Haggerty: The Ability to Read 



37 



third grade children, there were 54 who did not put the correct 

 mark under ^'samuel", whereas there were only 8 who did not 

 know ''lily", supposedly of the same value. Similarly there were 

 102 who failed on '^cowardly" in line 5, and but 7 who did not 

 know ''pansy" in the same line. "Pansy" in fact appears much 

 easier than 4 words in line 4, ranking almost exactly with "lily", 

 not only for grade 3 but for all grades considered. 



Similar misfits appear in almost every line of the scale. Thus, 

 in line 10, the percentages for all the grades vary from 26 to 58 

 per cent for the words "crocus", "dahlia", "opossum", and 

 "jonquil", whereas "poltroon" produces 96 per cent of error. 

 This whole line seems to be somewhat misplaced, notwithstand- 

 ing the high percentage of error on the last word. The 3 names 

 of flowers and 1 name of an animal were apparently more familiar 

 to the children here tested than to the original group. In fact, 

 most of the line belongs with line 8 or below so far as these chil- 

 dren are concerned. 



In spite, however, of these variations in word values, the 

 scale was not seriously at fault so far as measuring the elementary 

 grades was concerned. The 1,145 children gave an increasing 

 percentage of error up to and including line 9, and then for lines 

 10.5 and 11. Since the median score for the eighth grade was 

 approximately line 8, it is evident that roughly within the limits 

 of knowledge of elementary pupils the scale is fairly adequate. 



TABLE 15. — Visual Vocabulary 

 Per cent of error of 1,145 pupils on each word of scale. 



camel 



samuel . . . 



kind 



lily 



cruel 



cowardly . 



dominoes . 

 kangaroo, 

 pansy. . . . 

 tennis .... 



during. . . . 

 generous . . 

 later 



modest . . . 

 rhinoceros 



1.2 

 7.68 

 8.47 

 1.0 

 6.72 

 5.01 

 13. 10 



12.06 

 10.91 

 00.9 

 13.2 



10.03 

 18.07 

 13.7 

 14.9 



33.8 

 20.9 

 20.27 



Claude 



courteous . . 



isaiah 



merciful. . . 

 reasonable . 



chrysanthe- 

 mum 



considerate 



lynx 



prevaricate 

 reuben 



ezra 



ichabod .... 

 ledger 



parchesi. . . 

 preceding . . 



12.2 

 33.8 

 50.3 

 35.9 

 30.9 

 32.6 



27.7 

 51.9 

 58.7 

 86.7 

 53 . 0 . . 



55.6 

 57.6 

 65.3 

 55.6 



88.5 

 70.0 

 67.4 



crocus . . . 

 dahlia. . . 

 jonquil. . 

 opossum, 

 poltroon . 



begonia .... 

 equitable. . 

 pretentious 

 renegade . . . 

 reprobate . . 



armadillo .... 



iguana 



philanthropic. 



25.9 

 31.2 

 57. 1 

 43.3 

 93.7 

 50.2 



46. 1 

 80.6 

 73.2 

 93.5 

 84. 1 



75.5 

 62.8 

 65.2 

 88.6 



72 . 2 



