42 



Indiana University Studies 



failures of the number enrolled during the year for eleven 

 Kansas cities. Since these per cents are computed on the 

 basis of the total number enrolled, they are less than they 

 would be if they were computed on the basis of the number 

 remaining at the end of the term. Thus, the diiference be- 

 tween these per cents and the ones of the four Indiana cities 

 is really greater than it appears. In the cities considered, 

 fewer children in Indiana fail in the elementary school than 

 do in Kansas. 



Promotion Rate in the High School. Table XVII shows 

 the enrollment, withdrawals, and promotions by subject and 

 grade in the high school in four Indiana cities for both boys 

 and girls. This table is interesting from several points of 



Fig. 9. Showing the shape of a normal distribution. 



view. First, a comparison of the per cent of failures and 

 conditions in the successive grades of a subject; second, a 

 comparison of boys and girls ; third, a comparison of different 

 subjects. 



In general we find that the per cent of failures and con- 

 ditions decrease as we pass from a lower to a higher grade. 

 This probably is due in part to the elimination of the less 

 able pupils. In case there is a definite sequence in the sev- 

 eral divisions of a subject, such as is the case in English 

 or Latin, the reason for the fewer failures and conditions in 

 the upper grades might be because the pupils have become 

 acquainted with the subject. In the case of mathematics, 



