Part 11 (1/2)
Total A B C D
11,029 Boys 256 2225 5543 3005 11,941 Girls 198 2064 6604 3075
Per Cent of Total 19 186 531 264
The facts not only show a lower percentage (by 69 per cent) of unsuccessful grades in the neork, but they also show a higher percentage of A's, of B's, and of C's than for the repeated subjects
There is definite suggestion here that often the particular subject of failure may be more responsible and more at fault than the particular pupil Certainly unifornore the individual differences of interests and abilities But by their greater and their repeated failures in the same deficient subjects (see p 66) these pupils seenored
They have been asked to repeat and repeat again subjects which they have already indicated their unfitness to handle successfully This pursuance of an unsuccessful ood procedure in the business world The doctor does not employ such methods
_d The Number and Results of Identical Repetitions_
It has become apparent before this that some pupils fail several times and in identical subjects because of their unsuccessful repetitions after each failure Final success ht at times justify multiplied repetitions, but in such instances it becoly important that the repetition should eventually end in success after the subject has been repeated two, three or four times If such is not the result, then the y; or still worse it is an irreparable error, expensive to the individual and the school alike, which only serves to accentuate the inequalities and perversions of opportunity imposed by an arbitrary requirement of the same subjects, the same methods, and the saardless of their capacities and interests In using the ternate just one unit of the course, as English I, or Latin II The following table will disclose the facts as to the success resulting from each number of such successive and identical repetitions per pupil
TABLE X
THE NUMBERS AND RESULTS OF REPEATED REPEtitIONS, FOR IDENTICAL SUBJECTS
NO OF Grades No Per Cent REPET A B C D Grade Totals Failing 1 Boys 62 532 1727 880 216 3117 Girls 80 702 2329 1180 342 4633 325 2 Boys 1 15 106 77 3 202 Girls 3 17 154 89 2 265 366 3 Boys0 26 33 0 59 Girls5 19 36 3 63 590 4 Boys4 1115 Girls8 2533 750 5 Boys22 Girls55 1000 6 Boys00 Girls22 1000 Tot Boys 63 547 1863 1003 219 3695 Girls 83 724 2510 1337 347 5001
Although a sher nue of each successive group meets with final failure in the subject repeated, and the facts are indicative of what should be expected however large the nu such multiplied repetitions It seems almost incredible that pupils should anywhere be required or permitted to make the fourth, fifth, or sixth repetition of subjects soto further disappointment It must be understood, too, that five and six repetitions means six and seven times over the same school work The existence of such a situation testifies to a sort of deep-seated faith in the dependence of the pupil's educational salvation on the successful repetition of sonition that the duty of the school is to give each pupil the type of training best suited to his individual endow with the needs of society Such indiscrihtless duplicating and operates, first, to increase the economic, educational, and hued with conserving the greatest of our national resources Second, it operates to fixfor such pupils, and bequeaths to society the fruit of such maladjustments, which cannot fail to function frequently and seriously in the production of industrial dissatisfactions and misfits later in life
Such probabilities are ical fact that habits once established are not likely to be easily lost
Indiscri to do the thing which it assues rather slight grounds to warrant the almost unqualified faith in repetition such as the school practice exhibits (Table X), or in the importance of the particular subjects so repeated There may be evidence in this faith and practice of what Snedden[43] calls the ”undue importance attached to the historic instruht mainly because of the ease hich they can be presentedand whichon the future achieveifted by nature as to render it probable that they should later beco on the productions of failures for pupils whose interests and needs are but re in the departh school pupils perrade and type of work for the third consecutive ti a second time And further it is prescribed that ”students who have failed twice in any given grade of a foreign language should be dropped fros in this study will see that ”students who have failed successfully four prepared subjects should not be per term,” or if they ”have passed four subjects and failed in one,” should be pere the individual's capacities pretty much in terms of failure We have found that for approximately 4,000 repetitions with an extra schedule, however or by who A's and B's was higher and the percentage of failing was substantially lower than for approximately 4,700 repetitions with only three or four subjects for each schedule It does not appear that the number of subjects is unifor willfailure The failure in any subject will more often tend to indicate a specific difficulty rather than any general lack of 'ability plus application' relative to the number of subjects The maladjustment is not so often in the size of the load as in the kind or composition of the load for the particular individual concerned The burden is sometimes mastered by repeated trials But often the particular adjustment needed is clearly indicated by the antecedent failures
2 DISCONTINUANCE OF SUBJECT OR COURSE, AND THE SUBStitUTION OF OTHERS
Earlier in this chapter appears the nue of failures whose disposition was effected by discontinuance or by substitution
Twenty-four and five-tenths per cent of the failures were accounted for in this way This grouping happens to be a rather complex one Many of such pupils simply discontinue the course and then drop out of school
Some discontinue the subject but because they have extra credits take no substitute for it; others substitute in a general way to secure the needed credits but not specifically for the subject dropped Only a few shi+ft their credits to another curriculum In some instances the subject is itself an extra one, and needs no substitute For the graduating pupils only about 5 per cent of the failures are disposed of by discontinuing and by substitution of subjects This fact reater economy in examinations, or to the relatively inflexible school require the prescribed work by repetition whether for graduation or for college entrance In only one school was there a tendency to discontinue the subject failed in So far as failures represent a definite maladjustment between the pupil and the school subject, the substitution of other ould seem to be the most rational solution of the difficulty
A consideration of the success following a substitution of vocational or shop subjects, to replace the acade theme for study No opportunity was offered in the scope of this study to include that sort of inquiry, but its possibilities are recognized and acknowledged herein as worthy of earnest attention In only two of the eight schools was any shop-work offered, and only one of these could probably claim vocational rank
Apart from the difficulty in reference to coible number of cases of such substitution, due partly to the relative recency in the offering of any vocational work In this reference a report comes from WD Lewis of an actual experiment[45] in which ”fifty boys of the school loafer typeselected because of their prolific record in failure--as they had proved absolute failures in the traditional course--were placed in charge of a good red-blooded hly equipped ork shop” ”The shop failed to reach just one” At the same time the academic work improved One cannot be sure of how much to credit the type of work and how much the red-blooded man for such results But we may feel sure of further contributions of this sort in due time
3 EMPLOYMENT OF SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS
The school examinations employed to dispose of the failures are of two types The 'final' semester examination, employed by certain schools and required of pupils who have failed, operates to remove the previous failure for that seh, because of the insufficient time available to ed Of the 1,657 examinations of this kind to satisfy for failures, 307 per cent result in success The boys are irls by 45 per cent This particular procedure is not eht schools The other for of failures is the special exaiven at the discretion of the teacher or department head Its employment seems also to be limited pretty much to two of the schools, because for ents'
examinations tend to displace it in the schools of the New York State and City syste recorded in these tests we do not know the percentage of success attributable to this plan of re failures It probably deserves to be credited with a fairly high degree of success, for relatively few pupils (less than 200) utilize it, and then frequently after some extra preparation or study--such as su These two forms of school examinations jointly yield 375 per cent of successes on the number attempted, so far as such are recorded
4 THE SERVICE RENDERED BY THE REGENTS' EXAMINATIONS IN NEW YORK STATE
Whatever ents' exaeneral for acade function for the failing pupils, by pro sothem from the burden of expensive repetition A pupil's success in the Regents'