ON THE INFLUENCE OF EXAMINATIONS. 373 
High Schools without entrance examination. It began in 1872 at the 
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and was the result of the drawing 
together of the State University and the State High Schools for the 
purpose of mutual support. At first a committee of the professors paid 
an annual visit to the school and conducted a complete inspection and 
examination. Soon this visit became triennial, and was confined to 
inspection ; finally, as the work grew still heavier, it was taken over by 
a special University inspector, who reported to the heads of the depart- 
ments in the University. The inspector visits the schools without 
previous notification, and his inquiry is exhaustive. If his report is 
satisfactory the High School is “accredited” for three years. Graduates 
from such an “accredited ” school are admitted to the University without 
examination if certified by the principal of the school as having studied the 
subjects required by the University and recommended by him as capable 
of pursuing University study with profit. The responsibility is thus thrown 
on the school, the reputation of which depends on certified students 
proving satisfactory, for a certified student breaking down is liable to be 
sent back. So strongly do the schools feel the responsibility that numbers 
of students go up and pass the entrance examination whom their principals 
have refused to certify. The advantages claimed for this system are :— 
‘ For the University.—(1) That the standard of the certified student is 
higher. This is shown by the figures of the first nine years’ working of 
the system, based on 1,000 students and 10,000 acts of examination. 
(2) The attendance is increased owing to the interest aroused amongst 
the High School pupils by the visit of the University inspector. 
‘ For the Schools,—The visits of the inspector are a powerful stimulus 
(i) to the teachers, with whom he holds conferences, discussing difficulties 
and making and hearing suggestions ; (ii) to the pupils, in whom it 
arouses a spirit of inquiry about the University and lends dignity and 
importance to their work ; (iii) to the localities, which think much more 
of their school and are more ready to support it if it bears the stamp of 
University approval. Finally, it provides governing bodies with an easy 
test of school efficiency. 
‘The number of schools accredited by the University of Michigan, 
originally sixteen, has now risen to 250. As compared with the rival 
system of entrance by examination only, which is maintained by the 
Eastern Universities, it possesses the great educational advantage of 
leaving the schools a freer hand in the choice of curriculum, and the still 
greater one of removing the well-known evils which attend the preparation 
by one set of men for examinations conducted by another set. On the 
whole the private schools, so far as I have been able to learn, favour the 
examination method, on the ground that it is a stimulus to work and 
provides a useful standard. At a conference held at Baltimore in 1902 
by the colleges and preparatory schools of the Middle States and Maryland 
the subject was debated at length. Five of the speakers were against the 
examination system, including James E. Russell, the Dean of Columbia 
Teachers’ College, New York, and only two in favour of it. The balance 
of argument was overwhelmingly against, the main points being :— 
*(1) That the head of a school must be a better judge of the capacities 
of his pupils, whose work he has seen for years, than an examiner who 
views it on a single occasion and under normal conditions. 
