Chapter 6

HOW MUCH IS THE GRADUATION OR THE PERSISTENCE IN SCHOOL CONDITIONED BY THE OCCURRENCE OR THE NUMBER OF FAILURES?

1. COMPARISON OF THE FAILING AND THE NON-FAILING GROUPS IN REFERENCE TO GRADUATION AND PERSISTENCE

It has been noted in section 1 of Chapter II that 58.1 per cent of all the graduates have school failures. Here we mean to carry the analysis and comparison in reference to graduation and failure somewhat further. To this end the following distribution is significant.

DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS IN REFERENCE TO FAILURE AND GRADUATION

The Non-failing The Failing Pupils--Graduating Pupils--Graduating

Totals 2568 811 (31.5%) 3573 1125 (31.5%) Boys 1001 307 (30.6%) 1645 489 (29.7%) Girls 1567 504 (32.1%) 1928 639 (33.0%)

We have presented here the numbers that graduate without failures, together with the total group to which they belong, and the same for the graduates who have failed. By a mere process of subtraction we may determine the number of non-graduates, as well as the number of these that fail, and then compute the percentage of the non-graduates who fail. Thus we get 58.2 per cent (boys--62.5, girls--54.9) as the percentage of the non-graduates failing. It is apparent at once that this is almost identical with the percentage of failure for the ones who graduate (Chapter II), but for the non-graduates the boys and girls are a little further apart. It may be remarked in this connection that no effort was made to include any of the 808 non-credited pupils among the ones who fail. The inclusion of 60 per cent of this number as potentially failing pupils, as was done in Chapter II, will raise the above percentage of failing non-graduates by 11.5 per cent.

The above distribution of pupils enables us to determine what percentage of the failing and of the non-failing groups graduate. These percentages are identical--31.5 per cent in each case. The boys and girls are further apart in the former group (boys--29.7, girls--33) than in the latter group (boys--30.6, girls--32.1). It follows, then, that the percentage who graduate of all the original entrants is 31.5 per cent. This fact varies by schools from 20.8 per cent to 45.4 per cent. And such percentage is in each case exclusive of the pupils who join the class by transfers from other schools or classes. Our particular interest is not in how many pupils the school graduates in any year, but rather in how many of the entering pupils in any one year stay to graduate.

The greater persistence of the failing non-graduates, or the greater failing for the more persistent non-graduates, has already been given some attention in both Chapters II and III. In the following distribution the non-graduates alone are considered. The number persisting in school to each succeeding semester is first stated, and then the percentage of that number which is composed of the non-failing pupils is given.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE NON-GRADUATES ACCORDING TO THE NUMBERS PERSISTING TO EACH SUCCESSIVE SEMESTER

BY END OF SEMESTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total (4205) 2787 1957 1572 999 761 390 234 60 23 4 Per Cent of Non-failing (41.8) 24.5 20.0 16.4 13.9 12.7 7.2 3.8 1.6 0 ..

Only 20 per cent of the non-graduates who remain to the end of the first year (second semester) do not fail. Although the failing non-graduates outnumber the non-failing ones when all the pupils who finally drop out are considered, their percentage of the majority increases rapidly for each successive semester continued in school. That the non-failing non-graduates are in general not the ones who persist long in school is shown by these percentages.

2. THE NUMBER OF FAILURES AND THE YEARS TO GRADUATE

The following table shows how the number of failures are related to the time period required for graduation. The distribution in Table VIII shows a range from 1 to 25 failures per pupil, and a time period for graduation ranging from 3 to 6 years. It is evident from this distribution that the increase of time period for graduating is not commensurate with the number of failures for the individual. By far the largest number graduate in four years in spite of their numerous failures. Nearly 70 per cent of the failing graduates require four years or less for graduation. The number who finish in three years is greater than the number who require either five and one-half or six years. The median number of failures per pupil is 4. The pupils with fewer than 4 failures who take more than four years to graduate are not representative of any particular school in this composite, nor are those having 10 or more failures who take less than 5 years to graduate.

TABLE VIII

DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS GRADUATING, ACCORDING TO THE TOTAL FAILURES EACH AND THE TIME TAKEN TO GRADUATE

NO. OF YEARS TO GRADUATE FAILURES 3 3½ 4 4½ 5 5½ 6 TOTALS

0 Boys 20 23 244 12 8 .. .. 307 Girls 54 26 380 30 14 .. .. 504

1 Boys 2 10 59 7 2 .. .. 80 Girls 5 8 83 13 5 .. .. 114

2 Boys 2 2 64 7 7 0 .. 82 Girls 2 3 88 11 8 1 .. 113

3 Boys 0 6 27 5 4 .. .. 42 Girls 1 1 53 6 3 .. .. 64

4 Boys 1 1 44 0 8 1 .. 55 Girls 4 6 57 8 4 1 .. 80

5 Boys 0 1 41 2 3 .. .. 47 Girls 1 2 26 7 5 .. .. 41

6 Boys .. 0 29 6 3 .. 0 38 Girls .. 1 29 3 8 .. 1 42

7 Boys .. 2 12 7 7 .. .. 28 Girls .. 1 13 4 5 .. .. 23

8 Boys .. 0 17 7 8 .. 1 33 Girls .. 1 16 9 7 .. 0 33

9 Boys .. 0 6 5 5 0 0 16 Girls .. 1 7 8 8 1 1 26

10 Boys .. 1 6 4 6 0 .. 17 Girls .. 1 14 5 2 1 .. 23

11-15 Boys .. 0 9 18 11 0 1 39 Girls .. 1 11 25 14 1 4 56

16-20 Boys .. .. 2 2 4 1 1 10 Girls .. .. 2 5 2 2 0 11

21-25 Boys .. .. 1 0 0 1 0 2 Girls .. .. 0 1 4 3 1 9

Total Boys 25 46 561 82 76 3 3 796 Girls 67 52 780 135 89 10 7 1140

In reading Table VIII, we find that 20 boys and 54 girls who have no failures graduate in three years; 2 boys and 5 girls fail once and graduate in 3 years; 10 boys and 8 girls have one failure and graduate in 3½ years, and so on. The median period is 4 years for those with no failures and it remains at 4 for all who have fewer than 9 failures; but the median time period is not above 5 years for the highest number of failures.

3. THE NUMBER OF FAILURES AND THE SEMESTER OF DROPPING OUT FOR THE NON-GRADUATES

The pages preceding this point have given evidence that the failing pupils are not mainly the ones who drop out early. But we may still ask whether the number of failures per individual tends to determine how early he will be eliminated? This question calls for the facts of the next table. In this table the semesters of dropping out are indicated at the top. The failures range as high as 25 per pupil, and it is evident that not all pupils have left school until the eleventh semester. The distribution includes the 1156 boys and the 1292 girls who failed and did not graduate; also the 694 boys and the 1063 girls who dropped out without failing. The wide distribution of these non-graduates both relative to the number of failures and to the time of dropping out, is forcibly brought to our attention by the table which follows.

TABLE IX

DISTRIBUTION OF THE NON-GRADUATES, ACCORDING TO THE TOTAL FAILURES EACH AND THE TIME OF DROPPING OUT

NO. OF SEMESTER OF DROPPING OUT FAILURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 TOTAL

0 B. 430 134 40 41 15 24 7 3 0 .. .. 694 G. 643 163 89 78 27 45 12 5 1 .. .. 1063 1757 1 B. 35 53 25 33 14 9 1 1 .. .. .. 171 G. 46 65 25 34 12 12 4 3 .. .. .. 201 372 2 B. 52 58 18 30 8 17 5 6 .. .. .. 194 G. 49 79 31 36 12 17 3 3 .. .. .. 230 424 3 B. 43 41 22 28 9 10 5 1 0 .. .. 159 G. 54 52 19 34 18 17 0 6 1 .. .. 201 360 4 B. 27 31 13 32 7 11 9 2 .. .. .. 132 G. 34 43 23 29 11 16 5 8 .. .. .. 169 301 5 B. 3 13 14 30 11 16 11 4 .. .. .. 102 G. 2 14 18 24 5 13 3 5 .. .. .. 84 186 6 B. .. 27 8 24 11 16 11 6 0 0 .. 103 G. .. 17 14 25 10 11 3 9 2 1 .. 92 195 7 B. .. 8 7 7 6 16 5 3 0 1 .. 53 G. .. 9 3 15 8 7 5 5 0 0 .. 52 105 8 B. .. 8 3 14 6 11 6 5 1 0 .. 54 G. .. 10 5 15 7 10 6 6 1 1 .. 61 115 9 B. .. 1 1 7 5 8 2 7 3 1 .. 35 G. .. 0 2 7 8 9 2 4 1 0 .. 33 68 10 B. .. 2 2 10 2 7 6 10 0 .. .. 39 G. .. 2 1 6 5 9 4 4 0 .. .. 31 70 11-15 B. .. .. 1 8 7 27 14 22 5 2 0 86 G. .. .. 1 5 12 22 20 23 9 6 2 100 186 16-20 B. .. .. .. 1 0 8 3 6 3 3 0 24 G. .. .. .. 0 2 3 3 12 6 2 2 30 54 21-25 B. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2 1 1 .. 4 G. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 3 3 1 .. 8 12 TOTAL B. 590 376 154 263 101 180 85 78 13 8 0 1850 G. 828 454 231 308 137 191 71 96 24 11 4 2355 4205

Table IX reads in a manner similar to Table VIII: 430 boys and 643 girls, having failures, drop out in the first semester; 35 boys and 46 girls drop out in the first semester with a single failure; 3 boys and 2 girls drop out in the first semester with five failures each.

For a small portion of these drop-outs the number of failures is undoubtedly the prime or immediate factor in securing their elimination. It seems probable that such is the situation for most of those pupils who drop out after 50 per cent or more of their school work has resulted in failures. Yet a few of these pupils manage to continue for an extended time in school, as the following distribution shows.

DROP-OUTS FAILING IN 50 PER CENT OR MORE OF THEIR TOTAL WORK, AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION BY SEMESTERS OF DROPPING OUT

SEMESTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

221 B. 81 69 17 24 7 15 4 2 1 1 264 G. 98 68 20 35 14 10 5 8 5 1

% of Total 36.9 28.2 7.6 12.2 4.3 5.2 1.9 2.0 1.2 .4

This grouping includes 485 pupils, or 11.5 per cent of the total number of 4,205 drop-outs. But whatever the part may be that is played by failing it is evident that it does not operate to cause their early loss to the school in nearly all of these instances. It may be noted here that it is difficult to find any justification for allowing or forcing these pupils to endure two, three, or four years of a kind of training for which they have shown themselves obviously unfitted. To be sure, they have satisfied a part of these failures by repetitions or otherwise, but only to go on adding more failures. A device of 'superannuation' is employed in certain schools by which a pupil who has failed in half of his work for two semesters, and is sixteen years of age, is supposed to be dropped automatically from the school. This device seems designed to evade a difficulty in the absence of any real solution for it, and harmonizes with the school aims that are prescribed in terms of subject matter rather than in terms of the pupils' needs. From the standpoint of the individual pupil his peculiar qualities are not likely to be fashioned to the highest degree of usefulness by this procedure. It simply serves notice that the pupil must make the adjustment needed, as the school cannot or will not.

Notwithstanding the testimony furnished by the accumulation of failures shown in Table IX, there are grounds for believing that for the major portion of all the non-graduates the number of failures is not a prime nor perhaps a highly important cause of their dropping out of school. This conviction seems to be substantiated by the statement of percentages below.

THE PERCENTAGE OF NON-GRADUATES WHO DROP OUT WITH

0 1 or 0 2 or fewer 3 or fewer 4 or fewer 5 or fewer Failures Failures Failures Failures Failures Failures

41.8 50.6 60.7 69.2 76.4 80.8

The fact that nearly 81 per cent of the non-graduates have only 5 failures or less, taken in comparison with the fact that approximately one fourth of the failing graduates have 8 or more failures, argues that the number of failures alone can hardly be considered one of the larger factors in causing the dropping out. In a report concerning the working children of Cincinnati, H.T. Wooley remarks[33] that "two-thirds of our children leaving the public schools are the failures." This seems to suppose failing a large cause of the dropping out. But this investigation of failure indicates that the percentage of failure for those leaving is no higher than for the ones who do not leave. A similar illustration is credited to O.W. Caldwell[34], who makes reference to the large percentage of the failing pupils who leave high school, without taking any recognition of the equally large percentage of the failing pupils who continue in the high school.

There is in no sense any intention here to condone the large number of failures simply because it is pointed out that they do not operate chiefly to cause elimination from school. The above facts may lead to some such conviction as that expressed by Wooley,[33] after giving especial attention to those who had left school, that "the real force that is sending a majority of these children out into the industrial field is their own desire to go to work, and behind this desire is frequently the dissatisfaction with school." A somewhat similar conviction seems to be shared by King,[35] in saying that "the pupil who yields unwillingly to the narrow round of school tasks ... will grasp at almost any pretext to quit school." W.F. Book tabulated the reasons why pupils leave high school,[36] as given by 1,051 pupils. He found that discouragement, loss of interest, and disappointment affect more pupils than all the other causes combined. Likewise Bronner notes[37] that the 'irrational' sameness of school procedure for all pupils often leads to "serious loss of interest in school work, discouragement, truancy, and disciplinary problems." Still it may be that the worst consequences of multiplied failures are not to those dropping out. W.D. Lewis observes[38] that the failing pupil "speedily comes to accept himself as a failure," and that "the disaster to many who stay in the schools is greater than to those who are shoved out." To the same point Hanus tells[39] us that "during the school period aversion and evasion are more frequently cultivated than power and skill, through the forced pursuit of uninteresting subjects." A pupil who acquires the habit of failing and the attitude of accepting it as a necessary evil may soon give up trying to win and become satisfied to accept himself as less gifted, or even to accept life in general as necessarily a matter of repeated failures. In a similar connection, James E. Russell says,[40] "the boy who becomes accustomed to second place soon fails to think at his best." Such psychological results in regard to habits and attitude accruing from repeated failures are both certain and insidious. And an education which purports to be for all and to offer the highest training to each must abandon the inculcation of attitudes of mind so detrimental to the individual and to the very society which educates him.

4. THE PERCENTAGES THAT THE NON-GRADUATE GROUPS FORM OF THE PUPILS WHO HAVE EACH SUCCESSIVELY HIGHER NUMBER OF FAILURES

By merely adding the columns of totals for Tables VIII and IX, we are able to obtain the full number of pupils who have each number of failures from 1 to 25. We may readily secure the percentages for the non-graduates in each of these groups by referring again to the numbers in the totals column of Table IX. The following series of percentages are thus obtained.

THE PERCENTAGE FORMED BY NON-GRADUATES WITH 0, 1, 2, 3, ETC., FAILURES ON THE TOTAL NUMBER WHO HAVE 0, 1, 2, 3, ETC., FAILURES

No. of Failures 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Per Cent 68.4 65.7 68.5 77.2 69.0 68.0 70.6 67.3 63.5

No. of Failures 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17+ Per Cent 61.8 63.6 69.0 61.2 66.0 65.3 70.0 61.5 69.4

That these percentages would be higher for the non-graduates than for the graduates (that is, above 50 per cent) would certainly be expected by a glance at their higher numbers in every group of their distribution. But it would hardly be expected by most of us that the percentages would show no general tendency to rise as the failures per pupil increase in number, yet such is the truth as found here. The reverse of these facts was found by Aaron I. Dotey, with a smaller group of high school pupils[41] (1,397), studied in one of the New York City high schools. Still he also asserts that failure in studies is not a cause of elimination to the extent that it is generally supposed to be. We may gain some advantage for judging the general tendency of the extended and varied series of percentages above, by computing them in groups of larger size, thus yielding a briefer series, as follows:

(A CONDENSED FORM OF THE PRECEDING STATEMENT)

No. of Failures 0 1 to 4 5 to 8 9 to 12 13 to 16 17 to 25 Per Cent 68.4 67.6 67.3 63.9 65.7 69.4

Not only do the percentages of non-graduates not increase relatively as the numbers of failure go higher, but there is a slight general decline in these percentages until we reach '17 or more' failures per pupil. Then for '17 to 25' failures per pupil there is an increase of only 1 per cent over that for failures. The number of failures does not seem directly to condition the pupil's ability to graduate or to continue to in school.

5. TIME EXTENSION FOR THE FAILING GRADUATES

We shall now inquire further what extension of time for graduating characterizes the failing graduates in comparison with the non-failing ones.

The distribution according to the period for graduation for the 1,936 pupils who graduate was shown by the summary lines of Table VIII. In the same table the non-failing graduates are included (but distinct). No pupil graduates in less than three years and none takes longer than six years; 9.8 per cent of the number finish in less than 4 years; 19.7 per cent take more than 4 years. The small number that finish earlier than four years may be due in part to the single annual graduation in several of the schools. Some of the schools admitting two classes each year graduated only one, and the records made it plain that some pupils had a half year more credit than was needed for graduating. Considering, however, that about 42 per cent of the graduates had no failures, they should have been able to speed up more on the time period of getting through. They were doubtless not unable to do that. But some principals hold the conviction that four years will result in a rounding out of the pupil more than commensurate with the extended time. More than 35 per cent of those who did finish in less than four years are graduates who had failed from 1 to 11 times. In the conventional period of four years 77 per cent of the non-failing and 64 per cent of the failing graduates complete their work and graduate (see p. 59, for the means employed). The percentages of non-failing graduates for each time period are given below.

THE PERCENTAGES OF NON-FAILING GRADUATES FOR EACH PERIOD

Time Period in Years 3 ½ 4 ½ 5 ½ 6 Per Cent of Non-Failing 80.4 50.0 46.5 19.3 13.3 .. ..

This continuous decline of percentages representing the non-failing graduates shows that they have an evident advantage in regard to the time period for graduating. Their percentages are high for the shorter time periods and low for the longer periods. But by reference to Table VIII we quickly find that the slight extension of the time period for the failing graduates is not at all commensurate with the number of failures which they have. The failures are provided for in various ways, as Chapter V will explain. No striking differences are observed for the boys and girls in any division of this chapter.

A SUMMARY OF CHAPTER IV

The percentages of graduates and of non-graduates that fail are almost identical.

The percentages of the failing pupils who graduate and of the non-failing pupils who graduate are identical (31.5 per cent); hence, graduation is not perceptibly conditioned by the occurrence of failure.

The non-failing non-graduates do not persist long in school, as compared with the failing non-graduates. The short persistence partly accounts for their avoidance of failure.

As the number of failures per pupil increase for the failing graduates, the time extension is not commensurate with the number of failures.

For 11.5 per cent of the non-graduates who fail in 50 per cent or more of their work, failure is probably a chief cause of dropping out.

Failure is probably not a prime cause of dropping out for most of the non-graduates, as 80 per cent have only 5 failures or fewer.

The worst consequences of failure are perhaps in acquiring the habit of failing, and in coming to accept one's self as a failure. The number of drop-outs does not tend to increase as the number of failures per pupil increases.

The time period for graduating ranges from three to six years, with approximately 79 per cent of all graduates finishing in four years or less. The failing graduates take, on the average, a little longer time than the non-failing, but not an increase that is proportionate to the number of failures.

The boys and girls present no striking differences in the facts of