The High School Failures Part 2

Table I reads: the boys had 20 failures and the girls had 19 failures in the first semester and at the age of thirteen; in the second semester, at the age of thirteen, the boys had 2 failures and the girls 6. For each semester, the first line represents boys, the second line girls. There is a total of 17,960 failures listed in this table. In addition to this number there are 1,947 uncompleted grades for the failing non-graduates. The semesters were frequently completed by such pupils but the records were left incomplete. Their previous records and their prospects of further partial or complete failure seem to justify an estimate of 55 per cent (1,070) of these uncompleted grades as either tentative or actual but unrecorded failures. Therefore we virtually have 1,070 other failures belonging to these pupils which are not included in Table I. Accordingly, since the number can only be estimated, the fact that they are not incorporated in that table suggests that the information which it discloses is something less than a full statement of the school failures for these pupils. In the distribution of the totals for ages, the mode appears plainly at 16, but with an evident skewness toward the upper ages. The failures for the years 16, 17, and 18, when added together, form 68.1 per cent of the total failures. If those for 15 years are also included, the result is 86 per cent of the total. Of the total failures, 65.7 per cent are found in the first two years (11,801 out of the total of 17,960). But the really striking fact is that 34.3 per cent of the failures occur after the end of the first two years, after 52.2 per cent of the pupils are gone, and with other hundreds leaving in each succeeding semester before even the end of the eighth. In Table II we have similar facts for the pupils who graduate.

TABLE II

THE DISTRIBUTION OF FAILURES ACCORDING TO THE AGES AND THE SEMESTERS OF THEIR OCCURRENCE FOR THE GRADUATING PUPILS

AGES SEMESTERS 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 TOTALS

1 B. 0 66 84 60 5 2 3 .. .. .. 220 G. 4 68 123 68 23 4 0 .. .. .. 290 510 2 B. 0 30 95 96 41 3 2 .. .. .. 267 G. 1 25 119 121 30 11 2 .. .. .. 309 576 3 B. 0 6 108 98 71 22 1 3 .. .. 309 G. 1 15 101 158 78 20 5 0 .. .. 378 687 4 B. .. 4 54 157 107 36 6 0 .. .. 364 G. .. 1 45 186 143 51 7 2 .. .. 435 799 5 B. .. 1 10 82 142 82 17 4 3 .. 341 G. .. 0 9 145 187 88 22 9 0 .. 460 801 6 B. .. .. 4 34 158 139 32 9 2 .. 378 G. .. .. 2 70 235 178 40 13 1 .. 539 917 7 B. .. 1 0 10 115 140 65 4 4 1 340 G. .. 0 2 7 130 187 69 19 0 0 414 754 8 B. .. .. .. 0 31 122 65 25 2 .. 245 G. .. .. .. 2 45 150 95 37 2 .. 331 576 9 B. .. .. .. .. 0 24 23 13 1 .. 61 G. .. .. .. .. 4 32 40 24 0 .. 100 161 10 B. .. .. .. .. .. 1 11 5 3 .. 20 G. .. .. .. .. .. 3 12 6 1 .. 22 42 Summary B. .. 108 355 537 670 571 225 63 15 1 2545 G. 6 109 401 757 875 724 292 110 4 0 3278 5823

[Footnote: In the facts which are involved and in the manner of reading them, this table is similar to Table I. The mode of the distribution of totals for the ages is at 17 in this table. Further reference will be made to both Tables I and II in later chapters of this study. (See pages 36, 37, 41, 42).]

A further a.n.a.lysis of the failures is here made in reference to the number of pupils and the number of failures each.

TABLE III

A DISTRIBUTION OF FAILING PUPILS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF FAILURES PER PUPIL, IN EACH SEMESTER

NO. OF SEMESTERS TOTALS FAILURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 B. 459 430 375 352 271 221 157 113 22 11 2411 G. 561 535 428 421 328 261 167 123 35 9 2868 --------------------------- 32.5% 5279

2 B. 271 242 211 206 149 144 79 68 19 4 1393 G. 271 253 238 204 177 142 127 84 17 6 1519 --------------------------- 34.9% 2912

3 B. 144 106 81 73 59 60 45 27 6 2 603 G. 207 103 81 75 75 83 52 38 20 3 737 --------------------------- 35% 1340

4 B. 83 39 33 30 27 32 10 10 1 1 266 G. 95 50 38 35 27 39 19 19 3 0 325 --------------------------- 31.8% 591

5 B. 6 3 5 8 7 8 7 2 0 .. 46 G. 3 2 6 5 1 10 6 5 1 .. 39 --------------------------- 55.3% 85

6 B. .. .. 3 3 0 1 1 .. .. .. 8 G. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

--------------------------- 25% 8

Tot. B. 963 820 708 672 513 466 299 220 48 18 4727 G. 1137 943 791 740 608 535 371 269 76 18 5488 10,215

Table III tells us that 459 boys and 561 girls have one failure each in the first semester of their high school work; 271 boys and the same number of girls have two failures in the first semester, and so on, for the ten semesters and for as many as six failures per pupil. The failures represented by these pupils give a total of 17,960. A distribution of the total failures per pupil, and the facts relative thereto, will be considered in Chapter IV of this study.

The above distribution of Table III is repeated here in Table IV, so far as it relates to the failing graduates only.

TABLE IV

A DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAILING PUPILS WHO GRADUATE, ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF FAILURES PER PUPIL IN EACH SEMESTER

NO. OF SEMESTERS TOTALS FAILURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 B. 110 131 137 150 162 139 120 118 19 11 1097 G. 136 142 181 200 197 180 121 89 20 3 1269 ---------------------------- 50% 2366

2 B. 34 49 61 69 61 75 47 28 15 3 442 G. 49 64 63 86 81 73 81 62 10 5 574 ---------------------------- 53.2% 1016

3 B. 10 10 14 18 12 17 27 17 4 1 130 G. 16 9 14 13 27 43 30 20 16 3 191 ---------------------------- 67.6% 321

4 B. 3 2 2 3 4 8 6 5 0 .. 33 G. 2 3 6 6 5 16 9 12 3 .. 62 ---------------------------- 71.6% 95

5 B. .. .. 0 2 1 0 3 0 .. .. 6 G. .. .. 1 0 0 4 1 2 .. .. 8 ---------------------------- 78.6% 14

6 B. .. .. .. .. .. 1 1 .. .. .. 2 G. .. .. .. .. 0 0 .. .. .. 0 ---------------------------- 100% 2

Tot. B. 157 192 214 237 240 240 204 163 48 15 1710 G. 203 218 265 305 310 316 242 185 49 11 2104 3814

This table reads similarly to Table III. There is not the element of continuous dropping out to be considered, as in Table III, until after the sixth semester is pa.s.sed, for no pupils graduate in less than three years. The failures represented in this table number 5,823. This same distribution will be the subject of further comment later on. It discloses some facts that Table III tends to conceal, for instance, that the greater number of graduating pupils who have 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 failures in a semester are found after the end of the second year.

4. DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAILURES IN REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECTS IN WHICH THEY OCCUR

The following tabulation of failures will show how they were shared by both boys and girls in each of the school subjects which provided the failures here listed.

NUMBER OF FAILURES DISTRIBUTED BY SCHOOL SUBJECTS

Total Math. Eng. Latin Ger. Fr. Hist. Sci. Bus. Span. or Subj's. Greek

B. 8348 2015 1555 1523 917 473 571 850 424 20 G. 9612 2300 1424 1833 812 588 1036 1013 593 13 Per Cent of Total 24.1 16.5 18.7 9.6 5.9 8.9 10.3 5.6 .2

The abbreviated headings above will be self-explanatory by reference to section 3 of Chapter I. The first line of numbers gives the failures for the boys, the second line for the girls. Mathematics has 24.1 per cent of all the failures for all the pupils. Latin claims 18.7 per cent and English 16.5 per cent of all the failures. These three subjects make a total of nearly 60 per cent of the failures for the nine subject groups appearing here. But still this is only a partial statement of the facts as they are, since the total enrollment by subjects is an independent matter and far from being equally divided among all the subjects concerned. The subject enrollment may sometimes be relatively high and the percentage of failure for that subject correspondingly lower than for a subject with the same number of failures but a smaller enrollment. This fact becomes quite apparent from the following percentages taken in comparison with the ones just preceding:

PERCENTAGES ENROLLED IN EACH SUBJECT OF THE SUM TOTAL OF THE SUBJECT ENROLLMENTS FOR ALL PUPILS AND ALL SEMESTERS

Math. Eng. Latin Ger. Fr. Hist. Sci. Bus. Span. or Subj's. Greek

17.3 24.0 11.9 8.5 6.8 10.2 12.5 8.3 .5

We note that the percentages for mathematics and English, which represent their portions of the grand total of subject enrollments, are virtually the reverse of the percentages which designate the amount of total failures produced by the same two subjects. That means that the percentage of the total failures produced by mathematics is really greater than was at first apparent, while the percentages of failures for English is not so great relatively as the statement of the total failures above would alone indicate. In a similar manner, we note that Latin has 18.7 per cent of all the failures, but its portion of the total enrollment for all subjects is only 11.9 per cent. If the failures in this subject were in proportion to the enrollment, its percentage of the failures would be reduced by 6.8 per cent. On the other hand, if the failures for English were in the same proportion to the total as is its subject enrollment, it would claim 7.5 per cent more of all the failures. In the same sense, French, history, science, and the business subjects have a smaller proportion of all the failures than of all the subject enrollments.

The comparison of failures by subjects may be continued still further by computing the percentage of failures in each subject as based on the number enrolled in that subject. Such percentages are here presented for each subject.

PERCENTAGE OF THE NUMBER TAKING THE SUBJECT WHO FAIL IN THAT SUBJECT

Latin Math. Ger. Fr. Hist. Sci. Eng. Bus. Span. or Subj's. Greek