LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
PUBLICATIONS
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS IN THE
UNITED STATES: Including a Directory of Institu-
tions dealing with Tuberculosis in the United States and
Canada. Compiled under the direction of the National
Association for the Study and Prevention of Tubercu-
losis. By PHILIP P. JACOBS. 467 pages.
Price, postpaid, §1.00.
THE STANDARD OF LIVING AMONG WORKING-
MEN'S FAMILIES IN NEW YORK CITY. By
ROBERT COIT CHAPIN, Ph.D. 388 pages. 131 tables.
1 6 diagrams. Price, postpaid, $2.00.
MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. By LUTHER
HALSEY GULICK, M.D., and LEONARD P. AYRES, A.M.
286 pages. Price, postpaid, $1.00.
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS: A Study in Retarda-
tion and Elimination in City School Systems. By
LEONARD P. AYRES, A.M. 252 pages. 106 tables.
38 diagrams. Price, postpaid, $1.50.
THE PITTSBURGH SURVEY. In several volumes.
(In preparation.)
REPORT ON THE DESIRABILITY OF ESTABLISH-
ING AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU IN THE CITY
OF NEW YORK. By EDWARD T. DEVINE, Ph.D.,
LL.D. 238 pages. Paper. Price, postpaid, $1.00.
THE SALARY LOAN BUSINESS IN NEW YORK
CITY. By CLARENCE W. WASSAM, Ph.D. With Ex-
tracts from an unpublished Report by FRANK JULIAN
WARNE, Ph.D. 143 pages. Paper.
Price, postpaid, 75 cents.
THE CHATTEL LOAN BUSINESS. By ARTHUR H.
HAM. 60 pages. Paper. Price, postpaid, 25 cents.
FIRST STEPS IN ORGANIZING PLAYGROUNDS. By
LEE F. HANMER. Paper. Price, postpaid, 10 cents.
FIELD DAY AND PLAY PICNIC FOR COUNTRY
CHILDREN. By MYRON T. SCUDDER. Paper.
Price, postpaid, 10 cents.
CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE
105 EAST 22D STREET, NEW YORK
158 ADAMS STREET, CHICAGO
RUSSELL SAGE
FOUNDATION
LAGGARDS IN OUR
SCHOOLS
A STUDY OF RETARDATION AND
ELIMINATION IN CITY
SCHOOL SYSTEMS
BY
LEONARD P. AYRES, A.M.
SECRETARY BACKWARD CHILDREN INVESTIGATION, RUSSELL SAGE
FOUNDATION; FORMER GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF
SCHOOLS FOR PORTO RICO AND CHIEF OF THE
DIVISION OF STATISTICS; CO-AUTHOR
"MEDICAL INSPECTION OF
SCHOOLS"
OP THI
UNIVERSITY
OF
NEW YORK
CHARITIES PUBLICATION
COMMITTEE MCMIX
8ENEML
Copyright, 1909, by
THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
PRESS OF WM. F. FELL CO.
PHILADELPHIA.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
LIST OF DIAGRAMS vii
LIST OF TABLES ix
INTRODUCTION xiii
CHAPTER I
The Backward Children Investigation • i
CHAPTER II
The - Problems of Retardation and Elimination and Their
Significance 8
CHAPTER III
Some Factors Affecting Grade Distribution 19
CHAPTER IV
Extent of Retardation in Different Systems and Schools 36
CHAPTER V
Mortality and Survival in the Grades 49
CHAPTER VI
The Elimination Study of the Bureau of Education 66
CHAPTER VII
Rates of Progress 73
CHAPTER VIII
The Money Cost of the Repeater 89
CHAPTER IX
Causes of Leaving School 99
192630
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER X
PAGE
The Nationality Factor 103
CHAPTER XI
Physical Defects and School Progress 117
CHAPTER XII
Irregular Attendance as a Contributory Cause of Retardation 132
CHAPTER XIII
Promotions 141
CHAPTER XIV
The Factor of Sex 1 50
CHAPTER XV
Age the Controlling Factor in Elimination 1 59
CHAPTER XVI
Are Conditions Improving? 170
CHAPTER XVII
An Index of Efficiency for Public School Systems 175
CHAPTER XVIII
Remedial Measures — Legislative and Administrative 185
CHAPTER XIX
Reform in and through School Records. ." 201
CHAPTER XX
Retardation and Society 216
INDEX.. 221
vi
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
DIAGRAM PAGE
I. Distribution by ages of children in city school
systems 1 1
II. Grade distribution in 386 cities on the basis of 1000
children in the first grade 13
III. Grades and High Schools in North Carolina 15
IV. Grades and High Schools in Tennessee 16
V. Grades and High Schools in Utah 17
VI. Grade distribution under ideal conditions. 23
VII. Decrease through death 24
VIII. Decrease through death and the population factor. 25
>m IX. Grade distribution influenced by retardation and
elimination 32
X. Grades modified by the factors of population, re-
tardation and elimination 32
XI. Retarded children in tne grades in Memphis 39
XII. Showing general tendency of elimination in city
school systems 60
XIII. Retardation and elimination. Conditions com-
pared in Camden and Medford 61
XIV. General tendency of elimination as stated by Dr.
Thorndike represented by dotted line, contrasted
with results presented by the author represented
by solid line 71
XV. Pe'r cent of pupils repeating work of grades 75
XVI. Rates of progress of 9489 pupils in New York City. 82
XVI I . Contrasting number of pupils making rapid progress
with those making slow progress 83
XVIII. Population of foreign parentage in the United
States, by groups of states 104
XIX. Per cent of the white population of the United
States in school at the ages five to fourteen 105
XX. Retardation by nationalities in New York City.
Percentages 107
Vll
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
DIAGRAM
XXI,
Per cent that foreign born pupils are of all pupils
in elementary and high schools in four cities. . no
XXII. Pupils of foreign parentage in schools of Buffalo. 1 1 1
XXIII. Foreign children in the schools of Haverhill,Mass. 1 1 1
XXIV. Foreigners in the schools of New Britain, Conn.. 1 12
XXV. Children of foreign parentage in the schools of
Reading, Pa 113
XXVI. School children in Worcester, Mass., showing in-
crease in proportion of Americans (outlines),
and decrease in proportion of children of foreign
parentage (hatched) and foreign birth (solid
black) in the upper grades and the high school. . 114
XXVII. Average number of grades completed by pupils
having no physical defects compared with num-
ber completed by those suffering from different
sorts of defects 127
XXVIII. Attendance in St. Louis in 1907 137
XXIX. Average promotion rates from records of sixteen
cities 1 44
XXX. Number failing and number not failing in eight
grades in each 1000 pupils 148
XXXI. Increase in the number of failures in eight grades
among 1000 pupils with each decrease in the
per cent promoted 148
XXXII. Showing the falling off of the number of boys and
girls in the successive high school classes 151
XXXIII. Showing the relative distribution of boys and girls
in the elementary grades 153
XXXIV. Per cent retained to final grade in thirty-seven
cities compared with per cent of beginners pres-
ent at six and per cent present at fifteen 165
XXXV. Age at starting and time in school of 269 eighth
grade pupils in New York City 167
XXXVI. Age at starting and time in school of 967 fifth
grade pupils in New York City 168
XXXVII. Cambridge plan of flexible grading 195
XXXVIII. School census results in Springfield, Mass 203
viii
LIST OF TABLES
1. Aggregate grade distribution in 386 cities 13
2. Grade distribution in North Carolina in 1906 14
3. Grade distribution in Tennessee in 1906 15
4. Grade distribution in Utah in 1906 16
5. Grade distribution in Chicago in 1906 20
6. Grade distribution in a stationary population with no deaths 22
7. Grade distribution showing decrease through death 23
8. Grade distribution as influenced by two elements, death and increase of
population 25
9. Per cent of promotion in five cities 27
10. Grade distribution when 80 per cent of the pupils are promoted, all finish,
and the population factor does not enter 27
1 1 . Decline in attendance, ages ten to sixteen, in 58 cities. Relative figures 28
12. Age and grade distributions. Stationary population. Retardation and
elimination both operative 30
13. Grade distribution showing modification by different factors 31
14. Grade distribution on basis of 1000 pupils in first grade in three cities 33
15. Grade and age distribution in Memphis, Tenn., June, 1908, showing
number and per cent of retarded pupils 37
16. Normal ages of children in the grades 38
17. Number and per cent of retarded pupils. Enrollment in September.
Six cities 43
18. Number and per cent of retarded pupils. Enrollment in June. Five
cities 43
19. Number and per cent of retarded pupils. Enrollment in June after pro-
motion. Two cities 44
20. Number and per cent of retarded pupils. Total enrollment. Eight
cities 44
21. Number and per cent of retarded pupils. Enrollment at a given date.
Twelve cities 44
22. Per cent of retarded pupils. Thirty-one cities .-, 45
23. Per cent of pupils above normal age, by schools. New York investiga-
tion, 1908 46
24. Boys' and girls' schools compared 47
25. Enrollment by grades. Boston, January 31, 1906 50
26. Grades in Boston. Relative figures 50
27. Age distribution in Medford, Mass., September 30, 1907 51
28. Grades in Somerville, Mass., December, 1907 53
29. Grades in Reading, Pa., March, 1907 54
LIST OF TABLES
NUMBER PAGE
30. Showing the number of children beginning school annually in each of 59
cities and the per cent which each grade is of the number of beginners. . . 55-5 7
31. Showing grades in which children begin to leave school in large numbers
in different cities 62
32. Showing the percentage of pupils retained to the fourth year of high school
in fifty-one cities 64
33. Per cent of pupils entering school who continue to the final elementary
grade in sixteen cities 67
34. Comparison as in Table 33 for eight cities 67
35. Number of beginners in four cities 69
36. Showing in relative figures grade distributions in cities and villages on the
basis of 1000 pupils in the fifth grade 72
37. Number of pupils more than one year in the same grade in three cities 74
38. Per cent of pupils repeating work of grades in three cities 75
39. Total promotions and special promotions in five cities 76
40. Slow and rapid pupils compared in five cities 76
41 . Pupils making slow, normal and rapid progress compared in five cities 77
42. Causes of retardation, by grades, of 9489 pupils in New York city 78
43. Time in school, by grades, of 9489 pupils in New York city 79
44. Extent of slow, normal and rapid progress among 9489 pupils in New York
city 80
45. Showing number of children by grades who have reached their present
standing in less than normal time, in normal time, and in more than
normal time in New York city. Original data Si
46. Relative figures showing pupils making slow, normal and rapid progress — Si
47. Time required to do the work of four grades in each of twenty-nine cities 86
48. Showing time required to complete eight grades at same rate as is shown
between grades i and 5 in twenty-nine cities 87
49. Enrollment by grades, Columbus, 1906 91
50. Enrollment by ages, Columbus, Ohio, 1906 92
51. Comparison between computed results and official figures 95
52. Number and cost of repeaters in fifty-five cities 96
53. Causes of withdrawal of pupils from high schools in five cities 99
54. Reasons for leaving high school. Percentages 100
55 . Causes of withdrawal of pupils from elementary schools in six cities 10 1
56. Reasons for leaving elementary schools. Percentages 102
57. Retardation by nationalities in New York city. Percentages 107
58. Comparison between retention of pupils in school and per cent of foreign
parentage in populations, in three groups of cities 115
59. Comparative standing in studies of 219 normal and defective children in
Philadelphia 117
60. Per cent of exempt and non-exempt children having physical defects 118
6 1 . Physical defects found in exempt and non-exempt children 1 1 S
62. Defective eyesight and hearing among 10,130 normal and retarded children
in Camden, N. J 119
x
LIST OF TABLES
NUMBER PAGE
63. Physical defects among normal and retarded children who failed of pro-
motion in Camden, X. J 120
64. Causes assigned for excessive age 120
65. Per cent of normal and retarded children having physical defects by
grades. Xe\v York city 121
66. Per cent having each defect, at ages six and fifteen 121
67. Physical defects of 3304 children, ages ten to fourteen, in Xew York city. . 124
68. Per cent of dull, normal and bright pupils suffering from each sort of
defect. Ages ten to fourteen inclusive. All grades 125
69. Average number of grades completed by pupils having no physical defects
compared with number completed by those suffering from different
defects. Central tendency among 3304 children, ages ten to fourteen
years in grades i to 8 127
70. Showing per cent loss in progress of children suffering from each sort of
physical defect 128
71. Comparison of enrollment and attendance in six cities 133
72. Character of attendance in St. Louis in 1907 135
73. Attendance in St. Louis in 1907. Relative figures 135
74. Attendance in St. Louis in 1907, by fourths of the school year 136
Persistence of attendance of pupils in different cities and in Porto Rico... 138
Comparison between percentages of attendance and promotion in three
cities 138
77. Hypothetical grade distribution influenced by retardation and elimination. . 140
78. Promotions in sixteen cities. Percentages : 143
79. Showing age and grade distribution in the eighth year in a city where 1000
children enter school each year and are promoted according to the per-
centages shown in the preceding diagram. Xonedieand none drop out. 145
80. Results of average percentages of promotion 145
81. Showing age and grade distribution in the eighth year in a system where
1000 children enter each year and are promoted according to the Haver-
hill rate. Xone die and none drop out 146
82. Effects of average promotion rates as compared with rates obtaining in
Haverhill, Mass 147
83. Showing for each 1000 pupils how many do not fail and how many fail in
eight years of school life, and aggregate number of failures under
different promotion percentages - 147
84. Membership of 7,624 American high schools, 1906-7 151
85. Membership of 7,624 American high schools in 1906-7. Proportional
numbers J51
86. Grade distribution by sexes in 752 cities, 1906-7 152
87. Grade distribution by sexes in 752 cities. Proportional numbers 152
88. Per cent of retarded pupils among boys and among girls in fifteen cities 154
89. Showing percentages of boys and girls retained to the final elementary
grade in thirteen cities *55
90. Xumber of repeaters among boys and girls in fourteen cities 156
LIST OF TABLES
91. Per cent of promotion among boys and girls in two cities 156
92. Grade and age distribution in Cincinnati 159
93. Per cent of pupils retained to final grade, number at six years of age and
number at fifteen years in thirty-seven cities. Relative figures on the
basis of 1000 beginners 162
94. Age at starting, time in school and average age of 269 eighth grade pupils
in New York city 1 66
95. Age at starting, time in school and average age of 967 fifth grade pupils
in New York city 1 68
96. Per cent of retarded pupils in six cities for a series of years 171
97. Showing the percentage of the entire membership of the elementary schools
enrolled in the grades from the kindergarten to the fourth grade in
forty-seven cities for a series of years 172
98. Grade distribution in Cleveland in 1906 1 78
99. Membership of final three grades in two cities 179
100. Number of beginners. Relative membership of grades for each 1000
beginners and index of efficiency for fifty-eight cities 180
101. State averages of indexes of efficiency 182
102. Indexes of efficiency of thirteen cities 184
103. Children between five and fifteen in New Bedford, Mass., 1908 192
104. Grade and age distribution in Springfield, Mass., enrollment in Sep-
tember, 1907 205
105. Total enrollment and average attendance, Springfield, Ohio, 1907 208
106. Showing the number of pupils attending for different numbers of days,
Springfield, Ohio, 1907 208
INTRODUCTION
DURING the past decade it has been increasingly realized
that the education of children who are defective in body,
mind, or morals is a matter of great importance to the
future of the state. Extensive studies carried on in Great Britain
have shown an alarming amount of degeneration. Definite and
extensive steps looking toward the care of defective children have
been taken in many civilized countries; but the crux of the matter
does not lie in the care of these unfortunates. At most they do not
constitute more than from one to two per cent of the school popu-
lation, and it does not appear that any considerable fraction of
them can ever be educated so as to become independent members
of the community.
The great problem lies in the very much larger class of those
who, while they are not defective, do not keep up with their
fellows. These, constituting from five to fifty per cent of our
school population, can become either failures or successes in life,
according to the influences that are brought to bear upon them
during their early years.
About this large group we need facts. Are they in their
present condition largely because of removable physical dis-
abilities, such as hypertrophied tonsils or adenoids, defective
vision or hearing, or malnutrition? Do they drop behind in their
school life because of illness? Are they behind because of late
entrance into the schools? To what extent is irregularity of
attendance a factor in delayed progress? Is compulsory labor
after school hours an important factor? When do they drop out
of school, and for what reasons? Are there any schools that
succeed in educating an appreciably larger per cent of these chil-
dren than do others? If so, how is it done?
Data with which to answer these questions were not in
existence. Application was therefore made to the Russell Sage
INTRODUCTION
Foundation for a modest grant with which to make a preliminary
survey that might
(1) Put together useful material bearing on these topics;
(2) Develop a mode of attack on the problem;
(3) Analyze a sufficiently large number of cases to demon-
strate the utility of the method and give answers of at least a
provisional nature to some of the questions.
The grant was allowed in the fall of 1907.
The matter was also laid before Dr. William H. Maxwell,
Superintendent of Schools of New York City, who has given the
fullest possible cooperation, as well as allowed access to schools
and to school records, without which the investigation could not
have been made.
The next step consisted in the discovery of some one who
could conduct the investigation. To do work of the sort contem-
plated satisfactorily is a most difficult matter, for it involves a
technical knowledge of how to handle statistical material so as to
avoid the many pitfalls presented, and at the same time get re-
sults that shall be trustworthy and constructive. It also in-
volves extensive experience in school administration and the widest
possible knowledge of the literature bearing on these subjects.
We were exceedingly fortunate in securing Mr. Leonard P. Ayres,
formerly General Superintendent of Schools for Porto Rico, and
Chief of the Division of Statistics of the Insular Department of
Education.
In connection with the investigation it was necessary to
secure as complete records as possible of medical inspection of
school children. The material secured seemed sufficiently valu-
able to warrant its publication. Accordingly it was embodied
in a preliminary report* and published in 1908.
Grateful recognition is due Dr. Roland P. Falkner, who
has given the work of the investigation from its inception the great
assistance of his keen insight into methods of social investigation
and of his thorough knowledge of educational statistics.
A report of the study, in so far as it related to the New York
*
* " Medical Inspection of Schools," by Gulick and Ayres. New York,
1908. Published by Charities Publication Committee, for the Russell Sage
Foundation.
xiv
INTRODUCTION
schools, was submitted to Dr. William H. Maxwell and published
by him as a part of his annual report for 1908. Besides this
partial publication of the findings, many of the chapters have
appeared in part or in whole as contributions to the educational
press over the signature of Mr. Ayres.
The most significant of the findings of the investigation are :
(1) That the most important causes of retardation of school
children can be removed;
(2) That the old-fashioned virtues of regularity of attend-
ance and faithfulness are major elements of success;
(3) That some cities are already accomplishing excellent
results by measures that can be adopted by all;
(4) That relatively few children are so defective as to pre-
vent success in school or in life.
LUTHER H. GULICK,
Chairman, Backward Children Investigation.
xv
CHAPTER I
THE BACKWARD CHILDREN INVESTI-
GATION
IN his report for 1904 Dr. William H. Maxwell, City Super-
intendent of Schools of New York, called attention to the
fact that a large number of pupils (39 per cent in the
elementary grades) were shown by his tables to be above the
normal age for the grades they were in. In each annual report
since then he has regularly- published similar tables. Concerning
the condition thus disclosed there has been much discussion, and
more than one school evil has been unhesitatingly labeled a con-
sequence of "retardation," as the circumstance of mal-adjust-
ment between the ages and grades of school children came to be
termed.
Many, causes were assigned in explanation of the conditions
revealed. Among these some of the more prominent were the t
constant influx of non-English speaking children, the enrolling |
of~cfiildreri in the^1ri^1^g«bd€^aT^:^comparatively advanced age,
the slow progress of children on account of physical defects ,
or weaknesses, inefficient teaching, unsuitable courses of study, I
and the shifting of children from school to school by reason of the \
frequent changes of residence of their families.
Briefly sketched this was the condition in regard to the prob-
lem of backwardness or retardation among school children in New
York City in the fall of 1907. Dr. Maxwell was not the only
superintendent who had called attention to the matter, but his
tables had revealed the conditions with a new force and definite-
ness and focused the interest of educators on the problem.
Whether the causes commonly assigned were all the causes or
the most important of them — and if they were, which among
them predominated in weight — no one knew. No adequate
investigation to determine the answers to these questions had
ever been made.
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
The importance of the problem, its evidently close bearing
on the question of the adaptation of the school to the needs of
the child, and the marked lack of definite information bearing
on the question were the forces which impelled the Ru^elL^Sage
,Eo«ftdfitirjirto-tmder4-ak€ -iir-theJfalL.of 1907-301 investigation into
some phases of " the adaptability of the school and its grades to
children."
The object of the investigation was to study the problem of
the progress of school children through the grades. Its interest
was not in the individual, sub-normal, or atypical child but rather
in that large class, varying with local conditions frorn^io^^-percent
of all the children in our schools, v\
beJpiLxEhe 'grades they are, in. The^questions the investigation
set itself to answer were these: How many of the children in
our schools fail to make normal progress from grade to grade and
why do they fail? How many of the children drop out of school
before finishing the elementary course and why do they drop out?
What are the facts and what are the remedies?
Work was begun by making an intensive study of the school
records of the pupils in one school in New York. The object
was to outline the problems along definite lines, te test methods
and to develop a system for more extensive work. While this
preliminary study was under way it became necessary to turn
aside temporarily from the purely local work to discover what
was being done for children in different cities and countries
along lines only partly allied to traditional school work.
As a result of this study a volume was written on the Medical
Inspection of Schools and the accumulated information in this
field placed at the disposition of school workers? The investi-
gation was then continued along the lines first mapped out'
In the spring of 1908 a detailed investigation of the school
records of 20,000 children in fifteen schools in Manhattan was
undertaken. The ^children were about equally divided between
the two sexes and represented a varying raj},ge of social and
raciai^clasges. Trte~ffucly consisted of apflntensjye^Tl^critical
study of the personal and schoDkrecords oTrh'e children and of
the records of the physical examinations which iiad .been given
toYnariy of them by the physicians of the Board of Health.
THE BACKWARD CHILDREN INVESTIGATION
While this study was being carried on and ever since its
conclusion the available records of school conditions in most of
the larger cities of the country were being subjected to searching
analysis and comparison.
The results of all of this work combine to form the present
volume which is a report of the findings of the BackwardLChildren
Investigation. The volume draws its material from the New
YorTTThvestigation, from the collated material which contri-
buted to the volume "Medical Inspection of Schools" and from the
study of the school reports of a large number of American cities.
The findings of the investigation and their lessons may
be briefly outlined under the three headings: Conditions; Causes^
and Remedies.
CONDITIONS
In every school there are found some children who are
older than they should be for the grades they are in. These
children constitute serious problems for the. teachers. They are
misfits in the classes, require special attention if they are to do
satisfactory work and render more difficult the work with the
other children. These children are known as over-age or retarded
children. They are found in all school systems but are by no
means equally common in all systems. In this regard there is
an enormous variability among cities. In Medford, Massachusetts,
only 7 per cent of the children are retarded according to the
standard adopted, while in Memphis, Tennessee, among the
colored children 75 per cent are retarded. All of the other cities
studied fall between these two extremes. On_ the average about
33 per cent of all of the pupils in our public schooTs belong to the
class "retarded." This gives an idea of the magnitude of the
problem with which we are dealing. It is not at all a problem
concerning a few under-developed or feeble minded children.
It is one affecting most intimately perhaps 6,000,000 children I
in the United States.
Wherever we find that the retarded children constitute a
large part of all of the school membership we find that many of
the children do not stay in the schools until they complete the
elementary course. Children who are backward in their studies
3
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
and reach the age of fourteen (which is generally the end of the
compulsory attendance period) when they are in the fifth or sixth
grade instead of in the eighth, rarely stay to graduate. They
drop out without finishing. The educational importance of this
fact is great. We are apt to think of the common school course
as representing the least amount of schooling that should be
permitted to anyone, but the fact remains that a large part of
all of our children are not completing it. As retardation is a con-
dition affecting all of our schools to some extent, so too elimina-
tion, or the falling out of pupils before completing the course,
is an evil found everywhere but varying greatly in degree in dif-
ferent localities. In Quincy, Massachusetts, of every hundred
children who start in the first grade eighty-two continue to the
final grade. In Camden, New Jersey, of every hundred who start
only seventeen finish. The other eighty-three fall by the way-
side. The general tendency of American cities is to carry all
of their children through the fifth grade, to take one-half of
them to the eighth grade and one in ten through the high school.
In the current discussion of retardation two claims have
repeatedly been put forward by those who seek to show that
retardation is not a serious matter and that in any event the
responsibility of the school for existing conditions is small. These
claims are, first, that if we find many over-age children in the
schools it is because they enter at comparatively advanced ages;
and secondly, that even if some children do progress slowly they
are in a measure offset by an equal or greater number who make
rapid progress.
Our studies have thrown light on both of these contentions.
The children who are retarded on account of late entrance are
found to be only a small part of all of the retarded children. In
New York City where children enter school on the average later
than they do in many other cities, the retarded children whose
backwardness is due to late entrance are found to constitute
less than one-third of all. Since retardation is ascribable to
only two conditions, late entrance and slow progress, and since
late entrance is found to be only a small factor, slow progress,
however caused, is proved to be the great factor in bringing about
the existing condition.
4
THE BACKWARD CHILDREN INVESTIGATION
The contention that the children who make slow progress
are in a measure counterbalanced by a substantially equal number
who make rapid progress is found to rest on an even slighter
basis of fact. Taking the average of the conditions found in
our city schools the figures show that for every child who is making
more than normally rapid progress there are from eight to ten
children making abnormally slow progress. In the lower grades,
before the process of elimination enters to remove the badly
retarded children, the average progress of the pupils is at the
rate of eight grades in ten years. These 'conditions mean that our
courses of
child orJoilie average child hut to the unusually bright one.
rnEeTower grades of our schools contain many children
who are not going ahead at the normal rate, this means that there
are large numbers of pupils who are doing the work of the grades
they are in for the second or third time. These children are
repeaters. The study of the figures from different cities reveals
the importance of this class from both the educational and eco-
nomic view points. The computations show that in the schools
of Somerville a little more than 6 per cent of the children are
repeaters. From this figure the records of the cities range up-
wards until we reach Camden, New Jersey, with 30 per cent of
the children in the repeating class. The average percentage
is a little over 16. This means that in the country as a whole
about one-sixth of all of the children are repeating and we are
annually spending about $27,000,000 in this wasteful process ii
of repetition in our cities alone.
k
CAUSES
When we seek to analyze the causes which are responsible
for the conditions which have been discussed we find the field
a difficult one. There is no one cause for retardation nor can
we say that any one cause is preponderant. Late entrance is a
potent factor, irregular attendance is another. In both cases
time lost through illness plays an important part. Certain
physical defects are responsible for a part of the backwardness.
On the basis of the investigation conducted in New York we can
say that in general children suffering from the physical defects
5
^ OF THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
which are recorded in that city by the school physicians make
nearly 9 per cent slower progress than do the children who are
found on examination to have no defects. Children having some
sorts of defects, adenoids for instance, are retarded still more.
The study of the bearing of nationality on school progress
has been fruitful. In general there is little relation between the
percentage of foreigners in the different cities and the amount
of retardation found in their schools. Some of our most foreign
cities make very good records, while in some of our most American
cities school conditions are very bad indeed. In the country as
a whole there are more illiterates proportionately among native
whites of native parents than among native whites of foreign
parents and school attendance is more general among the latter
than among the former.
In the New York investigation it was shown that there are
decided differences between the different races in the matter of
school progress. There the Germans made the best records,
followed by Americans, Russians, English, Irish and Italians
in that order. Everywhere that investigations have been made
it has been conclusively shown that ignorance of the English
language is a handicap that is quickly and easily overcome and
has little influence on retardation.
Several other branches of the investigation have brought
to light conditions of great educational importance, as for instance
an inquiry into the effects of different rates of promotion on the
number of times the average child fails during his course, which
demonstrated that we are training our children well in failure.
Another point on which important facts have been secured
is the old question as to whether the child who enters school at
say the age of eight or nine makes more rapid or slower progress
than the one who enters at the age of five.
Perhaps no more important set of facts has been brought
to light than those relating to the relative standing of the two
sexes. We have always known that fewer boys than girls go
to the high school but we have not before known that there is
per cent more retardation among boys than among girls and
jr cent more repeaters among boys than among girls, or that
the percentage of girls who complete the common school course
6
THE BACKWARD CHILDREN INVESTIGATION
cent greater than the percentage of boys. These facts
mean that our schools as at present constituted are jar better fitted
to the needs of the girls than they are to those of the hoys.
There is another thing that has been proved; namely,
that these conditions which have been discussed are neither of
recent origin nor are they growing worse. Conditions are slowly
improving in most places but not in all and not rapidly. They
are not improving so rapidly that we have any grounds for feeling
that if let alone they will care for themselves.
REMEDIES
The possible remedies for the conditions which have been
discussed may be divided into two classes, legislative and ad-
ministrative.
If children are to progress regularly through the grades
they must be present in the schools. This means that we must
have better compulsory attendance laws and better provision
for their enforcement. If we are to enforce the
we must know where the children of school age are. Therefore,
we must have better laws for taking the school^ census and
better methods for utilizing the returns. If we~are toTiave all
of our children complete the common school course we must
have an agreement which is now commonly lacking between the
length of the school course and the length of the compulsory
attendance period. It is a curious anomaly that we commonly •
have school courses eight or nine years in length and compel \
attendance for six years only.
The administrative reforms which must be brought about
consist mainly of more ^thorough and better medicalin§p£^tion,
courses of study whictTwill moreTrTfcarly fifTfie^BITities of the t
average"~pupil, mor^lTexrbte grading, and, most important of all,
a better knowledge'of the^actiT We must have better school
records and we"musrTe"a7rrto interpret them more intelligently.
It is far from creditable that in hardly a city in the country can
the school authorities tell how many pupils begin school each year,
or how fast they advance, or what proportion finish or why they
fall out, or where and why they lose time.
CHAPTER II
THE PROBLEMS OF RETARDATION AND
ELIMINATION AND THEIR
SIGNIFICANCE
NO standard which may be applied to a school system as a
measure of accomplishment is more significant than that
which tells us what proportion of the pupils who enter the
first grade succeed in reaching the final grade. It is this that
gives the problem of the elimination of pupils from school and the
cognate matter of retardation their educational importance.
In our city school systems most of the children enter the first
grade at the age of six or seven. Some of them are promoted
each year and reach the eighth grade at fourteen or fifteen years
of age. Others are not regularly promoted from grade to grade.
They fall behind and at the age of fourteen they find themselves,
not in the eighth grade, but in the fifth or sixth. This falling
back process is termed retardation
The retarded pupil finds himself in the same class with much
younger companions. His age and size are a continual reproach
to him. He begins to resent the maternalistic atmosphere of the
lower grammer grades. He becomes discouraged through his lack
of success and, when he has passed the compulsory attendance
age, he leaves school. This dropping out process is termed £//#!-
ination. It is with these two processes — retardation and elimina-
'tion— that this volume has to deal.
The term retardation has been explained as referring to the
pupil who is above the normal age for his grade. It will be so
employed throughout this book, irrespective of how the pupil
in question happens to be above normal age. The explanation
may be that he has progressed slowly. It may be on the other
hand that he entered school late and has never caught up with
the other pupils of his own age. In either event he constitutes
a serious problem for himself and for the school authorities,
PROBLEMS OF RETARDATION AND ELIMINATION
and falls within the class "retarded." As it is employed in this
work the term expresses a condition, not a process or an expla-
nation.
We have always known that in our general educational sys-
tem, the high schools occupy a somewhat privileged position, in
that they deal with selected and not with average pupils. Few of
the pupils of the common schools continue their work until they
reach this institution of secondary instruction. But we have
not known, or if we have known, we have failed to realize it,
that large numbers of the children who enter the public schools
never complete the work of the common schools. So far from
completing it they drop out, often with no more progress than is
^represented by four or five years of the grades. Perhaps this
does not mean that our public school system is any worse than it
used to be, but on the face of it it certainly does mean that the
system is not nearly so good as it should be.
The significance of the problem is attested by the utterances
of educators of national prominence like Commissioner Andrew
S. Draper of New York state and students of such distinction as
Professor Edward L. Thorndike of Teachers College of Columbia
University. In his report published in 1908, Dr. Draper says:
" I have assumed that practically all of the children who do
not go to the high schools do finish the elementary schools. That
is not the fact. * * * * * J confess that it startles me to
find that certainly not more than two-fifths and undoubtedly
not more than a third of the children who enter our elementary
schools ever finish them, and that not more than one-half of them
go beyond the fifth or sixth grade/'*
In the bulletin issued by the Bureau of Education in Feb-V
ruary, 1908, Prof. Thorndike states the following conclusions:
"At least 25 out of 100 children of the white population of
our country who enter school stay only long enough to learn to read
simple English, write such words as they commonly use, and
perform the four operations for integers without serious errors.
A fif thjot_Lhg^ children (white) en^er|ng_cjty_schools stay only to
the fifth grade/' t
* Report, 1906, p. 532.
f "The Elimination of Pupils from School," p. 9.
9
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
While as measures of the amount of the evil considered, the
conclusions of Dr. Thorndike have been vigorously assailed and
those of Dr. Draper have not been universally accepted, there is
no difference of opinion as to the gravity of the evil. This much
is clear — many pupils leave school at a relatively low point in the
school system. This point differs greatly in different cities but
the condition nevertheless exists in all of them.
The reasons for this elimination, which has attracted so much
attention among educators, are not far to seek. Our public
school system is commonly based on eight years' work, or eight
grades. With few exceptions, wherever compulsory attendance
laws exist school attendance becomes optional at the age of four-
teen, and this age corresponds — at least approximately — with the
physical and psychological changes in the child's life.
We have here the condition under which elimination arises.
Children very commonly avail themselves of the privilege of leav-
ing school at fourteen. For a large part of all of the children,
therefore, the question as to how much schooling they will receive
is the question how much they can obtain before they reach
the age of fourteen. In years, this obviously depends upon the
age at which they enter school. In progress, it depends upon the
rate at which they go forward during the years they are in atten-
dance.
Information as to age at entering and age at leaving may
be gained from a study of Diagram I which shows in rela-
tive figures the distribution by age groups of 1,982,477 children
enrolled in the elementary and high schools of fifty-eight cities.
The ten year old children are represented as being 100. Using
this as a basis the other age groups are represented propor-
tionally.
There is little difference in size between the seven age groups
at the ages from seven to thirteen inclusive. During these ages,
going to school is the customary occupation of practicably "all of
the children of our cities. But one-fourth of them have not yet
started at the age of six and two out of every five have already left
at the age of fourteen. A considerable number even anticipate the
age of fourteen and leave at thirteen years. Now, since there are
only six years (those from seven to twelve inclusive) during which
10
PROBLEMS OF RETARDATION AND ELIMINATION
practically all of the children are in school, and, if we add the age
of thirteen, only seven years when nearly all of them are in at-
tendance, it becomes obvious why they cannot all receive eight
years of schooling.
When we consider that only those children who enter at six
years of age can complete the eight elementary grades by regular
progress before they reach the age of fourteen, we can better under-
stand why it is that so few finish the elementary schools. No
more than a man by taking thought can add one cubit to his
stature can a child squeeze in more than eight years between his
AGE GROUPS
8 9101112
~^— 1!3
5 24 77 92 96 98 100
NUMBER IN EACH GROUP
99 96 89 62 34 17 8
2 .3
Diagram I. — Distribution by ages of children in city school systems. The
ten year old children are here represented as one hundred; the other age groups
are proportional.
sixth and fourteenth birthdays. When we further consider that
in no state, are children compelled to go to school until they are
seven years of age, it is manifest that no child going to school under
such compulsion, and leaving upon reaching the age of fourteen,
can ever, by normal progress, finish the eight grade course pre-
scribed by school authorities. Is it then surprising that so few
pupils can finish the elementary school course? And if the ele-
mentary schools represent a unit in education, is it not singular
that our laws do not generally enforce this unit?
LAGGARDS JW<OUR SCHOOLS
vVv ^ .
But after all,jiow many pupils do pass through the schools
regularly advancing from year to year as the course prescribes?
Such regular progress we call normal advance, but when we ex-
amine facts we find that here normal and average are far apart.
Failure, so far from being abnormal is, judged by the standard
of frequency, rather the rule than the exception. There are few
children who pass through the schools without losing a term, a
year, or more in the course of their studies. They may not be
wholly to blame for it ; sickness or change of residence may ac-
count for it in part. But whether so caused or whether it is the re-
sult of indifference or inattention, the effect is the same so far as
lengthening the whole time spent in school or hindering the pro-
gress which can be made in a given number of years is concerned-
The promotion figures in our schools show that every grade
brings its quota of failures, and it can be readily understood that
after two or three grades have been passed these numbers are ac-
cumulated; and further, that in the upper grades few remain
who have not some time or other in their previous school history
a failure to their credit or discredit.
In connection with our consideration of the very general rule
of dropping out of school at fourteen, the influence of this failure
to advance regularly is plain. It means that at the age of fourteen
few pupils have reached the grade corresponding to the number of
years since they entered school.* Most of them are in a lower
grade, and consequently, if they drop out of school at the age of
fourteen, they leave with an education far less complete than they
might have been expected to attain. Hence it is that pupils may
drop out of school in no inconsiderable numbers in the fourth
and fifth grades with the most fragmentary education as their
equipment for the work of life.
No minute analysis of the figures showing the membership of
the grades is necessary to convince even the casual student of the
problem that this dropping out process is serious in its effects and
far reaching in extent. This may be learned from a mere inspec-
tion of figures. In the Report of the Commissioner of Education
for 1907 are tables showing the grade distribution in 386 cities of
8000 population and upwards. The aggregate figures, omitting
the ninth grade, are as follows :
12
PROBLEMS OF RETARDATION AND ELIMINATION
TABLE I, — AGGREGATE GRADE DISTRIBUTION' fif 386 CITIES.
-;- -, vv.
?v.- Vv;
r ' - Vi'-
• - ,--
, - i >>-.<:
.-. 7- - -,'V.
,: ::-..-:- '--:--.-.-
? - - -
- . ' -
;- - vU.:
; . - - :
-; i
: , : : •_.'-'
If we consider the pupils in the first grade as being repre-
sented by looo pupils and represent the following grades by
proportional numbers, we may construct a diagram in which
the upright columns represent the membership of the successive
grades:
8
n
2-, 'ft. 72;
Diagram IL-G
- '." •-.-.'- 7--. ';.-.--: -: ?" ?:V.*'..
_ t_ _ «r __ < ^j •*_*_ ? „ * «
^V2 ^; ss/ ^2 y*
in
56
'.'.'. ' ~ '' ""'.
-.'•'-.( - , v.;';
I to IV.
13
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
For each 1000 pupils in the first grade we find only 263 in the
eighth and only 56 in the fourth year of the high school. These
figures represent average conditions in our city schools.
It is not possible to compute from these figures how many
children succeed in reaching each grade, or what proportion of the
children drop out in each, for the children in the first grade are
not all beginners. Some of them are repeaters who have been there
two or three years. Nevertheless, the diagram shows convinc-
ingly that many children drop out of school in the upper grades,
that comparatively few reach the eighth grade, and that very few
indeed complete the high school course.
These conditions are far from being uniform in different
sections of the country. Different cities furnish data of the most
widely varying character. Even state systems exhibit marked
individuality. This is shown by comparing the grade distribu-
tions in the three states for which the report of the United States
Commissioner for 1907 furnishes complete data.
In North Carolina the grade distribution was as follows:
TABLE 2. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION IN NORTH CAROLINA IN 1906.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 140,742
Second Grade 85,598
Third Grade 74,710
Fourth Grade 67,743
Fifth Grade 50,684
Sixth Grade 35,664
Seventh Grade 19,611
HIGH SCHOOL
First Year 5,155
Second Year 2,123
Third Year • . 876
Fourth Year 274
Total 483,180
Expressing the first grade by 1000 as before, and the follow-
ing grades by relative figures, we may illustrate this in graphic
form'as shown in Diagram III.
Conditions are somewhat different in Tennessee. With more
pupils in the first three grammar grades and with a greater total
enrollment, the schools of this state carry fewer pupils to the higher
PROBLEMS OF RETARDATION AND ELIMINATION
,
1 n in iv
1000 775 530 481 360 253 139 37 15 6 2
Diagram III. — Grades and High Schools in North Carolina.
grammar grades and to the high school,
and its expression in graphic form follow:
The grade distribution
TABLE 3. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION IN TENNESSEE IN 1906.
Grade
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade 1 •
Fifth Grade > •
Sixth Grade
Pupils
. 149,656
86,380
• 75,328
74,149
61,469
23,372
Seventh Grade
14,775
Eighth Grade
10,697
HIGH SCHOOL
First Year
Second Year
Third Year
2,533
1,222
575
Total
500 156
15
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
4
8
II III
1000 579 505 497 412 157 99 72 17 8 4
Diagram IV. — Grades and High Schools in Tennessee.
In decided contrast to conditions in these two states are
those in Utah as shown in the table and in Diagram V.
TABLE 4. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION IN UTAH IN 1906.
Grade
First Grade .
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade .
Sixth Grade .
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade
HIGH SCHOOL
First Year
Second Year
Third Year .
Fourth Year .
Total
Pupils
10,991
8,961
9,362
16
8,019
7,u7
6,056
4,742
967
352
201
140
66,339
PROBLEMS OF RETARDATION AND ELIMINATION
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
I
11 III IV
1000 815 852 858 730 648 551 432 88 32 18 13
Diagram V. — Grades and High Schools in Utah.
The pupils in the final grammar grade in North Carolina are
only 14 per cent of the number in the first grade. In the case of
Tennessee the per cent is 7.2. In Utah, the number of eighth
grade pupils is 43 per cent of the first grade ones. These illus-
trations will suffice to show how conditions vary in different local-
ities.
No attempt has been made to treat the problem in hand in
any but the most general way in this chapter. The object has
been to emphasize a few of the more fundamental conditions which
underlie the phenomena of retardation and elimination. This
object will have been attained if the following propositions have
been made clear:
i . The pupil who is above the normal age for his grade is
termed retarded. Such pupils constitute a large part of the mem-
bership of our schools.
17
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
2. Many retarded pupils, finding themselves, at the end of
the compulsory attendance period, one or more grades below the
final one, leave school without completing the elementary course.
This process is termed elimination.
3. Whatever the stage of their advancement, a large part of
the pupils of our schools leave at the age of fourteen. As many
of them do not enter until after the age of six, and as most of them
do not progress regularly at the rate of a grade each year, very
few of them complete the elementary course by the time they
reach the end of the compulsory attendance period.
4. These conditions vary greatly in different cities and states.
The evils of retardation and elimination exist everywhere. In
some places they are very serious; in others they have been re-
duced to a minimum.
18
CHAPTER III
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE
DISTRIBUTION
STUDENTS and critics of our public school systems are giv-
ing more and more attention to the figures printed in the
annual reports of superintendents and school boards. They
are seeking to discover whether the record which lies embedded in
the statistical statements of actual conditions is one of accom-
plishment or of failure. As they thumb the pages of school re-
ports in .quest of evidence they cannot escape the impression that
the records are only fragmentary. Born of real or fancied ad-
ministrative necessities, colored oftentimes by a local point of
view, the printed statistical tables may throw light upon educa-
tional questions, but it is incidental to their main purpose. As the
published figures are analyzed with a view to gain an answer to
specific queries, the consciousness deepens that the light which
the figures shed is rarely simple and pure, but is highly complex — a
synthesis of the most varied elements.
In recent discussion much has been made of the falling off in
the number of children in the successive grades, from the first to
the eighth. Writers .who have otherwise the most varied points
of view have perceived in such numerical decrease a test of the
efficiency of school systems. Those of a more gifted imagination
have seen in them evidence of a conspicuous failure of our schools
to accomplish the purpose for which they are designed, while
those more cautious by nature have not hesitated to make it a
reproach upon certain cities that their upper grades contained
relatively fewer pupils than those of other localities.
The feeling that grade records embody facts of far-reaching
consequence is widespread. It reveals itself in an increasingly
general publication of figures giving the grade membership.
Such tables are appearing in reports of city schools, where they
19
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
have heretofore been lacking. The latest report of the Commis-
sioner of Education of the state of New York contains a summary
of the facts for the cities of the state, and the forthcoming report
will go into further details, giving not only the number in the
grades, but the ages of the pupils in each of the grades for the cities
of the state. The report of the United States Commissioner of
Education for 1906 gives the grade distribution of the school
children in 127 cities. The 1907 report contains similar data for
upwards of 700 towns and cities.
Side by side with this more abundant presentation of the orig-
inal data have appeared certain attempts at interpretation. In
the school reports we find an occasional, not always very enlighten-
ing, comment upon the reasons of this falling off in the grades.
It is in part upon an interpretation of such figures that Commis-
sioner Draper of New York state based the cogent argument for
industrial education which gave such marked distinction to his
latest annual report. Nor will it be forgotten that the interpre-
tation of such figures added to the heat — if not to the light — of the
discussion at the meeting of the Department of Superintendence at
Washington in February, 1908.
Figures showing grade distribution in city school systems form
the simplest and most common sort of statistical information
bearing on this subject. Wherever such figures are printed their
most prominent characteristic is the diminution in the numbers of
children in the successive grades. Thus the report of the Board
of Education of Chicago for 1906 gives the average grade member-
ship in that city as follows :
TABLE 5. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION IN CHICAGO IN 1906.
Grade Pupils
First Grade ... 43,560
Second Grade 34,33°
Third Grade ... 32,814
Fourth Grade 30,004
Fifth Grade . 28,056
Sixth Grade . 22,540
Seventh Grade 17,643
Eighth Grade . i2>939
Here the figures show us that the second grade is far smaller
than the first, the third considerably less numerous than the
20
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE DISTRIBUTION
second, and so on until we reach the eighth grade, which is con-
siderably less than one-third as large as the first. Nor should it
be supposed that Chicago is exceptional in this respect. On the
contrary, very many cities show even greater disparities in their
grade distributions.
The natural conclusion of the casual student of such figures is
that the pupils are dropping out of school all the time, and hence
the number in each grade diminishes as the grades advance.
In the case cited, that of Chicago, the immediate interpretation of
the figures is that of each forty-three children entering the first
grade, no more than thirteen reach the eighth, and still fewer
graduate. That such a conclusion is not justified is made evident
by a study of some of the factors contributing to bring about the
disparity in numbers noted in the several grades. The assumption
that the grades should normally be about equal in number rests
upon the very common idea that substantially the same number of
children enter school each year, that they advance with fair
regularity from grade to grade, and that they remain until the
completion of the elementary course.
In fact, all of these suppositions are erroneous. To begin with,
there is a certain natural decrease in the number of children with
advancing age which is due to death; so that we may always
expect to find fewer persons with each advancing year of age.
Secondly, there is an increase in the size of each successive and
younger generation of children which is due to the natural in-
crease in population. Looked at from the standpoint of the age
fourteen, each younger generation is larger. Looked at from the
standpoint of the age of seven, each older generation is smaller
than the preceding. It is obvious that there are in New York
state more five year old children today than there were five years
ago, and hence at the present time more five-year-olds than
ten-year-olds. These two elements — that of death and that of the
increased size of each succeeding generation — contribute to form
the factor of population.
All children do not advance regularly from grade to grade;
some of them are left behind to repeat a year or two. This is the
factor of retardation.
All children do not complete the elementary schools. In
21
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
some localities few and in others more leave the early or primary
grades, but in all localities great numbers leave the grammar
grades upon reaching the age of fourteen. This is the factor of
elimination.
Other factors may and undoubtedly do affect the size of grades
in certain cases and localities. Among the possible factors may be
mentioned the influx of children whose schooling has already been
begun in other places, the tide to and from private and parochial
schools, and the enrollment of immigrant children who enter the
schools at comparatively advanced ages. But such factors are
local and irregular in their influence and undoubtedly compen-
satory to a certain extent in their action. On the other hand,
the three factors of population, retardation and elimination are
always present.
THE FACTOR OF POPULATION
Two elements contributing to form the factor of population
have been mentioned: decrease by death and the natural increase
in successive age generations caused by an increasing population.
If for the moment we assign an age to each grade, beginning with
seven years as the age of pupils in the first grade, and if we suppose
for the sake of .argument a stationary school population in which
1000 pupils enter school each year, none die, and none drop out,
we have a grade distribution as follows :
TABLE 6. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION IN A STATIONARY POPULATION
WITH NO DEATHS.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 1000 children 7 years old
Second Grade 1000 children 8 years old
Third Grade 1000 children 9 years old
Fourth Grade 1000 children 10 years old
Fifth Grade 1000 children n years old
Sixth Grade 1000 children 12 years old
Seventh Grade 1000 children 13 years old
Eighth Grade 1000 children 14 years old
If expressed in graphic form this grade distribution would,
of course, show no falling off at all, as is illustrated in Diagram VI.
In the United States the annual death rate for the ages five
to fifteen is 3.7 per 1000. It is not, of course, exactly 3.7 for each
22
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE DISTRIBUTION
GRADE
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
fton
12345678
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
Diagram VI. — Grade distribution under ideal conditions.
of the ages, but for the sake of simplicity and because of its rela-
tive insignificance we may apply it equally to note its effect.
TABLE 7. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION SHOWING DECREASE THROUGH
DEATH.
Grade
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade
Sixth Grade
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade
Pupils
1000 children 7 years old
996.3 children 8 years old
992.4 children 9 years old
988.6 children 10 years old
984.9 children n years old
981.1 children 12 years old
977.4 children 13 years old
973.7 children 14 years old
It will thus be seen that the element of death alone will ac-
count for a decrease of some 26 to 27 in the progress of each 1000,
children from the first grade to the eighth. How very slight a
falling off is accounted for by the decrease through death is more
easily seen when illustrated as in Diagram VII.
Death is a far smaller element in making up the factor of
population than is the increase of population. How great a factor
the two together constitute we may perhaps roughly measure by
23
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
applying to the problem the figures given for each age group from
seven to fourteen years inclusive, in the aggregate population of
the United States according to the census of 1900.
At that time there were in the United States 1,787,019
children seven years old. Those fourteen years old numbered
1,556, 1 12. There are plainly two reasons why the children four-
teen years old are less numerous than those seven years old: First,
there were fewer children born fourteen years ago than seven years
GRADE
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
1 2345678
— mm
avn
****m
*****
maaaam
mmmaof
*****
__.»•«•
mama
Diagram VII. — Decrease through death.
ago; second, of the children born fourteen years ago a larger propor-
tion have died than of those born seven years ago. In less
degree this is true of the eight year old children compared with the
seven-year-olds. So those of nine will be slightly less numerous
than those of eight. The number of children at each age from
seven to fourteen will gradually diminish. By dividing the number
of fourteen year old children by that of those seven years old, we
can readily find how many fourteen-year-olds there are likely to
be when there are, say, 1000 seven-year-olds. By means of such
24
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE DISTRIBUTION
relative figures we may show how many children there are in the
United States as a whole at the ages of eight, nine, and so on,
for each 1000 at the age of seven. Stating this in the form of
a supposititious grade distribution, we have the following:
TABLE 8. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION AS INFLUENCED BY TWO ELE-
MENTS, DEATH AND INCREASE OF POPULATION.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 1000 children 7 years old
Second Grade 985 children 8 years old
Third Grade 964 children 9 years old
Fourth Grade 938 children 10 years old
Fifth Grade 920 children n years old
Sixth Grade 904 children 12 years old
Seventh Grade 889 children 13 years old
Eighth Grade 871 children 14 years old
The foregoing shows most conveniently the tapering off in
numbers of the population as the age increases. This becomes very
evident when we interpret the facts of the table in a diagram.
GRADE
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
Diagram VIII. — Decrease through death and the population factor.
As before explained, this tapering off resulting in an apparent
diminution in the upper ages is in reality caused by successive
25
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
increases in the lower ages. Were we to state it in other terms to
make this clear we might take the age of fourteen as the basis for
computing our relative figures. In that case, instead of saying
that for each 1000 children seven years old there are 871 at the
age of fourteen, we should say that for each 1000 at the age of
fourteen we may expect to find 1148 seven years old. This is
simply the same proposition stated in different terms.
It is not claimed, of course, that the figures in the table con-
stitute an absolute measure applicable to any school system.
Their value lies rather in giving a typical measure of the attenua-
tion to be allowed for from influences of population under normal
circumstances. The age distribution of the population is not, of
course, uniform throughout the country. In some localities, in
fact, very considerable variations from the standard are found.
Neither do school grades correspond exactly with ages. Neverthe-
less, if children enter at the age of seven they will be at least
fourteen upon reaching the eighth grade, and we shall not be far
out of the way if we state that under perfect school conditions of
progress and retention of pupils we could in no case expect to find
more than 87 per cent as many children in the eighth grade as in
the first grade. This is a constant and very considerable factor
in bringing about disparity in the number of children in the several
grades, and it is one which has been entirely overlooked in much
of the current discussion of the problem.
THE FACTOR OF RETARDATION
We have seen that all pupils do not advance regularly from
grade to grade. It is a fact of which all educators are keenly
aware. But just how many pupils fail to advance and at what
points in the school course, and, most important of all, for what
causes, are questions as yet relatively unanswered. There is
not even any general agreement as to how "percentage of pro-
motions" shall be computed, and indeed practice is very diverse
in the matter. Some information on the subject may be gleaned
from a study of school reports. The most recent reports from five
large cities give the following statement:
26
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE DISTRIBUTION
TABLE 9. — PER CENT OF PROMOTIONS IN FIVE CITIES.
Per cent of
City Promotions
New York 81
Chicago 84
Cincinnati 83
Columbus 78
Kansas City, Mo 71
From these figures it appears that we shall not greatly err
if we assume that about 80 per cent of the pupils in a system
may reasonably be expected to advance at each regular time of
promotion, and that 20 per cent will fail to be so advanced. If
each year 20 per cent fail, the first grade will contain in our sup-
posititious case the 1000 pupils just entered, as well as some who
entered the year before, some who entered two years before, and a
few who entered three years before, or even earlier. The actual
number in the first grade will be 1250 and not 1000. Now, if the
same rules hold for the other grades, and no pupils drop out, — that
is, if all stay to complete the course, no matter how long it takes,—
each grade will contain the same number as the first; namely, 1250.
In other words, if we have four-fifths of the normal progress, or
that planned by the course of study, we shall have five-fourths of
the normal number of pupils in each grade. If the factor of popu-
lation were inoperative, we should Jaave under these conditions the
following grade distribution :
uld ha
>4Pki
TABLE 10. — GRADE DISTRIBUTIOl^HEN 80 PER CENT OF THE PUPILS
ARE PROMOTED, ALL FINISH, AND THE POPULATION FACTOR DOES
NOT ENTER.
Grade Pupils
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade
Sixth Grade
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade
But we know that these conditions are never found. Pupils
who find themselves in some grade lower than the eighth at the
27
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
age of fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen do not remain to complete the
course. They drop out. This brings us to the third factor, that
of elimination.
THE FACTOR OF ELIMINATION
A study of the age distribution of pupils in the schools of
fifty-eight cities in the United States shows, after allowing for in-
accuracies of age returns, which are proverbial, that in the main
the variations in the age groups of school children in the earlier
years are slight. There is a relatively marked falling off at the age
of thirteen, followed by a very marked decline in numbers at the
ages of fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen. That is to say, that compara-
tively few pupils will remain in school after the age of fourteen,
many drop out at that age, and some anticipate it and leave at the
age of thirteen. The data from these cities give us very nearly
the following table when the figures are reduced to relative terms:
TABLE II. — DECLINE IN ATTENDANCE, AGES TEN TO SIXTEEN, IN
58 CITIES. RELATIVE FIGURES.
Age Pupils
Ten years 104
Eleven years 103
Twelve years 100
Thirteen years 9<5
Fourteen years 60
Fifteen years 30
Sixteen years 15
From these figures we may assume as a reasonable approxi-
mation, that in the elementary schools 10 per cent of the children
will have left at thirteen years of age, that 40 per cent will have
left at fourteen, half of the remainder at fifteen, and again half of
these at the age of sixteen.
Now, if pupils in school advanced with substantial regularity,
so as to reach the upper grades by the time they attained the age
of thirteen or fourteen, it is evident that elimination would not be
a very powerful factor in bringing about grade disparity, and would
be operative only in the highest grades. But we know that pupils
of these ages are found in the intermediate grades in no incon-
siderable numbers. This brings into operation the factors of
retardation and elimination in combination.
28
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE DISTRIBUTION
RETARDATION AND ELIMINATION BOTH OPERATIVE
To show what the result is we may have recourse again to a
supposititious case, but one this time which more nearly approaches
conditions as found in our schools than do those cited heretofore.
Suppose we have a school system where the population is sta-
tionary, where 1000 new pupils enter the schools at the age of
seven each year, where there is a uniform rate of promotion of
80 per cent, and where 10 per cent of the pupils leave at the age of
thirteen, 40 per cent by the time they are fourteen, 50 per cent
of the remainder at fifteen years, and half of those left drop out
at sixteen years of age. Under these conditions we shall have
the age and grade distribution as shown in Table 12.
In this table we have for the first time a grade distribution
closely approximating those commonly found in the school systems
of our cities. The familiar characteristics are present; the falling
off in size of the successive grades, the presence of substantially
equal age groups until we reach the age of thirteen, when there is a
slight falling off followed by a much sharper drop, and the small
size of the eighth grade as compared with the first. We have well
illustrated, too, the fact that while retardation results in holding
in the first and each of the other primary grades many more chil-
dren than the number entering school each year, and in the upper
grades the combination of retardation and elimination accounts
for the depletion which is so noticeable, yet the result is not to
bring into our schools a greater number of children than those who
would be present if all progressed normally. This result is only
reached when promotion percentages are very low and retardation
is very serious in the lower grades. To state this in terms of
school administration: doing away with retardation would not
do away with the problem of " part time," nor would it have much
effect in reducing the number of school sittings or school rooms
required, nor would it result in great financial economy. The
economies effected would be educational rather than material.
They would consist in giving a more extended education to a
larger proportion of the children entering school.
The graphic representations giving the falling off in successive
grades due to the influences of death and the population factor
have shown that the tapering off from these causes is really very
29
z
o
1
vo T^- ro *-i <S O *^* t^«-
00
O4
r^
^ 04 d CS M O^ VO 04
00
<
z
s
0
O4 O f^ ^t"
M O4 Tf
£
UJ
Q
Z
<
*r>
l-H
Hi ^J- 00 O
Tf
Z
0
H
2
K
3
M t^ 00 0 H t^
HH VO \O 04 04
HH 04 M
0
1
<
H
id
g
PO
H PO 04 M \O **»
M f^. 04 VO OO
8
<N ro M
ON
Z
H
VO O CO 04 OO
%
j
So ™
04 ^t CO
£
D
^tf
cu .
fti >
tm^
O4 vo O CO O
Q
>" H
^jj
O4 VO HH M
g
2 2
M
Z w
2S
0
00 O Tf 04
O\ 00 M
0
•< j£
*^
CO vo
o
to O
000
0
Z
ON
Tf O4 Tf
§
0
HI
H
D
CQ
00
o o
04 OO
§
s
H
to
5
«-
§
§
w
Q
<
K
,' .
Z
<
PJ
O
•i
<
2
1
e>
TABLE
$lll*ill
3
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE DISTRIBUTION
slight. In decided contrast is the effect due to the combined
influences of retardation and elimination. When these factors
are introduced the lower grades become greatly swollen, while
the upper ones are decidedly depleted.
SUMMARY
Summarizing our three modifying factors of population,
retardation, and elimination, we may compare in one table the
effect which each one of these separately, and finally the three
working together, will have on the grade distribution of a com-
munity when 1000 children enter the first grade.
TABLE 13. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION SHOWING MODIFICATION BY
DIFFERENT FACTORS.
Grade
No Modi-
fying
Factors
Death
only
Death
and In-
crease of
Population
Retarda-
tion and
Elimination
Population,
Retardation
and
Elimination
First
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
1250
1250
Second
IOOO
996
985
1247
1228
Third
IOOO
992
964
1238
"93
Fourth
IOOO
988
938
1219
H43
Fifth
IOOO
984
920
1127
1036
Sixth
IOOO
981
904
9°5
818
Seventh .
IOOO
977
889
57°
506
Eighth .
IOOO
973
871
272
237
Total.
8000
7891
747i
7828
7411
The facts of the table showing the final distribution which we
have as the resultant of the combined modifying influences of the
three factors are even more impressive when expressed in graphic
form as in Diagrams IX and X.
To anyone who has not devoted considerable study to the
phenomena of grade distribution the results shown in the dia-
gram may well appear extreme. At first sight the disparity in
Cumbers between the 1250 children in the first grade and the 237
in the eighth seems unreasonably large, while on the other hand
the total of the eight grades — 7411 — seems too small when we
remember that the first grade contains 1250. Are similar con-
31
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
GRADE
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
Diagram IX. — Grade distribution influenced by retardation and elimination.
The lower grades are swollen and the upper ones depleted.
GRADE
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
Diagram X. — Grades modified by the factors of population, retardation and
elimination.
32
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE DISTRIBUTION
ditions really found in our city school systems? We may gain
light on this point by comparing our supposititious case with the
grade distributions found in some of our cities, taking in each
case 1000 pupils in the first grade as a base and using relative
figures to facilitate comparison.^
TABLE 14. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION ON BASIS OF IOOO PUPILS IN
FIRST GRADE IN THREE CITIES.
Supposititious
Grade
Case — All
Three Factors
Philadelphia
1908
Memphis
(white} 1908
Passaic
1908
Operative
First .
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
Second .
982
897
621
788
Third .
954
822
617
696
Fourth .
914
696
529
499
Fifth' .
829
568
388
439
Sixth „
654
413
384
284
Seventh .
404
271
a8i'
276
Eighth .
190
190
190
193
Total . .
5923
4857.
4010
4175
We have here the answer to our question. Evidently the
grade distributions found in our city school systems are not
radically dissimilar from the distribution resulting from the
application of our several hypotheses in the supposititious case.
One characteristic difference, however, is noticeable. Whenever
we take figures giving the grade distribution of an actual school
system, we find a greater disparity between the number of children
in the first and second^rades than we do in our supposititious case.
In city school systems we invariably find very many more first
grade than second grade children. In our supposititious case we
find only a few more. But it must be remembered that the differ-
ence between the figures in our supposititious case is largely the
result of the modification resulting from the influence of the popu-
lation factor, whereas in actual school systems the retardation
factor is prominent in that the percentage of promotion from the
first grade to the second is almost invariably lower than it is in
the case of the higher grades. A larger proportion of children
3 33
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
enter the first grade late in the year, and so fail of promotion,
than is the case in the other grades. As the conditions in this
respect vary greatly in different localities, it is obvious that any
standard which has for its basis the number of children in the first
grade will be of little utility as a criterion for judging the number
we may fairly expect to find in each of the other grades. To have
recognized in our hypothetical case the unequal distribution of
retardation by grades — it being greater in the lower, and less in
the upper grades — would have introduced complications into our
calculations which were deemed unnecessary, since our purpose is
rather to demonstrate the existence of these factors, than to pro-
pose an exact measurement.
As a result, then, of our study we may formulate the following
general rules which will serve as tolerably accurate criteria for
judging the grade membership in American city school systems
under substantially normal conditions of population and school
administration:
i . During the eight years following their entrance into the
school system we may count on about 27 in each 1000 of these
children being removed by death.
2: Owing to the factor of population, composed of the two
elements of death and increase of population, we may expect to
find normally for each 1000 children in the first grade no more than
871 in the eighth.
3. A not uncommon measure of advance in our large city
school systems is to have four-fifths of the pupils promoted at
each regular time of promotion, and to have one-fifth fail.
4. It is safe to count on 10 per cent of the children leaving on
reaching the age of thirteen, 40 per cent by the time they are four-
teen, 50 per cent of the remainder at fifteen, and again 50 per
cent of the remainder at the age of sixteen.
In general it appears, then, that the grade distribution is the
resultant of such diverse elements that without the most careful
analysis conclusions as to any of these elements are liable to
go astray. The reader who is familiar with school reports and
current educational discussion will not fail to recall instances in
34
SOME FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE DISTRIBUTION
which the existence of one or more of the modifying factors has
been ignored. In any attempt to analyze grade figures, therefore,
there must be kept clearly in mind the simple fact that at least
three factors have an important share in producing the distribu-
tion of pupils by grades which is commonly observed in our
elementary schools.
35
CHAPTER IV
EXTENT OF RETARDATION IN DIFFERENT
SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS
EVER since educators first called attention to the phenomena
of retardation there has been much speculation as to how
general the condition is and to how serious an extent it
exists within our school systems. Up to the present time the most
serious attempt to answer these questions has been that made
by Dr. Oliver P. Cornman in an article published in the Psycho-
logical Clinic of February 15, 1908. Dr. Cornman compared
conditions in Camden, Kansas City, Boston, Philadelphia and New
York. In the March number of the same magazine for the same
year his findings were in some measure corrected and largely ex-
panded by Dr. Roland P. Falkner. Aside from these two articles,
current educational literature has little or nothing to offer bearing
on the question of comparative conditions in different localities.
The method for determining the number of retarded children
in a given school system which has received most general accep-
tance on the part of schoolmen, is the method which enumerates
the children by ages and grades and puts all of the children who
are older than a determined age in each grade into a group desig-
nated "Above Normal Age." These children who. are older
than they should be for the grade they are in are considered
"retarded." Thus used the ,term designates a condition, and is
applied with equal propriety to those children who are over
age on account of slow progress, and those who have progressed
normally but entered school late.
The method has come into general acceptance because,
all things considered, it is the most satisfactory-standard by which
to measure retardation. Statistics based on the time pupils
have spent in each grade are exceedingly rare, often unreliable,
and usually are non-cumulative. That is, they deaf with each
grade as a separate unit and fail to tell us how much time the
pupil has gained or lost in the entire course.
RETARDATION IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS
Statistics giving us figures as to grade and age distribution
on the other hand, are simple, certain, easy to gather, and embody
valuable information as to many conditions and results of school
work. Their application to the problem of retardation is so easy
that the process may be employed by anyone, however unversed
in statistical procedure.
For instance, let us consider the conditions existing in the
schools of Memphis in June, 1908. On that date the children
in that system were distributed by grades and ages as is shown
in the following table:
TABLE 15. — GRADE AND AGE DISTRIBUTION IN MEMPHIS, TENN.,
JUNE, 1908, SHOWING NUMBER AND PER CENT OF RE-
TARDED PUPILS.
Age
GRA^E
12345
t
7 S
Total
6
782 ii
793
7
*99 *77 5°
932
S
3*1 403 131 5
907
9
i2« 349 333 104
8
914
It
*4 I91 335 264
67
6
i
908
11
21 81 230 302
219
83
9
^ 945
12
12 45 109 229
201
203
77 6
882
13
i 13 43 126
182
245
178 63
851
14
4 6 25 44
85
158
J75 1 130
627
15
I 2 6 10
26
69
92 no
316
If
1
i 3
8
25
43 73
153
17
I 2
i
i
3 10
18
It
i
i
2
Total
2*53 T27* I2^ 1*89
79*
79«
579 3f2
8248
Above ]
Normal \
-572 687 749 716
5°4
498
314 193
4233
Age j
Per cent ]
No°rmal '7.8 53-7 59- 65.7
63-1
63.0
54-2 49-2
51-3
Age J 1
37
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
Now, if children enter the first grade at the age of from
six to six and a half years and are not retarded during the course,
their ages in the several grades will be as follows :
TABLE l6. — NORMAL AGES OF CHILDREN IN THE GRADES.
Grade Age
First Grade 6 to 8 years
Second Grade 7 to 9 years
Third Grade 8 to 10 years
Fourth Grade 9 to n years
Fifth Grade 10 to 12 years
Sixth Grade n to 13 years
Seventh Grade 12 to 14 years
Eighth Grade 13 to 15 years
These ages have been accepted by common consent as the
" normal ages" for these grades by nearly all the schoolmen who
have interested themselves in the problem.
Referring now to Table 15, it will be noticed that there is
a heavy line passing between the figures showing the number
of seven year old children in the first grade and the eight year old
ones. All of the children above this line in the first column are
of "normal age." The line advances with each grade so that in
the second grade those more than nine years old are below; in
the third grade those older than ten; and so on. All of the
children below the heavy line are "above normal age," or retarded.
At the extreme bottom of the table are three rows of figures;
the first showing the total number of children in each grade;
the second, the number of retarded children; and the third, the
per cent which these children are of the entire membership. It
will be noted that in the school system as a whole 5 1 .3 per cent
of the pupils are in this class.
In Diagram XI the shaded portion represents the num-
ber of retarded children in each grade, and the part in outline
the normal-age children, so that the relative proportions can
be estimated by the eye.
It may be remarked incidentally that so far as the volume
of retardation here described is concerned, Memphis is one of the
cities which has a percentage rather higher than the average.
It has been objected by some that the method of computing
retardation by the age and grade figures is incorrect, and not a
38
RETARDATION IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS
fair representation of the phenomena with which we are dealing.
The criticism is so fundamental that it may be considered briefly
at this point, since if we are wrong in our basis of computation,
much of the argument in the succeeding chapters must fall to the
ground. The criticism to which we refer has been voiced by
Superintendent James M. Greenwood of Kansas City, who, corn-
Diagram XI. — Retarded children in the grades in Memphis. Shaded portion
represents retarded children.
menting upon the investigation of Dr. Cornman of Philadelphia,
says:
"The enly correct way to estimate retardation, or the slow
movement of a pupil, is the length of time it takes him to do a
year's work. It is not a question of age without respect to pro-
gress, but it is one of time required to do a given amount of work
39
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
within a specified time without regard to age. Suppose two boys
enter college, one sixteen and the other nineteen years old,
and each one completes the four years' work on time. Now
would anyone claim that the older one was retarded? So, if
a child begins the regular grade work at eight and he does a full
year's work each year till he complete the elementary course,
that child is not retarded, and it would be puerile to class him as
a backward pupil. The only clear cases of retardation are those
in which pupils are kept longer on a certain unit of work than
is prescribed in the course of study. Many intelligent, sensible
parents, especially in the middle and western sections of the
United States, prefer not to send their children to any kind of a
school till the age of eight, and where such children do enter
school they go forward rapidly and easily in their studies, often
skipping classes."*
If the point herein set forth is well taken, the standard of
retardation should be progress, not age. These considerations
put the advocates of the age standard on the defensive, and it is
well to examine whether the arguments are valid. The conten-
tion is that the age standard is wrong in principle, and the
implication, that the age standard exaggerates the phenomenon
with which we are dealing.
Whether or not the age standard be incorrect in principle
can only be decided by consideration of the significance of re-
tardation itself. What is the essential phenomenon with which
we are dealing? Is it the process by which children fall behind
in their studies, or is it the fact that they have done so? Does
it make any difference whether retarded children in the grades
are there because they entered school late, or because having
entered early they have failed to be promoted?
If we look at the matter from the standpoint of the school,
the vital thing is the fact that classes are now too often composed
of heterogeneous elements. The child of nine acts and thinks
differently from the child of seven. Put the two in the same
class and the work of the teacher is increased, the amount of
attention which can be given to each diminished, and the effect
of the teaching is therefore lessened. No one can doubt that
* Educational Review, Sept., 1908. p. 147.
40
RETARDATION IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS
it would be a very great advantage if children could be so classified
that the classes would be more homogeneous with respect to age.
They would respond more rapidly to the instruction of the teacher;
they would act more as a unit and less as a collection of individuals.
From the standpoint of the child, the essential evil of re- /
tardation is that it lessens the prospect of securing a reasonably ^
complete elementary education. We have already seen that
many children leave school at the age of fourteen, and therefore
for the majority of children the possibilities of acquiring an
V elementary education are measured in years by the number which
can be spent in school before that age is reached. It requires
no very profound acquaintance with mathematics to observe
that a child who enters school at eight years of age — as suggested
by Superintendent Greenwood — can get only six years of elemen-
tary schooling before he reaches fourteen. Obviously, he cannot by
normal progress complete the work of the elementary school course.
Then the question arises whether the six years of schooling
will be equivalent to six grades of school work. Unless the child
is unusually gifted the prospects are not good for his securing
that amount. The chances are at least equal that he will get
less. Is there any chance that he will get more? Mr. Greenwood
seems to think that the child who enters late will progress rapidly
through the grades, but experience does not show that our school
systems, as a rule, make any provision whatsoever for the rapid
progress of pupils. Once in a while a child may skip a grade,
but the cases in which this occurs are wofully rare. This will be
examined more in detail in a later chapter. It is enough for our
present purpose to recall that the graduating class is small in
comparison with the entering class for all the elementary schools.
Moreover, progress itself may mean two things, — it may be
a designation of the ground covered, or it may again represent
the point reached through the process. If we regard it in the
latter light there is certainly no impropriety in considering that a
child who enters late upon his school work has neglected his
opportunities. By the late start he is far behind his fellows in
the race.
The age standard is, therefore, justified from this point of
view. It has a further advantage in that it is easily applied.
4'
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
When we consider that no school system has yet given us a com-
plete record of the number of years required by each pupil to
reach his present grade, and that to establish such a record at
the present time would mean to wait at least eight years before we
could properly discuss the matter for the elementary schools, there
is an additional reason for evolving a method which can be used
at any time and requires no more effort than an exact determina-
tion of the present ages of pupils in the grades they now occupy.
The implication, moreover, that such a progress standard
as suggested by Mr. Greenwood would show that there are fewer
retarded pupils than would the age standard, does not correspond
to such facts as we now know. In Boston for instance, in 1897,
46 per cent of the pupils took more than the regular time to
finish the three primary grades, yet at the same time the percen-
tage of retardation in the fourth grade was only 29.3 per cent.
In like manner we note that in 1894 in that city 34.5 per cent
took more than the regular time to finish the last six — or grammar
— grades, not counting, of course, any slow progress which the
same pupils may have previously made in the primary grades.
Yet the percentage of age retardation in 1896 was only 20 per
cent for the ninth grade.
Other figures, so far as they are available, confirm this
conviction, and the reason therefor is not very difficult to per-
ceive. In the application of the age standard there is a certain
generosity in the accepted measure. If we do not consider a
child in the first grade as above normal until after the age of
eight, we must recognize that for those who enter the first grade
early — say exactly at six — we have already a margin which
permits a child to spend two years in the first grade without
coming in the retarded class. That this margin is justified
appears from the record of frequent failure and frequent absence
in the first primary grade. The progress standard proposed by
Mr. Greenwood admits of no such margin, and consequently,
if it were rigorously applied, the recorded failures among those
who enter early would add much more to the percentage of retar-
dation than the lack of failure on the part of those who enter
school late; for, after all, those who enter school late are the
exception rather than the rule. We may rest assured that the
42
RETARDATION IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS
method adopted in this discussion is one which minimizes rather
than exaggerates the conditions of which we treat.
Now, it is perfectly evident that the results secured in com-
puting retardation by the age and grade method may vary con-
siderably according to the details of the method employed in
gathering the statistics. In the same city results computed
in September might differ materially from those gathered in the
following June, for if promotions were made on the yearly basis
the children would still be in the same grades, but they would
average nearly a year older. The September statistics would
show a lower percentage of retarded pupils than would the June
ones. Moreover, figures gathered on the basis of total enrollment
will differ from those gathered at a given date in the school year.
For these reasons results from different cities are only comparable
when gathered on the same basis.
Age and grade statistics have been secured from thirty-one
cities and the results are shown in the following table in which
the cities are grouped according to the basis on which the data
were gathered, thus enabling us to compare conditions in the
different localities.
TABLE 17. — NUMBER AND PER CENT OF RETARDED PUPILS. EN-
ROLLMENT IN SEPTEMBER. SIX CITIES.
City
Date
Pupils
Enrolled
Number
Retarded
Per cent Re-
tarded
Medford, Mass.
1907-8
3572
269
7-5
Waltham, Mass.
1908
2579
274
10.6
Meriden, Conn.
1907
4241
551
13.0
Quincy, Mass. .
1908
5445
976
17.9
Springfield, Mass. .
1907-8
10934
2342
23-3
Woonsocket, R. I. .
1907
3160
II2I
35-4
TABLE l8. — NUMBER AND PER CENT OF RETARDED PUPILS. EN-
ROLLMENT IN JUNE. FIVE CITIES.
City
Date
Pupils
Enrolled
Number
Retarded
Per cent Re-
tarded
York, Pa.
Memphis,
Cincinnati
Erie, Pa.
Memphis,
Tenn.
, O. .
Tenn.
(white)
(colored)
1908
1908
1907
1901
1908
6085
8248
38280
5482
4887
2335
4233
22505
3297
3704
38.3
Si-3
58.7
60. i
75-8
43
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 19. — NUMBER AND PER CENT OF RETARDED PUPILS.
ROLLMENT IN JUNE AFTER PROMOTION. TWO CITIES.
EN-
City
Date
Pupils
Enrolled
Number
Retarded
Per cent Re-
tarded
New York City
Philadelphia, Pa. .
1908
1908
559120
148814
161373
54798
30.0
36.8
TABLE 2O. — NUMBER AND PER CENT OF RETARDED PUPILS.
TOTAL ENROLLMENT. EIGHT CITIES.
City
Date
Pupils
Enrolled
Number
Retarded
Per cent Re-
tarded
Ft. Wayne, Ind.
1906-7
5558
1299
23-3
Portland, Ore. .
1907
15637 4804
30-7
Utica, N. Y. .
1906-7
9°39
2948
32.6
Troy, N. Y. .
1903-4
6l57
2198
35-6
Columbus, O. .
1906-7
19*95
7175
37-3
Los Angeles, Cal. .
1903-4
29018
11119
38.3
Camden, N. J.
1905-6
13127
6086
46.3
Kansas City, Mo. .
1906-7
28509
13848
48.5
TABLE 21. — NUMBER AND PER CENT OF RETARDED PUPILS. EN-
ROLLMENT AT A GIVEN DATE. TWELVE CITIES.
City
Date
Pupils
Enrolled
Number
Retarded
Per cent Re-
tarded
Aurora, 111. .
Oct., 1907
1872
343
18.3
Boston, Mass.
Jan. 31, 1907
82452
'5315
18.5
Maiden, Mass.
Dec. 3, 1908
5988
1109
18.5
Decatur, 111.
1908
397°
1188
29.9
Newark, O. .
Dec. 6, 1908
3293
985
29.9
Reading, Pa.
Mar. i, 1907
10908
3455
31.6
Trenton, N. J. .
Nov., 1903
8834
2721
32.0
Wilmington, Del. (white)
1905-6
7594
2826
37-2
Kingston, N. Y. .
1908
3209
I233
38-4
Baltimore, Md. .
Dec. 31, 1905
66142
3°655
46.3
St. Louis, Mo.
Dec. i, 1901
66508
31017
46.6
Wilmington (colored)
1905-6
io3S
651
62.8
While, as has been explained, the retardation figures from
the different cities are only comparable when based on figures
44
RETARDATION IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS
gathered by the same method, it is nevertheless worth while
to list all of the cities in the order of the percentage of retardation
indicated. This table is useful, not for purposes of comparison
of conditions in the cities, but rather to show the great range
in the percentages of retardation found.
TABLE 22. — PER CENT OF RETARDED PUPILS. THIRTY-ONE CITIES.
Per cent
City Retarded
i. Medford, Mass. . . 7.5
2. Waltham, Mass.
3. Meriden, Conn.
4. Quincy, Mass.
5. Aurora, 111.
10.6
13.0
17.9
18-3
6. Boston, Mass 18. 5
7. Maiden, Mass 18.5
8. Fort Wayne, Ind 23.3
9. Springfield, Mass. 23.3
.10. Decatur, 111 29-9
ii. Newark, Ohio 29-9
i2._New York, N. Y 30-0
1 3. "Portland, Ore 30.7
14. Reading, Pa 31.6
15. Trenton, N. J 32.0
16. Utica, N. Y 32.6
17. Woonsocket, R. 1 35-4
18. Troy, N. Y 35.6
19. Philadelphia, Pa 36.8
20. Wilmington, Del. (white) 37 .2
21. Columbus, Ohio 37-3
22. Los Angeles, Cal 38.3
23. York, Pa 38.3
24. Kingston, N. Y 38.4
25. Baltimore, Md 46.3
26. Camden, N. J 46.3
27. St. Louis, Mo 46.6
28. Kansas City, Mo 48.5
29. Memphis, Tenn. (white) 5J-3
30. Cincinnati, Ohio ' 5^-7
31. Erie, Pa 60. i
32. Wilmington, Del. (colored) 62.8
33. Memphis, Tenn. (colored) .75.8
It is noteworthy that the city having the lowest per cent
of retardation is Medford with 7.5 of her pupils in that class.
This is on the basis of enrollment in September. The colored
pupils of Memphis show the highest percentage of retardation
(75.8) and the figure is based on the enrollment in June. As
was explained earlier in the chapter, figures taken in September
will inevitably show a lower percentage of retardation than will
45
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
Cf
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
similar data gathered in June. Therefore, it is nearly certain
that if the data were gathered in all cases on the same basis
there would not be so great a discrepancy between the two cities
at the extremes of the table. On the other hand, it is entirely
probable that if all the computations were made on the same basis
Medford would still have the best record, and the colored pupils
of Memphis the worst.
The table is instructive in disclosing how important a matter
retardation is in all the cities from which data are available. On
the average, approximately- one-third of all of the children in
our city schools are above the normal age for their grades, — they
are retarded. The table is further instructive in showing what
a wide variation there is in conditions. In the cities making the
best showing the number and percentage of retarded pupils are
almost negligible. In the cities making the poorest showing
the large majority of all of the children are over age for their
grades.
TABLE 23. — PER CENT OF PUPILS ABOVE NORMAL AGE BY SCHOOLS.
NEW YORK INVESTIGATION, 1908.
School Per cent
A Boys 27.7
A Girls 20.4
B Boys 14.4
B Girls 17.8
C 22.9
D Boys 29.3
D Girls .
E . .
F . .
G
32.0
36.6
23.1
24.4
H 20.9
I 21.2
J 18-3
K Boys 10.9
K Girls 19.8
Total 22.9
That the different units of city school systems are far from
being homogeneous in regard to the prevalence and seriousness
of retardation was clearly shown by the study conducted in New
York City in the spring of 1908 by the Backward Children In-
vestigation to which reference has been made. In that investiga-
tion a careful study was made of the school records of 19,328
RETARDATION IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS AND SCHOOLS
children in fifteen schools in Manhattan. Nearly 23 per cent
(22.9) of these children were above normal age for their grades.
However, the fifteen schools contributing to make up this total
were far from exhibiting the same percentages of retardation.
On the contrary, the group was far from homogeneous in this
respect. There was found a considerable individuality among
schools. The percentage of retarded children in each is shown
in Table 23.
Percentage of pupils above normal age is not in itself to
be accepted as a trustworthy criterion of school efficiency. The
widely varying conditions found in different sections of the city
preclude the possibility of saying with any degree of certainty
that because school A shows 30 per cent of retarded pupils as
compared with 20 per cent for school B, that the former is thereby
shown to be less efficient than the latter. When, however,
schools are situated together and draw their pupils from the same
social "and racial classes, comparison becomes possible. These
conditions are found in the cases of those schools where the boys
and girls are taught separately in different buildings and under
different principals. The schools where these conditions obtain
and the percentage of retarded children for each are as follows:
TABLE 24. — BOYS' AND GIRLS' SCHOOLS COMPARED.
Per cent
Above
School Normal Age
A Boys 27.7
A Girls 20.4
B Boys 14-4
B Girls / . . .17.8
D Boys 29 . 3
D Girls . 32.0
K Boys 10.9
K Girls ip-8
These comparisons are significant. It is noteworthy that
the differences are not due to the sex of the pupils, for the boys
make the better showing in three of the cases, while the girls do
better in the other case. The difference then must be in the
schools themselves. In the last case the comparison is particu-
larly striking, the girls' school showing almost twice as large
a percentage of retardation as does the boys' school. Similar
47
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
comparisons could doubtless be made with great advantage
between many schools in different cities.
From the data which have been discussed four conclusions
of value may be drawn :
1. Percentages showing the amount of retardation among
school children vary considerably according to the methods by
which they are gathered. Therefore, figures from different cities
are not comparable unless gathered by the same method.
2. There is a high variability between cities in respect to
the proportion of over-age children. Among the thirty-one
cities studied, Medford, Massachusetts, makes the best showing
with 7.5 per cent of the pupils in the above normal age class.
The colored pupils of Memphis make the poorest showing with
75.8 per cent above normal age. In the thirty-one cities taken
as a whole, 33.7 per cent of the children, or a trifle more than
one-third, are above normal age for their grades. These figures
probably represent with fair accuracy average conditions in city
school systems of this country.
3. There may be considerable variation between percent-
ages of retarded children in different schools of the same system.
In an investigation conducted in New York in fifteen schools,
in the one making the best showing only 10.9 per cent of the chil-
dren were retarded; in the one making the poorest showing
36.6 per cent were retarded.
4. Striking differences are sometimes found between schools
situated together and drawing their pupils from the same racial
and social classes. Under such conditions the per cent of retarded
children constitutes a trustworthy criterion of one important
phase of school efficiency. In the investigation in New York,
in some cases nearly twice as great a proportion of the children
were retarded as in neighboring schools where external conditions
were identical.
48
CHAPTER V
MORTALITY AND SURVIVAL IN THE
GRADES
A FACTORY is most efficient when it is being worked to its
full capacity. As rises or falls the relation of finished
product to raw materials, so rise or fall profits and divi-
dends. These principles of manufacturing economics are the
impelling forces that explain the vigilant care with which man-
agers and owners watch these variable features and the pains-
taking exactness with which they state them in the annual reports
of mercantile corporations.
In vivid contrast to this condition is the lack of definite infor-
mation available in the field of educational administration with re-
spect to the degree of efficiency in the use of our educational plants.
What proportion of the children who enter our schools
remain to complete the elementary course? Among all the ques-
tions in the field of school administration this is today one of the
most important. It is the question of the relation of the finished
product to the raw material. By common agreement educators,
law-makers and publicists have very generally come to hold,
either tacitly or expressedly, that the amount of education
furnished by our common school course is the minimum which may
be safely allowed to the future citizens of this democracy.
If then it be shown that our schools are generally and in
large measure falling short of supplying this minimum amount
of education; if it be shown that a large part of the pupils fall
out before completing the elementary course; this constitutes a
serious indictment of our public school system. Again, if we
can establish a method by which we can ascertain the proportion
of the children continuing until they reach the final grade in dif-
ferent systems, we shall have secured an important form of the
type of measure so much needed and so commonly lacking in
matters educational — that is, a standard of comparison.
If we are to answer the question for a given school system
4 49
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
"What proportion of the children who enter the first grade
continue to the eighth?" — our first step must obviously be to
discover how many enter the first grade.
This is the crux of the whole matter. The seeker after
truth who is not a close student of educational statistics will at
once inquire why we should not ascertain from the published
reports the number of beginners each year, and with this as a
basis proceed to calculate the percentage of survivors in the final
grade. Surely so obviously significant a figure as the one giving
the number of new children entering the school system each year
must be stated in the printed reports !
The answer is that the city superintendents who have
recognized the importance of this item and state it in their reports
can be counted on the thumbs of two hands. For all other cases
we must have recourse to computations. Many attempts at such
computations have been made; almost without exception they
have been more or less directly based on the membership of the
grades. For instance, the enrollment in the grades in Boston
on January 31, 1906, was as follows: '
TABLE 25. — ENROLLMENT BY GRADES. BOSTON, JANUARY 31, 1906.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 13,669
Second Grade 10,276
Third Grade 9,336
Fourth Grade 9,402
Fifth Grade 8,788
Sixth Grade 7>894
Seventh Grade 6,691
Eighth Grade . 5>321
Ninth Grade 4,4o8
If we reduce these figures to proportional figures on the basis
of 1000 children in the first grade, we shall have the following:
TABLE 26. — GRADES IN BOSTON. RELATIVE FIGURES.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 1,000
Second Grade 753
Third Grade 684
Fourth Grade 689
Fifth Grade 644
Sixth Grade S78
Seventh Grade 49°
Eighth Grade . - 39°
Ninth Grade 323
50
MORTALITY AND SURVIVAL IN THE GRADES
Here, as in almost all such tables, the characteristic feature is
that the number of children rapidly falls off with the advancing
grades. For each 1000 children in the first grade we find only
323 in the ninth. We know that many children leave school
before completing the elementary course, and so the obvious
and not uncommon interpretation of the figures is: For each
1000 children entering the first grade in Boston only 323 reach
the ninth grade. But this interpretation, while apparently
obvious, is entirely erroneous. The reason is, as has been pre-
viously pointed out, that the number of children in the first grade
is never the number of beginners. A first grade is made up of
some children who first entered school this year, plus some who
entered a year ago, plus some who entered two years ago, plus
some who entered even earlier. A similar state of affairs is found
in the second and third grades. The number beginning school,
then, is not the number in the first grade, but always a number
somewhat smaller.
How, then shall we ascertain the number of beginners? It
is not a matter of record in the printed reports of the schools;
nor can we, for reasons already indicated, infer it from the num-
ber of pupils in the grades. An extended study has led me to the
belief that we must seek an answer in the figures which record
the ages of the pupils in our schools. For instance, the pupils
enrolled in all the day schools of Medford, Massachusetts, on
September 30, 1907, were grouped by ages as follows:
TABLE 27. — AGE DISTRIBUTION IN MEDFORD, MASS., SEPTEMBER 30,
1907.
Age Pupils
Four years 146
Five years 330
Six years 35^,
Seven years 372~*
Eight years 374
Nine years 380
Ten years 4*7
Eleven years . . . . 377
Twelve years . . ...... 385^
Thirteen years . 359
Fourteen years . . . 275
Fifteen years . . . 188
Sixteen years . . 15 T
Seventeen years 72
Eighteen years 27
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
It needs but a glance at this table to see that the numbers
credited to the ages seven to thirteen inclusive are very similar in
size. The average of these numbers is 380, and the largest varia-
tion is 37 at the age of ten. From the age of seven years, when
children generally enter school, up to the age of thirteen years,
before which they do not leave, each age — or each generation, to
use the statistical designation of the persons born in a given year-
is substantially equal. However much the ages of the entering
pupils may vary — and we know they vary within a normal range
only — it is clear that the number who enter each year cannot on
the average exceed the number who become of school age each
year, and must in practice very closely approximate it. In other
words, the number of children beginning school each year is approxi-
mately equal to tbe average of the generations of the ages seven to
twelve in the school membership of the system. It is not necessary
to predicate for the essential truth of this conclusion that all the
children enter the public schools. Whether it be all the city's
population or only a large fraction of it which enters the public
schools, it is still true for this body of pupils that the average of the
groups at the ages seven to twelve among them is the best test
of the number who enter the schools annually.*
For the general rule we have taken, as in the illustration
for Medford, seven years as the lower age limit. Some chil-
dren may enter at eight or even later, but the number is so small
that it may be disregarded. It is substantially true everywhere
that all the children are in school by the age of seven.
As the upper limit we have taken the age of twelve years
* In our theoretical discussion of factors affecting grade distribution we called
attention to the fact that the generations seven to twelve were of different size.
In the present discussion substantial equality has been predicated for purely practi-
cal reasons. Ages are not reported either in the census or in the schools with
absolute exactness, and hence the measurement of small variations becomes im-
practicable. In the second place, there is no one age distribution which is typical
of all cities. The rule of equality is as fair to all as would be any other. Again,
if our knowledge of age conditions in the several cities were exact enough for us to
compute for each the relation in numbers between the seven-year-olds and the
twelve-year-olds, the difference in the case of the seven-year-olds would be slight.
We should expect the average to equal the number at the age of nine and the varia-
tions on either side of it would be only such as, at a maximum, three years could
produce. It is doubtful whether in any case it would exceed 5 or 6 per cent,
a variation which appears negligible in calculation which is of necessity merely
approximate.
MORTALITY AND SURVIVAL IN THE GRADES
rather than thirteen years as in the Medford illustration. Else-
where there is so frequently a considerable difference between
the ages twelve and thirteen as to suggest that quite a number
leave school at the latter age, and to make it unsafe to include
thirteen years in the calculation. There is no such falling off
at the age of twelve. Moreover, the disappearance of thirteen-
year-old children in the elementary schools may be due in some
measure to "elimination upwards" into the high school, — a
consideration of importance in those cities where we have age
figures for elementary schools only.
Earlier in this chapter it was stated that diligent study of
school reports had brought to light only two cities in which the
number of new pupils entering is stated. These two cities are
Somerville, Massachusetts, and Reading, Pennsylvania. They
offer us an opportunity to check the method with the known
facts in the case.
The report for Somerville for 1907 gives the membership
of the grades in December as follows :
TABLE 28. — GRADES IN SOMERVILLE, MASS., DECEMBER, 1907.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 1532
Second Grade 1384
Third Grade 1375
Fourth Grade 1337
Fifth Grade 1339
Sixth Grade 1201
Seventh Grade 1022^
Eighth Grade 831
Ninth Grade .. . 789
The number of beginners is stated as 1210. Obviously
this number could not be calculated from an inspection of the
grade memberships. It is far less than the number in the first
grade and less than the number in any grade up to the sixth.
The distribution by ages is not given in the Somerville report,
so we cannot proceed further. We are more fortunate in the case
of Reading.
In that city, in March, 1907, grades were as follows:
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 29. — GRADES IN READING, PA., MARCH, 1907.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 1814
Second Grade 1663
Third Grade 1841
Fourth Grade 1807
Fifth Grade 1636
Sixth Grade 979
Seventh Grade 677
Eighth Grade 491
The number of beginners is stated as 1434. Here again the
number of entering pupils is far less than the first grade, and
smaller than any grade up to the sixth. The average of the age
groups from seven to twelve is 1354, or 80 less than the number
stated as entering that year. That it should be less is not a matter
of surprise, for each succeeding age group will normally be a little
smaller than the preceding, and as the average age of an entering
class will usually not be over seven years, it is natural that the
average of the seven to twelve year group at a given time should
be slightly smaller than the number of beginners in the same
year.
On the other hand, our object is to secure a measure of the
number of entering pupils with which to compare our present
eighth grade pupils. The present eighth grade is largely made
up of children who entered school eight years ago. The number
of beginners then is in most cases smaller than the number of
beginners now, on account of the increase in population. There-
fore, the number we require is one somewhat smaller than the
present number of beginners. Our average of the seven to twelve
year groups is such a number.
It is not claimed for the proposed standard that it will give
an accurate measure of the number of beginners. What is claimed
for it is that it will never give a result far from the truth; that the
measure can be applied and understood by anyone; and that it
offers a safe basis for comparisons.
The next point to be considered is the results obtained by
applying the new standard to the available age and grade figures.
The results are as follows:
54
II
o
O
j t1-
ft o
o ^
ii
n
05 u
w u
03 Od
§s
z u
E"
H Q
§5
£ uo
^ w
C/3 U
O
03
IH POO O
O • CO Tf- CS N to t^
» H
«!
££
CS to ^ to PO M O *~>- O O C< <N Ol OO N t^O O to IO t^
oo | <g £a :
to u->O
O f^ o
t^O M OO
<N ^00 to
fO M rooO O
OsO i-1 -frOOOOO ^^0 OO corOO" "t N M "H
^H r^ r^» PO t~- to t-» m
'^W ^ Q\fOt^ VOO t^ ioO O O 00
„ QQ vo
10 M CO
»/» « ^fr
O O *^
- 0 t£ 0
-^0 rOO
O *^- *>-O rf roO OO W in vo M -^- to rO
t£ 0 ro t^OO ^t H 0 MO ON r)-0 0 00
rO<N fOOOOO i^O M N MO N CO
*>. tN. t^ O\ ^ *j^ *p- *>
1 1 n
ON O M pi PO 4 100 t>-OO O O M
UJ
Z
z
If
u. S
ft'*
o s
< P
8
g
W
cc
g§
l/J Z
O W
Is
Sa
m u
T Q
J ac
s<
Si
03 «*
S H
is
" ^
I w
H o-
00
0 5
^ 8
B
G
10 ro LO <N ON «>- CS -CO • ON fO 10 ro 'st'O rOOO ON <r> r}-
°2.
-3- w ro (N M
OO CO *O vn
O n O ^O (^
CNQOO OON
<N 00 CO ON ON ON
O^OWMOJCSCStNrO
CNICNONOMinONtNON-tOtNI-ICN VOOO 00 O M VO Tf
t^OO *>• Tt- ONO <N ro XO
M M Ttt^-u-jrfM ON t^O ON
r<> M O W OO ON ONO -^ t^OO
CNM MM(N(N
oooor-
O t"~ t^.vO
oooo
ONONO~-ON
OO^-ON ^Ooo moo t^. M
t^~ rooo t^> 10 r>. Tf- f-~ r>-\O O ^O
oooooooooooo
ONCNC>CNCNONCNON
•tf 111 "
")p:i
"
c e
• i «
^ ^ I ' ^^ voOOOmw}»rOPO>-<OcO^» • • ro ' O
M >•• 4 | Qs^ t^** -t^* OJ t^-O O* O ' O\ O ^ C*^ *-O ^ » "rt" M to TJ* ^
* -S- | ^H.H^^^C^.^HW^O.. .«0^
o
J^ . . ( co O ^t" i— < M w d O *-O * C^CO N O ^OOC ' O ^O O ^ O
a :::::%:::::: ^ :::::::: {^
QQ PO fT> «N| M CO ON t^NO NO IO CN) M Tt ONOC *>• • NO NO t^NO M
w **
Q
«j* NO co O M toNO to CM NO O O O> ON tooO cs ON^O r}~NO ON
2j O I °0 00 t^CC t^-CC to t^OO O t»vO r^O NO NO ro (N to
O
t^*NO MOO ^O ^J" M OO CM t^* CM M OO 't O ON CM ONOO ^O NO
10 oO O O O CO O 00 CNI O O ON O O OO ON O *O t^* r^»oO to O
ft
<
ONOO O O Tf r^NO •^-toONONrOCNMtOMO-^t^MfO O
S
pq Q^ ro w 10 O O^ ^O OO O^ O ^* CS t^* »-« 0s* W rt" PO t>* to GO
W *°
1— ( CM CO CM t^NO to ON fOO Ot^-CN|toONOOOOCOCMrJ-rO **»
^roo r-o r>* O^oO CM HT ^ M t>>. o toNO ^~ M vo NO CO tooO
M ONM O rOfOM toONtoO 'tOOCOO CNI toO tOt^-"
<S -E CN <N Tj- to O ON t^- '
fe|
ss
J
CiD LL] LzJ — — k w CiJ ^ *" — *" — *" ^ W W HH
r>- TJ- r-^oo ^t f- T"!*1^ I II
CO CO ^O ^^ rONO t^ t^ t^ rOOO VO OO NO NO O M to 1>.NO OO
OOOOOOOQOOOOOOOOOO
/oT ' '
13 »2 "3 c § .y* fl ° ^ S ^ S § '
IONO r>-oo' CJN O* M CM' ro "j- toNC t^CO ON O M M
^.'^.^.^.^.{^trjvou^u-jiototou-) to NO vO ^O
57
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
In the preceding table it will be noted that six of the cities
are marked with a star (*). This indicates in each case that
the average of the age groups seven to twelve was found by the
use of relative figures. This has been necessary because age
statistics and figures showing the membership in the several
grades are taken in these cities on a separate basis and it has been
necessary to equalize them. In all the other cases the original
data are used. In the column headed "Basis" will be found in
some cases the letters E. G. D., in others T. E., and in some others
A. E. The first set of initials indicates enrollment at a given date;
the second, total enrollment; and third, average enrollment.
The cities are ranked in the table according to the per cent
of the beginning pupils found in the final elementary grade.
If the figures for any given city are studied it will be noted that
the membership in any one of the lower grades is considerably
more than 100 per cent of the annual number of beginners. This,
as we have seen, is because the lower grades are in large measure
made up of children who do not advance as they should. The
stream of children progressing through the grades is dammed
so that these grades are abnormally swollen. The upper grades,
we find, have in them less than 100 per cent of the annual number
of beginners, chiefly because many children are retarded in the
lower grades. At the end of the compulsory age period they
find themselves still far from graduation. They are humiliated
and discouraged by their lack of success and find the work of the
grades they are in most distasteful. As the law no longer com-
pels attendance they drop out. These two forces, the slow prog-
ress of the children in the lower grades and the dropping out
of over-age pupils in the upper ones, account for the figures show-
ing that, as a rule, each lower grade holds far more than 100 per
cent of the annual number of beginners, and each upper grade,
far less than 100 per cent.
The median figures at the foot of the table show the general
tendency of American city school systems. The membership
of the first grade is 1 73 per cent of the annual number of beginners.
In other words, in the typical first grade, for every fpur beginners
there are three other children who are repeating the work of the
grade. The second, third, fourth and fifth grades all contain
58
MORTALITY AND SURVIVAL IN THE GRADES
considerable proportions of repeaters. The sixth is the first
grade showing any dropping out of pupils. By this grade 10
per cent have left. The seventh grade shows such a decided
falling off that only 71 per cent are left. By the time the eighth
grade is reached practically one-half of the pupils have dropped
out. Cities having nine grades make a somewhat better showing.
In studying these figures it must be remembered that they
do not show with absolute accuracy the percentage of entering
pupils who remain to any given grade. Even if the membership
of a grade is greater than the annual number of beginners, this
does not prove that a few may not have already dropped out.
A few — a very few — may have done so. In the same way it is
possible that a few pupils are repeating in the upper grades where
the membership is smaller than the number of beginners.
It is certain, however, that these exceptions are few in
number and unimportant in their influence on the results. The
figures in the table may be trusted as disclosing existing conditions
with close approximation to the truth. In general terms it is
true that no pupils drop out of school in the grades showing more
than 100 per cent of the number of beginners. This is proved
by the fact that in those cities where we have statistics showing
the number of repeaters in each grade, we find that there are
very few in the upper grades and practically none in the high
schools. The fact of the matter is that a child who has passed
the upper limit of the compulsory age period and fails does not
remain to repeat the work of the grade, but simply drops out.
In the grades where the membership is less than 100 per cent
of the number of beginners the per cent given is approximately
the per cent of entering pupils who reach that point.
The general tendency of city school systems is to keep
all of the children to the fifth grade, to drop half of them by the
time the eighth grade is reached and to carry one in ten to the
fourth year of the high school. Diagram XII shows graphically
this general tendency.
One fact disclosed by this diagram, which will come as a
surprise to many, is that the drop between the final grammar
grade and the first year of the high school is less than is that
59
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
between the two last years of the grammar course or the first
two of the high school course.
There is a surprising variability among cities both in the
amount of elimination and in the degree to which the lower
grades are over-crowded. Of every ten children who start in the
schools of Quincy, Massachusetts, as many as eight reach the
eighth grade while two drop out. Of every ten who start in
GRADES
HIGH SCHOOL
40
30
20
10
Last
7 Gram- I II HI IV
mar
Diagram XII. — Showing general tendency of elimination in city school systems.
Camden, New Jersey, eight drop out before completing the
elementary grades.
In Medford, Massachusetts, there is so little retardation in
the lower grades that we find in the first grade only 1 22 per cent
of the annual number of beginners. In Camden the retardation
is so great that the first grade contains nearly two and a half
times as many children as the annual number of entering children.
60
MORTALITY AND SURVIVAL IN THE GRADES
CAMDEN
1
122 109 104 117 114
8
248 155 147 131 88 56 32 17
MEDFORD
1
z
3 ,
D
O
7
•
93 86
Diagram XIII. — Retardation and elimination. Conditions compared in Camden
and Medford.
61
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
The contrast between conditions in these two cities is shown
in Diagram XIII, in which the upright columns are pro-
portionate to the membership of the grades as compared with
the number of beginners. In each case the dotted line shows
how high the columns would be if there were no retarded pupils
repeating the work of the grades, and if no pupils dropped out.
In Camden the number of pupils in the lower grades is seen
to be abnormally swollen, and the number of survivors in the
eighth grade is painfully small. In Medford the number of
repeaters is very small and the proportion of pupils reaching the
eighth is very large. This great variability, so well illustrated
in the cases of these two cities, is one of the most hopeful features
of the whole problem of retardation and elimination, for what
has been attained by some cities cannot be considered entirely
out of reach of others.
TABLE 31. — SHOWING GRADES IN WHICH CHILDREN BEGIN TO
LEAVE SCHOOL IN LARGE NUMBERS IN DIFFERENT CITIES.
Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade
Baltimore Chicago Boston
Camden Cincinnati Decatur
Erie Cleveland Denver
Memphis Columbus Fort Wayne
Newark, N. J. Dayton Grand Rapids
New Orleans Hoboken Kingston
Passaic Jersey City Los Angeles
Trenton Kansas City . Maiden
Wilmington Louisville Medford
Newark, O. Meriden
New Brunswick Minneapolis
Newport New Haven
New York Newton
Paterson Omaha
Philadelphia^ Portland, Me.
Reading Portland, Ore.
Richmond Somerville, Mass.
St. Louis Springfield, Mass.
Utica Springfield, Ohio
Wheeling Troy
Williamsport Wilmington
Woonsocket York
Not only do cities vary in the amount of elimination, but
they differ as to the point where the children begin to drop out
62
MORTALITY AND SURVIVAL IN THE GRADES
of school. Quincy and Haverhill begin to lose their children
in large numbers in the eighth grade. The colored children of
Memphis and New Orleans show a considerable falling out at the
fourth grade. Between these two extremes lie all the other cases.
The cities recording loss of pupils in considerable numbers in the
fifth, sixth and seventh grades are shown in Table 31.
The city of Quincy, Massachusetts, in carrying eighty-two
children to the eighth grade out of each hundred who enter,
takes to the end of the course nearly five times as many pupils
as does Camden with its record of seventeen. Great as this
variability is, however, it is not so marked as that disclosed when
we compare the records of the different cities in respect to the
proportion of pupils they carry to the fourth year of the high
school.
We have already noted that the general tendency is to
carry one in ten through the entire course. This record is greatly
surpassed by a few cities. Table 32 shows the accomplishment
in this regard of fifty-one cities.
The figures showing retention in the high school classes
are not to be so fully trusted as are those for the grades, because
pupils now in the high schools started some years ago and therefore
to find the number of beginners the computations should in strict
fairness be based on age figures of some years back. Moreover,
in some cases computations have been necessary in order to put
the figures for high school membership on the same basis as those
for grade membership. However, the methods employed are as
fair to one city as they are to another, and in any event the possi-
ble error is relatively small.
It is a matter for serious reflection that out of fifty-one
cities no fewer than eleven carry 5 per cent or less of their children
through the high school course, while eight others carry from
20 to 38 per cent through. The achievements of these latter
cities show that a high measure of success in giving high school
educations to a large percentage of all of the children is possible
through means which already exist. It would seem that the
methods employed by the cities at the head of the list might well
be studied by the authorities of those near the foot.
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 32. — SHOWING THE PERCENTAGE OF PUPILS RETAINED TO
THE FOURTH YEAR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL IN FIFTY-ONE CITIES.
Per cent
City Retained
1. Newton, Mass. 38
2. Waltham, Mass 29
3. Aurora, 111. . . . . . . . . . . .25
4. Newark, O. ........... 25
5. Decatur, 111 24
6. Haverhill, Mass 24
7. Fitchburg, Mass. 23
8. Kansas City, Mo 22
9. Somerville, Mass 22
10. Maiden, Mass. 19
11. Quincy, Mass 18
12. Kingston, N. Y 16
13. New Brunswick, N. J 16
14. Portland, Me 16
15. Dayton, Ohio 15
1 6. Columbus, Ohio 15
17. Minneapolis, Minn. 15
18. New Haven, Conn 15
19. Denver, Colo 14
20. Medford, Mass 14
21. Omaha, Neb 13
22. Newport, R. I. . . 12
23. Grand Rapids, Mich. n
24. Springfield, Mass 11
25. Woonsocket, R. I . n
26. Cleveland, Ohio 10
27. Trenton, N. J 10
28. Utica, N. Y 10
29. Williamsport, Pa 10
30. York, Pa 10
31. Los Angeles, Cal 9
32. Meriden, Conn 9
33. Salt Lake City, Utah 9
34. Fort Wayne, Ind 8
35. Louisville, Ky. (white) 7
36. Springfield, Ohio 7
37. Baltimore, Md. . . . . . . . . . 6
38. Boston, Mass 6
39. Passaic, N. J . . . 6
40. St. Louis, Mo 6
41. Chicago, 111 5
42. Cincinnati, Ohio 5
43. Paterson, N. J 5
44. Reading, Pa 5
45. Hoboken, N. J 4
46. Camden, N. J. 3
47. Jersey City, N. J 3
48. Newark, N. J 3
49. New York, N. Y 3
50. Philadelphia, Pa 3
51. Wheeling, W. Va 3
64
MORTALITY AND SURVIVAL IN THE GRADES
In this study of elimination several points have been specially
emphasized. Without making any attempt to comment on their
educational significance it seems worth while to summarize them :
1. The general tendency of American city school systems
is to carry all of the children through the fifth grade, half of them
to the final elementary grade, and one in ten to the final year of
the high school.
2. So far as leaving school is concerned, there is less of a
gap between the final elementary grade and the first year of the
high school than there is between the two last years of the gram-
mar course or the first two high school grades.
3. There is a great variability between cities both in the
amount of elimination and the point where it begins. There
is an even greater variability in respect to retention of pupils
through the high school.
In regard to the method by which the results are computed
it must be remembered that no claim is made that it is accurate.
It does not take the place of statistics showing the annual number
of beginners, nor does it render such figures unnecessary. The
method constitutes a substantially reliable measure for ascertain-
ing certain most significant and necessary facts. It is simple
and may be applied by anyone. It is offered with full compre-
hension of its limitations, but in the belief in its value for purposes
of information and comparison.
CHAPTER VI
THE ELIMINATION STUDY OF THE BUREAU OF
EDUCATION
THE results presented in the preceding chapter showing
local results and general tendencies of the elimination of
pupils from school are so widely at variance with those
which have been officially published by the United States Bureau
of Education as to require that the untrustworthy character of
the official reports be established if the new figures presented in
this volume are to be accepted.
Up to the present time the most important document
in the literature bearing on this subject is a monograph entitled
" Elimination of Pupils from School/' written by Prof. Edward
L. Thorndike of Teachers College, Columbia University, and
published by the United States Bureau of Education. This
publication presented results purporting to show the percentage
of children continuing to the several grades in a number of the
larger cities of the country. Its appearance was greeted by wide-
spread newspaper comment, by many editorials dealing with
the shocking degree of inefficiency in our school systems appar-
ently disclosed, and by a storm of discontent and criticism on
the part of superintendents who denied the truth of the figures
presented.
Among the twenty-three cities for which final results were
given in that publication, seventeen appear also in the table
already presented (pages 55 to 57). Comparison between the two
sets of results follows; the figures for the new standard being
here given with one decimal place instead of in whole percentages
as in Chapter V.
66
THE ELIMINATION STUDY OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION
TABLE 33. — PER CENT OF PUPILS ENTERING SCHOOL WHO CONTINUE
TO THE FINAL ELEMENTARY GRADE IN SIXTEEN CITIES.
(Thorndike and New Standards compared.)
City Thorndike ~tNe™ ,
* Standard
Baltimore vi4-4 29.3
Boston 47-° 59-3
Chicago 35.0 52.3
Cleveland 33.1 47.6
Denver 44.0 68.8 -
Jersey City 26.4 44.7
Kansas City "^49-4 67.4
Los Angeles . . . . . • 45-1 49-7
Minneapolis 32.0 62.4
Newark 25.0 28.0
New York 33.7 42.6
Paterson 19.4 36.1
St. Louis (white) 21.0 42.3
Springfield, Mass 38.5 56.6
Trenton 30.6 38.0
Wilmington 39.0 65.0
Lowest 14.4 28.0
Highest 49.4 68.8
Median 33.3 48.6
Average 33.3 49-3
Dr. Thorndike also gives a further series of results of which
he says that it has not been possible to work them out with as
complete precautions as in the case of those in the main body
of the report, but that they are probably accurate within from
2 to 8 per cent. Comparisons follow:
TABLE 34. — COMPARISON AS IN TABLE 33, FOR EIGHT CITIES.
Cincinnati . . • 25.0 41.3
Dayton 38.0 45.8
Medford 69.0 72.2
New Orleans 20.0 20.6
Philadelphia 18.0 32.4
Portland, Me 47.0 54.7
Salt Lake City 44.0 44.9
Springfield, 0 46.0 59.4
Lowest 18.0 20.6
Highest 69.0 72.2
Median 41.0 45.4
Average 38.3 46.4
In view of the astonishing differences between the results
announced by Dr. Thorndike and those obtained by the applica-
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
tion of the new standard, the question that immediately arises
is, "How did Dr. Thorndike obtain his results?" This is a
question much more easily asked than answered. In only a
few places does he tell us how he obtained his estimate of the
number of beginning pupils, and nowhere does he disclose speci-
fically how his further percentages were computed. A careful
study of his monograph makes it evident that he has taken as a
starting point the average of the number of pupils found in grades
i, 2 and 3. This he has compared with the numbers found in
other grades, modifying the results by an elaborate system of
"corrections" concerning which we are left in the dark, save
for the remark, "It would be unprofitable to anyone except the
critical student of statistical problems for me to rehearse the
details of this tedious process of corrections." Dr. Thorndike
does, however, reveal in a few cases the process used for estimating
the number of beginners. He says, "The main difficulty is in
inferring from the number in grades i , 2 and 3 the number begin-
ning school in the course of a year. My correction for this is
arbitrary. I have simply made the estimate of the number
of pupils beginning school for any city, which seemed most likely
in view of the comparative sizes of the populations of grades
i, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and of whatever other relevant information I
possessed concerning the city.
" For instance, in Baltimore, * * * * I have, in
view of other known facts about the city, taken the population
of grade 2 as a measure of the number of pupils beginning school.
In Denver, New Haven, St. Louis, Waterbury and Worcester
I have judged that the 1+g+3 figure was a correct representa-
tion of the number of pupils beginning school annually. In
Trenton, where the first grade population is over twice the second
in size, but the third practically equal to the second * * * *
I have taken a figure about 3 per cent larger than the second
grade population as the correct representation of the number
of pupils beginning school."
Here, then, we have definite statements as to the measure
adopted as representing the number of pupils beginning school.
Where he has disclosed his method Dr. Thorndike states that
he has assumed the number of beginning pupils to be as follows :
68
THE ELIMINATION STUDY OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION
Baltimore, number of pupils in grade 2; Denver, average of grades
i, 2 and 3; New Haven, average of grades i, 2 and 3; St. Louis,
average of grades i, 2 and 3; Trenton, 103 per cent of the number
of pupils in grade 2; Waterbury, average of grades i, 2 and 3;
Worcester, average of grades i, 2 and 3.
Among the seven cities in which we are permitted to know
the method employed by Dr. Thorndike to discover the number
of beginners, it is impossible to secure age figures in the cases
of three. In the other cases they are available and we can com-
pare the results by Dr. Thorndike's method with those of our
new standard. In each case the most recent printed report
available is used, no attempt being made to average figures for
a series of years :
TABLE 35. — NUMBER OF BEGINNERS IN FOUR CITIES.
City
Report
Used
Dr. Thorndike's
Method
By New
Standard
Baltimore
1906-7
12,002
7,586
Denver ....
1906-7
4,199
3,062
St. Louis
1906-7
9,367
7,413
Trenton
1903-4
1,248
i,039
In the above table the figure given for the new standard
in the case of St. Louis is the result of finding the average of the
age groups seven to twelve by use of the relative figures. This
was necessary because, since membership in the several grades in
St. Louis and age statistics are taken on different bases, it has
been necessary to equalize them. In all other cases the original
data are used.
Now, the significance of the comparative results in the
above table is that Dr. Thorndike always gets as the number of
beginners an impossibly large number. If he has done so in the
cases of other cities it is plain that the entering classes have been
estimated at too high a figure. The percentages of pupils con-
tinuing to the higher grades are then always too low before the
"corrections" are applied. We have reason to believe that the
"corrections" improve matters little in this respect.
69
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
The fundamental error in Dr. Thorndike's work seems to
be that he has based his estimates of the number of beginners on
the grade figures. In doing so he has been too largely influenced
by the figures for the average of the first three grades. I am
fully convinced that the number of beginners will always be less
than tne number in either the second or third grade, and that
it will never be as large as the average of the first three grades.
If this is the case the raw material used to get his first results
will invariably give Dr. Thorndike too large a divisor and as a
result his quotients will always be too small. This is the under-
lying error of logic in the work, and there is no reason why we
should assume that it has been corrected by some undiscovered
system of corrections too subtle and intricate for comprehension
by the ordinary mind.
This fundamental error in Dr. Thorndike's work not only
gives him untrustworthy results for individual cities, but vitiates
his general conclusions in regard to the tendencies of elimination.
The difference between his conclusions as to the general tendency
and those expressed in the preceding chapter as a result of the
method there explained is graphically shown in Diagram XIV, in
which the dotted line represents Dr. Thorndike's conclusions
and the solid line those of the author.
Dr. Thorndike claims that elimination begins from the
very first grade and continues throughout the course; the author
is convinced that there is abundant evidence that the general
tendency of our schools is to hold practically all of the pupils
to the sixth grade.
Dr. Thorndike concludes that only about one-third of
the pupils entering school graduate from an elementary school
of seven grades or more. Our investigations show that the propor-
tion is more nearly one-half.
We agree that less than one pupil in ten ever graduates from
the high school.
After studying conditions in a number of cities of 25,000
population and over, Dr. Thorndike concludes that the con-
ditions disclosed are probably much better than they are in the
country as a whole. It would appear that this conclusion is
based on the general principle that information gathered from
70
THE ELIMINATION STUDY OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION
printed municipal reports is liable to the constant error of pre-
senting conditions which are better than typical conditions.
This is usually true because only the progressive town or city
publishes its reports.
In the case in point this conclusion seems not to be justified.
In the cases studied it is true to a remarkable degree that the
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
GRADES
HIGH SCHOOL
Last
7 Gram- I
mar
HI IV
Last
7 Gram-
mar
II III IV
Diagram XIV. — General tendency of elimination as stated by Dr. Thorn-
dike represented by dotted line, contrasted with results presented by the author
represented by solid line.
large cities make poor records in respect to elimination. The
best records are made by comparatively small places.
The idea that small towns, villages and small cities make
better records in respect to retention of children in school than
do large cities is confirmed by figures published in the report
of the Commissioner of Education for 1907 giving the aggregate
grade distributions in 386 cities of 8,000 population and over,
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
and in 366 towns and villages of less than 8,000 population.
It seems probable in each case that the membership of the fifth
grade is not far from equalling the annual number of beginners.
Converting the two grade distributions into relative figures on
the basis of 1000 children in the fifth grade, we have the follow-
ing comparison :
TABLE 36. — SHOWING IN RELATIVE FIGURES GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
IN CITIES AND VILLAGES ON THE BASIS OF IOOO PUPILS
IN THE FIFTH GRADE.
Grade 386 Cities 366 Villages
First Grade 1809 1748
Second Grade I3°9 1262
Third Grade 1254 1208 •
Fourth Grade 1158 IJ37
Fifth Grade 1000 1000
Sixth Grade 837 851
Seventh Grade 667 720
Eighth Grade 477 553
It will be noted that in each of the lower grades the member-
ship in the cities is more swollen than in the villages. In each
of the upper grades the pupils are retained better by the villages
than by the cities. In view of this evidence coupled with that
gained from a study of conditions in the individual localities, the
conclusion seems justified that as a rule small cities and villages
retain their pupils better and have less retardation in their schools
than do larger cities.
CHAPTER VII
RATES OF PROGRESS
THAT those who occupy their minds and their pens with
the problem of the backward child forget that many
pupils pass through our schools in less than the normal
number of years, is a contention that is put forth with great fre-
quency and some show of reason. Children "skip grades," are
given "double promotions," and complete the elementary course
in one or more years less than the time assigned by the course of
study. ~ It has frequently been argued that our school systems
are well calculated to meet the needs of the average child, and
that it is neither a cause for surprise nor alarm that some children
complete the work in less than the normal time while others
take a year or two more. The slow children — claim those who
argue thus — are counterbalanced by the bright ones, and there-
fore the problem by no means merits the attention which is being
given to it.
Little thought is needed to convince the student of this
problem that no such counterbalancing effect is possible in the
sense in which the term is here used. Even if some children do
make more than normal progress, the fact does not do away
with the necessity for considering most carefully the welfare
of the slow ones. But this is not the crucial point in the argu-
ments mentioned. The important thing to discover is whether
it is true that our school systems have on the whole been so planned
that they fit the abilities of the average child. Do most of the
children succeed in keeping up with their classes and graduating
from the eighth grade in eight years?
We know that the answer to this last question must be a
negative one, for a large part of the children never succeed in
graduating from the final grammar grade at all.
73
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
STATISTICS OF NORMAL, SLOW AND RAPID PROGRESS
/The question of how nearly our courses of study correspond
to the abilities of the average child is more difficult to answer.
Information that would help us to decide this point is rare in the
printed reports. Three cities publish tables showing how many
pupils in each grade are doing the work of the year for the second
time. That is, they show by grades the number of repeaters.
These cities are Kansas City, Missouri, Springfield, Ohio, and
Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
TABLE 37. — NUMBER OF PUPILS MORE THAN ONE YEAR IN THE
SAME GRADE IN THREE CITIES.
KANSAS CITY
SPRINGFIELD
WILLIAMSPORT
GRADE
Enrollment
Repeating
Enrollment
Repeating
Enrollment
Repeating
1
7773
1232
796
220
808
1 66
2
4278
59°
771
127
610
70
3
4248
841
806
128
624
85
4
4085
1077
706
112
734
105
5
3294
932-
672
85
640
91
6
2677
661
563
71
5°7
ss
7
2154
329
454
!3
420
36
8
346
9
306
J7
9
••
•-
-•
246
i5
Total
28509
5662
5IJ4
765
4895
643
In the case of Kansas City the enrollment by grades is the
total enrollment for the year. In the two other cases it is the
enrollment at the end of the year. The figures giving the num-
ber of repeaters reduced to percentages of the grade enroll-
ment are given in Table 38.
The figures show that conditions vary considerably in these
cities. In Springfield and Williamsport the percentage of repeaters
in the first grade is decidedly higher than in the second and it
continues to decrease as the upper grades are reached. Ln Kansas
City, on the other hand, the most difficult grade appears to be the
74
RATES OF PROGRESS
TABLE 38. — PER CENT OF PUPILS REPEATING WORK OF GRADES IN
THREE CITIES.
Grade
Kansas City
Springfield
Williamsport
First Grade .
15-8
27.6
20.5-
Second Grade
13.8
16.5
"•5
Third Grade
19.8
15-9
13-6
Fourth Grade
26.4
!5-9
14-3
Fifth Grade .
28.3
12.6
14.2
Sixth Grade .
24.7
12.6
11.4
Seventh Grade
15-3
2.9
8.6
Eighth Grade
2.6
5-6
Ninth Grade
•-
6.1
Total ....
19.8
14.9
J3-1
fifth. These characteristic differences are shown in the following
diagram:
GRADES
PER
CENT
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
123456789
Diagram XV. — Per cent of pupils repeating work of grades. Springfield, O., solid
line; Kansas City, Mo., dotted line; Williamsport, Pa., dashed line.
Information concerning progress more rapid than normal L
is almost as rare as is that telling of slow progress. Five cities
75
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
—New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Somerville, Massa-
chusetts, and Springfield, Ohio — publish tables showing the num-
ber of "double promotions" or "special promotions."
TABLE 39. — TOTAL PROMOTIONS AND SPECIAL PROMOTIONS IN FIVE
CITIES.
City
Total
Promotions
Special
Promotions
Per cent of
Special
Promotions
New York, 1908
969,998
42,692
2-5
Philadelphia, 1908 .
122,644
2,406
1.9
Salt Lake City, 1907
21,259
242
i.i
Somerville, Mass., 1907 .
9>I25
*54
1.6
Springfield, O., 1907
4,755
7
.1
It is evident that in these school systems the pupils may be
divided into three general classes as regards progress. First,
those who receive regular promotion at the end of the term.
These are the children who are making normal progress and they
constitute the great bulk of the entire membership. Then come
the children who fail of promotion. They are the ones who
make slow progress. The last group is composed of those who
receive special and double promotions. They are the children
who are making rapid progress. The following table shows
the size of each of these groups in the five cities :
TABLE 40. — SLOW AND RAPID PUPILS COMPARED IN FIVE CITIES.
On
Not Pro-
Special
A
City
Promotion
Promotions
moted
Promotions
Divided
List
A
B
by B
New York, 1908 . .
1,178,633
927,306
208,635
42,692
5-9
Philadelphia, 1908 .
148,812
120,238
26,168
2,406
n.8
Salt Lake City, 1907 .
24,760
21,017
3>5°i
242
14.4
Somerville, Mass., 1907
10,165
8,971
1,040
154
7.0
Springfield, O., 1907 .
5>6l4
4,748
859
7
124.1
The large number on the promotion list in New York is ex-
plained by the fact that the system of semi-annual promotions
is in use in that city. Thus the number on the promotion list
RATES OF PROGRESS
during the year is approximately twice the number of children
enrolled.
The figures in the last column show us that the pupils who
are making slow progress are from six to fourteen times as numer-
ous as are those who are making rapid progress, save in the
exceptional case of Springfield, Ohio. In this latter city special
promotions are so exceedingly rare that the slow pupils are more
than 124 times as numerous as the rapid ones.
When the same data are reduced to relative figures, taking
as a base in each case 1000 children on the promotion list, we have
a new table which enables us to note in each city the relative sizes
of the groups made up of the normal children, the rapid children
and the slow ones, and compare the number of children making
rapid with those making slow progress.
TABLE 41. — PUPILS MAKING SLOW, NORMAL AND RAPID PROGRESS
COMPARED IN FIVE CITIES.
City
On Pro-
motion
Promotions
Not Pro-
moted
Special
Promotions
List
New York, 1908 .
IOOO
751
213
36
Philadelphia, 1908
IOOO
807
176
17
Salt Lake City, 1907 .
IOOO
843
147
10
Somerville, 1907 ....
IOOO
877
108
15
Springfield, 1907 ....
IOOO
844
155
i
If we read the figures as percentages, we see that the pro-
portion of children regularly promoted varies from 75 per cent
in New York to more than 87 per cent in Somerville. Those
failing of promotion, or those making slow progress, vary from
10 per cent in Somerville to 21 per cent in New York. Those
receiving special promotion — who are the children making
rapid progress — vary from i per cent in Salt Lake City to more
than 3 per cent in New York. If we leave out the exceptional
case of Springfield we shall find that on the average in these cities
the children making slow progress are eight and one-fourth times
as numerous as are those making rapid progress.
77
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
RATES OF PROGRESS AMONG 9489 NEW YORK SCHOOL CHILDREN
Among the 20,000 children whose records were studied
in the investigation conducted in New York City, to which refer-
ence has been made, there were 9,489 whose records were complete.
These children were divided into two groups on the basis of age
in grade. All children in the first grade were considered as of
normal age if they were less than nine years old. Those above
that age were considered as above normal age. Ten years was
the limit for the second grade, eleven for the third, and so on.
On this basis it was found that nearly 16 per cent of the children
were above normal age for their grades.
It is evident that children entering the first grade for the
first time at any age beyond eight years will of necessity be
counted as above normal age and fall into the class "retarded,"
even if they progress normally at each regular time of promo-
tion. By applying these standards of normal time and normal
age for entering, it was possible to discover for each grade how
many pupils were above normal age, how many of these were
above normal age on account of late entrance, how many on
account of slow progress, and the number who fell into the group
as a result of the combined influences of starting late and pro-
gressing slowly. As a result we have the following table:
TABLE 42. — CAUSES OF RETARDATION, BY GRADES, OF 9489 PUPILS
IN NEW YORK CITY.
Grade
Member-
ship
Above Nor-
mal Age
Above Nor-
mal Age be-
cause of Late
Entrance
Above Nor-
mal Age be-
cause of Late
Entrance and
Slow Progress
Above Nor-
mal Age be-
cause of Slou<
Progress only
1
2377
153
IOO
22
3i
2
1710
219
91
29
99
3
1393
267
61
40
1 66
4
1032
189
63
26
IOO
5
949
257
5i
31
J75
6
786
213
5°
24
139
7
719
117
22
14
81
8
523
79
19
7
53
Total .
9489
1494
457
193
844
78
RATES OF PROGRESS
Converting our totals into relative figures, the table enables
us to draw these significant conclusions:
Of each 100 retarded children
30 are retarded because of late entrance;
13 are retarded because of late entrance and slow progress;
57 are retarded because of slow progress.
It must be remembered that the standard by which we decide
how many children are above normal age has been deliberately
chosen with a view to putting in that class only the extreme
cases. Many children take much more than the normal time to
complete their grades, and yet on account of the early age at
which they start they avoid falling into the over-age group.
Again, others progress more rapidly than the rate planned for
them by the course of study. The time in school of the 9489 is
given by whole grades in the following table:
TABLE 43. — TIME IN SCHOOL, BY GRADES, OF 9489 PUPILS IN NEW
YORK CITY.
YEA
RS IIS
r SCE
[OOL
5
£
«o
w
Grade
JU
?!
3
1
N
\
H
K
r
M
1
I
1
10
vO
uo
1
I
1
°P
t^
1
f
00
0
1
o
M
\
ON
0
&
M
I
1
M
M
\
M
M
Total
1
1084.
u8<
88
IQ
I
2377
2
r e 7
20
1710
3
4
5
6
7
8
^o
OJ/
33
371
53
^6
659
388
3°
i
256
428
206
23
65
137
390
135
S°6
8
23
218
387
176
26
2
76
I63
276
151
i
i
24
57
142
,220
5
17
5£
96
3
ii
22
I
2
1393
1032
949
786
719
523
Total
1107
1775
1416
1290
95i
787
838
668
445
173
36
3
9489
Looking at the figures for the first grade, we see that one
pupil has been in school more than four years without having
entered the second grade. In the third grade we note that one
pupil is in his ninth year of school life. The pupils who have been
in school more than eight years without reaching the eighth grade
79
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
number 317. We also note that in each grade after the first some
pupils have done the work more quickly than the regular rate.
But it is not possible to discover from this table the true extent
of normal progress, of progress more rapid than normal, and
of that less rapid than normal. To show this, a table has been
made up from the data obtained for each half grade. To render
it more compact this table has been condensed so as to give the
facts by whole grades and terms. A term is half of a school year.
TABLE 44. — EXTENT OF SLOW, NORMAL AND RAPID PROGRESS
AMONG 9489 PUPILS IN NEW YORK CITY.
TERMS LESS
THAN NORMAL
TERMS MORE THAN NORMAL
Grade
Normal
Total
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
7
1886
366
8g
9
i5
4
i
2377
2
46
994
376
203
56
20
ii
4
1710
3
i5
38
66 1
294
i85
112
49
27
8
3
i
J393
4
32
105
457
214
118
70
20
12
2
i
i
1032
5
13
83
358
169
148
99
64
28
16
10
5
i
949
6
5
13
32
293
161
in
83
39
23
16
6
4
786
7
6
6
24
42
259
136
IO2
64
40
23
ii
4
2
719
8
4
9
14
38
232
86
55
5°
22
II
i
I
523
Total
10
20
in
346
5J4°
1802
IOII
543
269
J39
57
26
13
i
i
9489
The figures giving the same facts in aggregate, not showing
the degree less than and more than normal, are to be found in
Tables 45 and 46 — in the first in actual figures, in the second in
relative figures on the basis of 1000 children in each grade.
The conditions disclosed by these figures are significant.
There are in these schools children who have spent as much as
eight, nine, or even ten terms more than they normally should
have to reach the grades they are in. The numbers who have
spent two, three, or four terms too much are large. Nor must
we conclude that such wide variations are found merely because
we have here aggregate figures for a number of schools. An
examination of the original records for the separate classrooms
80
RATES OF PROGRESS
TABLE 45. — SHOWING NUMBER OF CHILDREN BY GRADES WHO HAVE
REACHED THEIR PRESENT STANDING IN LESS THAN NORMAL
TIME, IN NORMAL TIME, AND IN MORE THAN NORMAL TIME
IN NEW YORK CITY. ORIGINAL DATA.
Grade
Membership
Less than
Normal Time
Normal Time
More than
Normal Time
1
2377
7
1886
484
2
1710
46
994
670
3
J393
53
66 1
679-
4
1032
J37
457
438
5
949
51
358
540
6
786
So
293
443
7
719
78
259
382
8
523
65
232
226
Total
9489
487
5*40
3862
TABLE 46. — RELATIVE FIGURES SHOWING PUPILS MAKING SLOW,
NORMAL AND RAPID PROGRESS.
Grade
Membership
Less Than
Normal Time
Normal Time
More than
Normal Time
1
IOOO
3
793
204
2
IOOO
27
58i
392
3
IOOO
38
475
487
4
IOOO
133
443
424
5
IOOO
54
377
569
6
IOOO
64
373
563
7
IOOO
109
360
53i
8
IOOO
125
443
432
All Grades
IOOO
51
542
407
shows that children of widely varying ages and school experience
are grouped together in one classroom. In the investigation
boys and girls were found who had been four years in the first
grade. One girl in the third grade had been in school nine years.
Many children were found who had begun their school lives
before their present classmates were born.
Looking at the figures for all grades at the foot of the table
giving the relative figures, we find that if we reduce the figures
6 81
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
roughly to percentages, 5 per cent of the pupils have progressed
to their present standing more rapidly than the normal rate;
55 per cent have progressed normally; and 40 per cent have made
slower than normal progress. In the fifth, sixth and seventh
grades, those who have made slower than normal progress out-
number all the others. If we consider the school membership
as made up of the three groups — of those who have progressed
more rapidly than normal, those who have made normal progress,
and those whose progress has been slower than normal — and if
we compute the degree of their variations from normal progress,
we get the following results :
Of the entire membership 5 per cent have reached their
present grades in 86 per cent of the normal time; 55 per cent
have reached their present grades in 100 per cent of the normal
time; 40 per cent have reached their present grades in 128 per
cent of the normal time.
This is shown in graphic form in the following diagram
in which the width of each rectangle represents the proportion
of the pupils in the class, and the length the relative amount of
time consumed in reaching their present standing:
5% reached
present grades 5%
in 86% of
normal time
55% reached
present grades e,- 07
in 100% of )5%
normal time
86%
100%
40% reached
present grades 4QO/
in i28%_of 40%
normal time
128%
Diagram XVI.— Rates of progress of 9489 pupils in New York City.
82
RATES OF PROGRESS
We have seen that the number of children making slow
progress is very much larger than the number making rapid pro-
gress. According to the available data the slow pupils are on
Diagram XVII. — Contrasting number of pupils making rapid progress with those
making slow progress. Rapid pupils hatched; slow pupils black.
the average more than eight _times as numerous as the rapid ones.
That this is true not only in fact but in degree is shown by figures
from, New York and Baltimore. The slow children not only
83
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
greatly outnumber the rapid ones, but the_Jjme_Ja^-by--4he-- for-
mer is considerably greater in proportion than is that saved by
the rapid ones.
In the table showing the time in grades by terms of the
9489 children whose records were studied in New York we noted
that 487 made rapid progress and 3862 slow progress. The dis-
tribution of these pupils according to the number of terms lost
or gained and the comparison between the two groups composed
of slow and rapid pupils is shown in Diagram XVII.
Computing the time saved by the rapid pupils we find that
it amounts to 668 terms. The time lost by the slow pupils
amounts to 7855 terms, or nearly twelve times as much. In
other words the slow pupils are eight times,. as-wumerous as the
rapid ones, but they lose twelve times as much time as the rapid
ones gain.
The Baltimore report for 1907 gives the number of pupils
completing the work of the grades in different numbers of months.
The number of pupils making rapid progress was 3034. The slow
pupils numbered 12,261, or four times as many. The number of
months saved by the rapid pupils amounted to 10,425; that lost
by the slow ones to 92,994. The ratio is about nine to one. Here
again the same characteristic difference is to be noted. The
slow pupils are four times as numerous as the rapid ones, but
the time lost by the former is nine times as much as that saved
by the latter. It is probable that there are far more slow pupils
in the schools of Baltimore than these figures indicate. They
refer to pupils completing grades. Apparently there are many
more who did not complete their grades and so are not included.
The illustration is valuable in showing the relation between time
lost and time gained rather than in showing how rapid pupils
compare in number with slow ones.
PROGRESS OF AVERAGE CHILD
While all of the data discussed bear on important phases
of the problem of rates of progress through the grades, they
give us no measure by which we can answer the question how
rapidly the average child in our city schools progresses. After
RATES OF PROGRESS
all, the crucial question is whether or not the average child can
do the work of eight grades in eight years. There is little or no
direct information available to answer this question.
If all of the children remained in school until graduation
from the final grade we might arrive at an approximate answer
by comparing the average age of children in the final grade with
the average age in the first grade, but many children do not stay
to graduate. Those who do remain are the survivors; the more
fit, the most brilliant, the youngest.
Moreover, the average age of children in the first grade is
not the average of the beginners, for the first grades, as we have
seen, are never made up exclusively of beginners. They are made
up of some children who entered school for the first time during
the current year, and many who entered earlier. The average
age of first grade children will always be somewhat more than
the average age of the beginning children.
However, if we cannot measure the average time required
to complete the course, we can measure with substantial accuracy
that required to complete a definite part of it. Practically no
children drop out of school before reaching the fifth grade. If
then we compare the average age of first grade pupils in a given
system with average age of the fifth grade pupils in the same
system, we shall have a means of ascertaining how long it takes
the average child in that city to make the journey from the
first grade to the fifth. Obviously it should take him four
years.
The data necessary for making this comparison have been
secured in the shape of age and grade distributions from twenty-
nine cities.
In Table 47 on the following page these cities are arranged
according to the magnitude of the difference between the average
age of the first grade pupils and that of the fifth grade pupils.
As has already been stated this should be four years if all of the
pupils made normal progress. How long it does take the average
child to do the work of four grades in each of the twenty-nine
cities is shown by the figures in the last column.
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 47. — TIME REQUIRED TO DO THE WORK OF FOUR GRADES IN
EACH OF TWENTY-NINE CITIES.
City
Ave. Age
First Grade
Ave. Age
Fifth Grade
Difference
i. Aurora, 111., 1907 ....
7-J3
II. 21
4.08
2. Meriden, Conn., 1907 .
6.68
10.92
4.24
3. Cincinnati, O., 1907
8.12
12.48
4-36
4. Trenton, N. J., 1903 .
7.14
11.50
4-36
5. Utica, N. Y., 1906-7 .
7-39
H.85
4.46
6. St. Louis, Mo., 1901-2
7.98
12.47
4-49
7. Wilmington, Del. (white), 1905-6
7.38
11.90
4-52
8. Portland, Ore., 1907 .
7.28
11.81
4-53
9. Columbus, O., 1906-7
7.56
12.15
4-59
10. Reading, Pa., 1907
7-23
11.82
4-59
ii. Medford, Mass., 1907-8
S-96
10.56
4.60
12. Boston, Mass., 1907
6.74
"•39
4-65
13. Philadelphia, Pa., 1908
7.42
12.08
4.66
14. Los Angeles, Cal., 1903-4 .
7-59
12.30
4.71
15. Quincv, Mass., 1908 .
6.31
1 1. 02
4.71
1 6. New York, N. Y., 1908
7.07
11.81
4-74
17. Ft. Wayne, Ind., 1906-7
6.80
n-55
4-75
18. Baltimore, Md., 1905-6
7.56
12.35
4-79
19. Maiden, Mass., 1908 .
6-53
n-33
4.80
20. York, Pa., 1908 ....
7.46
12.26
4.80
21. Woonsocket, R. I., 1907
7.02
11.85
4-83
22. Decatur, 111., 1908
6.87
11.80
4-93
23. Springfield, Mass., 1907-8 .
6.71
11.66
4-95
24. Kingston, N. Y., 1908
7.22
12.20
4.98
25. Memphis, Tenn. (white), 1908 .
7.48
12.62
5-i4
26. Memphis (colored), 1908
8.96
14.12
5-i6
27. Troy, N. Y., 1903-4 .
6.92
12.12
5.20
28. Camden, N. J., 1905-6
29. Wilmington, Del. (colored), 1905-6
7-i3
8.12
12.51
I3-50
5.38
5.38
30. Kansas City, Mo., 1906-7 .
6.63
12.58
5-95
31. Erie, Pa., 1901 ....
7-5i
13-73
6.22
That in no city does the average child do the work of four
grades in four years, is shown conclusively by these statistics.
The average time consumed is 4.67 years. After the first grade
is passed there is in most systems but little difference between
the percentages of promotion in the different grades. Hence,
we may assume that we can compute with fair accuracy from
the figures we have how long it would take the average child to
complete eight grades, if all of the children remained to complete
the course. This computation gives us the following results :
86
RATES OF PROGRESS
TABLE 48. — SHOWING TIME REQUIRED TO COMPLETE EIGHT GRADES
AT SAME RATE AS IS SHOWN BETWEEN GRADES ONE AND
FIVE, IN TWENTY-NINE CITIES.
Ave. years to
City Complete 8 Grades
1. Aurora, 111 8.16
2. Meriden, Conn 8.48
3. Cincinnati, 0 8.72
4. Trenton, N. J 8.72
5. Utica, N. Y . 8.92
6. St. Louis, Mo 8.98
7. Wilmington, Del. (white) . 9.04
8. Portland, Ore 9.06
9. Columbus, 0 9.18
10. Reading, Pa 9.18
11. Medford, Mass 9.20
12. Boston, Mass. . 9.30
13. Philadelphia, Pa 9.32
14. Los Angeles, Cal. 9.42
' 15. Quincy, Mass 9.42
16. New York, N. Y 9.48
17. Ft. Wayne, Ind 9.50
18. Baltimore, Md 9.58
19. "Maiden, Mass 9.60
20. York, Pa 9.60
21. Woonsocket, R. I • 9.66
22. Decatur, 111 9.86
23. Springfield, Mass * ... 9.90
24. Kingston, N. Y 9.96
25. Memphis, Tenn. (white) 10.28
26. Memphis (colored) 10.32
27. Troy, N. Y 10.40
28. Camden, N. J 10.76
29. Wilmington (colored) 10.76
30. Kansas City, Mo 11.90
31. Erie, Pa 12.44
The average of these averages is 9.34 years. In order
that the figure may represent with fair accuracy the rate of pro-
gress of the average child in the average city, we must add to it
the difference between the average age of the beginner and that
of the first grade pupils in general. In the investigation conducted
in New York, to which reference has already been made, this
difference averaged .8 of a year among some 2800 pupils.
If this is a fairly representative figure — and it probably is —
we may safely increase our average of 9.34 years to 10 years,
and say that the average child in the average city school sys-
tem progresses through the grades at the rate of eight grades in
ten years.
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
As a result of these studies of the rates of progress of children
through the grades we can with safety formulate five general
propositions :
1. The number of children who make slow progress is far
greater than the number of those who make rapid progress,
and the time lost by the former is very much greater than is the
time saved by the latter.
2. From the available data it appears safe to say that for
every pupil making rapid progress there are from eight to ten
making slow progress, and for every term gained by the rapid
pupils from ten to twelve are lost by the slow ones.
3. According to the New York investigation, among each
100 retarded pupils thirty are retarded because of late entrance;
thirteen because of late entrance and slow progress; and fifty-
seven because of slow progress.
4. The courses of study of our city school systems are ad-
justed to the powers of the brighter pupils. They are beyond
the powers of the average pupils and far beyond those of the
slower ones.
5. The average pupil cannot complete the work of eight
grades in eight years. So far as can be ascertained, in no city
does the average child regularly succeed in doing each year's
work in one year^/The average child in the average city school
system progresses through the grades at the rate of eight grades
in ten years.
CHAPTER VIII
THE MONEY COST OF THE REPEATER
«< y^vUR OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS" was the head-
I 1 line of an article which appeared in a New York
^~^^ newspaper during the second week in January of
this year. The article reached the desk of the writer as one of
a collection of clippings on miscellaneous educational topics. The
same week brought from different cities five other clippings, all
somewhat similar in tone. From the Minneapolis Tribune of Jan-
uary eight came an article whose headlines told us: "2702 Children
in Basement Classes, 60 Rooms Below Street Level are now Occu-
pied, Six New 16 Room Buildings are Needed to Eliminate Evil."
A Brooklyn newspaper described the congested condition
of schools in that city as "scandalous and disgraceful." From
Philadelphia came an article which in part read as follows:
"The Philadelphia school problem is the problem of the
elementary schools. Of the school children of Philadelphia,
94 per cent are in the elementary schools and 6 per cent are in
the high schools. There are more than 1000 children to whom
Philadelphia has given a cold, cold shoulder. They stand at
our school doors and knock, but no door is opened to them.
Besides this 1000 and more, there are 15,255 children who have
succeeded in getting one foot inside of the school. We call them
'half-timers/ In one Philadelphia schoolroom there are 116
children under one teacher."
These newspaper articles are noteworthy because they
are typical. As many more, similar in tone and content and
coming from all over the country, could J>e secured every week
in the year. These words from the press tell us of the problem,
and by their practically simultaneous appearance they show us
how general it is. They reflect a condition that is very common
89
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
in our cities. The two great causes underlying this condition
are lack of room and lack of money.
Where congested school conditions constitute a great
problem, the over-crowding is almost always found in the lower
grades. In considering the possibility of ameliorating such
conditions, two lines of inquiry at once present themselves.
First, if our lower grades are over-crowded, who over-crowd them?
Are they filled with the children who ought to be in them, or
are many seats occupied by children who ought to have passed
on to the upper grades long ago? Secondly, if the lower grades
are filled with repeaters, how much money is expended on them
each year which rightfully ought to be expended in supplying
increased school facilities and in increasing the number of pupils
in the upper grades? This phase of the inquiry, then, resolves
itself into a question of finding the number and by this means
determining the cost of the retarded children who are repeating
grades.
It cannot be denied that we are spending money in teaching
large numbers of children the same things over again. If all the
children had to reach a certain point before leaving school, this
money would be saved if they could reach this point earlier;
but such is not the case. Children are not required to make a
certain degree of progress in the schools, but only to sit there a
certain number of years. From the standpoint of the taxpayer
who has no other interest in education than that of the tax rate,
it is quite immaterial whether the money raised for schools be
spent in training first grade pupils or eighth grade pupils.
Over-crowding means that we are not spending enough
money on our schools. Retardation means — not that we are
spending too much — but that we are spending it wastefully.
Viewed, then, from this economic or financial standpoint,
the question is : How great is this waste?
How shall we determine the number of repeaters? The
problem is by no means simple, but will repay careful examina-
tion. The term "retarded" is here applied, as previously ex-
plained, to the child who is below the proper grade for his age.
Our schools are crowded with such children. They often con-
stitute as much as one-third of the entire membership. Whatever
90
MONEY COST OF THE REPEATER
the causes may be that account for this condition, they may be
grouped, as has been noted, under two general heads, — either
the children have started late, or they have progressed slowly.
In the case of the child who has started late, little blame can be
laid at the door of the school. It is the child who progresses
slowly with whom this study has to deal. When a boy or girl l>
fails of promotion and repeats the work, the city has to pay for /
the term's schooling twice over.
Nor is the money waste the only serious result of repeating
grades. Attention has already been called to the fact that the
child who spends much more than the normal amount of time
in doing the work in the lower grades finds himself at the age of (
fourteen, say in the fifth grade instead of the eighth, and, seeing
that the prospect of promotion is still remote, drops out of school.
To illustrate how the number and cost of repeaters may be
determined let us take the case of Columbus, Ohio. In the year
1906 trie enrollment in all the day schools was as follows:
TABLE 49. — ENROLLMENT BY GRADES, COLUMBUS, 1906.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 37*8
Second Grade 25&7
Third Grade 2721
Fourth Grade 2751
Fifth Grade 2323
Sixth Grade 1911
Seventh Grade 1511
Eighth Grade 1219
Total . ... 18,741
HIGH SCHOOLS
First Year 916
Second Year 675
Third Year 480
Fourth Year 328
Total for High Schools 2,399
Normal School 78
Grand Total 21,218
The striking feature of this table is the falling off in member-
ship in the successive grades. The first grade contains 3817
pupils, the eighth only 1219. As was explained in Chapter V,
91
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
the interpretation of these figures as meaning that in Columbus
for 3800 children who enter school only 1200 get to the eighth
grade would be erroneous. This is because each of the lower
grades contains a certain number of repeaters. The fact that
there are 3800 children in the first grade does not mean that 3800
children enter the school each year. In order to ascertain the
number of repeaters in each of the lower grades we must, in each
case, subtract the annual number of beginners from the actual
membership.
The method by which the number of beginners may be
ascertained has been fully explained in Chapter V, but in order
to render the illustrative case of Columbus perfectly clear it may
be well to repeat it briefly here. The pupils enrolled in all of
the day schools in Columbus during the year 1905-6 were grouped
by ages as follows:
TABLE 50. — ENROLLMENT BY AGES, COLUMBUS, OHIO, 1906.
Age Pupils
6 years 1,894
7 years 2,006
8 years 2>I23
9 years 2>J43
10 years 2,178
11 years 2,110
12 years 2,150
13 years 2,164
14 years 1,747
15 years 1,083
16 years 703
17 years 507
18 years 264
19 years and over 146
Total 21,218
The average membership of the age group from seven to
twelve inclusive is 2118. This number we may consider as
representing with approximate accuracy the annual number of
beginners in Columbus. Referring now to our table of grades we
find that the first grade has 3718 children enrolled, and again in a
similar way every grade up through the fifth has an enrollment
considerably larger than the annual number of beginners. There-
fore, we are safe in concluding that the first five grades contain
92
MONEY COST OF THE REPEATER
a considerable number of repeaters. Their total membership is
14,100. If there were no repeaters it would be only 10,590.
The difference, or 3510, represents the number of children who
are doing the work of their grades for the second time. This
is 16.5 per cent of the total membership of the schools. Columbus
expended on her school system during the year $674,650. 16.5
per cent of this sum is $111,317. This is the amount that it
cost Columbus during the year 1905-6 to have her lower grades
crowded with children who were doing the work for the second
or third time.
The more important arguments that may be brought against
this line of reasoning are two. First, the repeaters are not con-
fined to the lower grades. A few — a very few — pupils get to
the seventh or eighth grade, fail of promotion and repeat the work
of the grade. It is even conceivable that a pupil might get as
far as the last year in the high school and take the year's work
twice. "There are a few repeaters in the upper grades even after
the age of compulsory attendance is passed. This influence
tends to make the computed cost of the repeater too low.
On the other hand lies the second of the two arguments.
This is, that in using the total cost of the schools as a basis from
which to compute the cost of repetition we have included the
expenditures for high schools, which are at a higher per capita
rate than those for elementary schools, and this influence tends
to make our computed cost of the repeaters too high. The answer
to this is, that when the added cost of the high school instruction
is distributed among all of the pupils in all the schools it becomes
a very small factor indeed.
We have then two factors influencing our results, one
tending to make them too high, the other tending to make them
too low. Both of them are small and in practice they very nearly
counterbalance each other.
There is some doubt as to the applicability of the system
used in the case of Columbus to figures from other cities for the
purpose of comparison, because the grade figures from different
cities are gathered by different methods. In some places they
are based on total enrollment, in others on average enrollment
or enrollment at a given date. Can they then be made to give
93
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
comparable results? The answer is that where the grade fig-
ures are based on total enrollment, the age figures are also based
on total enrollment, and so on for the other methods. Thus
the relation between the number of children in the grades and
the number who would be there were there no repeaters is not
affected, and the resulting percentage which gives us the money
cost of repeaters remains unchanged.
In the present state of our knowledge concerning retarda-
tion and elimination it is not pretended that our method can give
more than a useful approximation to the facts. Exact measure-
ment is out of the question. But, as in other cases, the only
way to secure in the future more accurate information is to make
the most of what we have, carefully pointing out its limitations.
With more precise information as to the number of repeaters,
and with more uniform financial methods determining the cost
of instruction, we should come closer to the exact state of affairs.
Yet there is virtue in even an approximate measure. It is
rarely the case that in its particular application its errors all work
in the same direction. Given this possibility, however, it fails
in any effort to make exact comparisons when there is com-
paratively little difference between the results. We would not,
however, extend our comparisons beyond broad general lines,
and within them the method we propose can be relied upon. It
is a key which gives us access to illuminating facts showing the
economic importance of the problem. In the Table 52 are shown
the results obtained by applying the method to the known facts
of grade membership, age groups and financial expenditures
in fifty-five cities.
The validity of the method for computing the number
of repeaters may be checked by means of data printed in the
published reports of three cities giving the number of pupils
who have been more than one year in the same grade. A pupil
who spends more than one year in one grade is a repeater. The
cities publishing this information are Kansas City, Missouri,
Springfield, Ohio, and Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The sub-
stantial agreement between the computed results and the printed
facts is shown by the following table :
94
MONEY COST OF THE REPEATER
TABLE 51. — COMPARISON BETWEEN COMPUTED RESULTS AND
OFFICIAL FIGURES.
Per cent Repeating Per cent Repeating
(printed report) (computed)
Kansas City 19.8 19.3
Springfield 14.7 14.8
Williamsport 13.1 13.3
It is evident that our method of computation gives results
very close to the truth.
The conditions revealed in the table on pages 96 and 97 can- ,
not be lightly passed over or safely disregarded. In the schools of j
these cities are more than i ,900,000 children. Of this number over I
300,000 are repeaters. The annual cost of leading these children ;
for the second or third or fourth time along the roads they have •
already traversed, reaches the astounding sum of thirteen and a
half million dollars. If the school systems of these cities are
fairly representative of American city school systems, then we
are spending each year about twenty-seven millions of dollars
in the wasteful process of repetition in our cities alone.
In a broad general way we have answered the question what
is the money cost of the repeater, and on broad general lines we
do not hesitate to describe it as waste. Elimination of waste
means either a decrease of effort or an increase of effectiveness
in the effort made. We are disposed to believe that in the present
case the latter would be the main, perhaps the exclusive, result.
But it is one which is well worth striving for. These economic
considerations furnish an additional motive to those who are seek-
ing light not only upon the extent of retardation, but on its causes
and possible remedies.
Some expenditure for repeaters is unavoidable, but not
all of it. It may well be questioned whether all the repetition
in the first grade is necessary. When pupils are admitted any
time throughout the year, there must always be some who at the
end of the year or term cannot be promoted. But would not this
be in large measure avoided if school authorities were to adopt the
practice that no child, unless of school age, should be admitted
for the first time to the first grade unless application for such
admission were made in the first month of the school year or
of the school term? To give a child two or three months' instruc-
95
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
H CM CO ^ toO t^-OO O O M (N
toO t^OO O O M <N
toO t^-OO O
96
MONEY COST OF THE REPEATER
q w 100 r^ONMMTj-vqr^qNqpot^'*poioioMr-.Mt>.MPo ••*•
vd \d vd vd vd t-^ r-^oo oo' 06 oo' 06 od ON d\ d M' popopo^-^-ONO^d 6
fcJ-fcH WWWCSWWWWWPOPO
^ k*
^
~~^~ •
10 M ON PO M O M ^O *O IN* Q\ ro -t^ ^ t">»vO O w f^ ^\ f*5 ioO *O ^ ^"
COCO w CO ^O N M to W M W ^O lO ON *^ O^ ^O *O O ^" W lO CS CS ^ W
^•\O 0* to t1*1* O^^O O^ *O t^* ON ON O
<fc* ^o o co t^*co ON M ^o o t>* to ^co o ^ o ^ rooo oo f^^o c-r> o ^o t***
**> Co ^* ^O^ O^CO ^O f1^* ***» **O M W tO^ rO HH CCOO ^O W ON •T*** O ON^ r^* ON
.^ wm rfroM\OWMiOMpN fO^P OQtOMWWMt^S t^*^ro
^
W PO ONOO Tj-MOOOO N t^.TtPOM IO«N)\O POM NOOOO t>»O OOOO
^ ON ^tO O ON*^-'^"'^^ M O voO POW ONM ^MOO t*» t^OO 00 OO
Q W PO ^ M Qs t^» r**00 M O t^* 1O ^ W PO^O ^ PO w O IO ON ON ^ M
Tj- M PO
(^ «*>
t*^* M T^ fOO O^^O ^O W CO ON*O <*O C^ ^O t*** W \o O^ ^" w ^ ^4" ON fOCO ^O
•^X(C/^ MW MM C4M Tf Tj-Tt^OCOlOCi lO
• -t
8
1 1 Esl §|-§l|ll-s| I- ^ I li-S i £ §1 o
<r3 "— "— '^ '" Q U ffi C^U 3 O S 0 M ft ^— >^ JZQ^CQcS^lzSCJ H
PO PO PO PO ^ l
7 97
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
tion when we know from the outset that this will have to be repeated
is surely an avoidable waste.
Even in the upper grades we cannot consider the money
spent on doing again the work already done as entirely wasted,
for we cannot be sure that such repetition is wholly ineffective
from an educational viewpoint. But we may feel sure that more
|/ is lost than gained by the process of repeating. If it is in the
nature of the child to be spurred on by failure to renewed effort,
we may be very certain that the same child would be more effec-
tively influenced by success. The effect of retardation is only
slight in making school expenditures greater, but potent in
making their effectiveness painfully less. To reduce retardation
would greatly enhance educational efficiency rather than effect
a financial saving.
CHAPTER IX
CAUSES OF LEAVING SCHOOL
THE question why pupils leave school is one that is often
asked and seldom answered. Of course, the great ma-
jority of them go to work, but this fact is far from being
an explanation of their leaving school. In the case of the great
numbers of children who leave before completing the elementary
course, if the question asked were why they do not continue
longer in school, the answer would be, as stated previously in
other connections, that upon reaching the end of the compulsory
attendance period they find themselves in the fifth or sixth grade
instead of in the eighth and, seeing that the prospect of gradua-
tion is remote, they leave and go to work.
TABLE 53. — CAUSES OF WITHDRAWAL OF PUPILS FROM HIGH
SCHOOLS IN FIVE CITIES.
Cause
Cam-
bridge,
Mass.
Bay
City,
Mich.
Decatur,
III.
Medford,
Mass.
Spring-
field,
Ohio.
Total
1907
1904
1908
1907
1907
To go to work
16
57
28
20
5°
171
To help at home .
8
. .
. .
8
Poor health
*3
23
23
. .
3°
89
Failure in studies
ii
\T-
Removal from city
6
19
15
II
28
79
To private schools
5
10
3
6
24
Marriage
i
i
. .
2
Death ....
i
i
2
Sickness in family
14
12
26
Expelled .
4
I
5
Dissatisfaction .
16
3
.
J9
Lack of ability .
. .
2
2
No reason .
"s
8
4
4
24
Miscellaneous .
13
43
56
Total
60
131
IJ3
59
J55
518
99
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
In very few of the printed reports is any attempt made to
analyze the reasons which cause pupils to leave school. Where
such attempts are made we can seldom be sure whether the
withdrawals enumerated are permanent or temporary. When
we are told, for instance, that a certain number of children left
school on account of sickness, we have no means of telling how
many of them have left permanently and how many will return
next year.
Bearing these limitations of withdrawal statistics in mind,
we can with profit examine the available data bearing on the
subject which has been gleaned from school reports. Five cities
publish figures showing withdrawals from high schools.
In studying the table it must be borne in mind that the
figures were gathered by different methods. It is quite possible
that some of the reasons assigned may be given quite different
interpretations in different cities. For these reasons, only the
most general interpretations of the figures may safely be made.
By adding together the figures under such headings as "To go
to work" and "To help at home," "Poor health" and "Sickness
in family," etc., the cases under the several causes may be grouped
under six general headings :
TABLE 54. — REASONS FOR LEAVING HIGH SCHOOL. PERCENTAGES.
Cause Pupils Per cent
Work 179 34.5
111 Health 115 22.2
Removal 79 15.3
Private Schools 24 4.6
Lack of Success 32 5.1
Other Reasons 89 17.2
518 100.0
More than one-third of all the cases are attributed to "work,"
either at home or outside of it. As was before explained this is
probably often not a real reason. While pupils who leave school
very naturally go to work, it is probably comparatively seldom
that they are compelled to leave for the purpose of seeking work.
Nearly one-fourth of the cases are ascribed to ill health,
either of the pupils themselves or in their families. It is natural
to suppose that in many of these cases the pupils return to school
100
CAUSES OF LEAVING SCHOOL
after recovery. A fifth of the cases are ascribed to removal and
transfer to private schools. In nearly all these cases it is to be
supposed that the schooling continues in the new locations.
Under "Lack of Success" have been grouped the cases
found under the headings "Failure in Studies/' "Dissatisfaction"
and "Lack of Ability" in the first table. It is noteworthy that
the school authorities ascribe to these causes combined only 5 per
cent of the cases. In reality it is probable that lack of success i/
in school studies is the greatest single cause which impels pupils [
to drop out of school.
Turning now to the elementary schools we find slightly
more data than for the high schools :
TABLE 55. — CAUSES OF WITHDRAWAL OF PUPILS FROM ELEMENTARY
SCHOOLS IN SIX CITIES.
Cam-
Bay
Deca-
Med-
Spring-
Johns-
Cause
bridge,
Mass.
City,
Mich.
tur,
III.
ford,
Mass.
field,
Ohio.
town,
Pa.
Total
1907
1904
1908
1907
1907
1908
To to go work
39
190
90
2
1 68
2I5
704
To help at home .
Ill health . .
21
1 80
146
••
114
I05
21
545
Removed from city
iYs
427
494
I
4i5
322
1787
To private schools
8
87
37
132
Death .
i
3
4
I
16
25
Sickness in family
30
5
35
Visiting .
i?
17
Expelled ' .
10
10
Dissatisfaction
2
2
No reason
29
23
2
15
S3
122
Miscellaneous
28
-
54
82
Total
197
944
853
II
766
711
3482
Making in this case the same sort of general classification
of the cases under five main heads as we made for the high school
table we get the following:
101
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 56. — REASONS FOR LEAVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. PER-
CENTAGES.
Cause Pupils Per cent
Work 725 20.8
111 Health 580 16.6
Removal I7&7 5J-4
Private Schools 132 3.8
Other reasons 258 7.4
3482 100.0
In this table removal becomes such a large factor as to
include more than half of the cases. Work occupies a position
of less importance, and ill health retains nearly the same impor-
tance.
The net results of this study of the available data bearing
on the reasons why children leave school are slight in degree and
unsatisfactory in nature. Until more satisfactory statistics
are gathered and careful studies made we must content ourselves
with the general statement that failure in school studies is fre-
quently followed by dropping out of school as soon as the atten-
dance law permits. This is shown by the fact that very few
children repeat grades after passing the compulsory attendance
period. Unless compelled to remain in school pupils who fail
drop out.
The data presented in this chapter have been given a place,
not because they throw any real light on the problem of the
specific reasons which impel pupils to leave school, for they do
not; but rather because the question of cause is too important
to ignore. Care has been taken to gather all of the available
material in the printed reports. That the evidence is so incon-
clusive in character is greatly to be regretted. It is to be hoped
that the significance of the problem will impel students of educa-
tional questions to give the matter more careful and searching
study.
102
CHAPTER X
THE NATIONALITY FACTOR
THERE is no question of great national importance upon
which the views of wise and able men are more widely
divergent than upon the problem of immigration. Is
the immigrant a blessing or a curse? The answers are as far
apart as are the two words in meaning.
After making an exhaustive study of the results of immigra-
tion, the late General Francis A. Walker wrote, "These immi-
grants are beaten men from beaten races, representing the worst
failures in the struggle for existence. ***** Europe
is allowing its slums and its most stagnant reservoirs of degraded
peasantry to be drained off upon our soil."
At a notable address made in Brooklyn last October, Dr.'
Newell Dwight Hillis said, "Great is the treasure for the Republic
through herds and flocks, through shocks of corn and sheaves
of wheat. Great also is the wealth through vineyard and orch-
ard, but the greatest and most unmixed good fortune that has
come to the Republic during the year will be its crop of immi-
grants."
Opinions of educational authorities as to the influence
of the foreign child in our schools differ as widely as do the opinions
of the publicists quoted above.
In order to realize the scope and localization of the problem
we mus\ consider how large a proportion of our population is
made up of those of foreign parentage and in what parts of the
country they are to be found.
The answers to these two questions are given in graphic
form in the Diagram XVIII, which shows the proportion of the
population of foreign parentage in different sections of the country
and in the country as a whole.
The first lesson of this surprising diagram is that the problem
is a great one, concerning as it does a large part of all our people.
103
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
The second lesson is, that it is a localized problem, affecting
greatly the northern and western states and only slightly the
southern states. In the northern and western states nearly one-
half of all of the inhabitants are of foreign parentage, and in the
southern states less than one-half. In the country as a whole
about one-third of the people are of foreign parentage.
North South North South
Atlantic Atlantic Central Central Western
Percent of)
foreign V51 6 44 8 48
parentage )
United States
Per cent of foreign parentage 34
Diagram XVIII. — Population of foreign parentage in the United States, by group s
of states.
ILLITERACY
Turning now to the question of the education of this third
of our population, the first question is, "Do the schools reach
every child?" The easiest way to answer it is through an investi-
gation of the question of illiteracy; for we may certainly consider
that the child who can neither read nor write has not been reached
by the schools in any very effective way.
In the United States as a whole there are 107 illiterates
104
THE NATIONALITY FACTOR
among every 1000 persons. In Germany, Norway, Sweden and
Denmark there are about two in every 1000. In the state of New
York there is one illiterate in every eighteen voters. Among re-
cruits in the German army there is one illiterate in every 2500, and
among volunteers in the German navy one in every 10,000.
This is striking, and what is more it is humiliating to our
national pride. But it is still more remarkable and still more
Per
cent.
75
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
SCALE
Of Native
Parentage
65%
Of Foreign
Parentage
72%
Foreign
Born
69%
Diagram XIX. — Per cent of the white population of the United States in school
at the ages five to fourteen.
—
humiliating that in the United States as a whole, among native
white children of native parents forty-four in every 1000 are illit- \
erate, while among native white children of foreign parents nmejn I
i OOP are illiterate. — *
This pretty conclusively answers our first question, "Do
the schools reach all the children?" They do not. But in the
country at large they reach the child of the foreigner more gener-
ally thanjhey do the child of the native born American.
105
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
This conclusion has been reached from the circumstantial
evidence based on illiteracy. It is corroborated by the direct
evidence taken from the census showing the proportion of white
children five to fourteen years of age in school in three different
classes.
As DiagramX I X shows, of the native whites of native parents
65 per cent are in school, of the native whites of foreign parents
72 per cent, and of the foreign whites 69 per cent. The salient
point here is that at these ages, which correspond to the years
of elementary school attendance, the native born Americans
make the poorest showing.
.'ip • •
THE RACES AND RETARDATION
Up to this point we have been referring to the immigrant
and the school as though we were handling one problem. We
are not. We are considering a great many different problems.
The question of how to handle a Scotch immigrant child is very
different from that of how to treat an Italian. The educating
of an English boy is not at all the same task as the educating
of a Russian. In past years we have heard a good deal of the
changing character of our immigration — that the northern races
are sending fewer and fewer to our shores and the southern and
western races more and more. It has been claimed that relatively
speaking the former races were desirable and the present comers
are undesirable. Few facts have been put forward in support of
ijthese claims, and so far as can be ascertained none at all have
(ybeen cited to show what races succeed best in our schools, and
Iwhich ones worst.
During the spring and summer of the year 1908 an investi-
gation of the problem of the comparative success of the children
of different nationalities in fifteen schools was made as a part of
the investigation conducted in the public schools of New York
City. After the 20,000 records were gathered the first step was
to tabulate them with respect to the degree of advancement of
the pupils in comparison with their ages. In other words, the
records were studied to find out how many children were of normal
age for their grades and how many were above normal age, or
retarded. A liberal standard was adopted. All children up
1 06
THE NATIONALITY FACTOR
to the age of nine years were considered as of normal age for the
first grade. Ten was the limit in the second grade, eleven in the
third, and so on. The result was that among 20,000 children 23
per cent were retarded.
In the fifteen schools a number of nationalities were repre-
sented. When the records of the pupils were tabulated for re-
tardation by different nationalities the results were surprising.
The per cent of retardation among the different nationalities was
as follows:
TABLE 57. — RETARDATION BY NATIONALITIES IN NEW YORK CITY.
PERCENTAGES.
Nationality
German
American
Mixed
Russian
English
Irish - .
Italian.
Per cent
Retarded
• l6 Ji
• 19 •*
• 19
• 23
• 24
• 29
• 36
German 16%
American 19%
Mixed 19%
Russian 23%
English 24%
Irish 29%
Italian 36%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Diagram XX. — Retardation by nationalities in New York City. Percentages.
I07
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
These results are not caused by merely local conditions in
the several schools. The figures were retabulated individually
by schools with no change of results. The Germans made every-
where very good records, the Americans somewhat poorer ones,
and so on down to the uniformly poor records of the Italians.
Nor did the section of the city seem to have anything to do with it.
Opinions may differ radically as to the significance of these
figures and the causes of the conditions disclosed, but one thing
is certain. In all intensive studies of retardation, the nationality
factor is important and must be taken into account.
THE LANGUAGE DIFFICULTY
There is another lesson that these figures teach, and that is
in respect to the so-called language difficulty theory, — the theory
that children of foreigners on arriving in our schools, being ignor-
ant of the English language, lose on account of this handicap one,
two or more years before they are able to carry the work of the
•. schools. That this theory is not substantiated by the figures from
\ New York City is very evident from a mere inspection of the rela-
tive position of the English and non-English speaking groups.
The group making the best showing are the Germans who are
non-English speaking people. Then follow the Americans, then
the mixed and the Russians who again are non-English speaking,
then the English and Irish whose native languagejsjinglish, and
finally the Italians who, of course, are subject to the language
handicap. Plainly, so far as these groups are concerned, no con-
nection can be traced between school progress and the language
difficulty. Nor is this new in the field of applied pedagogy.
~~Tfie results of the investigation in New York do not consti-
tute all of the evidence tending to show the relatively slight im-
portance of the language difficulty in the educational assimila-
tion of non-English speaking peoples. The experience of the
department of education of Porto Rico in changing its schools
from the Spanish to the English basis strongly substantiates it.
The change was effected with little or no loss of time on the part
of the pupils.
In an investigation conducted by Superintendent James E.
Bryan of Camden, New Jersey, during the school years 1904-6,
108
THE NATIONALITY FACTOR
it was proved that ignorance of the English language constituted
so slight a cause of retardation that it was not even necessary to
include it among the causes assigned.
Principal J. M. McCallie of Trenton, New Jersey, reported
before the New Jersey State Conference of Charities and Correc-
tions in 1905 that among 146 cases of badly retarded children
studied by him in that city in only eight cases could English
be ascribed as a cause of retardation. In this connection^ Mr.
McCallie says, "This fact, I think, will tend to weaken the argu-
ments so often put forth that the foreign element lacking a speak-
ing knowledge of English is the cause, to a great extent, of so
much backwardness in our public schools/'
RETENTION OF AMERICANS AND FOREIGNERS THROUGH THE
GRADES
Thus far in the discussion of our problem we have been
dealing with the question whether or not the immigrant is
reached by our school system and to some degree with the manner
in which he is reached. But we have not considered the extent
to which he is reached. We have dealt with the fact, not with
the degree. These two factors are not at all the same. It mayA
well be that in a given city all of the foreigners are in school long
enough to learn how to read and write, but that none of them stay(
long enough to get more than the mere rudiments of the three
R's. At the same time in the same city it may be that some of
the Americans escape school entirely while most of them continue
on through the high schools and eventually become leading mem-
bers of the community. The fact that some foreigners show a
smaller percentage of retardation than the Americans has only a
slight bearing on this question.
In the endeavor to shed light on the problem a thorough
study has been made of the available data in school reports. In
most cities the existence of the foreigner is entirely ignored, so
far as the printed reports go, but not in all.
Let us consider first four cities which report the number of
foreign born in the elementary schools and in the high schools.
109
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
Translating the figures into percentages and expressing the results
graphically we have the following diagram :
ELEMENTARY
SCHOOLS
HIGH
;V; SCHOOLS
Portland, Ore. I] 6.1% >| 3.6%
St. Louis II 4.0% £ 1.1%
Kansas City || 3.0% | 1.0%
New Orleans 1.5% •§ 0.5%
Diagram XXI. — Per cent that foreign born pupils are of all pupils in elementary
and high schools in four cities.
In Portland, Oregon, only a little more than half as large a
proportion of foreigners is found in the high schools as in the ele-
mentary ones; in Kansas City and New Orleans one-third; and
in St. Louis little more than one-quarter as large a proportion.
The lesson taught by the figures shows conclusively that
the foreigners do not continue to the high schools in large numbers.
The next available data come from the city of Buffalo.
There the figures are given, not for foreign born only, but for
native born of foreign parents as well, and so include a large pro-
portion of the entire school population. The same tendency is
however just as manifest. (Diagram XXII.)
Here we see that even in the second generation those of re-
1 10
THE NATIONALITY FACTOR
cent foreign extraction fail to take as extended advantage of their /
educational opportunities as do the Americans.
Elementary
schools, 53%
High Schools, 33% |
Diagram XXII. — Pupils of foreign parentage in schools of Buffalo.
Our next results are drawn from the only two cities in the
country which give the number of pupils hearing a foreign language
at home, and the figures are given by grades so that we can trace
8
IV
FOREIGNERS
30 PER CENT.
FOREIGNERS
3 PER CENT.
Diagram XXIII. — Foreign children in the schools of Haverhill, Mass. Black
portion represents foreigners. They are 30 per cent of all in the kindergarten
and only 3 per cent of all in the last year of the high school.
the process all the way. These cities are Haverhill, Massachusetts,
and New Britain, Connecticut. (Diagrams XXIII and XXIV.)
The result is as before. The foreigners are found in consid-
1 1 1
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
erable numbers in the lower grades and the proportion steadily
diminishes until it reaches very small dimensions indeed in the
upper ones and the high school.
Something of an improvement on these statistics are those
published in Reading, Pennsylvania, where the children of foreign
parentage are compared with the whole number in each grade
from the first to the high school. (Diagram XXV.)
FOREIGNERS
60 PER CENT.
FOREIGNERS
18 PER CENT.
Diagram XXIV. — Foreigners in the schools of New Britain, Conn. Black
portion represents foreigners . They are 60 per cent of all in the first grade and
only 1 8 per cent in the ninth grade.
Here again the same tendency is apparent. The children
of foreign parentage constitute 17 per cent of the membership
in the first grade and this percentage steadily reduces until it
becomes 5.5 per cent in the high school.
This brings us to our last case, that of Worcester, Massa-
chusetts. Here we seem to have the one superintendent in the
country who realizes the nature and importance of the problem
and who prints figures showing the Americans, the native born
of foreign parents, and the foreign born, all the way from the
kindergarten to the high school. (Diagram XXVI.)
I 12
THE NATIONALITY FACTOR
In the kindergarten the Americans are only 36 per cent of
all. The proportion increases until we find them constituting
nearly 60 per cent of the high school membership. The native
born of foreign parents, that is, the children of immigrants, start
Diagram XXV. — Children of foreign parentage, in the schools of Reading,
Pa. They are 17 per cent of all in the first grade and only 5.5 per cent in the
high school.
with 56 per cent and finish with 37 per cent. The foreign born,
the child immigrants themselves, start with 7.3 per cent and end
with 3.8 per cent.
Here we have expressed in the results from one city the ten-
dencies noted in the others. The Americans make the best show-
8 113
*
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
ing. The children of immigrants make the next best showing and
the foreign born children the poorest.
There are three possible explanations of the fact that the
foreigners always constitute a larger proportion of the membership
of the lower grades than they do of the upper grades and the high
school. Either there is more retardation jimong the foreigners
than jmiojig*lfeAmencans7 thus swelling Th^irimmbers_iny the
lower grades; or there is more elimination among them, thus
Diagram XXVI. — School children in Worcester, Mass., showing increase
in proportion of Americans (outlines), and decrease in proportion of children of
foreign parentage (hatched) and foreign birth (solid black) in the upper grades
and the high school.
thjnnmgjihdr numbers in the upper grades; or botJLof these forces
are operative.
In the endeavor to discover whether any correlation exists
between the per cent of population of foreign parentage in the
cities studied and the per cent of beginning pupils retained to the
final elementary grade, the figures showingHboth sets of facts
for forty-eight cities have been tabulated together. These cities
were ranked in the order of the per cent of pupils they retain to
the final elementary grade. The first sixteen cities on the list —
114
THE NATIONALITY FACTOR
those making the best records as respects retention of pupils —
retain on the average 68 per cent. In these same cities the aver-
age percentage of persons of foreign parentage in the population,
according to the census, is 5^ In the second group of sixteen
cities — those making medium records — the average per cent of
pupils retained is 49, and the average percentage of foreign paren-
tage in the populations is again 53 as in the first group. In the
third group — those making the worst records — the average per-
centages are 33 and 58 respectively. Expressing this in a table
we may compare conditions in the three groups:
TABLE 58. — COMPARISON BETWEEN RETENTION OF PUPILS IN
SCHOOL AND PER CENT OF FOREIGN PARENTAGE IN THE POP-
ULATIONS, IN THREE GROUPS OF CITIES.
A ve. Per cent of Ave. Per cent of
Pupils Retained Persons of For-
to Final Elemen- eign Parentage in
tary Grade the Populations
First group of sixteen cities ... 68 53
Second group of sixteen cities ... 49 53
Third group of sixteen cities 33 58
It is very evident that Jittle or no correlation is disclosed
between retention of pupils^ and the foreign element in the popula-
tions of the same cities.
Taking into consideration all of the facts which have been
reviewed we may conclude that:
1. While the nationality factor has a distinct bearing on
the problems of retardation and elimination there is no evidence
that these problems are most serious in those cities having the
largest foreign populations.
2. As a rule, children of foreign parentage drop out of the
highest grades and the high school faster than do American chil-
dren.
3. In the United States there are more illiterates among the J
native whites of native parerttage than among the native whites /
of foreign parentage.
4. In the country as a whole the proportion of children five \
to fourteen years of age attending school is greater among those J
of foreign parentage and foreign birth than among Americans. ^^/
"5
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
5. In an examination conducted in New York City children
of the different nationalities were found to differ radically as to
ability in school work, the Germans making the best showing,
the Italians the worst.
6. Wherever studies have been made of the progress of
children through the grades, it has been found that ignorance
of the English language does not constitute a serious handicap.
The whole problem of the immigrant is a vast one and one
that continues to increase rather than to diminish. Moreover,
it is certain that no matter what legislation may be enacted, it
is a problem that will be of the first importance for a long time
to come. The essentially hopeful aspect of the situation is that
although the problem itself is increasing in magnitude, this increase
is not so rapid as the development of our school system in scope
and efficiency.
116
CHAPTER XI
PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND SCHOOL
PROGRESS
ONE of the most important objects of the investigation
conducted in the New York schools was to determine, if
possible, the relation between physical defectiveness
and school progress. To this end the records of the physical ex-
aminations given the pupils by the physicians of the Board of
Health were carefully studied in every case where they existed.
Before coming to our own contribution, however, it seems
wise to present the general results from three other recent studies ;
namely, those of Dr. Walter S. Cornell and Dr. S. W. Newmayer in
Philadelphia, and the investigation conducted by Superintendent
James ,E. Bryan of Camden.
DEFECTS AMONG "EXEMPT" AND "NON-EXEMPT" CHILDREN
The results of some of Dr. Cornell's investigations were
published in an article in the Psychological Clinic of January,
1908. Among 219 children of both sexes from six to twelve years
of age in one school in Philadelphia, he found:
TABLE 59. — COMPARATIVE STANDING IN STUDIES OF 219 NORMAL
AND DEFECTIVE CHILDREN IN PHILADELPHIA.
Average per
cent Attained
Normal children 75
Average children 74
General defectives 72.6
Children having adenoids and enlarged tonsils .... 72
Results showing such negligible differences as these between
the classes will come as a surprise to those who have gathered
their opinions on the subject from current discussion.
In another investigation the children of five schools were
117
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
examined for physical defects. They were divided into so-called
"exempt" children, or those whose work had been so thoroughly
satisfactory that they were advanced to higher grades without
examination, and "non-exempt" or those whose work was less
satisfactory.
TABLE 60. — PER CENT OF EXEMPT AND NON-EXEMPT CHILDREN
HAVING PHYSICAL DEFECTS.
Exempt N on- Exempt
Number examined . . . .907 687
Per cent defective .... 28.8 38.1
Here we seem to have a showing more like the one we should
naturally expect. The percentage of defectives is much higher
among the "non-exempt" than among the "exempt" children.
We are given no details, however, as to the defects found and so
cannot tell which particular sort or sorts of defects caused the
preponderance on the side of the "non-exempt" pupils.
Light seems to be thrown on this question by the results of
one of Dr. Newmayer's investigations, conducted also in the schools
of Philadelphia, covering examinations of 5005 children of whom
3587 were "exempt" and 1418 "non-exempt." Defects were
found among them as follows:
TABLE 6l. — PHYSICAL DEFECTS FOUND IN EXEMPT AND NON-
EXEMPT CHILDREN.
EXEMPT CHILDREN
XON-EXEMPT
CHILDREN
Defect
Number
Examined
Per cent
Number
Examined
Per cent
3587
IOO.O
1418
IOO.O
Defective vision .
371
10.0
171
12.0
Defective hearing
49
1.4
29
2.0
Defects of nose .
54
J-5
21
J-5
Defects of throat
X37
3-8
53
3-7
Orthopedic defects
25
• 7
25
1.8
Mentally defective
6
.1
80
5-6
Skin diseases . . .
918
26.0
423
30.0
Miscellaneous
214
6.0
128
9.0
Total
J774
49.0
930
65.0
118
PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND SCHOOL PROGRESS
With two exceptions the defects are distributed between
the two classes with surprising equality, the brighter pupils seem-
ing to be afflicted in just the same degree as their duller companions.
The two exceptions occur in the cases of "mental defects" and
"skin diseases" both of which are much more frequent among
the less bright children. That the former should be more com-
mon among them is of course to be expected. That they should
be found to be suffering more commonly from skin diseases
is probably rather to be considered a reflection of poorer home
conditions than as having a direct connection with their mental
aptitudes.
In connection with the somewhat inconclusive character
of the returns in Philadelphia the judgment of Dr. Cornell is of
interest. He writes that he believes that the educational result
in our public schools suffers a discount of about 6 per cent in the
case of physically defective children.
During 1906, Superintendent of Schools James E. Bryan
conducted extensive investigations in the schools of Camden,
New Jersey. In all 10,130 children were given physical examina-
tions. 'Of these children Siiowere of normal age and 2020
retarded. The results of the vision and hearing tests were as
follows :
TABLE 62. — DEFECTIVE EYESIGHT AND HEARING AMONG IO,I3O
NORMAL AND RETARDED CHILDREN IN CAMDEN, N. J.
Normal Age Retarded
Children Children
Number examined 8110 2020
Per cent having defective vision . . 27.1. 28.9
Per cent having defective hearing. . 3.7 5.8
Here again one .would hesitate to draw conclusions as to
any relation between retardation and defective vision and would
feel doubtful in the case of defective hearing.
Among the children studied 1852 had failed of promotion
and these children were given still further examinations. Among
them 1279 were of normal age and 573 were retarded. The re-
sults were as follows:
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 63. — PHYSICAL DEFECTS AMONG NORMAL AND RETARDED
CHILDREN WHO FAILED OF PROMOTION IN CAMDEN, N. J.
Normal Age Retarded
Children Children
Number examined I279 573
Per cent having defective vision . . 51 40
Per cent having defective hearing. .14 n
Per cent having bad health ... 21 21
Per cent attending irregularly 30 40
This table gives still further surprises. The children of
normal age actually show a higher percentage of defective vision
and hearing than do the retarded ones, and the significant feature
disclosed seems to be that irregular attendance rather than physi-
cal defects is the important factor affecting school progress.
Still another investigation was made to classify the causes
of the backwardness of the 2020 children who were over age for
their grades. The causes to which the excessive age of those
pupils was attributed are shown in the following table:
TABLE 64. — CAUSES ASSIGNED FOR EXCESSIVE AGE.
Cause Per cent
Age upon starting 21.2
Slowness 21.0
Absence 28.5 •
Dullness 12.0
111 health 9.6
Defects other than sight and hearing 3.9
Mental weakness 3.7
Two points in this table are significant: First, the results
of the Camden investigation decidedly support the contention
Jhat physical defects constitute a cause but not ihe cause of re-
tardation ; secondly, that the bearing of physical defects on school
retardation does not appear to be very great. Under the cap-
tions "ILL HEALTH" and "DEFECTS OTHER THAN SIGHT AND
HEARING" are found 13.5 per cent of the cases. Under "AGE
UPON STARTING" and "ABSENCE" are found 49.7 per cent.
IMPORTANCE OF THE AGE FACTOR
Among the 20,000 pupils examined in the New York City
investigation were 7608 who had been given physical examinations
120
PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND SCHOOL PROGRESS
Normal Age.
Above Normal Age.
Per cent Defective
Per cent Defective
85.0
81-3
86.8
84-5
83.2
83-3
71.6
74-7
63.8
60.2
63.8
61.7
68.2
60.2
77.1
75-o
. . 79.8
74-9
by the physicians of the Board of Health. Of these 7608 pupils,
6084 fell within the normal age group and 1524 in the above
normal age group. The following table shows the percentage of
physically defective pupils in each group by grades:
TABLE 65. — PER CENT OF NORMAL AND RETARDED CHILDREN
HAVING PHYSICAL DEFECTS, BY GRADES.
Grade
First Grade
Second Grade .
Third Grade .
Fourth Grade .
Fifth Grade .
Sixth Grade .
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade .
Total .
Of course, the immediately striking feature of this table is
that nearly. 80 per cent of the normal age children are found to
have physical defects, while dnly about 75 per cent of the above
normal age children are defective. This feature was an unlocked
for result. The second noteworthy point is that the percentage
of defective children in the lower grades is decidedly greater than
in the upper grades.
The discovery of these conditions led to further study of the
figures. The data were retabulated by ages and the results showed
a very marked and consistent falling off in the per cent of children
having each sort of defect, from the age of six up to the age of
fifteen. Defective vision alone increases slowly but steadily, with
advancing age. The contrast between the per cent having each
of the six commoner defects at the age of six, and the per cent at
fifteen is shown in the following table :
TABLE 66. — PER CENT HAVING EACH DEFECT, AT AGES
SIX AND
FIFTEEN.
Defect At 6 years
At 15 years
Enlarged glands .... 40
7
Defective breathing
21
9
Defective vision ....
17
26
Defective teeth ....
65
31
Enlarged tonsils ....
40
14
Adenoids
23
3
121
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
In all these cases attention must be called to the fact that
the decrease in the percentage of defective children is not due to
the dropping out or leaving school of children suffering from these
defects. This might be put forward as an explanation if we had
to do with children above the age of compulsory attendance, or
if the characteristic decrease did not take place until the age of
fourteen or fifteen; but such is not the case. We have to do
with children of from six to fifteen years of age, and the marked
decrease begins with the eight, nine and ten year old children and
continues steadily. As the older children in general are found in
the upper grades and the younger children in the lower grades,
it is not surprising that we found a larger percentage of defective
children in the low grades than in the high grades. The rm^
portant fact is that defects decrease with age.
Between boys and girls little difference in average of de-
fects was discovered. An average of i .8 defects was found among
the boys, and 1.6 among the girls. Tabulating the results by
kinds of defects, however, decided differences were discovered.
/The boys suffer much more from enlarged glands, defective
breathing, and enlarged tonsils. The girls have much poorer
vision and teeth.
The results that have been discussed, showing so consistently
as they do that retarded or above normal age pupils have fewer
defects than do those of normal age, furnish food for careful
thought. Were further data not available, it would be difficult
to explain the seeming anomaly; but the data showing the
percentage of defectives by ages are illuminating. With the
exception of vision, the percentage of pupils found to be suffering
from each separate sort of defect decreases rapidly as age in-
creases. The evidence is plain that age is the important factor.
The importance of this on all investigations into the in-
fluence of physical defects on school progress is at once evident.
Whether the term "retarded" is used to express a condition or an
explanation, it will always follow from the definition itself that
retarded children will be older than their fellow pupils in the same
grades. Therefore, in all cases it will be true that the "backward
pupils" will be the older pupils.
Now, the older pupils are found to have fewer defects.
122
»:
\71<
PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND SCHOOL PROGRESS
This is true whether they are behind their grades or well up in
their studies. Therefore, it is not surprising that we find that 80
per cent of all children of normal age have physical defects more
, or less serious, while only 75 per cent of the retarded children are
\ found to be defective. This does not mean that pupils with more
physical defects are brighter mentally. It simply means that
retarded children are older, and that older pupils, as has been
shown, have fewer defects.
DEFECTS AND PROGRESS AMONG 3304 NEW YORK CHILDREN
But what is the significance of these results as regards school
progress? We have found that the retarded children have fewer
defects than those of normal age and that this is true for each
separate sort of defect with the single exception of defective
vision. We have also seen that the older children have fewer
defects than the younger ones except in the case of defective
vision. On the basis of these data we can draw no conclusions
whatever concerning school progress and physical defects even
in the case of eyesight.
But it is well known that in our schools there is no exact
correspondence between grades and ages. Children of twelve
years of age for instance are found in all the grades from the first
to the eighth. A child of twelve in the eighth grade is unusually
bright, one of the same age in the first grade is unusually dull.
It is then of interest to us to discover whether the twelve year
old child in the first grade will have more or fewer defects than
the one in the eighth. In order to study this the records of all
the children at the ages of ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen and four-
teen examined in New York City were retabulated. These ages
were taken because at all of them children are found scattered
through the grades from the lowest to the highest.
There were 3304 of these children. Those ten years old
numbered 910, the eleven year old ones 842, those of twelve years
664, those of thirteen years old 496, and of the fourteen year old
pupils there were 392. The following table shows how they were
distributed among the grades, and how many were suffering from
each sort of defect :
123
*
CO
CO
00
3"
l«
O w t»
oo M o
cs cs M
£
CO
0*
O-
O
vo
W
CG
124
PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND SCHOOL PROGRESS
A child of ten in the first grade is so badly retarded that we
may fairly call him dull and we shall be wrong in only a very few
cases of children who entered school very late indeed. We may
feel even more sure that a child of eleven, twelve, thirteen or
fourteen in the first grade is dull. A child of ten in the second,
third or fourth grade is normal. In the fifth or sixth grade he
is bright. By making appropriate changes in the grades similar
statements can be made for the other ages.
Using this as a basis the records were retabulated, the
pupils assigned among the three groups, and the results worked
out in percentages:
TABLE 68. — PER CENT OF DULL, NORMAL AND BRIGHT PUPILS
SUFFERING FROM EACH SORT OF DEFECT. AGES TEN TO FOUR-
TEEN INCLUSIVE. ALL GRADES.
- Defect *
Dull.
Per cent
Normal,
Per cent
Bright.
Per cent
Enlarged glands
20
13
6
Defective vision.
24
25
29
Defective breathing .
15
ii
9
Defective teeth .
42
40
34
Hypertrophied tonsils
26
J9
12
Adenoids .
15
10
6
Other defects .
21
ii
ii
Number examined
407
2588
309
Defects per child
1.65
1.30
1.07
Per cent not defective
25
27
32
Per cent defective .
75
73
68
Here the results are very different from those discussed so
far. In every case, except in that of vision, the children rated
as "dull" are found to be suffering f rom physical defects to greater
degree than the "normal" or "bright" children. It is true that
75 per cent of the dull children are defective as compared with
73 per cent among the normal and 68 per cent among the bright
children. These differences are very slight. But the defective
dull child has on the average 1.65 defects as against 1.07 for the
bright one. In other words the number of defectives among the
125
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
dull children does not differ widely from the number among the
bright ones, but the dull child is found to be much more defective
in degree.
That hypertrophied tonsils and adenoids have a distinct
""bearing upon retardation seems to be clearly indicated by the
fact that the former are found in 26 per cent of the dull children
and only 12 per cent of the bright ones, and in the case of the
latter the percentage falls from 15 to 6. A similar condition is
found in the cases of enlarged glands, defective breathing and de-
fective teeth. In each the falling of? is sharp and consistent as
we move from the dull to the normal and bright groups. It is
too consistent to be dismissed as accidental or non-significant.
The case of defective vision, however, is far from being so
clear. Found in 24 per cent of the dull pupils, 25 per cent of the
normal ones and 29 per cent of the bright ones, it is difficult to
account for it. We have already seen that defective vision
increases with advancing age. A computation of the individual
ages of the dull and bright pupils in the groups here studied shows
that the dull ones are older than the bright ones. Nevertheless
they have better eyesight. The explanation may be that we are
here dealing with extreme cases. The pupils we designate as
bright are very young indeed for their grades and in all probability
include a number who have injured their eyes through undue use
and strain. Even a small percentage of such cases would account
for the difference observed.
The computations establish in a convincing manner the
close connection between certain physical defects and school
progress, but they do not tell us just how great the retarding in-
fluence is or what part the different sorts of defects contribute to
it. To throw light on these problems computations were made
showing the average number of grades completed by the ten year
old pupils who were found to be free from physical defects, the
grades completed by those suffering from enlarged glands and so
on for each of the other kinds of defects. Similar computations
were made for the eleven, twelve, thirteen and fourteen year old
children. Finally, the central tendency for the entire group was
ascertained. The results are illuminating.
126
PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND SCHOOL PROGRESS
TABLE 69. — AVERAGE NUMBER OF GRADES COMPLETED BY PUPILS
HAVING NO PHYSICAL DEFECTS COMPARED WITH NUMBER COM-
PLETED BY THOSE SUFFERING FROM DIFFERENT DEFECTS. CEN-
TRAL TENDENCY AMONG 3304 CHILDREN, AGES TEN TO FOUR-
TEEN YEARS, IN GRADES I TO 8.
Average Number of Average Number 0}
Defect
No physical defects
Enlarged glands
Defective vision .
Defective breathing
Grades Completed
4-94
4.20
4.94
Grades completed by
children having no
defects
Defect Grades Completed
Defective teeth . . . 4.65
Hypertrophied tonsils . 4.50
Adenoids .... 4.24
Other defects . . .4.52
AVERAGE NUMBER
4.94
Grades^completed by
children having de-
fective vision
Grades completed by
children having de-
fective teeth
Grades completed by
children having de-
fective breathing
4.94
4.65
4.58
Grades completed by
children having mis-
cellaneous defects
Grades completed by
children having hyper-
trophied tonsils
Grades completed by
children having ad-
enoids
4.52
'4.50
4.24
Grades completed by
children having en-
larged glands
4.20
Diagram XXVII. — Average number of grades completed by pupils having
no physical defects compared with number completed by those suffering from dif-
ferent sorts of defects.
I27
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
The notable feature of both the table and the diagram is the
I fact that in every case except that of defective vision the children
(suffering from each sort of physical defect made less progress in their
^school work than did those not so handicapped. The seriousness
•"of these handicaps in terms of percentages is shown below:
TABLE 70. — SHOWING PER CENT OF LOSS IN PROGRESS OF CHIL-
DREN SUFFERING FROM EACH SORT OF PHYSICAL DEFECT.
Per cent of Loss in
\ Kinds of Defects Progress
Enlarged glands 14.9
Defective vision none
Defective breathing 7.2
Defective teeth 5.9
Hypertrophied tonsils . . . 8.9
Adenoids 14.1
Other .defects 8.5
Average 8.8
In this table the average loss of 8.8 per cent which appears
in the last line is not, of course, the numerical average of the
per cents of loss corresponding to the different sorts of defects,
but rather the general loss of progress discovered among all the
children having physical defects. In other words, the children
suffering from physical defects made on the whole 8.8 per cent
less progress than did those having no physical defects.
CONCLUSIONS
What then shall we conclude in regard to the relation be-
tween physical defects and school progress in the light of the differ-
ent investigations which have been discussed? We have seen that
in the two Philadelphia examinations the percentages of defect-
iveness among "exempt" and "non-exempt" children are very
similar. The Camden investigation showed very little difference
as regards vision and hearing between retarded children and those
of normal age.
The New York examination shows that the retarded chil-
dren have on the whole fewer defects than those of normal, age,
but it goes farther than this. It establishes the important prin-
ciple that except in the cases of vision older children have fewer
defects, and it shows that when children who are badly retarded
are compared with normal children and very bright children in
128
PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND SCHOOL PROGRESS
the same age groups so that the diminishing of defects through
advancing age does not enter as a factor, the children rated as |
"dull" are found to have higher percentages of each sort of defect I
than the normal and bright children. Here again defective vision |
must be excepted.
Moreover, the New York investigation gives us quantita-
tive measures of the retarding forces of the different kinds of
defects. In general, children suffering from physical defects^
are found to make 8.8 per cent less progress than do childrenyf
having no physical defects. Children suffering from enlarged
glands and adenoids are retarded most. Hypertrophied tonsils,
defective breathing and defective teeth are in general somewhat
less serious in their effects. No statistical correlation is showrT)
between slow progress and defective vision.
It must be remembered that these results are from a few
schools in one city and are not presented as representing general
or typical conditions. Moreover the same child is often suffering
from several sorts of defects so that the figures do not really show
the retarding influence of each sort of -defect separately. For
instance, we find that children suffering from enlarged glands are
retarded to about the same degree as are those with adenoids.
But these are to a great extent the same children. Most of those
having adenoids also have enlarged glands. Thus the figures while
having distinct value as revealing general tendencies must not
be interpreted as showing with precision the relative retarding
force of each separate sort of defect.
All of these considerations are of the first importance in the
problem of retardation. That there is a distinct correlation be-
tween physical defectiveness and school progress has been shown.
The quantitative measure of the retarding force shows that it is
only one of the factors contributing to bring about the serious
degree of retardation which exists in our public schools.
In studying the problems of school progress and physical
defects we must not forget that school success is to only a limited .
extent a true measure of real ability. It may "of ten be but an
indication of adaptability and docility. Indeed it would not be
surprising to find that tnTchild of perfect physical soundness and
exuberant health had so many outside interests as to render him
9 129
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
not particularly successful in school work, and that he found the
rigid discipline of the school room so irksome as to cause him to
fail of approbation by his teachers.
If investigations prior to the one conducted last year in
New York have failed to establish the relation between physical
defects and progress, the explanation may well be that the in-
vestigators have not tabulated their figures by ages and so their
results have been vitiated by the factor of the decrease of defects
with advancing age. Again, many of the investigations so far
conducted have discriminated only slightly, if at all, between the
different sorts of physical defects.
They have grouped together all kinds from pediculosis to
tuberculosis. Some have a direct bearing on the problem ; some
none at all. Defective hearing undoubtedly exercises an impor-
tant influence on a pupil's success in school, but the fact that a
child has a club-foot has no such significance. When we find that
"non-exempt" children in Philadelphia have many more physical
defects than "exempt" children, and when upon further investi-
gation we find that the difference is caused by the more prevalent
skin diseases in the former group, we have not established
a quantitative relation between pediculosis and progress. We
have merely secured one more illustration of the shortcomings
of the statistics of medical inspection. The new school hygiene
is in many respects a new science, and like most ambitious young
sciences it too often tries to prove too much.
When medical inspection shows that a reasonable per cent
of all the school children are suffering from such physical defects
as might reasonably be thought to have some bearing on school
progress, it is not surprising that the study of the school records
of these pupils shows a high degree of correlation to exist between
their marked physical defects and their school progress. But
when all defects, however slight, are lumped together and we are
told that 80 per cent of the children are defective, it is not strange
that no such correlation can be shown. In so relatively definite
a test as that for vision we find the ratio of abnormality ranging
from 7 per cent in Bayonne to 70 per cent in Cleveland. Again,
in a recent examination in Sioux City it was reported that 80
per cent of the children were defective while about the same time
130
PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND SCHOOL PROGRESS
1 8 per cent were reported from Minneapolis. In Chicopee, Massa-
chusetts, out of 500 children examined only one was reported as
having perfect teeth — and he had spinal trouble.
Where the personal equation is so important and methods
and standards so little established as in the field of medical
inspection, the greatest caution must be exercised in drawing
sweeping conclusions from the figures furnished. We have shown :
1. That physical defects decrease with age; that age is the
important factor and must be taken into consideration in all in-
vestigations dealing with defectiveness and school progress.
2. It has been shown that vision does not follow the same
rules as do the other defects.
3. The examinations conducted in New York have shown
higher percentages of enlarged glands, defective breathing, hy-
pertrophied tonsils and adenoids among the dull children than
among* the bright children.
4. It has been demonstrated that physical defectiveness
has a distinct and important bearing on the progress of children.
The new hygiene has before it a great field in which it is
destined to splendid accomplishments in conserving the physical
soundness of the rising generations. Medical inspection through
its detection and exclusion of contagious diseases is preventing
much misery and saving many lives. The school doctor in his
study of the physical welfare of the children will make easier,
happier and more successful the lives of many thousands of pupils.
But when this has been said the limited possibilities in this field
have to some extent been indicated. The long yearned-for royal
road to learning is not always to be found through the surgeon's
knife. " It has not been demonstrated that if you cut out a child's
tonsils, fit him with a pair of eyeglasses and clear him of adenoids
the school term will be cut in half, the general level of education
will surge up and the city will save millions of dollars." The old-
fashioned virtues of industry, application, intelligence and regu-
larity still hold sway, and among the reasons for poor scholarship
are still to be found such old standbys as age upon starting, ab-
sence, laziness and stupidity.
CHAPTER XII
IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE AS A CONTRIB-
UTORY CAUSE OF RETARDATION
IN the present discussion of backwardness or retardation among
school children, it has been thoroughly demonstrated ,that
from one-quarter to one-half of all of the children in the
schools are below the proper grades for their ages or have
made less progress than they should in the time they have
attended school. Whether classified by the criterion of age or
by that of time in school a large part of all of our school children
are retarded.
It has also been thoroughly demonstrated that an immediate
result of this condition is that many children, upon reaching the
age of fourteen or fifteen years, find themselves in the fifth or
sixth grade instead of the eighth, and drop out without finish-
ing. Thus it happens that a comparatively small proportion of
the children entering our schools stay to complete the elementary
school course. The result is that the amount of education re-
ceived by the majority of all of our young people is painfully
small, and the educational aims of our school system are, in a
large measure, defeated.
Studies of the phenomena of retardation and elimination
have up to the present time been mostly confined to attempts at
quantitative measurement. Most of the attempts that have been
made to point out causes have been somewhat speculative in
nature. Among the causes assigned late starting, ignorance of
the English language, innate dullness, and physical handicaps
have been particularly emphasized. Less frequently, irregular
attendance has been mentioned as a contributory factor. It
is the purpose of this chapter to present data showing that irregu-
lar attendance is a large, if not the largest, factor in bringing about
retardation.
132
IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE AS A CONTRIBUTORY CAUSE
The principles underlying the commonly used measurements
for enumerating the children reached by a school system are
comparatively simple. The common measures are three, namely;
total enrollment, average enrollment, and average attendance.
Total enrollment as commonly interpreted is a statement
of the total number of children who have been in school during
the year for any length of time, long or short.
Average enrollment is often stated by months. It is an
expression of the number of children on the roll, based on the
supposition that all remained during the entire period. It is,
of course, always smaller than the total enrollment.
Average attendance is computed substantially as is average
enrollment. It is computation of the number present, based on
the supposition that all were present during the entire time. It
is, of course, always smaller than average enrollment.
These three measures of attendance have come into so nearly
universal use that they are generally accepted without question.
A school or a system that reports 90 or 95 per cent attendance is
thought to have made a fine record, and the figure naturally
leads the school authorities to feel that substantially every child
was present and receiving the benefits of instruction every day.
How far this is from being the case is shown by comparing
the average attendance with the total enrollment in some of our
cities. According to the latest available figures, the relation be-
tween them in six of our largest systems is as follows:
TABLE 71. — COMPARISON OF ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE IN
SIX CITIES.
Total Average
City Enrollment Attendance
New York 1000 751
Philadelphia 1000 695
Chicago . . . . . . . 1000 823
Baltimore 1000 662
, St. Louis 1000 813
Kansas City 1000 733
»
It is plain that total enrollment, the figure almost always
used in stating the magnitude of our public school systems, while
appealing effectively to civic pride because of generous size, does
'33
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
not in reality give any accurate idea of how many children are
present and receiving instruction each day.
In nearly all systems provision is made for temporarily
dropping from the roll the name of any pupil absent more than
a few days. In some places the period of absence allowed before
dropping the name is three days, in others five, and in still others,
ten. Thus the enrollment is automatically kept just a little
ahead of attendance and a high per cent of attendance is assured.
The fluctuations of attendance below 100 per cent really indicate
nothing more than that absences of a day or two have been more
or less frequent as the case may be.
It is obvious that such a system does not answer a question
as to persistence of attendance. It does not tell us how many
children have been present the entire year, and how many only
a fraction of a year. It tells nothing about the attendance of an
individual; whether he has been present most of the time or not.
And yet if a child has been in attendance only half of the time it
would plainly be vain to hope that he could be regularly promoted
and go on with his classmates. The fluctuations from day to day
in a given school are in reality little more than indicators of the
clemency of the weather and the attractiveness of outside diver-
sions. When the weather is stormy, or the circus is in town the
attendance falls; when the sun shines and the circus leaves, the
attendance rises. The figures tell us nothing at all as to which
pupils and how many are always in school and the number of those
frequently absent.
It is probable that few school men realize how many of the
children in their schools are present only a small fraction of the
year. According to the last United States Census, 13,385,628
attended school during the year 1900. Of these only 9,814,040
attended as much as six months. This indicates that the ques-
tion of duration of attendance is well worth looking into.
A diligent study of school reports brings to light nine which
give figures showing the persistence of attendance of the pupils.
These reports are from Columbus, Ohio, 1907; Cleveland, Ohio,
1906; Dayton, Ohio, 1907; Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1907;
Kansas City, Missouri, 1907; New Orleans, Louisiana, 1907;
'34
IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE AS A CONTRIBUTORY CAUSE
Springfield, Ohio, 1907; St. Louis, Missouri, 1907; Syracuse, New
York, 1907; also Porto Rico, 1907.
The figures they give are not all computed on the same basis.
Cleveland and Porto Rico give figures showing the duration of
enrollment, not attendance. It is impossible to discover from
the report the basis on which the Columbus figures are computed.
The seven other cities give figures showing the duration of atten-
dance of all the children enrolled during the year. The figures
showing attendance in the white district schools of St. Louis are
as follows:
TABLE 72. — CHARACTER OF ATTENDANCE
Days
200
1 80 to 200
160 to 180
140 to 160
120 to 140
100 tO I2O
80 to 100
60 to 80
40 to 60
20 to 40 .
Less than 20
Total
IN
ST. LOUIS IN 1907.
Pupils
32,672
",935
5,776
2,656
3,009
3,282
2,844
75,73!
It is plain that the pupils who attended 200 days were never
absent, that those who fell within the 180 to 200 days group were
in continual attendance with merely casual absences of a day
or two, and that most, if not all, of the rest were absent for con-
siderable periods, or else began late in the year or left early.
TABLE 73. — ATTENDANCE IN ST. LOUIS, 1907.
Days
200 .
1 80 tO 200
1 60 to 180
140 to 1 60
120 tO 140
100 tO 120
80 to ioo
60 to 80
40 to 60
20 to 40
Less than 20
RELATIVE FIGURES.
Pupils
44
• • • 43i
• - - 158
. . . 76
49
42
44
• • • 35
40
43
• - • 38
Total 1000
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
In order to compare the conditions in the different localities
some common basis -must be established. The easiest way to do
this is to reduce the data to relative figures on the basis of condi-
tions among 1000 children. When the St. Louis figures are so
reduced they appear as expressed in Table 73.
Now it will certainly be conceded that pupils can hardly
hope to be promoted unless they have been in attendance during
at least three-fourths of the school year. It is desirable then to so
arrange our figures that we can measure attendance by fourths
of the year. With attendance stated by groups of 20 days in a
school year of 200 days this is impossible, but if we rearrange the
table dividing each group in two so as to state attendance by
groups of 10 days, instead of 20, we can divide the table into four
groups. When this is done and each group divided in two we
have a new table giving the same information in new form:
TABLE 74. — ATTENDANCE IN ST. LOUIS IN 1907 BY FOURTHS OF
THE SCHOOL YEAR.
Days
Pupils Total
Per cent
200
44
190 to 200.
216
180 to 190.
215
170 to 1 80.
79
160 to 170.
79
150 to 1 66.
38 671
67.1
140 to 150.
38
130 to 140.
25
120 to 130.
24
IIO tO 120.
21
100 to 110.
21 129
12.9
90 to 100.
22
80 to 90.
22
70 to 80.
18
60 to 70.
17
50 to 60.
20 99
9.9
40 to 50.
20
30 to 40.
22
20 to 30.
21
IO tO 20.
.! . 19
o to 10.
19 101
IO.I
Total ic
,36
IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE AS A CONTRIBUTORY CAUSE
The dotted lines divide the year into fourths leaving in the
first division those who have attended more than three-fourths of
the time, in the second those who have been present from one-
half to three-fourths of the year and so on.
In the following diagram the shaded portion represents
absences and the white attendances:
DAYS
PUPILS 10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190
1000
900
Diagram XXVIII.— Attendance in St. Louis in 1907. Shaded portion represents
absences, white attendances.
This explanation has been given to make clear the methods
by which the figures from all the localities have been treated.
The final results are shown in Table 75.
The figures for Porto Rico and Cleveland are based on length
of enrollment and each would occupy a lower position in the table
if the figures gave the attendance instead. The basis of the
'37
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
Columbus figures is uncertain. The figures for St. Louis and New
Orleans are for white elementary schools only.
TABLE 75. — PERSISTENCE OF ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS IN DIFFERENT
CITIES AND IN PORTO RICO.
City
Less than
One-fourth
Less than
One-half
Less than
Three-
fourths
More than
Three-
fourths
Porto Rico
2.0
9.2
21.6
78-4
Dayton, O
4-7
12. 1
23.6
76.4 -_
Grand Rapids
6.7
14.8
27-5
72-5
Cleveland
8.6
I8.3
28.0
72.0
Springfield, O
6-5
13-7
28.2
71.8
Syracuse
6.2
16.0
29.7
70-3
St. Louis
10. 1
2O.O
32-9]
67.1
Kansas City, Mo.
10.6
20.8
35-1
64.9
New Orleans ....
7-7
21.3
37-4
62.6
Columbus, O
\ 6.9
18.1
38.6
61.4
Average
7.0
16.4
30-3
69.7
The striking condition disclosed is that with the exception
of Dayton, in no city do as many as three-fourths of the children
attend as much as three-fourths of the school year. This is a
radically different showing from that made by the figures published
by some of these same cities giving the per cents of attendance
ranging from 90 to 95. The published per cents do not disclose
significant conditions. The figures giving attendance by periods
of time do.
Only three of the cities publish figures which enable us to
compare the number of children promoted with the number
present at least three-quarters of the time. The results are as
follows :
TABLE 76.-
:OMPARISON BETWEEN PERCENTAGES OF ATTENDANCE
AND PROMOTION IN THREE CITIES.
City
Springfield, O.
Syracuse .
New Orleans .
Per cent Present
at Least £ of the Year
71.8
70.3
62.6
,38
Per cent
Promoted
72.8
64.9
54-9
IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE AS A CONTRIBUTORY CAUSE
It seems obvious that we have not greatly erred in assum-
ing that a low per cent of attendance was accompanied by a
low per cent of promotions. The low percentages of promotion
may surprise some since we are accustomed to read in reports of
from 80 to 90 per cent of the pupils being promoted. The reason
for the low figures in our table is that they are the result of com-
paring the pupils promoted with the whole number enrolled, not
with those enrolled on the last day of the year, which is the com-
mon basis.
We may now consider the relation which such low percent-
ages of promotion have to retardation and the evil which is its
corollary — elimination. It is apparent that if considerable num-
bers of the children entering school fail to be advanced regu-
larly, the lower grades will become abnormally swollen by the
damming of the stream of pupils through them. Experience
teaches us, too, that in the upper grades the pupils who have ad-
vanced -slowly and so are over-age will drop out before completing
the course, thus making these grades abnormally small.
The general rules which -govern these phenomena have been
fully treated in a previous chapter. The first is that the number
of children in the lower grades before the dropping out process
begins will vary as the inverse of the rate of progress. That is,
if we have f of the normal progress in these grades we shall have
f of the normal number of children in each grade. To state it
still again in terms of school administration: If we have a steady
rate of promotion of 80 per cent we shall find 1250 pupils in the
first grade for each 1000 new pupils entering each year.
Another rule which is less exact and which varies in differ-
ent localities, is that no matter what their progress we may expect
about 10 per cent of the children to leave school upon reaching
the age of thirteen, about 40 per cent will have left at fourteen
years, and again about 50 per cent of these at fifteen years.
Where these conditions hold — and they do substantially as
stated in many localities — if we assume a stationary population,
no deaths, all the children entering school at the age of seven
and a steady rate of promotion of 80 per cent, we shall have a
grade distribution for every 1000 children entering school as
follows :
'39
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 77. — HYPOTHETICAL GRADE DISTRIBUTION INFLUENCED BY
RETARDATION AND ELIMINATION.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 1250
Second Grade 1247
Third Grade 1238
Fourth Grade 1219
Fifth Grade 1127
Sixth Grade 905
Seventh Grade 570
Eighth Grade 272
The notable characteristics of this grade distribution are
that for each 1000 children entering school we find 1250 in the first
grade, and only 272 reaching the eighth. Just such conditions
as these exist in many of our cities. Where they are better it is
usually because many children enter before the age of seven, or
because fewer drop out at the ages of thirteen, fourteen and fifteen.
More rarely it is because the percentage of promotion is higher.
To summarize then we may state our conclusions in four
propositions:
1. Such figures as are available indicate that in our cities
less than three-fourths of the children continue in attendance as
much as three-fourths of the year.
2. Irregular attendance is accompanied by a low percentage
of promotions.
3. Low percentage of promotions is a potent factor in bring-
ing about retardation.
4. Retardation results in elimination.
In the foregoing no discussion has been attempted of the
fact that a part of the short term attendance is due to the immi-
gration and emigration of families into and from different cities.
Undoubtedly many children begin the school year in one city and
continue it in another, thus contributing to swell the figures of
short term attendance in both places. It is undoubtedly true,
too, that the process usually results in halting the child's progress
for a time and often in causing him to lose a grade.
140
CHAPTER XIII
PROMOTIONS
THE school child who is not promoted does not advance.
The problem of regular advancement — of promotions — bears
the very closest relation to the problems of retardation and
elimination.
It is significant of the inadequacy of the study that has been
devoted to the whole problem of the progress of school children
through the grades, that it is with the greatest difficulty that in-
formation concerning promotions can be gleaned from the printed
reports. Moreover, where information is to be found it is often
in the shape of one figure giving the per cent of promotions for
the whole school system for the year and very often we are not
even told on what basis this percentage was computed.
Now it is rare indeed that the percentage of pupils promoted
is even approximately constant throughout the grades. As a rule
it is much lower in the first grade than in any other grade, and
usually it increases with the upper grades. There are good reasons
for these commonly observed characteristics. Children enter the
first grade in many cities during all of the months of the school
year. When they are old enough to begin school their parents
send them and they are enrolled. This brings it about that at the
end of the term or year a considerable number of them have been
in attendance only a short time and are not prepared to go on to
the next higher grade. This accounts for the lower percentage
of promotions in the first grade.
In the upper grades attendance is more regular, classes are
smaller and the duller pupils drop out with each advancing grade.
These are some of the reasons accounting for the higher per-
centages of promotion in the upper grades.
The per cent of pupils promoted is usually computed on the
141
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
basis of the number enrolled on the last day of the term or year,
but not always. It is natural that this basis should be taken, for
we naturally compare accomplishment with possibility, and the
child who is no longer on the roll could in no event be a candidate
for promotion when the last day of the term is reached.
The objection against comparing the pupils promoted with
those enrolled at the end of the term is that the pupils who stay
to the end are invariably much fewer in number than the total
number enrolled during the term, and so we often get a more
favorable showing than the facts warrant.
A diligent study of school reports has brought to light
promotion figures for sixteen cities. The facts are shown in per-
centages in the tables on the following page. In all of the cases
except that of Chicago the number of children promoted is com-
pared with the number enrolled at the end of the term. In
Chicago average enrollment is the basis used.
The line of averages at the bottom of the table shows the
characteristics already mentioned with regard to the percentages
of promotions in lower and higher grades. The average percent-
age of promotion in the first grade is 73. This rises to 85 in the
third and fourth, sinks to 83 in the fifth, goes back to 85 in the
sixth and seventh, and rises to 88 in the eighth. This is shown
even more clearly in Diagram XXIX.
The next significant feature revealed by a study of the table
is that there is surprisingly little difference between the average
promotion percentages in the elementary grades of the different
cities. These figures are found in the final column. With the
single exception of Wheeling all of the averages lie between 81
and 90.
Now while there are few quantitative standards by which
city school systems can be compared, we know in a general way
that we have in this list some cities that have school systems
rated by common consent as very good. There are other cities
which are recognized as having much poorer systems.
Again, "promotion" is simply a term of educational ad-
ministration which is used to denote progress of pupils from grade
to grade. We know that pupils progress at greatly varying rates
in these cities, for many of the cities have considerably more re-
142
PROMOTIONS
tarded pupils than do others. The question arises why it is that
we find the promotion percentages so nearly uniform.
TABLE 78. — PROMOTIONS IN SIXTEEN CITIES. PERCENTAGES.
Grade
ii
City
i^3
K123456789
•M
Chicago, 1906
76
73
86
87
87
82
84
82
89
84
Cincinnati, 1907 .
71
81
81
81
85
86
86
89
83
Fort Wayne, Feb., 1907
71
89
87
85
82
88
85
84
84
Fort Wayne, June, 1907
68
86
86
85
83
88
84
88
84
Haverhill, 1907
85
91
91
92
91
88
92
93
96
90
Louisville, 1905 .
83
87
86
89
84
83
87
92
86
Maiden, 1907
77
92
91
92
92
88
89
97
89
Medford, 1907 . . .
79
86
95
92
89
92
95
92
90
New York, Jan., 1907 .
37
70
81
81
82
79
80
81
83
81
New York, June, 1907
53
74
83
83
82
82
81
80
84
81
Philadelphia, 1908
78
81
82
83
79
83
84
84
82
Providence, 1908 .
86-
93
88
89
83
81
79
88
86
Salt Lake City, 1907 .
78
82
85
82
84
87
86
93
84
84
Somerville, 1907 .
83
88
91
90
92
87
87
93
94
89
Springfield, O., 1907 .
81
84
82
84
86
83
89
97
86
Wheeling, 1907
45
64
72
69
57
75
77
66
Wilkes Barre, 1905
55
94
95
96
93
89
86
78
86
Williamsport, 1908
73
80
76
78
80
84
86
90
93
82
Averages, each grade
55
73
83
85
85
83
85
85
88
93
84
TABLE 78. — (Continued.) PROMOTIONS IN HIGH SCHOOLS OF FOUR
OF THE ABOVE SIXTEEN CITIES.
Year
City
I II III IV
Chicago, 1906 . . .
65
66
73
89
Cincinnati, 1907
79
79
88
TOO
Louisville, 1905
7i
70
82
80
Springfield, O., 1907 .
«5
79
84
91
Averages
75
73
81
90
One answer to this question may be reached by studying
143
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
briefly the great influence exerted by a slight difference in the
percentage of promotion. We are not accustomed to consider
such differences as significant when they are slight. In a general
way we feel that if a school system has a record of promotions of
85 per cent it has done well, and that if another system has a
record of 80 per cent it too has not only done well, but nearly as
well as the first system.
It is worth while to investigate the validity of this assump-
tion. In the diagram shown below we have the average percent-
ages of promotion for the several grades. If 1000 pupils begin
GRADES
HIGH SCHOOL
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 I II III IV
88
90
83.
85
••••—•-
O-5
•1 1 •,
83
—••—i
5
.•i
85,
•*\
je
^
S
"/
^
23>
CfrJ
f
J^7
PER
CENT
Diagram XXIX. — Average Promotion Rates from records of sixteen cities.
school together and are promoted or fail according to these aver-
age percentages, how many will complete eight years without
failing; how many will fail; and what will be the aggregate
number of failures? Moreover, how will they be distributed as to
age and grade at the end of eight years if none drop out? The
answers to these questions will show us the true significance of
these promotion percentages in their practical working out. To
obtain the information let us apply the conditions stated above to
a supposititious case where 1000 pupils enter school each year.
By consulting the lowest line in Table 79 we note that in
the eighth year only 260 of the fourteen year old pupils have reached
144
PROMOTIONS
the eighth grade. At the age of fourteen pupils begin to fall out
of school in large numbers. If we should continue our table so as
to include the ages fifteen and sixteen and allow for the dropping
out of thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen year old pupils our
upper grades would be somewhat larger than they are in the table,
and contain pupils of ages varying over an even greater range.
In other words we should thereby more closely approximate con-
ditions found in our school systems.
TABLE 79. — SHOWING AGE AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION IN THE
EIGHTH YEAR IN A CITY WHERE IOOO CHILDREN ENTER
SCHOOL EACH YEAR AND ARE PROMOTED ACCORDING TO
THE PERCENTAGES SHOWN IN THE PRECEDING DIAGRAM.
NONE DIE AND NONE DROP OUT.
Grade
7
8
9
4
10
ye
11
12
13
14
Total
First .- .
Second .
Third .
Fourth .
Fifth .
Sixth .
Seventh
Eighth
1 000
280
720
48
354
598
8
93
39 1
508
i
22
*37
408
432
5
41
183
412
359
i
10
62
218
403
306
80
246
389
260
!337
H95
1179
1178
1148
1008
695
260
Total
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
TOGO
IOOO
8000
In the table the 260 pupils in the eighth grade have reached
that point without having failed. All of the other fourteen year
old pupils have failed once or more. There are 740 of them. Of
these the 389 pupils who are in the seventh grade have each failed
of promotion once; those in the sixth grade have failed twice and
so on. Computing these failures in this way for all of the fourteen
year old pupils we get a total number of failures of 1217.
We may now express the results of applying our average
promotion figures to our hypothetical case in a table as follows:
TABLE 80. — RESULTS OF AVERAGE PERCENTAGES OF PROMOTION.
Aggregate Number
Number not Failing Number Failing of Failures
260 740 1217
I45
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
The facts are startling when we reflect that they express the re-
sults of average percentages of promotion. In general terms they
mean that in our city schools on the average three out of every
four pupils have failed at least once by the time the eighth year
of school life is reached, and that the whole number of failures is
so large as not to fall far short of averaging two for each pupil who
has failed. Certainly the average city school system trains its
pupils well in the habit of failure.
If these are the average results, what are the results in the
systems having higher percentages of promotion? In the case
just discussed the average percentage of promotion in all the
grades was 83. In Haverhill and Medford it is 90. Proceeding
just as before and applying the Haverhill percentages to the case
of 1000 pupils who enter school together each year at the age of
seven we have in the eighth year the following distribution:
TABLE 8l. — SHOWING AGE AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION IN THE EIGHTH
YEAR IN A SYSTEM WHERE IOOO CHILDREN ENTER EACH YEAR
AND ARE PROMOTED ACCORDING TO THE HAVERHILL PERCENT-
AGES. NONE DIE AND NONE DROP OUT.
Grade
4
?e
Total
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
First .
IOOO
150
13
i
1164
Second
850
213
31
3
1097
Third .
774
263
5°
7
i
1095
Fourth .
7°5
298
73
14
i
1091
Fifth .
. .
649
329
104
21
1103
Sixth .
360
125
1076
Seventh
C2 I
804.
Eighth
4.80
<_>yi(.
4.80
Total
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
IOOO
8000
The results here are in sharp contrast to the results dis-
cussed above. The comparison is as follows:
146
PROMOTIONS
TABLE 82. — EFFECTS OF AVERAGE PROMOTION RATES AS COM-
PARED WITH RATES OBTAINING IN HAVERHILL, MASS.
Percentages of Promotion
Number
not
Failing
Number
Failing
Aggregate
Number of
Failures
Average, 83% . . . .
Haverhill, 90%
260
480
740
520
1217
690
On the Haverhill standard 480 pupils out of every 1000 reach
the eighth grade without failing; on the average standard only
260 do so. On the average standard 740 pupils fail on the way
from the first grade to the eighth; on the Haverhill standard only
520. In the former case the aggregate number of failures is 1217;
in the latter only 690. The contrasts are sharp and yet the aver-
age of the percentages of promotion in the average case is 83,
while in Haverhill it is 90. The difference is only 7 points, but
the difference between the number of pupils with clear records is
220 in each 1000. This illustrates with great clearness the im-
portance of even slight variation in promotion percentages.
The principle is still further emphasized by noting the results of
promotion percentages varying from 100 down to 75:
TABLE 83. — SHOWING FOR EACH IOOO PUPILS HOW MANY DO NOT
FAIL AND HOW MANY FAIL IN EIGHT YEARS OF SCHOOL LIFE
AND AGGREGATE NUMBER OF FAILURES UNDER DIFFERENT
PROMOTION PERCENTAGES.
Percentages of
Promotion
Number not
Failing
Number
Failing
Aggregate
Number of
Failures
100
IOOO
000
ooo
95
734
266
350
90
478
522
700
85
320
680
1050
80
210
790
1400
75
104
896
1750
These results are shown in graphic form in the following diagrams
which forcibly illustrate the astonishing rapidity with which the
'47
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
PROMOTION PERCENTAGES
100 95 90 85 80
Diagram XXX. — Number failing and number not failing in eight grades in
each 1000 pupils. In each upright column the black portion represents the num-
ber failing. Note the rapid increase with each successive drop in promotion per-
centage.
Per
cent
Pro- Fail-
moted ures
100 0
95
90 700
85 1050
80 1400
75 1750
Diagram XXXI. — Increase in the number of failures in eight grades among 1000
pupils with each decrease in the per cent promoted.
148
PROMOTIONS
bad effects of low percentages of promotion increase with each
successive decrease of the percentage promoted.
Both figures and diagrams show in striking fashion how far
from valid is the natural and common assumption that slight dif-
ferences in rates of promotion are of little significance. The facts
are quite to the contrary. A promotion rate of 75 per cent is an
entirely different matter from one of 80 per cent, and this again
has not at all the same educational significance as a 90 or 95 per
cent rate.
149
CHAPTER XIV
THE FACTOR OF SEX
IT is a matter of common knowledge that there are more girls
than boys in American high schools. According to the
figures published by the Commissioner of Education in his re-
port for 1907, the boys constitute but 43 per cent of the high school
membership and the girls 57 per cent. The condition is note-
worthy because the United States is the only nation having more
girls than boys in her secondary schools. The common explana-
tion, and the one put forward by the Commissioner in his report,
is that boys have superior opportunities for securing work at a
relatively early age and so drop out of school. Plausibility is
lent to this view by the fact that not only do more girls than boys
enter the high schools, but a greater proportion remain to the
final year.
In 1907 the membership of the four classes in 7624 American
high schools as published by the Commissioner of Education was
as follows:
TABLE 84. — MEMBERSHIP OF 7624 AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOLS,
I9o6-7.
Class
Boys
Girls
Total
First Year
Second Year
Third Year
Fourth Year
137,388
85,082
55,45s
36,156
173,296
114,684
77,864
53,726
310,684
199,766
133,322
89,882
Total
314,084
4i9,57o
733,654
When these figures are reduced to proportional numbers on
he basis of 100 girls in the first class, the falling off in the upper
150
THE FACTOR OF SEX
classes, the preponderance of girls over boys, and the better re-
tention among the girls in the upper grades are easily seen.
TABLE 85. — MEMBERSHIP OF 7624 AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOLS IN
1906-7. PROPORTIONAL NUMBERS.
Class
Boys
Girls
Total
First Year . . . . .
79
100
179
Second Year
49
66
"5
Third Year
32
45'
77
Fourth Year
20
31
5i
Total
1 80
242
422
Or, as shown by the diagram:
f— — — —
1
1
"! n
1
1
III
a
1
T^
1
1
IV
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
Diagram XXXII. — Showing the falling off of the number of boys and girls
in the successive high school classes. Girls represented by columns in solid lines,
boys by columns in broken lines.
Roughly speaking, for each 100 girls who enter the high
school there are only 79 boys. Twenty-five per cent of the boys
who enter continue to the fourth class as compared with 31 per
cent for the girls. This situation in the field of secondary educa-
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
tion has been the subject of extended comment but similar com-
parisons for elementary schools have been rare. The reason has
been that until recently we did not have grade figures from a suffi-
cient number of school systems to allow of safe studies of grade
variability between the two sexes. This difficulty has now been
removed by the publication of grade figures by the United States
Commissioner of Education.
According to his report for 1907 the two sexes were distrib-
uted among the grades in 752 towns and cities as follows:
TABLE
86.
GRADE
Grade
First Grade
Second Grade .
Third Grade .
Fourth Grade .
Fifth Grade .
Sixth Grade .
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade .
DISTRIBUTION BY SEXES IN 752 CITIES.
1906-7.
Boys Girls
. 266,659
181,241
165,127
143. *74
"9.935
9!,773
64.391
249,219
182,444
176,442
165,824
143.132
i23>525
101,271
75. II2
We have seen that in the first, as in the other high school
classes, the girls outnumber the boys. In the elementary schools
the boys are more numerous than the girls in the first grade, but
in the eighth grade the girls are more numerous. If we reduce
this table also to proportional numbers, taking as a basis this
time 100 boys in the first grade, we shall see clearly the comparison
between the two sexes.
TABLE 87. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION BY SEXES IN 752 CITIES. PRO-
PORTIONAL NUMBERS.
Grade
First Grade .
Second Grade .
Third Grade .
Fourth Grade .
Fifth Grade .
Sixth Grade .
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade .
Boys
67
62
53
44
34
24
Girls
93
68
66
62
53
46
37
28
Here the comparison is very easily seen. There are more
boys than girls in the first grade and more girls than boys in the
eighth.
152
THE FACTOR OF SEX
Now the sexes are substantially equal in number in the
population. In the United States as a whole at the ages five to
nineteen boys are only i per cent more numerous than girls.
What then is the explanation of their decided preponderance in
these lower grades? There is only one possible answer. Since
the two sexes must enter school in substantially equal numbers
but boys are decidedly more numerous in the lower grades, it
means that there is considerably more retardation among boys
than among girls. On the other hand girls are more numerous
in the upper grades. This means that there is more elimination
among boys. These conditions are shown in the following diagram
which represents graphically the facts of the table showing the
grade distribution of the sexes:
r
-
2
--
i
h-
2
' — |
;
4
"•
n
i
^
i
r
-
-
i
5
--
~-
i
7
_.
i
8
i
r
" T
Diagram XXXIII. — Showing the relative distribution of boys and girls in the
elementary grades. Boys represented by columns in dotted lines, girls by
columns in solid lines. Bovs are more numerous in the lower grades, girls in the
upper ones.
53
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
The conclusions respecting the relative amounts of retarda-
tion and elimination among boys and girls may be easily tested
by an appeal to the grade and age distribution in those cities
which publish these figures separately for the two sexes. Careful
search has brought to light fifteen such cases. The per cent of
retarded pupils has in each case been calculated by the method
explained in Chapter IV with the results shown in the following
table:
TABLE
>. — PER CENT OF RETARDED PUPILS AMONG BOYS AND
AMONG GIRLS IN FIFTEEN CITIES.
Difference in
City
Boys
Girls
Favor of the
Girls
i. Aurora, 1907
20.1
16.0
4.1
2. Baltimore, 1907
48.0
44-5
3-5
3. Boston, 1907
19.0
18.1
•9
4. Camden, 1907 ....
47-9
44.8
3-i
5. Columbus, 1907
39-9
34-9
5-o
6. Decatur, 1908 ....
33-4
26.5
6.9
7. Erie, 1901
61.0
59-2
1.8
8. Fort Wayne, 1907.
26.7
20.4
6-3
9. Kansas City, Mo., 1908
49-3
47-8
i-5
10. Kingston, N. Y., 1908
41-5
35-2
6.3
u. Los Angeles, 1904
41.2
35-4
$"*
12. New Haven, 1908
25-7
25.2
•5
13. Reading, 1907 ....
35-5
27-5
8.0
14. Trenton, 1904 ....
34-6
27.1
7-5
15. Williamsport, Pa., 1908
32.8
29.4
3-4
Average of percentages.
37-i
32.8
4-3
In every case there is more retardation among boys than
among girls, the difference ranging from .5 per cent in New Haven
to 8 per cent in Reading. Since the average percentage of re-
tardation is 37.1 among boys and 32.8 among girls we may say,
taking the percentage of retardation among girls as a basis, that
retardation among boys is 1 3 per cent more prevalent than among
girls.
The second proposition which was stated as a conclusion
drawn from the study of the grade figures published by the
Commissioner of Education, was that there was greater elimina-
'54
THE FACTOR OF SEX
tion among boys than among girls. To test this, recourse must
be had to the grade and age figures of thirteen of the cities which
publish their figures by sexes. The methods by which the per
cent of beginning pupils continuing to the final grade is computed
have been explained in the chapter on "Mortality and Survival
in the Grades." Applying these methods of computation we
have:
TABLE 89. — SHOWING PERCENTAGES OF BOYS AND GIRLS RETAINED
TO THE FINAL ELEMENTARY GRADE IN THIRTEEN CITIES.
Per Cent of Boys
Per cent of Girls
City
Retained to Final
Retained to Final
Grade
Grade
i. Aurora, 1907 . . . . .
78.9
79.8
2. Baltimore, 1907
26.6
3x-9
3. Boston, 1907
63.1
72-3
4. Camden, 1907 ....
16.6
18.0
5. Columbus, 1907 .
51.6
58.8
6. Decatur, 1908 ....
77.0
78.7
7. Erie, 1901
20.7
34-o
8. Fort Wayne, 1907 ....
79-4
75-4
9. Kansas Citv, Mo., 1908
55-5
72.3
10. Kingston, N. Y., 1908 .
63.8
84.1
11. Los Angeles, 1904 ....
41.7
57-7
12. Trenton, 1904
33-5
42.5
13. Williamsport, 1908
40.9
54-6
Average of percentages ....
49.9
58.5
Here in every case, except that of Fort Wayne, a greater
percentage of girls than of boys is retained to the final elementary
grade. The percentage for boys is 49.9; for girls it is 58.5. The
difference in favor of the girls is 8.6 points. Taking the percent-
age of retention among boys as a basis we may say that the pro-
portion of girls who remain in school to the final elementary grade
is 17.2 per cent greater than that for the boys.
Since retardation and elimination are both more severe
among boys than among girls it follows that the number of re-
peaters must also be greater. Computing in each case the num-
ber of repeaters by the method described in the chapter entitled
"The Money Cost of the Repeater" we have the following results:
'55
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 90. — NUMBER OF REPEATERS AMONG BOYS AND GIRLS IN
FOURTEEN CITIES.
City
Boys
Girls
i. Aurora, 1907
156
*55
2. Baltimore, 1907
9,023
8,432
3. Boston, 1906
5,99!
5,030
4. Camden, 1907
2,132
2,131
5. Columbus, 1907
2,020
1.513
6. Decatur, 1908
440
354
7. Erie, 1901
1,065
961
8. Fort Wayne, 1907
500
443
9. Kansas City, Mo., 1908
4,247
3,8i4
10. Kingston, N. Y., 1908 ....
407
303
n. Los Angeles, 1904
3>I03
2,425
12. New Haven, 1908
1,772
i, 600
13. Trenton, 1904
1,083
1,005
14. Williamsport, 1908 ....
373
321
Total
32,312
28,487
Total membership of elementary schools
141,240
140,839
Per cent of repeaters ....
22.8
20.2
In every case there is more repeaters among the boys, more
among the girls. The percentages are 22.8 for the former and
20.2 for the latter. Taking the proportion of repeaters among the
girls as a basis we find that the proportion for boys exceeds that
for girls by 12.8 per cent.
Since it has been shown that there is more retardation, more
elimination and a greater number of repeaters among boys than
among girls it follows that rates of promotion must be lower
among them. Unfortunately it is impossible to test this satis-
factorily because of lack of information in a sufficient number of
cases. Only two cities have been found in which the statistics
of promotion are so published as to permit of the comparison.
There the results are as follows:
TABLE 91. — PER CENT OF PROMOTION AMONG BOYS AND GIRLS
IN TWO CITIES.
City
Wilkes Barre, 1905
Wheeling, 1907
156
Boys
80.9
71.0
Girls
81.2
73-o
THE FACTOR OF SEX
While it would be distinctly unwise to draw conclusions from
two cases, it is significant that here, as in all of the other compari-
sons made, the result is the same — conditions favor girls over
boys. The conclusions from the comparisons between conditions
for the two sexes may be summarized as follows:
1. In our high schools 57 per cent of the pupils are girls and
only 43 per cent are boys.
2. For each 100 girls who enter there are only 79 boys.
3. Twenty-five per cent of the boys continue to the fourth
class as compared with 3 1 per cent for the girls.
4. Retardation among boys in elementary schools is 13
per cent more prevalent than among girls.
5. The proportion of girls who remain to the final elementary
grade is 17 per cent greater than the proportion of boys who re-
main.
6.. There are more repeaters among boys than among girls.
The former exceed the latter by about 13 per cent.
All of the results which have been discussed are most sig-
nificant from an educational view point. In the current dis-
cussion of what has been termed the feminization of our schools
much has been made of alleged bad effects of too exclusively
feminine instruction on the moral fiber and character of the boys,
but little evidence has been brought forward to substantiate these
claims.
Here we have indisputable evidence that there is more re-
tardation among our boys than among our girls in the elementary
schools. As this condition exists before the close of the compul-
sory attendance period it can have no relation to the alleged greater
desire for seeking employment on the part of the boys which has
often been put forward as an explanation of the more rapid fall-
ing out of school of the boys. There are more repeaters among the
boys than among the girls and the boys leave school earlier and in
greater numbers. This latter condition arises in the elementary
schools and continues through the high schools. The percentage
of promotions is less among boys than among girls.
It is impossible definitely to attribute these conditions to
*57
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
the employment of large numbers of women teachers in our schools
because we have no schools taught by men to use for purposes of
comparison. We can, however, state definitely as a conclusion
from the facts that have been presented, that our schools as they
now exist are better fitted to the needs and natures of the girl
than of the boy pupils.
CHAPTER XV
AGE THE CONTROLLING FACTOR IN
ELIMINATION .'
WHEN we study city school systems with reference to the
proportion of their pupils that they retain to the
final elementary grade we find, as shown by this study,
the greatest diversity of results. Camden drops four out of every
five on the way from the first grade to the eighth. Quincy, Mas-
sachusetts, drops one and keeps four out of every five. Careful
study of the age and grade figures shows conclusively that age is
the deciding factor in this dropping out process. Children are not
kept in the elementary school as a rule long after they pass the age
of fourteen. If upon reaching that age they are ready to pass on
to the high school many of them will do so. If on the other hand
they are only in the fifth grade they will drop out and go to work.
In any case they will leave the elementary school at about that age.
This may be verified by a study of the age and grade dis-
tribution in any city. For the present discussion, let us consider
conditions in Cincinnati in June, 1 907. The distribution of children
by grades and ages at that time is given in the following table:
TABLE 92. — GRADE AND AGE DISTRIBUTION IN CINCINNATI.
Grade
Age
Total
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1718
1
Q88
3557
1972
7QO
312
149
82
40
13
8
3
7914
2
20
418
IQQO
1870
Q88
467
235
106
54
18
i
6167
3
9
3*1
1608
1726
1201
623
323
162
32
9
2
i
6077
4
60
401
1403
I5<^
1038
622
306
72
15
I
542i
5
. .
15
288
III2
1233
1041
592
167
32
I
i
4482
6
27
310
943
1209
820
298
49
4
i
3661
7
35
273
885
900
462
117
18
5
2695
8
24
257
771
556
210
40
5
1863
Total .
I008
3984
4403
4684
4744
4777
445 1
4483
3618
1613
436
66
!3
38280
'59
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
Referring to the figures in the top row we find that there are 1397
pupils nine years of age or older. As these statistics were gathered
at the end of the year we may consider that these first grade chil-
dren if they progress normally may graduate seven years from
now. But they now range in ages from 9 to 16. Hence, they
will be from 1 6 to 23 years of age upon graduation.
What is the probability that they will remain in school until
they attain these ages? An exact computation of this cannot be
made because we have no means of finding out how many new
pupils enter the schools of Cincinnati each year. However, we
may approximate it by the method explained in Chapter V. We
note that the number of children at each of the ages from eight
to thirteen inclusive is not far from 4500. As the number of
beginners each year cannot be far from the number of children
who become of school age each year, we shall not be far out of
the way if we conclude that the number of pupils annually
entering the schools of Cincinnati for the first time is about
4500. Now the number of children sixteen years of age or older
in the eighth grade is only 255. That is to say, out of the children
who enter these schools each year only one out of eighteen
stays to graduate, if in order to do so he has to remain until he
is at least sixteen years old. If graduation means staying in
school until the age of seventeen, only one in 100 does so; the
rest drop out. If graduation means staying to the age of eighteen
only one in 900 survives. The rest fall by the wayside.
By referring to the figures at the bottom of the table giving
size of the age groups, it will be noted that there is a sharp falling
off at the age of fourteen followed by successive and large diminu-
tions at the ages fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen. Of
course, part of this is due to the fact that many of the children
of these ages have passed on into the high school. A large part
of it, however, is due to the permanent dropping out of school
of children at the ages from fourteen on. In Cincinnati practically
no children leave school before the age of thirteen. One out of
every five drops out at the age of fourteen. During the following
year half of the children leave. At sixteen half of those who are
left drop out. At seventeen there is a further falling off of 50 per
cent. The same is true at eighteen and nineteen.
160
AGE THE CONTROLLING FACTOR IN ELIMINATION
It is evident that the age of fourteen is the critical age in
Cincinnati. The age of fourteen is not to be taken, however,
as the universal quitting point. Cities differ very much in the
magnetic powers of their schools over the children. In some
cities, Wheeling for example, pupils leave in large numbers at the
age of thirteen. In others, as in Grand Rapids, few drop out
of the elementary schools before the age of fifteen.
There is an even greater difference to be noted in the age
of starting. In Cincinnati few children are found under the age of
seven. In Boston a large part of the children begin school at
the age of five. If a child begins school at the age of five and is
regularly promoted he can complete the eight grades by the time
he is thirteen; if he begins at seven he will reach the final grade at
fifteen. Since both combinations are possible and common, the
only way to discover whether age at starting or retention in the
upper grades is the deciding factor in securing for a city a high
percent-age of grade survival, is to study the facts.
In order to do this Table 93 has been prepared which includes
only cities which give age figures for all schools, not for elementary
schools only. Cities have also been omitted where the number of
children at six years of age appears to mean children of six and
under. This leaves us thirty-seven cities to consider. These cities
are ranked in the order of the percentage of beginning pupils con-
tinuing to the highest grade. Decatur, where 77.4 per cent of the
beginners survive occupies the first place, and Camden which
carries through only 17.3 per cent occupies the other extreme.
In this list Richmond (colored) occupies the median position.
Nineteen cities make better showings and nineteen make poorer
records. This is shown by the plus and minus signs in the second
column. The third column shows in relative figures, on the basis
of looo beginners, the number of pupils who are in school at the
age of six.
It will be noted that in several cases the number is more than
looo. At first sight this appears anomalous, for we should not
expect the number of children at the age of six to exceed the num-
ber of beginners. The reason is that the number of beginners is
computed by taking the average of the year groups. In the cases
in the table where the children at six are more than 1000, it is
ii 161
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
because the six year group happened to be larger than the average
of the components going to make up the figure which we consid-
ered the number of beginners.
TABLE 93. — PER CENT OF PUPILS RETAINED TO FINAL GRADE,
NUMBER AT 6 YEARS OF AGE AND NUMBER AT 15 YEARS IN 37
CITIES. RELATIVE FIGURES ON THE BASIS OF IOOO BEGINNERS.
City
Number
Reaching
Highest
Grade
Relation
to
Median
Number
at
6 Years
Relation
to
Median
Number
at
15 Years
Relation
to
Median
i. Decatur
77-4
+
974
+
45 1
+
2. Fort Wayne
77.0 +
1170
+
506
+
3. Grand Rapids
76.4
+
1017
+
818
+
4. Omaha
74-3
+
1024
+
554
+
5. Medford
72.2
+
93°
—
488
+
6. Richmond (white)
71.9
+
103
—
449
+
7. Wilmington (white)
69.8
+
56o
+
595
+
8. Newton
68.9
+
1026
+
+
9. Denver
68.8
+
1166
+
641
+
10. Kansas City.
67.4
+
1116
+
560
+
ii. Springfield, O. .
59-4
+
786
—
525
+
12. Fitchburg
58.2
+
1015
+
555
+
13. New Brunswick .
5S-i
+
894
—
416
Median
14. Columbus .
54-8
+
911
—
560
+
15. Portland, Me.
54-7
+
720
—
665
+
1 6. Chicago
52-3
+
IIIO
+
3°4
—
17. Williamsport
47-9
+
887
—
444
+
1 8. Louisville (white)
46.7
+
1004
+
173
—
19. Meriden
46.4
+
1056
+
395
—
20. Richmond (colored)
46.3
Median
91
478
21. Dayton
45-8
—
i°34
+
511
___
22. Jersey City .
44-7.
—
932-
Median
246
—
23. New York .
42.6
—
592
—
292
—
24. St. Louis
42.3
—
625
—
4i5
—
25. Cincinnati .
41-3
—
223
—
464
+
26. Utica .
38.0
—
802
—
411
—
27. Passaic
37-2
1 100
+
227
—
28. Reading
36.2
779
—
243
29. Paterson
36-1
981
+
282
—
30. Philadelphia
32-4
528
—
215
—
31. Wheeling
3J-3
950
+
249
—
32. Woonsocket.
30.0 —
1056
+
353
—
33. Baltimore
29-3
819
—
347
—
34. Newark
28.0
1063
+
211
35. Hoboken
27.3 1002
+
290
36. Erie. .
27.1 728
—
3°4
37. Wilmington (col.)
26.4
- —
895
—
537 +
38. New Orleans (white)
25-5
—
918
—
286
39. Camden
17-3
—
925
—
220
162
AGE THE CONTROLLING FACTOR IN ELIMINATION
In the third column the median is Jersey City with 932
children at the age of six. The relations of the records of the
other cities to the median are shown by the plus and minus signs
in the fourth column. Among the cities in the upper half, twelve
have more than the median number of children in school at six,
and seven have less. The median itself, seven cities marked plus,
and eleven marked minus are found in the lower half.
It is evident that there is little correlation here between
those beginning school early and those continuing to the highest
grade. If all of -the cities making poor showings as regards sur-
vivors had few children in school at the age of six, and all those
making good showings had many at that age, we should conclude
that age at starting was the deciding factor. As it is we can see
little relation between the two.
The fifth column shows the pupils remaining to the age of
fifteen. Here the median is New Brunswick with 416.
The sixth column shows by the plus and minus signs that
in the upper half of the table we have the median itself, fifteen
cities having more than the median number of children at fifteen
and three having less. In the lower half of the table there are
three more and sixteen less.
Here the result is as conclusive as it was inconclusive before.
The cities with badly shrunken final grades are the cities which
do not retain many children to the age of fifteen. Those with
large final grades are the ones that succeed in keeping their children
in large numbers to that age.
Note: These relationships may be more correctly determined by computing
the mathematical correlations between the first and second groups and the first
and third groups. A perfect correlation is mathematically expressed by i and a
less perfect correlation by some high percentage of i, as .85 or .90; a low correlation
by a small per cent, as .20 or .25; negative correlations, by minus quantities varying
in the same way from o to -i.
In the case in point the index of correlation may be simply and quickly
obtained by reference to one of Pearson's simpler formulas modified by Dr. Guy
Montrose Whipple of Cornell University. According to Pearson
r = sin
• V ad + y'bc
Now this formula may be brought into a more convenient form if we re-
place the sine by the cosine of its complement.
163
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
All of the foregoing will be rendered plainer by referring to
Diagram XXXIV.
In the upper of the three divisions the shaded portion repre-
sents the percentage of pupils in each city retained to the final
elementary grade. In the second division the shaded columns
represent for the same cities in relative figures the number of
children in school at the age of six. It is plain that there is no
close correlation between the number of children at the age of six
and the per cent of children retained to the final elementary grades.
In this division of the diagram some of the columns are long,
some short, entirely irrespective of the number of survivors in the
final grade. In the third division of the diagram the shaded
columns are proportionate to the relative figures representing the
number of children in school at the age of fifteen. Here we see
a general correlation between the number of children at the age
of fifteen and the percentage of children retained to the final grade.
The cities on the left of the diagram having large final grades
are the cities which have many children in school at fifteen years
of age. Those at the extreme right, which have small final grades,
have few children at the age of fifteen. While there are several
exceptions it is evident that there is here a distinct correlation.
Lr xad — i/bc
7 --* y
which we can reduce to
C°S ^ " « ,/ad + S*
\/' ad + |/ be
If now we further simplify by substituting for the square root of the pro-
duct of the b and c cases the percentages of cases with unlike signs (U), and for the
square root of the product of the a and d cases the percentages of cases with like
signs (L), we obtain Sheppard's formula:
U
J0 L + U "
The results of this formula do not differ appreciably from the foregoing
as the value of the fraction is virtually identical.
Now, since L+U must always equal 100, and since n = 180° this formula
may be written for greater convenience,
r = cos U 1.8°
By applying this simplified method to the data in question we have as the
correlation between the first series and the second .338 which is a very low correla-
tion. Again performing the computations for the first and third series we have as
the result .844 which is a very high correlation.
164
Diagram XXXIV. — (1) Per cent retained to final grade in 37 cities com-
pared with (2) per cent of beginners present at 6 and (3) per cent present at 15.
Low correlation between (1) and (2). High correlation between (1) and (3).
(*) Colored schools.
.65
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
The lesson of this is that retention at the upper ages, not
age at starting, is the deciding factor in obtaining for a city a large
percentage of survivors in the highest grades. Why this should
be so is not at first sight apparent. Most of our school courses
are arranged on the supposition that a child will complete the
elementary grades in eight years. If he starts at the age of five
and is regularly promoted he will graduate at the age of thirteen.
Beginning at six he will finish at fourteen, and so on. Thus it
would seem that the way to insure a large number reaching the
final grade before the characteristic exodus at fourteen would be
to have them start early. And yet our figures show that age at
starting is not the controlling factor.
Light is thrown on this seeming paradox by studies made of
the school records of pupils in the schools of the city of New York.
Complete transcripts of the school histories of 269 eighth grade
pupils who were about to graduate were secured. Comparing
the ages at starting in the first grade and time taken to complete
the course the following facts were disclosed:
TABLE 94. — AGE AT STARTING, TIME IN SCHOOL AND AVERAGE AGE
OF 269 EIGHTH GRADE PUPILS IN NEW YORK CITY.
Average Num-
Age at Starting
Number
ber of Years
Taken to Com-
Age at Gradua-
tion
plete 8 Grades
Under 5
12
9.62
14.62
5 to 6
64
8.86
14.36
6 to 7
IJ3
8.61
15.11
7 to 8
54
8.44
15-94
8 to 9
J9
8.18
1 6. 68
9 to 10
7
7.21
16.71
Total .....
269
8.61
i5-23
In studying this table it must be remembered that it repre-
sents survivors only. The third column shows plainly that those
who make rapid progress through the grades are pupils who started
it comparatively advanced ages. Those who make slow progress
are the pupils who begin young. On the other hand it must be
1 66
AGE THE CONTROLLING FACTOR IN ELIMINATION
remembered that most of those who start late never reach the
highest grades at all. They drop out on the way. Those who
start young take more than normal time to make the journey but
still they have time to arrive at the finish. The facts of the table
are graphically shown in the following diagram:
Children starting under 5
take 9.6 years to complete
8 grades.
Children starting from 5 to
6 take 8.9 years to complete
8 grades.
Children starting from 6 to
7 take 8.6 years to complete
8 grades.
Children starting from 7 to
8 take 8.4 years to complete
8 grades:
Children starting from 8 to
9 take 8.2 years to complete
8 grades.
Children starting from 9 to
10 take 7.2 years to com-
plete 8 grades.
Diagram XXXV. — Age at starting and time in school of 269 eighth grade pupils
in New York City.
On account of the educational significance of the facts dis-
closed by the study of the school histories of the eighth grade
pupils, a further investigation was made of the records of 967
fifth grade pupils. The facts as to age at starting and time in
school are as shown in Table 95.
Not only is this corroborative of the former set of results
but it introduces some new points of interest. In the table of
eighth grade pupils it will be noted that the latest age at starting
given is ten years. Here we note that a few started even as
late as twelve years of age. No matter what their rate of progress
these pupils never get as far as the eighth grade. They drop out
before reaching it.
,67
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
TABLE 95. — AGE AT STARTING, TIME IN SCHOOL AND AVERAGE AGE
OF 967 FIFTH GRADE PUPILS IN NEW YORK CITY.
Age at Starting
Number
Average Time
in School
Average Age
Under 5
27
7-05
12.05
5 to 6
248
6.08
11.58
6 to 7
410
5-92
12.42
7 to 8
173
5-75
13.25
8 to 9
72
13.69
9 to 10
32
4-85
14-35
10 to ii
4
3.50
13.50
II to 12
i
3-5o
14.50
Total
967
5.86
12.51
[n graphic form the same facts are presented below:
Children starting under 5 take — — _^__ __ i__
7.1 years to complete 5 grades.
Children starting from 5 to 6
take 6.1 years to complete 5 grades.
Children starting from 6 to 7
take 5.9 years to complete 5 grades.
Children starting from 7 to 8
take 5.8 years to complete 5 grades.
Children starting from 8 to 9
take 5.2 years to complete 5 grades.
Children starting from 9 to 10
take 4.9 years to complete 5 grades.
Children starting from 10 to 11
take 3.5 years to complete 5 grades.
Children starting from n to 12
take 3.5 years to complete 5 grades.
Diagram XXXVI. — Age at starting and time in school of 967 fifth grade pupils
in New York City.
1 68
AGE THE CONTROLLING FACTOR IN ELIMINATION
In this table it is again shown that the fastest progress has
been made by those who started late and the slowest by those who
started early.
In spite of their importance none of the features mentioned
as worthy of note in these two sets of results has the educational
significance that attaches to another fact which they show.
This is, that the average time taken by pupils who start at the
usual ages or younger is more than the normal time for doing the
grade work. This makes it difficult or impossible for them to
finish by the time they are fourteen. The average time taken by
pupils who start to school late, while somewhat abbreviated, is
still so much that they too find it difficult or impossible to reach
the final grade at the age of fourteen.
The reason why retention at the upper ages and not age at
starting is the controlling factor in securing a large percentage of
survivors is that our school courses are too difficult to be com-
pleted in eight years by the average child who starts at the age
of five, six or seven, and our systems of grading are too in-
flexible to permit the more mature child to make up the handicap
he is under through late start. Thus, no matter whether children
start early or late a large part of them will have to remain to the
age of fifteen or sixteen in order to graduate.
We may summarize our conclusions as follows:
1. Age is the important factor in all studies of elimination.
2. Cities differ widely both in respect to attracting children
early and keeping them when they are older.
3. Retention at the upper ages, not age at starting, is the
controlling factor in elimination.
4. Children who make the most rapid progress through the
grades are those who start late and those who make the slowest
progress are those who start early.
5. Most of the children who start late never graduate.
Those who start early are the ones most likely to finish.
6. Our school courses are too difficult for the immature
child and too long for the mature one.
169
CHAPTER XVI
ARE CONDITIONS IMPROVING?
ONE of the results of the recently awakened interest in re-
tardation has been the assumption on the part of many
people that the evil itself is one of recent growth in our
schools. To some degree this conclusion has resulted from the pres-
ent agitation in favor of vocational instruction in the grades. The
advocates have pointed to recent economic and social trends of so-
ciety as enforcing their arguments for vocational training, and they
have also given prominent place to retardation, and its consequent
evil, elimination, as constituting further reasons in support of
their pleas. This has resulted in enforcing the natural assumption
that retardation is an educational evil of recent development.
Under these conditions it becomes worth while to examine
into the truth of this assumption and to discover whether retarda-
tion is increasing or decreasing in seriousness; and, if the latter
be the case, if the decrease is rapid enough to warrant us in feeling
that the matter will take care of itself if no further attention be
paid to it.
The data upon which to base such an investigation are
neither easily secured nor abundant. Among the cities of the coun-
try six have been publishing age and grade distributions for a con-
siderable number of years. From these tables we may compute
the percentages of retarded pupils in each city and compare recent
conditions with those of former years.
The conditions disclosed are not very conclusive. In Bos-
ton the percentage of retardation has fluctuated, but there seems
to be some indication of slight improvement. Columbus seems to
show no decided change in the twelve years. Kansas City shows
decided improvement. The result in Los Angeles is negative.
Portland shows steady improvement, and Springfield continued
and decided improvement. The general tendency, as expressed
170
ARE CONDITIONS IMPROVING?
by the averages at the foot of the table, is one of general progress
toward better conditions with no advance in the last five years.
TABLE 96. — PER CENT OF RETARDED PUPILS IN SIX CITIES FOR A
SERIES OF YEARS.
City
CO
|
00
I
00
£
Oi
!
i
%
1
CO
**
ut
i
t^
*-"
Boston
Columbus
Kansas City,
Mo. .
Los Angeles
Portland,
Ore
22.1
37-5
57-5
21.3
34-6
58.7
38.5
19.1
33-2
52-9
37-6
19-3
3i-7
53-i
35-8
24.3
30.6
51-2
35-i
17 6
23.8
29.8
48.7
36.6
38 6
16.2
3i-3
48.9
36.0
38 7
15-5
29.7
48.2
36-1
28 3
20.3
34-9
49.2
38.3
•?o i
14.2
38.4
49.8
20 8
19.9
37-2
49.6
2Q 6
I8.5
37-3
48.5
•?O 7
Springfield,
Mass. .
42.5
43-4
41.9
41.0
35-2
31.6
30.6
27-5
27.6
26.2
24.2
23.2
Average" of
the per-
centages.
39-9
39-3
36-1
36.1
35-7
34-8
33-6
30.9
33-8
30.9
3"
31.6
On account of the meagerness and unsatisfactory charac-
ter of this evidence further data of another sort have been com-
piled. These consist of computations of the percentage which
the membership of the grades from the kindergarten to the fourth
grades of different city school systems are of the entire member-
ship of all of the elementary grades. These figures have been
secured from forty-seven cities. In general they cover a period
of twelve years, although in several cases the information is
lacking for some of the years. Although but forty-seven cities
furnish these data there are fifty cases, for we have figures from
three of the cities giving the information separately for the white
and colored pupils.
Out of the fifty cases, fifteen show a higher percentage in
the final year than in the first one. The other thirty-five show
decreases. The figures at the bottom of the table giving the
averages of the percentages show a gradual decrease from 69.1
in 1895 to 65.3 in 1906, a falling off of 3.8 points in twelve years.
This shows that there is a slow but general tendency — which is
171
Q <
8
UJ
Ǥ
BU X
Z-906I
9-5061
^-8061
S-S06I
S-I06T
1-006 I
ovq Ttu-iMfo cq q oq c> <N -i-vq ro upoq M r>. M oq m w
006 <s <>i <N GO' io-ocsvdfoio^cooMvo; ; rL\d cs vd d o
O O Q
\O OC vO
Tft>.N M 1OMOO M IOM ^^ t^.
t>-vp cs up M Tt r^-CO M rf fOO
'to' vo rt ts oo'
t>.vq M oq ^°°.ciTtrs. TtMRlj?r7'rr^o. ^r
vO <s t^- •'j- .' O M M cs fi.vo' O vo 6 ^O t>- w vo
vr>ONiOTl-<NCO
<NCOOO
vC r^\O
O^OC O CS Tj- IO
TJ- TJ- M OO' O OO
tOCO O M O
i>. r--oq cs oq
trioo' n o^ uo
M CO ON IH
vd o ! ^o PO
M \OOOO
00-6681
6-868T
8-Z68T
Z-968I
9-568T
O o u.
X O
T S <*
I £ w
Ss^ 5
^
oq q q
t^-o : oo'
\r>\O O
oq M
VOMOOOONO
00 O . O t>- .
K- i— i ro ^O O M ^OOO
*O O ^ f^ t**» * t^» t^^^O
glsllasaaSoasstSl^J^^issi^
t^-oo o^ O *
r-oo O^ O **
I72
Q ^
W W
J 5
ri uj
z <
LU iv*
</> P
O UJ
5E
to r i
^ uj
Sf
ie
U2
Z X
uu
O UJ
& X
UJ H
cu _,
S O
X &
H pu
O us
Z uj
IS
ac o
to
&
to vo to co f} ON ""3" t"^ <N oo ^ t*-» ro O ^O ^ t-*»
ro
Z-906I
•vStfS • -SSS^ S^ "ESS • -#£L •*>££
vo
NO
MOOM^coOON^vororo ro vo M O IN M VOOO M
^
9-506 T
I— i o ON C^ O f^O VONO "3" fN*^ O . Tf NO O . *s}" Tt* w . l>» Qs\O
vo
NO
NO rooo ON uo UONO M NO CNNO vo «• vo ON O-OO ^ CM ^ ON
O!
M06I
. M rCCO Oi CO *T U">O ro^OO ."^fr^O.^WM XOGO O ^O
vO t^-^O t^- i-O uoO ^O *O t^*OO vo voO ^ ^ r^*O vo t^1* vo
NO
NO
M
*-£06I
<N rj" ^ *^~ . 'VO . \C> t^» ^ O . 'LOCC O w ""7" ^ O^ ^O Qv M *O
O r^O t^. vo O O l>-cO vo vo t^» t^vC ^O O O vo t^ vo
0
VOCO O 10 CO ^ W O CO ^f CO ww OfO VOVOMVO
NO
S-S06I
ro ^o i— i vo . ^o . oc t^* ^t* O co vooO M Tj~ O . '-O ^o ^o 10
\O l>» t^* r^- vo *O ^O i>»oO \O vo vo t*** *O O ^ O t^ vo
NO
t^*» o\ ^ CO w ^O O w ^* 0s CO <*O t^* O ^* cs *O CO
vo
£-1061
" \O t^ t^ " vo ' \O O t^-cO O vo vo r^ r^-^O ^O * " \o i>> vo
NO
MrOM^NO 000 t-^M Oro ro ^ M
NO
1-006 I
vo ^ ^0*0 .O .O ^ . . -t^* ^ ^t* . .vo o . . to vo <*o
\O t^1* x^* i>* ^O r-»O voO t^* O 'O ^O x>* vo
NO
M o ^O ON -T^* T^ vo 0* ^O ro ^t" **O ^O O ^"1" O^
M
00-6681
t^**O HH ro^ C4 CJ . CO t""* . . ON CS t^» M T}~ 0s . . ^O CO fsr^
vo^O i>* t^* r^»\O *O ^ ^O voO x>» t^-^O vo *O t>* vo
58
ON O ^* Ov CO W 0s vo ^t" rO CO ^1" ^^O '^O ^O M
NO
6-868 T
\O <*O ^t" ^ i—1 . . r^-CC . 0s "^ O^ . ^CO . *O ^O O vo
\O t>» *"•* X>«vO O ^O vo"O t^* NO vo O *O •T"** vo
S
OOCS^OCNO X-M « « « -0 « eS ^ rroo rf
M
8-Z68I
VONO t^» t^- t^ vo ' ' NO r*» ' ' vo VONO t^ t^-NO vo ' ' NO r^» vo
00
NO
ON t^» O ^" ^* vo H i vo ON d T^OO O ON 00 t^NO
vo
Z-968I
CNI vo (N Tf t-00 . . 00 M . .00 ON NO O <"O <N . . Tf r- Tf
VONO r^ t^» t^ vo NO t^» vo VONO oo I^^NO NO r** vo
%
MTt^ON^rO CCt^- M ONOO t^-OO VO t^ r^
H
9-968 T
NO NO <^ VOOO ON. .00<N . .fVOOMM . .voO^f
VONO t^. t~~ t^. vo NO t^ VONO CO t^-NO ' NO OO vo
£
I sf •
m
5
\K »tf « . ^ « c G " ^"2. -5 fc - ^ o o ^
Averages of percentage
t^-CC ON O M M ro ^- VONO t^OC ON O ^ <N ro ^ VONO I~^OO ON O
I
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
by no means universal — for our cities to increase the relative size
of the enrollment in the upper grades as compared with that in
the lower ones.
In general we may conclude from such data as we can secure
that the percentage of retardation is gradually growing less in our
city school systems, and more of the children are reaching the
upper grades. These hopeful tendencies are far from being either
universal or decided. While they are encouraging they are so
inconsiderable in degree as to indicate very plainly that retarda-
tion is not an evil which will be self-eradicating if neglected.
174
CHAPTER XVII
AN INDEX OF EFFICIENCY FOR PUBLIC
SCHOOL SYSTEMS
THE most perfect plant for converting the stored up energy
of coal into power available for turning machinery in a
factory, producing electricity, or driving an ocean liner is
far from being ideally efficient. The best type of tubular boiler
has a steam-producing power of about 66 per cent of the theoretical
potential energy in the fuel consumed. The steam engine delivers
about 17 per cent of the power of the steam. The two together
when of the very highest type convert into available power about
1 1 per cent of the theoretic potential energy stored in the fuel.
A gas engine makes a better record of about 24 per cent of the
theoretic efficiency.
The principles on which such estimates are based and the for-
mulas by which they are computed are thoroughly understood by
engineers, and form most valuable measures by which results are
compared and new methods checked.
In this country there are perhaps 8,000,000 people engaged
in the manufacturing industries. The teachers and pupils in
our schools number about 19,000,000. Yet when we turn from the
field of applied mechanics to that of educational administration
the transition as regards standards and measures of comparison is
too often from science, knowledge, and precision to conjecture,
opinion and chance.
It has been repeatedly asserted in defense of this condition
that education has to do with individuals and character, which
are not susceptible of mathematical measure, and not with objects
and processes which may be so treated. While this contention
has some validity when we consider individuals, it does not hold
when we seek to compare school systems. Here where a large
degree of comparison and measurement should be possible we
'75
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
find a deplorable lack of standards with which to work. We know
that many children leave school before completing the elementary
course. Our schools are over-crowded in the lower grades and
contain few pupils in the upper ones, but for how many educations
the state actually pays for each one delivered no one knows.
Our city superintendents cannot even tell us how many new pupils
begin school each year.
These particular features have been emphasized in this
discussion, because if they were known for our city school systems
we should have the necessary data for comparing the efficiency
of the systems in so far as that is outwardly manifested. Speci-
fically :
1. If we can find out how many children begin school each
year we can compute how many remain to the final elementary
grade. Such a factor would show the relation of the finished
product to the raw material.
2. The number of beginners tells us of the number of children
who under conditions of maximum theoretical efficiency should be
in each grade. Hence we may readily calculate the size of the
school system under ideal conditions and compare it with the
actual size. Pursuing our industrial analogy still further, this
gives us the relation of the actual plant in size to the theoretic
requirements. This we may call the economic factor.
3. Comparing not theoretical but actual size with the actual
not theoretical product, we reach an index of efficiency which will
express both the educational and economic results in combination
and give us a means of rating different school systems on the basis
of efficiency.
To illustrate, suppose we had a factory which instead of
utilizing all its raw material (100 per cent) embodied only 50 per
cent in its finished product. It appears that the 50 per cent is
the measure of its efficiency. But suppose the plant is not
economically organized. Suppose that for a theoretical product of
loo per cent it requires an organization represented by48ooo units,
but it actually comprises 9000 units, an organization which may
be represented by | or 1 12.5 per cent of the standard. What then
is its real efficiency? Its plant is f as large as it should be theo-
retically. From the viewpoint of plant then, the efficiency is f .
AN INDEX OF EFFICIENCY FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS
But its product is only \ as large as it should be. From the view-
point of product then the efficiency is only \.
Looking at our plant now from the two viewpoints, it is
obvious that its efficiency is expressed by the product of these two
fractions or -J x f = f = 44.4 per cent.
Now suppose these conditions are found not in a factory but
in a school system. For each 1000 children who enter only 50
per cent reach the eighth grade. The efficiency from the view-
point of product is \ or 50 per cent. Moreover, instead of finding
8000 pupils in the eight grades we find 9000. From the viewpoint
of plant the efficiency is -f or 88.8 per cent. The figure representing
the efficiency of the school system is then \ x f = £ or, in terms
of percentages, 50 per cent, x 88.8 per cent. = 44.4 per cent.
These propositions are stated in full appreciation of the
limited possibilities of measurement and comparison in this field.
Cities differ as to methods, ideals, courses of study, statistical
practice and number of grades. Moreover, designations used in
two different cities though alike may not indicate real equality.
Eight grades in Massachusetts may not mean at all the same thing
as eight grades in Florida. None of these things are or can be
taken into account by a numerical index of efficiency. What can
be roughly measured, if we can secure the necessary data, is the
degree to which the different cities approximate their ideal of
furnishing elementary educations, as that is understood in each
place, to all the children who enter the public schools. Keeping
all of these limitations before us we may proceed to examine our
available data.
If we are to find out what proportion of the children entering
school remain to the final elementary grade, the first step is to
ascertain the annual number of beginners. Since this figure can-
not be deduced from an observation of the grade memberships and
is not stated in the printed reports, we must compute it from
the figures giving the age statistics as has been explained in
Chapter V.
By means of this method we can find with approximate
accuracy how many children there are in the final grade for each
1000 beginners in all of the cities for which we have age and grade
figures. Under ideal school conditions where all of the children
177
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
were regularly promoted, none dropped out before finishing,
there were no deaths and the population was stationary, it is
evident that with 1000 beginners annually we should find 1000
children in the first grade, 1000 in each successive grade up to the
eighth and 8000 in the elementary schools. In similar fashion a
seven grade system would have 7000 and a nine grade system
9000 children.
In such cases the index of efficiency would be 100 per cent.
Suppose now that on the basis of each 1000 beginners we have
the following:
TABLE 98. — GRADE DISTRIBUTION IN CLEVELAND IN 1906.
Grade Pupils
First Grade 1877
Second Grade ^3^9
Third Grade 1389
Fourth Grade 1140
Fifth Grade 1066
Sixth Grade 863
Seventh Grade ' 619
Eighth Grade 476
Total 8754
Instead of 1000 pupils in the eighth grade only 476 are
found there. Instead of 8000 in all the grades there are 8754.
It is evident that on the educational side the output of Cleveland's
school plant is only 47.6 per cent of what it should be. On the
economic side the city is paying f ff|- as much as she should pay
to have all the children finish the course. The figure which
represents the efficiency of the school plant of Cleveland is then
476 _:_ 8 7 5 4 r>r 476 Y 8000 380800 r»r xo r np»r rp»n t
TOTO • 8"o~oo or TOOT x 8T5T STS-TOOU or 43-5 Per cent-
It would now seem that we were ready to proceed to make
similar computations for the other cities and compare our results,
but two difficulties present themselves. In the first place the
number in the final grade is not the only important measure of
the amount of education given the children. Two cities may have
equal percentages of their beginners continuing to the final grade
and still one city may carry far more pupils to the next grade
below the final grade than does the other. Such a case is found in
comparing Jersey City and Salt Lake City where the membership
of the three final grades on the basis of 1000 beginners is as follows :
,78
AN INDEX OF EFFICIENCY FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS
TABLE 99. — MEMBERSHIP OF FINAL THREE GRADES IN TWO CITIES.
Grade
City 6 7 8
Jersey City, 1906, .... 808 545 447
Salt Lake City, 1901 .... 949 709 449
Again, a few cities have seven grades, a great many have
eight grades and some have nine grades. It is evident that here
we have a new complicating factor. The final elementary grade
does not mean the same thing in all places. It is evident that Med-
ford, Massachusetts, makes a much better educational record when
she carries 722 out of each 1000 beginners to the ninth grade than
does Richmond when she takes 719 (white) to the seventh grade.
My correction for this is an arbitrary one. I take the average
of the relative figures expressing the memberships of the seventh
grade to the final grade inclusive. This I consider a measure of
the number of children being given a substantially complete
elementary education each year. Using the average makes for
fairness towards those cities which carry a large part of their
children to the next to the last grade, and it also favors nine
grade systems over eight grade ones and these over seven grade
systems.
The several steps in this process of estimating efficiency are
as follows:
(1) Secure age and grade figures on the same basis of enum-
eration.
(2) Find the average of the age groups seven to twelve
inclusive.
This is considered the annual number of beginners.
(3) Compute by means of relative figures on the basis of
moo beginners the membership of the grades and their total.
(4) Find the average of grades seven to final, inclusive
(relative figures).
(5) Divide the number of grades times 1000 by the total
membership of the grades (relative figures.)
(6) Considering the results of the two preceding steps
—(4) and (5) — as percentages, find their product.
The results obtained by performing these operations in the
case of 58 cities where we have age and grade figures are as follows :
179
g»
b w
O O
u- u;
W
oo
CO O CNI 00 PO r^ i>» O- ' io
00 O ON ON ONOO CNOC 00
r^ M CN) oO CN CNI CM r^ ro M GO t^*oo ^NO to 10
CO ON 00 00 ON ON ON t^OO ONOO OO OO «^ ON ON ON
CS OO CN) ON CO CN) NO
CO t>» CN • 00 ~t O ' ' O
10 t^ t->. ' NO NO r^ ' 'to
TfO <^5 M CN100 10<r><NNOOO O ON
t^QNO CSOO t^-r^rfONVoON^-<NV
00 ONCO 00 t^NO t^ t^ r~~ t^NO t^NO
t^ "t 1/1 rf VO ^- ON
w <N r^. ON ' O W ro
M NO IONO r^rorOONMNO ONrO
ON IO CNl T^-OO fO fOOO U-JCNl CNI N
ON O ON O CO 00 ONOO t^ ONOO OO
<Ni>.Ot^cq o M wr^H rnoo t^ t^ « O H t^O t^Tt-Q^ *>. t^ ON ^t
Tf ON M Tf TJ-OO O OO CNI M CN) CO N vn^O O CNI t-^O vo\O ro ON rOOO ^ l^»
VOQMIHOONOO<NOOOONONOOMOOONONOON ONOO ON O ON
l^-W 1-1 <T>VO
ON
W C^
03 O
w tN,N vorOON t^-NO O N t^- <M t->.OO 1-1 t^ M CO rO CS 1O
uo fO M CNJ r^OO CS t^.TtPO^trOON(NOO ^-NO (N t^CO O
T)-O
ON ON
MOO -^- N O
ON •* -rfOO O «^ t^ 10 rf t^OO
lOW CN) ^tlO<N
r^cs I>.PO<NVO
MNO O -^
ONO fOVO
•* t^ rj- <N
rO 1O ^- CNI NO IONO t^-CO t-» ON ONOO
OOOOOQiOM CNI M O M -3-0 O rj-
fO^rOiOiOONONO CS OOONO <~O I^
ONNO NO
NO CNI O
ON'^rJ-
M ON M
. f
bo_r ^
^ ^H —
z 15 c
5*S.o
^ ^'
^^ ^^ ^
^g-mn
6 ^ M UO o ^
>o ^ M °S V°oo^^-' -Q'OCNO^
l^«41|s-||!lot&:
•tKrS
« *<£|fc
a g P-e s i.
^r
IK
ac
cd O
II
1-1 CNI CO ^"
l>-o ON O M CN
t-OO CN O "-1
1 80
^ ^ O O 00 O Tf
•* 00 O O\ •* O O O\ f*5 N -H N v
^t O vr> PO
N^O 00 *O t--
PO r~- ON Tf PO Tf
Tf \O ONOO PO to O f^ 'tOO
M oo ONOO r^ 10 ON M 10 ON CN 10 't <r> CN -<tGO
O(NTt\Ot^Tj-CNMT)-ioror^OvOi-<vOO
O\ r^ O OOO 00 t^ O^ ONOO 00 ON t^OO 00 OO CO
"0 ON ON Tf ON ^OO
M ONO ONOO O M ^OO t>. rt-VO ON
t^ ONO t^O t^\O \O (NO 10 10 ro
NO
^O ON J>-00 •*
O CNOO ONOC
M 00 O ONOO 00 O HOOOO M NO 10 M CN *^
ON ONOO O M 10 M CN O ONOO M PO ONOO 00
Ot^OCNOONOOON ONOO *>• ON t>-00 NO
NO -t 10 toO t^\O CN PO CN 00 M
00 ON to M t^POONM O POt^.M
Tf CN 't CN tO
M M rf XOVO
PO M PO t^ w POOO NO to PO ON ON O ON ONOO TfO M O t^
ON CN ONOO M ONCN CN M ONCNIOMOO •* 00 ON PO CN O r^
O H ON t^VO M lOlOONO O *^ H
VO ONt^-MNO O MNO POM POO CN
>PO^tM 'tPO't't^t'CN
lOtot^toONt^-tO't ^tOO ON ON ONOO NO 't'ttoOOO CN CNr^.POONPO't t^.NO O fO O
Tj-00 t>» O ONOO O O 't't'tMNO ON^OM I^-NO 00 CN rf O "O \O CN Tf 00 PO r» ON to PO
CN POM CN CN POCN TtCN CN POPOPOPO^tlOrfM POCN Tf toO TflOrfiOlOTfloiOCN
CN tototoO^C) O O ONCNOOO *t r^O to O O
lOOC OO Tf M ON TfNO O POf^^-POt^'OTt<vOM
cS ^^
^ ?8
-<t rr>MD M Q ONO 00 OO
O O ONCOM ror^t^'t
CN t^ ON ONOO O CN rJ-00
M M NO O M NO
t^. t^. Tf PO
CNOO O
»-< xo M
Mt»
ON ;£
M jd
*r ^
.55
M &
^ I
•|-i
00 «
-^^ f$X
" .a M
OO ON O M CN ro Tf tONO l^OO ON O M CN PO Tf lOVO r^CO ON O M
181
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
Since the figures giving the grade memberships on which the
table is based are not all computed by the same system of enumer-
ation, the final results are not strictly comparable. From about
half of the cities we have figures based on the total enrollment.
In the remaining cases the basis is average enrollment or enrollment
at a given date. The tendency of this difference is to make the
lower grades and the total of all grades somewhat larger in the
cases where the total enrollment is the basis, and thus to give
these cities slightly less favorable ratings than they would receive
were enrollment at a given date the basis in all cases. The basij
used for each city may be ascertained by consulting the table on
page 55.
The fact that the results obtained are based on data which
are only approximately on a basis of equality should be borne in
mind in making comparisons, especially in the cases of cities where
the difference in the numerical ratings is but slight. An inter-
esting comparison is obtained by grouping the cities by states
wherever we have two or more cities in one state. There are nine
such groups as shown in Table 101.
It would be unprofitable to press these comparisons too
closely. They are from a limited number of cities, and in com-
puting the averages equal weight is given to large cities and to
small ones. Nevertheless, the results are not without value. If
in a broad general way it is shown that the city school systems
of Massachusetts develop 75 per cent of their theoretic efficiency,
and Pennsylvania and New Jersey show no better results than 43
per cent, it is certainly a matter of deep significance to these latter
states.
Another interesting comparison is arrived at by grouping the
figures for the great cities. (Table 102.)
No claim of precision is made for these results nor of infalli-
bility for the method by which they were reached. The method
itself is not so refined as it could be made by utilizing more of the
procurable data bearing on the problem. The factor of the increase
of population which always affects grade distribution might be
brought in to modify the final figures. Continuation to high
schools or differences between the two sexes in continuance in
182
AN INDEX OF EFFICIENCY FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS
TABLE IOI. — STATE AVERAGES OF INDEXES OF EFFICIENCY.
Index of State
City Efficiency Average
New Jersey
Camden 26.1
Newark 33.2
Hoboken 36.3
Paterson 43.8
Trenton 44-4
Passaic 44-9
Jersey City 45-3
New Brunswick 55.4 41.1
Pennsylvania
Erie 22.6
Philadelphia 37.9
Reading 42.6
York 51.6
Williamsport 61.1 43.1
New York
Troy 41.9
New York 51.9
Utica 52.6
Kingston 61.3 51.9
Rhode Island
Woonsocket 39.0
Newport ....... 69.4 54.2
Ohio
Cincinnati 47-5
Cleveland 49-9
Dayton 56.0
Columbus ....... 56-^
Springfield 63.4
Newark . • 63.7 56.2
Missouri
St. Louis 50.8
Kansas City 63.2 57.0
Connecticut .
New Haven 57.6
Meriden 63.9 60.7
Illinois
Chicago 55.1
Decatur 64.6
Aurora 71.9 63.8
Massachusetts
Lowell 62.8
Boston 66.8
Springfield 70.3
Maiden 73.2
Somerville 73.9
Newton 75.6
Quincy 75.6
Medford ..:.... 81.0
Haverhill 81.8
Fitchburg 82.6 74.3
183
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
school might be considered. But to complicate the method by such
refinements means to put it out of reach of those who are most
interested in the conditions it discloses.
TABLE IO2. — INDEXES OF EFFICIENCY OF THIRTEEN CITIES.
Index of
City
Efficiency
i.
New Orleans
30.6
2.
Newark
. 33.2
3-
Baltimore
. . . . 34.8
4-
Philadelphia
. 37.9
I:
Jersey City
Cincinnati
• 45-3
. 47.5
7-
Cleveland
. 49.9
8.
St. Louis
. 50.8
9-
New York . . . .
. 51.9
10.
Chicago
• 55-i
11.
Louisville
. . . . 58.4
12.
Minneapolis
. . . . 62.5
13-
Boston
. 66.8
The method as it stands is simple, easily understood, and
may be applied by anyone. If it has not the exact precision of
the micrometer it has a practical applicability comparable to
measuring distance by pacing it off.
It is not by accident or through any mere local difference in
the method of gathering the figures that New Orleans and Newark
show an Index of Efficiency of but little over 30 per cent as con-
trasted with more than twice that figure for Minneapolis and
Boston. There may be fair question whether Cleveland with 49.9
per cent has a better school system than has Cincinnati with 47.5,
but there can be no question that the citizens of Medford, which
shows a result of 81 per cent, are getting more for their money than
are those of Camden with 26.1 per cent.
184
CHAPTER XVIII
REMEDIAL ME ASURES— LEG I SLATI VE AND
ADMINISTRATIVE
SOME of the underlying conditions and direct causes of re-
tardation and elimination have been discussed. The aim
of the discussion has not been merely the pointing out of
the different factors as interesting phenomena, but rather their
study as parts of a problem which urgently calls for solution. The
remedial measures tor Which we may look to improve existing
conditions may be {fivided for convenience into two groups — the
first legislative and administrative, and the second having to do
with school records and their use. The present chapter deals with
the first of these two groups.
(
COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE
In final analysis the one condition indispensable to school
progress is attendance. In this country, as in all other countries,
educational and state authorities are coming to see that compul-
sory school attendance is indispensable to an enlightened demo-
cracy. Moreover, experience teaches that it can be made effective.
In Prussia compulsory attendance laws have been in force for
two centuries and their effectiveness is shown by the fact that
among recruits in the German army only one man in 2000 is
illiterate, while among volunteers in the navy only one illiterate is
found among each 10,000. Among native white males of corre-
sponding ages in our own country 38 in each 1000 are illiterate.
These figures reflect conditions in respect to our compulsory
attendance laws and their enforcement. Thirty-nine states have
such laws varying greatly in their requirements and in provisions
for their enforcement. In 1900, when the latest national census
was taken, there were approximately 8,000,000 children in this
country at the ages from ten to fourteen. During the year 80 per
cent of the children attended school. Twenty per cent, or about
i ,600,000, did not attend school for any period of time long or short.
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
Conditions varied greatly in different sections of the country.
In Haverhill, Maiden and Somerville, Massachusetts, from 93 to
95 per cent of the children from ten to fourteen years of age
attended school for six months or more during the year. From
these figures the records of different localities range downward
until we reach Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, and
Joplm, Missouri, with but 66 to 68 per cent of the children at those
ages in school as much as six months. These figures will suffice
to show the inadequacy of our attendance laws and the lack of
uniformity in their enforcement. The first essential to the solu-
tion of the problems of retardation, and elimination is to have
compulsory attendance laws and to enforce them.
But it is not enough to state in the legal enactment that
children between specified ages must attend school for a given
number of weeks each year. If we are to make sure that all of
the children of a community get at least a specified amount of
schooling we must secure some sort of agreement between the
length of the school course and the number of years of required
attendance. Curiously enough this is a point which we, in this
country, have overlooked with astonishing frequency. By com-
mon consent the minimum amount of education which it is safe
to allow our young people is that of the common school course.
This is nearly always eight grades in length. Yet in the great
majority of cases the years of required attendance are less than
eight. Thirty of the thirty-nine states having compulsory laws
require fewer than eight years attendance at school.
There is here a curious anomaly. We set up a minimum
standard of education which the state deems necessary for its own
safety, we pass laws to secure its attainment, and we make the
period of compulsory attendance such that the child who enters
when he must and leaves as soon as he may, can not by any
possibility complete the course. This condition must be changed
if we are to do away with elimination. Either children must be
taken into school at an earlier age, or they must be kept to a later
one, or the school courses must be shortened. Nor is it sufficient
that the child's name be inscribed on the roll of some school
during the prescribed number of months and years. If he is to
1 86
REMEDIAL MEASURES — LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE
•*^l
J
o
£.
a
x
U
a
a
O
O
u
Gfl
u
0
H
187
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
profit by the instruction furnished he must be actually present in
the school room. On this point American parents are too often
over-lax and indulgent. Children are allowed to remain away
from school on the flimsiest of pretexts, and not seldom the school
authorities are blamed when the child who has been repeatedly
absent fails of promotion.
Few people realize how potent a power irregular attendance
is in reducing the effectiveness of our schools. According to the
latest official figures there are enrolled in our common schools
about 17,000,000 pupils, yet the average number actually present
Ogden Public Schools
Ogden, Utah,
190
M...
Your
has been absent from school as follows:
for which a sufficient excuse should be given.
Teacher
(WRITE EXCUSE BELOW)
.. Parent
SEE OTHER SIDE
1 88
REMEDIAL MEASURES — LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE
(Reverse of the Ogden card.}
Rules Governing Absence and Tardiness
7. Pupils are required in all cases of absence to bring,
on their return to school, an excuse in writing from their
parents or guardians, assigning good and sufficient reasons
for such absence. The only valid excuses for such
absence are: (i) Sickness of the pupil; (2) Sickness or
death of some member of the family requiring the presence
of the pupil at home or making it impossible to send the
pupil promptly; (3) Inclement weather, when sending the
pupil would endanger his or her health.
8. Pupils must bring written excuse from parent or
guardian for tardiness, unless the cause of same be known
to the teacher. Two times tardy is equal to one-half
day's absence.
9. For violation of any of the foregoing rules the
principal may temporarily suspend a pupil from school
and thereupon shall immediately inform the parent or
guardian of the fact and the cause therefor, and also
report the case to the Superintendent. On second sus-
pension of such pupil for the same offense, he shall not be
permitted to return without a special permit from the
Board.
each day falls short of this figure by more than 5,000,000. As has
already been pointed out in Chapter XII such figures as we
have indicate that in our cities less than three-fourths of the
children are present as much as three-fourths of the year.
It is unreasonable to suppose that the child who does not
attend school with reasonable regularity can be regularly pro-
moted. Failure to advance is retardation and the result of retar-
dation is elimination. If these two evils are to be lessened,
attendance regulations must be made much more efficient and the
cooperation of parents must be secured.
189
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
There are several interesting devices which are used in
different cities in the endeavor to enlist the interest and aid of
parents. In Wheeling, West Virginia, a monthly attendance re-
port (see page 187) is sent to the parents of each pupil to be
signed and returned just as reports of standing in school studies
are sent in many other cities.
In Ogden, Utah, a notice on which a blank space is provided
for writing the excuse, is sent to the parent of any child who has
been absent. The card is then to be returned to the school authori-
ties. On the reverse are printed the rules governing absence and
tardiness. (See pages 188 and 189.)
Still another card comes from Mansfield, Ohio. It is of
special interest because it is nearly, if not quite, unique. It is a
small card or ticket which is given to any pupil who has been
neither absent nor tardy for a term and it entitles the holder to
one half-day holiday. While objections might well be brought
against such a device both on the ground that it is an undesirable
form of prize giving and because it recognizes so frankly that the
reward most prized by the child is permission to be absent, yet
the device itself is so unique and suggestive that the card used is
here reproduced.
Mansfield, Ohio, Public Schools
This is to Certify that
has been neither Absent nor Tardy for the term ending
and is therefore entitled to
this public expression of approbation. The holder of this
card is entitled to one-half day holiday. When the holi-
day is taken, the card must be surrendered.
SUPT.
Teacher.
190
REMEDIAL MEASURES — LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE
THE SCHOOL CENSUS
The first requirement of compulsory attendance is to find
out who are the children required by law to attend school,
where they are, and how many they are. Present American
practice does not usually accomplish any one of these three es-
sentials. Whatever the law may be, the usual practice is to
furnish schools and permit parents to send their children if they
wish to. Attendance officers are usually appointed, frequently
by some other municipal authority than the school department,
who are supposed to hunt around for any children of school age
who are not in school and discover the cause. It is rare indeed
that there is any checking up of children enumerated in the school
census with those on the school rolls to discover which ones are
not in attendance. In studying the printed reports of school sys-
tems the portion which yields the least information is frequently,
perhaps'generally, the report of the attendance officer.
Most of our states and territories provide by statute for a
periodical census of the population of school age. In 1900 the
authorities of the United States Census made a study of the school
censuses taken during that year and compared the results with the
actual enumeration of children made by the federal agents during
the same year. In twenty-six states and territories the number
of children reported in the school census was less than the number
found by the federal agents. The local authorities failed to report
more than a third of a million children of school age, the error in
some cases being as high as 25 per cent. In seven states the local
agents reported a quarter of a million children more than there
actually were, the errors of over-statement running as high as
1 5 per cent.
That the general unreliability of school censuses is recognized
by the school authorities is shown by comments of superintendents
in their printed reports. This may be confirmed by quoting a
few typical admissions:
Detroit — "The results of the census enumeration for several
years past has been very unsatisfactory."
Jersey City — "The utter unreliability of these returns renders
them, as has been proved, a very unsafe guide."
191
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
Cambridge — "School returns show more children in the
schools, public and private, than were found by the enumerators."
Syracuse— "The results of the enumeration were totally void
of any reliable information."
The inaccuracy of school censuses is a very serious matter,
but its seriousness is still further enhanced by the fact that usually
the census is a mere enumeration. That it is usually a count only
is shown by the fact that commonly only classified totals are
printed in the official records, no measure being provided for
preserving the individual records or checking them up with the
school records. The case of New Bedford, Massachusetts, is
typical. In the report of 1908 the following information is given
concerning the census of children between five and fifteen years
of age in the city.
TABLE 103. — CHILDREN BETWEEN 5 AND 15 IN NEW BEDFORD, MASS.,
1908.
Number
Attending Public Schools 9392
Attending Private Schools 3264
Attending No Schools 1383
Total 14039
The only comment on the surprisingly large number of
children noted as not attending any school is that they are "pre-
sumably those who are between five and seven years of age and
those over fourteen."
There are four striking deficiencies in this census report.
In the first place the number of children enumerated is less than
the number given for the preceding year despite the fact that New
Bedford is a rapidly growing city. Secondly, the number is
smaller than it should be, judging from the figures of the latest
United States Census. Thirdly, the number of children reported
by the school census as in the public schools is decidedly less than
the number actually enrolled in the common schools of the city.
Lastly, the number of children reported as attending no school is
so large that it can not possibly be made up of the children be-
tween five and seven years of age and those over fourteen.
Attention is called to these features of the New Bedford
school census, not because that city is any worse off in this respect
192
REMEDIAL MEASURES — LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE
than other cities, but because it is typical of most American cities.
School census figures are usually unreliable, they are rarely used
as a basis for judging educational needs and policies and it is
seldom that they are carefully analyzed.
In respect to enforcing attendance we are no better off.
Take for instance the case of Milwaukee. According to the
report of the City Superintendent for 1907 that city has nearly
50,000 children between the ages of seven and fourteen. All of
them ought to be regular attendants at some school. Yet the
figures show that there are from 4000 to 5000 children from seven
to fourteen years of age either not in school at all or present only
a part — in many cases a small part — of the time during which by
law they are required to attend.
To look out for such cases the city has three attendance
officers who also are required to attend the free public evening
lectures and to investigate the cases of applicants for free books
furnished to indigent pupils. Is it any wonder under such con-
ditions that truants are numbered in Milwaukee by thousands?
And yet this case is by no means extreme among American cities.
If we are to have regular school attendance by all pupils our
attendance departments must be reorganized and made efficient.
FLEXIBLE GRADING
Ever since its beginning the system of graded schools has
been based on the plan that at stated intervals, usually of a year,
a reclassification of the pupils takes place, the brighter ones being
promoted, those less bright remaining where they are and a few
very backward ones being "demoted" into the grade below.
This process has been bitterly attacked and condemned as the
"lock-step" in education. In the previous chapters it has been
shown that this term is a misnomer. There is no "lock-step"
in the progress of pupils through the typical American city school
system. What we do find is a system by which the brighter
pupils move forward at the rate of a grade a year, the exceptional
pupil sometimes gains a year and the average and dull pupils fail
repeatedly.
The first step toward mitigating the bad effects of failure is
the system of half yearly promotions by which the pupil who
J3 193
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
fails has only to repeat half a year's work instead of that of an
entire year. There is little doubt as to the desirability of this
plan. It is in successful operation in dozens of cities and is
rapidly spreading, but it is a matter for surprise that it is still
rather the exception than the rule.
There are a number of other plans designed to introduce
flexibility of grading. As yet there has not been accumulated
sufficient evidence to permit of judgment as to their relative
advantages, or indorsement or condemnation of any one of them.
It seems worth while, however, to describe several of them. One
plan designed to introduce flexibility is that commonly known as
the " Batavia system" by which the teacher gives part of her
time to class work and part to individual work. The object here
is not so much to provide for varying rates of progress by the
pupils as for varying amounts of teaching according to the ability
of the pupils. It is rather a plan to bolster up the slow pupils
than to hurry on the quicker ones. In some places this plan calls
for two teachers in one room, one of whom is responsible for class
instruction, and the other for the individual work.
Both rapid advance for the brighter pupils and special
attention for the slower ones are provided by what is known as
the Cambridge plan which is described in the following extract
from the report of 1907 of Cambridge, Massachusetts:
" In the grammar schools, special teachers are appointed to
help such pupils as seem able to do the work in less than six years,
and to aid those who without personal instruction would require
more than six years. This action of the committee removes the
most serious objection to the graded system of schools.
"The course of study is divided in two ways: (i) into six
sections; (2) into four sections; each section covering a year's
work. Pupils taking the course in six years are classified in six
grades, called the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth
grades. Those taking it in four years are classified in four grades,
called grades A, B, C, and D. When pupils are promoted to the
grammar schools they begin the first year's work.
"One division advances more rapidly than the other, and
during the year completes one-fourth of the whole course of study.
The other division completes one-sixth of the course.
194
REMEDIAL MEASURES — LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE
"During the second year the pupils in grade B are in the
same room with the sixth grade. At the beginning of the year
they are five months (one-half the school year) behind those in the
sixth grade. After two or three months grade B is able to recite
with the sixth grade, and at the end of the year both divisions
have completed one-half the course of study — the one in two years,
and the other in three years. The plan for the last half of the
course is the same as for the first half, the grades being known as
the seventh, eighth, and ninth, in the one case, and as C and D
in the other.
"There are also two ways of completing the course in five
Grade A
Grade B
Grade C
Grade D
•> 4 years
Middle
Course
•^ 5 years
/#))})}/}/
\ 1 —
-1 —
_i_
_J —
-1—
_l
Fourth 1 Fifth 2 Sixth 3 Seventh 4 Eighth 5 Ninth
Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade
Diagram XXXVII. — Arrow No. i indicates the four years' course; grades A,
B, C, D. Arrow No. 2 indicates one of the five years' courses; grades A, B, 7, 8, 9.
Arrow No. 3 indicates the other five years' course; grades C, D, 4, 5, 6. Arrow
No. 4 indicates the six years' course; grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
years: (i) any pupil who has completed one-half the course in
two years may, at the end of that time, be transferred to the
seventh grade, and finish the course in three years; (2) any pupil
who has completed one-half the course in three years may, at
the end of that time, be transferred to grade C, and finish the
course in two years. In both cases these changes can be made
without omitting or repeating any part of the course.
"During the past thirteen years more than 45 per cent of
the pupils entering the high schools from the Cambridge grammar
schools did the work in the grammar schools in less than six years,
36.1 per cent doing it in five years, and 9.3 per cent in four years.
'95
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
" It does not follow, however, that because so many did the
work in less than the full time that the plan is a good one. Its
value is shown, rather, by the thoroughness with which the work
has been done, not in one year only, but in a series of years. The
results of the first year's work in the high schools would seem to
be a test of this thoroughness. The records in these schools
show that for thirteen years the marks of the pupils who were
four years in the grammar schools were higher than were the
marks of those who were five years in the grammar schools; and
that the marks of those who were five years in the grammar
schools were higher than were the marks of those who were six
years in the grammar schools.
" It is now sixteen years since the schools were first classified
on this plan. During this time nine thousand four hundred fifty
pupils have graduated from the grammar schools. Of this
number, 7 per cent completed the course in four years, 29 per
cent in five years, 49 per cent in six years, and 15 per cent in
seven years or more."
Other plans for securing flexible grading are based on having
all of the children in a room in one division for the study of certain
subjects, and divided into as many as four or five groups in other
subjects, and promoting freely in these latter groups as the child
shows capacity to go forward. A similar plan is to divide children
into groups so that the slow ones will take the essential subjects
only and the brighter ones additional subjects as well. Under
this plan promotion is based primarily on the essential subjects
and the pupils allowed to omit if necessary some of the less essential
ones. The prime difficulty here is that educators have so far
been entirely unable to agree as to which subjects are essential.
Whatever plan be adopted it is certain that it should pro-
vide for the least possible loss of time by the pupil who has failed
and is obliged to repeat part of the work. Even more essential
is it that educators should find out what few of them now know;
that is, how rapidly pupils actually pass through the grades, and
where and why they lose time. When each superintendent
knows what these facts are we shall no longer have school courses
which are too difficult to be accomplished by the average pupil in
196
J
REMEDIAL MEASURES — LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE
normal time and too inflexible to permit the bright pupil to
gain time.
SPECIAL CLASSES FOR FOREIGNERS
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants come to our shores
each year from foreign countries. The vast majority of them
can not speak English. They bring with them children of school
age in considerable numbers and these children constitute a serious
problem in many of our cities. All too often the school authorities
are addicted to the practice of placing a foreign child who cannot
speak English, no matter what his £ge or what his attainments
in the schools of his native country, in one of the lower grades and
allowing him to remain there until he has picked up English
without special instruction. The practice is unjust to the child
and the results of the policy are disastrous to the schools. Where
foreigners are numerous they aid in congesting the lower grades
and many of them on reaching the age of fourteen are unable
to qualify for the certificate which is necessary for them to obtain
work. The language difficulty is not a serious handicap for the
child who hears English in the school and on the street and it is
certainly the duty of the school to reduce it to the lowest possible
point.
Other cities might well follow the lead of New York, Cincin-
nati and some other localities in this respect and establish special
classes for these children. The action of New York has been
especially commendable. In 1906 that city organized special
classes as follows:
(1) Classes to afford non-English speaking pupils an
opportunity speedily to acquire a knowledge of the English
language, classed as grade C pupils.
(2) To accommodate pupils who are soon to be fourteen
years of age and who desire employment certificates, classed as
D pupils.
(3) To afford over-age pupils of the fifth and sixth grades
an opportunity to make special preparation for admission to the
7 A grade, classed as E pupils.
In June, 1908, there were nearly 2000 pupils in the C class,
3500 in the D classes and 15,000 in the E classes.
197
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
PHYSICAL DEFECTS
In the chapter devoted to physical defects evidence was
presented which shows that there is a strong correlation between
physical defectiveness among children and failure to make normal
progress. This is a field in which our knowledge is as yet but
slight and incomplete. The task confronting the new hygiene
and the school doctor is a mighty one, but one which is unsur-
passed in possibilities for good. As medical inspection is at
present conducted in our schools the net result too often consists
in piling up statistics as to the sum total of each sort of defect
discovered. Moreover, there is usually little or no discrimination
between different sorts of defects. The significant and the non-
significant are lumped together.
These conditions are bound to change. When medical
inspection is administered by school departments so that educa-
tional men and women take a real interest in the results of the
examinations; when the cases are followed up so as to insure
something being done to remedy the conditions discovered; when
the school nurse becomes a permanent feature; when we learn
to discriminate between significant and non-significant defects,
as they do now in Tasmania; and when school doctors learn to
tabulate their statistics by age, sex, grade, progress and defects
so as to make the figures tell their story; when all of these things
come to pass, as they will some day, we shall see as a result a
very considerable reduction in the amount of retardation in our
public schools.
TRANSFERS
There is conclusive evidence to show that pupils are re-
tarded in their progress by transfers from one school to another.
In the New York investigation the records showed 25 per cent
more transfers among the retarded children than among the non-
retarded children. It is manifest that children are bound to
suffer more or less when they leave one school to attend another.
In our shifting population such changes are so frequent as to affect
a considerable part of the children attending school. It is the
manifest duty of school superintendents, principals and teachers
,98
REMEDIAL MEASURES — LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE
to see to it that just as often as may be the child who transfers
from school to school shall proceed in his new class from the point
at which he left his studies in the old one. In all such cases it is
the child and not the school which should be given the benefit of
the doubt.
PROMOTIONS
There is a feeling among school workers, not always or even /
often expressed, but generally more or less forcibly present, that
retardation is a symptom of good schools. There are many
teachers and some principals who feel that to promote few of their
pupils is a sign that their standards of work are so high that none
but the best pupils can attain them. This raises a serious basal
question as to the function of the common school. Other things
being equal it is evident that of two school systems, that having
the larger percentage of retardation would have the higher and
more rigorous standards. It is very possible too that it would
have the more painstaking and conscientious teachers.
What is the function of our common schools? If it is to sort
out the best of the pupils and prepare them for further education
in higher schools, then the most rigorous system, with the severest
course of study and the lowest percentage of promotions and the
highest percentage of retardation is the best system. But if the
function of the common school is, as the author believes, to
furnish an elementary education to the maximum number of \
children, then other things being equal that school is best which
regularly promotes and finally graduates the largest percentage of
its pupils.
In respect to the matter of promotions as to all of the
other factors discussed in this chapter the fundamental require-
ments for reform in existing practices are very simple. They
are only two. The first is to discover and understand the facts
in the case and the second is to put the burden of proof on the
school, not on the child. It is the duty of the school to find the
child, not of the child to discover the school. Once enrolled the
school should carry him along through the grades as fast as he
can go, not as fast as he can force it to let him go. If he has I
defective vision it is the duty of the school to discover the fact. /
199
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
When his family moves and he has to enter a new school, he has
a right to demand that he continue his work where he laid it down,
not a grade or two below that point. At the end of the term it
is for the school to show cause, if need be, why he should be held
back, not for the pupil to show cause why he should be promoted.
200
CHAPTER XIX
REFORM IN AND THROUGH SCHOOL
RECORDS
OUR schools are weakest on the administrative side. Begin-
ning with a teacher in one small room, systems have
developed until they have reached vast proportions, but
the teacher has still remained the administrative unit. When
several teachers have been placed together in one building one
of them has been appointed principal. When a city has a number
of such schools some principal, either from that city or from
outside, is appointed superintendent. It is this course of evolution
which has resulted in the weakness of our systems on the adminis-
trative side. Until very recent years practically none of those in
charge of school systems have had either technical training in
educational work or business or office experience of any sort.
School records born of administrative necessity have been
installed and continued from year to year with little reference
to their real utility. Moreover, the primary records gathered by
the room teacher have seldom been collated and interpreted so
as to shed light on conditions and needs in the school system.
Little or no effort has been made to preserve original records, to
reduce duplication, to save time and energy or to secure accuracy
and accessibility. Worst of all, different principals and superin-
tendents have introduced isolated and disconnected practices
from which significant facts for the whole system can not be
deduced. There have been many day books and blotters but no
ledger accounts.
If existing conditions are to be bettered and our school
systems made more efficient we must have a better knowledge of
conditions and their significance. To accomplish this we must
have better records.
201
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
THE SCHOOL CENSUS
The first essential in a system of compulsory education is to
find out who and where the children are who ought to be in school.
The means by which this can be accomplished is the school census
properly administered. As an instance of what can be done in
this direction the census taken in Providence, Rhode Island, is a
good example. The report of the Supervisor of the Census, Gilbert
E. Whittemore, for 1908 divides the children into five classes as
follows :
Class I. Children five years old, only admitted to the kinder-
garten in the public schools.
Class II. Children six years old, age of admission to public
primary schools, but attendance not compulsory.
Class III. Children seven years old and not fourteen years
old, the compulsory attendance age.
Class IV. Children fourteen years old whose attendance at
school is compulsory unless lawfully employed at labor, or unless
the child has completed the course of study of the primary and
grammar schools.
Class V. Children fifteen years old whose attendance is not
compulsory.
Under each of these classes the total enumeration is given,
the enumeration for the preceding year, the number in public,
private and Catholic schools, and the number not in any school.
All of these facts are also expressed in percentages. Besides
this, information is given in each case as to the duration of attend-
ance and the result of the investigation of the cases of children
not in any school. Moreover, these records are not mere results
of an enumeration of the children. The record of each separate
child found by the census agent is checked with the child's record
in the school, and records are made on separate slips of the age,
grade, nationality and other facts regarding each child.
Another example of an efficient school census comes from
Springfield, Massachusetts, where the number of children in the
city at each age from five to fifteen is given, together with the
number at the same ages in public, private and parochial schools
and not attending any school. Although it has not been done in
202
REFORM IN AND THROUGH SCHOOL RECORDS
the case cited, such figures offer an excellent opportunity for show-
ing conditions concerning school attendance and truancy in a
city in graphic and convincing form by means of a diagram.
10
Diagram XXXVIII. — School census results in Springfield, Mass. Upright
columns represent number of children at each age; hatched portions the number
in private and parochial schools; and black portions number of children not in
any school.
In the above diagram each upright column represents the
number of children in the city at the given age. The part in out-
line represents the children in the public school, the cross-lined
portion those in private and parochial schools and the black the
number not attending any school. The portion between the two
heavy upright lines represents the children of compulsory attend-
ance age, from seven to thirteen years inclusive. Springfield's record
is a good one. In the compulsory years the heavily shaded portion
is very small. Were the facts for many other cities represented
in this way the results would be so striking as to constitute a
potent force for reforming the department of school attendance.
AGE AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION
The most significant development which has taken place in
recent years in the traditional manner of presenting school statis-
203
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
tics is the rapidly growing use of grade and age distribution tables
by superintendents. Fifteen years ago they had hardly been
heard of. Five years ago they were still very rare and when
presented were usually printed without comment. Today they
form regular features in the annual reports from at least forty
cities, and many pages are devoted to interpreting the conditions
they disclose.
A large part of the data discussed in this volume has been
gathered from these tables and the device itself has been briefly
described in Chapter IV. The excuse for taking them up again here
for more extended comment is found in the fact that these tables
are the most significant and instructive single forms of statistical
statement in use by schoolmen and are absolutely basal to studies
of retardation.
Superintendents and teachers have always known that the
children of any one grade are of varying ages, but only recently
have they realized how great the variations commonly are or what
they mean. Table 104 on page 205 shows how the children of
Springfield, Massachusetts, were distributed by grades and ages
in September, 1907.
Looking at the figures for the first grade we see that there
were eleven children at the age of four, three at the age of eleven
and more than 1500 between these two extremes. This condition
is significant from an educational view point. The children of
the first grade are of eight different ages, a range equal in years
to the time supposed to be required to complete the entire elemen-
tary course. The grade does not form at all a homogeneous group.
The average age is six and three-quarters years, but work planned
for six year old pupils will not be suited to the needs and abilities
of a large part of the pupils. In several of the other grades the
range is even more, being as high as eleven years in the third
grade.
The presence of so many relatively old pupils in these grades
is important not alone because they make difficult the planning
of work for the classes. In the first grade there are three eleven
year old children. If they progress normally they will be nineteen
years old when they reach the final grade. But there are no
nineteen year old children in the final grade. Children do not
204
00
CO to HI VO
ro to HI M
f<-J CO H
00
to
0
VO
ro
vg
ro ro
10 O
vO 00
0
O
o S
1 §
O £
13 o>
205
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
remain to that age. If they must do so in order to graduate they
simply do not graduate. They leave school. The chance of these
three children ever reaching the final grade is so small that they
have practically no chance at all to do so. Children similarly
situated are found in all of the grades. Nor do we need to limit
our attention to these extreme cases. It has been repeatedly
demonstrated that our children leave school in great numbers at
the age of fourteen whatever the stage of their advancement. A
child of six in the first grade will be fourteen in the ninth if he
advances regularly. Every year added to the age in the first
grade reduces enormously his chance of ever reaching the final
grade.
These are the considerations which have led educators to
adopt for criterion the period from six to eight as "normal age"
in the first grade and anything above eight as " above normal age."
On the same basis seven to nine is normal age in the second grade,
eight to ten in the third, and so on for all of the grades.
Referring now to the Springfield table it will be noted that
there is a heavy broken line running through it dividing the pupils
of each grade in such a way as to leave the pupils of normal age
on the left and the over-age pupils on the right. At the right of
the table are three columns of figures, the first giving the total
membership of the grades, the second the over-age pupils and the
third the per cent which these are of the entire grade membership.
In a similar way at the foot of the table are three lines of figures,
the first giving the whole number at each age, the second the num-
ber below normal grade for age and the third the per cent which
these pupils are of the entire group.
Grade and age tables are simply and quickly made from
data usually in the records of every school system. The effort
required to secure from them significant information is slight.
They may be used profitably in different schools and districts
within a system for purposes of comparison and should form a
valuable basis for selecting retarded children for special attention.
BEGINNERS, SURVIVORS AND REPEATERS
One item which should find a place in the school reports
of all city systems and almost never does so, is a statement of the
206
REFORM IN AND THROUGH SCHOOL RECORDS
number of new pupils beginning school each year. If we knew
the number of beginners for a series of years we could at once and
easily compute the number of repeaters in each grade and the
percentage of survivors in the final grade. It is to be hoped that
school superintendents will add this item to their lists, for the
information is easily secured and most important. If the data
had been available a large part of the laborious and cumbersome
computation involved in preparing the tables in this volume
would have been rendered unnecessary and the results would be
much more satisfactory and more accurate.
In the absence of direct information as to the number of
beginners the number may be approximated as has been explained
in Chapter V by taking the average of the year groups from seven
to twelve inclusive. This again is often a product of the age and
grade table, for where such a table is printed it gives us the age
groups and where it is not printed it is but rarely that we find
any statement as to ages. The annual number of beginners in
Springfield, Massachusetts, computed by this method from the
figures of 1907 is 1047.
If we assume that 1047 *s tne annual number of beginners in
Springfield we can find the per cent of pupils who survive to the
final or ninth grade by finding what per cent the ninth grade
membership is of 1047. The number in the ninth grade is 593.
This number is 56.6 per cent of 1047. Hence we may say that this
represents the per cent of beginners in Springfield who survive
to the final grade. This is described in tne chapter on " Mortality
and Survival in the Grades."
The membership in each of the first six grades was greater
than 1047. If this number represents the annual number of
beginners then in each of the first six grades there must be as
many pupils who are repeating as the difference between the grade
membership and 1047. The sum of these differences is 1397
which represents the number of repeaters. This is the method
described in the chapter on the "Money Cost of the Repeater."
DISTRIBUTIVE RECORDS OF ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE
In Chapter XII dealing with irregular attendance attention
was invited to the relatively valueless character of present methods
207
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
of recording attendance and enrollment in so far as the question
of measuring persistence is concerned. Instances were cited of
cities which print tables showing the true character of attendance
and from those tables valuable information was secured.
When our superintendents adopt this form of record inter-
preting a great step forward will have been taken. Take for
instance the case of Springfield, Ohio, where the attendance records
are printed both in the ordinary way, showing the total enrollment,
average attendance and per cent of attendance, and in a dis-
tributive table, showing the persistence of attendance. The data
presented in the ordinary way for 1907 are as follows:
TABLE 105. — TOTAL ENROLLMENT AND AVERAGE ATTENDANCE,
SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, 1907.
Total enrollment 6537
Average attendance 5 3 66
Per cent of average attendance 82.1
There is nothing either surprising or illuminating about these
figures. The showing is a good one as such records go, and would
not naturally spur the school authorities on to further investiga-
tion or study. But when the same facts are presented in the
distributive table the results are quite different.
TABLE I06. — SHOWING THE NUMBER OF PUPILS ATTENDING FOR
DIFFERENT NUMBERS OF DAYS. SPRINGFIELD, O., 1907.
Days Pupils
184 440
180 to 184 1136
170 to 180 1725
160 to 170 88 1
150 to 160 518
140 to 150 313
130 to 140 230
120 to 130 167
no to 120 116
ioo to no 1 19
Fewer than ioo 892
Total ' 6537
According to the table 892 of the pupils attended less than ioo
days. That is, in general terms they were present less than half
the time. Here at once we have nearly 900 pupils who can have
no hope of promotion. They are nearly 14 per cent of all the
208
REFORM IN AND THROUGH SCHOOL RECORDS
pupils. If in a similar way we consider that those present less
than three-fourths of the time can not hope for promotion we
find that the group includes more than 1 500 or nearly a quarter of
all of the children. In short, the table reveals conditions of the
utmost importance which are entirely concealed by the attendance
records in common use. Moreover, these distributive tables are
not purposed merely as additions to the methods now employed.
They may well be substituted for the old methods. Careful com-
parison has shown that if the teachers will merely report the num-
ber of children who have attended during the year from no days
to ten days, from ten to twenty days, from twenty to thirty days,
and so on up to the number present every day, the average attend-
ance as calculated from these figures will not vary from the true
average attendance calculated in the present laborious fashion,
which takes into account every half day's absence, by more than
a fraction of one per cent.
The same holds true for enrollment. All of the records
dealing with the number of children on the rolls and the number
present can be much more easily kept and rendered many fold
more valuable by using the distributive method of statement.
Nor is it only in this field that this form of record is valuable.
We have already considered its utility in the matter of grades and
ages. In showing conditions as to such matters as cost, national-
ity, physical defects, time in grade, age at entering, etc., distrib-
utive records are equally desirable. In all of these fields the
form of statement by averages is apt to be both misleading and
non-significant and should almost always be supplemented by
the distributive statement.
PUPIL'S CONTINUOUS RECORD CARD, NEW YORK CITY
In the present practice of most school systems little or no
attempt is made to preserve a continuous history of the individual
pupil. The records for a series of years are contained in the
registers, but these are renewed each year or term, and in a large
school it is in practice almost impossible to trace back the history
of any pupil through a series of years.
In an article in Volume VII of School Work, Mr. George H.
Chatfield, principal of Public School Number 51 of New York City
14 209
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
describes the record card which has just been adopted for use in
the New York schools, and outlines the stages of record evolution
which have led up to it. Mr. Chatfield tells us of the great western
corporation manufacturing the major part of the stoves used in
that section of the country. The history of each stove placed on
the markets forms part of the company's records, and this system
is held by the founders of this great business to be the true cause
of its great and lasting prosperity. From the raw material to the
finished product each part is accounted for, each workman's
responsibility recorded, and the results of each inspection are
noted. That such methods are not unique is shown by the fact
that most prosperous shoe concerns have similar plans by which
they can ascertain the details of the shop history of each pair of
shoes manufactured. The schools of our country have passed
and are passing through a development as marked as that of the
business world. The educational records of fifty years ago are
as out of place today as the quill pen and letter press which once
held sway in the counting room.
The New York card may be taken as embodying the best
and latest thought in the development of continuous records for
pupils. It is a card designed to contain in summarized form the
significant school history of the individual pupil. It is 5 x 8
inches in size; in color it is blue for boys, and white for girls.
The plan is that these cards shall be made out in duplicate for
the entire school and new cards added for any new pupils ad-
mitted. One set of cards is filed alphabetically and one by
classes. At the end of each term the teachers enter the records
for their pupils on the cards and indicate the new class to which
the pupils are to be transferred or promoted with the date of
change. The cards are then distributed among the teachers for
the ensuing term according to promotions. Original data for
the new roll book entries are taken by each teacher from her cards
thus reducing the probability of error. After the changes have
been made and recorded all of the new data which have been
added are entered on the duplicate card in the alphabetical file.
It is worthy of note that peculiar conditions in New York
City have necessitated an amount of refinement of detail on this
card which would be entirely unnecessary in most smaller towns
210
3
£ '^
in
a *
2 _.
"^ E
211
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
and cities. It is an interesting evidence of the shifting character
of the population that spaces have been left for twenty changes
of address. The size of New York's apartment houses is reflected
in the spaces left for recording the number of the floor on which
the pupil lives. The frequency of transfers is shown by the fact
that although there are but eight grades, each one divided into two
sections, spaces have been left on the card for thirty-two entries.
While the New York card allows for a greater number of
changes of address and transfers than will be found necessary in
almost any other locality, other existing continuous record cards,
almost without exception, err in not allowing for enough flexibility
in these regards. Among thirty-five record cards from as many
cities which have been carefully studied there are but few which
fulfil even the most fundamental requirements for such a record.
This fact bears testimony to the recent growth of the realization
of the necessity for such records. Most of the cards now in use
are products of the past two or three years and have not yet been
modified by the teachings of experience.
To be satisfactory a continuous record card must be large
enough to contain all of the data necessary for recording the
significant facts in a child's school history during the entire
elementary course. It should not have part of the record on the
reverse side if this can be avoided. It should be of one of the three
standard sizes, viz., 3x5 inches, 4x6 inches or 5 x 8 inches.
It should allow for several changes of address and for transfers
from school to school. It should be so arranged as to reduce to a
minimum the possibility of misunderstanding it. Lastly, the unit
under which entries are to be made should be the school year and
not the grade. This is because in tracing a child's school history
what we want to know is where he was and what he was doing
during each year subsequent to his first beginning until the time
he left school. If the record is entered by grades and we find that
he was in grade two in 1903 and in grade three in 1905 we have
nothing to tell us whether he was absent in 1904 or repeating
grade two.
The following form is offered as filling all of the above
conditions. It is designed to be printed on a 5 x 8 card and should
be supplied in two colors, one for boys and the other for girls.
212
wh
d! d
I 1
.§s
£*
213
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
In this card one line of the record is to be filled out for each
school term in systems having semi-annual promotions and one
line for each school year in systems having annual promotions.
Each time a new school is entered a new line is used. Thus if a
pupil does the work of a grade three times there will be three lines
rilled out and they will tell the story of his repetitions. If he does
the work once, is out of school for a term on account of sickness,
returns and does the work of that grade again, there will be three
lines filled out and again they will tell the story. If a child be-
gins a term in one school and continues it in another, two lines
will be filled out for that term, and so on. There are twenty-two
lines provided giving ample space for recording the pupil's record
in the sixteen half grades and allowing besides for several transfers
and repetitions. In a system having annual promotions twelve
lines should be sufficient.
TRANSFER CARDS
In most cities the records which deal with transfers are
simple in the extreme and often as inefficient as they are simple.
The common practice is to give the child who is about to move to
another part of the city a transfer card telling what grade he is
leaving and sometimes giving a transcript of at least part of his
school record. The child takes this card with him and presents it
or not at the new school according as his parents are careful or
careless about allowing him to lose time before beginning work in
the new locality.
The New York investigation demonstrated the fact that
there is a close relation between transfers and retardation. It
is important that teachers and principals do all in their power to
make the loss from this source as small as possible. Good trans-
fer records are one important factor. The essential characteristics
are that the child shall have to take with him a card entitling him
to be admitted in the new school, that the authorities of the
school he leaves have a record of the transfer, and that the principal
of the new school have a notification of the fact that the transfer
has been given. In many systems it is also regarded as necessary
that the superintendent's office be notified.
These requirements mean that there must be three or four
214
REFORM IN AND THROUGH SCHOOL RECORDS
copies of the transfer record. The easiest and most convenient
way to allow for this is by means of appropriately arranged forms
printed on leaves bound in a book and perforated for separation
like the leaves of a check book. By means of carbon paper four
copies can be made by filling in the two blanks on one page cor-
responding to the check and the stub in a check book. Three of
these are then torn out and given respectively to the child, the
new principal and the superintendent. The fourth remains as a
permanent record for the school. This system is used in Water-
bury, Connecticut, and there the card sent to the principal of
the new school has on it the note, " If the above pupil does not
appear at your school within one day notify the truant officer."
215
CHAPTER XX
RETARDATION AND SOCIETY
THOSE who direct our public schools, more than any other
class of people, come into intimate contact with significant
social facts. By the nature of their work they are forced
to note directly and immediately the results of health and sickness,
births and deaths, prosperity and misery, cleanliness and dirt in
the city's population. It is for these reasons that through the
schools more than from any other single source we should be able
to get at the facts which will tell us of obstacles to civic better-
ment and the results of attempts to remove those obstacles.
Reasonable as the assumption may be that the schools
should be able to enlighten us along these lines, the expectation
that their records will serve us is commonly doomed to disap-
pointment. The reader who has reached this point in the present
volume cannot but have been impressed with the utter inadequacy
of the data printed in the school reports which have been made
the chief basis of the present series of inquiries.
In the present study three questions have been kept con-
stantly in view; namely, What proportion of the children who
enter the schools complete the elementary course? At what points
in the course do those who fail to finish drop out? What are the
causes which impel children to drop out without finishing?
These questions are neither new nor complex, nor unprac-
tical. They bear the very closest relation to the first principles of
efficient school administration and yet the facts to answer them
are not available in any printed report but must be approximated
through laborious computations such as have been explained.
One main object of the present volume will have been attained
if it has been convincingly demonstrated that we need more and
better facts on which to base our judgments as to action in educa-
216
RETARDATION AND SOCIETY
tional matters. In every line of business it has been convincingly
and repeatedly shown that it pays to spend enough money and
enough effort to learn the facts about the business. Why should
this not hold likewise in the field of education?
We have referred to the case of the stove corporation that
regards as its most valuable asset the records which enable it to
trace the shop history of each stove from the stage when it enters
as raw material to the one when it leaves the factory as a com-
pleted article. Attention has also been called to the fact that
similar records are kept by the great shoe companies. If the
directors of large corporations have found through experience
that it pays to know what happened to a stove or a shoe in the
process of manufacture, who worked on it, how long it took to
complete it, and, if it is in any way deficient, at whose door the
responsibility lies, is it not much more the duty of those in charge
of training citizens to be able to find out what happened in the
course-of the education given, when the child entered, how long
he spent in each grade, where he progressed slowly and where
rapidly, and, if he left school before completing the course, when
and why?
Whether or not the assumption that the school can and
should learn these facts be a valid one largely depends on what
the mission of the common school really is. This has already been
dwelt on at some length in a previous chapter. The position
taken, which is basal to the viewpoint of the present volume, is
that it is the mission of the common school to give as large a
proportion of the children of the community as possible a com-
plete elementary education. If this assumption is not valid
then the study of retardation and elimination and the problems
of individual record keeping have little value.
If, however, the assumption be a valid one, then the matters
which have been treated assume at once a distinct and striking
importance. This is true, not only from the viewpoint of educa-
tional economics, which would dictate the accumulation and
classification of more and better knowledge about the results of
our educational methods and processes, but also from the more
directly pedagogical viewpoint of the course of study. The facts
which have been reviewed and the conditions disclosed reveal with
217
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
startling clearness at least two disquieting characteristics of the
courses of study in vogue in our city school systems.
The first is that our courses are not fitted for the average
child. They are so devised that they may be followed by the un-
usually bright pupil substantially as mapped out. The really
exceptional child may even advance faster than the scheduled
rate but the average child cannot keep up with the work as planned
and the slow child has an even smaller chance of doing so.
The second characteristic of our schools as they now exist
is that they are better fitted for the girl than for the boy pupils.
This is strikingly proven by the figures which have been presented.
The lesson of the facts so briefly reviewed is a plain one.
If our conception of the mission of the common school is true
then the schools must be in some measure reformed, not only
on the administrative side, but also through changes in the course
of study and in the methods of teaching. It is intolerable that
but a small part of the children who enter our schools should stay
to complete them. It is not at all likely that the public at large
will long be content to continue to support the schools as at pres-
ent administere'd if they once fully realize that those schools are
not accomplishing what we have for years assumed that they were.
If, then, we are to so guide the rising current of public interest
in education that it shall result in wise and constructive action,
it is imperative that we evaluate these concrete facts with the
utmost care.
We need to know the effects of our elementary curricula
by following the effects upon the graduates. What happens under
this system and under that? We do not know. We are starting
upon a great movement for vocational training. We are moving
towards a sort of commercialism in education. It is claimed
that a boy who has finished the grammar grades and has had two
years' training in vocational work will be able to earn a better
livelihood than one who leaves school in the sixth grade and has
had no such training. And yet, although we are now expending
hundreds of thousands of dollars upon preparations for this new
sort of education and are planning to spend millions, the real,
concrete, definite facts that can be brought forward in support
of the arguments in favor of the new schools are painfully few in
218
RETARDATION AND SOCIETY
number and unconvincing in kind. The fact is that, despite the
hundreds of thousands of trained workers in education and the
millions of treasure freely spent each year, we still base our actions
in education largely on opinion, guess work and eloquence.
In one city of Michigan the proposition recently gained
headway that kindergartens should be established. The advo-
cates of the innovation claimed that many advantages would
follow their establishment. Among^these claims perhaps the
most weighty was that children who have passed through the
kindergarten complete the elementary course in less time than
do those who have not had the advantage of such training. Those
persons who opposed the establishment of the kindergartens
denied that this would be a result. In order to settle this very
important point the local school authorities wrote to superintend-
ents of schools all over the country in cities where kindergartens
form a part of the school system, and asked whether children who
have taken the kindergarten course complete the work of the
grades in less time than do those who have not had such training.
Answers were received from seventy-two cities. Forty-nine
answered that they thought that the kindergarten pupils did the
work of the grades more rapidly than the others, but that they
did not know. Twenty-three cities replied that they held the
opposite opinion, but that they did not know.
The illustration is typical of the present status of knowledge
in education. We have thousands of kindergartens and spend on
them every year hundreds of thousands of dollars, but what the
effect of the kindergarten training is no one knows.
If the present work accomplishes even a little toward alter-
ing this condition it will not have been in vain. Its main object
is to accomplish what it may in the direction of getting schoolmen
to think of education in terms of something. What those terms
are is not, at least at first, of great importance. What is import-
ant is that the old criteria of "good" and "poor" and "striking"
and "appealing" make way for quantitative standards of measure
and comparison by which effectiveness and efficiency may be
judged.
There is one more factor which, while of supreme importance,
has only been casually touched upon in the present work. That
219
LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS
is the psychological effect of retardation upon the retarded. We
have seen that a large part of all the children in our public schools
fail to make normal progress. They fail repeatedly. They are
thoroughly trained in failure. The effect of such training should
be carefully considered, for the problem it presents is a grave one.
It does not make much difference what we have to do, whether it
is a great thing or a little thing, so long as we feel that it is possible
for us and that we can do it if we try. There are few more hope-
less things in the world than to have it borne in upon us that we
are driving against a thing that we cannot do. Yet this is the
sort of training that we are giving a large part of all of our children.
Under our present system there are large numbers of children
who are destined to lives of failure. We know them in the schools
as the children who are always a little behind physically, a little
behind intellectually, and a little behind in the power to do. Such
a child is the one who is always "It" in the competitive games of
childhood. He cannot jump so far as the other boys, he takes a
step more in getting across the street from curb to curb when the
boys are seeing in how few steps they can do it. He always falls
below; he falls down — he knows he is going to fall.
There is no teacher but will recognize the picture of this
boy, and indeed, with some modifications, it fits many girls just as
well. These are the boys and girls with whom this book deals.
They are not the mentally deficient, exceptionally dull children.
They constitute a large part of all of the school children in most,
but not in all, of our school systems. These are the children that
too many of our schools are confirming in the habit of failure.
Success is riecessary to everyhurnan being. To live in an
atmosphere of failurels"tragedy fiTmany. It is not a matter of
intellectual attainment; not an intellectual matter at all but a
moral matter. The boys and girls coming out of school clear-
headed and with good bodies, who are resolute, who are deter-
mined to do and sure that they can do, will do more for them-
selves and for the world than those who come out with far greater
intellectual attainments, but who lack confidence, who have not
established the habit of success but within whom the school has
established the habit of failure.
220
INDEX
INDEX
Absence —
Excuse, Ogden schools 188
Adenoids —
Retardation caused by 6
Retarding effect of 12 7-8
Age and Grade Distribution —
Hypothetical case 30
In Memphis 37
In Cincinnati 159
Importance of 203
In Springfield, Mass 205
Age Distribution —
In Medford 51
In Columbus 92
Age Groups —
In fifty-eight cities 10-1 1
Ages—
Physical defects by 121
At starting compared with time
in school 166-169
Americans —
Retardation among 6
Retardation among, in New
York City 107
Atlanta, Ga.—
Attendance in 186
Attendance —
And enrollment in six cities 133
And promotions in three cities ... 138
Compulsory 185
Figures from the Census 186
Report in Wheeling 187
Certificate in Mansfield, Ohio. . . 190
In Milwaukee 193
Distributive records of 207
In Springfield, Ohio 208
Aurora, 111. —
Retardation in 45, 154
Grades and High School com-
pared with beginners 55
Retention of pupils through
high school 64
Rates of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96, 156
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Backward Children Investigation —
This volume a report of 3
Study conducted by 46
Baltimore, Md. —
Retardation in 45, 154
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Beginners computed by Thorn-
dike 68
Rapid and slow progress of
pupils in 84
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97, 156
Enrollment and attendance in. . . 133
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Retention of pupils in 155, 162
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Batavia System —
Of flexible grading 194
Bay City, Mich. —
Withdrawals in 99
Bayonne, N. J. —
Defective vision in 130
Beginning Pupils —
Number of, not stated in reports 50
Number of, how computed 52
Grades and high school com-
pared with. (See Grades.)
How computed by Dr. Thorn-
dike 68
How computed 207
223
224
INDEX
Birmingham, Ala. —
Attendance in 186
Boston, Mass. —
Retardation in 45, 154, 171
Grade distribution in 50
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96, 156
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Retardation for a series of years. 171
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 180
Breathing, Defective-
Retarding effect of 127-8
Bridgeport, Conn. —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Brockton, Mass. —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Brooklyn, N. Y.—
Reference to newspaper article
from 89
Bryan, James E. —
Reference to work of 108
Reference to study by 119
Buffalo, N. Y.—
Foreign pupils in 1 1 1
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Bureau of Education —
Bulletin of 9
Cambridge, Mass. —
Withdrawals in 99
Comment on school census 192
Plan of flexible grading 194
Camden, N. J. —
Retention in 4, 64, 155
Repeaters in 5, 97
Retardation in 45, 154
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Elimination in 60
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Language difficulty in 108
Sight and hearing tests in 119
Causes for excessive age in 120
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Causes —
Of withdrawals in five cities 99
For excessive age in Camden — . 120
Census —
Citation from 134, 185
Attendance figures from 186
School 191
School, in New Bedford, Mass. . . 192
School, in Providence, R. I., and
Springfield, Mass 202
Chatfield, George H.—
Reference to article by 209
Chicago, 111. —
Grade distribution 20
Promotions in 27, 143
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 97
Enrollment and attendance in... 133
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Chicopee, Mass. —
Defective children in 131
Cincinnati, Ohio —
Promotions in 27, 143
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
INDEX
225
Cincinnati, Ohio — Cont'd.
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97
Age and grade distribution in 159
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Special classes for foreigners in. . 197
Cleveland, Ohio —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 97
Defective children in 130
Persistence of attendance in 138
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Columbus, Ohio —
Promotions in 27
Retardation in 45, 154, 171
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Grade distribution in 91
Age distribution in 92
Repeaters in 97, 156
Persistence of attendance in 138
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155, 162
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Retention of pupils in 162
Retardation for a series of years 171
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Commissioner of Education, Re-
port for 1906 —
Reference to 20
Commissioner of Education, Re-
port for 1907 —
Reference to 1 2, 20
Grade figures from 72
Citation from 150
Comparison —
Standards of 219
15
Compulsory Attendance Period —
Not coincident with length of
school course 7, 186
Connecticut —
Index of efficiency 182
Cornell, Walter S. —
Reference to study of 117
Cornman, Oliver P. —
Reference to article by 36
Cost-
C^f repeaters in fifty-five cities.. 96
Course of Study —
Not fitted to average child 5
Dayton, Ohio —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Persistence of attendance in 138
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Death-
Grade decrease through 23-24
Decatur, 111. —
Retardation in 45, 154
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97, 156
Withdrawals in 99
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155, 162
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 180
Defects, Physical —
Retarding effect of
127-8
Denmark —
Illiteracy in;
I05
226
INDEX
Denver, Colo. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Beginners computed by Thorn-
dike 68
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 180
Detroit, Mich. —
Comment on school census 191
Distributive Records —
Importance of 207
Double Promotions —
(See Promotions.)
Draper, Andrew S. —
Quotation from 9
Reference to report of 20
EDUCATIONAL REVIEW -
Quotation from 40
Efficiency, Index of
For fifty-eight cities 180
By states 182
For large cities 184
Elimination —
Process of 8
Factor of 21, 18
General tendency of, in city
school systems 60
In Quincy, Camden and Med-
ford 60
Grade in which it begins in fifty-
nine cities . . , 62
English Language —
Ignorance of, a small handicap. . 6
English-speaking Children —
Retardation among 6
Retardation among, in New York
City 107
Enrollment —
And attendance in six cities 133
Distributive records of 207
In Springfield, Ohio 208
Erie, Pa.—
Retardation in 45, 154
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97, 156
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Excessive Age —
Causes of, in Camden 120
Exempt —
Children in Philadelphia, defects
of 117
Eyesight, Defective —
(See Vision.)
Factory —
Compared with school plant. ... 49
Failures —
Under different rates of promo-
tion 148
Habit of 220
Training in ". . 220
Falkner, Roland P. —
Reference to article by 36
Fitchburg, Mass. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 5 ^
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 180
Flexible Grading —
Systems of 193
Batavia system of 194
Cambridge plan of. 194
Foreign Born —
Pupils in elementary and high
schools 110-114
Children, classes for 197
Foreign Parentage —
Population of, in United States. . 104
Pupils of 1 10-1 14
INDEX
227
Fort Wayne, Ind.—
Retardation in 45, 154
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96, 156
Promotions in 143
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency. . 180
Germans —
Retardation among 6
Retardation among, in New York
City 107
Germany —
Illiteracy in 105
Illiteracy in army and navy 185
Glands, Enlarged —
Retarding effect of
127-8
Grade Distribution —
In 386 cities 13
In North Carolina 14
In Tennessee 15
In Utah 16
In Chicago 20
In three cities 33
In Boston 50
In Somerville 53
In Reading 54
In cities and villages as given by
Commissioner of Education.. 72
In Columbus 91
In 752 cities, by sexes 152
In Cleveland 178
Grades and High Schools —
Compared with beginners 55
Grading —
Flexible 193
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Persistence of attendance in 138
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 180
Greenwood, James M. —
Quotation from
39
Grand Rapids, Mich.—
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Haverhill, Mass. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 63
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Foreign pupils in 1 1 1
Promotions in 143
Index of efficiency 180
Attendance in 186
Helter, H. H.—
Card of 190
High School —
Retention of pupils through, in
fifty-one cities 64
Membership of 150
Hillis, Newell D wight —
Quotation from 103
Hoboken, N. J.—
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 97
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 181
Houston, Texas —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Illinois-
Index of efficiency 182
Illiteracy —
In the United States and other
countries 104
In Germany 185
Index of Efficiency —
For fifty-eight cities i So
228
INDEX
Index of Efficiency— Cont'd.
By states 182
For large cities 184
Individual (Continuous record) — 209
Irish-
Retardation among 6
Retardation among, in New York
City 107
Italians —
Retardation among 6
Retardation among, in New York
City 107
Jersey City, N. J. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 97
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Membership of three final grades
in 179
Index of efficiency 181
Comment on school census 191
Johnstown, Pa. —
Withdrawals in 101
Joplin, Mo. —
Attendance in 186
Kansas City, Mo. —
Promotions in 27
Retardation in 45, 154, 171
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 74, 95-97, 156
Rate of progress in 87
Foreign born pupils in no
Enrollment and attendance in... 133
Persistence of attendance in 138
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Retention of pupils 162
Retardation for a series of years 171
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 180
Kindergarten —
Effect of. . .
219
Kingston, N. Y. —
Retardation in 45, 154
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97, 156
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Index of efficiency ' 180
Language Difficulty —
In New York and Porto Rico. . . 108
In Camden and Trenton 109
Lockstep —
In education 193
Los Angeles, Cal. —
Retardation in 45, 154, 171
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Retardation for a series of years 171
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Louisville, Ky. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Promotions in 143
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
INDEX
229
Lowell, Mass. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Repeaters in 96
Index of efficiency 180
Lynn, Mass. —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Maiden, Mass. —
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Promotions in 143
Attendance in 186
Manhattan —
Investigation in 2
Mansfield, Ohio —
Attendance certificate 190
Massachusetts —
Index of efficiency 182
Maxwell, William H.—
Reference to report of I
McCallie, J. M.—
Quotation from
109
Measurements —
Standards of..
219
Medford, Mass. —
Retardation in 3, 45, 48
Age distribution 51
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Elimination in 60
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Withdrawals in 99
Promotions in 143
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 180
Medical Inspection of Schools —
Volume on 2
In Tasmania 198
Memphis, Tenn. —
Retardation in 3, 39, 45, 48
Grade distribution in 33
Age and grade distribution in. . . 37
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97
Index of efficiency 181
Meriden, Conn. —
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school — 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 180
Milwaukee, Wis. —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Attendance in 193
Minneapolis, Minn. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Reference to newspaper article
from 89
Repeaters in 97
Defective children in 131
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Miscellaneous Defects —
Retarding effect of 127
Missouri —
Index of efficiency 182
Nationalities —
Bearing of, on school progress. . . 6
Retardation by, in New York
City 107
Newark, N. J. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
230
INDEX
Newark, N. j.—Cotti'd.
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 181
Newark, Ohio —
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Index of efficiency 180
New Bedford, Mass.—
Comment on school census 192
New Britain, Conn. —
Foreign pupils in 112
New Brunswick, N. J. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 97
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 181
New Haven, Conn. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Beginners computed by Thorn-
dike 68
Repeaters in 97, 156
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
New Jersey —
Index of efficiency 182
Newmayer, S. W. —
Reference to study of 1 18
New Orleans, La. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 63
Repeaters in 97
Foreign born pupils in no
Persistence of attendance in 138
Attendance and promotions in .. 138
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
Index of efficiency 181
Newport, R. I. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Index of efficiency 180
Newton, Mass. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 180
New York City, N. Y.—
Retardation in i, 4, 45, 46, 48, 107
Investigation conducted in 2
Causes of retardation in 4
Promotions in 27
Retardation in, by sexes 46
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Special promotions in 76
Time in school of pupils in 79
Extent of slow, rapid and normal
progress of children in 80-83
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Retardation in, by nationalities. 107
Language difficulty in 108
Physical defects and progress in 123
Enrollment and attendance in.. 133
Promotions in 143
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 172
INDEX
23I
New York City, N. Y.—Cont'd.
Index of efficiency 181
Special classes for foreigners in. . 197
Individual continuous record 211
New York State —
Index of efficiency 182
Normal —
Progress, statistics of 74
Progress, extent of, in New York
City 80
Children, defects of, by grades 121
Normal Ages —
In each grade 38
North Carolina —
Grade distribution in r4
Norway —
Illiteracy in 105
Oakland, Cal. —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Ogden, Utah —
Absence excuse 188
Ohio —
Index of efficiency.. . . 182
Omaha, Neb. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Passaic, N. J.—
Grade distribution in 33
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 97
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 181
Paterson, N. J. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 97
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 1 73
Index of efficiency 181
Pawtucket, R. I. —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Pearson, Karl —
Formula of 163
Pennsylvani a —
Index of efficiency 182
Philadelphia, Pa.—
Grade distribution 33
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com- r-^
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Special promotions in 76
Rate of progress in 87
Reference to newspaper article . . 89
Repeaters in 97
Exempt children in 117
Enrollment and attendance 133
Promotions in 143
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 1 73
Index of efficiency 181
Physical Defects —
Retardation caused by 5, 127-8
Of exempt children in Philadel-
phia 117
By grades and ages 121
By sexes 122
And progress among New York
City children 123
Retarding effect of 127-8
In Sioux City 130
In Chicopee 131
In Minneapolis 131
And progress 198
Population —
Factor of 21-22
Portland, Me. —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
232
INDEX
Portland, Me. — Cont'd.
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 1 73
Index of efficiency 180
Portland, Ore.—
Retardation in 45, 171
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Foreign born pupils in no
Retardation for a series of years 171
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 1 73
Index of efficiency 180
Porto Rico —
Language difficulty in 108
Persistence of attendance in 138
Progress —
Statistics of normal, slow and
rapid 74
Rates of, in New York City 78
Extent of slow, rapid and normal,
in New York City 80-83
Rapid and slow, in Baltimore 84
Of average child 84
Rates of, in twenty-nine cities.. . 87
And defects among children in
New York City 123
And physical defects 198
And transfers 198
Promotions —
In five cities 27
Special, in five cities 76
And attendance in three cities... 138
In sixteen cities 143
Average rate 144
Failures under different rates of 148
By sexes, in two cities 156
Importance of 199
Providence, R. I. —
Promotions in 143
School census in 202
Prussia —
Compulsory attendance in 185
PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC -
Reference to article in 36, 1 1 7
Psychological Effect —
Of retardation 220
Quincy, Mass. —
Retention in 4
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Elimination in 60
Grade in which elimination be-
gins-. 63
Retention of pupils through high
. school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97
Index of efficiency 180
Rapid —
Progress, statistics of 74
Pupils, in five cities 76
Progress, extent of, in New York
City 80
Progress, in Baltimore 84
Rate—
Of progress, of New York chil-
dren 78
Of progress, in twenty-nine cities 87
Of promotion, average 144
Reading, Pa. —
Retardation in 45, 154
Grade distribution 54
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97
Foreign pupils in 113
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Index of efficiency 181
Records —
Distributive, importance of 207
Continuous individual 209
Repeaters —
Number of, in three cities 74
INDEX
233
Repeaters — Confd.
Per cent of, in three cities 75
In three cities 95
In fifty-five cities 96
How computed 206
Retardation —
Process of 8
Factor of 2 1-26
In thirty-one cities 43~45
Causes of, in New York City 78
By nationalities in New York
City 107
In six cities for a series of years . . 171
Psychological effect of 220
Retarded Pupils —
In thirty-one cities 43~45
Defects of, by grades 121
In six cities for a series of years. . 171
Retarding Effect —
Of physical defects 127
Retention of Pupils —
Through high schools in fifty-one
cities 64
In cities having large foreign
populations 115
In thirty-seven cities 162
Rhode Island —
Index of efficiency 182
Richmond, Va. —
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Repeaters in 97
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Index of efficiency 180
Russell Sage Foundation —
School investigation conducted by 2
Russians —
Retardation among 6
Retardation among, in New York
City 107
St. Louis, Mo. —
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Beginners computed by Thorn-
dike.. 68
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Foreign born pupils in no
Enrollment and attendance in
i33> i35>i37
Retention of pupils 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Index of efficiency 181
Salt Lake City, Utah —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Special promotions in 76
Promotions in 143
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Membership of three final grades
in 179
Index of efficiency 181
San Antonio, Texas —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
San Francisco, Cal. —
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 1 73
SCHOOL WORK-
Reference to article in 209
Sex-
Relation of, to retardation and
elimination 6
Retardation by, in New York
City 46
Physical defects by 122
In high schools 151
Grade distribution by, in 752
cities 152
Retardation by, in fifteen cities.. 154
Retention by, in thirteen cities. . . 155
Repeaters by, in fourteen cities.. 156
Promotions by, in two cities 156
Sioux City, Iowa —
Defective children in 130
Slow-
Progress, statistics of 74
Pupils, in five cities 76
Progress, extent of in New York
City 80
Progress, in Baltimore 84
Somerville, Mass. —
Repeaters in 5, 96
Grade distribution in 53
234
INDEX
Somerville, Mass. — Cont'd.
Grades and high schools com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Special promotions in 76
Promotions in 143
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Index of efficiency 180
Attendance in 186
Special Promotions —
(See Promotions.)
Springfield, Mass. —
Retardation in 45, 171
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Retardation for a series of years 171
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
School census in 202
Age and grade distribution 205
Springfield, Ohio —
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 74, 95, 96
Special promotions in 76
Withdrawals in 99
Persistence of attendance in 138
Attendance and promotion in — 138
Promotions in 143
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 180
Enrollment and attendance in... 208
Standards —
Of measurement and comparison 219
Surviving Pupils —
How computed 206
Sweden —
Illiteracy in 105
Syracuse, N. Y. —
Persistence of attendance in 138
Attendance and promotion in 138
Comment on school census 192
Tasmania —
Medical inspection in 198
Teeth, Defective —
Retarding effect of 127-8
Tennessee —
Grade distribution in 15
Thorndike, Edward L.—
Quotation from 9
Reference to monograph by 66
Elimination results of, compared
with those of author 67, 71
Time in School —
Of New York City pupils 79
Compared with age at starting 166-69
Tonsils, Hypertrophied —
Retarding effect of 12 7-8
Transfers —
And progress 198
Cards 214
Trenton, N. J.—
Retardation in 45, 154
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Language difficulty in 108
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 156
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 1 73
Index of efficiency 181
Troy, N. Y.—
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Rate of progress in 87
Index of efficiency 181
Utah-
Grade distribution in... 16
INDEX
235
Utica, N. Y.—
Retardation in 45
Grades and high schools com-
pared with beginners S7
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 181
Vision-
Tests in Philadelphia 118
Tests in Camden 119
Defective, retarding effect of in
New York City 127-8
Defective, in Bayonne 130
Defective, in Cleveland. 130
Vocational Training —
Movement for. .
218
Walker, Francis A. —
Quotation from
103
Waltham, Mass. —
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 96
Washington, D. C. —
Meeting of Department of Super-
intendence in 20
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Waterbury, Conn. —
Beginners computed by Thorn-
dike 68
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Transfer card 215
Wheeling, W. Va.—
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Repeaters in 97
Promotions in 143
Promotions by sexes in 156
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Index of efficiency 181
Attendance report in 187
Whipple, Guy Montrose —
Formula of 163
Whittemore, Gilbert E. —
Reference to report of 202
Wilkes Barre, Pa. —
Promotions in 143
Promotions by sexes in 156
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Williamsport, Pa.—
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 56
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through the
high school 64
Repeaters in 74, 95, 96, 162
Promotions in 143
Retardation in, by sexes 154
Retention in, by sexes 155
Repeaters in, by sexes 162
Index of efficiency 181
Wilmington, Del. —
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 55,57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 96
Retention of pupils in 162
Variation of conditions over a
series of years 173
Index of efficiency 180
Withdrawals —
Causes of, in six cities 9
Woonsocket, R. I. —
Retardation in 45
Grades and high school com-
pared with beginners 57
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in 97
Retention of pupils in 162
Index of efficiency 181
236
INDEX
Worcester, Mass. —
Beginners computed by Thorn-
dike \ 68
Variation of conditions over a
series of years. 1 73
Work, Hervey B. —
Report of . 187
York, Pa.—
Retardation in.
45
Grades and high schoa com-
pared with beginners 55
Grade in which elimination be-
gins 62
Retention of pupils through high
school 64
Rate of progress in 87
Repeaters in. . . .- 96
Index of efficiency 181
FOURTEEN DAY USE
RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED
RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
TO-—* 202 Main Library
LOAN PERIOD 1
HOME USE
2
3
4
5
6
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date.
Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
OCT 1 0 2001
FORM NO. DD6
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
BERKELEY, CA 94720
(E>s
Lc
M
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11