The High School Failures Part 3

18.7 16.0 13.5 11.6 10.4 9.8 8.2 8.0 4.1

It becomes evident at once that the largest percentage of failures, based on the pupils taking the subject, is in Latin, although we have already found that mathematics has the greatest percentage of all the failures recorded (p. 19). But here mathematics follows Latin, with German coming next in order as ranked by its high percentage of failure for those enrolled in the subject. History has the median percentage for the failures as listed for the nine subjects above.

The failures as reported by subjects for other schools and other pupils will provide a comparison which may indicate something of the relative standing of this group of schools in reference to failures. The failures are presented below for thirteen high schools in New Jersey, involving 24,895 grades, as reported by D.C. Bliss[7] in 1917. As the schools were reported singly, the median percentage of failure for each subject is used here for our purpose. But Mr. Bliss' figures are computed from the promotion sheets for June, 1915, and include none of those who had dropped out. In this sense they are not comparable to the percentages of failure as presented in this study. Yet with the one exception of Latin these median percentages are higher. The percentages as presented below for St. Paul[8] are in each case based on the total number taking the subject for a single semester, and include about 4,000 pupils, in all the cla.s.ses, in the four high schools of the city.[B]

[Footnote B: It is a significant fact, and one worthy of note here, that the report for St. Paul is apparently the only one of the surveys which also states the number taking each subject, as well as the percentages of failure. Percentages alone do not tell the whole story, and they do not promote the further utilization of the facts to discover other relations.h.i.+ps.]

The facts presented for St. Louis[9] are for one school only, with 2,089 pupils, as recorded for the first half of the year 1915-16. All foreign languages as reported for this school are grouped together.

History is the only subject that has a percentage of failure lower than that of the corresponding subjects for our eight schools. The figures for both St. Paul and St. Louis are based on the grades for all cla.s.ses in school, but for only a single semester. One cannot avoid feeling that a statement of facts for so limited a period may or may not be dependable and representative for all periods. The percentages for Paterson[10] are reported for about 4,000 pupils, in all cla.s.ses, for two successive semesters, and are based on the number examined. For Denver,[11] the records are reported for 4,120 pupils, and cover a two-year period. The percentages for b.u.t.te[12] are based on the records for 3,110 pupils, for one school semester. The figures reported by Rounds and Kingsbury[13] are for only two subjects, but for forty-six widely separated high schools, whose enrollment for these two subjects was 57,680.

PERCENTAGES OF FAILURE BY SUBJECTS--QUOTED FOR OTHER SCHOOLS

Math. Latin Ger. Fren. Eng. Hist. Sci. Bus.

Subj's.

13 N.J. H.S.'s. 20.0 18.0 16.0 .. 14.0 11.0 .. 11.5 St. Paul 21.8 13.6 14.3 17.0 10.0 10.9 7.3 11.7 St. Louis 18.0 [-------16------] 13.0 7.0 19.0 ..

Paterson 23.1 21.6 23.4 .. 12.2 13.9 18.3 8.5 Denver 24.0 21.0 12.0 .. 11.7 11.0 17.0 11.0 b.u.t.te 18.6 25.0 24.0 32.6 5.4 7.0 13.0 8.4 R and K 24.7 .. .. .. 18.5 .. .. ..

Our 8 H.S.'s 16.0 18.7 13.5 11.6 8.2 10.4 9.8 8.0

In some schools the reports were not available for all subjects. It is not at all probable, so far as information could be obtained, that the failures of the drop-out pupils for any of the schools were included in the percentages as reported above, or that the percentages are based on the total number in the given subjects, with the exception of one school. Moreover, it is certain for at least some of the schools that neither the failures of the drop-outs nor the pupils who were in the cla.s.s for less than a whole semester were considered in the percentages above. So far, however, as these comparisons may be justified, the suggestion made in Chapter I that the schools included in this study are doubtless a superior group with respect to failures appears to be strengthened by the comparisons made above.

It becomes more apparent, as we attempt to offer a statement of failures as taken from the various reports, that they are not truly comparable. The bases of such percentages are not at all uniform. The basis used most frequently is the number enrolled at the end of the period rather than the total number enrolled for any cla.s.s, for which the school has had to provide, and which should most reasonably form the basis of the percentage of failure. Furthermore, the failures for pupils who drop out are not usually counted. Yet, in most of the reports, the situation is not clearly indicated for either of the facts referred to. Still more difficult is the task of securing a general statement of failures by subjects, since the percentages are most frequently reported separately for each cla.s.s, in each subject, and for different buildings, but with the number of pupils stated for neither the failures nor the enrollment. The St. Paul report[8] is an exception in this regard.

To present the full situation it is indeed necessary to know the failures for particular teachers, subjects, and buildings, but it is also frequently necessary to be able to make a comparison of results for different systems. Consequently, in order to use the varied reports for the attempted comparison above, the plan was pursued of averaging the percentages as stated for the different cla.s.ses, semesters, and years of a subject, in each school separately, and then selecting the median school thus determined as the one best representing the city or the system. This method was employed to modify the reports, and to secure the percentages as stated above for Denver, Paterson, and b.u.t.te. Any plan of averaging the percentages for the four years of English, or similarly for any other subject, may actually tend to misstate the facts, when the percentages or the numbers represented are not very nearly equal. But, in an incidental way, the difficulty serves to emphasize the inadequacy and the incomparability in the reporting of failures as found in the various studies, as well as to warn us of the hopelessness of reaching any conclusions apart from a knowledge of the procedure employed in securing the data.

The basis is also provided for some interesting comparisons by isolating from the general distribution of failures by school subjects (p. 19) the same facts for the failing graduates. That gives the following distribution.

THE FAILURES BY SCHOOL SUBJECTS FOR GRADUATES ONLY

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

5803 B. 660 403 521 241 191 180 251 91 7 6334 G. 782 347 673 257 240 410 394 162 12 Per Cent of Totals 24.8 12.9 20.5 8.5 7.4 10.1 11. 4.3 .3

SIMILAR PERCENTAGES FOR THE NON-GRADUATES

As above 23.6 18.3 17.7 10.1 5.3 8.4 10. 6.3 .1

It is a noteworthy fact that the percentages of failure (based on the total failures for the graduates) run higher in mathematics, Latin, history, French, and science for the graduates than for the whole composite number (page 19). The non-graduates have a correspondingly lower percentage of failure in these subjects, as is indicated above.

The school influences in respect to the failures of the non-graduates differ from those of the graduates chiefly in the fact that the failures of the former tend to occur to a greater extent in the earlier years of these subjects, since so many of the non-graduates are in the school for only those earlier years; while the failures of the graduates range more widely and have a tendency to predominate in the upper years of the subject, as will be further emphasized in the later pages of this report (see also Table IV).

5. DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS DROPPING OUT--SEMESTERS--AGES

Table V presents the facts concerning the time and the age at which the failing pupils drop out of school. Table VI furnishes the corresponding facts for the non-failing drop-outs.

TABLE V

DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAILING NON-GRADUATES, SHOWING THE SEMESTER AND THE AGE AT THE TIME OF DROPPING OUT

AGES UNDIS- SEMESTERS 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 TRIB. TOTALS

1 B. 1 40 49 50 18 0 1 1 .. .. 1 160 G. 3 40 65 47 23 4 0 0 .. .. 3 185 345 2 B. .. 9 56 88 56 22 6 2 .. .. 3 242 G. .. 6 72 119 61 24 3 0 .. .. 6 291 533 3 B. .. 4 30 40 23 10 7 .. .. .. 0 114 G. .. 3 35 51 32 13 7 .. .. .. 1 142 256 4 B. .. 1 16 66 86 34 16 2 .. .. 3 224 G. .. 1 19 60 70 59 18 3 .. .. 0 230 454 5 B. .. .. 2 12 36 21 8 4 .. .. 3 86 G. .. .. 4 17 48 28 9 3 .. .. 1 110 196 6 B. .. .. 1 6 48 52 38 10 .. .. 1 156 G. .. .. 1 11 52 49 26 5 .. .. 2 146 302 7 B. .. .. .. 2 12 35 21 7 0 .. 1 78 G. .. .. .. 2 15 21 15 4 1 .. 0 59 137 8 B. .. .. .. 0 10 23 19 19 2 0 2 75 G. .. .. .. 2 10 31 29 10 4 2 3 91 166 9 B. .. .. .. .. 1 4 4 2 .. 1 1 13 G. .. .. .. .. 1 6 12 4 .. 0 0 23 36 10 B. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 3 3 1 .. 8 G. .. .. .. .. .. .. 4 3 3 1 .. 11 19 11 B. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 0 0 0 .. 0 G. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2 1 1 .. 4 4 Tot. B. 1 54 154 264 290 201 120 50 6 2 14 1156 G. 3 50 196 309 312 235 123 34 9 4 16 1292 2448

Table V reads: In the first semester 1 boy and 3 girls drop out at age 13; 40 boys and 40 girls drop out at the age of 14; 49 boys and 65 girls, at the age of 15. In this table, as elsewhere, age 15 means from 14 to 15, and so on. Any drop-out, as for the second semester, means either during or at the end of that semester.

TABLE VI

DISTRIBUTION OF THE NON-FAILING NON-GRADUATES, SHOWING THE SEMESTER AND THE AGE AT THE TIME OF DROPPING OUT

AGES SEMESTER 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 TOTALS

1 B. 17 118 141 106 39 3 4 1 1 430 G. 11 159 235 160 51 19 4 4 0 643 1073 2 B. 0 7 49 50 18 7 3 0 .. 134 G. 1 1 59 42 31 10 7 2 .. 163 297 3 B. .. .. 7 16 11 5 1 0 .. 40 G. .. .. 14 22 33 15 3 2 .. 89 129 4 B. .. .. 5 13 11 10 1 0 1 41 G. .. .. 7 20 31 16 2 1 1 78 119 5 B. .. .. 1 2 9 1 2 0 .. 15 G. .. .. 0 3 10 9 4 1 .. 27 42 6 B. .. .. 1 4 14 3 2 0 .. 24 G. .. .. 0 5 17 13 7 3 .. 45 69 7 B. .. .. .. 0 2 2 2 1 .. 7 G. .. .. .. 1 2 7 1 1 .. 12 19 8 B. .. .. .. .. .. 1 1 1 .. 3 G. .. .. .. .. .. 3 1 1 .. 5 8 9 B. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 0 .. 0 G. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 .. 1 1 Tot. B. 17 125 204 191 104 32 16 3 2 694 G. 12 170 315 253 175 92 29 16 1 1063 1757

Table VI reads similarly to Table V. The distribution of the age totals for the pupils dropping out gives us medians which, for both boys and girls, fall within the 17-year group for the failing pupils, but within the 16-year group for the non-failing pupils. For Table V the mode of the distribution is at 17, but for Table VI it is at 15. The percentages of dropping out for each age group are given below. First, all the pupils of Tables V and VI are grouped together for this purpose, then the boys and the girls for Tables V and VI are considered separately to facilitate the comparison of facts.

PERCENTAGES IN EACH AGE GROUP OF THE TOTAL NUMBER DROPPING OUT

Ages 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Per Cent 0.8 9.5 20.7 24.2 21.0 13.3 6.8 2.4 1.2

It is readily seen from the above percentages that, as would be expected, the drop-outs are most frequent for the very ages which are most common in the high school. There is no special acc.u.mulation of drop-outs for either the earlier or the later ages. But, if in any semester we consider the drop-outs for each age as a percentage of the total pupils represented for that age, the facts are more fully revealed, as is indicated below for certain semesters.

PERCENTAGES OF DROP-OUTS FOR EACH AGE, ON THE TOTALS FOR SUCH AGE IN THE FIRST, SECOND AND FOURTH SEMESTERS

AGES 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Semester 1 6.8 18.2 23.1 32.6 38.3 35.0 40.0 40.0 ..

Semester 2 4.0 8.1 14.8 18.3 22.2 30.0 40.0 33.0 ..

Semester 4 0 9.0 11.8 12.5 16.5 24.6 35.2 50.0 ..

If these semesters may be taken as indicative of all, an almost steady increase will be expected in the percentages of drop-outs as the ages of the pupils rise. It follows, then, that the older ages have the higher percentages of drop-outs when this basis of the computation is employed. We may, however, make some helpful comparisons of the ages of drop-outs for boys and for girls by merely using the percentages of total drop-outs for the purpose.