The High School Failures | Page 5

it would
have been altogether impossible in that time.
Some arbitrary decisions and classifications proved necessary in
reference to certain facts involved in the data employed in this study.
All statements of age will be understood as applying to within the
nearest half year; that is, fifteen years of age will mean within the
period from fourteen years and a half to fifteen years and a half. The
classification in the following pages by school years or semesters
(half-years) is dependent upon the time of entrance into school. In this
sense, a pupil who entered either in September or in February is
regarded as a first semester pupil, however the school classes are
named. As promotions are on a subject basis in each of the schools
there is no attempt to classify later by promotions, but the
time-in-school basis is retained. In reference to school marks or grades,
letters are here employed, although four of the eight schools employ
percentage grading. Whether the passing mark is 60, as in some of the
schools, or 70, as in others, the letter C is used to represent one-third of
the distance from the failing mark to 100 per cent; B is used to
represent the next third of the distance; and A is used to express the
upper third of the distance. The plus and minus signs, attached to the
gradings in three of the schools, are disregarded for the purposes of this
study, except that when D+ occurred as a conditional passing mark it
was treated as a C. Otherwise D has been used to signify a failing grade
in a subject, which means that the grade is somewhere below the
passing mark. The term 'graduates' is meant to include all who graduate,
either by diploma or by certificate. Any statement made in the

following pages of 'time in school' or of time spent for 'securing
graduation' will not include as a part of such period a semester in which
the pupil is absent all or nearly all of the time, as in the case of absence
due to illness.
5. THE SELECTION AND RELIABILITY OF THESE SOURCES OF
DATA
By employing data secured only from official school records and in the
manner stated, this study has been limited to those schools that provide
the cumulative pupil records, with continuity and completeness, for a
sufficient period of years. Some schools had to be eliminated from
consideration for our purposes because the cumulative records covered
too brief a period of years. In other schools administrative changes had
broken the continuity of the records, making them difficult to interpret
or undependable for this study. The shortage of clerical help was the
reason given in one school for completing only the records of the
graduates. In addition to the requirements pertaining to records, only
publicly administered and co-educational schools have been included
among those whose records are used. It was also considered important
to have schools representing the large as well as the small city on the
list of those studied. Since many schools do not possess these important
records, or do not recognize their value, it is quite probable that the
conditions prescribed here tended to a selection of schools superior in
reference to systematic procedure, definite standards, and stable
organization, as compared to those in general which lack adequate
records.
The reliability and correctness of these records for the schools named
are vouched for and verbally certified by the principals as the most
dependable and in large part the only information of its kind in the
possession of the schools. In each of these schools the principals have
capable assistants who are charged with the keeping of the records,
although they are aided at times by teachers or pupils who work under
direction. In three of the larger schools a special secretary has full
charge of the records, and is even expected to make suggestions for
revisions and improvements of the forms and methods. In view of such

facts it seems doubtful that one could anywhere find more dependable
school records of this sort. It was true of one of the schools that the
records previous to 1909 proved to be unreliable. There is no
inclination here to deny the existence of defects and limitations to these
records, but the intimate acquaintance resulting from close inquiry,
involving nearly every factor which the records contain, is convincing
that for these schools at least the records are highly dependable.
However, there is some tendency for even the best school records to
understate the full situation regarding failure, while there is no
corresponding tendency to overstate or to record failures not made. Not
infrequently the pupils who drop out after previously failing may
receive no mark or an incomplete one for the last semester in school.
Although