FIG. 1. Black shows percentage of all the children of Cleveland of each age from six to eighteen not attending the public school in 1908–9.

DETERMINING WHERE THE SCHOOL BREAKS DOWN

In the administration of the public school, new problems have arisen within the last few years, and new standards of efficiency have been raised. The most important of these new problems is the one of educational waste. The work of the school up to the present time has been judged in large measure by the number of its graduates and by their intellectual attainments. Little or no account has been taken of the number that withdrew before reaching the sixth grade, to say nothing of those dropping out before completing the elementary or high-school course. In a word, the problem of withdrawals has been ignored. The public school ought to be so attractive and so effective that once a child enters he will continue until he has at least finished the elementary course. We are, however, at present far from attaining this degree of efficiency. But to what extent we are failing to hold our children cannot be known until definite data are collected with reference to withdrawals; moreover the public school has not done its full duty by the child until the causes of withdrawal are ascertained, and those lying within the school eradicated.

Again, the public school ought to be so organized that the child entering at the age of six will be able to complete his elementary education by the end of his fourteenth year, and his high-school education by the close of

the eighteenth. To measure the efficiency of the school in this respect, it is necessary to know the number of retarded children. By a retarded child we mean one behind his grade for his age. So to order our records that the degree of retardation and the causes may be known, and that by the proper use of these data children may be advanced thru the school on time, is one of the pressing problems of the day.

The elementary school is divided into eight grades and the high school into four, each representing a unit of work which supposedly is to be covered by the child in one school year. When a child fails to do the work in a given period, he is compelled to go over it a second time, and becomes thereby a repeater. The school, as it is now, is far from being able to carry the child thru its twelve units of work in twelve years. That school is, however, the most efficient-taking just standards of attainment into consideration-which has the fewest repeaters, and it should be the conscious endeavor of every system to ascertain the number of repeaters and the causes, and to reduce. repetition to a minimum.

Just as the outcome of repetition is retardation, so the direct cause of repetition is non-promotion. That is, children fail to be advanced from one division to the next higher, or from the highest division of one grade to the lowest of the next grade. Non-promotion results of course from failure in studies. To reduce retardation, it is therefore necessary to know the number and causes of non-promotion and the studies and the grade in which children fail, to the end that external factors, such as physical defects and irregular attendance, may be eradicated, and that materials in the studies of the school may be better adapted to the age and capacity of pupils, or the requirements in these studies lessened.

If, therefore, the problems of educational waste as measured by withdrawals, retardation, and repetition are to be squarely faced, and the efficiency of the school in these respects increased, there is imperative need of the collection and the use of data in making the schools more attractive, in adjusting its requirements to the abilities of children, and adapting its course of instruction to their needs.

The following tables upon withdrawals and causes, upon retardation, upon repetition, and upon non-promotion and causes, collected with reference to the Cleveland public schools, are typical of data that must be collected and used in meeting the above problems.

Table II shows, for each of the last ten eighth-grade classes of all elementary schools, the total number of pupils enrolled in the first grade, the number of these reaching the second, the third, and so on to the eighth grade; it shows also the percentage of the total enrolled in the first grade advancing to each higher grade, and the percentage of the total withdrawing by the end of each grade:

*Percentage of enrollment in first grade advancing into each grade.

↑ Percentage of enrollment in first grade withdrawing by end of each grade.

The data here used are taken from the official records of the Board of Education. The percentage of withdrawals is, however, without doubt, too high, due to the treatment in past years of first-grade pupils and to including transfers.

FIG. 2.-Black shows percentage of all children enrolled in the first grade of the elementary schools of Cleveland for the ten years between 1892-93 and 1901-2 withdrawing before reaching the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.

Table III shows the number of withdrawals in 1909-10 in each grade of the elementary and in each class of the high school, the whole number of withdrawals in each school, and the total in all; it shows the enrollment and percentage of withdrawals on enrollment for each grade and class, also the enrollment of the elementary and the high school, the percentage of withdrawals in each, and the percentage of withdrawals on enrollment in both the elementary and the high school.

Table IV shows the causes of withdrawal from the elementary and high school, the number withdrawing in 1909-10 for each cause in each. school; the percentage of all withdrawals in each school due to each cause; it also shows the number of withdrawals in both schools due to each cause, and the percentage of all withdrawals in both schools due to each cause.

Table V shows the normal age for completing each grade of the elementary school, the number of children in 1909-10 in each grade behind one, two, three, four and more years, the total retarded in each grade, the enrollment in each grade, the percentage of retardation in each grade, and the percentage of total enrollment retarded; it also shows the total retarded one, two, three, four and more years, and the percentage of all retarded back one, two, three, four and more years.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3

FIG. 3.-Black shows percentage of all children enrolled in each grade of the elementary and high schools of Cleveland in 1909-10 retarded one, two, three, or four and more years. Numbers indicate grade of elementary and class of high school.

The normal ages given in Table V for completing the work of a particular grade differ from the ages given by certain writers, notably Dr. Thorn