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Page 20
When we make inquiry as to what portion of the graduates in each of the
above groups 'goes through' in four years or less, we get the series of
percentages indicated below.
PERCENTAGE OF THE GRADUATES WHO FINISH IN FOUR YEARS OR LESS,
FOR EACH OF THE ENTERING-AGE GROUPS
Ages 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
% of Each Group 84.3 85.7 75.8 79.5 84.3 80.4 100
It appears that the ones in the older age-groups who do graduate are
not so handicapped in reference to the time requirement for graduation
as we might have expected them to be from the facts of the preceding
pages. Perhaps that fact is partly accounted for by the not unusual
tendency to restrain the more rapid progress of the younger pupils or
to promote the older ones partly by age, so that by our school
procedure the younger and the brighter pupils may at times actually be
more retarded, according to mental age, than are the older and slower
ones.
Since the same teachers, the same schools, and the same administrative
policy were involved for the different entrance-age groups, the
prognostic value of the factor of age at entrance will seem to be
unimpaired, whether it operates independently as a gauge of rank in
mental ability, or conjointly with and indicative of the varying
influence on these pupils of other concomitant factors, such as the
difference of economic demands, the difference of social interests, the
difference in permanence of conflicting habits of the individual, or
the difference in effectiveness of the school's appeal as adapted for
the several ages. One may contend, and with some success, that the high
school r�gime is better adjusted to the younger pupils, with the
consequent result that they are more successful in its requirements.
The distractions of more numerous social interests may actually
accompany the later years of school age. In reference to the social
distractions of girls, Margaret Slattery says,[23] "This mania for
'going' seizes many of our girls just when they need rest and natural
pleasures, the great out-of-doors, and early hours of retiring." But
surely such distractions are not peculiar to the girls alone. The
economic needs that arise at the age of sixteen and later are often
considered to constitute a pressing factor regarding the continuance in
school. But VanDenburg[22] was convinced by the investigation, in New
York City, of 420 rentals for the families of pupils that "on the whole
the economic status of these pupils seems to be only a slight factor in
their continuance in school." A similar conclusion was reached by
Wooley,[24] in Cincinnati, after investigating 600 families, in which
it was estimated that 73 per cent of the families did not need the
earnings of the children who left school to go to work. The
corresponding report by a commission[25] in Massachusetts shows 76 per
cent. The same facts for New York City[26] indicate that 80 per cent of
such families are independent of the child's wages. But Holley
concludes,[27] from a study of certain towns in Illinois, that "there
is a high correlation between the economic, educational, and social
advantages of a home and the number of years of school which its
children receive." It will hardly be denied that even aside from the
relation of the family means to the school persistence, the economic
needs may have a direct influence on the failing of the children in
their school work, either because home conditions may be decidedly
unfavorable for required home study, or because of the larger portion
of time that must be given to outside employment, with its consequent
reduction of the normal vitality of the individual or of his readiness
to study. But, in spite of the possible interrelationship of these
factors, it still appears that the school entrance age of pupils will
serve as a valuable sort of educational compass to foretell in part the
probable direction of their later accomplishment.
3. THE AMOUNT OF FAILURE AT EACH AGE AND ITS RELATION TO THE
POSSIBILITY OF FAILING FOR THAT AGE
We have considered at some length the prognostic value of the age at
entrance. Here we shall briefly consider the prognostic value of age in
reference to the time when failures occur and the amount of failure for
such age. If we were to total all the failures for a given age, as
shown in Table I, what part will that form of the total subjects taken
by these pupils at the time the failures occur? In other words, what
are the percentages formed by the total failures on the possibility of
failing, for the same pupils and the same semesters, considered by age
groups? The summary line of Table I gives the total failures according
to the ages at which they occurred. The number of pupils sharing in
each group of these failures is also known by a separate tabulation.
Then the full number of subjects per pupil is taken as 4�, since
approximately 50 per cent of the pupils take five or more subjects each
semester and the other 50 per cent take four or less (see p. 61). With
the number of pupils given, and with a schedule of 4� subjects per
pupil, we are able to compute the percentages which the failures form
of the total subjects for these failing pupils at the time. These
percentages are given below.
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