Monroe: Progress and Promotion 



53 



A Modified Method of Tabulating Progress Data. A num- 

 ber of school systems are now using a combination of the 

 age-grade table and the age-years-in-school table. For each 

 grade group there are three divisions : slov/, normal, and rapid 

 progress. Thus in any age-grade table such as shown in 

 Tables I to VI there would be three lines for each grade group 

 and three distributions of the pupils in each grade. The slow 

 progress pupils would be those who had failed one or more 

 times. The normal progress pupils would be those who had 

 never failed or who had both failed and been accelerated. 

 The rapid progress pupils would be those who had skipped a 

 grade. From such a table one can compute both the actual 

 per cent of retardation and acceleration and the overage and 

 the underage. For this reason it is a much more valuable 

 table. It makes clear the distinction between retardation and 

 acceleration on the one hand and overage and underage on 

 the other. Table XIX illustrates this method of tabulating 

 progress data. It represents conditions in the first grades 

 of Rochester, N.Y., September, 1916= 



Summary. With reference to the particular cities studied 

 we may mention the following points by way of summary: 



1. The age-grade tables show that the pupils in any grade 

 vary widely in age and that the pupils of any age are to be 

 found in a number of different grade groups. 



2. In studying elimination by means of the age distri- 

 bution, we find that most pupils start to school at the age 

 of six. Altho attendance at school is required by law up to 

 the age of fourteen, there is a tendency in the school systems 

 having semiannual promotion to anticipate the age of four- 

 teen by leaving at the age of thirteen. Relatively few pupils 

 stay in school beyond their eighteenth year, which means that 

 relatively few retarded pupils complete the high school. 



3. Girls stay in school better than boys. 



4. Systems having annual promotion hold pupils better 

 than systems having semiannual promotion. 



5. In the school systems having annual promotion prac- 

 tically all the pupils reach the eighth grade, tut only one out 

 of three reach the fourth year of high school. In systems 

 having semiannual promotion a little m.ore than half reach 

 the eighth grade and one out of five reach the fourth year 

 of high school. 



