Wage Earning and Education | Page 7

children approximately 37,000 boys and 38,000 girls were enrolled in the public schools. Exact data as to those attending private and parochial schools are not available. The total enrollment in such schools has been variously estimated as between 25,000 and 30,000.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The public school system in 1915 enrolled approximately 82,000 children of all ages, of whom about half were boys and half girls. They are taught in 98 elementary schools and 10 high schools. The elementary course comprises eight grades. At the beginning of the school year 1915-16 two junior high schools were opened for pupils of the seventh and eighth grades. It is to be expected that this plan will soon be extended throughout the city, so that the enrollment in elementary schools will be made up of pupils of the first six grades only. The distribution by grade is given in Table 3. The kindergarten grades and the special ungraded classes are omitted.
TABLE 3.--PUPILS ENROLLED IN THE DIFFERENT GRADES OF THE PUBLIC DAY SCHOOLS IN JUNE, 1915
-------------------+-------------------- Grade | Pupils -------------------+-------------------- 1 | 13,108 2 | 10,857 3 | 10,562 4 | 9,323 5 | 8,902 6 | 7,259 7 | 6,429 8 | 4,903 | I | 3,122 II | 2,100 III | 1,534 IV | 1,399 -------------------+--------------------
About 77 per cent of the children are enrolled in the grades below the seventh, about 13 per cent in the seventh and eighth grades, a little over six per cent in the first two years of the high school, and less than three and one-half per cent in the third and fourth.
There are eight academic high schools, two technical high schools, and two commercial high schools. The technical high schools are steadily growing in favor. The registration of boys in these schools increased about 33 per cent from 1913 to 1915, and of girls about 77 per cent. During the same period the registration of boys in the academic high schools decreased slightly, while the increase of girl students was only eight per cent; in the commercial high schools the number of girl students increased 20 per cent, while the enrollment of boys fell off more than 10 per cent. The enrollment by individual schools is shown in Table 4.
TABLE 4.--ENROLLMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS, SECOND SEMESTER, 1914-1915
----------------------------------+-----------------------------+ | Enrollment | Schools +---------+---------+---------+ | Boys | Girls | Total | ----------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+ | | | | Academic high schools | | | | Central | 804 | 711 | 1,515 | East | 607 | 688 | 1,295 | Glenville | 405 | 611 | 1,016 | West | 246 | 377 | 623 | Lincoln | 277 | 329 | 606 | South | 213 | 238 | 451 | | | | | Total | 2,552 | 2,954 | 5,506 | ----------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+ | | | | Technical high schools | | | | East Technical | 1,161 | 548 | 1,709 | West Technical | 515 | 242 | 757 | | | | | Total | 1,676 | 790 | 2,466 | ----------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+ | | | | Commercial high schools | | | | West Commercial | 249 | 528 | 777 | East Commercial | 49 | 96 | 145 | | | | | Total | 298 | 624 | 922 | ----------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+ | | | | All high schools | 4,526 | 4,368 | 8,894 | | | | | ----------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+
About three-eighths of the high school pupils of the city are in the technical and commercial schools. Of the boys 56 per cent are enrolled in the academic high schools, 37 per cent in the technical schools, and seven per cent in the commercial schools. Of the girls 68 per cent attend the academic high schools, 18 per cent the technical schools, and 14 per cent the commercial schools. In the commercial high school approximately two-thirds of the enrollment is made up of girls. In the technical high schools the opposite condition prevails, the girls constituting less than one-third of the total enrollment, while in the academic high schools the girls outnumber the boys by nearly one-sixth.
AGES OF PUPILS
The distribution as to ages is shown in Table 5. The largest group is made up of children seven years old. Between 14 and 15 over 30 per cent leave school. The loss from 16 to 17 is approximately 43 per cent, from 17 to 18 about 44 per cent, and from 18 to 19 nearly 62 per cent.
The compulsory attendance law requires boys to attend school until they are 15 and girls until they are 16. That the law is not adequately enforced is demonstrated by the heavy loss between the ages of 14 and 15, and the fact that the loss between 15 and 16 is approximately the same for both boys and