The High School Failures | Page 3

to the more successful and the
graduating high school pupils is limited mainly to those who go on to
college or to other higher institutions. One of the more familiar
attempts to evaluate the later influence of the high school illustrates the
fallacy of overlooking the process of selection involved, and of treating
its influence in conjunction with the training as though it were the
result of school training alone.[3]
2. THE MEANING OF 'FAILURE' IN THIS STUDY
The term 'failure' is employed in this study to signify the non-passing
of a pupil in any semester-subject of his school work. The school
decision is not questioned in the matter of a recorded failure. And
although it is usually understood to negate "ability plus
accomplishment," it may, and undoubtedly does, at times imply other
meanings, such as a punitive mark, a teacher's prejudice, or a deferred
judgment. The mark may at times tell more about the teacher who gave
it than about the pupil who received it. These peculiarities of the
individual teacher or pupil are pretty well compensated for by the large
number of teachers and of pupils involved. The decisive factor in this
matter is that the school refuses to grant credit for the work pursued.
The failure for a semester seems to be a more adaptable unit in this
connection than the subject-failure for a year. However, it necessitates
the treatment of the subject-failure for a year as equivalent to a failure
for each of the two semesters. Two of the schools involved in this study
(comprising about 11 per cent of the pupils) recorded grades only at the
end of the year. It is quite probable that the marking by semesters
would actually have increased the number of failures in these schools,
as there are many teachers who confess that they are less willing to
make a pupil repeat a year than a semester.
By employing this unit of failure, the failures in the different subjects
are regarded as comparable. Since only the academic and commercial
subjects are considered, and since they are almost uniformly scheduled
for four or five hours a week, the failures will seem to be of something

near equal gravity and to represent a similar amount of
non-performance or of unsatisfactory results. There were also a few
failures included here for those subjects which had only three hours a
week credit, mainly in the commercial subjects. But failures were
unnoted when the subject was listed for less than three hours a week.
There are certain other elements of assumption in the treatment of the
failures, which seemed to be unavoidable. They are, first, that failure in
any subject is the same fact for boys and for girls; second, that failures
in different years of work or with different teachers are equivalent;
third, that failures in elective and in required subjects are of the same
gravity. It was found practically impossible to differentiate required
and elective subjects, however desirable it would have been, for the
subjects that are theoretically elective often are in fact virtually
required, the electives of one course are required in another, and on
many of the records consulted neither the courses nor the electives are
clearly designated.
3. THE SCOPE AND CONTENT OF THE FIELD COVERED
As any intensive study must almost necessarily be limited in its scope,
so this one comprises for its purposes the high school records for 6,141
pupils belonging to eight different high schools located in New York
and New Jersey. For two of these schools the records for all the pupils
that entered are included here for five successive years, and for their
full period in high school. In two other schools the records of all pupils
that entered for four successive years were secured. In four of the
schools the records of all pupils who entered in February and
September of one year constituted the number studied. There is
apparently no reason to believe that a longer period of years would be
more representative of the facts for at least three of these four schools,
in view of the situation that they had for years enjoyed a continuity of
administration and that they possess a well-established organization.
The fourth one of these schools had less complete records than were
desired, but even in that the one year was representative of the other
years' records. The distribution of the 6,141 pupils by schools and by
years of entering high school is given below.

HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS IN: ENTERING HIGH SCHOOL NUMBER
IN THE YEARS STUDIED
White Plains, N.Y. 1908, '09, '10, '11, '12 659 Dunkirk, N.Y. 1909, '10,
'11, '12 370 Mount Vernon, N.Y. 1912 224 Montclair, N.J. 1908, '09,
'10, '11, '12 946 Hackensack, N.J. 1909, '10, '11, '12 736 Elizabeth, N.J.
1912 333 Morris H.S.--Bronx