Prefatory Note 



This study, the third of its kind to be made by the Bureau 

 of Cooperative Research of Indiana University, is devoted to 

 a general investigation of the arithmetical abilities of the 

 school children in 27 Indiana cities. As in the 1914 and 1915 

 investigations, the Courtis Standard Research Tests, Series 

 B, were used to measure the abilities of the children in the 

 fundamentals of arithmetic. The first part of the study is 

 concerned with a general review of the 1917 achievements. 

 Following that, comparison is made of the 1917 achievements 

 with former Indiana standards as well as with standards de- 

 termined for Iowa and Kansas. In addition, the following 

 questions are briefly discussed: (a) How do the abilities of 

 children in schools of different size compare? (6) Since 

 achievement in the state as a whole seems to be somewhat in- 

 ferior in quality, what can children in the best five systems 

 out of 27 do? (c) Do the scores of the only city that has 

 cooperated in all three investigations show any growth? (d) 

 How do the medians found by a general distribution of all the 

 pupils of the state differ from those determined by taking 

 the average of the medians of the individual towns and cities 

 as units? (e) How do the classes in the different systems 

 range in ability, and to what degree is their work dependable? 



Acknowledgment is due to the numerous school superin- 

 tendents, principals, and teachers for their services in giving 

 tests and doing the initial work in scoring the test papers. 

 Credit is also due to a number of students and assistants who 

 helped in the final work of arranging the comparative tables 

 and planning the figures. Among these are Mrs. Cecile White 

 Fleming, instructor in philosophy, who supervised the correc- 

 tion of the class and city score sheets, and Mr. Willard E. Up- 

 haus, assistant in education, who supervised the making of 

 the distribution tables, and the construction of the various 

 graphs and figures. Mr. Clyde Henks, a student in the Uni- 

 versity, did the mechanical drawing. 



The present Director of the Bureau of Cooperative Re- 

 search is entitled to no credit for this report. The manu- 



(3) 



