The High School Failures by Francis P. Obrien
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10 THE HIGH SCHOOL FAILURES
A STUDY OF THE SCHOOL RECORDS OF PUPILS FAILING IN ACADEMIC OR
COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS
By
FRANCIS P. OBRIEN
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University
PUBLISHED BY
Teachers College, Columbia University
NEW YORK CITY
1919
Copyright, 1919, by FRANCIS P. OBRIEN
PREFACE
Grateful acknowledgment is due the principals of each of the high
schools whose records are included in this study, for the courteous and
helpful attitude which they and their assistants manifested in the work
of securing the data. Thanks are due Dr. John S. Tildsley for his
generous permission to consult the records in each or any of the New
York City high schools. But the fullest appreciation is felt and
acknowledged for the ready criticism and encouragement received from
Professor Thomas H. Briggs and Professor George D. Strayer at each
stage from the inception to the completion of this study.
F.P.O.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I.--THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE SUBJECT
1. The Relevance of This Study 1
2. The Meaning of Failure in This Study 3
3. Scope and Content of the Field Covered 4
4. Sources of the Data Employed 6
5. Selection and Reliability of These Sources 8
6. Summary of Chapter, and References 11
II.--HOW EXTENSIVE ARE THE FAILURES OF THE HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS?
1. A Distribution of All Entrants in Reference to Failure 12
2. The Later Distribution of the Pupils by Semesters 14
3. The Distribution of the Failures--by Ages and by Semesters 14
4. Distribution of the Failures by Subjects 19
5. The Pupils Dropping Out--Time and Age 24
6. Summary of Chapter, and References 27
III.--WHAT BASIS IS DISCOVERABLE FOR A PROGNOSIS OF THE OCCURRENCE
OR THE NUMBER OF FAILURES?
1. Some Possible Factors--Attendance, Mental and Physical
Defects, Size of Classes 29
2. Employment of the School Entering Age for the Purpose
of Prognosis 31
3. The Percentage of Failure at Each Age on the Possibility
of Failures for That Age 36
4. The Initial Record in High School 37
5. Prognosis of Failure by Subject Selection 39
6. The Time Period and the Number of Failures 40
7. Similarity of Facts for Boys and Girls 45
8. Summary of Chapter, and References 45
IV.--HOW MUCH IS GRADUATION OR THE PERSISTENCE IN SCHOOL CONDITIONED
BY THE OCCURRENCE OR BY THE NUMBER OF FAILURES?
1. Comparison of the Failing and the Non-failing Groups
in Reference to Graduation and Persistence 48
2. The Number of Failures and the Years Required to Graduate 49
3. The Number of Failures and the Semesters of Dropping
Out, for Non-graduates 51
4. The Percentages That the Non-graduate Groups Form of
the Pupils Who Have Each Successively Higher Number
of Failures 55
5. Time Extension for the Failing Graduates 56
6. Summary of Chapter, and References 57
V.--ARE THE SCHOOL AGENCIES EMPLOYED IN REMEDYING THE FAILURES
ADEQUATE FOR THE PURPOSE?
1. Repetition as a Remedy for Failures 60
a. Size of Schedule and Results of Repeating.
b. Later Grades in the Same Kind of Subjects,
Following Repetition and Without it.
c. The Grades in Repeated Subjects and in New Work.
d. The Number and Results of Identical Repetitions.
2. Discontinuance of the Subject or Course, and the
Substitution of Others 68
3. The Employment of School Examinations 69
4. The Service Rendered by the Regents' Examinations in
New York 70
5. Continuation of Subjects Without Repetition or Examination 73
6. Summary of Chapter, and References 74
VI.--DO THE FAILURES REPRESENT A LACK OF CAPABILITY OR OF
FITNESS FOR HIGH SCHOOL WORK ON THE PART OF THOSE PUPILS?
1. Some Are Evidently Misfits 76
2. Most of the Failing Pupils Lack Neither Ability nor
Earnestness 77
3. The School Emphasis and the School Failures Are Both
Culminative in Particular School Subjects 81
4. An Indictment Against the Subject-Matter and the Teaching
Ends as Factors in Producing Failures 83
5. Summary of Chapter, and References 85
VII.--WHAT TREATMENT IS SUGGESTED BY THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE FACTS
OF FAILURE?
1. Organization and Adaptation in Recognition of the
Individual Differences in Abilities and Interests 87
2. Faculty Student Advisers from the Time of Entrance 89
3. Greater Flexibility and Differentiation Required 90
4. Provision for the Direction of the Pupils' Study 92
5. A Greater Recognition and Exposition of the Facts as
Revealed by Accurate and Complete School Records 94
6. Summary of Chapter, and References 96
A STUDY OF THE SCHOOL RECORDS OF THE PUPILS FAILING IN ACADEMIC
OR COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS
CHAPTER I
GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE SUBJECT
1. THE RELEVANCE OF THIS STUDY
As the measuring of the achievements of the public schools has become a
distinctive feature of the more recent activities in the educational
field, the failure in expected accomplishment by the school, and its
proficiency in turning out a negative product, have been forced upon
our attention rather emphatically. The striking growth in the number of
school surveys, measuring scales, questionnaires, and standardized
tests, together with many significant school experiments and
readjustments, bears testimony of our evident demand for a closer
diagnosis of the practices and conditions which are no longer accepted
with complacency.
The American people have expressed their faith in a scheme of universal
democratic education, and have committed themselves to the support of
the free public high school. They have been liberal in their financing
and strong in their faith regarding this enterprise, so typically
American, to a degree that a secondary education may no longer be
regarded as a luxury or a heritage of the rich. No longer may the field
be treated as either optional or exclusive. The statutes of several of
our states now expressly or impliedly extend their compulsory
attendance requirements beyond the elementary years of school. Many,
too, are the lines of more desirable employment for young people which
demand or give preference to graduates of a high school. At the same
time there has been no decline in the importance of high school
graduation for entering the learned or professional pursuits.
Accordingly, it seems highly probable that, with such an extended and
authoritative sphere of influence, a stricter business accounting will
be exacted of the public high school, as the great after-war burdens
make the public less willing to depend on faith in financing so great
an experiment. They will ask, ever more insistently, for facts as to
the expenditures, the finished product, the internal adjustments, and
the waste product of our secondary schools. Such inquiries will indeed
seem justifiable.
It is estimated that the public high schools had 84 per cent of all the
pupils (above 1,500,000) enrolled in the secondary schools of the
United States in 1916.[1] The majority of these pupils are lost from
school--whatever the cause--before the completion of their courses;
and, again, the majority of those who do graduate have on graduation
ended their school days. Consequently, it becomes more and more evident
how momentous is the influence of the public high school in
conditioning the life activities and opportunities of our youthful
citizens who have entered its doors. Before being entitled to be
considered a "big business enterprise,"[2] it seems imperative that our
"American High School" must rapidly come to utilize more of business
methods of accounting and of efficiency, so as to recognize the
tremendous waste product of our educational machinery.
The aim of this study is to trace as carefully and completely as may be
the facts relative to that major portion of our high school population,
the pupils who fail in their school subjects, and to note something of
the significance of these findings. If we are to proceed wisely in
reference to the failing pupils in the high school, it is admittedly of
importance that such procedure should be based on a definite knowledge
of the facts. The value of such a study will in turn be conditioned by
the scrupulous care and scientific accuracy in the securing and
handling of the facts. It is believed that the causes of and the
remedies for failure are necessarily closely linked with factors found
in the school and with the school experiences of failing pupils, so
that the problem cannot be solved by merely labeling such pupils as the
unfit. There is no attempt in this study to treat all failures as in
any single category. The causes of the failures are not assumed at the
start nor given the place of chief emphasis, but are regarded as
incidental to and dependent upon what the evidence itself discloses.
The success of the failing pupils after they leave the high school is
not included in this undertaking, but is itself a field worthy of
extended study. Even our knowledge of what later happens to the more
successful and the graduating high school pupils is limited mainly to
those who go on to college or to other higher institutions. One of the
more familiar attempts to evaluate the later influence of the high
school illustrates the fallacy of overlooking the process of selection
involved, and of treating its influence in conjunction with the
training as though it were the result of school training alone.[3]
2. THE MEANING OF 'FAILURE' IN THIS STUDY
The term 'failure' is employed in this study to signify the non-passing
of a pupil in any semester-subject of his school work. The school
decision is not questioned in the matter of a recorded failure. And
although it is usually understood to negate "ability plus
accomplishment," it may, and undoubtedly does, at times imply other
meanings, such as a punitive mark, a teacher's prejudice, or a deferred
judgment. The mark may at times tell more about the teacher who gave it
than about the pupil who received it. These peculiarities of the
individual teacher or pupil are pretty well compensated for by the
large number of teachers and of pupils involved. The decisive factor in
this matter is that the school refuses to grant credit for the work
pursued. The failure for a semester seems to be a more adaptable unit
in this connection than the subject-failure for a year. However, it
necessitates the treatment of the subject-failure for a year as
equivalent to a failure for each of the two semesters. Two of the
schools involved in this study (comprising about 11 per cent of the
pupils) recorded grades only at the end of the year. It is quite
probable that the marking by semesters would actually have increased
the number of failures in these schools, as there are many teachers who
confess that they are less willing to make a pupil repeat a year than a
semester.
By employing this unit of failure, the failures in the different
subjects are regarded as comparable. Since only the academic and
commercial subjects are considered, and since they are almost uniformly
scheduled for four or five hours a week, the failures will seem to be
of something near equal gravity and to represent a similar amount of
non-performance or of unsatisfactory results. There were also a few
failures included here for those subjects which had only three hours a
week credit, mainly in the commercial subjects. But failures were
unnoted when the subject was listed for less than three hours a week.
There are certain other elements of assumption in the treatment of the
failures, which seemed to be unavoidable. They are, first, that failure
in any subject is the same fact for boys and for girls; second, that
failures in different years of work or with different teachers are
equivalent; third, that failures in elective and in required subjects
are of the same gravity. It was found practically impossible to
differentiate required and elective subjects, however desirable it
would have been, for the subjects that are theoretically elective often
are in fact virtually required, the electives of one course are
required in another, and on many of the records consulted neither the
courses nor the electives are clearly designated.
3. THE SCOPE AND CONTENT OF THE FIELD COVERED
As any intensive study must almost necessarily be limited in its scope,
so this one comprises for its purposes the high school records for
6,141 pupils belonging to eight different high schools located in New
York and New Jersey. For two of these schools the records for all the
pupils that entered are included here for five successive years, and
for their full period in high school. In two other schools the records
of all pupils that entered for four successive years were secured. In
four of the schools the records of all pupils who entered in February
and September of one year constituted the number studied. There is
apparently no reason to believe that a longer period of years would be
more representative of the facts for at least three of these four
schools, in view of the situation that they had for years enjoyed a
continuity of administration and that they possess a well-established
organization. The fourth one of these schools had less complete records
than were desired, but even in that the one year was representative of
the other years' records. The distribution of the 6,141 pupils by
schools and by years of entering high school is given below.
HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS IN: ENTERING HIGH SCHOOL NUMBER
IN THE YEARS STUDIED
White Plains, N.Y. 1908, '09, '10, '11, '12 659
Dunkirk, N.Y. 1909, '10, '11, '12 370
Mount Vernon, N.Y. 1912 224
Montclair, N.J. 1908, '09, '10, '11, '12 946
Hackensack, N.J. 1909, '10, '11, '12 736
Elizabeth, N.J. 1912 333
Morris H.S.--Bronx 1912 1712
Erasmus Hall H.S.--Brooklyn 1912 1161
----
TOTAL 6141
As it is essential for the purposes of this study to have the complete
record of the pupils for their full time in the high school, the 6,141
pupils include none who entered later than 1912. Thus all were allowed
at least five and one-half or six years in which to terminate their
individual high school history, of successes or of failures, before the
time of making this inquiry into their records. No pupils who were
transferred from another high school or who did not start with the
class as beginning high school students were included among those
studied. Post-graduate records were not considered, neither was any
attempt made to trace the record of drop-outs who entered other
schools. Manifestly the percentage of graduation would be higher in any
school if the recruits from other schools and the drop-backs from other
classes in the school were included.
No attempt has been made to trace the elementary school or college
records of the failing pupils, for our purpose does not reach beyond
the sphere of the high school records. In reference to the
differentiation by school courses, some facts were at first collected,
but these were later discarded, as the courses represent no
standardization in terminology or content, and they promised to give
nothing of definite value. As might be expected, the schools lacked
agreement or uniformity in the number of courses offered. One school
had no commercial classes, as that work was assigned to a separate
school; another school offered only typewriting and stenography of the
commercial subjects; a third had placed rather slight emphasis on the
commercial subjects until recently. Only four of the schools had pupils
in Greek. The Spanish classes outnumbered the Greek both by schools and
by enrollment. In the classification by subjects, English is made to
include (in addition to the usual subjects of that name) grammar,
literature, and business English. Mathematics includes all subjects of
that class except commercial arithmetic, which is treated as a
commercial subject, and shop-mathematics, which is classed as
non-academic. Industrial history, and 'political and social science'
are regarded along with academic subjects; likewise household chemistry
is included with the science classification. Economics is treated as a
commercial subject. At least a dozen other subjects, not classified as
academic or commercial, including also spelling and penmanship, were
taken by a portion of these pupils, but the records for these subjects
do not enter this study in determining the successful and failing
grades or the sizes of schedule. Yet it is true that such subjects do
demand time and work from those pupils.
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.
The reliability and correctness of these records for the schools named
are vouched for and verbally certified by the principals as the most
dependable and in large part the only information of its kind in the
possession of the schools. In each of these schools the principals have
capable assistants who are charged with the keeping of the records,
although they are aided at times by teachers or pupils who work under
direction. In three of the larger schools a special secretary has full
charge of the records, and is even expected to make suggestions for
revisions and improvements of the forms and methods. In view of such
facts it seems doubtful that one could anywhere find more dependable
school records of this sort. It was true of one of the schools that
the records previous to 1909 proved to be unreliable. There is no
inclination here to deny the existence of defects and limitations to
these records, but the intimate acquaintance resulting from close
inquiry, involving nearly every factor which the records contain, is
convincing that for these schools at least the records are highly
dependable.
However, there is some tendency for even the best school records to
understate the full situation regarding failure, while there is no
corresponding tendency to overstate or to record failures not made. Not
infrequently the pupils who drop out after previously failing may
receive no mark or an incomplete one for the last semester in school.
Although a portion or all of such work may obviously merit failure, yet
it is not usually so recorded. In a similar manner pupils who remain in
school one or two semesters or less, but take no examinations and
receive no semester grades, might reasonably be considered to have
failed if they shunned examinations merely to escape the recording of
failures, as sometimes appears to be the case when judged from the
incomplete grades recorded for only a part of the semester. A few
pupils will elect to 'skip' the regular term examination, and then
repeat the work of that semester, but no failures are recorded in such
instances. Some teachers, when recording for their own subjects, prefer
to indicate a failure by a dash mark or by a blank space until after
the subject is satisfied later, and the passing mark is then filled in.
One school indicates failure entirely by a short dash in the space
provided, and then at times there occurs the 'cond' (conditioned) in
pencil, apparently to avoid the classification as a failure by the
usual sign. One finds some instances of a '?' or an 'inc' (incomplete)
as a substitute for a mark of failure. Again, where there is no
indication of failure recorded, the dates accompanying the grades for
the subjects may tell the tale that two semesters were required to
complete one semester's work in a subject. Some of these situations
were easily discernible, and the indisputable failures treated as such
in the succeeding tabulations; but in many instances this was not
possible, and partial statement of these cases is all that is
attempted.
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