Part 5 (1/2)

PERCENTAGES OF PUPILS FOR EACH ENTERING AGE

AGES 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Undistributed Total 04 76 316 344 181 55 12 10 Boys 06 80 310 378 188 56 08 11 Girls 02 74 324 348 175 55 14 10

We see that 84 per cent of the pupils enter at age 14, 15, and 16, or, what is perhaps more ie The siirls is pronounced The slight advantage of the boys for ages 12 and 13the early entrance of the girls, thus causing a corresponding superiority for the girls at age 14 The e distribution is at 15 for both boys and girls

What portion of each entering-age-group has no failures? This question and the answer presented below direct our attention to the superiority of the pupils of the earlier entering ages That these groups of earlier ages of entrance are comprised of pupils selected for their capabilities is shown by the successive decrease in the percentages of the non-failing as the ages of their entrance increases, up to age 18

DISTRIBUTION OF THE PUPILS WHO DO NOT FAIL, FOR EACH ENTERING-AGE-GROUP

AGES Totals 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

1061 B 11 102 320 309 186 56 9 4 4 1575 G 3 133 522 545 256 73 29 7 6of ----------------- Entrants 580 500 434 400 398 377 550

Here is definite evidence that the pupils of the earlier entering ages are less likely to fail in any of their school subjects than are the older ones Those entering at ages 12 or 13 escape school failures altogether for 50 per cent or e 14 are somewhat less successful but still see, then, that these three ages of entrance include nearly 40 per cent of the 6,141 pupils There is, of course, nothing in this situation to justify any deduction of the sort that pupils entering at the age of 17 would have been h school earlier, except that had they been able to enter high school earlier they would have represented a different selection of ability by that fact alone There is also a sort of selection operative for the pupils entering at ages 18, 19, or 20, which tends to account at least partly for the rise in the percentage of the non-failing for these years It is safe to believe that for the most part only the more able, ambitious, and purposeful individuals are likely to display the energy required or to discern the need of their entering high school when they have reached the age of 18 or later The appeal of school athletics will in this case seem very inadequate to explain their entrance so late, since the girls predoly for these years Then it may be contended further that the added maturity and experience of those later entrants may partly compensate for a lack of native ability, if such be the case, and thereby result in a relatively high percentage of non-failing pupils for this group

It is readily conceded that the avoidance of failure in school work serves as only one criterion for gauging the pupils' accoly iroups of school entrants compare with reference to the persistence and ability which is represented by school graduation A truly striking array of percentages follows in reference to the question of how raduate

DISTRIBUTION OF THE PUPILS GRADUATING FOR EACH ENTERING-AGE GROUP

AGES Totals 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

796 B 14 115 290 253 99 20 2 1 2 1140 G 5 151 465 363 121 26 5 1 0

of Entrants 791 566 388 299 200 134 91 100 133

These percentages bear convincing testimony in support of the previous evidence that the pupils of the earlier entering years are highly selected in ability Of all the high school entrants they are the 'raduate The percentage of pupils graduating who entered at the age of 12 is approxie of 16

Thirteen is e 17; fourteen bears a sie for fifteen is three tiures The fact that the decline of these percentages ceases at age 19 is probably due to the greater maturity of such later entrants

When we raduates 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 843 857 758 795 843 804 100

It appears that the ones in the older age-groups who do graduate are not so handicapped in reference to the tiht have expected thees Perhaps that fact is partly accounted for by the not unusual tendency to restrain the er pupils or to proe, so that by our school procedure the younger and the brighter pupilsto e, 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 seeauge 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 per habits of the individual, or the difference in effectiveness of the school's appeal as adapted for the several ages One ier pupils, with the consequent result that they are more successful in its requirements

The distractions of more numerous social interests e In reference to the social distractions of girls, Margaret Slattery says,[23] ”This irls 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 econoe 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 econoht 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 fas 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 faes But Holley concludes,[27] froh correlation between the econoes 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 econo of the children in their school work, either because home conditions may be decidedly unfavorable for required hoer portion of tiiven 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 interrelationshi+p 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