20 



Indiana University Studies 



accurate silent reading and range of vocabulary, and these upper 

 grades intervals will lengthen out to correspond with those lower 

 down. It is encouraging to note that just this fortunate situation 

 already exists in a few cities. The seventh-eighth grade visual 

 vocabulary interval in city 4 is 1.57 steps; in city 6 it is 1.39; in 

 city 10 it is 1.53; in city 11, 1.40; and city 16, 1.12; while in the 

 understanding of sentences the same interval is 1 or more units 

 in cities 1, 14, and 18, and the sixth-seventh grade interval is 

 1.62 in city 2 in the understanding of sentences and 1.20 in visual 

 vocabulary. Such achievements are possible in any school of 

 normal children. 



In thus pointing out what seems to me a defect in the school 

 regime in regard to reading I do not mean to criticize the schools 

 unjustly, least of all to suggest that they are negligent in their 

 attitude toward their work. It would be difficult to find a more 

 devoted and loyal body of men and women than those in charge 

 of the schools. If they have erred in this matter it is from the 

 same cause that makes all of us subject to error every minute, 

 namely the lack of scientific information upon which to found 

 better modes of procedure. The introduction of standard tests 

 and scales into the analysis of the reading situation offers the most 

 promising instrument of reform. No longer need we be "unhamp- 

 ered by facts" as to what the situation actually is. No longer need 

 we ignorantly put together into a class for identical instruction 

 pupils differing in ability as much as the median of the fourth 

 and median of the eighth grade. No longer need we call a class 

 a seventh grade one semester and an eighth grade the next with- 

 out essential improvement in their reading power. Whate\^er 

 limitations of method we may still suffer we may now know in 

 measured terms what abilities the children actually have. This 

 scientific knowledge should be the basis of definite improvement 

 in methods. 



Overlapping 



The unsatisfactory character of the grading of children is 

 evident not only in the irregularity of the grade intervals but also 

 in the vast amount of overlapping of ability from grade to grade. 

 To determine just how much of this existed among the children 

 reported in this test a large number of visual vocabulary papers 

 (9,291 from grades 3 to 8) were grouped on the basis of the score 

 made. The results are thrown together in Table 6 and are rep- 



