examples attempted and by 1.23 per cent in the accuracy with which they do their work; the same pupils surpass the pupils in Group C schools by a median score of 1.8 examples attempted and by 2.66 per cent in the accuracy with which they do their work. In the ten cases where the number is preceded by a minus sign the median for Group A schools is lower than the median for the group given. In the seventy cases where no sign precedes the figure the advantage is in favor of Group A schools. A few brief statements, without discussion, will summarize the conclusions to be drawn from this comparative table: I. In the amount of work done in the four fundamental operations, Group A schools show superiority over Group B schools in sixteen out of twenty comparisons and over Group C schools in eighteen out of twenty comparisons. 2. In the accuracy with which the work is done, Group A schools show superiority over both Group B and Group C schools in seventeen out of twenty comparisons. 3. The ten cases in which Group A schools are surpassed in speed or accuracy by Group B or Group C schools are distributed as follows: It is to be expected that in the earlier grades the differences between those schools tested and those not tested will be found to be small, because the cumulative effect of testing work can be hoped for only after several years of effort, and hence must always be found largely in the upper grades. SIGNIFICANT OBSERVATIONS 1. The difference in amount of work done as shown in a comparison of Group A, Group B, and Group C schools is slight in the earlier grades and gradually grows more pronounced, until in the eighth grade the superiority of Group A schools over Group C schools is from 12 to 17.7 per cent. 2. This gain of from 12 to 17.7 per cent in the amount of work done has also been accompanied by an actual increase in the accuracy with which that work is done. Altho the idea has not been developed in this paper, it is proper to point out that in all testing work undertaken by the department those pupils who do most work do it most accurately. This is a refutation of the contention of would-be critics that pupils are inaccurate in the Courtis tests because they are hurried in their work... 3. The fact that the 18,391 pupils represented in Group A schools are graduating from the elementary school or are going into the next grade with varying degrees of superiority up to 17.7 per cent over the 11,839 pupils who have not been tested is altogether due directly or indirectly to the system of educational measurement in Boston. 4. It is also a significant fact that this achievement has been brought about without the exercise of any administrative pressure of any kind whatsoever. The results are wholly due to the desire of principals and teachers to make the best possible use of the time of teachers and pupils in securing a reasonably satisfactory educational result. 5. These results seem to prove two important propositions: (1) that the scientific measurement of educational results is possible and practicable in a large city school system; and (2) that educational measurement may be a means of improving those educational results. ROUND TABLE OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION, SCHOOL CENSUS, AND CHILD WELFARE DOES A STRICT ENFORCEMENT OF THE COMPULSORY-EDUCATION LAW ASSIST TEACHERS AND SUPERVISORS IN THEIR WORK? EDWARD B. SHALLOW, ASSOCIATE CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, NEW YORK, N.Y. On May 1, 1914, a Bureau of Attendance, School Census, and Child Welfare was organized in the city of New York. In the work of this bureau, an attempt is made to have an up-to-date record of every child of school age within the city, to see that all such children are kept regularly in school, if they are fit to attend, and to bring to the aid of children who need help the assistance of social welfare agencies. Thru the work of this bureau, we have gathered much useful information while enforcing the law. In the brief time at my disposal, I shall try to tell you how a strict enforcement of the compulsory-education law helps the work of teachers by increasing attendance, reducing retardation, and conserving a teacher's nervous energy. 1. Increasing attendance.—The 327 square miles of territory in the city of New York are divided into attendance districts, for the purposes of taking the school census and of enforcing the compulsory-education law. In this territory, there are approximately 1,326,500 persons between five and eighteen years of age; 850,000 of these are enrolled in public schools. During the past year, the percentage of attendance on the register was 90 per cent. The following regulations governing the admission, transfer, and discharge of pupils in the city of New York may be of interest. Before these regulations were in force, thousands of children disappeared while transferring from one school to another. The regulations provide that: No pupil enrolled in a public school shall be discharged except by order of the principal for one of the following causes, which must be well established in each case: (1) proper and known admission to another school or to an institution; (2) the issuance of a duly authorized transfer; (3) commitment to a truant school or other reformatory institution; (4) transfer or expulsion in accordance with subdivisions 3, 4, and 5 of section 48 of the by-laws; (5) commitment to a charitable institution by a parent or guardian, a court, or a public officer; (6) notice from the director of attendance that an employment certificate has been issued and that the name of the child has been placed on the general suspense register; (7) death; (8) marriage; (9) graduation; in such case, the principal shall report the name of the child to the bureau of attendance, if it has not received a transfer to another school, or at the time of graduation has not obtained an employment certificate; (10) withdrawal by parent for any one of the following reasons: (a) instruction at home by a competent teacher, provided the district superintendent of the district in which the child lives has been notified and has approved the amount and the character of instruction (b) physical disability certified as to cause and duration by a physician or other person duly recognized by the regents of the state of New York, provided the duration of such physical disability shall amount to one month; (c) mental disability when duly certified as sufficient for discharge by the city superintendent of schools; (11) permanent removal from the city; (12) inability to locate the residence of the pupil, when such fact shall have been duly reported to the principal of the school by the director of attendance. The director of attendance shall maintain a general suspense register on which shall be placed the names of children residing in the city of New York, under sixteen years of age, who have been discharged and who are not regularly enrolled in a recognized school. He may require reports concerning the admission, transfer, and discharge of children from the public schools, and may arrange with schools not under the control of the board of education for similar reports. Immigrant children admitted under bond by the immigration authorities to attend school for a given time shall not be discharged before the expiration of that time, except by permission of the director of attendance, nor shall a school record of attendance be issued to any such immigrant child to enable it to obtain an employment certificate, except by permission of the director of attendance. When a pupil leaves school thru promotion or authorized transfer, a duplicate of his or her record card at the time of promotion or transfer shall be forwarded to the principal of the school to which such pupil is transferred. The date and cause of discharge shall be entered immediately on the original and the duplicate of the record card of such pupil discharged as hereinbefore provided. These Every child is required to attend a school situated in the school district in which he resides. Within said district he shall attend the school nearest his residence. requirements may be suspended by the city superintendent of schools. The better method of enforcing the compulsory-education law, made affective in May, 1914, in the city of New York, and a stricter accountability of each attendance officer for the amount of work done each day, have done much, not only in increasing attendance at school but in preventing juvenile delinquency. Yet the law is not strictly enforced; this is not due to the method provided for doing the work, but rather to the inadequate financial support which the departments gets from the city government. An evidence that a better enforcement of the compulsory-education law has increased attendance in the city of New York, may be seen in the fact that twelve years ago the attendance was only 86 per cent of the average register in public schools, whereas last year it was 90 per cent. A difference of 4 per cent less attendance in the enrolment of the New York schools for the past year would mean that 34,000 enrolled children had not attended school regularly. The most notable example of a city which is fairly successful in accounting for all the children of school age within its limits is the city of London. There the compulsory-school age is from five to fourteen years, and there the teachers are relieved from the anxiety of looking after absentees. The Bureau of School Attendance inspects the registers of every school to find out who is absent. The teaching staff has only to note the fact of absence. The attendance department in the public schools of London accounts for all children of compulsory-school age within the city. Within the six years from 1905 to 1910, there were on the rolls of London schools from 97.3 per cent to 97.5 per cent of all the children of compulsory-school age. Under a strict enforcement of the compulsory-education law in London, the percentage of attendance in public schools steadily increased for ten years, and showed a gain of nearly 10 per cent. Under the same public supervision, the gain in attendance was at the same rate in private and parochial schools. An effort is made to account for every child of compulsory-school age, and, if such a child is not in school, to give a satisfactory reason for his absence. But how can any city, large or small, have a proper supervision of the school attendance of its children without an effective organization and a suitable force of agents for taking a school census and compelling attendance? In most American cities hitherto, the work of attendance officers has been largely a laughing-stock. The statistics of six years ago showed the following facts: New York had 9,300 school children for each attendance officer In keeping with the careless way in which American school boards generally look upon the matter of keeping children of compulsory-school age in school is the attitude of magistrates in enforcing parental responsibility. In towns where there are no children's courts, the same magistrate or justice of the peace before whom adults charged with felonies are arraigned is also called upon to hear charges against "hookey-players" and their negligent parents, and against those who employ children illegally. The magistrate's view of these, to him, minor affairs is generally one of justice tempered with too much mercy, and parents are not held to a proper accountability. Why, the dignified man on the bench may have "played hookey" himself forty or fifty years ago! The question comes to his mind: "Is non-attendance at school such a serious offense?" But the London magistrates think it is, because in one year they punished 10,600 adults for keeping children out of school. In the same year, New York— with about the same school enrolment-punished 1,500 adults for the same offense. Philadelphia in the same year enforced a greater responsibility than New York. In Germany, the punishment for keeping children from school during the compulsoryschool age is accepted as almost certain, unless a valid reason can be given for absence. But illegal absence from school, and especially truancy, meant much less fifty years ago in this country. Then, when the population was more largely rural, if a boy was a truant he usually went a-fishing, or played games in open fields, or went for a day to a circus in his own or a neighboring town. Now, if he plays truant in a large city, he is likely to fall into the worst of companionship, to consort with loafers and juvenile criminals, and to learn vice and crime. Statistics show that most of the juvenile criminals have been at some time truants. The following excerpt from Bulletin No. 573 of the United States Bureau of Education, entitled Compulsory School Attendance, is also significant as showing the effect of a strict enforcement of the compulsory-education law in increasing attendance: An experiment was conducted by the truancy department of the Indianapolis schools several years ago by having the truant officer visit the school daily and obtain the names of all absentees. All cases of absence were visited, even tho a good excuse, such as sickness, was known to exist. Altho many children were excluded at that time, as medical inspection had been recently introduced, the absentees during the four-months' period were 20 per cent less than for the corresponding period of the preceding year. The method was discontinued, as it imposed too much work upon the officer, whose duties were already heavy. Money so expended would, however, bear dividends far beyond those accruing to the more or less haphazard method under present conditions. As stated in this report, money expended in a strict enforcement of the compulsoryeducation law would bear good dividends. But if we are to account for every child of school age and see that he is in school, cities should do more in providing suitable special classes and schools for the physically and mentally defective, for the blind, the deaf, the crippled, and the mentally abnormal. Some cities have made good beginnings along these lines. Such efforts would do much in saving ultimate expense for charitable and correctional institutions for adults. In one attendance district in the city of New York, comprising 35 schools, the percentage of attendance has increased in every school during the past two years, since the work of the attendance Bureau has been brought under an efficient system. Where formerly there was uncertainty and speculation as to how much work each attendance officer was actually doing each day, now it is a matter of definiteness and responsibility. If a pupil is detained from school temporarily thru sickness, poverty, or neglect, his case is not neglected. He is returned to school at the earliest possible time. 2. Reduction of retardation in studies.—When we consider the waste in money and time, both to the individual and to the community, occasioned by the retardation of children in school, and realize that much of such retardation is due to unnecessary and preventable absence, it will be seen that money expended in a strict enforcement of compulsory-education laws is largely offset by money saved in teachers' salaries and school equipment. The truth of this statement is, it would seem, axiomatic. An appeal to common experience is sufficient to justify it. A proper record of promotions and nonpromotions in almost any community will show this. The following extracts from the records of the bureau of attendance in the city of New York are pertinent: The significance of the practice of extending the attendance service beyond the mere control of truancy by police methods is further emphasized by the summary of facts regarding the relation of absence to non-promotion. In a study made of non-promotions in New York a few years ago, nearly one-half of the pupils who failed of promotion were absent over two-fifths of the school term, and 70 per cent were absent from school at least 30 days during the half-year. These data, furthermore, take account only of the pupils who failed of promotion on June 30. Important as it unquestionably is to discover and control truancy in its incipiency, it is obvious that the occasional truant is not the only problem-maker. A conservative program of attendance control must find effective means for dealing with the very large number of children who by sporadic absence for trivial causes not only lessen their own chances for making satisfactory progress in school, but, by requiring an undue amount of the attention of teachers, handicap those pupils who are regular in attendance. 3. Saving in nervous energy of teachers and supervisors.-That well-planned and enthusiastic teaching is facilitated by the regularity of the attendance of pupils needs no demonstration. A school organization which works smoothly naturally makes no extra draughts on the nervous energy of the teacher. But where irregularity in the attendance of the pupils is common, it is difficult to plan and difficult to execute. Where a teacher's time is divided between teaching and acting as attendance officer, energy which should be given to teaching is lost. It was seriously proposed in one of our large cities last year that the attendanceofficer force should be reduced or dispensed with, and that the teachers should, before and after school hours, investigate all absences of pupils by visits to their homes. That a teacher should visit homes of pupils in a rural community, or even in a smaller city, is advisable. Such visits often help the teacher in knowing how to deal with certain pupils and in getting in touch with parents. But in a large cosmopolitan city, I would not ask teachers to visit homes. The disadvantages of the practice in such places are too great for the results obtained. Attendance officers should be engaged, if possible, who have both the spirit and the earnestness of the teacher and of the missionary. Such officers' visits to homes may result in as much, or possibly more, good than the visit of a teacher. In conclusion, let me urge upon the officials of every large city-school system the importance of having an efficient bureau, both for the taking of an up-to-date school census, and for a prompt, strict, and efficient enforcement of the compulsory-education law. And let me add that, in my judgment, the time is not far distant when the large American cities will have to know, at all times, not only who the school children are, and where they are, but also who the adult residents of the city are, what their occupations are, and where they may be found. Then such cities may be able to know what percentage of their children of school age are in school. DISCUSSION HENRY D. HERVEY, superintendent of schools, Auburn, N. Y.-As applied to the field of education, democracy demands absolute equality of educational opportunity for all. It demands that every human being capable of being educated shall be given his fair and equal chance to attain the largest measure of self-development. We have made progress toward the realization of this ideal in the past. Schools have been made free and accessible to all. The principle that schools supported by all should meet the needs of all has been fairly well established, tho progress in the discovery of varying types to be |