Haggerty : Study ix Arithmetic 



507 



them or not as she finds it possible, the experiment can be made by 

 oriving the standard test, determining the present standing of the 

 group setting a definite aim to be achieved, and three months later 

 measuring again for results. The chances are very great that 

 there will be a decided change in the direction of the standard 

 score. If the experiment is to be valid the other conditions must, 

 of course, remain the same. Another way to get at the problem 

 would be to measure a very large number of school cities and 

 make a defijiite study of the degree to which such definite aims 

 were present in the schools making different scores. 



Conclusion 



In conclusion it seems worth while to point the moral of this 

 study. It is not that we Imxe discovered some facts about teach- 

 ing arithmetic, however important these facts may be. This work 

 can be regarded only as preliminary. The really important prob- 

 lems are yet to be attacked. The significant thing is that we have 

 found a way to work. Lord Kelvin noted that the great advance 

 in physics came when physicists began to invent instruments of 

 measurement and to make quantitative studies. There is hope 

 that the standardized test will do for education what the footrule, 

 the thermometer, the chemist's balance, and other instruments have 

 done for physical science. Every intelligent use of a standardized 

 scale is a step toward a science of education. It is a thing of 

 note that so many school systems should have taken this step. 



Not less important than the discovery and acceptance of the 

 standardized scale is the plan of cooperation. The University would 

 have experienced some difficulty in collecting a body of data as 

 important and reliable as that here reported. The school superin- 

 tendents and teaching corps did it in the course of their work. 

 It had immediate value to them and their children. On the other 

 hand, any school superintendent or group of school superintend- 

 ents would have found it dhficult to make the comparative studies. 

 It has taken hundreds of hours of work of trained students and 

 helpers and has cost the University a considerable amount of 

 money to get the material into print. Whatever virtue the studj^ 

 may have is, then, the result of the cooperative endeavor of the 

 school officers on the one hand and of the University on the other. 

 This plan of educational investigation has large possibilities of 

 future usefulness for the State of Indiana. 



