280 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
draw up a table showing the distribution of children by grades 
and ages and to draw through it a line separating the over-age 
children from those of normal age. 
“The objections that have been brought against this method 
are: first, that it exaggerates the extent of the evil: and second, 
that the facts shown are non-significant because the child who 
enters school late is not retarded at all but will make such rapid 
progress as to more than catch up with those who entered 
earlier. 
“Considering now the first of these two objections, is it true 
that the age standard of measuring retardation exaggerates the 
seriousness of the existing conditions ? In Yew York City 
16,000 children graduated from the eighth grades last June. 
Of these children 42 per cent had required more than eight 
years to complete the eight grades. In another study of the 
school histories of 19,000 children in Yew York it w'as found 
that 23 per cent had made slower progress than that called for 
by the course of study. In an article published in the Educa¬ 
tional Review for September, 1909, Dr. Roland P. Falkner 
published data from a number of cities showing that when we 
can apply both the age-in-grade and the progress criteria we 
find almost without exception that the age standard understates 
rather than overstates the extent of the evil. 
“Turning now to the second objection we are confronted by 
the claim that the child who enters school late readily over¬ 
comes, his initial handicap and by rapid progress soon catches 
up with the children wdio entered early and even passes them. 
Here again the question at issue can only be answered by an ap¬ 
peal to fact, not to opinion. 
“Reference has been made to a study of the school records of 
the 16,000 children who graduated from the eighth grades in 
Yew York City last June. One part of that study consisted 
of a tabulation of the records of progress made by the chil¬ 
dren who entered at each age. In this study only the records 
of the children who started in the first grade and completed 
the eight grades were taken into consideration. The results 
are shown in the following table: 
