August 11, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



169 



aroused by the discussion of this very meet- 

 ing, the friends of the certificate plan 

 formed the next year the New England 

 College Entrance Certificate Board,* now 

 consisting of eleven New England colleges. 

 ]\Ir. Virgil Prettyman, principal of the 

 Horace Mann High School, is an example 

 of the schoolman's cry for relief. In an 

 article on 'College Entrance Requirements 

 and the High School Program of Studies'^ 

 he contrasts with to-day a generation ago, 

 when a boy was admitted to college with a 

 training which would to-day place him not 

 higher than the junior year of high school. 

 The colleges require a training two years 

 in advance of former times.^ The increase 

 is in quantity rather than quality. One 

 must know more things. It is a question 

 if he needs to know any one thing better. 

 "The Harvard examinations are arranged 

 in such a way that a boy must keep fresh 

 in at least six studies up to the close of 

 junior year of the preparatory course. Un- 

 less a boy passes in at least three subjects 

 (eight credits) no credit whatever is given. 

 It is necessary for the pupils in the last two 

 years of the preparatory course to carry 

 at least six studies abreast. The total re- 

 sult of the present program of studies is 

 haste in preparation, dissipation of energy 

 and interest, physical strain or a tendency 

 to negligence of duties and illiteracy." 

 Mr. Prettyman suggests two remedies (not 

 including the certificate system, in my 

 opinion the cure for his difficulties) : 

 "Reduce the number of studies and raise 

 the passing mark or permit the boy to take 

 examinations in three years instead of two, 

 as at present. The necessity for haste and 

 for a cramming process is the greatest bur- 

 den of the secondary schoolman. Will the 



* First Annual Report, 1902-1903, Providence, 

 ,Snow & Farnham, 1904. 



' Educ. Rev., 28 : 304-305, October, 1904. 



^ Cf . Professor John H. Wright, of Harvard, 

 School Revieio, V., 700. 



colleges lend a helping hand to the school 1 ' ' 

 Another representative secondary school 

 man, Mr. Edward J. Goodwin, of Morris 

 High School of New York City, in an ar- 

 ticle on ' A Comparison of College Entrance 

 Examinations,'" shows the blight for sec- 

 ondary schools of separate examinations 

 by the individual universities, and indicates 

 what a great want brought forth when it 

 established the college entrance examina- 

 tion board. His study is a comparison of 

 the questions of this board with those of 

 Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Pennsyl- 

 vania. He rejoices "in the attempt to 

 evolve a scientific method of examination 

 that shall test the instruction and training 

 of candidates for admission to college with 

 substantial accuracy, without cramping the 

 schools, or blighting the enthusiasm of the 

 teachers. That the college entrance exam- 

 ination board has made invaluable con- 

 tributions toward the accomplishment of 

 this end can not be doubted. ' ' 



The rise and progress of the college en- 

 trance examination board represents doubt- 

 less the best that can be done for 'the east- 

 ern method of admitting only by examina- 

 tions, ' and meets, where it is accepted, the 

 evils of the conflicting examinations of 

 competing colleges complained of by the 

 secondary school men. Organized® as re- 

 cently as November 17, 1900, at Columbia, 

 under the inspiration of Nicholas M. But- 

 ler, its first secretary, it has grown from 

 eleven colleges and four representatives of 

 the secondary schools in the Association of 

 Colleges and Preparatory Schools in the 

 Middle States and Maryland, to twenty- 

 five colleges and universities and seven rep- 

 resentatives of the secondary schools. 



It has fulfilled the hope expressed by the 

 editor of the Educational Review in 1901, 

 that it would hold annual uniform exam- 



' Educ. Rev., 26 : 440-456, December, 1903. 

 ^Ediic. Rev., 22: 264, October, 1901. 



