aug 27 i»\a

A New Method for Determining Rate

of Progress in a Small

School System

By Nobman Cameron, Ph.D.

\\
West Chester, Pa.

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE

SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IN

PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR

OF PHILOSOPHY

» • • » »

Reprinted from The Psychological Clinic, Vol. V, Nos. 8 and 9,
January and February, 1912.

A NEW METHOD FOR DETERMINING RATE OF
PROGRESS IN A SMALL SCHOOL SYSTEM.

By Nobman Camebon, Ph.D.,
West Chester, Pa.

Almost all of the articles appearing within the past few
years on retardation and elimination have been based upon a study
of large school systems, because, in the first place, city systems
furnish uniform conditions of grading; and in the second place,
large masses of statistics preclude the erroneous conclusions which
would result from insufficient data. In this paper, on the con-
trary, care has been taken to study the school history of each
individual pupil in a small school system, and to ascertain
accurately the vital statistics necessary to define the true state of
affairs.

The present investigation was undertaken with five pur-
poses in view :

1. To find out the actual conditions existing in a small

school system over a number of years ;

2. To learn the real extent of retardation, acceleration, and

elimination of pupils by following their progress
from the day they entered school until the day they
finally left it;

3. To draw a valid contrast between the number beginning

and the number leaving school ;

4. To compare actual with hypothetical results ; and,

5. To make such suggestions as may help in ameliorating

the conditions which are found to exist.

The facts have been obtained largely from the reports of the
white schools of Elkton, Maryland, and through the cooperation
of many teachers and students in the schools and of friends out-
side it was possible to obtain much valuable data which the reports
could not furnish. Many of the teachers had taught in the
schools for a period as long as that covered by the investigation,
and the writer himself, a citizen of the town, was for some time
connected with the schools. The facts are considered under two
heads: (1) the elementary and high school history of 295 males
and females during the years 1891-1892 to 1908-9, inclusive;
and (2) the progress of pupils (1514 in all) in the elementary

(1)

254941

2 THE P8YCH0L0 GICAL CLINIC.

and high schools for eleven years, from 1898-9 to 1908-9,
inclusive.

The town in question is a small county seat. Its population
has remained about the same for the past twenty years, and the
few industries and the number of employees have not changed
materially in that time. The economic conditions are such that
practically all the children could remain in school until graduation.

The high school was for a number of years the only one
in the county, and is still much the largest and best equipped.
Until 1902-3 there were six grades in the elementary school, and
four in the high school. In that year one grade was added to
the elementary course, thus requiring the normal child to remain
in school eleven years before graduation. The high school course
of study was not affected in any important degree by the change.
Two additional facts have an important bearing on this investiga-
tion: (1) the age of entrance is six years, and (2) there is no com-
pulsory attendance law in Maryland.

The writer believes he is justified in calling his method "new"
for the following reasons: (1) the complete school history of 295
pupils and the school history of 1514 pupils during the time
spent in the Elkton system are the basis for obtaining his results ;
(2) elimination is based on the actual number of beginners; (3)
the rate of progress and retardation is based on a system of units
of progress; and (4) his measure of the efficiency of a school
system is new.

The conclusions arrived at in the following pages will not,
of course, apply in all respects to every city school system. They
will be indicative, however, of what may be found in com-
munities where conditions are similar to those here prevailing,
and a knowledge of the facts of retardation, elimination, etc., is
quite as indispensable in the administration of a small as of a
large school system.

Retardation.

At the outset of this discussion it seems necessary to define
certain terms already in use in the study of school statistics and
to introduce some others.

There are three classes of pupils who drop out of school:
(1) those who graduate; (2) those who transfer to other schools;
and (3) those who leave for other causes. It is to this latter class
that the word elimination usually refers.

The rate of progress for a school means the average progress
of all pupils through the grades ; that is to say, the record of the

RATE OF PROGRESS. 3

school system will be a summation upon the records made by the
individual pupils in it. The movement of a pupil through his
course may be composed of three elements or forces; (1) a normal
forward movement, of a unit of work done in one term; (2) a
doubly rapid movement of two units of work in one term ; and (3)
a retarded movement of one unit of work in two or more terms.
When a pupil moves faster than the normal rate, i.e. does a unit
of work in less than the required time, he is said to be accelerated
in his movement through the grades. This term is properly the
converse of retarded in its customary meaning.

Among those interested in the work of our public schools
there is a demand to know not only that a pupil is moving at an
abnormal rate of speed, but what the rate of that movement is.
Most writers on the subject of retardation have used the term
retarded to mean that a pupil is above age for his grade, irre-
spective of the reason. Thus a pupil twelve years of age and in
the second grade, would be considered retarded whether he had
attended school two years or six. For others the word signifies
that a pupil has failed of promotion one or more times, and is in
consequence behind his class for as many years. The first inter-
pretation of the word has no doubt arisen out of the method neces-
sary for the study of large masses of school statistics, and it has
been tentatively accepted by most persons with the recognition
that the results are only approximately correct and in most cases
merely indicate a tendency. Its second use has been advocated
by some who believe that the former method does not give exact
results ; that it is unfair to the school because it considers a pupil
retarded who has entered school late, and because it takes no
account of a large number of pupils who have advanced faster than
one grade per year.

In the present study the second point of view (progress
method) has been accepted principally because it shows the actual
condition of retardation. At the same time comparisons of results
with the aggregate standard will be made to note how far the
schools* from which the facts have been collected agree in this
respect. One would hardly be justified in applying this method to
a large school system. The vast amount of time necessary, and
the utter impossibility of securing certain facts, would make it
impracticable. In the judgment of the writer, it is of great
importance in the present state of school records that a method
approximating as nearly as possible the real conditions, be devised
for measuring the degree of retardation in our schools. Such a

4 THE PSYCHOLO OICAL CLINIC.

one is herein described. It will show definitely the extent of
retardation for which the system is responsible.

Since the word retardation, in the second sense, refers to the
progress of a pupil through the grades, it is necessary that a
new set of terms be adopted to designate the different degrees of
retardation. Three boys may begin school the same year ; at the
end of the eleventh year one may be in the last year of the high
school, one in the second year, and the third in the fourth grade
of the elementary school. It is obvious that these pupils have
passed through the grades at different rates of speed, and it is
important to measure the rate. For this reason the terms units
of normal progress, minus progress, and plus progress are here
proposed to convey the manner and rate of movement of a pupil
through the grades. A unit of normal progress means that a pupil
completes a term's work on time; a unit of minus progress, that
he completes the term's work in double the required time; and a
unit of plus progress, that he completes two terms in the time
required for one. For example, a pupil in the fifth grade in the
eighth year of his school life may be there because he has made
one unit of plus and four units of minus progress, or three units of
minus progress, etc. Instead of saying that a pupil is retarded or
accelerated so many years, it is possible to express his school status
in terms of so many units of plus, normal, or minus progress, thus
using a definite terminology for designating the manner by which
he has arrived at any point in his school career. The word
retardation may still be used as before to denote the condition,
but without the duty of serving also as the measure of this
condition.

As stated before it was not possible to secure absolutely com-
plete records, yet 295 pupils were found who had passed their
whole school life in the Elkton schools and had either dropped
out or graduated. It is first attempted to show the exact amount
of retardation among these pupils, and subsequently, to study it
among 1514 pupils who attended school during some part or all
of eleven years. Table I (B) shows the distribution of these pupils
from the first year of their school life until the last one dropped
out in the fourteenth year. The numbers above the black line
give the percentages of those making normal progress, while the
numbers below the line indicate the percentages retarded .

Instead of finding an ideal attendance of 100 per cent in
the next higher grade each succeeding year, we find the real con-
dition as displayed in the table. Here are 295 different pupils

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who have started the race of school life together, scattered along
the course, further and further apart with the passing of each
year. In the eighth year eighteen are beginning another lap
together, having kept up the required speed, two have gained a
lap, and 178 are falling behind, some one lap, some three, and
a few as many as six laps. Again, in the eleventh year, when
most of them should have crossed the finishing line together, only
six do so without having lost ground. One has lost one lap and
regained it, and still another has lost a lap and not regained it,
but finishes with the other seven on account of the shorter course.
What has become of the other 287 in these eleven years? Two
hundred and forty-two have dropped out and the remaining forty-
five are found in all the grades from the fourth up to and including
the third year of the high school.

Taking as a basis the number of children in school, about one
out of ten in the eleventh year of school life has passed through
the grades without failure, and considering the number of begin-
ners as a basis the ratio is almost one to fifty. Ayres (1) says:
"In our city schools on an average, three out of every four have
failed at least once by the time the eighth year of school life is
reached, and the whole number of failures is so large as not to fall
far short of averaging two for each pupil who has failed." By
reference to table I (A), it will be observed that the whole number
of pupils in school this year average 2.28 units of minus progress.
Of the pupils in school during the eighth year, 45 have failed once ;
68, twice; 39, three times; 27, four times; 10, five times, and 3,
six times, an average of 2.5 failures for 192 pupils. Hence,
the average number of failures is somewhat larger than that found
by Ayres.

In the same table are given the percentages of the retarded and
non-retarded for each year according to the progress (exact)
method and the age-grade method so extensively applied by many
investigators, the latter considering as retarded all pupils of the
first grade who are nine years or over, all in the second grade, ten
years or over, and so on. We are struck with the great disparity
in the results obtained from the two methods. In the first few
years the age-grade standard shows a low percentage of retarda-
tion, with a gradual increase in the later years ; for example, only
19 per cent were retarded the third year, 30 per cent the fourth
year, 38 per cent in the fifth year, and 47 per cent the sixth year,
whereas the actual retardation for these same years based on the
number of pupils in school was 79, 86, 89 and 91 per cent,

RATE OF PROGRESS. 7

respectively. The increase in percentages of retardation, accord-
ing to the age-grade standard, indicates that the degree of retarda-
tion is becoming greater with each added year. Only two of the
beginners were retarded by this method, and accordingly it is only
as they lagged behind that they passed over into the retarded class.
To illustrate the failure of this method to catch the retarded, it
may be said that while it gives 39 per cent of the pupils of the
first grade in the third year as retarded, as a matter of fact every
child in that grade has twice failed of promotion.

Seventy-six per cent of the pupils failed in the first grade
the first year, which throws light upon the large percentage of
retarded pupils in the later years. Of the number of pupils who
failed in the first year and who were in school at least eight years,
twenty-three progressed normally for the remaining time, eleven
of them being present seventy-five per cent of the year or more.
If the failures in the first year be excluded from the calculations,
147, or 71 per cent, of the 208 pupils in the eighth year fall into
the retarded class. From the point of view of the child there seems
to be no good reason for not counting the first year of school life,
since the added year becomes a prolific cause of elimination when
the child finds himself behind grade in his fourteenth year. From
the point of view of the school system there may be reasons for
omitting it.

Passing to the study of retardation among 1514 pupils as
found in the various grades in eleven years of this same school
system, one is confronted with the problem of devising a method
to show the per cent of retardation for each grade during any year
and the extent to which each pupil is retarded, i. e. the number
of failures, or units of minus progress made for the time by each
pupil.

The important thing to know about the child is not how many
years he is behind the theoretical grade for his age, but (1)
whether or not he has been retarded in the system in question,
and (2) if retarded, how many units of minus progress he has
made. With this in mind the present method of determining
the first of the factors named above has been adopted, and all
pupils that were not present during two years were eliminated
from the calculations on the ground that a child must be in the
system for this period of time to show retardation at all.

Table II gives the per cents retarded for each grade and each
year. In the first line for each year are the per cents retarded by
the progress method. The second line contains the per cents

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.

according to the age-grade method. Owing to the fact that in
the application of the progress method all pupils who have not
been present during two years are omitted from the discussion,
there are no per cents for the year 1898-9 for this method.

The per cent of retardation increases rapidly from 1899-1900
when the pupils had been in school only two years to 64 per

TABLE II.
PERCENTAGES RETARDED BY PROGRESS AND AGE-GRADE METHODS. (1514 PUPILS.)

(The upper line for each year gives the per cent for the progress method,
the lower line for the age-grade method.)

Elementary School High School

H
39

Years

1 |2|3|4|5|6|7|1|2|3|4

1898-1899

1899-1900

100
21

IS
27

28
42

U
47

26
35

6
35

15
41

83
35

U
33

25
34

1900-1901

too

78
30

89
38

81
35

18
40

J7
40

4*
38

S7
33

7
26

7
33

45
32

25
34

47
33

1901-1902

100
15

68
31

78
38

56
44

60
46

29
32

26
34

80
36

#7
21

10
15

05
32

22
17

55
31

1902-1903

100
15

60
20

U
40

76
38

46
34

50
29

28
31

00
41

50
42

45
25

30
20

50
37

04
30

1903-1904

100
9

68
23

66
23

65
31

74
33

40
32

#7
27

41
38

45
29

88
27

^4
25

37
30

55
36

1904-1905

100

68
20

66
38

60
27

70
25

56
35

87
21

15
21

53
36

43
27

66
24

33
26

50
25

1905-1906

100
13

61
10

71
32

71
35

66
27

03
23

55
25

£0
14

18
11

26
30

00
23

25
21

50
23

1906-1907

100
17

68
24

60
24

85
38

64
26

62
23

45
27

58
14

27
22

13
13

05
25

29
14

50
23

1907-1908

100
14

70
25

68
18

70
37

78
28

55
17

64
17

50
16

£0
6

£1
10

11
11

71
22

20
11

62
20

1908-1909

100

62
16

67
33

78
31

01
38

0S9

50
17

41
27

27
24

28
11

00
23

43
20

03
23

cent in 1902-03. From that point there is a decline for two or
three years, with a rise to 63 per cent in 1908-09. The great-
est amount of retardation, as one would expect, is in the earlier
grades. Here most of the failures occur, and here is found
the greatest congestion, which is relieved only by the dropping
out process that takes place at the ages of twelve, thirteen and

RATE OF PROGRESS. 9

fourteen. The first grade shows one hundred per cent retarded
in each year, due to the fact that the only pupils considered in
our calculations must have been in school more than one year.
The next largest percentages of retardation are in the second,
third, fourth, and fifth grades. A glance at the columns headed
"E" (elementary school), "H" (high school), will give sufficient
evidence that a larger per cent of the pupils in the elementary
school is retarded than in the high school. This proves that the
pupils making the most failures drop out in the lower grades.

After the year 1899-1900 there is an almost continuously
increasing difference between the percentages calculated by this
method and those by the age-grade method. This difference reaches
its maximum in the last two years, where the per cent of retarded
according to the progress method is approximately three times
that of the other method. It is probably more nearly correct to
say that if the same pupils were involved in the two methods, the
former would show more than twice as many retarded as the
latter. The reason for this conclusion is that all beginners are
excluded in the first and included in the last method. Moreover,
out of the 1051 pupils in the schools more than one year, 587, or
56 per cent failed at least once, i. e. the system's retardation is
56 per cent. According to the age-grade standard it is 28 per
cent for the 1514 pupils. Superintendent Lurton shows (2) that
the percentages of retardation based on the Minnesota standard
(pupils under seven in the first grade, under eight in the second
grade, and so on for the other grades, being classed as non-retarded)
are approximately double those based on the age-grade standard.
That the latter method gives results greatly in favor of the system,
there seems to be no reasonable doubt, its chief value consisting
in the fact that it discloses a tendency toward retardation and
offers a facile method of comparing the percentages of retarda-
tion from year to year, and its chief defect being that it fails to
show the correct extent of that retardation.

According to Ayres' (3) list of 33 cities, Elkton by his
standard of measurement would range from twenty-fourth place
in 1898-99 to eighth place in 1908-09. There is little doubt that
the retarding forces were stronger eleven years ago in this town
than they are to-day, but they are still too potent in the early
grades for the welfare of the child.

The second fact to be ascertained concerning these pupils
during eleven years is the degree of retardation, i. e. the relative
number of units of minus progress made by them. Collectively

10 THE PSYCH OLO GICAL CLINIC.

they made 3938 units in all, of which 26 were units of plus
progress, 937 units of minus progress, and 2975 units of normal
progress, an average for each pupil of 3.74, .02, .89, and 2.83,
respectively, or 1, 24 and 75 per cent, respectively, for each of
the three kinds of units. Three hundred and fifty pupils in
school in 1908-9 averaged 1, 23, and 76 per cent, and the 295
pupils 1, 32, and 67 per cent, respectively, for the three kinds of
units. The percentages of normal progress made by the first two
groups is about the same, but that made by the third group is some-
what smaller. The difference is to be accounted for largely by
the fact that the complete school history of the first two groups is
not known, and especially that part of school life when the retard-
ing force is strongest, — in the early grades. If we keep in mind
the fact that 326 of the 1051 pupils entered the system from out-
side schools and that 195 of this last number entered the high
school directly, we can understand the cause for the disparity in
percentages of the first and third groups, and between the second
and third groups. Table I (A) furnishes the same data for the
295 pupils of each year.

A casual comparison of progress with retardation might lead
one to believe that the percentages contradict one another. The
fact is they do not ; the former corroborate the latter. What an
average of 27 per cent of units of minus progress means is, that
according to the progress method of determining retardation, about
90 per cent of the pupils who have been in school for eight or ten
years will be retarded. This same per cent of units of minus
(progress in the fifth year of school life would imply a much
smaller per cent of retardation.

Causes of Retardation.

The one cause of retardation from the point of view of this
investigation is failure of promotion, and the causes that produce
these failures are directly responsible for the condition of retarda-
tion in schools. It has already been pointed out that a retarded
pupil is one who for any reason has failed one or more times to
make the next higher grade. The pupil himself may be responsible
for it, the parents may be blamed for it, or the school system itself
may be at fault. It is clearly evident each year that the school is
having thrust upon it greater responsibility for the social, moral,
and mental welfare of the child. This does not mean that the
responsibility of the home is being in any degree lessened, but
that the state is assuming certain functions that neither of these

RATE OF PROGRESS.

agencies has exercised in the past, or if they exercised them, did
so only in a spasmodic way.

By referring to table III it will be seen that the major por-
tion of the failures is in the early grades, 78 per cent of one group
and 90 per cent of the other being in the first four grades. Com-
paratively few failures are made in the high school. The largest
per cents of failures are in the first and third grades. Conse-
quently, we may expect to find the greatest congestion in these two
grades, and such is the case in every one of the eleven years of
school except two. Not only is it true for the town, but it is also
true for the county, for seven out of eleven years, and in the state

TABLE III. — FAILURES MADE BY 1051 AND 295 PUPILS.

§
Si

CO OS

1-1 *

Grade

1 1 2

3 | 4

5 | 6

Failures by 1051

401 76

43i 8

359 78

51 11

134i 120

14! 13

119 78

17| 11

73 1 27

8 3

30 10

4| 2

17
2
6

1
5

1
1

48
5

10
1

24
2
4
1

848
91

680
97

9
1

7
1

80
8

14
2

937
100
701
100

Per cent per grade. . . .
Failures by 295 pupils
Per cent per grade. . . .

outside of Baltimore City for eight out of ten years. (7) Hence
it is in these lower grades that the retarding forces are most
potent.

Contributory to the principal cause of retardation are the
following : irregular attendance, late entrance, leaving before final
examinations, lack of capacity for work, indifference on the part
of the pupil, poor teaching, physical defects, too much work and
many minor causes closely related with those named.

"No doubt the most important of these secondary causes is
irregular attendance. Under this may be included late entrance
and leaving before examinations. There is naturally supposed to
be a definite relation between the content of the course of study
and the time a pupil should spend in school. We provide in some
districts ten months, in others nine, and in still others eight months,
more or less, of school. Yet there is great uniformity in the
quantity of the subjects the pupils are expected to assimilate in
these different periods of time.

Of the 295 pupils, 38 per cent of the non-promoted and 77

12 THE PSYCHOLO GICAL CLINIC.

of the promoted attended three-fourths time or over. Of the 1051
pupils the percentages for the same period are 42 and 84. That
is, about 80 out of every hundred of the promoted and 40 out
of the same number of non-promoted attend three-fourths time.
Again, out of every hundred pupils of those whose complete school
history is known, making three-fourths time or better, 82 are
promoted and 18 are not. And for every hundred of the 1051
making three-fourths time or more, these numbers are 86 and 14.
If the first and second grades are omitted in making the calcula-
tions, the number of failures made by every hundred pupils will
range from 11 to 14, and the number of promotions from 86 to 89.
Of the number making between one-half and three-fourths time the
number of promoted and the number of non-promoted out of every
hundred are 57 and 43, respectively. For those present less than
one-half time, from 70 to 79 fail while from 21 to 30 succeed in
getting into the next higher grade. Thus it will be seen a high
per cent of attendance is a necessary qualification for promotion.

In this study, "entering late" means that the pupil did not
enroll the first month of the term ; "leaving early," that the pupil
left before examination time at the end of the scholastic year. Of
the total promoted, 10 per cent, and of the total non-promoted,
46 per cent, entered late, left early, or both entered late and left
early. That is, about 10 out of every hundred promoted make the
next grade in spite of the conditions, and 46 out of every hundred
of the non-promoted may lay the blame in part to these conditions.
Out of every hundred enrolments, 7 of those entering late or
leaving early were promoted and 15 not promoted. Of these 15,
3 failed on account of late entrance, 7 on account of leaving early,
and 5 on account of both of these conditions. Thus, for these two
causes, twice as many failed as passed. In producing non-
promotions, leaving early seems to be more than one and one-half
times as potent as entering late. This is in accord with what we
might expect to find. Many pupils enter school a month late, and
in the earlier grades readily make up the work and are passed
into the next class. But the pupils who leave before the final
examinations at the end of the year have no chance of promotion
unless they are given special examinations at the beginning of
the next term, or are promoted on trial.

That too much or too difficult work is an important factor in
producing retardation admits of no doubt. Two pieces of evidence
are offered in support of this fact. First, the per cent of failures
in the third grade is almost twice as large as for the second grade.

RATE OF PROGRESS. 13

In the third grade the addition to the content of the course of
study is much greater in comparison with that made to the second
or fourth grades. Secondly, the per cent of failures made by
pupils of the 1514 group in the early high school is about eight
times as many as that for the later high school. The course of
study was then less flexible than in later years, and in consequence
students had a much greater content to master. It is also a fact
that a larger per cent of pupils of the high school with six pre-
liminary grades than of the one with seven preliminary grades
made three-fourths time and failed. Since a larger per cent of
pupils in the first than in the second high school failed of promotion
it must be attributed to either too much work, or more stringent
methods of promotion.

Lack of capacity and lack of application as factors in pro-
ducing retardation are well illustrated among those pupils who
make 90 per cent of attendance and yet fail of promotion. Just
how these failures should be distributed between the two factors is
difficult to say. Seventeen per cent of the total number of failures
made by the 295 pupils and 19 per cent of those made by the
1051 pupils occurred in spite of the fact that these pupils attended
between 90 and 100 per cent of the school year. This means that
probably 20 out of every hundred failures are to be charged to
either lack of capacity or to indifference.

In order to ascertain whether or not transferring from one
school system to another occasions retardation, the average age of
422 pupils entering the first year of the high school from outside
schools was compared with that of the pupils entering the same
class from the town system. The average age of the former was
14 and of the latter 14.1 years. There is no evidence here that
there is a loss in the transfer. However, there seems to be little
doubt that there is a loss of considerable proportions in many
systems. The equality of these average ages may be accounted
for by the greater retardation in the system in question than in
that from which the pupils come, but there is no evidence to sup-
port this.

Poor teaching as a cause of failures in school work is one
that is difficult to estimate in its effect. Irregular attendance is
in many cases chargeable to the uninteresting manner in which
teachers conduct their class-room work, and whatever produces
absence from school is sufficient cause for failure in school
promotion.

Besides the forces discussed above as causes of retardation,

14 THE P8YCH0L0 GICAL CLINIC.

physical defects in school children, over-crowding, lack of a com-
pulsory attendance law, or the non-enforcement of the same, and
many others are contributory to slow movement through the grades.
However, there is no statistical evidence bearing upon the gravity
of each of these.

Summary on Causes of Retardation.

Failure of promotion is the prime cause of retardation.

Failure of promotion is produced by irregular attendance,
late entrance, early leaving, poor teaching, too much
school work, lack of capacity, indifference, physical
defects, etc.

Most of the failures take place in the early grades, between
70 and 90 per cent before the sixth grade.

Out of every hundred making three-fourths time from 14
to 18 fail and from 82 to 86 are promoted.

A relatively larger number of non-promoted pupils in the
high school than in the elementary school make three-
fourths time or more.

Leaving early is one and one-half times as potent as late
entrance in producing non-promotions.

While poor teaching and lack of capacity and too much school
work are very important factors in bringing about the
condition of retardation, their relative effects are hard
to estimate.

II.

Acceleration.

In all the discussion on the subject of retardation scarcely
any consideration has been given to the neutralizing force of
acceleration or double promotions. There may be much of it in
larger school units as stated by Thorndike (4), Greenwood (5)
and Wagner (6), but in the smaller ones its effect in offsetting
failures is insignificant.

In the Elkton schools, of the total number of units (2221)
made by 295 pupils, 19 were units of plus progress; and of 3938
units of all kinds made by 1051 pupils, 26 were units of plus
progress. In either case they represent less than 1 per cent of
the whole number of units. Special inquiry, moreover, reveals
the fact that more than one-half of these double promotions were
the result of work done in the summer under private tutors.
Double promotions made under such conditions are merely evi-
dence of ambition and ability on the part of the pupils making
them, as testified by the fact that approximately 80 per cent of
such pupils reached the high school. That there is not in many
schools more promotion during the year on account of special
fitness, is largely due to the fact that there is no person who will
assume the authority to put pupils up on trial. There is too little
of this sort of necessary supervision in our schools, especially in
the grades where it is most needed.

Rate of Progress through the Grades.

By the rate of progress is meant the rate at which the average
pupil passes through the grades. It is evident that for the indi-
vidual this rate varies, being dependent upon the ratio of failures
to promotions.

If a pupil completed five grades of work in iive years, or
eight grades in eight years, i.e. a. grade for each year in school,
we would classify him as normal ; if he did the same amount of
work in less than that time, as supernormal ; and if in more than

(15)

16 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.

that time, as subnormal. Of the 295 pupils under consideration,
according to this classification, 2 would be supernormal, 23 normal,
and 270 subnormal. It will be seen that a very small per cent
of pupils pass through the grades at a normal rate of speed. Per-
haps it would be well to classify all who reach the high school with
only one failure as normal, for it is doubtless true that the
majority of such pupils have failed once. From this point of
view, the requirements of the course of study might even be
considered supernormal.

Table 1A* gives the average of each kind of units and the
average total for each year. For example, the pupils in the
eighth year of school have completed 4.79 grades, whereas they
should have completed seven grades. In the eleventh year those
still in school have completed 7.74 grades instead of ten. At the
same rate it would require the pupils in the eighth year approx-
imately 14.6 years to complete ten grades, and those in the
eleventh year 13 years to complete the same number of grades.
It is clear that the greatly retarded ones in the eighth year have
dropped out before the eleventh year, as is evidenced by the dif-
ferences in time necessary to complete the ten grades.

Taken altogether the 295 pupils made 1513 units of normal
and plus progress in 2202 units of time, or an average of 1.45
years for a grade. At this rate it would require the average
pupil 14.5 years to finish ten grades. Pupils moving at this rate
through the grades do not graduate. Those in school in 1908-09
have completed 1254 units of normal and plus progress in 1627
units (years) of time, which is equivalent to an average of 10
grades in 13 years. This is probably too low a rate of progress
for the system over a period of time, 14.5 years being more
nearly correct. Due weight is given to the fact that the pupils
in school in 1908-09 have not been in this system from the time
they first began school. Consequently, many of the units of minus
progress made in the early grades are not included in calculating
the rate of progress for those pupils.

Ay res shows (8) that "the average child in the average city
school system progresses through the grades at the rate of eight
grades in ten years." On the same average such a child would
complete ten grades in approximately 12.5 years, or two years less
than the average child in the Elkton system. There can be no
question that the rate of progress will vary with the system.
According to the Ayres method it would require 11.2 years for

* See The Psychological Clinic for January 15, 1912, p. 255.

RATE OF PROGRESS.

Aurora, 111., and for Erie, Pa., 16.6 years, for the completion
of ten grades.

Leaving School.

Pupils leaving school come under three heads, — graduates,
those leaving to enter another school, and those dropping out
finally before graduation from the schools.

The graduates of a system represent its finished product ; and
the larger the number of these, other things being equal, the more
efficient is the system. That this finished product is very small
in proportion to the raw material is generally known. Out of
our 295 beginners, only 8.5 per cent graduated, that is, approx-
imately 17 out of every 200 finished the course.

In order to estimate roughly the per cent of graduates for
eleven years, a number equal to one-eleventh of the whole number
of beginners has been taken as a basis. The reason for this is
that the number of beginners is about equal to one-half the num-
ber of enrolments in the first grade for the eleven years. The
number of beginners is 555, one-eleventh of which is 50.5. The
number of graduates during this time is 172, an average of 15.6
per year, or 31 per cent completing the course. If the rate of
progress is as we have shown it to be, it is evident that this per
cent is too high. The explanation is to be found in the fact
that 44 per cent of the students in the high school have entered
it directly from other schools, and that a fair percentage of these
remain to graduate. It is probably more nearly correct to say
that the percentage of graduates from the high school under
normal conditions is about eight.

Of the 1514 pupils in school during eleven years, 360 left

TABLE

IV. — NUMBER

AND

PER

CENT

ELIMINATED BY THE

END

OF EACH

GRADE.

(Graduates not included.)

Grades

Elementary School

High School

§. r Pupils

122

167

196

241

261

269

270

O N I Per cents . . .

a92

' Pupils (1-11

of number

forllyrs.).

1.55

.55

5.2

6.6

6.4

6.7

4.5

12.3

6.7

4.5

1.36

L Per cents . . .

. 53

100

109

112

(a) 8.5 % grad

uated

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.

TABLE V. — PER CENT ELIMINATED BY THE END OP EACH YEAR OF AGE.

(Graduates not included.)

Ages

16
19

37
35

61
55

77
80

87
97

90
108

91
110

a92
112

20
112

295 Group...
1514 Group b

2
1

10
10

(a) 8.5 % graduated.

(6) Calculated as in Table IV.

to enter other schools. Thirteen per cent of the 360 transferred
from the high school and 87 per cent from the elementary
school. On the other hand, 44 per cent of the students coming
from other schools enroll in the high school. The great disparity
in percentages of pupils leaving and entering the high school, is
to be accounted for by the fact that most of the pupils leaving
the high school are compelled to give up their public school edu-
cation altogether.

The discussion of the vast number of pupils who actually
quit the grades and leave unfinished the education which the state
provides, will centre around two questions: (1) In what grades
and at what ages do the pupils leave school? (2) What are the
causes for this dropping out?

The percentages in table IV answer the first of these ques-
tions. It will be seen that with both groups of pupils, 295 and
1514, the eliminating process begins early in the grades, being
heaviest in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, and in the first
year of the high school. In the last grade mentioned there is an
elimination of 24 per cent in the large group. The same pecul-
iarity is manifested in table V, which gives the elimination by
ages, where 25 per cent drop out at fifteen, and 17 per cent at
sixteen. This large amount of elimination in the first year of
the high school and at the ages of fifteen and sixteen is due to
the large number (44 per cent) of pupils entering the high
school from the outside. Up to the last grammar grade the per-
centages of elimination for the two groups are approximately the
same for the different ages and grades.

Ayres (9) and Thorndike (10) express contradictory
opinions on a fundamental fact concerning elimination in the
early grades. The former contends that "there is abundant evi-
dence that the general tendency of our schools is to hold practically
all of the pupils to the sixth grade," while the latter believes
that "pupils leave in considerable numbers from almost the begin-
ning of the elementary school course." No doubt there are sys-

RATE OF PROGRESS. 19

terns which will furnish evidence for each opinion. In the
Elkton schools the figures corroborate the fact that many pupils
leave in the early grades, and it is probably true that this is
the general tendency throughout the schools of Maryland, outside
of Baltimore. In the former there is no compulsory attendance
law to hold them to a specified age. Consequently, many leave
who would continue longer in the grades of systems where such
a law is enforced. If the failures are very heavy in the first
six grades, elimination may be concealed by the seeming equality
of these grades; but the natural inference that there is little or
no dropping out there would be unjustified. Thorndike shows an
elimination of 60 per cent by the last grammar grade, Ayres 49
per cent, while in Elkton approximately 66 per cent have
dropped out before the high school is reached. The larger per-
centages of elimination in the earlier grades in these schools, as
compared with other studies, may be partly chargeable to the
absence of a compulsory attendance law and partly to the large
number of failures in these grades.

In calculating the number of pupils retained to the several
grades both Ayres and Thorndike have used as a basis a number
of beginners variously estimated. Applied to the Elkton statis-
tics the Ayres' method gives a number of beginners too small by
10 per cent, while the number obtained by the first of Thorn-
dike's methods is too large by 42 per cent, and by his second,
by about 8 per cent. The latter investigator does not state which
method would be applicable to small systems. If the first of the
two were used the inferences based on the results would have
little or no value. Ayres' method of calculating the beginners
gives a number not far from the true one in systems where the
migratory movement of the population is not large. If, however,
unusual conditions of change prevail in a school population, it
will be difficult to determine the true retention and elimination
in the grades except by having exact data as the basis for such
calculation.

Summary on Leaving School.

Approximately eight out of every hundred beginners remain
to graduate.

Eighty-seven out of every hundred transfers are from the
elementary schools.

About three and one-half times as many pupils enter the
Elkton high school from the outside as leave it to go elsewhere.

20 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.

Elimination forces are operative in all the elementary
grades, being strongest in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades.

Approximately 66 per cent of the pupils have left school
before the first high school year is reached.

Causes of Elimination.

This brings us to the second question, What are the causes
for this dropping out process?

Retardation is both an effect and a cause. Irregular atten-
dance, incapacity, late entrance, etc., produce it, and in turn
it is the most potent cause of elimination. Whenever the work
of the grade must be repeated, indifference is often engendered,
a dislike for work follows, and the pupil leaves. It is, indeed,
rare that a pupil will remain to complete the high school course
who has failed more than twice. If we assume that he enters
at the age of six and fails twice, he will be almost twenty years
of age when he graduates. Boys, in particular, have no inclina-
tion to remain in the secondary school until twenty-one. By
applying the age-grade method to the 622 pupils leaving finally
in eleven years, it is found that 60 per cent are retarded as
compared with 31 per cent for the whole number in school for
the same time. Again, of these same pupils the average number
of units of minus progress for those leaving is 1.14 and for the
whole number in school .89. Here is evidence, then, that retarda-
tion brought about through failure to make promotion, is an
important cause of leaving school.

A second important cause of elimination is age. Of the 270
pupils leaving school the largest proportion, 21 per cent, drop
out in the eighth year. This brings the child to the age of
fourteen or fifteen, the age at which the largest per cent of
pupils leave school. Pupils will remain in school during their
early years, despite failures to accomplish the work, but when they
reach their thirteenth, fourteenth or fifteenth year and find them-
selves in the lower grade, they see the hopelessness of their attempt
to finish the course, and if most of their companions have left
school, or are in the higher grades, they leave to take up some
occupation in which they can do something. In schools where
an effective compulsory attendance law precludes leaving school
until fourteen, large numbers drop out of the elementary school
at this age. Retention to this age, however, has an effect of tiding
over the critical period for many boy and girls, with the result
that they remain to complete the course. This fine influence is
lost to the schools where the statute books contain no such act.

RATE OF PROGRESS. 21

There are many other conditions which indirectly are the
cause of pupils leaving school. Many of these, such as ill health,
needed at home, sickness of others, etc., are merely the last straw.
Forces have long been at work impelling to this final day in
school. So long as the centripetal forces towards the school are
stronger in the aggregate than the centrifugal forces away from
it, the child remains. But once the balance begins to swing tne
other way, it moves rapidly and is hard to check in its course.
That this ultimate elimination in nine out of ten cases is not
the result of any one impelling cause, admits of no doubt. An
accumulation of gathering forces, as the pupil wends his way
along the school course, is the real cause of leaving. The home
and school and society in general are all more or less responsible
for the final outcome, leaving school.

Measuring the Efficiency of a School System.

Many methods have been adopted for comparing the relative
merits of different school systems; oftentimes a method is advo-
cated merely because of the favorable showing it makes for the
system interested. As soon as it fails to do this it falls into
disuse. Frequently a system boasts of the large number of mem-
bers in its graduating class, or the number of the first year of
the high school who reach the last year, or the per cent the
number in the last year of the high school is of the whole number
in the school. All these provide means of comparing some feature
of one system with the same feature of another, but they do not
accurately determine what the real efficiency of the system is.

Ayres (11) has proposed a method for estimating the effi-
ciency of a system which seems at first glance to offer a fair basis
for comparison. Two factors are considered: first, the per cent
of output on the basis of one thousand beginners, which gives
efficiency from the point of view of product; and secondly, the
per cent the ideal number of pupils is of the actual number
necessary to produce the output, which gives the efficiency from
the point of view of plant economy. The first of these multiplied
by the second expresses the index of efficiency of the system.
That is, if a school has in its eighth grade, or last year of the
elementary school, for every one thousand beginners, four hun-
dred pupils, the first factor of efficiency would be represented by
40 per cent. If instead of eight thousand pupils in the eight
grades, there are nine thousand, then the efficiency from the
second point of view would be 88.8 per cent. The product of

22 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.

these two gives 35.5 per cent as the index of efficiency for
the school.

Granting then that Mr. Ayres' methods of obtaining the
number of beginners and the number reaching the last grade of
the elementary school would give approximately the correct results
for a school system where no pupils entered from the outside and
none left to enter other schools, a just comparison of the efficiency
of different systems could be made.

But do all the children who begin in a school system remain
in it until they leave finally? Is the number that enters the
schools of any community, borough, or township, from other
schools of any considerable magnitude? The answer to the first
question must be in the negative ; not only do they not remain in
the system, but a very large percentage of them leave to enter other
schools. Of the 1514 different pupils who were in the Elkton
schools during eleven years, 360, or 24 per cent, left to enter
other schools ; 46, or 3 per cent of these were high school pupils,
and 314, or 21 per cent, were from the elementary grades. It
must be borne in mind here that of these 1514 pupils 360 of
them were still in school in September of 1909, so that the basis
on which these percentages are estimated is too large. If they
were calculated on a basis of 1514 minus 360, or 1154, the results
would be 4 and 27 per cent respectively. Here, then, it is evident
that many pupils leave one system to enter another, and that
most of the transferring is among the elementary grades.

Now for the second question : Is the number that enters from
other schools of any considerable magnitude? Out of the 1514
pupils just referred to, 591 or 39 per cent, came from outside
schools. Of this last number 330, or 22 per cent, entered the
elementary grades, and 261, or 17 per cent, entered the high
school.

This estimate does not allow for the fact that 367 of the
522 pupils in the school in 1898-99 were there before that year.
If this number be deducted from the 1514, and the difference,
1147 be taken as a basis, the pupils entering from other schools
will be 29 and 23 per cent respectively.

If the conditions shown to be true in the Elkton schools
prevail in other systems, and there is every reason to believe they
do, for this is a community in which the population makes no
more than the average change from year to year, then the question
arises: What system does Ayres' index of efficiency measure?
If 39 per cent of the pupils in the school are from other systems,

RATE OF PROGRESS. 23

his method gives a value which is made up of the elements good
and bad of numerous systems. From what systems these pupils
came, and how many from each, are questions that a lack of
data prevents our answering. It is probable that many of the
pupils who enter a highly organized system, suffer more in the
system from which they come than they would during the same
period in the one they enter. This being the case, does the index
of efficiency determined by the method described justly estimate a
system's worth? It seems evident that such a procedure would
place responsibility on the wrong shoulders.

Some plan is necessary that will show what the system
has done and is doing for the pupils for the length of time they
have been under its influence. What would be better than all
else from the point of view of the public school system in general,
would be to have a complete record of each individual pupil in
order that the effect of the whole educational process on the child
might be known. This, in our present condition of school records,
is beyond our power to measure, but something can be done in
the way of determining the effect of the different factors of a
system on the pupils within it.

It has been shown in previous sections on retardation and
leaving school, that failure of promotion produces retardation,
and that elimination is due to a high degree of retardation, or
frequent failures, or in other words, that the larger the number
of units of minus progress as compared with that of normal and
plus progress combined, the older the pupils become in the lower
grades, and the greater will be the per cent of elimination in
these grades.

Moreover, the more pupils drop out in the lower grades the
fewer there will be in the first and subsequent years of the
high school. Since there is this definite relation between the
numbers of these different kinds of units of progress, the efficiency
of a system may well be measured by a per cent obtained by
cMvidiug the combined number of units of normal and plus
progress by the sum of the units of normal and minus progress.
For example, the 1514 different pupils who were in the Elkton
schools during the eleven years made 3001 units of normal and
plus progress and 3912 units of normal and minus progress.
The former divided by the latter gives 77 as the index of efficiency
for the system during eleven years. While this illustrates well
enough the method of obtaining the per cent, it would be imprac-
ticable to apply it to so long a period of time. What every

24 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.

superintendent of schools should be able to do in any given year,
is to report upon what his system has done for the pupils who
have been under its influence.

A study of the records of those pupils who are in school
at the beginning of 1908-9 and who have been in the present
system during previous years reveals the fact that the total number
of units of normal and plus progress is 1254 as compared with
1627 units of normal and minus progress. This gives as the
index of efficiency 77, or practically the same as that for the
eleven years.

Still another way of showing the efficiency of a system is
to find the relation between the same factors named above for
all the pupils in the school for the year. This might be termed
the yearly efficiency of the school system, as distinguished from
the period efficiency which represents the relation of the total
number of units of normal and plus progress to the number of
units of normal and minus progress for the period of years chosen.
As an example of the application of this method to determine
yearly efficiency, the total number of units of normal and plus
progress combined and of normal and minus progress are for
the year 1908-9, 333 and 436, respectively. By dividing the
former number by the latter the index of efficiency is found to
be 76.4.

Of the three ways of applying this method, the last is the
most practicable, for it is the most economical from the point
of view of time and labor. Moreover, it offers a facile means,
not only of comparing one system with another, but also of com-
paring the efficiency of the same system from year to year.

Summary.

In the present state of school records the efficiency of a
school system cannot be measured by a ratio between the number
of beginners and the number of pupils reaching the last grade
of the elementary or high school, because of the large percentage
of pupils entering the system from the outside, and leaving to
enter schools elsewhere.

The ratio of the number of units of normal and plus progress
to the number of units of normal and minus progress will give
an adequate method for measuring efficiency.

Either yearly or period efficiency of the system may be
measured.

The efficiency of the Elkton school system is approxi-
mately .77.

RATE OF PROGRESS. 25

Suggestions to Superintendents.

In the gathering and study of the statistics in this investi-
gation a few facts have stood out so impressively that it seems
worth while to present them for the benefit of those engaged in
the organization of schools.

First, the necessity of some other method of promotion than
that used in many of our large school systems to-day seems im-
perative. It is still the custom in practically all the smaller towns
and in a large number of cities to make promotions only at the
end of the year. That this is a serious factor in producing
retardation there can be no doubt.

If late entrance or early leaving is not due to actual absence
from school, but merely to a transfer from one school to another,
it is not so likely to result in failure of promotion. But if children
are out of school on account of sickness or because of being needed
at home in the fall or spring, they will fail to make the next
higher grade at the end of the year. Of the 701 failures made
by 295 pupils, 134 were made by pupils who entered late or left
early. Of these 134 failures, 37 were related to late entrance, and
97 to leaving early. Investigation reveals the fact that 111 of the
134 enrolments entering late or leaving early were present either
for the first half or for the last half of the year. Previously, it
has been shown that 85 per cent of those making 90 per cent
of attendance are promoted. Therefore, if we take 85 per cent
of 111 we have 94 pupils who would have been promoted if the
year's work had been divided into two separate units, one to be
completed during the first half and the other during the last
half of the school year. In all there were made by these 295
pupils 701 units of minus progress. Promotions made as
described above would have decreased this number 94, or 13
per cent. The system that has double promotions does more than
make a saving of 13 per cent of the number of units of
minus progress among those pupils that make 90 per cent of
attendance for a half a year. There are some pupils who make
as low as 80, 70, and 60 per cent of attendance and yet are
promoted. A part of these too would be rescued from the school
failures by the system of double promotions.

In this connection it may be suggested that a special class
should be formed in every school to give additional instruction to
pupils behind their grades. Many failures would never be made
if each school system provided such a means of assisting the pupils
at the time when they most need it. Many a child has received

26 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.

the first start toward elimination when upon returning to school
after an unavoidable detention at home he has been held respon-
sible for previous work without any assistance from the teachers
or others. The special class or special teacher would have removed
this cause for future failures and consequent early leaving of
school.

A second matter which needs attention is examinations. In
some few schools examinations have been done away with because
of the feeling that they are unnecessary. To the writer they
seem to have one significant implication ; that the average teacher
is incapable for one reason or other of judging whether or not
a child is fitted to pass to the next higher grade.

In order to throw some light upon this question a special
study has been made of 1514 pupils. It appears that 509 includ-
ing the first and second grades (239 without them), did not
attend up until the time of final examinations and yet were found
in school the next year, either in the grade of the previous year
or in a higher one; 171 of these including the first and second
grades (80 without them), were promoted. That is, omitting
pupils of the first and second grades, 17 per cent of those not
attending up until the time of examinations were promoted to
the next higher grades. It may be assumed that a few of these
did take the examinations at the beginning of the following
year, but this was not a usual custom. Since no system of exemp-
tions is in vogue in the Elkton schools, here is evidence that
many pupils are promoted either on trial, or in some manner
make their way into the next higher grade without having to take
the examinations that are considered all important.

The third and perhaps most important fact that has been
brought out in this study is the utter lack of data necessary for
a proper study of school problems. A need for a uniform record
card has long been recognized by those connected with educational
matters, and many such cards have been proposed. In this inves-
tigation the writer has personally gathered and collated the sta-
tistics which are here set forth in tabular form, and he has had
abundant opportunity to learn what a record card should contain.
During this whole study note has been made of what facts should
be recorded on such a card, and it is believed that the cards
here proposed give all the practical information necessary to
determine at any time exactly what a system is doing for the
pupils in it, and what it has done for them in the past, so that the
index of efficiency may be accurately determined, and valid com-
parisons made with the results of other systems.

RATE OF PROGRESS. 27

The transfer card suggested here seems to indicate all the
information that one system should send to and immediately
receive from another. The numbers on this card should provide
a means of obtaining any additional facts that might be neces-
sary to a complete history of the child's school life.

(Front)

Record card of School

(Address)

Pupil's name Pupil's number (in this system)

(Last name) (First name)

Preceding schools with pupil's numbers (in order from first) _

Dates : _ Beginning school Leaving school

(yr. mo. da.) (yr. mo.) (yr. mo.)

O htf ^ J> fc> W H ^ ^ O O Causes of absence Causes of non-prom.

OOTC^X^X^gg^ p v. p

gccwo^ > *i t-« H fc 4

II 2.1 Sr S^ S§ | ? oo^£ g.^?^

**<rt- d-ffi Q.g ^3m ^ _* 2 3 S, 2. tr „. "^ EJ* p o a* o p

Ml II gh it } 1 1|H| ijgiii

EL i

I s o i 1 ? ? a ^ s^«r w r

B a *

7* ?

(Back)

Mental record Physical record

r^- 1 -*^ a> e a. « Sp g n> tjj a J? hntw h-i hH<* i-H ^ c E » 8° °

r P^43d&*gg.PO<Lp2. fU^n ?DpC7 , 3 S-B ^ o B

* s a i § ff a e a F 3- 1 F & g » g 1 £

« ltEl" q Ift*«" « •;§ s»«-

28 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.

The cards proposed here are the result of educational experi-
ence covering many years of school work.* If they prove to be
of use in bettering the manner of keeping our school records, the
writer will feel repaid for the amount of time and thought he has
given to the task.

Transfer card of School

(Address)

Pupil's number in system just left Name

(Last name) (First name)

Preceding schools with pupil's numbers (in order from first)

Dates : Birth Beginning school Leaving school

(yr. mo. da.) (yr. mo.) (yr. mo.)

Grade Present standing Physical history of abnormalities

Iff! I Ifiiiliiilii wrfpf lis! I

F g p I

Fill out, detach, and send to School

(Address)

Pupil's number (in system just left) Name

(Last name) (First name)
Pupil's new number in system just entering

Grade entered When

(yr. mo. da.)

Principal.

REFERENCES.

1 Aybes, L. P. Laggards in Our Schools. N. Y. Charities Pub. Com., 1909,

p. 146.

2 Lubton, Fbeeman E. The Psychological Clinic, Vol. V, p. 17.

3 Aybes, L. P. Laggards, p. 45.

4 Thobndike, E. L. The Psychological Clinic, Vol. Ill, p. 238.

5 Greenwood, J. M. Education, Vol. XXIX, p. 280.

6 Wagneb, A. E. The Psychological Clinic, Vol. Ill, p. 169.

7 Repobts of the State Board of Education for Maryland, 1889 to 1910.

8 Aybes, L. P. Laggards, p. 87.

9 Aybes, L. P. Laggards, p. 70.

10 Thobndike, E. L. Elimination of Pupils from School. Bulletin of U. S.

Bureau of Education, 1907, p. 14.

11 Aybes, L. P. Laggards, p. 175.

■*J!i T *L f Z££ 1 J , .i ln M 1>ted t0 9^ Tlea A - Wagner, West Chester State Normal
School, for many valuable suggestions and criticisms in the preparation of these

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