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 PROGRESS THROUGH THE GRADES 
 OF CITY SCHOOLS 
 
 A STUDY OF ACCELERATION AND ARREST 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HENRY KEYES. Ph. D. 
 
 2. 3 3S"i- 
 
 TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION, NO. 42 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Etnti[9XB (Hallti^t, dalnmbia Inittrrciitg 
 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
 1911
 
 Copyright, 1911, by Charles Henry Keyes
 
 r 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Section Page 
 
 Introduction ------------- i 
 
 I Conditions -------------- i 
 
 II Accelerates from 1904-1907 -------- g 
 
 III Study of 683 Cases of Arrest -------15 
 
 IV The Accelerates ------------ 7,2 
 
 V Comparison of 606 Normal Pace Pupils with 
 
 Accelerates and Arrests --------47 
 
 VI Study of 131 Honor Pupils --------55 
 
 VII Conclusions --------------58 
 
 VIII Appendix ---------------70 
 
 IX Bibliography ------------- y^
 
 PROGRESS THROUGH THE GRADES OF 
 CITY SCHOOLS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 A 3 ^ g -i. 
 The purpose of this study is to inquire into the quantity, place, 
 and causes of Acceleration and Arrest in the passage through 
 the grades, and to determine some of the factors that facilitate 
 or hamper progress. It was undertaken under the stimulus 
 received in a course of lectures given by Professor E. L. Thorn- 
 dike, of Teachers College, Columbia University, in the summer 
 session of 1910. It was prosecuted during the whole of the 
 subsequent academic year, under the special guidance and criti- 
 cism of Professor Thorndike, to whom the writer is indebted 
 for many features of the plan of treatment and for constant aid 
 in its execution. Grateful acknowledgments are also due to 
 Professor Henry Suzzallo and Professor George Drayton 
 Strayer, of Teachers College, Columbia University, both of whom 
 contributed valuable constructive criticism during the progress 
 of the work. 
 
 I 
 
 CONDITIONS 
 
 The field chosen was a single supervision district enrolling 
 about S,ooo pupils annually. The course of study covered nine 
 years above the kindergarten and involved about one-eighth more 
 subject matter than appears in the ordinary eight-grade course, 
 the grades being progressively more difficult to the end. Some 
 light will be thrown upon the quantity and character of the work 
 by the following time schedule:
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 
 
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 Conditions 3 
 
 The population was cosmopolitan. Its chief elements were 
 American, Irish, German, Swedish, Norwegian^ Italian, Russian, 
 Canadian, English, French, Scotch, Polish, Armenian, and 
 Lithuanian. Other races were represented, but the fourteen 
 named comprised more than ninety-six per cent of the popula- 
 tion. In religion they were Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. 
 The chief industries maintaining the homes, were manufacturing 
 of a widely varied character, banking, insurance, jobbing, mer- 
 chandising, transportation, and those of the shops common to all 
 American cities of 100,000 population. Schools were generously 
 supported. In wealth, social status, and intelligence, the district 
 represented every class from the highest to the lowest. Laws 
 enforcing compulsory education and prohibiting child labor were 
 rigidly enforced by both city and state authorities. These laws 
 protected all children up to fourteen years of age and the more 
 backward up to sixteen years. 
 
 Constant endeavor was made to provide one teacher for every 
 forty pupils, only forty-two sittings being placed in each room. 
 Formal promotions occurred in June of each year. Teachers 
 were forbidden to detain pupils or permit them to remain in 
 the school buildings at recess or after the regular hour for 
 dismissal. All recesses were taken in the open air every day 
 in the year save when rain or snow were falling at the recess 
 time. All primary schools took such daily open air recesses 
 for ten minutes at the end of every hour. School gardens were 
 operated for children in primary grades on the school grounds. 
 
 Below the third grade, promotions were made by the principal 
 on the recommendation of the grade teacher, after personally 
 satisfying himself of the pupil's ability to begin the work of the 
 next grade. In all other grades promotions were largely based 
 on written and oral tests given three times each year. These 
 tests were prepared in various ways, some by committees of 
 grade teachers, some by committees of principals, some by the 
 supervising office, some by joint committees representing all 
 three of these interests. With the results of these tests there 
 were combined the class teacher's judgments of the pupil's work 
 in each subject. But in every case the endeavor was to deter- 
 mine whether the pupil had proved capacity to go ahead. Indi- 
 vidual promotions were made at any time between September
 
 4 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 and March that the conditions warranted. Special classes for 
 gifted pupils and for slow pupils were maintained in every school. 
 
 Pupils were admitted to the first grade, at or after reaching 
 the sixth birthday; but children who had spent two years in the 
 kindergarten and were physically fit were admitted under this 
 age. Children from first grades in other cities and systems 
 were received by transfer without regard to this age limit. To 
 be apparently physiologically six years old, was sufficient to 
 secure admission. As a matter of fact nearly 2 per cent of 
 the entrants to grade one were under five years of age; nearly 
 3 per cent were between five and five and one-half years of 
 age ; 25 per cent were between five and one-half and six years 
 of age; 38 per cent were between six and six and one-half 
 years old ; 20 per cent between six and one-half and seven years ; 
 6 per cent between seven and seven and one-half ; 4 per cent 
 were seven and one-half to eight; and 2 per cent, over eight 
 years old. 
 
 To make clear another condition of the problem it is important 
 to show the comparative enrollment by grades for the seven 
 years covered by this study. 
 
 TABLE 2 
 
 Total Enrollment by Grades for Each of the Seven Years 
 Involved in This Study 
 
 School Ye:ir 
 
 1903 
 
 1904 
 
 1905 
 
 1906 
 
 1907 
 
 1908 
 
 1909 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 Kindergarten.. . 
 
 713 
 
 718 
 
 747 
 
 741 
 
 752 
 
 742 
 
 7S1 
 
 5.194 
 
 K'g 
 
 (Double grade) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 First grade .... 
 
 659 
 
 655 
 
 627 
 
 638 
 
 584 
 
 679 
 
 716 
 
 4,558 
 
 1 
 
 Second grade.. . 
 
 555 
 
 557 
 
 550 
 
 557 
 
 545 
 
 528 
 
 516 
 
 3,808 
 
 II 
 
 Third grade. . . . 
 
 519 
 
 522 
 
 536 
 
 549 
 
 520 
 
 526 
 
 514 
 
 3,686 
 
 III 
 
 Fourth grade.. . 
 
 498 
 
 510 
 
 520 
 
 531 
 
 526 
 
 510 
 
 509 
 
 3,604 
 
 IV 
 
 Fifth grade .... 
 
 470 
 
 465 
 
 472 
 
 522 
 
 524 
 
 508 
 
 500 
 
 3,461 
 
 V 
 
 Sixth grade. . . . 
 
 4.SB 
 
 434 
 
 423 
 
 439 
 
 475 
 
 467 
 
 451 
 
 3,127 
 
 VI 
 
 Seventh grade. . 
 
 360 
 
 ,S6^ 
 
 407 
 
 421 
 
 430 
 
 434 
 
 445 
 
 2,862 
 
 Vli 
 
 Eighth grade. . . 
 
 242 
 
 295 
 
 316 
 
 340 
 
 361 
 
 352 
 
 351 
 
 2,257 
 
 VIII 
 
 Ninth grade . . . 
 
 196 
 
 216 
 
 279 
 
 293 
 
 316 
 
 317 
 
 309 
 
 1 ,926 
 
 iX 
 
 Totals 
 
 4-650 
 
 4,737 
 
 4,877 
 
 S.031 
 
 5,033 
 
 5,063 
 
 5,092 
 
 34,483 

 
 Conditions 5 
 
 The point to be noticed in this table is, that the number of 
 pupils beginning school is practically the same for each of the 
 seven years as shown by the figures for the enrollment in the 
 first, second, and third grades. Increasing persistence in school 
 steadily advances the total enrollment, but the initial enrollment 
 varies very little. 
 
 The fact that there is one teacher for every forty-two pupils, 
 that there are a sufficient number of teachers and school rooms, 
 that the pupil's fitness to proceed is tested, that the principal 
 in every building is free to promote all proven pupils and 
 required to promote no others, are conditions making the field 
 of investigation especially important. Many studies are made 
 of rapidly growing cities where there are neither teachers nor 
 rooms enough to meet the admission pressure, and where the 
 demand of new entrants for the seats, forces teachers and prin- 
 cipals to move practically all the pupils along. They do what 
 they must under pressure, until the grades are reached where 
 elimination reduces the pressure. Then arrest seems large, simply 
 because it has accumulated, and is made manifest by tests 
 applied to determine fitness for entrance upon the w^ork of the 
 last grades of the course. Freedom from such necessity was 
 one of the chief characteristics of the groups herein studied. 
 
 Further knowledge of the situation, that is necessary to under- 
 standing the results of the study, is disclosed by two specimen 
 age-grade distribution tables. One is taken from the middle 
 of the seven-year period, another at the close. In these tables, 
 age 4 means 4.0 years to 4.99 years; age 5 means 5.0 years to 
 5.99 years, etc.
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 TABLE 3 
 Age-Grade Distribution for 1909-10 
 
 Age 
 
 4 yrs. 
 
 5 yrs. 
 
 6 yrs. 
 
 7 yrs. 
 
 8 yrs. 
 
 9 yrs. 
 
 10 yrs. 
 
 Grade 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kg. 
 
 410 
 
 358 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 102 
 
 488 
 
 102 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 92 
 
 320 
 
 89 
 
 15 
 
 
 III 
 
 
 
 
 102 
 
 308 
 
 91 
 
 13' 
 
 IV 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 73 
 
 295 
 
 110 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 63 
 
 288 
 
 VI 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 58 
 
 VII 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 VIII 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IX 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 410 
 
 460 
 
 593 
 
 534 
 
 499 
 
 474 
 
 482 
 
 Per cents 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 II. 6 
 
 10 .4 
 
 9.8 
 
 9-3 
 
 9.4 
 
 Age-Grade Distribution for 1906-07 
 
 Age 
 
 4 yrs. 
 
 5 yrs. 
 
 6 yrs. 
 
 7 yrs. 
 
 8 yrs. 
 
 9 yrs. 
 
 10 yrs. 
 
 Grade 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kg. 
 
 411 
 
 317 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 162 
 
 349 
 
 lOI 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 148 
 
 261 
 
 124 
 
 24 
 
 
 III 
 
 
 
 
 131 
 
 214 
 
 122 
 
 74 
 
 IV 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 118 
 
 210 
 
 121 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 119 
 
 174 
 
 VI 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 103 
 
 VII 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 VIII 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IX 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 411 
 
 479 
 
 510 
 
 497 
 
 489 
 
 483 
 
 487 
 
 Per cents 
 
 8.1 
 
 9-5 
 
 10 .1 
 
 9.8 
 
 9-7 
 
 9.6 
 
 9.6
 
 Conditions 
 
 TABLE 3 — {continued) 
 Ages for Beginning of the Year 
 
 II yrs. 
 
 12 yrs. 
 
 13 yrs. 
 
 14 yrs. 
 
 15 yrs. 
 
 16 yrs. 
 
 17 yrs. 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 781 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 716 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 St6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 514 ■ 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 509 
 
 io8 
 
 31 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 500 
 
 268 
 
 105 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 451 
 
 66 
 
 242 
 
 102 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 445 
 
 6 
 
 42 
 
 216 
 
 85 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 351 
 
 
 15 
 
 33 
 
 152 
 
 88 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 309 
 
 469 
 
 435 
 
 366 
 
 259 
 
 90 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 5.092 
 
 9.2 
 
 8.5 
 
 7-1 
 
 5 
 
 1.9 
 
 •3 
 
 .14 
 
 
 Ages for Beginning of the Year 
 
 II yrs. 
 
 12 yrs. 
 
 13 yrs. 
 
 14 yrs. 
 
 15 yrs. 
 
 16 yrs. 
 
 17 yrs. 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 741 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 638 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 557 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 549 
 
 69 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 531 
 
 119 
 
 89 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 522 
 
 168 
 
 lOI 
 
 59 
 
 
 
 
 
 439 
 
 113 
 
 169 
 
 97 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 
 421 
 
 12 
 
 102 
 
 135 
 
 83 
 
 7 
 
 r 
 
 
 340 
 
 
 10 
 
 104 
 
 158 
 
 19 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 293 
 
 489 
 
 480 
 
 410 
 
 268 
 
 26 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 5.031 
 
 9-7 
 
 9-5 
 
 8.1 
 
 5-3 
 
 •5 
 
 

 
 8 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 For every pupil in the system there was accessible a record 
 made each year, of age, sex, grade, eye condition, deportment, 
 scholarship, and time lost during the year. The continuous 
 records of 3,279 pupils were studied. First, the school histories 
 of all the pupils who during the years 1905, 1906, and 1907 
 gained one or more grades, were carefully examined. These were 
 1,239 in number. Second, call was made for the history of 
 all the pupils for whom there were six or more annual records 
 on the seven points named above, and who had at some time 
 been compelled to repeat one or more grades. This brought 
 683 individual records. Third, all who had at some time gained 
 one or more years, and whose detailed record on all points 
 for six or more years was available, were studied. These were 
 613 in number. Fourth, study was made of the records of 
 about an equal number of pupils who had been for six or more 
 years in the same schools and who had in that time neither 
 gained nor lost a grade. These proved to be 606 in number. 
 Fifth, all the honor roll pupils in the graduating classes from 
 six schools in one year, and from seven schools in the suc- 
 ceeding year, were made the subjects of study. 
 
 The progress of these 3,272 pupils through this long series 
 of years was investigated with the initial purpose of learning 
 how far age at entrance, time lost, condition of eyes, deportment, 
 race, or sex, contributed to either arrest or acceleration in pro- 
 gress through the grades. Is there any evidence that some ages 
 are especially fecund of arrest or acceleration? What grade or 
 grades, if any, are particularly productive of arrest or accelera- 
 tion? What study or studies, if any, tend to arrest or accelerate 
 progress ? How far are both arrest and acceleration phenomena 
 of nature over which nurture has not complete control? The 
 following section presents the results of the examination of the 
 records of the accelerates. These accelerates or grade gainers 
 are the pupils who at some time made up or gained a grade, 
 that is one year's time, in their progress through the schools.
 
 II 
 
 ACCELERATES FROM 1904-07 
 
 During these three years 1,239 pupils gained one or more 
 years ; of these, 705 were boys and 534 girls. That is, nearly 32 
 per cent more boys than girls gain grades. The distribution of 
 these gains is shown in the plot and table following: 
 
 TABLE 4 
 
 Per ct. 
 Grade Boys Girls Total in 
 gained gaining gaining gaining Grade 
 
 Gaining 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 87 
 
 66 
 
 153 
 
 7 
 
 III 
 
 143 
 
 III 
 
 254 
 
 13 
 
 IV 
 
 143 
 
 no 
 
 253 
 
 13 
 
 V 
 
 145 
 
 107 
 
 252 
 
 14 
 
 VI 
 
 95 
 
 73 
 
 168 
 
 9 
 
 VII 
 
 84 
 
 61 
 
 145 
 
 9 
 
 VIII 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 I 
 
 IX 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 G-i,c'c in m is^ J/ EI EH nn zz 
 
 I Totals 705 
 
 534 
 
 1.239 
 
 Under the organization it was not possible to skip either the 
 first or the ninth grade and only one pupil in a hundred suc- 
 ceeded in skipping the eighth grade. Grades three, four, and 
 five are most productive of gains, furnishing 61 per cent of 
 the whole number, and appear to be practically alike in the 
 opportunity or condition of the pupils or both. Grade two, per- 
 haps because it is reached before pupils get fairly under way, 
 shows only half as much grade-gaining as appears in grade five. 
 The large gains in the three middle grades would have a tendency 
 to reduce relatively the gains in grades above.
 
 lO 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 Among the 1,239 accelerates or grade-gainers were 913 who 
 went to work or moved away without graduating. Their gains 
 were distributed as shown below : 
 
 TABLE 5 
 
 Crade 
 
 X a HI m iz et mi mn iz 
 
 Grade Boys Girls Total 
 
 gained gaining gaining Gaining 
 
 II 
 
 72 
 
 63 
 
 134 
 
 III 
 
 125 
 
 103 
 
 228 
 
 IV 
 
 "3 
 
 104 
 
 217 
 
 V 
 
 102 
 
 90 
 
 192 
 
 VI 
 
 47 
 
 36 
 
 83 
 
 VII 
 
 32 
 
 24 
 
 56 
 
 VIII 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 Totals 
 
 493 
 
 420 
 
 913 
 
 The remaining 326 graduated from the grammar schools. 
 Gains of this group as shown below present a totally different 
 distribution. 
 
 h 
 
 TABLE 6 
 
 Grade 
 
 II 
 III 
 IV 
 V 
 VI 
 VII 
 VIII 
 
 Totals 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Total 
 
 gaining 
 
 gaining 
 
 Gaining 
 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 26 
 
 25 
 
 II 
 
 36 
 
 39 
 
 21 
 
 60 
 
 54 
 
 31 
 
 85 
 
 59 
 
 30 
 
 89 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 II 
 
 114 
 
 326 
 
 CraJe J JJ M IV X U YJ Vm IX 
 
 The divisions represented in the two foregoing tables may 
 be characterized fairly as a separation from the others, of the 
 top quarter in point of ability and capacity, so far as the pro- 
 cesses and activities of the school may indicate these. It will 
 be noted that for the 913 who do not graduate the ground- 
 gaining mode is the third grade, while for the 326 completing
 
 Accelerates from igo4-0/ 
 
 II 
 
 the grammar school course it is the seventh grade. There are 
 17.5 per cent more boys than girls in the former division and 
 86 per cent more boys than girls among the grade-gainers who 
 go on to graduation. 
 
 Of the 913 non-graduates who gained one or more years dur- 
 ing the course, 35 boys and 32 girls also lost a grade. Forty-four 
 of these, 24 boys and 20 girls, lost the grade immediately after 
 the one they gained. Of the 326 graduates who completed the 
 course in one or more years less than schedule time, 15 boys 
 and 15 girls also lost a grade, 8 boys and 9 girls losing the 
 grade immediately following that which they gained. These 
 losses seem in no way related to the skipping or making up of 
 any particular grade. That is, the arrest after acceleration does 
 not point to any particular grade as being an especially unfor- 
 tunate one to be passed or made up by bright pupils, as will 
 appear from the following showing of the grade gained by all 
 those who subsequently lost: 
 
 TABLE 7 
 Gains and Losses 
 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Both Groups 
 
 Grade 
 
 
 
 
 gained 
 
 
 Non- 
 
 
 Non- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grad- 
 
 Grad- 
 
 Grad- 
 
 Grad- 
 
 Bov.s 
 
 Girls 
 
 Total 
 
 
 uate 
 
 uate 
 
 uate 
 
 uate 
 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 III 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 II 
 
 10 
 
 21 
 
 VI 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 V 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 1 1 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 VI 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 VII 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 II 
 
 VIII 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 Totals 
 
 15 
 
 35 
 
 15 
 
 32 
 
 50 
 
 47 
 
 97 
 
 It will be noticed in this connection that of all those who 
 skip a grade only one in fourteen fails to maintain the gained 
 rank. Of those who complete the full nine years and thus have 
 the maximum exposure to arrest only one in every eleven loses 
 the ground gained.
 
 1 2 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 But the total ground gained is more than 1,239 years. A gain 
 of 3 years is made by two boys and no girls among the non- 
 graduates, and by two boys and one girl among the graduates. 
 A gain of 2 years is made by fourteen boys and twelve girls 
 from the non-graduate group, and by sixteen boys and eleven 
 girls of the graduate group. Thus the boys gain 743 years 
 time and the girls 559 years. The total enrollment of boys and 
 girls during this time was practically the same. 
 
 The larger number of boys among the ground-gainers is in 
 part due to a hesitancy on the part of teachers and parents to 
 let the girls undertake the extra work necessary to gain a grade, 
 in part to the more ready acceptance of the conventional schedule 
 by girls, and for girls by their parents. On the other hand, the 
 larger number of boys looking ahead to business careers, or to 
 college and professional life, were stimulated to save time. Not 
 a few capable boys, whose home conditions demanded that they 
 should go to work as early as possible, and who were yet am- 
 bitious to finish the grammar school course, were prompted to 
 make the extra endeavor. These factors all contributed to 
 enable these pupils to reduce the time for completing the course 
 from 9 years to 7.9 years. No skipping was possible in either 
 grade one or grade nine. There were enrolled in the seven 
 remaining ground-gaining grades 4,186 different pupils during 
 the three years under consideration. This number includes, once 
 only, every pupil who was enrolled in all these seven grades, 
 no matter how brief the period of his attendance. Thus 29.6 
 per cent of all pupils enrolled in these seven grades gained one 
 or more years. 
 
 During the same three years, 932 pupils, or 22 per cent of 
 the total number of different pupils enrolled, failed of promotion 
 in the same seven grades. If those arrested in the ninth grade 
 are added the number becomes 1,038. If to these we add all 
 pupils held over in grade one, many of whom did not enter 
 school before the end of March of each year, the total number 
 of arrests becomes 1,254. The term arrests is used to designate 
 all pupils denied promotion and required to repeat a grade and 
 lose a year in their progress through the schools. The total 
 number of different pupils appearing in these nine grades during 
 the three years was 5,824. Thus the total number of arrests 
 was less than 24 per cent of all enrolled.
 
 Accelerates from ipo4-o'/ 
 
 13 
 
 Turning next to examine the age at which the 326 graduating 
 accelerates entered the first grade, and the age at which they 
 graduated from the ninth grade, we find the facts to be as shown 
 in the following table: 
 
 TABLE 8 
 Age at Entrance and at Graduation of 326 Accelerates 
 
 Entered 
 
 
 
 
 Graduated 
 
 
 
 
 Grade I 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Total 
 
 AT 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Total 
 
 AT Age of 
 
 
 
 
 Age of 
 
 
 
 
 4 yrs. 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 12 yrs. 
 
 S 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 5 " 
 
 33 
 
 32 
 
 65 
 
 13 " 
 
 60 
 
 61 
 
 121 
 
 6 " 
 
 107 
 
 102 
 
 209 
 
 14 " 
 
 43 
 
 40 
 
 83 
 
 7 " 
 
 23 
 
 20 
 
 43 
 
 1=; " 
 
 46 
 
 43 
 
 89 
 
 8 " 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 16 " 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 II 
 
 Over 8 yrs. 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Over 16 yrs. 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 Totals 
 
 169 
 
 157 
 
 326 
 
 Totals 
 
 169 
 
 157 
 
 326 
 
 From this it appears that more than 85 per cent of these accel- 
 erates enter school at six years old or under, the average entrance 
 age being 5.9 years. More than 67 per cent of them graduate 
 when fourteen years old or younger, the average graduating 
 age being 13.9 years. Late entry does not contribute to accelera- 
 tion. Of course, it must be borne in mind that late entry, while 
 it is not necessarily evidence of sub-normal capacity or low 
 mentality, points in that direction. In fact, practically all late 
 entries in communities like the one studied are due to four causes. 
 These are: (a) low or slow mentality; (b) remoteness from 
 school facilities, such as is the lot of many emigrant children 
 prior to their arrival in America; (c) illness; and (d) parental 
 conviction that primary schools and their activities do not con- 
 stitute the best physiological environment for young children, 
 and that in the long run no time will be lost by late entry. In 
 the community studied, these causes are influential in the order 
 named ; and the accelerates who entered later than six years of 
 age, are all explained by either the second or the fourth of these 
 causes. 
 
 This division of the study was undertaken to discover the 
 truth on a few specific points only. The evidence warrants the 
 following conclusions for communities thoroughly enforcing the 
 compulsory school attendance law, furnishing a teacher for every
 
 14 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 forty pupils, and making provision for special opportunity for 
 slow and for gifted pupils: 
 
 1. The number of accelerations is larger than the number of 
 arrests; and if we exclude from the reckoning all pupils who 
 do not enter the first grade until two-thirds of the school year 
 has elapsed, the accelerations are much more numerous than 
 the arrests. 
 
 2. More boys than girls are found in the ranks of accelerates. 
 
 3. Late entry into the first grades does not contribute to accel- 
 eration of progress. The average accelerate enters school first 
 under six years of age. The school which would be of most 
 service to the community and not unmindful of its duty to 
 gifted pupils should receive all pupils who are physiologically 
 six years of age, no matter what the chronological age, provided 
 it does not thereby cripple its facilities for receiving and training 
 in the most effective way, those who are older or within the com- 
 pulsory attendance limits. The whole regimen of the primary 
 school should be such as to furnish the desirable hygienic en- 
 vironment needed by the young child. 
 
 5. The average accelerate has no difficulty in gaining more 
 than one full year in the first seven years of progress through 
 the grades of the public schools. 
 
 6. Such possible accelerates are present in our schools in 
 large number, constituting from one-fourth to one-third of our 
 whole body of pupils above the first grade.
 
 Ill 
 
 STUDY OF 683 CASES OF ARREST 
 
 The age at which each of these 683 pupils who became arrests 
 or "repeaters," entered the first grade is important; and since 
 the same data will be needed in the study of the 613 accelerates 
 or " gainers," and of the 606 " regulars," or pupils who neither 
 gain nor lose grades, these facts for all three groups are shown 
 in the following table: 
 
 TABLE 9 
 
 Entrance Ages of 1,902 Pupils Studied in Sections III, 
 
 IV, AND V 
 
 Entrance 
 
 Repeaters 
 
 Gainers 
 
 Regulars 
 
 All Classes 
 
 Age 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Under 5 
 
 II 
 
 7 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 15 
 36 
 
 5 -5* 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 23 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 27 
 
 24 
 
 37 
 61 
 
 54-6 
 
 77 
 
 67 
 144 
 
 58 
 
 56 
 
 114 
 
 78 
 
 103 
 183 
 
 213 
 
 226 
 439 
 
 6 -6^ 
 
 124 
 
 91 
 
 215 
 
 no 
 
 120 
 
 108 
 
 III 
 
 342_ 
 
 322 
 
 
 
 230 
 
 
 219 
 
 664 
 
 6^7 
 
 So 
 
 55 
 135 
 
 79 
 
 64 
 143 
 
 68 
 
 47 
 115 
 
 227 
 
 166 
 
 
 
 393 
 
 7 -7* 
 
 34 
 
 36 
 70 
 
 28 
 
 24 
 52 
 
 18 
 
 12 
 
 30 
 
 80 
 
 72 
 152 
 
 7h~& 
 
 24 
 
 17 
 41 
 
 18 
 
 13 
 31 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 10 
 
 47 
 
 35 
 
 82 
 
 8 or over 
 
 16 
 
 21 
 37 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 10 
 
 35 
 
 40 
 
 75 
 
 Totals 
 
 5I373* 
 
 310J 
 683 
 
 -' 314 
 
 299^" 
 
 -^"'302 
 
 3043^ 
 606 
 
 989 
 
 913 
 
 
 613 
 
 1 ,902 
 
 IS
 
 i6 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 The same data may be more useful for comparative purposes 
 if cast in per cent forms. This is done in the subjoined table, 
 using as the basis of the percentage for each item of each of 
 the twelve columns of Table 9, the total of the column in w^hich 
 the item occurs : 
 
 TABLE 10 
 
 Entrance Ages of 1,902 Pupils Studied in Sections III, 
 IV and V 
 
 In Per Cents 
 
 
 Repeaters 
 
 Gainers 
 
 Regulars 
 
 All Classes 
 
 Entrance 
 Age 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Totals 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Totals 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Totals 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Under 5 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2.6 
 
 1 .0 
 
 •3 
 
 .6 
 
 2-3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2.3 
 
 2 . 1 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 1.9 
 
 s -s^- 
 
 2 
 
 S 
 
 3-4 
 
 1.6 
 
 2.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 4.0 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 4-5 
 
 2 . 2 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 3-3 
 
 5^-6 
 
 21 
 
 21 
 
 21 .0 
 
 18.4 
 
 18.6 
 
 18. 5 
 
 25-9 
 
 33 
 
 6 
 
 30 -0 
 
 21.5 
 
 24 
 
 7 
 
 23.0 
 
 6- 6i- 
 
 33 
 
 30 
 
 31-5 
 
 3S-0 
 
 40.3 
 
 37.6 
 
 35-9 
 
 36 
 
 7 
 
 36.2 
 
 34.6 
 
 35 
 
 3 
 
 35. 
 
 6^-7 
 
 22 
 
 18 
 
 20 .0 
 
 25.0 
 
 21. 5 
 
 23 -4 
 
 22 . 4 
 
 IS 
 
 4 
 
 19.0 
 
 23.0 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 20. 6 
 
 7 -7i 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 10. 
 
 9.0 
 
 8.0 
 
 8.5 
 
 6.0 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 5.0 
 
 8.4 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 8.0 
 
 7l-S 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 6.0 
 
 6.0 
 
 4.0 
 
 5.5 
 
 IS 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 i-S 
 
 4.6 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 4.3 
 
 8 or over 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 5. 5 
 
 4.0 
 
 S-O 
 
 5.0 
 
 2 .0 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 1.5 
 
 3-6 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 3.9 
 
 Total 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 Of all those who began the first grade before the fifth birth- 
 day, 50 per cent are compelled to repeat a grade. The same 
 thing is true of all who enter over eight or over seven and one- 
 half. Almost the same proportion (46 per cent) fail somewhere 
 among those who enter between seven and seven and one-half. 
 Practically one-half of all children who begin the first grade after 
 reaching their seventh birthday, or before reaching their fifth, 
 may be expected to lose a year at some time during the gram- 
 mar school course.
 
 Study of 68 J Cases of Arrest 
 
 17 
 
 It is necessary to know how these losses are distributed 
 through the grades and this is shown in the following table : 
 
 TABLE 11 
 
 Repeaters Shown by Grade and Sex for Eight Age-Groups 
 OF Entrants 
 
 The upper number in each line is for boys; the lower is for girls 
 
 Beginning 
 Grade I at 
 
 Grades 
 
 Totals 
 
 Age of 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 
 Under 5 yrs. 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 4 
 I 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 5-5 i yrs. 
 
 4 
 8 
 
 I 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 23 
 
 5i-6 yrs. 
 
 14 
 17 
 
 13 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 13 
 
 II 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 4 
 
 77 
 
 67 
 
 144 
 
 6-6^ yrs. 
 
 17 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 10 
 
 19 
 20 
 
 16 
 16 
 
 17 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 10 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 124 
 
 91 
 
 215 
 
 6f-7 yrs. 
 
 7 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 10 
 
 16 
 10 
 
 II 
 8 
 
 5 
 9 
 
 1 1 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 5 
 2 
 
 So 
 
 55 
 
 135 
 
 7-7 i yrs. 
 
 I 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 7 
 
 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 3 
 I 
 
 34 
 
 36 
 
 70 
 
 7*-8 yrs. 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 4 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 
 I 
 
 24 
 
 17 
 
 41 
 
 8 yrs. or over 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 I 
 
 16 
 
 21 
 
 37 
 
 Boys 
 Girls 
 
 45 
 47 
 
 42 
 23 
 
 54 
 39 
 
 65 
 52 
 
 52 
 53 
 
 35 
 42 
 
 3S 
 16 
 
 26 
 27 
 
 16 
 1 1 
 
 3 73 
 
 3T0 
 
 683 
 
 Totals 
 
 92 
 
 65 
 
 93 
 
 ri7 
 
 105 
 
 77 
 
 54 
 
 53 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 683 
 
 Two things should be observed in this table. First, the grades 
 most prolific of arrest are the fourth, fifth, and third; and all 
 exceed the first, so commonly held to be the most productive of 
 repeaters. Second, the boys in this group are more numerous 
 than the girls, just as they were in the large group of accelerates 
 considered in Section I, as would be expected from the known 
 greater variability of the male.
 
 i8 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 At what age these arrests occur is equally important. The 
 following are the facts : 
 
 
 TABLE 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 TOTJ! 
 
 Under 6 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 6- 7 
 
 28 
 
 20 
 
 48 
 
 7- 8 
 
 32 
 
 27 
 
 59 
 
 8- 9 
 
 33 
 
 26 
 
 59 
 
 9-10 
 
 SI 
 
 42 
 
 93 
 
 lO-II 
 
 56 
 
 52 
 
 108 
 
 11-12 
 
 41 
 
 34 
 
 75 
 
 12-13 
 
 42 
 
 37 
 
 79 
 
 13-14 
 
 36 
 
 32 
 
 68 
 
 14-15 
 
 27 
 
 24 
 
 51 
 
 15-16 
 
 17 
 
 II 
 
 28 
 
 16-17 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 Over 17 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Total 
 
 373 
 
 310 
 
 683 
 
 But before the two foregoing tables can be intelligently inter- 
 preted we must know what percentage of the total enrollment 
 each age and each grade represents. Then by noting the per cent 
 of arrests at each age and at each grade we can answer the 
 questions : What percentage of its equitable proportion does 
 each age produce? What percentage of its equitable proportion 
 of arrests does each grade produce? That is, if we know that 
 grade five comprises 10 per cent of the total enrollment and 
 produces 20 per cent of the cases of arrest, we know that grade 
 five is responsible for 200 per cent of its equitable proportion 
 of the repeaters. If we knew that the ten-year-olds were 8 per 
 cent of the enrollment, and that ten-year-old repeaters were 12 
 per cent of the total arrests, we could at once say, age ten 
 produces 150 per cent of its equitable share of the repeaters. 
 
 Table 13 shows in the first column all ages represented above 
 five years in the grades from one to nine inclusive. The second
 
 Study of 68 J Cases of Arrest 
 
 19 
 
 column shows what per cent the enroHment of each age is of 
 the total enrollment over five. The third column shows what 
 percentage of all the repeaters, the repeaters of any given age 
 constitute. The fourth column shows the ratio of the number 
 of repeaters of any given age to the percentage of the enrollment 
 of that age. In other words the right-hand column of Table 13 
 answers the question : What percentage of its due share of 
 arrests does each age from six to seventeen produce? 
 
 TABLE 13 
 
 The Right-Hand Column Answers the Question, what Percentage 
 OF Its Due Share of Repeaters Does Each Age Produce 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 Age 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Enrollment of 
 
 Each Age 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Repeaters of 
 
 Each Age 
 
 Ratio of Frequency 
 
 of Repeaters to 
 
 Frequency of Age 
 
 Distribution 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 12 .1 
 10 .9 
 10 .1 
 
 7.0 
 8.6 
 8.6 
 
 •57 
 •79 
 
 .80 
 
 9 
 
 II .4 
 
 13-6 
 
 1. 19 
 
 10 
 
 "•3 
 
 15.8 
 
 1 .40 
 
 II 
 
 II. 6 
 
 10 .9 
 
 • 94 
 
 12 
 
 10.7 
 
 II-5 
 
 1 .08 
 
 13 
 
 10 .9 
 
 10 .0 
 
 .91 
 
 14 
 
 7-3 
 
 7-4 
 
 1 .01 
 
 15 
 
 2 .1 
 
 4.1 
 
 1-95 
 
 16 
 17 and over 
 
 •3 
 .16 
 
 I .0 
 .6 
 
 3-33 
 3-75 
 
 The fifteen-year-olds furnish nearly double their fair share 
 of the repeaters, the sixteen-year-olds three and one-third times 
 their share and the seventeen-year-olds claim three and three- 
 quarters times as many arrests as they are entitled to by their 
 numbers. These pupils were nearly all late entries, some of 
 low or slow mentality, many of them emigrants from lands of 
 illiteracy, but all possessed of an ambition to go on and graduate 
 from the grammar schools. The three ages at the beginning of 
 the school course are least fecund of arrest. In this regard the 
 six-year-olds lead all the others. That is, if a child is such a one 
 as could enter the schools at six years of age, he is rarely likely 
 to be held back during his first year. Ages ten, nine, and twelve 
 cover the period that produces most repeaters.
 
 20 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 TABLE 14 
 
 The Right-Hand Column Answers the Question, what Percentage 
 OF Its Due Share of Repeaters Does Each Grade Produce 
 
 
 
 
 Ratio of Frequency 
 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Percentage 
 
 of Repeaters to 
 
 Grade 
 
 of 
 
 of 
 
 Frequency of Grade 
 
 
 Enrollment 
 
 Repeaters 
 
 Distribution,' 
 
 I 
 
 13.6 
 
 13-4 
 
 .98 
 
 II 
 
 12.7 
 
 9-5 
 
 •75 
 
 III 
 
 12 .1 
 
 13 -4 
 
 1 .10 
 
 IV 
 
 12 .2 
 
 17. 1 
 
 1 .40 
 
 V 
 
 12 .2 
 
 15-3 
 
 1.25 
 
 VI 
 
 II .0 
 
 II .2 
 
 1 .01 
 
 VII 
 
 10 .0 
 
 7-9 
 
 •79 
 
 VIII 
 
 8.4 
 
 7-9 
 
 .94 
 
 IX 
 
 7-3 
 
 4.0 
 
 •54 
 
 The fact that grade nine has only half its proper share of 
 repeaters is to be accounted for in part by the frequency with 
 which pupils of this grade, who see failure impending, leave 
 school and go to work. They are fourteen years of age or over. 
 They have reached a grade where the sixteen-year-old clause 
 of the compulsory law is inoperative, they are physically fit in 
 most instances to go to work ; so they drop out and reduce 
 unduly the number of repeaters charged against this grade. 
 Grades three, four, and five are the places of high exposure to 
 arrest. Grades two and seven produce proportionally fewer 
 repeaters than any other grades excluding the ninth, which may 
 for reasons stated above fairly be dismissed from comparison. 
 The first and sixth grades produce practically only their equitable 
 proportion of repeaters. 
 
 How far is loss of time coincident with arrest or immediately 
 precedent thereto? The average loss of time in the first grade 
 for all the pupils who repeated grade one was 15.6 days. In 
 grade two repeaters lost on an average 13.7 days. In grade 
 three repeaters lost on an average 14.5 days. In grade four 
 repeaters lost on an average 12.2 days. The record in grade 
 five was identical with that of grade four, 12.2 days. In grade 
 six the average loss of time by repeaters was 10.5 days. In 
 grade seven this average loss was 10.2 days. In grade eight 
 it dropped to 9.5 days. In grade nine it was only 9.2 days. Thus
 
 Study of 68 J Cases of Arrest 21 
 
 the loss in grade one is on an average only 8.2 per cent of the 
 total time; in grades two and three about 7.5 per cent; in grades 
 four and five, less than 6.5 per cent; in grades six and seven, 
 5.5 per cent; while in grades eight and nine the loss is less than 
 5 per cent. 
 
 This loss of time, under the general acceptance and rigid en- 
 forcement in the community of the laws requiring constant at- 
 tendance and prohibiting child labor, is practically a measure 
 of the amount of illness in all the grades from two to eight 
 inclusive, as the law requiring the children to be in attendance 
 every day on which school was in session had the heartiest 
 public sentiment behind it and was rigidly enforced. The losses 
 noted are not so great when one remembers that the large 
 majority of all the cases of chicken-pox, measles, mumps, scarlet 
 fever, whooping-cough, diphtheria, to say nothing of scabies and 
 pediculosis, occur within the age limits covered by this study. 
 
 As nearly as can be determined from the health records for 
 the last five years of the period studied, there occurred each year 
 among the pupils represented in the schools an average of 92 
 cases of diphtheria, 46 cases of typhoid fever, 56 cases of 
 scarlet fever, and 119 cases of measles. These diseases alone 
 make large inroads on attendance. Pupils are often incapacitated 
 for school work for periods much longer than is indicated by 
 the exclusion time of health regulations. Twelve weeks loss on 
 account of typhoid and ten weeks on account of scarlet fever 
 are neither uncommon nor unwise. In the case of diseases like 
 scarlet fever or diphtheria, it must not be forgotten that the 
 exclusion operates not only against all other children in the 
 family, but, in the case of those resident in tenement or apart- 
 ment houses, against all children using the same entrance to 
 the house. Thus it will be seen that the number of long-time 
 absences is necessarily large, even in the presence of an advanced 
 and vigorous policy of school and municipal sanitation. 
 
 The prevalence of children's diseases during the years from 
 five to ten (practically covering the first five grades) is remark- 
 able as the following will show: 
 
 The records of the famous Measles epidemic of Kiel in i860, 
 as reported by Nathnagel, show that 90 per cent of all the cases 
 between 5 and 15 years were found to be between the ages
 
 22 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 of 5 and lo years. The records of the New York City Board 
 of Health according to Dr. Wm. H. Gilfoy show that of every 
 hundred deaths from measles between the ages of 5 and 15 
 years, 97 of them are those of children between 5 and 10 years. 
 
 The Willard Parker Hospital records of 1,785 cases of Diph- 
 theria treated in that institution in persons between the ages of 
 5 and 60 years, show that 62 per cent were between the ages of 
 5 and 15 years. Of these latter, 75 per cent were children be- 
 tween 5 and 10 years of age. The records of the New York 
 City Board of Health show that of every hundred deaths from 
 diphtheria between the ages of 5 and 15 years, 89 of them are 
 those of children between 5 years old and 10 years. 
 
 The Willard Parker Hospital records of 3,181 Scarlet Fever 
 patients between 5 and 60 years of age treated in that institu- 
 tion show that 72 per cent were those of children aged 5 to 
 15 years. Of these 72.6 per cent were aged from 5 to 10 years. 
 The Board of Health records of New York City show that of 
 every hundred deaths from scarlet fever between 5 and 15 
 years of age, yy are those of the children aged 5 to 10 years. 
 
 Similar records show Whooping-Cough to be six times as 
 prevalent in the first of these five year periods as in the second. 
 Of all the mortality from this disease between 5 and 15 years 
 in New York City, 86 per cent of it is among children aged 5 
 to 10 years. 
 
 So, too, children during the first five years of school life have 
 about four times as much Broncho-Pneumonia as in the years 
 from 10 to 15. Of the deaths from this disease during the 
 ten years under discussion 79 per cent of them occur between 
 tlie fifth and tenth year. Mumps and Chicken-pox likewise 
 occur most frequently during this same period. 
 
 The records of the Princeton, Indiana, schools for 1910, as 
 given in the annual report of Superintendent Harold Barnes 
 (pp. 78 and 79), indicate that 85 per cent of the cases of the 
 six contagious diseases for which pupils were excluded from 
 these schools occurred in the first five grades. They also show 
 that one pupil in four was so excluded during the year. 
 
 The evidence could be multiplied indefinitely to show the in- 
 evitable interference with attendance, to which the first five 
 grades are exposed. The point to keep in mind is not only
 
 Study of 68 J Cases of Arrest 23 
 
 that these children's contagious diseases are heavily massed in 
 the elementary school period and especially in the first five years 
 of school life, but that the loss of time which they compel is very 
 large. Every case of measles involves from two to four weeks' 
 absence for each child affected and not less than two weeks 
 absence for every other non-immune pupil coming from the 
 same household. Chicken-pox demands for each case a loss of 
 at least two weeks and mumps a loss of from two to three 
 weeks. Diphtheria enforces at least four weeks of absence, 
 and scarlet fever not less than six. Whooping-cough involves 
 from ten to twelve weeks of absence. 
 
 Now if it is remembered that it is no uncommon experience 
 to have one pupil out of ever}^ six enrolled in elementary schools, 
 excluded during the year on account of contagious disease or 
 exposure to the same, how futile it is to expect to eliminate 
 exposure to it, how futile it is to expect to eliminate arrest from 
 any system of schools having a uniform course of study. 
 
 The location of the large absences indicates the situation of 
 the major portion of all arrests. The figures given in Table 
 15 are the number of absences of four weeks or more which 
 occur in grade one two, three, four, etc. The second column 
 registers those made by accelerates, pupils who at any time 
 gain one full grade. The third column records those made by 
 arrests, pupils who repeated any grade. The fourth column is 
 the larsre absence record of the normals : 
 
 TABLE 15 
 Location of 1,649 Absences of 4 Weeks or More 
 
 Grade 
 
 Number 
 
 by 
 
 Accelerates 
 
 Number 
 Arrests 
 
 Number 
 
 by 
 Normals 
 
 Totals 
 
 Per cent 
 
 I 
 II 
 
 III 
 IV 
 V 
 VI 
 VII 
 VIII 
 IX 
 
 114 
 77 
 53 
 67 
 
 39 
 56 
 
 35 
 16 
 
 146 
 122 
 
 ITS 
 
 90 
 71 
 S3 
 29 
 
 14 
 7 
 
 112 
 109 
 
 82 
 90 
 44 
 55 
 24 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 372 
 308 
 250 
 247 
 
 154 
 
 164 
 
 88 
 
 48 
 
 18 
 
 23 
 19 
 IS 
 IS 
 9 
 10 
 
 S 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 Totfl 
 
 4.=:9 
 
 647 
 
 543 
 
 1,649 
 
 100
 
 24 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 Note that 1,331 cases or 80 per cent of all these over four 
 weeks' absences are in the five grades in which we find the chil- 
 dren who are from five to ten years old and who are most 
 susceptible to the common contagious diseases. The total amount 
 of such absence seems large. But it must be remembered that 
 one case of scarlet fever, for example, in a family wnth four 
 children of school age, means four such protracted absences. 
 Exposure to contagion often produces the same interference 
 with attendance as does contracting the contagious disease or any 
 other disabling illness. 
 
 Of the arrests only 24 in every hundred get through seven 
 years without a record of absence amounting to four weeks 
 or more in some year. In every hundred of the normals 32 
 escape without a record of four or more weeks' absence in 
 any one year ; of the accelerates 2>?) in every hundred are for- 
 tunate enough to escape such absence. 
 
 It is apparent, however, that neither the average nor the total 
 loss per pupil is so significant for our problem, as protracted 
 absence at one time, or within one year. About one-third of 
 all the cases of arrest in the first three grades follow four or 
 more weeks of absence in the same year. Practically one-fifth 
 of all cases in grades four, five, eight, and nine are so marked. 
 
 The change of residence involving change of school is aston- 
 ishingly frequent and without doubt is a marked factor in causing 
 arrest of progress through the grades. The effect of massed 
 absence and change of school will be the more manifest from 
 the following showing (Table 16) and from others appearing 
 as we come to examine the same facts for the accelerates. 
 
 TABLE 16 
 
 Frequency of Losses of Four Weeks or More and Fre- 
 quency OF Change of Residence by Repeaters 
 Of every 100 pupils who repeated — 
 Grade 
 1 30 lost 20 days or more and 29 changed school 
 
 III.'.'.'.'.".'.'.'.'.'..... 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VII 
 
 IX 
 
 33 " 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 50 
 
 ' ' 
 
 36 " 
 
 ' 
 
 * 
 
 ' 42 
 
 ' 
 
 20 " 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 49 
 
 
 19 " 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 41 
 
 
 16 " 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 27 
 
 * * 
 
 10 " 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 43 
 
 * ' 
 
 23 " 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 28 
 
 * 
 
 20 " 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 28 
 
 * '
 
 Having 
 
 Of Non-English 
 
 EFECTIVE 
 
 Speaking 
 
 Eyes 
 
 Races 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Per cent 
 
 36 
 
 52 
 
 30 
 
 50 
 
 39 
 
 42 
 
 40 
 
 49 
 
 37 
 
 41 
 
 40 
 
 27 
 
 24 
 
 43 
 
 19 
 
 28 
 
 18 
 
 24 
 
 Study of 68 J Cases of Arrest 25 
 
 What proportion of the repeaters have defective eyesight? 
 What proportion of them are the children of non-EngHsh speak- 
 ing races? The answers to both these questions appear in 
 Table 17. 
 
 TABLE 17 
 
 Grade 
 
 I 
 II 
 III 
 
 IV 
 V 
 VI 
 VII 
 VIII 
 IX 
 
 The difficulty of securing scientifically accurate results in the 
 examination of the eyes of first grade children with the Snellen 
 type test for illiterates probably makes the figures for first grade 
 children too high. 
 
 How far the sympathy and understanding between pupils and 
 teacher contributes to acceleration or the lack of these to arrest 
 is difficult to determine. The conduct or deportment rankings 
 given each year may be fairly taken as an index of the close- 
 ness with which a pupil fits into the spirit and methods of the 
 school. In the schools under consideration the pupils are ranked 
 six times each year in deportment. From the annual sum- 
 maries of these each year, I gather the following: 
 
 39 per cent of repeaters rank 90-100 
 
 34 " " " 80- 90 
 
 21 " " " 70— 80 
 
 6 " " " 60— 70 
 
 This is a record that does not seem to account appreciably 
 for arrest. We shall see in Section IV how it compares with 
 the record of the accelerates. 
 
 Pupils are ordinarily required to repeat grades because they 
 are not able to pass examinations for entrance to the grade 
 above — or are not able to do the work of the next higher grade 
 — or because they are generally weak in the work of the grade
 
 26 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 in which they are arrested. What effect has repetition of any 
 grade upon the scholarship of the repeater in subsequent grades ? 
 To test this, the rankings obtained in each grade after the 
 repetition, were compared with those of the two previous years. 
 For example, a repeater of grade three made the following 
 record in scholarship: 
 
 Grade 1233456789 
 
 DEFCDDEEFF 
 
 The subsequent record was accordingly: 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 This is, his standing in grade four was one-half rank better 
 {-\- Yz) ', his standing in grade six was one-half rank worse 
 (— 5^ ) ; his standing in grade eight was one and one-half ranks 
 worse ( — i^) than before repeating. 
 
 That is, in comparison with his record in grades one and 
 two, his records in grades four and five were each one-half 
 rank higher (+>^); in grades six and seven, one-half rank 
 lower ( — /^ ) ; in grades eight and nine, one and one-half 
 ranks lower ( — i^). Every repeater's standings were so 
 tested and recorded when the arrest took place below the sev- 
 enth grade. In the case of the first grade repeater the com- 
 parison was made with his higher first grade standing. In the 
 case of the second grade repeater the comparison was made 
 with his first and higher second grade standing. Assembling 
 all these comparisons gave the following results : 
 
 TABLE 18 
 Changes in Scholarship for Better or for Worse after Repeating 
 
 
 
 
 After Repeating 
 
 
 
 Grade 
 
 First 
 
 Second 
 
 Third 
 
 Fourth 
 
 Fifth 
 
 Sixth 
 
 
 year 
 
 year 
 
 year 
 
 year 
 
 year 
 
 year 
 
 I 
 
 + •54 
 
 + .42 
 
 — •13 
 
 + .10 
 
 — •39 
 
 — •45 
 
 II 
 
 + •35 
 
 + ■33 
 
 + •13 
 
 — .12 
 
 — •30 
 
 .00 
 
 III 
 
 + -52 
 
 + •30 
 
 — •13 
 
 — .14 
 
 — ■33 
 
 
 IV 
 
 + 1 .50 
 
 + .85 
 
 + .58 
 
 — .09 
 
 — .78 
 
 
 V 
 
 + I.2S 
 
 + .46 
 
 — •15 
 
 — •30 
 
 
 
 VI 
 
 + 1 .27 
 
 + .58 
 
 — •25 
 
 

 
 Study of 68s Cases of Arrest 
 
 27 
 
 The six graphs (A-F) bring out these changes more clearly 
 and indicate that the tendency is : ( i ) to do better work the 
 first year after repeating; (2) to lose half this superiority the 
 second year; (3) to fall after two years to the level of his per- 
 formances prior to the repetition. Thereafter he apparently 
 does worse, but this appearance is probably at least in part the 
 result of the relative meanings of the marks A, B, C, D, etc., 
 the same symbol possibly standing for a higher degree of per- 
 formance in the late grades after the less gifted pupils have 
 been arrested or eliminated. 
 
 . O^^ R/i/vMT 3e.r7£;f 
 
 GffAOr I 
 
 P i^ev/d^fS ■3cuoi.A^s/^/p 
 
 Cfi*t>£l in IS F FI w 
 
 pKfy/ous 
 
 B 
 GfiApe n 
 
 yCtMOAAflS^ii 
 
 ■!_[" 
 
 
 _ Oa/£ r?AVK B 
 
 errce 
 
 C 
 
 Of jet HI 
 
 1 
 
 
 Pri, 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 £7 
 
 1 
 
 CeADiW r 
 
 w zi^ 
 
 _ O^f 
 
 x?4'/€ Bsrren. 
 
 
 D 
 
 CkadcIF 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Ppayu 
 
 »i/J 3cHO£4fSf^fP 
 
 
 _ //it^ eiMK v^ot^e 
 
 
 Cp.dmF 
 
 27 W 
 
 W 
 
 m. 
 
 
 
 
 'r/fK 
 
 
 E. 
 
 fV 
 
 - 
 
 Cvi 
 
 I^A^f s 
 
 
 
 
 .^JL. 
 
 OU3 ^C f^O£ ^l^3*Jf^ 
 
 - 
 
 W.i/ ««», , 
 
 .,.= 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 tteiW W 
 
 Elf 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 _ O'jt K^A't asm 
 
 H/\Lf ftAA-^ ^/t01SK 
 
 F 
 Cfuffe T7 
 
 JCh'Oi.dR-SH'P 
 
 Changes in Scholarship aftkr Repeating Grades
 
 28 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 The records of all repeaters from grades one to nine were 
 next checked off and classified as doing better work, the same 
 grade of work, or worse work after the repeating than before 
 the arrest, without regard to how much better or how much 
 worse in each individual case. For example, it was found that 
 out of every hundred pupils required to repeat grade five, 21 
 did better work aftenvards ; that is, in grades six, seven, eight, 
 and nine, than they had done before, that is in grades one, two, 
 three, and four. No change appeared in the character of the 
 work of 39, Vk'hile 40 did poorer work after repeating than they 
 had before. The figures for all the grades constitute Table 19. 
 
 TABLE 19 
 Repeaters of All Grades Who After Repeating: 
 
 Grade 
 
 Did 
 Better 
 Work 
 
 Did 
 
 Same Grade 
 
 of Work 
 
 Did 
 Worse 
 Work 
 
 I 
 
 Per cent 
 46 
 
 Per cent 
 27 
 
 Per cent 
 27 
 
 TI 
 
 15 
 
 30 
 
 54 
 
 III 
 
 19 
 
 31 
 
 51 
 
 IV 
 
 18.8 
 
 31-7 
 
 49-5 
 
 V 
 
 21 
 
 39 
 
 40 
 
 VI 
 
 22 
 
 43 
 
 35 
 
 VII 
 
 28 
 
 52 
 
 20 
 
 VIII 
 
 48 
 
 48 
 
 4 
 
 IX 
 
 70 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 All grades 
 
 28 
 
 36 
 
 36 
 
 There remains to be examined the question of how far arrest 
 is caused by special subjects in the curriculum as a whole, or 
 in any particular year of the course. Examination was made 
 of the causes of 977 arrests; 561 were taken without regard 
 to whether there were available six or more years' records ; 416 
 were in the list of repeaters furnishing the basis of this portion 
 of study. No first grade repeaters were included because all 
 of these were due to the one cause, weakness in reading. The 
 facts for the other grades are shown in the following table:
 
 Study of 68 J Cases of Arrest 29 
 
 TABLE 20 
 
 Subjects Reported as the Strong Contributing Cause of 
 
 977 Arrests 
 The upper number in each line is for boys; the lower is for girls 
 
 Subject 
 
 Grade 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Reading and spell- 
 ing 
 
 20 
 17 
 
 13 
 14 
 
 1 1 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 43 
 
 Mathematics 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 16 
 
 8 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 4 
 
 10 
 12 
 
 5 
 5 
 
 63 
 
 67 
 
 Mathematics and 
 grammar 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 8 
 7 
 
 12 
 12 
 
 S 
 
 7 
 
 42 
 
 32 
 
 Mathematics and 
 geography 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 9 
 
 18 
 16 
 
 10 
 6 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 
 43 
 
 34 
 
 Mathematics and 
 history 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 I s 
 
 Mathematics, gram - 
 mar and history 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 Mathematics, lan- 
 guageand spelling 
 
 15 
 21 
 
 12 
 12 
 
 8 
 12 
 
 10 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 54 
 
 History and geog- 
 raphy 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 1 1 
 
 All subjects 
 
 ^3 
 19 
 
 15 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 24 
 
 20 
 
 15 
 20 
 
 12 
 15 
 
 25 
 21 
 
 141 
 
 132 
 
 All but spelling 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 16 
 
 15 
 16 
 
 II 
 14 
 
 69 
 
 90 
 
 Totals 
 
 58 
 64 
 
 59 
 
 54 
 
 53 
 
 58 
 
 62 
 68 
 
 68 
 63 
 
 67 
 67 
 
 62 
 69 
 
 54 
 67 
 
 483 
 
 
 
 494 
 
 The most striking feature of this table is the showing that 
 28 per cent of all the arrests are failures in all subjects; and 
 that 16 per cent more fail in everything but spelling. 
 
 Mathematics alone causes 13 per cent of the failures to pass ; 
 and mathematics together with one other subject (sometimes 
 history, sometimes geography, and sometimes grammar) causes 
 18 per cent of the failures. In combination with two other sub- 
 jects it adds 14 per cent more to the list of failures. 
 
 Probably no rearrangement of curriculum could save from 
 arrest, the 44 per cent who fail in everything or everything but 
 spelling. They are children of low or slow mentality who need
 
 30 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 more time. To keep such children up to grade would be a 
 crime. Fortunately it is not possible. This does not necessarily 
 mean that there is much wisdon^ in the present policy of worry- 
 ing them through one year of dispiriting failure, and then com- 
 pelling repetition only to secure mediocre success. 
 
 Mathematics furnishes much hindrance. This is due in part 
 to the nature of the subject. To do the work in mathematics 
 of any grade requires some reasonable mastering of the work 
 of the previous grade. This is not true in so marked a way 
 of any other subject. In fact it would be entirely possible to 
 do good work in seventh grade history or geography for example, 
 without even having spent a day on sixth grade history or 
 geography. But in arithmetic, the shortcomings of one grade 
 must be added to the burden of every subsequent grade. The 
 spiral mode of attack, or the constant review of topics, aims 
 to minimize this hindrance, but there is still needed relief that 
 has not yet been found. Is there any, short of an arrange- 
 ment providing for minimum and maximum courses in mathe- 
 matics in every grade in question? 
 
 The constant appearance of evidence that pointed toward the 
 conclusion that acceleration and arrest are indexes of nature 
 rather than consequence of nurture, prompted examination of 
 the questions. " How frequently does one family produce two 
 or more accelerates? How frequently, two or more arrests? 
 How frequently are both classes represented in one family ? " 
 It was found that nearly one-fourth of the 613 accelerates were 
 furnished by one-fifteenth of the families represented in this 
 class, and similarly that almost one-fourth of the arrests came 
 from one-fourteenth of the families represented. The detailed 
 results are shown in Table 21 : 
 
 TABLE 21 
 
 Siblings among Accelerates and Arrests 
 
 Accelerates 
 
 
 Arrests 
 
 34 17 pairs 
 42 21 pairs 
 42 21 pairs 
 15 5 trios 
 3 I trio 
 3 I trio 
 
 2 Brothers 
 
 2 Sisters 
 
 Brother and Sister 
 
 2 Brothers, i Sister 
 
 3 Brothers 
 3 Sisters 
 
 28 pairs 
 
 II pairs 
 
 28 pairs 
 
 3 trios 
 
 I trio 
 
 I trio 
 
 56 
 
 22 
 
 56 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 139 Accelerates, 66 Families 
 
 72 Families, 149 Arrests
 
 Study of 6Sj Cases of A rresi 3 1 
 
 Thus '/.'/ per cent of the famiHes occasion 24.5 per cent of 
 the arrests and 6.8 per cent of the families secure 24 per cent 
 of the double promotions. On the other hand only thirty mixed 
 contributions appear. The cases are as follows : 
 
 Brother who gains and sister who repeats 3 cases 
 
 Sister who gains and brother who repeats 15 '' 
 
 Brother who gains and brother who repeats 3 " 
 
 Sister who gains and sister who repeats 9 
 
 Will any uniform course of study meet these conditions? 
 Must not the programs of study in every grade present a mini- 
 mum and a maximum schedule of work to be done? The same 
 school nurture can never produce even approximately similar 
 results for groups varying as widely in nature and home nurture 
 as those represented by the accelerates and arrests involved in 
 this study.
 
 IV 
 
 THE ACCELERATES 
 
 The gainers or accelerates were 613 in number; 314 of them 
 were boys, 299 girls. The greater variability of boys is here 
 shown again. The age at entrance as with the " arrests " ranged 
 from 4I/4 to 9 years. The distribution of these gains among 
 the grades and between the sexes is shown for each of the eight 
 age groups of entrants in Table 22 : 
 
 TABLE 22 
 
 Grade Gainers Shown by Grade and Sex for Eight Age-Groups 
 
 OF Entrants 
 
 The upper number in each Hne 
 
 is fo 
 
 r boys; the lower is for girls 
 
 
 Beginning 
 Grade I 
 
 Grades 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 at Age of 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 'to- 
 tal 
 
 Under 5 yrs. 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 I- 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 5-54 yrs. 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 II 
 
 5i-6 yrs. 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 16 
 16 
 
 17 
 18 
 
 12 
 9 
 
 3 
 2 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 56 
 
 114 
 
 6-6^ yrs. 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 33 
 44 
 
 22 
 21 
 
 32 
 24 
 
 6 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 no 
 
 120 
 
 230 
 
 6^—7 yrs. 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 19 
 
 18 
 15 
 
 15 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 79 
 
 64 
 
 143 
 
 7-7 i yrs. 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 4 
 
 7 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 28 
 
 24 
 
 52 
 
 7*-8 yrs. 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 2 
 
 6 
 2 
 
 I 
 3 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 ^3 
 
 31 
 
 8 yrs. or over 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 7 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 28 
 
 Boys' 
 Girls 
 
 
 
 
 36 
 35 
 
 88 
 91 
 
 70 
 66 
 
 73 
 61 
 
 24 
 26 
 
 20 
 14 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 314 
 
 299 
 
 613 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 179 
 
 136 
 
 134 
 
 SO 
 
 34 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 613 
 
 32
 
 The Accelerates 2>Z 
 
 Taking into account the total number of entrants at each age, 
 we find that of all who enter the first grade, under five years 
 of age, only one in nine gains a grade during the course. Of 
 those who enter during their fifth year, one in four makes 
 such gain ; while more than one in every three, who enter after 
 reaching the sixth birthday, gains a year at some time during 
 the course. The exact figures for each of the age groups is 
 as follows : 
 
 Under 5 years 11. i per cent 
 
 Between 5 and 5^ yrs 18 " 
 
 5+ " 6 " 26 
 
 6 " 6i " 34 
 
 6J " 7 " 36 
 
 7 " 7i " 34 
 
 " 7i " 8 " 37 
 
 Over 8 years 37 " 
 
 While it thus appears that children who enter school before 
 the fifth birthday, win double promotions not quite one-third as 
 frequently as those w^ho enter at six or thereafter, this does 
 not mean that there is no gain in starting children to school at 
 an early age if they are physiologically fit, as clearly appears 
 from observation of the following facts : 
 
 1. Of these very early entrants, 50 per cent lose a year in 
 seven. 
 
 2. Of all other entrants, 34 per cent thus lose a year. 
 
 3. Of the former, 39 per cent suffer neither gain nor loss 
 in the course. 
 
 4. Of the later entrants, 34 per cent neither gain nor lose. 
 
 5. The early entrants get 11 per cent of their number into 
 accelerate class. 
 
 6. The late entrants get 34 per cent of their number into this 
 class. 
 
 Thus it appears that almost 60 per cent of the early entrants 
 preserve the advantage of the year over the average child. 
 
 To be sure that the child is mentally and physically able to 
 begin doing work manifestly planned for children from 5^ to 
 6^ years old, is an important duty of those charged with the 
 responsibility of either sending or admitting children to school. 
 When satisfied as to this, the chronological age may safely be 
 ignored if the school is of the right sort.
 
 34 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 The figures showing the large number of gains among those 
 who enter at seven or later, should be interpreted along with 
 those heretofore presented showing that one-half of all chil- 
 dren who enter the first grade before they are five years old 
 are foreordained to lose a year in their progress through the 
 grades. On the other hand it must be remembered that children 
 are educated by other agencies than the school. Such infiuences 
 are operative with many for whom bodily disablement, remote- 
 ness from school, or parental conviction have delayed the day 
 of entrance. On the other hand the accumulating evidence that 
 nature may play as great a part as nurture in determining the 
 rate of progress through school, must be kept in mind. 
 
 The similarity of the distribution of accelerations through the 
 grades, between the group of 1.239 accelerates studied in Sec- 
 tion II and the 613 accelerates under consideration in this sec- 
 tion, will be seen on comparing Table 4 with Table 21. If the 
 figures given in the last line of Table 21 are doubled and thus 
 practically converted to the same numerical basis as those of 
 the fourth column of Table 4. the comparison gives us the 
 following : 
 
 Grade Locus OF Gain I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX 
 
 Accelerates of Sec. II . . , o 153 254 253 252 168 145 14 o 
 
 Accelerates of Sec. IV o 142 358 272 268 100 68 18 o 
 
 The general tendency is alike in both groups, as witness their 
 distribution curves. The dotted line gives the distribution for 
 the 613 accelerates for whom there are six or more annual 
 records, the continuous line for the accelerates of Section II. 
 
 The fourth, fifth, and third are the grades most frequently 
 made up, just as they are the grades most frequently repeated, 
 thus showing that arrest in these particular grades is not due 
 to any extra difficulty attaching to the work of these grades. 
 These three grades furnish the greatest exposure to loss and 
 the largest opportunity for gain. Should we not conclude that 
 they need the services of the most skilled members of the teach- 
 ing force? Many supervising officers are constantly on the 
 alert to find artist teachers for the two lower and two upper 
 grades, and are disposed to tolerate so much mediocrity as 
 they must, in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. The results 
 shown here certainly point the special folly of this policy.
 
 The Accelerates 
 
 35 
 
 I n 
 
 I I 
 
 I t 
 
 , I 
 
 i i 
 
 ■ 
 
 1 
 
 Cn3^e J IT HI IF JZ m im YJU JZ 
 Accelerates of Sec. II and Sec. IV Compared 
 
 The ages at which acceleration takes place, indicate the same 
 necessity of providing the most skilled teachers for the period 
 of high variability extending from the eighth to the eleventh 
 year. The following are the facts : 
 
 TABLE 23 
 
 Ages at Which Acceleration Occurs 
 
 Age 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Total 
 
 Under 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6- 7 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 7- 8 
 
 40 
 
 38 
 
 78 
 
 8- 9 
 
 81 
 
 78 
 
 159 
 
 9-10 
 
 69 
 
 66 
 
 135 
 
 lO-II 
 
 55 
 
 S3 
 
 108 
 
 11-12 
 
 32 
 
 31 
 
 63 
 
 12-13 
 
 22 
 
 21 
 
 43 
 
 13-14 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 14-15 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Over 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 314 
 
 299 
 
 613
 
 36 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 While the gross number of gains made indicates the ages 
 and grades of largest opportunity for acceleration, the facts 
 will be more clearly seen from a statement of the proportion 
 of gainers at any particular grade or age to the whole number 
 enrolled at each grade and age. These are shown in the two 
 tables following. The right-hand column in Table 24 answers 
 the question " What percentage of its due share of accelerates 
 does each grade furnish ? " 
 
 TABLE 24 
 Percentage of Accelerates to Grade Enrollment 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 Ratio of Frequency 
 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 of Accelerates to 
 
 Grade 
 
 Enrollment of 
 
 Accelerates of 
 
 Frequency of 
 
 
 Each Grade 
 
 Each Grade 
 
 Enrollment in 
 Each Grade 
 
 I 
 
 13-6 
 
 .0 
 
 .0 
 
 II 
 
 12 .7 
 
 12.4 
 
 •97 
 
 III 
 
 12 .1 
 
 27.9 
 
 2.30 
 
 IV 
 
 12.2 
 
 23-3 
 
 1. 91 
 
 V 
 
 12.3 
 
 23-3 
 
 1. 91 
 
 VI 
 
 II .0 
 
 6.8 
 
 .62 
 
 VII 
 
 10 .0 
 
 5-3 
 
 •53 
 
 VIII 
 
 8.4 
 
 1-3 
 
 •15 
 
 IX 
 
 7-3 
 
 .0 
 
 .0 
 
 Grade three produces practically two and one-third times its 
 due share of accelerates ; grades four and five nearly double 
 their respective shares ; while grade two falls only slightly below 
 its due proportion. 
 
 The right-hand column of Table 25 answers the question 
 " What percentage of its due share of accelerates does each age 
 furnish?"
 
 The Accelerates 
 
 37 
 
 TABLE 25 
 Percentage of Accelerates to Age Enrollment 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 Ratio of Frequency 
 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 of Accelerates to 
 
 Age 
 
 Enrollment of 
 
 Accelerates of 
 
 Frequency of 
 
 
 Each Age 
 
 Each Age 
 
 Enrollment at 
 Each Age 
 
 6 
 
 12 .1 
 
 2.7 
 
 .22 
 
 7 
 
 10 .9 
 
 12.7 
 
 1. 16 
 
 8 
 
 10.7 
 
 26 .0 
 
 2.43 
 
 9 
 
 II .4 
 
 22 .0 
 
 1-93 
 
 lO 
 
 II -3 
 
 16.6 
 
 I .46 
 
 II 
 
 II. 6 
 
 10 .2 
 
 .88 
 
 12 
 
 10.7 
 
 7.0 
 
 ■65 
 
 13 
 
 10 .9 
 
 I .4 
 
 •13 
 
 14 
 
 7-3 
 
 .16 
 
 .02 
 
 15 
 
 2 .1 
 
 .0 
 
 .00 
 
 Children eight years of age furnish nearly two and one-half 
 times their due share of gainers. Children nine years of age 
 have nearly double their due share ; at ten years they have nearly 
 one and one-half times their share. The seven-year-olds too 
 have more than their share. 
 
 Turning next to examine the amount of interference with 
 regular attendance on the part of accelerates, it was found at 
 every grade to be less than that of the repeaters. (See p. 20 ff 
 and Table 15.) The average amount of time lost each year 
 for six years by these accelerates varies in the different grades 
 from 8.5 days to 10.75 days. The pupils who skipped the fifth 
 grade for example had an average absence of 8.5 days each 
 year for six years, while those who skipped the second grade 
 lost on an average 10.75 days per year for six years. The figures 
 for all are as follows : 
 
 Gainers of Grade 
 
 II 
 III 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 Lost Annually 
 
 10.75 days 
 
 9-35 
 
 9-5° 
 
 8.50 " 
 10.70 " 
 10.15 
 
 9.20 "
 
 38 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 Two other items of interference with steady attendance of 
 accelerates appear in Table 26. In every 100 pupils who gained 
 a grade, the number absent 20 days (i.e., 4 weeks) or more 
 in the year of acceleration, and the number changing schools 
 in the year just before the acceleration are the facts shown. 
 
 
 TABLE 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 Of One Hundred 
 
 Number Losing 
 
 N' 
 
 umber Changing 
 
 Gainers of Grade 
 
 20 Days or More 
 
 
 Schools 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 III 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 IV 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 V 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 VI 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 VII 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 VIII 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The total loss of time for accelerates is almost 21 per cent 
 less than for repeaters. But the interference is greater than 
 this indicates ; for while an average of only 8 per cent of the 
 accelerates in all grades lose four weeks or more in the year 
 prior to their gain, the records of the arrests show that on 
 an average 22 per cent of their number sustain this loss of 
 time. That is, the large loss in a single year is nearly three 
 times as frequent among the repeaters as among the accelerates. 
 
 In the matter of change of schools too, the showing is equally 
 favorable to the accelerates. On an average only 14 per cent 
 of them change residence in the year prior to their gain ; but 
 on an average more than 40 per cent of the repeaters make 
 such change in the year prior to arrest. 
 
 The marked difference in regularity of attendance is more 
 clearly brought out in the curve on following page. The con- 
 tinuous line shows the average number of days' absence of the 
 repeaters, the broken line that of the accelerates. 
 
 Repeaters, as a whole, lose 26 per cent more time than accel- 
 erates ; but in the first five grades, in which nearly three-fourths 
 of all the losses occur, they lose nearly 40 per cent more time 
 than the accelerates. 
 
 To throw further light on the question of the maximum loss 
 of time consistent with satisfactory progress through the grades 
 the records of 3,623 other candidacies for promotion were
 
 The Accelerates 
 
 39 
 
 L I 
 
 '""TL 
 
 CPra<Je I ' U' m' IY' Tl ' -n' 'yD^ EDI 
 
 Comparison of Regularity of Attendance Between Accelerates and 
 
 Repeaters 
 
 examined. These were the records for the whole period of the 
 study of all accelerates who had in any one year lost twenty 
 days or more. They were only 353 in number, or less than ten 
 per cent of all the cases. The following is their showing: 
 
 No. of Days Lost 20 
 
 No. of Cases of Each Loss. .. 116 
 
 25 
 71 
 
 30 
 
 58 
 
 35 
 31 
 
 40 
 
 27 
 
 45 
 
 50 or more 
 37 Total 35 
 
 In all these 353 cases the pupils were able to earn promotion 
 despite the large losses of time. In fact 296 of them were with 
 candidates for a double promotion in the year of the large loss. 
 They failed in this design but ivere able to earn the regular 
 promotion. 
 
 For 126 different pupils who earned two double promotions, 
 there were records of 637 annual candidacies for promotion. 
 Only 16 of these, or less than three per cent, were marked by 
 losses of twenty da3's or more. 
 
 They were distributed as follows : 
 
 Losing 20 days 9 cases 
 
 25 " 3 " 
 
 " 30 " 2 
 
 35 " 2 II 
 
 " 40 " I
 
 40 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 Desiring to know more definitely how far the loss of 20 or 
 more days in any one year operated to insure arrest, the records 
 of 3,952 annual promotions of pupils who were at any time 
 included among the arrests were studied. It was found that 
 there were among these 608 cases of loss of 20 or more days. 
 That is, almost fifteen and one-half per cent of all candidacies 
 for promotion in this group, were marked by a record of loss 
 not smaller than 20 days in the year of arrest. How often 
 does each length of absence result in arrest? The facts are 
 as follows : 
 
 TABLE 27 
 
 
 No. OF 
 
 No. OF 
 
 
 No. OF 
 
 
 No. OF 
 
 Cases 
 
 These 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Those 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Days Lost 
 
 OF Each 
 
 Cases 
 
 Arrested 
 
 Earning 
 
 Promoted 
 
 
 Loss 
 
 Arrested 
 
 
 Promotion 
 
 
 20—24 
 
 148 
 
 59 
 
 40 
 
 89 
 
 60 
 
 25-29 
 
 83 
 
 33 
 
 40 
 
 50 
 
 60 
 
 30-34 
 
 67 
 
 28 
 
 42 
 
 39 
 
 58 
 
 35-39 
 
 47 
 
 17 
 
 36 
 
 30 
 
 64 
 
 40-44 
 
 31 
 
 14 
 
 45 
 
 17 
 
 55 
 
 45-49 
 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 27 
 
 17 
 
 73 
 
 50 or more 
 
 209 
 
 152 
 
 73 
 
 57 
 
 27 
 
 Examination of the records of 3,000 candidacies for promo- 
 tion among the normals revealed 445 cases of loss of twenty 
 days or more. That is, one pupil in seven sustained such loss 
 and yet maintained the normal rate of progress. The distribu- 
 tion of these losses was as follows : 
 
 No Days Lost 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 or more 
 
 No Cases of Each Loss 151 79 59 41 34 21 60 Total 445 
 
 These results prompted the examination of the records of all 
 arrests who had lost less time than twenty days in any year 
 of the course with a view to discovering just what happened 
 after each of the smaller losses. This involved going through 
 2,448 candidacies for promotion of which 407 were unsuccess- 
 ful ; that is one pupil in six among those with creditable attend- 
 ance records failed of promotion. The distribution of these 
 losses and parallel failures was as follows : 
 
 No. Days Lost o 5 10 15 
 
 No. Cases of Each Loss 803 794 529 322 
 
 No. Losers Arrested 117 120 94 76
 
 The Accelerates 
 
 41 
 
 Assembling the figures for the whole 8,400 cases involved in 
 these three groups, we may answer the inquiry " What is the 
 chance of failure each year with perfect attendance? 5 days 
 absence? 10 days absence? 15 days absence? 20 days absence? 
 And so on." 
 
 TABLE 28 
 
 
 
 No. OF Arrests 
 
 Per Cent of 
 
 No. Days Lost 
 
 No. OF Cases 
 
 IN THE Year 
 
 Arrests for 
 
 
 
 OF Loss 
 
 Year of Loss 
 
 
 
 803 
 
 117 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 794 
 
 120 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 529 
 
 94 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 322 
 
 76 
 
 23 
 
 20 
 
 524 
 
 210 
 
 40 
 
 25 
 
 236 
 
 112 
 
 48 
 
 30 
 
 186 
 
 87 
 
 47 
 
 35 
 
 121 
 
 58 
 
 48 
 
 40 
 
 93 
 
 48 
 
 51 
 
 45 
 
 57 
 
 27 
 
 48 
 
 50 or more 
 
 296 
 
 212 
 
 72 
 
 More than three-fourths of all pupils are not hindered by 
 absence of less than one month; when the absence reaches 20 
 days, only 60 per cent can triumph over it. Losses varying from 
 one to two months stay the progress of only 50 per cent. But 
 when the loss amounts to fifty days or more, nearly three-fourths 
 of all pupils sustaining such loss fail of promotion. 
 
 In point of vision the accelerates far outrank the repeaters. 
 The ground-gaining pupils show the following percentages in 
 each grade with defective eyes : 
 
 Grade II HI IV V 
 
 Per Cent Defective Eyes.. 14 15 20 14 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 9 
 
 VIII 
 
 There is an average of about 14 per cent with this defect 
 among accelerates, while we have already seen that among the 
 arrests the average is 32 per cent ; that is, nearly two and one- 
 half times as many bad eyes are found among repeaters as 
 among gainers.
 
 42 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 In the matter of possible advantage from having the English 
 language as mother tongue, the study discloses that on an aver- 
 age fewer than seventeen per cent of the accelerates are children 
 of non-English speaking races, while we have heretofore seen 
 that practically forty per cent of the arrests are such. The 
 figures for the ground gainers are as follows : 
 
 Grade II III IV V VI VII VIII 
 
 Percentage of non-English 
 
 Speaking Races 24 25 14 20 23 9 2 
 
 The deportment records of the accelerates are better than 
 those of the repeaters. Of all the ground-gaining pupils 66 
 per cent get a ranking of 90 to 100 as against 39 per cent of 
 the repeaters. But on the other hand only i per cent get the 
 D ranking of 60 to 70 as against 6 per cent of the arrests. 
 The full distribution of deportment ranking is as follows : 
 
 Percentage Receiving 
 Ranking 
 
 Accelerates Arrests 
 90-100 66 39 
 
 80-90 28 34 
 
 70-80 5 21 
 
 60—70 I 6 
 
 In testing the question : " How far does good conduct, accept- 
 able behavior, what the school marks under the heading deport- 
 ment, bear upon the freeing of progress through the grades?'" 
 the 3,279 pupils were examined in further subdivisions. The 
 arrests were divided into two groups, those who had been com- 
 pelled to repeat two grades and those who had lost but a single 
 year. The first appear in the subjoined table as Double Arrests 
 and Single Arrests. Similar division of the Gainers give us 
 the Double Accelerates and Single Accelerates. These with the 
 Normals and Honor Pupils are the six classes represented in 
 the table which shows the percentage of each group receiving 
 each of the four deportment rankings. A, B, C, D. The A 
 group are those whose deportment ranking is from 90 to 100; 
 the B group those ranking 80 to 90; the C group, 70 to 80;
 
 The Accelerates 
 
 43 
 
 the D group, 60 to 70. The number receiving E or F was so 
 very small as to be practically negligible and was omitted from 
 the comparison. The following are the records : 
 
 TABLE 29 
 
 Comparison of Deportment Rankings 
 
 Percentages of Each Receiving the Different Standings 
 
 Ranking 
 
 Double 
 Arrests 
 
 Single 
 Arrests 
 
 Normals 
 
 Single 
 Accelerates 
 
 Double 
 Accelerates 
 
 Honor 
 Pupils 
 
 90—100 
 So-90 
 70-80 
 60-70 
 
 37 
 
 3 5 
 
 22 
 
 6 
 
 39 
 
 34 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 36 
 46 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 66 
 
 28 
 
 5 
 
 I 
 
 70 
 
 16 
 
 1 1 
 
 3 
 
 53-4 
 39-6 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Average 
 
 85-3 
 
 85.6 
 
 86.5 
 
 90.9 
 
 90-3 
 
 91 .8 
 
 The absence of the two lower gradings does not mean that 
 they were not frequently given ; but pupils receiving these very 
 low rankings, which indicate that the pupil is completely out 
 of harmony with the purposes and activities of the school, are 
 not found in the groups that stay in school for six or more 
 years. While Normals stand higher than Arrests, Accelerates 
 higher than Normals, and Honor pupils, the highest of all, the 
 dil¥erence is not great. \\'hether high deportment rankings 
 mark the condition in which success in study is achieved, or 
 Avhether high rank in study achieves the condition in which good 
 grades in deportment are received, is not here disclosed. Prob- 
 ably both things are true. But in any event it is doubtless true, 
 other things being equal, that improving deportment tends to 
 free progress and improve scholarship. The significance of the 
 grades for deportment is investigated further in the Appendix, 
 p. 70 ff.
 
 44 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 Advocates of hard and fast uniformity in progress through 
 the grades, often urge that it is unwise to provide for accelera- 
 tion as it resuhs in lowering the standard of performance in 
 subsequent grades. We have already seen that 92 per cent of 
 all who make a double promotion succeed in holding the year 
 gain. The exact effect on subsequent scholarship of passing or 
 skipping any particular grade was determined by comparing the 
 rankings obtained in each year after skipping, with those of the 
 two years before the double promotion. In the case of those 
 pupils who passed from grade one to grade three the com- 
 parison was made with the standing in grade one, the only 
 available basis. The records of pupils skipping grades two, 
 three, four, five, and six were thus studied. It will be borne 
 in mind that as a rule all these accelerates earn an A standing 
 in the year preceding a double promotion. Accordingly few, 
 if any, can do better afterwards. The question is. How many 
 fall one or more full grades lower in ranking in subsequent 
 years? For all those who skip grade two the following are the 
 average results : 
 
 They rank .9 of one point lower in grade three, more than 
 one-third of all doing just as well as before. In grade four 
 they are .7 of a point lower, and nearly one-half show no loss. 
 In grade five they are .5 of a point lower, fully one-half showing 
 no loss. In grade six the average loss is .3 of a point, more 
 than one-half showing no loss. In grade seven the average loss 
 is only .23 of one point and sixty per cent show no loss. In 
 grade eight, the average loss is only .11 of one point and sixty 
 per cent of all maintain the same high standard as before. The 
 following table and graph show these results.
 
 The Accelerates 
 
 45 
 
 TABLE 30 
 Effect on Subsequent Scholarship of Skipping Grade Two 
 
 Average 
 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Number of 
 
 In Grade 
 
 Showing 
 
 Points Lower 
 
 
 No Loss 
 
 .0 
 
 ,■! 
 
 34 
 
 •7 
 
 4 
 
 49 
 
 •5 
 
 5 
 
 50 
 
 •3 
 
 6 
 
 52 
 
 •23 
 
 7 
 
 60 
 
 . 1 1 
 
 8 
 
 60 
 
 Tables 31 to 34 and accompanying graphs are the exhibits for 
 the remaining grades. 
 
 TABLE 31 
 
 Effect on Subsequent Scholarship of Skipping Grade Three 
 
 Average 
 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Number of 
 
 In Grade 
 
 Showing 
 
 Showing 
 
 Points Lower 
 
 
 No Loss 
 
 Gain 
 
 1 .1 
 
 4 
 
 26 
 
 8 
 
 •9 
 
 5 
 
 32 
 
 10 
 
 .6 
 
 6 
 
 39 
 
 II 
 
 •4 
 
 7 
 
 40 
 
 20 
 
 •3 
 
 8 
 
 41 
 
 20 
 
 TABLE 32 
 
 Effect on Subsequent Scholarship of Skipping Grade Four 
 
 Average 
 
 Number of 
 Points Lower 
 
 •9 
 .66 
 
 • 4 
 
 •43 
 
 In Grade 
 
 Percenta ge 
 Showing 
 No Loss 
 
 26 
 40 
 
 39 
 50 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Showing 
 
 Gain 
 
 8 
 10 
 16 
 13
 
 46 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 TABLE 33 
 
 Effixt on Subsequent Scholarship of Skipping Grade Five 
 
 Average 
 
 Number of 
 
 Points Lower 
 
 In Grade 
 
 Percentage 
 Showing 
 No Loss 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Showing 
 
 Gain 
 
 I . I 
 
 .8 
 
 •7 
 .6 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 34 
 46 
 
 47 
 59 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 I 
 
 TABLE 34 
 Effect on Subsequent Scholarship of Skipping Grade Six 
 
 Average 
 
 Number of 
 
 Points Lower 
 
 In Grade 
 
 Percentage 
 Showing 
 No Loss 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Showing 
 
 Gain 
 
 I .0 
 .8 
 .6 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 45 
 
 51 
 53 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ptll^.C.S 
 
 CxAi.i iff 7^3^t 31 
 
 Ce^ȣ 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Y; m m 
 
 IF 
 
 -7 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 C^a:>,17 TJs,! iZ 
 
 
 
 p<Kc^,=« 
 
 i 5c«.^A^l»,0 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 7r,^*^.^ji <,»•.'« _ 
 
 CcA^t 
 
 r 
 
 s 
 
 CU S3 
 
 
 
 
 Pffrv.oi. 
 
 
 Cr'Dl 
 
 
 J 
 
 m 
 
 Two XJUHHS LOWS li^ 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 P«y^,ovl 
 
 
 C^ADl 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 a 
 
 J 
 
 m 
 
 Changes in Scholarship After Skipping a Grade
 
 COMPARISON OF 606 NORMAL PACE PUPILS WITH 
 ACCELERATES AND ARRESTS 
 
 The records of the pupils who neither gain nor lose time 
 during the grammar school course furnish a means for verify- 
 ing the conclusions reached from our study of the two extreme 
 cases. 
 
 TABLE 35 
 Entrance Ages — Percentage of Each Group in Each Age 
 
 
 
 
 
 131 Honor 
 
 Age 
 
 Arrests 
 
 Normals 
 
 Accelerates 
 
 Pupils 
 
 Under 5 yrs. 
 
 2 -5 
 
 2-3 
 
 .6 
 
 .6 
 
 5-5* yrs. 
 
 3-4 
 
 3-4 
 
 1-7 
 
 .8 
 
 5i-6 " 
 
 21 .0 
 
 30.0 
 
 18.0 
 
 31.6 
 
 6-6 J " 
 
 31-4 
 
 37-1 
 
 37-5 
 
 38.0 
 
 6f-7 " 
 
 20 .0 
 
 19 .0 
 
 23. S 
 
 20 .0 
 
 7-7* " 
 
 10 .0 
 
 4.0 
 
 8.4 
 
 7.0 
 
 7M " 
 
 6.0 
 
 2.6 
 
 5-0 
 
 r .0 
 
 8 yrs. or over 
 
 5-4 
 
 1.6 
 
 4-5 
 
 I .0 
 
 It will be noticed that the entrants under 5^ years of age 
 furnish 5.9 per cent of the arrests, 5.7 per cent of the normal 
 paced, 2.3 per cent of the accelerates, and only 1.4 per cent of 
 the honor pupils. We have seen heretofore that 15 per cent 
 of all entrants began grade one between 7 and 8 years of age ; 
 but they get only 8 per cent or little more than half their share 
 of the honors. Of all entrants nearly 5 per cent were over 8 
 years of age at entrance to grade one, and they win only i 
 per cent or one-fifth of their share of the honors. 
 
 The average number of weeks lost by each pupil of these 
 same four groups for six years still further forces the con- 
 
 47
 
 48 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 elusion that less acceleration is due to good teaching, and less 
 arrest to poor teaching than is commonly supposed. Pupils 
 who repeat two grades lose on an average 15.70 days per year 
 for six years; repeaters of one grade, 12.25 days per year; 
 normals, 10.20 days ; accelerates, 9.75 days ; honor pupils, 6.80 
 days. From grade two to eight inclusive the comparative record 
 of average loss is shown in Table 36. These facts, together 
 with similar facts for grade I, are shown graphically in the 
 curves on page 49. 
 
 TABLE 36 
 
 Average Annual Loss in Days for Six Years 
 
 
 
 
 
 Honor 
 
 Grade 
 
 Arrests 
 
 Normals 
 
 Accelerates 
 
 Pupils 
 
 II 
 
 13-70 
 
 II .50 
 
 10-75 
 
 6.05 
 
 III 
 
 14.50 
 
 ^2.55 
 
 9-35 
 
 6.80 
 
 IV 
 
 12 .20 
 
 10 .20 
 
 9-50 
 
 5 .00 
 
 V 
 
 12 .20 
 
 10.05 
 
 8.50 
 
 6.40 
 
 VI 
 
 10 .50 
 
 9.40 
 
 10 .45 
 
 10.25 
 
 VII 
 
 10 .20 
 
 9 .20 
 
 10.15 
 
 6.35 
 
 VIII 
 
 9-25 
 
 8.95 
 
 9 .20 
 
 6 .40 
 
 Repeaters as a whole lose 26 per cent more time than the 
 accelerates. In the first five grades (i to 5) in which nearly 
 three-fourths of all the arrests occur, the repeaters lose 43 per 
 cent more time than the gainers. The difference in weeks if 
 spread evenly through all six years would mean an average dif- 
 ference between the extreme classes of less than two weeks per 
 year ; but this is not the way the absence is distributed. It is 
 massed in a few years for nearly all individuals. This will be 
 better appreciated by looking at the comparison of the propor- 
 tions from each losing four or more weeks in a single year. The 
 facts are given in Table 37. 
 
 The double arrests, or pupils losing two different years during 
 their course, show in general about one and one-half times as 
 many of the large time losses as the single arrests. The double 
 accelerates show only about five-ninths as many as the single 
 accelerates.
 
 Comparison of Normal Pace Pupils with Accelerates 49 
 
 Comparison of Total Average Time Lost by Arrests, Normals, 
 Accelerates, and Hoxor Pupils 
 
 Arrests 
 
 Normals 
 
 Accelerates 
 
 Honor
 
 50 
 
 Progress throiigh the Grades of City Schools 
 
 TABLE 37 
 
 Percentage of Students of Each Class (Arrests, Normals, 
 
 ETC.) IN Each Grade Who Were, During the Year 
 
 IN Question, Absent 20 Days or More 
 
 Grade 
 
 Arrests 
 
 Normals 
 
 Accelerates 
 
 Honor 
 Pupils 
 
 II 
 
 34 
 
 24 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 III 
 
 36 
 
 31 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 VI 
 
 20 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 V 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 VI 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 VII 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 VIII 
 
 23 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 The first line of the table reads " Of every hundred pupils arrested 
 in grade two, 34 lose four weeks or more in the year of arrest; of 
 every hundred normals in the second grade 24 sustain such loss; while 
 among the accelerates of this grade only 12 per cent lose as much as 
 20 days in the year of acceleration; of each hundred honor pupils, 8 
 lose 20 days or more in the second grade." 
 
 Comparison of eyesight of Normals, Arrests, and Accelerates 
 is made in Table 38. The figures in each column show the 
 percentage of each class having defective eyes : 
 
 TABLE 38 
 Comparative Defects of Vision 
 
 Grade 
 
 Arrests 
 
 Normals 
 
 Accelerates 
 
 Honor 
 Pupils 
 
 I 
 
 36 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 30 
 
 28 
 
 14 
 
 
 III 
 
 39 
 
 30 
 
 15 
 
 
 IV 
 
 40 
 
 31 
 
 20 
 
 
 V 
 
 37 
 
 27 
 
 14 
 
 
 VI 
 
 40 
 
 26 
 
 II 
 
 
 VII 
 
 24 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 
 VIII 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 
 IX 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 
 16 
 
 The honor roll pupils are the ten with highest scholarship 
 standings in each of thirteen graduating classes coming from 
 seven ninth grades one year and from six the other. They 
 include 63 boys and 68 girls. Of these 12 boys and 10 girls 
 have defective eyes.
 
 Comparison of Normal Pace Pupils with Accelerates 51 
 
 42 per cent of the dovible arrests have defective eyes 
 32 " " arrests " " " 
 
 25 " " nonnals " " " 
 
 14 " " accelerates " " " 
 
 Two other contrasts between acceleration and arrest should 
 be noticed. They are the comparative productiveness of either 
 of these conditions by each age and grade. What percentage of 
 its due share of acceleration and arrest does each grade produce ? 
 Assembling the data given heretofore on pages 20 and 36, we 
 have the following answer: 
 
 TABLE 39 
 
 Comparative Fecundity of Acceleration and Arrest for 
 Each Grade 
 
 Grade . . ... 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 
 
 Percentage of Due Share 
 of Acceleration 
 
 .98 
 
 •97 
 
 •75 
 
 2.30 
 
 1. 91 
 
 1. 91 
 
 1.25 
 
 .62 
 
 1. 01 
 
 •53 
 •79 
 
 •15 
 •94 
 
 
 Percentage of Due Share 
 of Arrest 
 
 1. 10 
 
 1.40 
 
 •54 
 
 
 Similarly we have (from pages 19 and 37) the answer to the 
 question : What percentage of its due share of acceleration and 
 arrest does each age disclose? 
 
 TABLE 40 
 
 Comparative Fecundity of Acceleration and Arrest for 
 Each Age 
 
 Age . . . 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 1 1 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 Percentage 
 Due Share 
 of Accele- 
 ration 
 
 .22 
 
 •57 
 
 1. 16 
 
 2.43 
 
 r-93 
 
 1.46 
 
 .88 
 •94 
 
 ■65 
 
 1.08 
 
 1.28 
 .91 
 
 .21 
 1. 01 
 
 1.9^ 
 
 ^■?^^ 
 
 
 Percentage of 
 Due Share 
 of Arrest . . . 
 
 ■79 
 
 .80 
 
 1. 19 
 
 1.40 
 
 3-75 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 5 2 Progress throtigh the Grades of City Schools 
 
 Table 40 discloses a marked element of agreement with Table 
 39. It emphasizes the variability of the period at or just before 
 the middle of the common school course. The third, fourth, and 
 fifth grades present the exceptionally large share of both accel- 
 erates and arrests. So too the ninth and tenth years of age 
 produce an undue share of both. Three grades just before and 
 at the middle of the course and two ages just before the middle 
 of the course mark the period of extreme variability. 
 
 But Table 40 shows an undue proportion of accelerates as 
 young as seven years and eight years of age. As the other end 
 of the age line, in the year 15, 16, and 17, is found a very 
 high proportion of arrests. The former, the six-year-old and 
 seven-3^ear-old accelerates, are the ready able pupils who enter 
 young and disclose their nature and capacity just as soon as 
 they master the first processes of the school. The latter are 
 the pupils of low or slow mentality who enter late and are 
 kept in school because they are not the kind for whom there 
 is any special call in the business and industrial world. 
 
 As a test of the representative character of these results a 
 similar comparison was made of the production or disclosure 
 of acceleration between the 613 accelerates represented in Tables 
 23 and 24, and the 1,239 accelerates of Section II. The follow- 
 ing are the results : 
 
 TABLE 41 
 
 Comparison of Due Share of Acceleration in Each Grade 
 
 FOR THE 1,239 Accelerates of Section II and the 
 
 613 OF Section III 
 
 Grades 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 Percentage of Due Share 
 for the I 239 
 
 
 
 
 97 
 97.6 
 
 170 
 230 
 
 168 
 191 
 
 168 
 191 
 
 74 
 62 
 
 64 
 
 53 
 
 13 
 15 
 
 
 
 Percentage of Due Share 
 for the 61 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 The showings for grades one, two, eight, and nine are prac- 
 tically identical. The results for grades three, four, and five 
 in both groups agree in disclosing these three grades as especially 
 prolific of acceleration. The fact that the proportion of gainers 
 in grades six and seven is larger among the 1,239 comprising 
 all the accelerates for three vears without regard to the number
 
 Comparison of Normal Pace Pupils with Accelerates 53 
 
 of years they have been in the system, than for the 613 who 
 had been more than six years in the system, is readily explained. 
 Many of the first group came to these schools from cities or 
 countries where no especial provision was made for the ready 
 or gifted group. They were often over-age for the grades they 
 were able to enter. They made gains in grades six and seven, 
 which with earlier provision for free progress they would have 
 made in the earlier grades. 
 
 The possible influence of the non-English speaking home on 
 the make-up of the four groups is shown in 
 
 TABLE 42 
 
 Percentage of Arrests, Accelerates, Normals, and Honor 
 
 Pupils Who Are Children of Non-English 
 
 Speaking Races 
 
 Grade 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 VI 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 Aver. 
 
 Arrests 
 
 Normals 
 
 Accelerates 
 
 52 
 24 
 
 50 
 29 
 
 24 
 
 42 
 25 
 
 49 
 32 
 14 
 
 41 
 32 
 
 20 
 
 27 
 24 
 23 
 
 43 
 28 
 
 9 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 19 
 
 41.5 
 27-5 
 17-5 
 27.0 
 
 Honor pupils 
 
 To test mathematically the correlation of deportment and 
 scholarship, a random drawing of the records of twenty double 
 arrests, two hundred single arrests, two hundred normals, two 
 hundred single accelerates, and twenty double accelerates was 
 made, to secure a group representative in number and distribu- 
 tion of the whole group. A complete set of correlation tables 
 was prepared and the coefficients of correlation calculated on the 
 basis of the formula, R = Cos. ttU. For the use of readers 
 interested in mental measurements and familiar with the mathe- 
 matics of correlation all these tables and the diagrams illustra- 
 tive of the source are printed in the Appendix to this study. 
 
 In examining the tables and graphs illustrating the variation 
 in scholarship after skipping a grade, several things should be 
 kept in mind. First, almost all accelerates have A and B rank- 
 ings in the two years preceding the double promotion. This is 
 the evidence that warrants candidacy for acceleration. Second, 
 A, B, or C rankings are all creditable standings. Third, A is 
 an undistributed maximum. Fourth, for double j^romotion a
 
 54 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 grade of A is usually required. This being the case, a pupil 
 may almost never be able to surpass after acceleration his stand- 
 ing in the last grade before acceleration. Fifth, to finish the 
 course in seven years with a C standing may be a better per- 
 formance than to do it in eight years with a B standing or 
 to do it in nine years with an A ranking. Therefore the tend- 
 ency of accelerates as a class rarely to drop more than one 
 full rank lower and after two years to very nearly or quite 
 regain the maximum standing, is noteworthy. It is almost the 
 exact reverse of the history made by the arrests. The influence 
 on standing of either skipping or repeating a grade is temporary. 
 In summarizing this section then, it may be pointed out that 
 the normals are not only the middle class in point of the success 
 with which they meet the duties, tasks, and difficulties of the 
 conventional program of city schools ; but they are, as a class, in 
 the middle position so far as physical and economic condition 
 is concerned. This will be more clearly seen from the following 
 assembly of the chief points of comparison. 
 
 TABLE 43 
 
 Comparison of the Normals with the Other Classes 
 In Per Cents 
 
 
 Arrests 
 
 NoiTnals 
 
 Accele- 
 rates 
 
 Honors 
 
 Median age at entrance to Grade i 
 
 6.2 
 
 6.2 
 
 6.4 
 
 6.2 
 
 Per cent entering under 5^ yrs. old 
 
 5-9 
 
 5-7 
 
 - -3 
 
 I .4 
 
 Per cent entering over 7^- yrs. old 
 
 II .4 
 
 4.2 
 
 9-5 
 
 2 .0 
 
 Average annual loss in days 
 
 12.3 
 
 10 .2 
 
 9-7 
 
 6.8 
 
 Per cent losing 4 wks. or more in 
 some one year 
 
 76.6 
 
 68.4 
 
 66.6 
 
 4S -3 
 
 Per cent with defective eyes 
 
 32. 
 
 25 • 
 
 14. 
 
 16. 
 
 Per cent changing schools in the 
 
 40. 
 
 26. 
 
 14. 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 Per cent from non-English speak- 
 ing homes 
 
 40 . 
 
 27 . S 
 
 17 • 
 
 27. 
 
 Average deportment ranking for 
 6 years 
 
 86. 
 
 86.6 
 
 92 . 
 
 9S • 
 
 Per cent of each class in the system 
 
 24 . 
 
 .16. 
 
 30- 

 
 VI 
 STUDY OF 131 HONOR PUPILS 
 
 Some special observations of the records of the honor pupils 
 will help us to understand better the character of the accelerates. 
 The honor pupils are the ten with highest scholarship records 
 in each graduating class or department. Each department repre- 
 sents in the years under consideration about 40 pupils, rarely 
 including 45, and is comprised on the average of about equal 
 numbers of boys and girls. These are in ability, then, the top 
 quarter of the graduates of the school. They include a large 
 proportion of the pupils who win honors in high school, normal, 
 and other technical school and college. It will accordingly be 
 illuminating to discover how they compare with accelerates in 
 general. 
 
 The thirteen honor rolls included 131 pupils, there being one 
 tie for tenth place in one of the departments. Of these. 68 were 
 girls and 63 boys. They were distributed among the groups 
 that have been considered as follows : 
 
 TABLE 44 
 
 Triple Accelerates 2 girls and 2 boys 
 
 Double Accelerates 12 " " 10 
 
 Single Accelerates 33 " " 27 
 
 Total Number of Accelerates 47 " " 39 
 
 Total Number of Normals 19 " " 24 
 
 Arrests 2 " " o 
 
 Double Arrests o " " o 
 
 Two honor girls sufifered arrest in the fourth and seventh 
 grades respectively, owing to protracted illness compelling each 
 to lose the major fraction of an entire school year. The girl 
 who was arrested in the seventh grade had theretofore been a 
 high rank pupil having become an accelerate at the close of 
 her third year in school. 
 
 While accelerate graduates as a whole complete the nine-year 
 course in 7.9 years, the honor pupils use 8.1 years. Among the 
 
 55
 
 56 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 honor pupils are four who complete the work in 6 years, twenty- 
 two who complete it in 7 years, and sixty who complete it in 
 8 years. Only forty-four take 9 full years, and but one takes 
 10 years. The average age at graduation for all graduating 
 accelerates is 13.9 years and for honor roll accelerates it is 
 13.8 years. 
 
 Not only do the accelerates save time, but they maintain, 
 despite their shorter opportunity, higher scholarship ranking 
 than those who take from one year to three years longer to 
 complete the same work. Comprising considerably less than 
 one-third of the pupils, they still win nearly two-thirds of the 
 honors. 
 
 Their high stand as a rule is maintained despite the fact that 
 45 per cent of them lose more than four weeks' time during 
 some one year. They are more resistant to disease than either 
 of the other groups, and have fewer illnesses to keep them from 
 school for protracted periods. When illness does come, they 
 are able on their return to school to regain the lost time and 
 ground. Free opportunity and special help to exercise their own 
 native powers enable them to maintain themselves in the position 
 to which they were born, and which the home and the school have 
 helped them to value. It will be noted that these pupils do 
 not change school within one year before entrance on the last 
 grade of the grammar school course. 
 
 The non-English speaking homes win 27 per cent of these 
 honor places. We have seen heretofore that these have but 17 
 per cent of all the accelerates. But they have 27.5 of the nor- 
 mals. It seems clear that the farther these pupils go, the more 
 completely they overcome the linguistic handicap. Remembering 
 that accelerates are high grade pupils, and that honors are the 
 highest grade pupils, these figures may be interpreted as follows : 
 
 The non-English speaking homes with only 17 per cent of 
 the high grade pupils are to be credited when the end of the 
 course is reached, with 2y per cent of the highest grade pupils. 
 Is it because they value such distinction more, and accordingly 
 work the harder to secure it? Is it because they respond more 
 constantly to the growing demands of the school? Is it in part 
 because of the absence of reluctance (so often expressed in
 
 Study of iji Honor Pupils 57 
 
 American homes) to let the girls try the extra work suggested 
 by the school? Whatever the cause, the facts are worth con- 
 sidering. 
 
 The condition of the eyes of honor pupils, while superior to 
 that of normals and still more so to that of arrests, is shown 
 (see Table 43, p. 54) to be somewhat worse than that of accel- 
 erates in general. The latter have only 14 per cent with defec- 
 tive eyes while 16 per cent of the honor pupils show such defects. 
 The difference is slight but it is worth marking. The visual 
 deficiencies of these pupils are not only greater than those of 
 accelerates in general, but greater than those of normals in the 
 ninth grade and exactly the same as normals in the eighth 
 grade and arrests in the ninth grade. Of course it will 
 be recognized that the improved visual showing in every class 
 each year after the sixth grade is passed may be due to elimina- 
 tion. After reaching the age and grade where the compulsory 
 education statutes cease to operate, it may well happen that 
 the visual defectives are an undue proportion of those who leave 
 school. 
 
 The disturbing element is that while the quantity of such 
 defect is not high, it is nevertheless higher than that of accel- 
 erates in general and much higher than that among accelerates 
 of the seventh and eighth grades (9 per cent and 2 per cent). Is 
 there anything in the work of the eighth grade to stimulate this 
 condition or is it incident to the beginning of adolescence?
 
 VII 
 CONCLUSIONS 
 
 Potential accelerates are present in our schools in very large 
 numbers, comprising from one-fourth to one-third of all pupils 
 above the first grade. The average accelerate, under favorable 
 conditions, has the capacity to gain from one year in seven to 
 two years in nine of the traditional city school course. The 
 number of such pupils is so considerable as to demand that 
 special provision be made in every school system for freeing 
 their progress through the schools. This service, whether it 
 is to be rendered by special teachers or special classes and in 
 a differentiated curriculum, is too important for society to 
 neglect. While protection against the subnormal is important, 
 and genuine training for the rank and file is imperative under 
 any form of government, the proper care and culture of the 
 element that is to furnish leadership in all our activities is the 
 most important educational function of a democracy. 
 
 The experience under consideration shows that under the 
 conditions described the middle grades of our schools are places 
 of large opportunity for giving the superior pupil a chance to 
 work up to the healthful limit of his better powers. Less than 
 this is not education in the true sense. The median point of op- 
 portunity for all accelerates is the fourth grade. For those who 
 go on to the end of the grammar school course the median is 
 found in the sixth grade and the mode in the seventh. In a 
 free organization the better pupils gather headway as they pro- 
 ceed. The more they accomplish the more they are still able 
 to accomplish. Of all those who gain grades, more than nine- 
 tenths hold the ground they gain. The few that subsequently 
 lose are so distributed as to assure that there is no grade from 
 the second to the seventh that is necessarily unfavorable to 
 acceleration. 
 
 58
 
 Conclusions 59 
 
 More boys than girls are found in the ranks of the accelerates. 
 The former are 32 per cent more numerous when all are con- 
 sidered and 86 per cent more numerous when only those who 
 go on to the completion of the grammar school course are consid- 
 ered. (See Tables 4 and 6.) This difference is in part doubtless 
 due to three causes : ( i ) the greater readiness with which the con- 
 ventional arrangements of the fixed school organization are ac- 
 cepted by girls, and for girls by their parents; (2) the greater 
 solicitude for the health of the girls, causing parents and teachers 
 alike to hesitate about permitting them to do the extra work; (3) 
 the stronger call which colleges, careers, professions, business 
 and economic pressure make on the capable boy. All girls who 
 make gains maintain them as well or better than the boys. 
 
 The age of entrance to school has a definite bearing on the 
 chances for acceleration. The average entrance age for pupils 
 thus successful is 5.9 years ; the median, 6.3 years. These pupils 
 graduate from the grammar schools at an average age of 13.9 
 years, with a median of 14.3 years. More than 67 per cent 
 graduate before or during their fourteenth year. Too early 
 entry is not favorable to acceleration. Of entrants to grade one 
 who are under five years of age only one in nine ever gains 
 a grade. One in every six entrants between 5 and 5]/^ years 
 old makes such gain ; between 55^ and 6 years, one in every 
 four ; and over 6 years, one in every three gains a year at some 
 time during the course. 
 
 There are three ages especially favorable to acceleration. The 
 eight-year-olds win nearly two and one-half times their due 
 share of the double promotions ; the nine-year-olds, nearly twice 
 their share; the ten-year-olds, nearly one and one-half times 
 their share. 
 
 Similarly three grades are especially fecund of acceleration. 
 The third grade has two and one-third times its due share ; the 
 fourth and fifth each nearly twice its share. 
 
 Accelerates seem to be found in families. This experience 
 disclosed 6.8 per cent of the families producing 24 per cent 
 of the accelerates. Blood and family tradition prompted many 
 of these just as the discovery and inspiration of the teacher 
 incited others. 
 
 Accelerates incur less absence on the whole than other pupils ; 
 but this difference is not nearly so large as commonly sup-
 
 6o Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 posed. They are fortunate, however, in one hearing of their 
 attendance. They are the pupils of higher physical resistance, 
 or better nurture, or both ; and avoid a part of the prolonged 
 absence caused by the contagious diseases of childhood. The 
 larger avoidance of absences of much more than four weeks 
 in a single year, is one of the characteristics of the accelerate 
 class. 
 
 The possible injurious effect of acceleration on subsequent 
 scholarship is often suggested and not infrequently declared. 
 The facts seem to furnish little or no warrant for the sug- 
 gestion or assumption. Not only do accelerates as a rule main- 
 tain their ground but they maintain high scholarship. When 
 it is remembered that double promotion is won by securing a 
 scholarship standing somewhere in the undistributed maximum 
 of the grade, it would not be strange if accelerates dropped at 
 least two full ranks in scholarship in the year immediately sub- 
 sequent to acceleration. The fact is that accelerates as a class 
 never drop two ranks and rarely one, and that each succeeding 
 year sees their steady climb back toward the maximum scholar- 
 ship ranking. Some gain a second, and some a third double 
 promotion. Many teachers are especially anxious to have the 
 pupils who have just earned a double promotion assigned to 
 their rooms. To them the liberated child is more promising 
 and interesting than the regular who has spent the prescribed 
 time in every grade. 
 
 Arrests are present in all schools having a uniform course 
 of study, no matter how free the organization, nor how efficient 
 and numerous the agencies for prevention of arrest. The ex- 
 perience studied showed that 24.9 per cent of all the pupils en- 
 rolled in grades one to nine w^ere repeaters at some time in 
 their school course and that 29.6 per cent of all pupils enrolled 
 between grades one and nine were accelerates at some place 
 in the course. The provision for special care of the less gifted 
 or less fortunate, of the enforced absentees after their return, 
 of those of low or slow mentality, undoubtedly kept the number 
 of arrests nearer the possible minimum than is ordinarily done. 
 It is probable that ordinarily between one-fourth and one-third 
 of all pupils enrolled become arrests, at some time in their 
 school course. Much of this is inevitable and possibly unavoid- 
 able under any plan of procedure. Nature and uncontrollable
 
 Conclusions 6i 
 
 environment determine it ; but so far as it is avoidable waste 
 of human endeavor and human life, it ought to be prevented by 
 special classes, special teachers, special curricula, by any or all 
 of these agencies and others. 
 
 In this connection it is well to note that the large spread 
 of the ages in any one grade so often complained about can 
 never be removed or much reduced until provision is made 
 for saving arrest and promoting acceleration. If a few pupils 
 five years old and a few eight years old are found along with 
 the six-year-olds and the seven-year-olds of every hundred first 
 grade pupils, the age distribution of grade one may run some- 
 thing like this : 
 
 Age 5 yrs. 6 yrs. 7 yrs. 8 yrs. 
 
 Number of Pupils 17 58 19 6 
 
 Suppose three of these five-year-old entrants gain a year, 
 and only two of the eight-year-old entrants lose a year on the 
 way to grade five, a very easy piece of history to duplicate in 
 many places. Then the distribution in grade five becomes : 
 
 Age 8 yrs. 9 yrs. 10 yrs. 11 yrs. 12 yrs. 13 yrs. 
 
 Number of Pupils. 3 15 57 18 5 2 
 
 The spread of the ages has gone from four years in grade 
 one to six years in grade five. Had a few bright healthy young- 
 sters under five and a few unfortunate nine-year-olds of low 
 mentality been added to the extremes of first grade enrollment, 
 the same experience would have given us a spread of seven or 
 eight years in grades four and five. 
 
 Mere spread of ages like over-ageness is not, in and of itself, 
 any evidence that the school is derelict in its treatment of pupils 
 or stupid in its organization. The spread of seven years in 
 grade two, which has without undue elimination or arrest been 
 reduced to five years in grade six, may be the best evidence that 
 the school is meeting and understanding its children and helping 
 them to find themselves. The fact that two eight-year-olds and 
 two nine-year-olds appear on a given first grade roll is not in 
 itself any suggestion of a poor school. Two may be worthy 
 representatives of the best blood and brains in town, from homes 
 with positive, even if not the wisest, notions about starting 
 children to school. Two may only last month have arrived from 
 a section of Russia without any facilities for education. Tf the
 
 6 2 Progress through tlie Grades of City Schools 
 
 school holds these boys and gets them to high school at fifteen 
 or to college at nineteen there is much to comfort the school- 
 master and nothing of discredit to the school. These four may 
 have been retardations, but they were never arrests. Blindness 
 to the facts of a certain measure of necessary and unavoidable 
 over-ageness and also of arrest, was the occasion of the historic 
 commotion that met the first studies of retardation and 
 elimination. 
 
 Arrest is most likely to follow too early or too late entrance 
 to school. Fifty per cent of all children who enter grade one 
 before the age of five years, meet arrest at some place in the 
 course ; likewise 46 per cent of those entering between seven 
 and seven and one-half years ; and 49 per cent of all entrants 
 over seven and one-half years, become arrests. 
 
 Certain ages are particularly marked by arrest. Pupils, who 
 do not graduate at or before the age of fifteen years, are most 
 likely to meet arrest. Fifteen-year-olds have nearly twice their 
 proportionate share of repeaters ; sixteen-year-olds, three and 
 one-third times their share; and seventeen-year-olds, three and 
 three-fourths times their due share. But these three ages con- 
 stitute only a small part of all enrollments. Between the ages 
 of five and fifteen where nearly all the pupils are found, the 
 years of especial liability to arrest are the ninth, tenth, eleventh, 
 and twelfth. 
 
 So, too, grades three, four, and five are particularly produc- 
 tive of arrest, just as they were particularly productive of 
 acceleration. These three grades presenting the extremes of 
 variability as they do, would seem to need the most skilled and 
 sympathetic teachers possessed of clear vision of the nature 
 of the special problem these grades present, and constant in 
 the endeavor to solve the riddle and serve the child. 
 
 Just as more boys than girls were found among the accel- 
 erates, so, too, more boys than girls fail of promotion and are 
 required to repeat grades. 
 
 Prolonged absence from school is an appreciable factor in pro- 
 ducing arrest especially when it amounts to more than twenty- 
 five days in one school year. Up to twenty-five days, 60 per 
 cent of the absentees on their return make up for the lost time 
 and maintain their grade. With from 25 to 45 days of absence, 
 there is still left one chance in two for avoiding arrest. Just
 
 Conclusions 63 
 
 as many of these absentees succeed in keeping the pace, as lail 
 and fall behind. When the absence rises to fifty days or more, 
 there is only one chance in four to avoid arrest. 
 
 Seventy-six per cent of all arrests lose four weeks or more 
 some one year in seven. Sixty-eight per cent of all nonrjals, 
 and sixty-six per cent of all accelerates sustain such large loss, 
 which is almost invariably the result of illness and most fre- 
 quently that of contagious disease. So only better municipal, 
 school, and household sanitation can secure much abatement 
 of this cause of arrest. 
 
 Change of school, low deportment, and poor eyes are three 
 factors correlated with arrest. The non-English speaking home 
 furnishes an undue proportion of the repeaters. Arrest, like 
 acceleration, marks certain families as its own, j.j per cent of 
 the families producing 24.5 per cent of the arrests. While 
 such arrests as these are often manifestly marked by nature 
 for the part, there are others whose repetitions we attribute 
 to special studies. 
 
 There is a popul ar noti on that weakness in one subject, or 
 occasionally inTwo, causes the arrest. Weakness in all subjects 
 caused 28 per cent of the failures; 16 per cent more passed 
 in nothing but spelling. Nearly half of all the arrests therefore 
 have utterly no adaptation to the traditional curriculum. Pos- 
 sibly no modified curriculum would serve at once properly to 
 occupy and exercise these arrests and furnish respectable mental 
 training for normals and accelerates. Mathematics occasions 13 
 per cent of the failures. Mathematics together with either his- 
 tory, geography, or grammar causes 18 per cent; and mathe- 
 matics together with some two of these, causes 14 per cent more. 
 
 Repeating a grade does not result in any permanent improve- 
 ment of the scholarship of the arrest. There is usually some 
 improvement the next year after the repeating. Then comes a 
 loss of at least half of all that had been gained ; and the third 
 year finds the arrest back to his old level of low scholarship. Of 
 the whole number of arrests, 21 per cent do better after re- 
 peating than before ; 39 per cent show no change ; and 40 per 
 cent actually do worse. 
 
 This is clearly evidence that current organization of schools 
 fails to meet the condition of the backward children in our 
 schools. To go at a pace to which they are unequal, even with
 
 64 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 the help and oversight of special teachers, and then to return 
 and spend another year on the same work with children younger 
 and of better capacity, and for whom the subject matter has 
 not been robbed of its interest, is not the solution of the problem. 
 
 There is every evidence that we must accept arrests and 
 accelerates as special classes and treat them accordingly. Our 
 current schemes of organization and treatment are inadequate 
 because we insist that they are not special classes. They do 
 not differ from the others in kind, but only in degree, urges the 
 defender of the present. But a large number of those in schools 
 for the blind differ from other children only in degree of power 
 to see. Most differences in either human quality or human class 
 are resolvable into dift'erences in the quantity of some power 
 or capacity. No one doubts that under any scheme of organiza- 
 tion and teaching we would still have our present arrests as 
 slow children or weak children. We would still have our 
 accelerates as a clearly discernible gifted group. Both groups 
 would as now merge into our present middle group of normals. 
 This is the problem we must face. The purpose of this study 
 may be attained if some of the conditions of the problem have 
 been made manifest. 
 
 But there are some implications of the evidence under exam- 
 ination that warrant some tentative conclusions as to needed 
 modification of current schemes if we would adjust the public 
 school to the gifted children and to the backward children, who 
 together constitute almost, if not more than, half the enrollment 
 in our public schools. 
 
 Numerous attempts have been made to meet the situation. 
 The Pueblo Plan, the Batavia Plan, the Cambridge Plan, the 
 Denver Plan, the Baltimore Plan, and the St. Louis Plan are 
 six of the best types of the many earnest attempts made to free 
 progress through the grades. There is an extensive literature 
 setting forth these and other schemes of solution, a bibliography 
 of which appears in the appendix to this study. ^ 
 
 All these attempts met with much success. The}' have gone 
 as far on the road to complete success as they can w ithout taking 
 
 ^All of these have been critically characterized by Emmet E. Giltner 
 in a Master's thesis in Teachers College. Columbia University, in 1907.
 
 Conclusions 65 
 
 into account two facts. First, they accept as a fixed condition 
 of the problem one feature of current organization that forbids 
 the best achievement, vis., the unvarying uniform curriculum. 
 Second, they ignore the fact that the backward and the gifted, 
 the arrests and the accelerates of the study, are definite human 
 classes, psychologically and biologically conditioned. 
 
 All attempted to free the individual in the mass, without 
 rescuing him from the mass. All pupils were sooner or later 
 to complete the same curriculum. The same lessons, books, 
 topics and processes were ultimately to be mastered, each pupil 
 being both allowed and required to work at the top of his bent 
 and no faster. This giving the pupil his own time, whether 
 longer or shorter, in which to do the work was a prodigious 
 step forward. But it took no account of the pupils who could 
 not do the prescribed standard of work in any time. They at 
 the proper moment eliminated themselves from the situation. 
 
 It also took no account of the fact that best development 
 comes to the superior pupil, as to others, by being kept at 
 work equal to his power. To do comparatively easy work in 
 the ordinary time without great effort is the way to become an 
 intellectual saunterer. To do comparatively easy work in quick 
 time is not the equivalent of being compelled to do one's utmost. 
 It is the way to intellectual vainglory. Education is training 
 for the supreme exertion, through exercise in doing one's in- 
 creasing best in quality and quantity, under conditions that 
 makes doing one's best supremely worth while. The curriculum 
 made for the average student and administered for the average 
 student, does not suffice for the gifted. 
 
 The demand therefore is for a differentiated curriculum in- 
 volving adjustment to arrest, to normal, and to accelerate. This 
 is to be added to the measures provided in the ])lans lieretofore 
 referred to. If for example these were added to the Cambridge 
 possibility of completing the course in six, seven, eight, or nine 
 years, the feature of a curriculum with a minimum, a mean, 
 and a maximum requirement, one of the two conditions that 
 have produced eliminates, arrests, saunterers. and intellectual 
 prigs in spite of us, would have disappeared. It is just as impor- 
 tant that some gifted pupils be not ready for the trade school 
 or the office or the shop until sixteen as that others shall be so
 
 66 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 ready at fourteen. It is just as important that some bright pupils 
 shall not be ready for high school until fifteen, and not ready 
 to leave home for college until nineteen as it is that others should 
 be so prepared at thirteen and seventeen. This should be 
 accomplished without marking time in the one case or overdoing 
 in the other. Such results can not be obtained without the differ- 
 entiated course of study. 
 
 But how shall the differentiated course of study be admin- 
 istered? Arrests, normals, and accelerates we shall have forever 
 with us. They are born into this w'orld, and since the public 
 schools are for all the children of all the people, they will come 
 into the public schools. Equality of opportunity is what we 
 owe them. That means opportunity for a normal to do a nor- 
 mal's best, to make the most of himself, to some day pass 
 into the accelerate class if perchance he belonged near the mar- 
 gin of that class. It means opportunity for an arrest to strive 
 for his best self-realization through using the pov/ers of an 
 arrest, on exercises and processes planned for him and not 
 for a normal. 
 
 The sympathy of professional students of teaching and school 
 administration, is stirred and voiced for the slow child now con- 
 fessedly sacrificed in our schools with uniform courses of study 
 built for the average child. But the difficulty is not one of 
 method alone ; it calls for re-organization of the curriculum. And 
 again let it be remembered that the greatest sacrifice is the one 
 that rouses the least concern. The wickedest as well as the 
 greatest retardation or arrest in our schools, is that of the accel- 
 erate who is held for eight or nine years, sauntering through the 
 course he ought to work through in six or seven. 
 
 Think of the cruelty of current schemes for the strong gifted 
 boy who aspires to be a physician or a surgeon. He may not 
 enter school until six years old. The course is nine years. What 
 matter that he could get well ready for any good secondary 
 school in six 3'ears. He is ready at fifteen ; and that means ready 
 for college at nineteen, for medical college at twenty-three, for 
 hospital at twenty-seven. He may therefore begin to practice 
 his profession at twenty-nine or thirty. What wonder that under 
 economic pressure, and the lack of adjustment of the school to 
 the needs of the gifted, we are tempting so many superior young
 
 Conclusions 67 
 
 men to go without the training that makes for culture and 
 breadth of citizenship in the learned professions. 
 
 To save both these classes from the sacrifice we must recognize 
 them as classes, biologically conditioned. At every turn the 
 evidence in this study points to that inevitable conclusion, and 
 it is a conclusion which may readily be verified. Then add to 
 the provision of the differentiated curriculum intelligent handling 
 of each class according to its needs. This means special classes, 
 special teachers, special departments, special schemes of grad- 
 ing, and mayhap at some places in the path of progress special 
 schools. In some school systems, special grading into three 
 groups for each year, with a curriculum providing minimum, 
 mean, and maximum outlines of work may, with a few special 
 teachers added, solve the problem with study, devotion, and art. 
 In others, still more of the plans enumerated may have to be 
 pressed into service. In all, short intervals between promo- 
 tions will help to free progress ; but care must be taken that 
 when the promotion unit is reduced from one year to one term, 
 for example, it does not result in increased arrest. It is so 
 much easier to contemplate taking three months out of a boy's 
 life than taking a full year, that the better shorter interval needs 
 more careful guarding and is not in itself any removal of the 
 necessity of special teaching for the backward pupils. 
 
 In any contingency the conditions disclosed demand the study 
 of the problem from the physiological standpoint. Already we 
 have seen the wisdom of letting no pupil enter on an accelerate 
 course without careful physical examination, nor continue in it, 
 without frequent skilled testing of the question : \\'hat is that 
 course doing to him? 
 
 We have seen that the middle ages and grades of the course 
 for the elementary schools, indicate an area in which accelerates 
 and arrests disclose themselves most numerously. The children 
 in these grades need to be carefully examined, not by directors 
 of gymnastics or teachers of calisthenics, but by physicians who 
 know their pediatrics and are both interested and skilled in 
 counselling the physical and nervous conservation of the sound 
 and gifted, as well as in directing the remedial process and 
 regime for the limited and abnormal. Such a physician must 
 have within his field of interest, knowledge, and skill, not simply
 
 68 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 the morbid and abnormal child, but the sound child, and the 
 sound child at. school, in the process of becoming a youth and 
 a man. He must come with an open mind as to educational 
 processes, realizing that in the presence of many of them, he 
 is just as intelligent as the highly educated school teacher would 
 be in the operating room at the hospital, — and no more. He 
 must come to help study and solve the problems of education, 
 discover and disclose the hygienic and biological conditions of 
 successful learning and teaching. 
 
 Does it not also appear that the child in the class of arrests 
 should not be permitted to continue there very long without 
 inquiring not simply as to eyes, ears, possible limiting condi- 
 tions of teeth, throat, etc., but as to mental status as well. This 
 is a problem which the school cannot safely turn over to the 
 medical inspector nor the average doctor, nor to the alienist. 
 The counsel of the student of the psychology of human efficiency 
 is urgently needed. Might we not as well frankly acknowledge 
 that the conditions that surround arrest, are ones which v/e 
 are helpless to solve without the aid of the educational psychol- 
 ogist. The physician knows that bodily status conditions all 
 mental output, but he often does not recognize either the char- 
 acter of the processes of that output among children of low or 
 slow mentality. We need the consulting physiological psychol- 
 ogist. How shall we get him? 
 
 It is easy enough to say, this provision must be added to 
 already heavy school expenses ; and it will be economy to do 
 this if necessary. But where medical inspection is once inaug- 
 urated as soon as there arises necessity for addition to the corps 
 of health inspectors, why not select as one, a practical psychol- 
 ogist, a master of the kind of psychology now beginning to be 
 taught in the best medical schools and used in the laboratories 
 of schools for the education of delinquents or defectives. Med- 
 ical inspection is not long going to be confined to chasing down 
 and labelling scabies or pediculosis or measles or mumps or 
 scarlet fever. The detection and limiting of contagious diseases 
 is a work of tremendous importance, worth very much more 
 than the money it has cost. But the teacher must learn to 
 assist medical inspectors and thus reduce by half, the time now 
 required for thorough inspection so that the physician may have
 
 Conclusions 69 
 
 time for careful ph3'sical examination of all arrests with a view 
 to remedial and constructive measures. Such assistance of the 
 physician b}^ the willing and intelligent teacher may save money 
 enough to pay the consulting and testing psychologist. How- 
 ever that may be, the school tliat aims to do its duty by its 
 arrests will command such service. 
 
 Finally since arrest and acceleration are physiologically con- 
 ditioned, the best treatment of both demands that the highest 
 standards of hygiene shall dominate in school plant and program 
 and general regime. Pure air must be brought in and sunshine 
 must not be kept out. What use is a ventilating system when 
 floors are unswept or unwashed and a janitor is abroad with 
 a feather duster? What use are windows equal in area to one- 
 fifth of the floor space, with a teacher who draws her shades 
 to a parlor-like height? What use are adjustable seats and 
 desks that are rarely or but annually adjusted? What use are 
 play rooms or playgrounds to children kept in at recess or 
 after school? What use is the warranted heating system that 
 keeps things so hot that both teacher and pupils are as the 
 complaining prophet described Israel, " a cake half-baked." 
 How can we expect half-baked teachers to teach half-baked 
 children whether the latter are accelerates, arrests, or normals? 
 The physiological demands of successful treatment of these three 
 classes call for a stricter hygienic regime in the schoolroom 
 than is needed in any other institution for human ser\Mce save 
 possibly the modern hospital. 
 
 The solution of the problem of how to adjust our programs 
 and policies so as to free progress through the grades for all 
 the children of all the people, depends upon two conditions. We 
 must look squarely at the facts that are manifest and apply to 
 them all the truth that is known. We must scrutinize carefully 
 and with infinite patience the elements of the problem which 
 are not so apparent, that v/e may discover new truth and apply 
 it to further clearing of the situation.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The coefiicient of correlation between Scholarship and Deportment was 
 calculated as follows : First, a group of records, representative in both 
 number and distribution, was obtained b}^ random drawing of 20 double 
 accelerates, 200 single accelerates, 200 normals, 200 single arrests, and 20 
 double arrests. Second, the rankings A, B, C, D, E, etc., were put in fig- 
 ures as I, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. That is, the highest or A grade of scholarship or 
 deportment was represented as i ; the next lower or B grade, by 2, and 
 so on. Third. (A.) The sum of the numerical rankings of each of these 
 640 pupils in Scholarship for the second, fourth, and sixth years covered 
 by the study, (B.) the sum of the scholarship rankings for the third, fifth 
 and seventh years of this time, (C.) the sum of the rankings in Deport- 
 ment for the earlier three years, (D.) the sum for the later three years, 
 (E.) the sum of the Scholarship rankings for the six years, and (F.) the 
 sum of the Deportment rankings for the six years in the form of which 
 the following are six sample lines : — 
 
 Pupil 
 
 Scholarship 
 
 Deportment 
 
 Scholarship 
 
 Deportment 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 D 
 
 Totals E 
 
 Totals F 
 
 I 
 
 16 
 
 1 1 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 27 
 
 14 
 
 II 
 
 13 
 
 1 1 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 24 
 
 22 
 
 III 
 
 1 1 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 14 
 
 IV 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 V 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 VI 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 Fourth. When the records of these 640 pupils had been thus tabulated, 
 five direct correlation-tables were prepared, ■viz., A-C. A-D, B-C, B-D, 
 and E-F. Then for correction purposes tables showing the correlation of 
 A-B and C-D were compiled. These are the seven tables which follow, 
 and are numbered 45 to 51, inclusive. The coefficient of correlation in 
 each case is calculated by the cosine t? U tables accompanying Thorndike's 
 "Empirical Studies in the Theory of Measurement" (q.v. pp. 15 to 25). 
 
 Fifth. For Table 51, showing the E-F correlations, the medians of array 
 were calculated and the total result shown graphically in the plate imme- 
 diately preceding this table. The probability is that this table, based on 
 the totals of the standing in both scholarship and deportment, furnishes 
 us the most reliable of these measures of correlation. This is disclosed to 
 be .48. 
 70
 
 Appendix 
 
 71 
 
 Sixth. To determine the probably true correlation from measurements, 
 freed from accidental errors, recourse was had to two methods of cor- 
 rection for attenuation, (i) Use was made of the first Spearman formula 
 
 i (rplql+rplq2 + rp2ql + rpZqz) 
 
 disclosed in the tables, we have 
 
 \/(rplp2) (rqlqj) 
 
 -H-426 +.370 +.426 +.426) 
 
 Substitutinor the values 
 
 52. 
 
 \/.75X.84 
 (2) Use was made of the second Spearman formula, presented in the 
 
 American Journal of Psychology for January, 1904. By this 
 4 
 \/7x2 (.48) — .412 
 
 ^pq- 
 
 .64 
 
 VsX: 
 
 Seventh. We may therefore conclude that the probably true correla- 
 tion of Scholarship to Deportment is between .52 and .64. 
 
 C. Deportment 
 
 3 
 4 
 S 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 13 18 
 
 TABLE 45 
 
 A-C Correlations 
 
 A. SCHOLARSHIP 
 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 i! 
 
 [4 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 16 
 
 1 1 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 S 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 In the above table, for A related to C, U, the percentage of pairs of unlike signs, = 
 231 
 640' 
 
 D. Deportment 
 
 3 
 4 
 5 
 6 
 7 
 8 
 9 
 
 TABLE 46 
 
 A. SCHOLARSHIP 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 22 
 
 17 
 
 9 
 
 IS 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 Q 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 S 
 
 4 
 
 8 16 
 
 A-D Correlations 
 
 13 14 IS 16 17 18 
 
 13 
 14 
 IS 
 16 
 
 From this table, U = ;— ■ r„i„2 = .370 
 640 • V ^^
 
 72 
 
 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 C. Deportment 
 
 
 TABLE 47 
 
 
 
 
 B. 
 
 SCHOLARSHIP 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 lO 
 
 II 
 
 3 
 
 i6 
 
 21 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 IS 
 
 lO 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 1 1 
 
 II 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 II 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 S 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 2 
 I 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 B-C Correlations 
 
 13 14 IS i6 17 
 
 From this table, U = t — ; J"p2qi = .426. 
 
 D. Deportment 
 
 TABLE 48 
 B. SCHOLARSHIP 
 
 B-D Correlations 
 
 13 14 IS 16 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 :o 
 
 13 
 
 IS 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 S 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 S 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 5 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 From this table, U = 
 
 640' 
 
 .426. 
 
 TABLE 49 
 
 Group B 
 Records op 
 Scholarship 
 
 3 
 4 
 S 
 6 
 7 
 
 15 
 16 
 17 
 18 
 
 A-B Correlations for Correction 
 
 GROUP A RECORDS OF SCHOLARSHIP 
 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 
 
 28 14 
 
 14 15 16 17 iS 
 
 From this table, U = : — • ryioZ == .S43 
 040 ' ^ *^
 
 Appendix 
 
 73 
 
 Grovp D Records 
 OF Deportment 
 
 3 
 4 
 5 
 6 
 7 
 
 TABLE 50 
 
 C-D Correlations for Correction 
 GROUP C RECORDS OF DEPORTMENT 
 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 lo II 12 
 
 92 
 
 SI 
 
 o 
 
 4 
 
 54 
 
 39 
 
 33 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 39 
 
 31 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 i6 
 
 i8 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 IS 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 14 
 IS 
 i6 
 
 From this table U= 
 
 640' 
 
 /o II n 13 If /s li / 
 
 Scholarship 
 
 1/ If ZO il 2X 23 
 
 7 :S 29 ■30 J/ J~ S3 Jf sf 
 
 (Graph for Table 51)
 
 74 Progress through the Grades of City Schools 
 
 too •* t > 
 
 ■* ro ■* fO I 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 rt N rrOO lO -t N « CN M 
 
 
 P3 
 + 
 < 
 
 « 
 
 M H 't •-( fO'O M fO W <* 
 
 
 „ 
 
 «vO ■*'0 •* fO 
 
 1—1 
 
 Pi 
 O 
 
 
 
 MfONWfOtNUrOH 
 
 PQ 
 < 
 
 5 
 
 en 
 
 00 
 
 Mco'T'l-NtlT-riPiw 
 
 
 O 
 
 HI 
 u 
 
 vO 
 
 lOin'trOTj-roN WD 
 
 
 
 ti- 
 
 ■»tOO ^0 N Tj- M w ro m 
 
 
 
 ro 
 
 00 O M Tj- w ro N 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 t^\0 tj- t fO M fO M 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 OOt^nO^wwrowco 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 tl- 0»0 r^ H w w 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 ^O fO PO W MM 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 OO IN M « M 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 to «o tj-vO « ■* 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 fO^O CO N N M M 
 
 PO C\ 
 
 H *^ \0 t^M O^O M n fO-tl^-O t^OO O O M ri ro t lOO j5 -M 
 
 aO M M M « M M M M M M « « « N N « « -g "d 
 
 p< o S 
 P
 
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