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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6 TEE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. 
 
 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 
 
8 
 
 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 
 
 E 
 
 H 
 39 
 
 T 
 
 39 
 
 Years 
 
 1 |2|3|4|5|6|7|1|2|3|4 
 
 1898-1899 
 
 21 
 
 35 
 
 47 
 
 52 
 
 56 
 
 44 
 
 
 51 
 
 26 
 
 13 
 
 60 
 
 34 
 
 1899-1900 
 
 100 
 21 
 
 IS 
 27 
 
 28 
 42 
 
 U 
 47 
 
 49 
 
 
 44 
 
 
 26 
 35 
 
 6 
 35 
 
 15 
 41 
 
 5 
 
 83 
 35 
 
 U 
 33 
 
 25 
 34 
 
 1900-1901 
 
 too 
 
 23 
 
 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 
 
 66 
 
 28 
 
 50 
 37 
 
 04 
 30 
 
 1903-1904 
 
 100 
 9 
 
 68 
 23 
 
 66 
 23 
 
 65 
 31 
 
 74 
 33 
 
 38 
 
 40 
 32 
 
 #7 
 27 
 
 41 
 38 
 
 45 
 29 
 
 88 
 27 
 
 ^4 
 25 
 
 37 
 30 
 
 55 
 36 
 
 1904-1905 
 
 100 
 
 7 
 
 68 
 20 
 
 66 
 38 
 
 60 
 27 
 
 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 
 
 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 
 
 
 5 
 
 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 
 
 11 
 
 62 
 16 
 
 67 
 33 
 
 78 
 31 
 
 01 
 38 
 
 0S9 
 
 29 
 
 50 
 17 
 
 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. 
 
 11 
 
 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. 
 
 
 1 
 
 § 
 Si 
 
 IB 
 
 a 
 
 s* 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 CO OS 
 
 1-1 * 
 
 H 
 
 
 Grade 
 
 1 1 2 
 
 3 | 4 
 
 5 | 6 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 4 
 
 E 
 
 7H 
 
 6H 
 
 T 
 
 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 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 48 
 5 
 
 10 
 1 
 
 24 
 2 
 4 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 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. 
 
 17 
 
 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 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 §. r Pupils 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 42 
 
 86 
 
 122 
 
 167 
 
 196 
 
 241 
 
 261 
 
 269 
 
 270 
 
 O N I Per cents . . . 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 29 
 
 41 
 
 56 
 
 66 
 
 81 
 
 88 
 
 91 
 
 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 . . . 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 27 
 
 40 
 
 . 53 
 
 62 
 
 86 
 
 100 
 
 109 
 
 112 
 
 (a) 8.5 % grad 
 
 uated 
 
 
18 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. 
 
 TABLE V. — PER CENT ELIMINATED BY THE END OP EACH YEAR OF AGE. 
 
 (Graduates not included.) 
 
 Ages 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 19 
 
 13 
 
 37 
 35 
 
 14 
 
 61 
 55 
 
 15 
 
 77 
 80 
 
 16 
 
 87 
 97 
 
 17 
 
 90 
 108 
 
 18 
 
 91 
 110 
 
 19 
 
 a92 
 112 
 
 20 
 112 
 
 295 Group... 
 1514 Group b 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 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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