degen-
erate into forcing all college students into a social stereotype.

The experience of the participating institutions strongly sug-
gests that there is still room for advancement among American
institutions of higher learning in the techniques of selecting stu-
dents. By and large the available methods for measuring academic
aptitude and promise seem relatively reliable, but the problem of
gauging emotional stability and social maturity appears to remain
far from solved.

Characteristics of the Scholars Selected

The Scholars as a group (except at Shimer and to a lesser
degree at Chicago) differed markedly from the average of their
classmates only in the matter of age, aptitude and amount of
secondary school preparation. But they differed widely among
themselves in such matters as family background and income,
career interests, the type and location of their home community
and the like.

The one women's college and four co-educational institutions
gave scholarships to women, and in the aggregate 17% of the
420 Scholars were women. (See Appendix Table EL)

The 1951 Fund Scholars ranged in age from less than \AV% to
17 years or more, but more than three-quarters of them were

between \5Vi and I6V2 years of age. 1 As a group, therefore, they
were roughly two years younger than the average for entering
college freshmen. (See Appendix Table II.)

Fewer than 10% of the Scholars had finished high school, half
had completed eleven grades, and 40% had completed only ten
grades. (See Appendix Table II.) Six of the institutions (Fisk,
Goucher, Lafayette. Louisville, Shinier and Utah) followed the
policy of taking no Scholar who had finished high school, and
three (Columbia, Louisville, Utah) took no one who had not
completed eleven years of school. Fisk concentrated on tenth
graders.

There is wide variation among the Scholars in scholastic apti-
tude scores, largely within the range above the national average.
More than half (245 out of 420) took the CEEB aptitude tests.
As shown in Table I, nearly 54% of these Scholars achieved
scores on verbal aptitude equal to or above the top 16% of all
college applicants in the nation taking this test. On the mathe-
matical section, where the Scholars tended to be stronger, 64%
of those taking the CEEB tests had scores equal to or above the
top 16% of the national total. Of the 277 Fund Scholars who
took the ACE Psychological Test, 40% fitted into the top 10%
bracket for the nation as a whole and about 70% did at least as
well as the top 30% of the national total.

1 An exception was made in the case of the University of Utah where the
local school setup is such that it was necessary to raise the age ceiling to
17V2 years, though in no case had a Scholar at Utah completed high school.

Table 1

COMPARISON OF APTITUDE SCORES OF 1951 FUND SCHOLARS
WITH NATIONAL NORMS

A) CEEB Test of Scholastic Aptitude, Verbal Section

Scaled Scores No. Scholars % Scholars % Nation-wide

701 &over 27 11.02 2.00

601-700 105 42.86 1400

501-600 94 38.37 34.00

401^500 16 6.53 34.00

301-400 3 1.22 14.00

300 & lower 0.00 2.00

Totals 245 100.00 100.00

B) CEEB Test of Scholastic Aptitude, Mathematics- Section

Scaled Scores No. Scholars % Scholars % Nation-wide

700 & over .. 74 30.20 2.00

601-700 84 34.28 14.00

501-600 75 30.61 34.00

401-500 12 4.90 34.00

301-400 0.00 14.00

300 Slower 0.00 2.00

Totals 245 99.99 100.00

C) ACE Psychological Examination for College Freshmen, Total Score

Nation-wide

Percentiles No. Scholars % Scholars

91-100 " 111 40.07

81- 90 51 18,41

71- 80 32 11.55

61- 70 19 6.86

51- 60 23 8.30

41- 50 14 5.05

31- 40 14 5.05

21- 30 10 3.61

11- 20 2 ,72

0- 10 1 .36

Totals 277 99.98

For details see Appendix Table III

The 1951 Scholars represent a wide geographical distribution,
coming from thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, though
in a few places such as Louisville and Utah the Scholars were
drawn almost entirely from near-by areas. As Table II indicates,
60% of the Scholars came either from the Middle Atlantic or
East North Central regions.

Table II

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF HOME RESIDENCE
Region No. of Scholars Percent

Middle Atlantic 176 41.90

East North Central 80 19.05

Mountain 45 10.71

East South Central 36 8.57

New England 28 6.67

South Atlantic 27 6.42

Pacific 16 3.80

West North Central 9 2.14

West South Central 3 .71

Totals 420 99.97

For details see Appendix Table IV

Most of the Scholars were "city boys"; only 1% came from
communities with a population under 2500. (See Appendix
Table IT.) This small number reflects the difficulties encountered
by colleges and universities in recruiting from rural areas. The
colleges expressed disappointment that they had so few rural
Scholars, a deficiency which applies to most of their student bodies
as a whole.

Rough evidence is available on family income for 337 of the
1951 Scholars but should not be taken too literally since it repre-
sents in some cases the student's best guess rather than accurate

knowledge. The large majority of Scholars (72%) came from
^middle income families in the $3,000 to $9,000 bracket. About
11% of the family incomes were below $3,000 and about 17%
above $9,000.

Table III

ANNUAL FAMILY INCOME OF 1951 FUND SCHOLARS

% of 337 Families

No. of

% of 420

with Income

Income

Families

Reported

$9,000 & over

13.57

16.91

$6,000-$8,999

17.62

21.96

$3,000-55,999

169

40.24

50.15

Under $3,000

8.81

10.98

Unknown

19.76

Totals

420

100.00

For details see Appendix Table V

The breadwinning parents of the 1951 Fund Scholars were
engaged in a wide range of occupations, as shown in Appendix
Table VI. About 42% of them may be classified as "professional"
or "semi-professional"; another 30% were in business and bank-
ing. A significant number were manual workers, milkmen, post-
men and the like.

The parents of the 1951 Scholars as a group have had consid-
erably more education than the national average for adults. Table
IV covering the parents of nearly nine-tenths of the 195 1 Scholars,
indicates that more than 85% have graduated from high school;
55% of the fathers and 36% of the mothers graduated from col-
lege and many of these did further graduate work; and in 13%
of the cases both parents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Table IV

EDUCATION OF PARENTS OF \ 951 FUND SCHOLARS

% of Parents
Highest Educa- with Equal

cational LcvcJ No. of % of 372 No. of % of 370 Both Amount of
Completed Fathers Fathers Mothers Mothers Parents Schooling

Has Bachelor's
degree or
higher 206

Graduated from
Secondary
School butEot
from College 110

Did not com-
plete Secon-
dary School .... 56

55.3S 133 35.94

29.57 192 51.89

15.05 45 12.16

49 13.17

33 8.87

IS 4.83

Totals 372 100.00 370 99.99

For additional details, see Appendix Table VII

100 26.87

The 1951 Fund Scholars showed an unusually strong prefer-
ence for the natural sciences, which appears to correlate with their
high proficiency in mathematics. For the 333 Scholars on which
information is provided in Appendix Table VIII concerning career
preference expressed at the time of entering college, 56% desired
to enter a profession relating to the natural sciences whereas only
1 8% preferred the social sciences and less than 12% the humani-
ties. Only 3% showed a preference for business. Among those
who expressed an initial preference as to the academic major they
desired to pursue in college, 44% indicated natural sciences, less
than 19% social sciences and under 16% humanities. (See Ap-
pendix Table IX.) There was some tendency to shift away from
natural sciences, however, during the course of the first year in
college.

The Academic Programs of the Scholars

The heavy emphasis of the first year was on liberal or general
education, except for a few Scholars at Lafayette and Louisville
who were permitted to enter engineering programs. There was
much variation among the 1 1 institutions, however, in curricu-
lum, teaching methods, freedom of student choice, opportunity
for acceleration, and in the degree to which Scholars were treated
differently than regular students.

The majority of colleges made a special point of giving the
Scholars the same academic treatment as any other entering fresh-
men, sometimes to the extent of not identifying Scholars even to
faculty members. Where the Scholars were academically segre-
gated or otherwise given different treatment, the purpose was
usually to provide them a richer educational experience and higher
performance standards than the general student body. There were
few cases of special arrangements designed to correct presumed
deficiencies resulting from the Scholar's shortened high school
career. The colleges consciously avoided "remedial" measures,
believing strongly that it was not the intent of the program for
the colleges to take over the high school's job.

In six of the institutions — Columbia, Chicago, Louisville,
Shimer, Oberlin and Goucher — there was no different academic
treatment of Scholars whatever. The same was largely true at
Lafayette, except that engineering Scholars were given a special
integrated course in mathematics and physics. This was partly to
correct the one important deficiency which Lafayette suspected
the Scholars might suffer from in a college that emphasizes science
and engineering. But it was also because Lafayette desired to
develop such a course for all future engineering freshmen (their
experience with high school graduates in math and physics having
been frequently unsatisfactory in the past) and the Scholars

seemed like an intelligent group to help develop the course. At
Yale the Scholars were fully mixed with other freshmen, but all
were required to enter the program of Directed Studies with ap-
proximately two-thirds as many regular students. It was felt that
this would both give the Scholars a better educational opportunity
and benefit the Directed Studies program, which began as an ex-
periment in 1945.

A somewhat similar policy was followed at Wisconsin where
three-fifths of the Scholars entered the Integrated Liberal Studies
program and the others the regular freshman courses. Wisconsin
officials reported with some chagrin that the presence of the Schol-
ars may have frightened oS conventional students from the I.L.S.
program by setting such an enthusiastic pace.

Considerable segregation of Scholars occurred at Utah with
the primary aim of giving thein an enriched curriculum and more
challenging standards. Two new courses, in social science and
mathematics, were set up especially for this group, and special
advanced sections of three regular courses were reserved exclu-
sively for Fund Scholars. A sixth course combined half Scholars
and half regular freshmen.

The only case of full academic segregation was at Fisk where
all Scholars (and only Scholars) were enrolled in a newly estab-
lished "Basic College" with an entirely new curriculum and sepa-
rate faculty. This new college had been planned for some time and
was put into operation one year ahead of schedule, with a richer
curriculum and higher standards than the regular college, to meet
the problem presented by the considerably superior academic
ability of the Scholar group compared to the regular students.

In most of the colleges, with Goucher and Oberlin as notable
exceptions, the Scholars, along with other entering students, had
relatively little freedom of choice in selection of courses. Typically

they took prescribed courses in the social sciences, natural sci-
ences, mathematics, and humanities, often with a foreign lan-
guage as well. It is interesting to find that several of the colleges
offer "integrated" courses, frequently in a two or three year
sequence, cutting across the traditional jurisdictional boundaries
of related academic disciplines. The majority also place emphasis
on English composition.

In most of the institutions there is some measure of flexibility
in the placement of students in elementary or advanced courses
and sections, especially in mathematics and foreign languages,
which affords at least limited opportunity for acceleration by the
well prepared or more competent student. On the whole, however,
few of the institutions had a genuine acceleration system. Their
curricula are organized on the premise that virtually every 7 student
should spend four years accumulating a minimum quota of course
credits to earn a bachelor's degree. Chicago and Shimer, the nota-
ble exceptions, have a highly flexible system which accepts stu-
dents with varying amounts of high school preparation and per-
mits wide variation in the rate of speed through college. The
College at Chicago:

". . , admits students who have completed two or more years of high
school. It places students in its curriculum on the basis of tests which
determine the nature aad extent of their knowledge and competence at
the time they enter. It measures the achievement of students by com-
prehensive examinations rather than by adding up credits earned in
separate courses. In recognition of their abilities and needs, it permits
the students to proceed at different rates, and is more concerned with
actual accomplishment than with the length of time students have spent
in the classroom."

Similar arrangements prevail at Shimer where:

"the curriculum consists of an integrated series of prescribed general
courses in the principal fields of knowledge. Emphasis is placed upon

methods of learning rather than on individual facts to be learned. The
ability to analyze, and to formulate and express ideas, is developed
through independent source reading and through small classroom dis-
cussion groups. Fourteen courses comprise the college curriculum."

Columbia employs a system of placement and achievement tests
by means of which a student may move on to more advanced work,
but without receiving point credit toward the degree.

Four of the institutions — Chicago, Louisville, Shinier and
Utah — have had considerable past experience in admitting
younger students who have completed fewer than 12 years of
previous schooling, and by means of examinations placing them
in college work commensurate with their achievement and apti-
tude.

N on- Academic Arrangements for Scholars

The participating institutions were keenly aware of the
importance of "non-academic" environmental factors to the suc-
cessful adjustment of the Fund Scholars to college life. Thus care-
ful thought was given to such matters as living and eating arrange-
ments, opportunities for participation in social and athletic activi-
ties, and provisions for adequate counselling services. Although
there was considerable variation in how the different institutions
met these problems, in most places Scholars were treated as all
other freshmen in virtually every respect.

By and large, Scholars everywhere were permitted and encour-
aged to participate in regular extra-curricular activities, including
sports. In most places they were subjected to the same social regu-
lations as other freshmen, though because of their age they were
generally discouraged or prohibited from joining fraternities.

In seven of the colleges — Chicago, Columbia, Goucher,
Lafayette, Oberlin, Shimer, and Yale — all or most of the 1951

Fund Scholars lived in regular dormitories and shared usual eat-
ing facilities. In a few cases, Scholars were coupled as roommates.
At Louisville and Utah the large majority of Scholars lived at
home while others were encouraged to live in regular college
dormitories, but in all respects they were treated just as other
freshmen. At Wisconsin, a shortage of dormitory space made it
necessary to place most of the Scholars in rooming houses. The
most specialized treatment was given at Fisk where the Scholars
lived in separate dormitories. They had their evening meal at the
dormitory but the other two meals with the rest of the university.
Fisk Scholars were also subjected to considerably stricter social
regulations but were permitted to participate in general campus
activities.

At all institutions the usual counselling and advisory services
were available to individual Scholars and in some cases special
provisions were made for them. Academic counselling was avail-
able in every case, but there were great differences in the provi-
sions for guidance on personal and social problems. Faculty and
dormitory advisers were widely used. A number of colleges placed
an assistant dean in special charge of the Scholars, and in at least
one case Scholars were unknowingly observed by trained psy-
chologists. In several cases, special reports were written on each
Scholar by qualified members of the institution's staff which pro-
vide excellent raw material for evaluating the program.

At Chicago, Shimer, Louisville and Utah, the social environ-
ment had long been conditioned by the presence of younger stu-
dents on the campus so that there was less need for concern about
the social adjustment of the Scholars.

During the year officials at all institutions paid careful atten-
tion to the impact of various social and living arrangements upon

the Scholars and were quick to consider changes of policy wher-
ever the evidence warranted.

The Academic Performance of
the 1951 Scholars in Their First Year

Success in college obviously cannot be measured by aca-
demic grades alone, nor can academic performance be entirely
divorced from social and emotional adjustment to college life. An
effort to appraise the first year of experience under this experi-
mental program may well begin, however, with this basic ques-
tion: Did the 1951 Fund Scholars succeed academically in their
first year of college, despite their comparative youth and their less
than normal high school preparation?

This appears to be an easier question on which to gather direct
evidence than the question of social and emotional adjustment,
yet even here there are numerous complications to be reckoned
with and warnings to be sounded. In the first place, the evidence
is largely in the form of grades, which have a deceptive appear-
ance of mathematical precision. Yet anyone who has ever graded
papers or prepared course grades knows that in the last analysis
the grade is simply a quantitative expression of a personal judg-
ment. Weighing a student on the academic scales is not like weigh-
ing a truck on the coal yard scales. Nevertheless, academic grades
and achievement test scores appear a reasonably satisfactory. and
certainly the best available yardstick of performance, particu-
larly when applied to a whole group.

Academic grades are only a relative and not an absolute meas-
ure of performance and ability. They give a rough measure of
how individuals or groups of students stack up against other stu-
dents. But two students with identical grades in the same course
are unlikely to be absolutely equal in ability and achievement.

Also, the same grade may mean something very different in a
mathematics course and an English course in the same college,
and marking standards differ widely as between colleges. To com-
plicate matters furthers, the eleven institutions that participated
in this program last year used several different numerical and
alphabetical marking systems. It would be invalid, for these vari-
ous reasons, to attempt any comparison between the grade per-
formance of Scholars in different institutions. Finally, there is the
fact of considerable variation among the Scholars themselves,
both in academic competence and in academic achievement. This
preliminary report places its emphasis on the performance of the
Scholars as a group, which for present purposes seems most rele-
vant, but it must be remembered that group "averages" conceal
wide and important individual differences. Later reports, based
on fuller evidence, will direct more attention to these variations
within the group.

Another problem is how to define and measure "academic suc-
cess/' The real question here, of course, is whether the individual
student's total life will have been enriched by having entered col-
lege at an age earlier than that considered "nonnah" A shorter
range question, but one which is also inherently unanswerable
except by inference, is how well these Scholars actually performed
in college compared to how well they would have performed had
they completed high school and entered college at the "conven-
tional" age. The best we can do is to infer an answer to this basic
question by comparing the performance of the Scholars with that
of "normal" students. Here we run up against the problem of what
"normal" students it is both practicable and logical to use for
comparison. There is no perfect solution, but with considerable
effort and inconvenience on the part of the cooperating institu-
tions it has been possible to make a number of different compari-
sons, each of which provides some illumination, and a measure of

cross check on the others. In a few months, more extensive and
uniform data will be available from all the institutions, but the
incomplete evidence presented below is not without interest and
significance.

A. How did the Scholars compare academically to their whole
college class?

It should probably come as no surprise that in all institutions
except one the scholarship group outperformed their total class
academically. (The exception was Shimer college where, it will
be remembered, a conscious effort was made to select Scholars
with a wide range of academic aptitudes. In all other institutions
scholarships were granted only to applicants having a better than
average aptitude rating.) Statistical data are available to support
the above generalization from all of the participating colleges
except Fisk, where the grades of the Scholars are not comparable
with those of freshmen because the Scholars have been in separate
classes for their first year. However, Fisk officers have no doubt
about the superior performance of the Scholars in comparison
with the freshman class as a whole.

Table V compares the year-end "Grade-Point-Averages" of the
Scholarship Group and the whole freshman class in ten of the
participating institutions. The average grade for the Scholars was
in every case higher than for their class as a whole except at
Shimer where it was about the same. (At Chicago and Shimer
there is no freshman class as such, so the grade average shown is
for the total student body.)

Table V

END OF YEAR GRADE POINT AVERAGES: COMPARISON OF SCHOLAR
GROUP AND OTHER STUDENTS*

1951
Comparison
Total No. Pr. Value Av. GPA of Av. GPA of Group
Institutions scholars of "C" Scholars Freshinen Average

Chicago 59~ 2.00 2.66~~ ~~21 2 ~ ~~2S0

Columbia 51 8.00 11.06 10.41 10.78

B— 11.00

Goucher 19 3.00 3.61 3.19 3.39

Lafayette 30 75,00 76.48 72.44 77.66

Louisville 24* 1.00 1.751 1.43 1.71

Oberlin 25 0.00 1.9 1.1 1.6

B^ 3.00

Shimer 3 33 2.00 1.75 2.00 2 n.a.

Utah 40 2.00 2.86 235 2,65

Wisconsin 52 1.00 2.298 1.24* 1.852

Vale 52 75.00 78.21 76.25 78,45

1 No data available on Fisk. None available on comparison group for
Shimer.

2 Since Chicago and Shimer have no Freshman class as such, the average
given is for the entire student body.

3 The figures shown for Shinier are: (a) the median GPA for Scholars and
(b) the estimated median for all students entering with 10 to 12 years
previous schooling.

4 First semester average for Letters and Sciences freshman class.

D Does not include students registered in Schools of Music and Engineering.
For details see Appendix Table X

Another basis fox comparison is the percentage of "letter
grades" received in courses during 1951-52 by the Scholars and
by the whole freshman class, shown in Table VI. In all seven in-
stitutions from which data are available for this comparison, the
Scholars earned a strikingly higher percentage of "A's" and also
a higher percentage of "B's" than their class as a whole. Con-
versely the Scholars received a notably smaller proportion of
"D's" and "E's" than theii classmates.

Table VI

PERCENTAGE OF COURSE GRADES RECEIVED BY 1957 FUND SCHOLARS;
COMPARISON GROUPS, AND FRE5HMAN CLASSES IN NINE INSTITUTIONS

A's

B T s

Fund

Co nip.

Fr.

Fund

Comp.

Fr.

Institution

Group

Class

Group

Class

Chicago

... 313

15.0

n.a.

33.0

32.3

n.a.

Columbia

... 22.5

18.8

a.a.

53.7

55.3

n.a.

Goucher .....

... 12.3

13.3

7.4

43.8

34.3

2S.0

Lafayelle

... 20.3

18.9

9.9

24.2

33.7

23.6

Louisville

... 20.1

21.1

14.2

45.1

3S.7

27.9

Oberlin

... 10.8

14.4
22.0

8.0
15.0

41J

43.0

37. S
40.0

36.8

Utah

... 29.0

28.0

Wisconsin ...

... 41.8

24.8

13.0*

46,3

37.3

32.0

Yale

... 11.9

8.8
C's

6.6

45.6

49.1

D's

and under

38.9

Fund

Comp.

Fr.

Fund

Comp.

Fr.

Institution

Group

Class

Group

Class

Chicago

... 27.0

40.5

n.a.

8.6

12.3

n.a.

Columbia

... 20.0

23.5

n.a.

3.8

2.4

n.a.

Goucher

... 38.0

34.9

45.1

5.9

37.5

19.5

Lafayette

... 33.4

32.6

34.0

22.1

14.8

33.0

Louisville

... 24.0

29.5

39-9

10.7

18.0

Oberlin

... 42.7

39.0

33.0

42.4
39.0

5.4
6.0

8.8

5.0

12. S

Utah

... 23.0

17.0

Wisconsin ...

... 10.5

32.1

35.0*

1.2

5.8

20.0*

Yale

... 29.7

32.3

39.5

12.9

9.8

15.0

* Estimated. Exact percentages are not available.

The results of a special analysis at Goucher of the comparative
grades of Scholars and other students by main subject matter areas
are shown in Table VII. The year-end grades of the Scholar group
averaged higher than the freshman class as a whole in all subject
matters except humanities, where there were identical averages.

Table VII

ACADEMIC GRADES BY SUBJECT-MATTER AREAS: COMPARISON OF FUND
SCHOLARS AND OTHER FRESHMEN AT GOUCHER COLLEGE 1951-1952

Grade Point Average of:

Fund Comparison Freshman

Subject Area Scholars Group Class

English & Speech 3.67 3.47 3.18

Foreign Languages 3.48 3.31 3.30

Social Sciences 3.81 3.49 3.21

Biological Sciences 3.33 3.46 2.96

Physical Sciences 3.86 2.70 3.21

Mathematics 3.50 3.25 2.68

Humanities 3.13 3.52 3.13

B. How did the Scholars compare academically to classmates
of comparable aptitude?

It is not enough to compare the academic performance of the
Scholars to that of the freshman class as a whole. A more reveal-
ing comparison would be between the Scholars and a selected
group of regular students with similar aptitude scores. Accord-
ingly each participating college agreed to establish a "Comparison
Group," roughly equal in size to its Scholar Group, made up
of regular students individually matched with the Scholars on the
basis of aptitude scores at the time of entering college. The regu-
lar students, of course, have finished high school and are of normal
age for high school graduates. Further refinements, to be discussed
later, are being made in these comparison groups but the limited
data already available present an interesting picture.

Information is now on hand which permits a comparison of the
year-end "grade-point-average" of the Scholar Group and the
Comparison Group in nine of the institutions. OS-hand it might
be expected that the Comparison Groups would do somewhat
better than the Scholars in view 1 of their "advantage" in age and

greater preparation for college. But as Table V shows, just the
opposite was the case in seven of the nine institutions.

Similarly the data in Table VI on the percentage of various
course grades received shows the Scholars ahead of the Compari-
son Group in the majority of cases. For the nine institutions
covered, the Scholars received more "AY' than the Comparison
Group in six colleges, more "BY' in six colleges and more "AY'
and "BY' combined in seven of the nine institutions.

A comparison of the average grades of the Scholar Group and
the Comparison Group at Goucher, broken down by subject mat-
ter areas, is shown in Table VII. The Scholars outperformed the
Comparison Group in English and speech, foreign languages,
social sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, but they had
a lower average in biological sciences and humanities. A similar
comparison is not yet available for the other institutions.

The superior performance by the Scholars in this large majority
of cases raises perplexing questions. It seems unlikely that the
results can be explained away simply on the statistical grounds
that the sample is too small or that aptitude test scores may be
erroneous in individual cases* Two more plausible explanations
have been suggested, and there may be others. The first is that the
Scholars are perhaps more strongly motivated than many of the
matching students because they feel more challenged as members
of a select experimental group and because they are anxious to
keep their scholarships. The other is that aptitude scores, accord-
ing to past studies, have a tendency to increase with a young
person's age, though not with sufficient uniformity to permit the
calculation of a reliable adjustment factor. In other words, a 16
year old Scholar with the same aptitude score as an 18 year old
. may in fact have a higher "real aptitude," and when he reaches
1 8 will have a higher score.

To allow for these two factors, the colleges were asked wherever
possible to select matching students from among other scholar-
ship recipients in the freshman class, in order to minimize differ-
ences in motivation, and to pick them with slightly higher aptitude
scores than the corresponding Scholars. These procedures have
been followed by several institutions in selecting their comparison
groups, yet for some unexplained reason the Scholars do better
in the majority of instances.

By the end of the present academic year more refined and com-
plete data will be available on Scholars and comparison groups,
for both the 1951 and 1952 entering classes, and this will provide
a sounder basis for drawing conclusions. Meantime those who
believe that certain students will not only do as well but actually
better by entering college ahead of the normal schedule can find
much comfort in the foregoing data. It may well be that this fact
— if it is a fact — accounts for the better academic record of the
Scholars than the Comparison Groups in the majority of cases.

C. How did the Scholars themselves vary in academic per-
formance?

It was noted earlier that the Scholars differed among themselves
in such factors as aptitude scores, age, number of years in high
school, sex, parental education and income, and in other respects.
One naturally wonders whether these factors made any difference
in the academic performance of the Scholars in their first year at
college. Did the women outperform the men, or vice versa? Did
academic grades correspond to aptitude scores? Did the older
Scholars or those with more high school experience do better than
the younger ones or those with less schooling? Did the children
of parents with more formal education or with higher incomes do
better or worse than those whose parents had less formal educa-
tion and lower incomes?

The information thus far available is far too meagre to provide
meaningful answers to these questions. In a few cases, however,
rather interesting results have thus far been shown.

For three of the coeducational institutions a comparison be-
tween the year-end grade-point- averages of men and women is
shown in Table VIII. At Oberlin and Utah the young women
substantially outdistanced the men, whereas at Shiraer the young
men edged out the women. The size of the sample is as yet much
too small, however, to give the fair sex cause for enduring elation.

Table VIII

OVERALL GRADE POINT AVERAGES OF FUND SCHOLARS
IN THREE INSTITUTIONS, BY SEX, 1951-1952

Institutions OberJin Shimer Utah

Pt. Value of "C".... 0.00 2.00 2.00

Men G.P.A 1.6 (14 cases) 2.1 (19 cases) 2.76 (26 cases)

Women G.P.A 2.4 (II cases) 1.75 (15 cases) 2.97 (14 cases)

For details see appendix Table X

There is a somewhat broader statistical base for comparing
Scholars according to the number of years of high school com-
pleted. In six out of seven institutions the Scholars that completed
the eleventh grade did better academically in the first year of col-
lege than those that finished only the tenth grade. The small group
that completed the twelfth year of high school — so small, it
should be emphasized, as to be of doubtful significance — did less
well in all four institutions shown than the eleventh grade group,
and in three out of four institutions, the 12th graders were out-
performed even by the 10th graders. It should certainly not be
concluded from this, however, that the less previous schooling a
student has the better he does in college!

Table IX

FRESHMAN GRADES OF SCHOLARS BY NUMBER OF YEARS
OF PREVIOUS SCHOOLING 1

No. No. No,

Pt. 10th 10th I lth 11th 12th 12th Total To

Value Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade GradeGPA of No.

Institution of "C Ave, Schol. Ave. Schol, Ave, Schol. Schol. ScP

^j^o~ 2-00 2.90 34 2.85 21 2.23 4 2.66

Columbia 8 00 — — 11,15 29 10.S9 22 11.06 ;

B = 11-00

Goucher 3-00 3.47 11 3.72 8 — — 3.61

U favette 75.00 75.71 22 78.50 8 — — 76.48 ■

Louisville^ 1.00 — — 1.751 24 — — 1.751 3

Oberlin 0-00 1.17 15 2.7 9 0.9 1 1.9 :

E = 3.00

Shinier 2 00 1.75(md) 25 2.1(md) 8 — — 1.75(md) I

Utah 2.00 ~ 2.S6 40 — — 2.86 A

Wisconsin 1.00 2.18 22 2.40 27 1.91 3 2.298 5

Yale 75.00 75.30 19 79.80 26 79.18 7 78-21 5

Total 148 200 37 38

1 All figures shown arc freshman year grade point averages. Data not available for Fisk. Or
Scholars actually completing freshman year are included.

2 Data on Louisville cover only Scholars in the College of Arts and Sciences, not those in Schoc
of Music or Engineering.

For details see Appendix Table X

The Social and Emotional Adjustment
of the Scholars to College Life

The institutions in the Program for Early Admission to Col-
lege have undertaken to gather several types of evidence concern-
ing the social and emotional adjustment of Fund Scholars. No
single type of evidence by itself provides an adequate basis for
conclusions, nor are there available any satisfactory devices for
achieving a neat statistical measurement of "adjustment." The
extreme cases of success and failure are fairly easily identified,
but judgment must rest in the large majority of cases upon a care-
ful weighing of several types of evidence.

One type concerns the extent to which the Scholar participates
voluntarily in "extra-class" activities, such as organized sports,
dramatics, student publications, social clubs and other activities
involving group participation and opportunities for leadership.
Another is the direct testimony of the student himself. In apprais-
ing the Scholar group as a whole it will be useful also to examine
the statistics of failure in relation to other students. Finally, per-
haps the most important evidence is the seasoned opinion of well
trained and experienced members of the college staff who have
had an opportunity to observe the student in various situations
over a period of time. As more experience is gained in this pro-
gram it is hoped that the evidence presented below will be con-
siderably augmented and refined.

A. Participation of Scholars in Extra-Class Activities

Thus far there is overwhelming evidence that the Scholars in each
of the 1 1 institutions engaged in extra-class activities at least as
extensively as their classmates and that the large majority were
well assimilated into the social life of the college.

Of the 60 Scholars at Chicago all but six engaged in campus
activities. Three of the non-participants commuted from their
homes in Chicago. Age regulations barred Scholars from frater-
nities, but 42 Scholars were active in 40 different non-fraternity
campus organizations. Two-thirds of the Scholars participated in
sports and 30 were members of one or more junior varsity teams.
"This record," the Chicago report observed, "surpasses by a wide
margin the percentage of participation in sports by the total stu-
dent population and also the total population of male pre-high
school graduates."

A special analysis at Columbia showed a close relationship
between high school and college activity and leadership in extra-
class affairs. Twenty-six of the 51 Scholars at Columbia had

been active in more than four student athletic or non-athletic
activities in high school. "Of these 26, half were distinctly recog-
nized as leaders of their (college) class by their activities and in
the offices they held. . , . Ten of the 26 who were leaders in high
school are engaged in many college activities, and 15 (others)
have participated to some extent in one or more groups on cam-
pus. Only one has not entered into this phase of college life/ 1

The Scholars at the new Basic College at Fish were encouraged
to take advantage of the wide variety of cultural events on the
campus and as a group displayed considerable initiative. Accord-
ing to the Fisk report, they formed their own Ford Theatre Guild
and "gave a remarkably good performance of Wilde's 'Importance
of Being Earnest.' They also performed an Easter play and did two
short plays in French during the year. There has been a good deal
of interest in athletics among both boys and girls . . .*\

At Goucher a detailed comparison was made between the extra-
class activities of the Scholars and the Comparison Group. Despite
their younger age, the Scholars participated as extensively as the
"matching" students in non-athletic campus activities and were
far more active in athletics. Moreover, three of the nine elective
offices of the freshman class were filled by Scholars and only one
by the Comparison Group. Only two members of each group failed
to participate in any extra-class activity.

All but eight of the 30 Scholars at Lafayette participated in one
or more non-athletic campus activities and all but 12 in athletics.
Two were members of varsity teams; eleven joined fraternities;
a dozen became affiliated with one of the social dormitories.

At Louisville more than 80% of the students live at home and
are not so dependent upon campus activities for social life. The
activity record of Scholars was very similar to that of the Com-
parison Group. Louisville reports: "By the close of the second

semester integration into extra curricular life on the part of the
[Scholars] . . . was typical of the general pattern observed for the
male students in the freshman class." Shimer officials likewise
concluded that the Scholars were just as active as other new stu-
dents and their social adjustment essentially the same.

Scholars at Utah participated in such activities as the orchestra
and band, debating, the ski team, the student newspaper and
student politics. Six joined fraternities. The pressure of academic
work, however, caused some to withdraw from such activities
later in the year,

Wisconsin officials reported that "On the whole, it would not
be easy to find a group as busy in campus activities as these boys."
Their athletic record was not distinguished, though one was cox
of the freshman crew and a norma] number took part in intra-
mural sports. Their performance was more outstanding, however,
in such activities as the orchestra and band ? dramatics, hiking and
the like. Several were on the ILS Council and the Scholars "nearly
monopolized the ILS newspaper." Roughly half took part in reli-
gious organizations. A group of them formed a new political party
and competed for positions in the student government.

All but seven of the 52 Scholars at Yale participated in campus
activities, including 20 in athletics, 8 in Glee Club and Chorus,
7 in the Political Union and 6 each in the band and radio station.

B. Opinions of the Scholars
Only a few of the institutions undertook a systematic survey of
Scholar opinion about the program but others reported comments
by individual students that seemed representative of general re-
actions.

Dissatisfaction over the strict social regulations imposed upon
Scholars at Fisk, for example, was symbolized by the 15 year old

young lady who felt that the ban on dating with junior and senior
men was unfair and commented that she "might as well resign
herself to becoming an erudite old maid with a Ph.D." The prob-
lem of dating received attention elsewhere, even where regulations
could not be blamed. Male Scholars urged that in the future schol-
arships also be granted to girls of the same age because they were
having trouble making an impression on older girls. Some of the
Wisconsin Scholars who showed their age complained that a
stigma was attached to being young and bright because girls did
not want to be seen in the company of younger males. One pro-
posed giving next year's Scholars a pamphlet on "Fordsmanship"
or "How to Concea] Your Age Without Actually Lying About It"

These foregoing reactions can probably be viewed as normal
and healthy even if somewhat frustrated. On the latter point, sev-
eral deans agreed that these younger students presented a less
serious disciplinary problem because they found relatively inno-
cent outlets for their youthful exuberance and frustrations, as evi-
denced by their insignificant role in the "panty-raids" that swept
many campuses in 1951-52.

The Scholars at Gaucher, in response to a questionnaire, gave
their opinions on several basic points. All but two said they felt
no social handicap as a result of their age; one dissenter said "my
only social difficulties were in dating"; the other complained, "I
do think that some of the upper classmen have treated us as though
we were still youngsters." About half the Scholars felt no academic
handicap because of an incomplete high school education. The
subjects most frequently mentioned by the half who did feel they
had handicaps were mathematics, history, English and Latin. One
commented: "It has been no handicap except in mathematics.
I think that for some of us it has been a blessing in disguise because
we have had to work for our grades for the first time in our lives."

The Coucher Scholars were almost unanimous in the view that
no special guidance was needed for them beyond that given all
freshmen and that they were as well adjusted as others to college
life. Questioned on the matter of self-consciousness, one summed
up the large majority view by saying. "I have never felt unduly
conscious that I was a member of an experimental group; in fact
I am always surprised to be reminded of it." The Scholars strongly
commended the College's policy of not treating them as a separate
group. A few urged the discouragement of embarrassing publicity
by outside newspapers about individual Scholars and several rec-
ommended that in the future Scholars be assigned non-Scholars
as roommates. Goucher officials reported the general impression,
based on an examination of questionnaire results, that the Scholars
". . . are well satisfied with the results of the academic year. What-
ever failings have appeared they attribute to themselves rather
than to the experiment itself or the manner in which it has been
conducted."

At Louisville the faculty counselor obtained student reactions
on a number of points. All but one considered their preparation
for college work adequate and stated that they would accept
scholarships again under the same circumstances. The one excep-
tion had come from a technical school which had no college
preparatory course. Most of the Scholars felt that the acceleration
and other advantages more than compensated for anything they
had missed by not completing high school. All felt they had re-
ceived ample guidance, and all said they had enjoyed their college
work, though some reported difficulties with individual courses.
At Louisville and elsewhere, Scholars felt that high schools should
award them a diploma upon the satisfactory completion of their
first year of college.

C. The Test of Survival
Most of the institutions reported that a few Scholars, a decided

minority in each case, encountered serious adjustment difficulties.
In an encouraging number of such cases, the difficulties were pro-
gressively overcome during the year so that by June a fair measure
of adjustment had been achieved. In other cases, however, the
student concerned withdrew from college during or at the end of
the freshman year, either voluntarily or by request.

Altogether a little more than 8 percent of the Scholars (35 out
of the 420 total) withdrew during or at the end of their first
college year. Half of the withdrawals (18) were because of poor
adjustment, which showed up most often in low marks. Disci-
plinary infractions and poor mental health were relatively minor
causes. The other half (17) left college not primarily because of
any failure to adjust, but for a variety of reasons such as to trans-
fer to another institution, to take a job, or because of personal or
family problems.

Table X

WITHDRAWALS FROM COLLEGE: SCHOLARS AND ALL FRESHMEN

421 Fund 239 Fund Approx, 3018

Scholars Scholars Freshmen

AH Institutions 7 Institutions 7 Institutions
Reasons for Withdrawal No. Percent Ho. Percent No. Percent

a. Unsuccessful Adjustment:

Low Marks 12 2.9 10 4.1 161 5.3

Disciplinary 4 0.9 1 0.4 8 0.3

Poor Mental Health 2 0.5 1 0.4 10 0.4

Sub-Totals IS 43 12 49 179 6\0~

b. Other Reasons:
Personal & Family

Problems 8 1.9 6 2.5 25 0.8

Poor Physical Health ... 1 0.2 1 0.4 14 0.5

Other or Unknown 8 1,9 6 2.5 130 4,3

^Sub-Totals 17~~ 4.0 13 5.4 169 5.6 '

Totals 35 8,3 25 10.3 34S 11.6

For details see Appendix Table XI

Three institutions — Goucher, Utah and Wisconsin — had no
withdrawals whatever. (See Appendix Table XI.) The highest
withdrawals percentagewise were at Shinier (10 out of 34), Yale
(6 out of 52) , and Chicago (7 out of 60) . Shimer presents a some-
what special case because of its selection of a cross-section of
Scholars. All of its withdrawals were voluntary; three transferred
to the University of Chicago, a few encountered family problems,
and two left because of low marks.

Information from seven institutions attended by 239 of the
Scholars permits a comparison of withdrawals with the freshman
class as a whole. Table X shows that the Scholars had a some-
what higher "survival rate" than their class as a whole. For these
institutions combined 11.6% of the whole freshman class with-
drew against 10.3% of the Scholars. Withdrawals due to unsuc-
cessful adjustment represented 6% of the whole class and 4.9%
of the Scholars, with "low marks" the the major stated reason in
both cases. Departures for "other reasons" represented 5.4% and
5.6% for the Scholars and the total class, respectively. The infer-
ence is that a higher proportion of the Scholars than of first year
students generally made a successful adjustment to college life, at
least as measured by the "survival" figures.

Observations of College Officials

Undoubtedly the most substantial and balanced evidence con-
cerning the academic performance and the social and emotional
adjustment of the 1951 Fund Scholars in their first year of college
life is provided by the experienced college administrators, faculty-
members, guidance officers, psychologists and similar staff mem-
bers who observed them closely and conscientiously throughout
the year. The judgments of these observers are reflected in the
following excerpts from year-end reports submitted to the Fund
by the 1 1 colleges and universities. It should be emphasized that

100

these observations are based only upon the limited experience of

one year and in no case should be regarded as an expression of
final conclusions about the experiment as a whole.

University of Chicago

'The College of the University of Chicago has had more than twelve
years of experience in the instruction of young students who have not
completed high school. Its faculty has learned to respect the abilities
of many young men and women of the age of the Pre-Induction
Scholars. We expected that the performance of the Scholars would be
good. As a group they have more than met our expectations/'

"There is no evident difference between the studexits who had completed
two years of high school and those who had completed three. The four
high school graduates appear to have been unhappy selections."

"Our previous experience has shown that the younger students adjust
to the social environment quite as readily as the high school graduates.
It will be recognized, of course, that the presence of a large number of
younger students in college roust inevitably contribute to shaping the
environment; and a reasonable appraisal of social adjustment will take
into account the impact of this group upon the traditional pattern of
college life. We shall have to ask, not simply how well younger students
can adjust to a traditional pattern, but to what extent traditional pat-
terns are modified by their presence."

"There have been problem cases among the Scholars, though not in
excess of a normal expectancy/'

". . . it appears that the social adjustment of the Scholars, insofar as it
can be measured by survival, is as satisfactory as or better than that
of the entire student body. Survival is not the only measure of proper
adjustment."

Columbia University

"It appears that a difference in age had no identifiable influence on the
scholastic results attained by the group. However, so far as we can
ascertain from results to date, the completion of four years of secondary
school education appears to have been an advantage/'

101

"Again, reference to the basic data does not reveal that personal adjust-
ment rests heavily on the factors of age, years of schooling, etc. ... I
should report that there is a very high correlation between success in
studies and success to personal growth and adjustment."

■\ . . taking into account both scholastic accomplishment and personal
qualities such as maturity, balance and adaptability, it seems to me
that . , . twenty-eight of our group have attained real success in then-
year's experience, fourteen have made satisfactory accomplishment,
and nine have fallen short. Of these nine, four had completed their full
four years of preparation, and five bad not. Of the latter five, three
would probably have been better off to have delayed their entrance into
college for a year. Two seem to have failed because of personality weak-
nesses which one additional year of maturity or schooling would prob-
ably not have corrected."

"The staff seems to have found the Pre-Induction group to be about the
same as the rest of the freshman class, except of course that the keen-
ness of so many of them has been noticeable and welcome In a good
many classrooms. The top group comprises as able students as any
college is likely to have."

"It is evident, I tbtok, that the group as a whole has been warmly
received in the College, and that they have not only benefited from the
opportunity but, with a few exceptions, have made a worthwhile con-
tribution."

Fisk University

'The achievement of the students is on the whole most encouraging.
With the exception of a few particularly severe attacks of spring fever,
the students have been alert and enthusiastic and have met with good
spirit much heavier academic demands than they had known before.
They have begun to learn new habits of mental discipline and to develop
new standards of intellectual stamina."

"We have seen enough already of the progress and achievement of
superior students to justify our conviction that many students can ac-
complish far more to the environment of the Basic College than they
could accomplish in their high schools. There is already evidence to

102

confirm our belief that a fair number can accelerate, saving time and
also doing a higher quality of work than they would do without the
opportunities aud the competitive stimulus of the Basic College."

Goucher College

"At the close of the academic year 1951-52, certain observations can
be made with respect to the progress of the experiment. The academic
achievement of the Scholars has been high although there has been a
tendency for it to fall slightly during the course of the year . . . the
guidance officers of the Scholars are well satisfied with the progress
these students have made towards achieving a more mature outlook."

"According to this measure, the Scholars have done as well, if not
somewhat better, than the members of the Comparison Group in achiev-
ing a mature outlook respecting their college work.' 1

"In examining the evidence regarding the emotional adjustment of the
Scholars, it is difficult to draw any hard and fast conclusions. The inci-
dence of maladjustment is probably no higher than for a group of
freshmen chosen at random. But final judgment should be reserved
until more evidence is in."

"In evaluating the social adjustment made by these students no signifi-
cant differences were found between the two groups excepting in
'adjustment to the opposite sex.' Here a large number of the Scholars
were characterized as being as yet uninterested in forming friendships
with men. The youth of Scholars is not a deterrent to participation in
extra-curricular activities. On the contrary, they participated fully as
much, if not more, than the Comparison Group."

"A number of emotional problems developed among the Scholars but
only two of such intensity as to be of serious concern. It is difficult to
determine whether the maladjustments exhibited by these two students
could be in any way attributed to the experimental program or were
aggravated by it. The Comparison Group had a slightly poorer record
than the Scholar Group in this respect.

"line Scholars themselves feel that the program this year has been a
success."

103

Lafayette College

"So far as scholastic achievement is concerned, the most noteworthy

aspect of the program, aside from the fact that most of these students
have obviously succeeded quite well in doing college work, is the rate
of improvement which they have shown since the confused weeks of
the early fall."

"They seem to have developed ,an aggressiveness which compares favor-
ably with the attitude of their classmates. In order to choose their
sophomore classes, for example, many of them actually wrote to the
deans of graduate schools to find out for themselves exactly what was
required. Having been caught once in what was for them an unexpected
and confusing experience, they were determined at all times to know
the score. On the whole, their adjustment has been surprisingly good."

University of Louisville

"Since 1934 the University of Louisville has had special permission
from the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools to
admit each year to the University on an experimental basis a limited
number of students of superior ability who have completed at least
three years of high school work.

"Conclusions reached in a thorough study of the records of these
experimental students from 1934 to 1941 are substantiated by experi-
ences of this past year's program of pre-induction scholarship students.
In general, experience in these programs lends support to the thesis that
there may be fallacies in the existing practices in which the assumption
is that the educational process is best measured in units of time. This
conclusion is reached in view of the following observations:

1. Selected students who have completed only three years of high
school can achieve better academic records in the freshman year than
the average students who enter the University after four years of
high school study.

2. Selected students, with only three years of high school work,
have done as well in their first year of college as a control group of
high school graduates who are of comparable superior quality.

3. By their records after a year's study the pre-induction scholar-

104

ship students have verified their abilities as indicated by their quali-
fying examinations.

4, The Scholars are vital, self-reliant people; they are independent
in thought and in action; they are interested in rich and substantial
programs of study; they become active participants in Dorroal col-
lege student functions.

5. In social adjustment and general behavior, as observed by teach-
ers and campus associates, there seem to be no marked differences
between the Scholars and other students."

"In scholastic measurements, the Scholars have equalled or surpassed
the control students, and since both groups are superior samples of the
student body, it is to be expected that their scholastic standings would
be higher than the averages of the male students in the freshman class."

"The special adviser reported that conferences with these students, on
the whole, were encouraging experiences, It was further reported that
all of the scholarship holders recognized and appreciated the special
opportunities that were extended to them. They were enthusiastic in
their plans to interest their friends in becoming candidates for the
scholarships as the program continues."

Oberlin College

"It appears that perhaps 16 of the 25 made a good social and emotional
adjustment; 6 made a reasonably good one; and three had rather poor
adjustment. It does not appear that the peculiar situation these students
found themselves in, in terms of age and high school preparation, led
to serious academic or emotional problems- Several of the boys did feel
handicapped in sports because of their age."

'The academic performance of the scholarship students was distinctly
superior to the average of the freshman class as a whole. There were
relatively few situations in which lack of preparation or ability led to
scholastic difficulties. , . . These two academic casualties were propor-
tionately no greater than in the rest of the freshman class. 1 '

Shimer College

"Since admission of this younger age group is normal in the Shimer

105

setup, the adjustment of the individuals admitted under the Fund for
the Advancement of Education was greatly facilitated. These scholar-
ship holders were just as active in extra-class activities as were their
fellows of a similar age. . . . The social adjustment of the Special stu-
dents was essentially that of other new students."

"These comparisons between the median average grades received by
students holding Special Grants and other groups of students registered
in the College would indicate that for the most part the holders of
Special Grants are performing at approximately the same level as their
fellow students. These comparisons further indicate that their achieve-
ment is essentially in accord with the level of expectation indicated by
total scores on the ACE psychological tests"

University of Utah

"The above data would seem to indicate the group as a whole has been
successful academically."

"The group began the fall quarter in a mood of great self-confidence
and overall exuberance. The students told each other that this was going
to be a tough program, but no one doubted his ability to achieve. There
was a strong competitive spirit. As the quarter progressed, definite signs
of strain began to appear, and the students became less confident. They
attempted to reassure each other that 'all freshmen find the first quarter
very difficult.' During the second quarter the stresses increased. Parents
of some of the students telephoned or visited the counselor. They re-
ported that some students were very discouraged and that several of the
girls had 'cried all night.* From students came reports that several of
the out-of-town boys were 'homesick.' The counselor began to do some
rather intensive work with students who came for interviews. In the
spring quarter there appeared to be a great release of tension in the
group as a whole, and frequent checks showed favorable reports that
the students were again enjoying the program."

"It would appear to the counselor that with the resolution of the diffi-
culties in the mathematics class, the adjustment of the group as a whole
is very good. About half of the students were interviewed briefly just
prior to the end of the spring quarter and appeared to be in very good
spirits. One girl seemed to express the general feeling when she said,

106

4 It was a very difficult year, but was undoubted]}' worth it." While there
are two students who may become scholastic problems, they certainly
have demonstrated their ability to succeed in the regular University
program. No one has discontinued the program. One student who had
been appointed to Annapolis will probably resign his appointment in
order to complete the second year of the program. As of this date, it
would appear that all forty students will return for the second year."

University of Wisconsin

''Most of the boys are delighted at the opportunity they have been given;
none have dropped, and all propose to continue. As far as the adviser
has been able to find out, the faculty are delighted to have their classes
enlivened by these boys and their fellows enjoy their company. But the
most successful are those whose individuality is the strongest; and we
feel emphatically that every effort should be made to avoid treating
them as a separate group."

"Of course, there have been boys who presented problems. . . . There

is a strong chance that they would have had trouble if they had re-
mained in high school."

"Size was more important to them than age in making it possible for
them to join in with their classmates as equals."

"It has been most satisfying to observe the way the boys handled their
finances.*'

Yale College

"Tentative evidence leads me to estimate that the Scholars were some-
what superior academically to the Control Group, but socially showed
their relative immaturity. There can be no question concerning the
success of the social adjustment of most of the Scholars, though there
were a few failures. . . In general, the Scholars passed during the year
from a condition of conspicuous oddity (in spite of our efforts to pro-
tect them) to a condition where they were admirably indistinguishable
from their class-mates."

107

Future Plans for the Program
and Its Evaluation

This Interim Report has described only the first group of
420 Fund Scholars and their performance in their first year of
college (1951-52). Another 429 Scholars entered the 12 partici-
pating institutions in the Autumn of 1952. Arrangements are
being worked out for additional groups to enter in 1953 and
1954, though the number is still uncertain. The eventual total
number should certainly be large enough, however, to provide
statistically significant evidence on a number of basic educational
policy questions.

An evaluation plan has been devised with the cooperation of
Educational Testing Service at Princeton, New Jersey, under
which detailed and uniform records will be maintained on each
Scholar throughout his college career. Appropriate records will
also be kept on all "matching students" in Comparison Groups
and on the whole college classes of which Scholars are members.

On the basis of such extensive data, it should be possible to
achieve a soundly based comparative analysis of the performance
and adjustment of this large number of Scholars over a period of
time in relation to that of other college students.

No one can say with assurance what pattern of analytical results
will eventually flow from this larger sample and longer experience.
All that can be said on the basis of the limited evidence to date is
that, on the whole, the initial phase of the Early Admission to
College experiment has produced decidedly encouraging results.
This not only warrants a continuation of the experiment but
should give educators throughout the nation further cause to
rethink the relationship of our schools and colleges.

108

APPENDIX

Table 1

APTITUDE AND ACHIEVEMENT TESTS USED IN THE SELECTION OF
1951 FUND SCHOLARS

A. Aptitude Tests

CEEB Tests of Scholastic Aptitude:

Chicago

Columbia

Goucher

Lafayette

Wisconsin

Yale

ACE Psychological Examination:

(including ACE Psychological)

Fisk
Goucher

Lafa vette

Ohio State Psychological Examination: Oberlin

University of Chicago Entrance Examination:

Shimer

B. Achievement Tests

CEEB Tests of Scholastic Achievement:

Cooperative English Test, Higher Level:
Cooperative General Achievement Tests:
Iowa High School Content Examination:

Goucher

Wisconsin

Yale

Fisk

Utah

Louisville

111

Table II

DISTRIBUTION OF 1951 FUND SCHOLARS BY: A, SIZE OF COMMUNITY-

Chicago Columbia Fisk Goucher Lafayette

No. of Scholars 60 51 28 19 30

A. Size of Community :*■

Urban 59 50 28 15 26

Rural 110 4 4

B. Age at College
Entrance:

17-0 and Over — — —

16-6 thru 16-11 _____

16-0 thru 16-5 40 48 7

15-6 thru 15-11 12 3 14

15-0 thru 15-5 4—4

14-6 thru 14-11 3 3

Under 14-6 1 —

C. Sex:

Men 60 51 15 30

Women — — 13 19 —

D. Years of Schooling
Completed:

Twelve 4 22 — —

Eleven 21 29 5 8 8

Ten 35 — 23 11 22

1 The U. S. Census definitions of "urban" and "rural" are substantially followed.
With certain exceptions, "rural 7 ' is any community of less than 2,500 population.

—

112

I TY 6. AGE AT COLLEGE ENTRANCE; C. SEX; D. YEARS OF SCHOOLING COMPLETED

Percent
Louisville Oberlin Shimer Utah Wisconsin Yale Total of Total

29 25 34 40 52 52 420

27 24 29 38 49 45 390 92.85
2 1 5 2 3 7 30 7.15

—

11.11

—

5.95

2 28

23S

56.67

—

20.24

—

■ — —

3.80

—

— —

—

7
2

1.67

.47

26 52

348

82.S5

—

17.15

8.81

40 27

209

49.76

—

— 22

174

' 41.43

113

Tabic 111

DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE SCORES BY 1951 FUND SCHOLARS ON
TESTS TAKEN BEFORE OR DURING THEIR FIRST COLLEGE YEAR

Institutions arid Number of Scholars

A. Scaled Chicago Columbia Goucher Lafayette Wisconsin Yale
Scores on 59 51 19 12 52 52

CEEB, Verbal

751 &over 2 10

701-750 11 4 1 3 5

651-700 16 5 5 9 13

601-650 11 16 7 2 8 13

551-600 12 11 3 1 20 11

501-550 4 9 2 5 7 9

451-500 3 3 12 2 1

401-450 2 2

351-400 10 2

B. Scaled
Scores on
CEEB, Math.

751 & over 9 6 14 9

701-750 14 11 11 9

651-700 9 9 3 10 10

601-650 15 9 3 2 8 6

551-600 7 6 8 5 11 14

501-550 3 6 14 6 4

451-500 2 4 3 2

401-450 10

351-400

C National

Percentile Chi- Lafay- Louis- Wis-

Score on caeo Fisk Goucher ette viile Shimer Utah cousin

ACE Fsycb, 60 28 19 18 26 34 40 52
Exam*

91 & over 46 13 4 5 9 8 26

81-90 11 3 7 2 7 7 14

71-80 34032884

61-70 4 3 2 2 2 3 3

51-60 3 17 2 8 2

41-50 4 2 15 2

31-40 8 12 2 1

21-30 5 3 1 10

11-20 110

10 & lower 10

* Based upon nation-wide scores for freshmen entering four-year colleges.

Total

245

3
24
43
57
58
36
12
4
3

29
45
41
43
51
24
11
1

Total

277

111

51
32
19
23
14
14
10
2
1

114

Table IV

DISTRIBUTION OF 1951 FUND SCHOLARS BY HOME STATE

a * P 3 5

oca tuhdz. £

State: O O Ro3*lo3iO$>i&

Missouri

Alabama

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

1 1

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Idaho

Illinois

.... 13

tndiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

.... I

Massachusetts

.... 1

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Montana 1

Nebraska 3

Nevada

Table IV (Continued)

DISTRIBUTION OF 1951 FUND SCHOLARS BV HOME STATE

State:

q
O
<

m
m
cs
u

D
O
O

1 &
i 2

U O

o
o

3 1

New Hampshire

New Jersey

1 6

New Mexico

New York

3 27

ill

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

™

Rbode Island

South Carolina

Souih Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

40 1

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

District of Columbia

Total No. of Scholars: 60 51 28 19 30 29 25 34 40 52 52 420

116

Table V

ANNUAL FAMILY INCOME OF 1951 FUND SCHOLARS

No. of $9,000 $6,000- $3,000- Under

Last. Scholars and Over $8,999 $5,999 S3.000 Unknown Total

Chicago 60 12 9 30 5 4 60

Columbia .... 51 1 12 IS 4 16 51

Fisk 28 2 1 16 9 2S

Goucber 19 1 3 2 1 12 19

Lafayette ....30 4 4 16 3 3 30

Louisville .... 29 1 3 22 2 1 29

OberJin 25 4 6 II 1 3 25

Shinier 34 4 10 15 4 1 34

Utah 40 40* 40

Wisconsin ..52 12 8 23 6 3 52

Yale 52 16 18 16 2 52

Total 420 57 74 169 37 83 420

Total

Percent 13,57 17.62 40.24 8. SI 19.76 100.00

* Utah does not have this information.

117

Table VI

BREADWJNNING PARENT OCCUPATIONS

Chicago Columbia Fisk Goucher Lafayette
No. oj Scholars...... 60 51 28 19 30

Professional & Setni-
Piojessional

Teachers, Librarians &.

non- Science Research

workers 12 4 3 2 6

Architects, Engineers,

Chemists, non-Medical

Researchers & Technicians 8 2 17

Doctors, Dentists, Pharma-
cists, Medical Researchers
& Technicians 2 9 10 2

Lawyers & Judges 1112 1

Clergymen 1

News Reporters & Editors 10 10

Artists, Musicians &

Writers 3

Business

Advertising, Sales, Mer-
chandising, Insurance,
Purchasing, Personnel &
Public Relations
Employees 13 10 3 4 3

Bankers, Accountants

and Bookkeepers 5 2 3 1

Executives, Proprietors, &

Firuu Managers 2 4 5

Foremen, Inspectors, Skilled

Labor & Clerical Personnel 2 8 8

Unskilled Labor & Service

Trades Workers 1 11 3 2

Local, State & Federal
Government Service

Workers 4 3 2 1

Farmers 10

Housewives 5

Unknown or Deceased 9 110

Totals 60~~ 51 28 19 30

118

OF 1951 FUND SCHOLARS

Louisville Oberlin Shiiner Utah Wisconsin Yale Total
29 25 34 40 52 52 420

Total %

15.4S

J 1-19

[ 1

8.09

3. JO

1.67

I 1

1.43

.95

17.86

5.00

7.S6

7.86

8.09

420

5.00

.24

1.90

4.28

100.00
119

Table Vll

AMOUNT OF SCHOOLING COMPLETED BY

Chicago Columbia Fisk Goucher Lafayette

No. of Scholars 60 51 28 19 30

Highest Level of Schooling

Completed:

Did graduate work: 1

Total Fathers n.a. 10 4 8 3

Total Mothers n.a. n.a. 14 2

Botb Parents n.a, n.a, 1 3 n.a.

Has Bachelor's Degree:

Total Fathers 26 15 2 4 11

Total Mothers 16 14 7 6 11

Botb Parents 9 n.a. 1 2 n.a.

Graduated from Secondary
School:

Total Fathers 22 6 10 6 8

Total Mothers 33 16 10 8 9

Both Parents 10 n.a. 5 3 n.a.

Did not complete Secondary
School:

Total Fathers 12 n.a. 8 1 8

Total Mothers 9 n.a. 9 1 8

Both Parents 7 n.a. 4 n.a.

Unknown:

Total Fathers 20 4

Total Mothers 2 21 1

Both Parents n.a. 1

1 Data on graduate work not available; hence, such cases are included in "Has
Bachelor's Degree" category.

120

PARENTS OF THE 1951 FUND SCHOLARS

Louisville Oberlio Shimer
29 25 34

Ulan Wisconsin Yale
40 52 52

■ :

n.a.

121

117

n.a.

' 11

110

192

n.a.

| o

n.a.

121

Table VIII

INITIAL CAREER PREFERENCES OF 1951 SCHOLARS

q S S h d z 2?

Number of Scholars 60 51 28 19 30 29 25 34 40 52 52 420

Professional & Semi-
Profess iona I

Architects 1 1

Engineers 342 13 621336 43

Chemists 12 112 113 12

Physical Science .... 17 24 2342 87 49
Non-Medical

Technicians 1 1

Mathematics 3 12 111 9

Doctors & Dentists 20 73 453396 60

Med. Technicians ..10 1 11

Actors 2 2

Musicians 2 2 11 6

Painters 3 3

Writers 13 4

Journalists 2 2 2 2 2 6 16

Religions Workers.. 5 1 11 19

Lawyers"..'. "..Z ~1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 5 26

Anthropologists .... 1 1

Social Workers .... Ill 3

Teachers 1 2 3 2 2 9 1 20

Librarians 2 1 2 5

Psychologists .... 2 2

Political Sci .11 2

History and

Hist. Research 1 1

Business, General .... 1 2 1 1 13 1111

Local, State & Federal

Government Service 2 11 3 7

Armed Services 1 3 4

Unspecified, Unde-
cided, or Unknown 8 16 14 3 5 18 18 19 101

Other 1 ~~1 9~ 11

Totals 60 51 28 19 30 29 25 34 40 52 52 420

122

Table IX

INITIAL PREFERENCE FOR ACADEMIC MAJOR OF 1957 SCHOLARS*

Lou is -

Chicago Fisk Goucher ville Utah
Number of Scholars 60 28 19 29 40

Natural Sciences:

Physical Science 17 1 3 1 4

Pre-Med 10 4 2 3

Engineering 3 4 3 1

Chemistry 2 2 7 3 2

Mathematics 3 4 3 10 6

Zoology 7 2

Geology 1

Social Sciences:

Pre-Law 6 112 10

Political Science 10 1114

Psychology 2 5

History 10 2 8

Sociology 1 10

Anthropology 1

Education 10 3

Humanities:

Religion and Pre-

Theological 5

English 2 3 2

Journalism 2 12

Modern Language .,.. 12 112

Music 2 110

Art 1 1 2

Philosophy 2

Drama 1

Economics, Business

and Secretarial 4 6 10

Other 2 12 5

Undecided or Unknown 8 2 18 6 34

Totals 59 28 19 29 40 52 227

* The data reflect expressed preferences of the Scholars for a particular academic
major to be pursued later in college. Those institutions not represented above
either do not employ a "major" system or do not request this information from
students until later in their college careers.

123

Table X

11 3.47 22 75.71 0.00

8 3.72 8 78.50 24' 1.75

0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 30 76.48 24* 1.75

19 3.61 0.00 0.00

19 3.61 30 76.48 24* 1.75

END-OF-YEAR TOTAL GRADE POINT AVERAGE5 OF 1951 FUND

Pt. Value Chicago Columbia Goucher Lafayette Louisville

of "C w 2.00 8.00 3.00 75.00 1.00

No. GPA No. GPA No. GPA No. GPA No. GPA

Fund Scholars,

Schooling:

10 years 34 2.90 0.00

11 years 21 2.85 29 11.15

12 years 4 2.23 22 10.89

all men

scholars 59 2.66 51 11.06

all women

scholars 0.00 0.00

Total Scholar

gr 59 2.66 51 11.06

Comparison
Group of
Secondary

School
graduates:

men na 2.49 na 10.78 0.00

women na 2.51 na na na 3.39

Total na 2.50 na 10.78 — 3.39

Entire

Freshman

Class:

men na na na 10.41

women na na na na

Total na na na 10.41

Entire Student

Body: na 2.1 na 10.60

* This number includes only Scholars registered in the College of Arts and
Sciences.

0.00
150 3.19

150 3.19

38 77.66 18 1.58

00.00 6 2.19

38 77.66 24 1.71

72.44 na 1.36
0.00 na ' 1.57
72.44 na 1.43

na na na 75.92 na

124

SCHOLARS AND OTHER STUDENT GROUPS IN TEN INSTITUTIONS

Oberlin Shinier

0.00 2.00

No. GPA No. GPA

Utah Wisconsin
2.00 1.00

No. GPA No. GPA

Yale Total

75.00 No. of
No. GPA People

15 1.7 27 1.75mcl

9 2.7 7 2.1 md

1 0.9 0.0

14 1.6 19 2.1 rad

11 2.4 15 1.75md

25 1.9 34 l.75md

0.00 22 2.18

40 2.86 27 2.40

0.00 3 1.91

26 2.76 52 2.30

14 2.97 0.00

40 2.86 52 2.30

19 75.30 150

26 79.S0 199

7 79.18 37

52 78.21 327

0.00 59

52 78.21 386

1.5

78.45

1.8

0.00

1.6

2.0

2.65

1.85

78.45

0.9

2.21

1.17

1169

76.25

1.2

2.60

0.00

2.35

1169

76.25

1.64

77.9

125

Table XI

NUMBER AND PERCENT OF WITHDRAWALS FROM COLLEGE.

Chicago Columbia Fisk Goucber Lafayette

A. Unsuccessful

Adjustment: No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

1. Low Marks:

a. Fund Scholars 0.00 2 4.00 0.00 0.00 2 6.66

b. Freshmen n.a. n.a. 9 1.40 12 8.40 1 0.07 65 17.19

2. Disciplinary:

a. Fond Scholars 3 5.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

b. Freshmen n.a. n.a. 1 0.15 1 0.70 1 0.67 0.00

3. Poor Menial
Heahh:

a. Fund Scholars . ... 1 1.66 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

b. Freshmen n.a. n.a. 0.00 2 1.40 0.00 0.00

4. Sub Totals;

a. Fund Scholars ...... 4 6.66 2 4.00 0.00 0.00 2 6.66

b. Fresbunen n.a, n.a. 10 1.55 15 10.50 2 1.33 65 17.19

B. Other Reasons

1. Personal and
Family Problems:

a. Fund Scholars 2 2.33 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

b. Freshmen n.a. n.a. 0.00 0.00 3 2.00 6 1.59

2. Poor Physical
Health:

a. Fund Scholars 0.00 0.00 1 3.57 0.00 0.00

b. Freshmen n.a. n.a. 0.00 3 2.10 6 4.00 2 0.53

3. Other or Unknown:

a. Fund Scholars ... . 1 1.66 0.00 1 3.57 0.00 1 3,33

b. Freshmen n.a. n.a. 40 6.00 19 13.40 20 13.33 24 6.34

4. Sub Totals:

a. Fund Scholars 3 4.00 0.00 2 7.14 0.00 1 3.33

b. Freshmen n.a. n.a. 40 6.00 22 15.50 29 19.33 32 8.46

C. TOTALS:

a. Fund Scholars 7 10.66 2 4.00 2 7.14 0.00 3 10.00

b. Freshmen n.a. n.a. 40 6.00 37 26.00 31 20.67 97 25.65

126

SCHOLARS AND FRESHMEN BY INSTITUTION
LouisvilJe Oberlin Shinier Utah Wisconsin YaJc Total i

No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

2 6.66 1 4.00 2 5.88 0.00 0.00 3 5.77 12 2.9

n.a. na. 39 9.05 7 8.54 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 28 2.39 161 5.3

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
n.a. n.a. 1 0.23 1 1.22 n.a. n.a.

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
n.a. n.a. 0.00 0.00 n.a. n.a.

n.a

0.00
n.a.

1
3

1.92
0,26

0.9
0.3

n.a.

0.00
n.a.

1
8

1.92
0.69

2
10

0.5
0.4

n.a.

0.00
n.a.

5
39

9.61
3.34

18
179

4.3
6.0

2 6.66 1 4.00 2 5.8S 0.00
n.a. n.a. 40 9.28 8 9.76 n.a. n.a.

0.00 1 4.00 4 11.76 0.00 0.00 1 1.92 8 1.9

n.a. n.a. 2 0.46 8 9.76 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 6 0.51 25 0.8

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1 0.2

n.a. n.a. 1 0.23 1 1.22 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 1 0.09 14 0.5

1 3.33 0.00 4 11,76 0.00 0.00 0.00 8 1.9

n.a. n.a. 9 2.08 9 10.98 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 9 0.77 130 4.3

1 3.33
n.a. n.a.

1
12

4.00
2.77

8 23.52
J 8 22.96

0,00
n.a. n a.

n.a.

0.00
n.a.

1
16

1.92

1.37

17
169

4.0
5.6

3 10.00
n.a. n.a.

2
52

8.00
12.05

10 29.40
26 32.72

0.00
n.a. n.a.

n.a.

0.00

n.a.

6
55

11.53
4.71

35
348

8.3
11.6

percentages based upon 421 Scholars in eleven institutions and approximately
3018 Freshmen in the seven institutions for which such data were available.

127

THE FUND FOR THE ADVANCEMENT
OF EDUCATI ON

Officers

Clarence H. Faust
President

Alvin C. Eurich
Vice-President

O. Meredith Wilsont John K. Weiss

Secretary Assistant Vice-President

Philip H. Coombs
Director of Research

Offices

575 Madison Avenue
New York 22, N. Y.

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