38 



Indiana University Studies 



diana cities show a better condition than similar cities in 

 Kansas and Michigan. 



In Table XV-A the retardation and acceleration data from 

 Marshall county are compared with similar data from 54 per 

 cent of the one-teacher rural schools of eleven counties in 

 Kansas. These two sets of data are not entirely comparable. 

 In the first place, the data from Marshall county includes 

 not only one-teacher schools but all schools in the county with 

 the exception of certain cities and towns. Also for the eleven 

 Kansas counties we do not have any data with reference to 

 acceleration. However, it appears that there is much less 

 retardation in Marshall county than in the eleven Kansas 

 counties. The differences are so large that it is not probable 

 that it is due to the reasons suggested above. On the average 

 Marshall county approximates Cubberley's ideal standards. 

 In certain of the grades, notably the fourth and sixth, the 

 amount of retardation is too large to be satisfactory. 



Promotion Rate in the Elementary School. In May, 1918, 

 four cities (South Bend, Michigan City, Kokomo, and Mount 

 Vernon)^- reported for the second semester of 1917-18 the 

 following facts for the pupils enrolled in each grade of the 

 elementary school: (1) number enrolled during the semester, 

 (2) number dropped to leave city, (3) number dropped to 

 enter lower grade, (4) number dropped to enter higher grade, 

 (5) number dropped to leave school, (6) number remaining 

 at end of term, (7) number of remaining failed, (8) number 

 remaining promoted on trial. From a summary of these facts 

 for the four cities Table XVI was derived by computing the 

 per cents for all items except the first and sixth. The first 

 was used as the base for items from two to five and the 

 sixth was used as a base for the last two. 



Pupils who are promoted on trial seldom fail to make good 

 because a small fraction of 1 per cent are dropped to enter 

 a lower grade. (Grade VIA is an exception to this state- 

 ment.) We may, therefore, disregard the conditional promo- 

 tions in considering the promotion rate. The per cent of 

 failures varies from 16.6 in IB to 1.5 in VIIIB. The average 



" The data for the eleven Kansas counties are taken from an unpublished report by 

 Dean F. J. Kelly, of the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. 



^- One other city, Oxford, having annual promotion instead of semiannual promotion 

 also reported. It is omitted from this tabulation for this reason. The Director of the 

 Bureau of Cooperative Research is glad to acknowledge his indebtedness to the superin- 

 tendents who furnished these data. 



