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Page 5
4. SOURCES OF THE DATA EMPLOYED
The only records employed in this whole problem of research were the
official school records. No questionnaires were used, and no statements
of pupils or opinions of teachers as such were sought. The facts are
the most authoritative and dependable available, and are the very same
upon which the administrative procedure of the school relative to the
pupil is mainly dependent. The individual, cumulative records for the
pupils provided the chief source of the facts secured. These school
records, as might be expected, varied considerably as to the form, the
size, the simplicity in stating facts, and the method of filing; but
they were quite similar in the facts recorded, as well as in the
completeness and care with which the records were compiled. It may be
added that only schools having such records were included in the
investigation.
After the meanings of symbols and devices and the methods of recording
the facts had been fully explained and carefully studied for the
records of any school, the selection of the pupil records was then
made, on the basis of the year of the pupils' entrance to the school,
including all the pupils who had actually entered and undertaken work.
(Pupils who registered but failed to take up school work were entirely
disregarded.) These individual records were classified into the failing
and the non-failing divisions, then into graduating and non-graduating
groups, with the boys and girls differentiated throughout. As fast as
the records were read and interpreted into the terms required they were
transcribed, with the pupils' names, by the author himself, to large
sheets (16x20) from which the tabulations were later made. There was
always an opportunity to ask questions and to make appeals for
information either to the principal himself or to the secretary in
charge of the records. This tended to reduce greatly the danger of
mistakes other than those of chance error. The task of transcribing the
data was both tedious and prolonged. This process alone required as
much as four weeks for each of the larger schools, and without the
continued and courteous cooperation of the principals and their
assistants it would have been altogether impossible in that time.
Some arbitrary decisions and classifications proved necessary in
reference to certain facts involved in the data employed in this study.
All statements of age will be understood as applying to within the
nearest half year; that is, fifteen years of age will mean within the
period from fourteen years and a half to fifteen years and a half. The
classification in the following pages by school years or semesters
(half-years) is dependent upon the time of entrance into school. In
this sense, a pupil who entered either in September or in February is
regarded as a first semester pupil, however the school classes are
named. As promotions are on a subject basis in each of the schools
there is no attempt to classify later by promotions, but the
time-in-school basis is retained. In reference to school marks or
grades, letters are here employed, although four of the eight schools
employ percentage grading. Whether the passing mark is 60, as in some
of the schools, or 70, as in others, the letter C is used to represent
one-third of the distance from the failing mark to 100 per cent; B is
used to represent the next third of the distance; and A is used to
express the upper third of the distance. The plus and minus signs,
attached to the gradings in three of the schools, are disregarded for
the purposes of this study, except that when D+ occurred as a
conditional passing mark it was treated as a C. Otherwise D has been
used to signify a failing grade in a subject, which means that the
grade is somewhere below the passing mark. The term 'graduates' is
meant to include all who graduate, either by diploma or by certificate.
Any statement made in the following pages of 'time in school' or of
time spent for 'securing graduation' will not include as a part of such
period a semester in which the pupil is absent all or nearly all of the
time, as in the case of absence due to illness.
5. THE SELECTION AND RELIABILITY OF THESE SOURCES OF DATA
By employing data secured only from official school records and in the
manner stated, this study has been limited to those schools that
provide the cumulative pupil records, with continuity and completeness,
for a sufficient period of years. Some schools had to be eliminated
from consideration for our purposes because the cumulative records
covered too brief a period of years. In other schools administrative
changes had broken the continuity of the records, making them difficult
to interpret or undependable for this study. The shortage of clerical
help was the reason given in one school for completing only the records
of the graduates. In addition to the requirements pertaining to
records, only publicly administered and co-educational schools have
been included among those whose records are used. It was also
considered important to have schools representing the large as well as
the small city on the list of those studied. Since many schools do not
possess these important records, or do not recognize their value, it is
quite probable that the conditions prescribed here tended to a
selection of schools superior in reference to systematic procedure,
definite standards, and stable organization, as compared to those in
general which lack adequate records.
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