The High School Failures Part 7

English and Math 17.8 18.0 16.3 16.9 8.1 14.0 .. ..

Latin, German, French 17.6 17.5 15.1 7.6 3.0 .. .. ..

Apparently the full story has by no means been told when we simply say that there is a general decline in the percentages of failure by years or semesters. First, the failures of the drop-outs should be included, so far as it is at all feasible; second, the percentage should be based on the total enrollment in the subject, not on the final product, if we wish to disclose the real situation; third, the continuous or required subjects should be distinguished in order to give a full statement of the facts. On page 41 are presented the percentages of failure for the 1,125 failing graduates alone, as found in this study, the greater portion of whose work, as it actually happened, consisted of 3- and 4-year subjects continuous from the time of entrance, and for whom the percentages of failure increase to the ninth semester.

7. SIMILARITY OF FACTS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

Nowhere is there any definite indication that any of these factors of prognosis operates more distinctly or more p.r.o.nouncedly on either boys or girls. Some variations do occur, but differences between the s.e.xes in personal att.i.tudes, social interests, or conventional standards may account for slight differences such as have been already noted. To simplify the statement of facts, no comparison of facts for boys and girls has, in general, been attempted where there was only similarity to be shown.

A SUMMARY OF CHAPTER III

The influence of non-attendance as a factor in school failure is partly provided for here, but no statistical data were secured.

The percentage of physical and mental defects are doubtless comparatively small for high school pupils except in the case of vision.

The facts regarding size of cla.s.ses were un.o.btainable.

The pupils are distributed by their ages of entrance from 12 to 20, with the mode of the distribution at 15. The younger entering pupils are distinctly more successful in escaping failure. They are also strikingly more successful in their ability to graduate.

The older pupils who fail have a higher percentage of failure on the subjects taken.

The first year's record has real prognostic value for pupils persisting more than three semesters. But 57 per cent of those leaving earlier have no failures. This includes nearly 60 per cent of all the non-failing pupils, but less than 32 per cent of the failing ones have gone that early.

Prediction of failure by subjects is relatively easy and sure, and the later years seem more productive of this result.

The percentage of failure on the total possibility of failure increases with the time period up to the seventh semester. The same facts are true for the graduates when considered alone. Fifty-six per cent of the failures for the graduates occur after the second year. The longer stay in school actually begets an increase of failures. The boys and girls are similarly affected by these factors of prognosis.

REFERENCES:

14. Keyes, C.H. _Progress Through the Grades_, pp. 23, 62.

15. Terman, L.M. _The Measurement of Intelligence_, p. 68.

16. Bronner, A.E. _Psychology of Special Abilities and Disabilities_.

17. Ayres, L.P. "The Effect of Physical Defects on School Progress,"

_Psychological Clinic_, 3:71.

18. Gulick, L.H., Ayres, L.P. _Medical Inspection in the Schools_, p.

194.

19. _Standards of The North Central a.s.sociation of Colleges and Secondary Schools_.

20. Hall-Quest, A.L., in Johnson's _Modern High School_, p. 270.

21. King, I. _The High School Age_, p. 195.

22. VanDenburg, J.K. _The Elimination of Pupils from Public Secondary Schools_, p. 113.

23. Slattery, M. _The Girl in Her Teens_, p. 20.

24. Wooley, H.T. "Facts About the Working Children of Cincinnati,"

_Elementary School Teacher_, 14:135.

25. _Report of Commission on Industrial and Technical Education_ (Ma.s.s.), 1906, p. 92.

26. Barrows, Alice P. _Report of Vocational Guidance Survey_ (New York City), Public Education a.s.sociation, New York City, Bull. No. 9, 1912.

27. Holley, C.E. _The Relations.h.i.+p Between Persistence in School and Home Conditions_, Fifteenth Yearbook, Pt. II, p. 98.

28. Bliss, D.C. "High School Failures," _Educational Administration and Supervision_, Vol. III.

29. _Annual Report of Board of Education, Paterson_, 1915.

30. Wood, J.W. "A Study of Failures," _School and Society_, I, 679.

31. Johnson, F.W. "A Study of High School Grades," _School Review_, 19-13.

32. Strayer, G.D., Coffman, L.D., Prosser, C.A. _Report of a Survey of the School System of St. Paul_, 1917.

CHAPTER IV

HOW MUCH IS THE GRADUATION OR THE PERSISTENCE IN SCHOOL CONDITIONED BY THE OCCURRENCE OR THE NUMBER OF FAILURES?

1. COMPARISON OF THE FAILING AND THE NON-FAILING GROUPS IN REFERENCE TO GRADUATION AND PERSISTENCE

It has been noted in section 1 of Chapter II that 58.1 per cent of all the graduates have school failures. Here we mean to carry the a.n.a.lysis and comparison in reference to graduation and failure somewhat further.

To this end the following distribution is significant.

DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS IN REFERENCE TO FAILURE AND GRADUATION

The Non-failing The Failing Pupils--Graduating Pupils--Graduating

Totals 2568 811 (31.5%) 3573 1125 (31.5%) Boys 1001 307 (30.6%) 1645 489 (29.7%) Girls 1567 504 (32.1%) 1928 639 (33.0%)

We have presented here the numbers that graduate without failures, together with the total group to which they belong, and the same for the graduates who have failed. By a mere process of subtraction we may determine the number of non-graduates, as well as the number of these that fail, and then compute the percentage of the non-graduates who fail. Thus we get 58.2 per cent (boys--62.5, girls--54.9) as the percentage of the non-graduates failing. It is apparent at once that this is almost identical with the percentage of failure for the ones who graduate (Chapter II), but for the non-graduates the boys and girls are a little further apart. It may be remarked in this connection that no effort was made to include any of the 808 non-credited pupils among the ones who fail. The inclusion of 60 per cent of this number as potentially failing pupils, as was done in Chapter II, will raise the above percentage of failing non-graduates by 11.5 per cent.

The above distribution of pupils enables us to determine what percentage of the failing and of the non-failing groups graduate. These percentages are identical--31.5 per cent in each case. The boys and girls are further apart in the former group (boys--29.7, girls--33) than in the latter group (boys--30.6, girls--32.1). It follows, then, that the percentage who graduate of all the original entrants is 31.5 per cent. This fact varies by schools from 20.8 per cent to 45.4 per cent. And such percentage is in each case exclusive of the pupils who join the cla.s.s by transfers from other schools or cla.s.ses. Our particular interest is not in how many pupils the school graduates in any year, but rather in how many of the entering pupils in any one year stay to graduate.

The greater persistence of the failing non-graduates, or the greater failing for the more persistent non-graduates, has already been given some attention in both Chapters II and III. In the following distribution the non-graduates alone are considered. The number persisting in school to each succeeding semester is first stated, and then the percentage of that number which is composed of the non-failing pupils is given.