August 11, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



173 



other way has been attained what President 

 Butler said the college entrance examina- 

 tion board stood for: ''Uniformity of defi- 

 nition, topic by topic, with a uniform test, 

 uniformly administered. Each college will 

 continue to fix its own standards of admis- 

 sion and to admit its own students."^" 



The difference is that the examination or 

 uniform test is of the institution and not of 

 the individual, ridding us of the evils of 

 personal and paper examinations, massed 

 so that all is staked at once for the pupil. 

 President Hadley's allusion to the fable of 

 the two doors is too literally true. En- 

 trance examinations become a gamble and 

 the student seeking to gamble is com- 

 mended. 



A long line of witnesses might be cited 

 from inspectors, college and secondary 

 schoolmen working under the plan of cer- 

 tificates from duly inspected schools, all in 

 favor of the plan. 



A few citations pertinent to our discus- 

 sion will help to answer the question before 

 us. 



Leon J. Richardson,^® of the University 

 of California, shows how the accrediting 

 system has evolved rapidly since 1883 in 

 that state, in harmony with republican in- 

 stitutions. The schools voluntarily estab- 

 lished their relations with the university 

 and may sever it at will. 



AVm. J. S. Bryan, principal of the nor- 

 mal and high school of St. Louis, says the 

 practise of admitting to the university on 

 certificate only the pupils M^ho have gradu- 

 ated from the approved schools has been a 

 powerful lever in raising the standard of 

 the work done.^^ 



Edwin G. Dexter,^° professor of educa- 



^'Educ. Rev., 22: 291, October, 1901. 



^^ School Review, 10: 615-619, October, 1902. 



^= Proc. 5th Annual Meeting N. C. A. S. S. and 

 C, 11, 1900. 



^ Nat. Conference Secondary Ed., X. W. Univer- 

 sity, p. 94, October, 1903. 



tion. University of Illinois, says: "The east 

 has been attempting the system of admis- 

 sion to college through the certificate system 

 — a modified accrediting system — but they 

 have left out of it the high school visitor, 

 and therein lies the trouble. No inspection 

 on the part of a college professor can ever 

 take the place of the visitation of the in- 

 spector, the expert of the secondary school 

 system, the trained friend, adviser and 

 helper and visible connecting link with the 

 university." An advantage of the ac- 

 crediting system is the increased propor- 

 tion of high school students who go to col- 

 lege. It is suggestive that in the graduat- 

 ing class of the public high schools in the 

 North Atlantic States, the part of our 

 country little given to the accrediting plan, 

 twenty-six per cent, were for the year 1901 

 in the college preparatory course. In the 

 same class in the North Central States, 

 where accrediting prevails, the percentage 

 was thirty-four. The accrediting system 

 gives the college students with a better aver- 

 age preparation. The University of Penn- 

 sylvania receives about an equal number 

 each year upon each of the two plans — 

 individual examination and certificate. In, 

 the fall of 1901, 112 entered by the first 

 method, and 101 by the second. At the 

 end of the semester 49 per cent, of those 

 entering by examination were conditioned 

 as against only 29 per cent, of the certifi- 

 cated students. A suggestive but not a 

 conclusive comparison is of the percentage 

 of failure in first year subjects in one of 

 the Atlantic coast universities, admitting 

 only by examination, and those of five of 

 the larger middle west state universities, 

 where eighty per cent, enter without ex- 

 amination. East, failed algebra, 26 per 

 cent. ; trigonometry, 34 per cent. West, 

 failed algebra, 15 per cent. ; trigonometry, 

 11 per cent. 



Principal Ramsey, of Fall River, some 



