October 30, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



643 



The educative function is the one commonly rec- 

 ognized and is in outline well understood. It in- 

 cludes the imparting of ideals, knowledge and skill. 



The selective function, on the other hand, has 

 been less commonly recognized, but it has always 

 been present and is socially indispensable. The 

 school not only imparts ideals, knowledge and skill, 

 but it also designates those who have acquired these 

 characteristics, and by the assignment of grades it 

 aims to indicate the degree in which they have ac- 

 quired them. 



The giving of grades to students is only one of 

 a number of means that the school uses in dis- 

 charging the selective function of education, but 

 it is one of the most important. Like other edu- 

 cational functions it must be done carefully, in- 

 telligently and uniformly in order to avoid injus- 

 tice to the student. The desideratum of uniform- 

 ity requires not only that each teacher always use 

 approximately the same standard with all of his 

 students, but that all teachers use approximately 

 the same standard with all students. When this is 

 not done, the educational equilibrium of the school 

 is disturbed and injustice is done to the earnest 

 and conscientious student. The less serious the 

 students are the more they tend to gravitate toward 

 the teachers that give the higher grades and the 

 injustice that this tends to work upon the conscien- 

 tious student when it comes to the awarding of 

 honors and the recommending for positions is ob- 

 vious. The giving of many high grades, further- 

 more, gives many students a false and exaggerated 

 notion of their ability. The grade of "A" espe- 

 cially should be reserved for very exceptional abil- 

 ity which in the nature of the ease is rare. 



The principle underlying a uniform standard of 

 grading is found in the distribution of mental abil- 

 ity as revealed by psychological investigations. 

 These investigations have shown, when sufficiently 

 large numbers of people are considered, that abil- 

 ity in general or in any particular line, is distri- 

 buted in the form of a bell-shaped curve tech- 

 nically known as the probability curve or the 

 normal surface of frequency. Letting the base line 

 represent the degrees of ability from poorest to 

 best and the vertical lines the numbers of persons 

 possessing each degree of ability, it is clear that 

 there is but a small number of students with excel- 

 lent ability, a larger number with good ability, a 

 relatively large number with medium or average 

 ability, a smaller number with sub-medium but 

 passing ability, and a small number with distinctly 

 unsatisfactory ability. 



There are, of course, no sharp dividing lines be- 

 tween these different groups, and any such lines 

 that are drawn are arbitrary. But when the base 

 line is divided into five equal steps, representing 

 therefore five approximately equal steps of abil- 

 ity, the percentages of students that fall into each 

 group are approximately as follows : 



Per Cent. 



Excellent (A) 4 



Good (B) 24 



Medium (C) 44 



Sub-medium (D) 24 



Failure (E) 4 



Total Too 



These percentages mean in the present connec- 

 tion that a teacher's grades should in the long 

 run be distributed approximately in the amounts 

 indicated by these percentages. The grade of 

 " A, " or excellent, should be assigned to about 4 

 per cent, of the students ; " B, " or good, to about 

 24 per cent. ; " C, " or medium, to about 44 per 

 cent.; "D," or sub-medium, to about 24 per cent.; 

 and "E," or failure, to about 4 per cent. It is 

 quite likely that the percentage of failures in the 

 lower classes may properly be somewhat higher 

 than that in the upper, with corresponding changes 

 in the other percentages, and failures may perhaps 

 also properly be more frequent in professional 

 schools than in liberal culture schools. Because of 

 its immediate social responsibility, it is the duty 

 of the professional school to apply the principle of 

 selection rigidly. 



It should, however, not te inferred that the 

 grades assigned in any partio^ilar class, especially 

 in a small class, must approximate closely to the 

 distribution above given. The expression, "in the 

 long run," should be emphasised. The principle 

 can not be applied mechanically, but it devolves 

 upon each teacher to school himself to recognize 

 excellent ability, good ability, and so on. 



w. c. euediger, 

 Geo. N. Henning, 

 Wm. a. Wilbur, 



GommiUee 



SPECIAL ABTICLES 



CORRELATION BETWEEN THE TERTIARY OF THE 



GREAT BASIN AND THAT OF THE MARGINAL 



MARINE PROVINCE IN CALIFORNIA 



In December, 1913, a party of students 

 from the University of California working 



