Irregular Attendance in the Primary Grades
The Psychological Clinic Vol. III. No. 4. June 15, 1909. :Author: Ralph L. Johnson, M.A., Supervisor of Schools, Upper Darby, Pennu.
For some years my attention has been arrested by the fact that of children enrolled for periods of equal length, those who attended the greatest number of days had in general the highest class standing. Of the ten classes graduated from the high school in Upper Darby, five of the valedictorians (the pupils with highest standing) had attended during three years a greater number of days than any other member of their respective classes; two of the remaining valedictorians never missed a day during their senior year; one missed only one day during the senior year; another had missed only twenty-six days in three years; the remaining valedictorian repeated one of the years. If there is such a definite relation between attendance and class standing on graduation, we may expect that irregular attendance will show itself to be equally effective in producing retardation, which, in many cases, is simply the result of a failure to be promoted annually from grade to grade. In the school district of Upper Darby in July, 1908, 43 per cent of the pupils were one or more years behind the theoretical age limit ;* 23 per cent exceeded the age limit by two years or more; 9 per cent by three years or more, and 4 per cent by four years or more. Many children do not leave the first grade until they are nine or ten years of age. Some of the children are enrolled in the first grade for as long a period as four years. “Why ?
Supt. Schaeffer, in the Pennsylvania State report for 1908,f ?The schools of Danville, Pa., in 1908 showed a retardation of 74.7 per cent. Report of the Supt. of Pub. Inst, of Pa., 1908, page 154. fReport of the Supt. of Pub. Inst, of Pa. for the year ending Jan. 1, 1908, page 11.
says “Retardation is partly due to defective systems of promotion. Teachers are always afraid that their work will be criticised by those above them, if pupils are promoted whose preparation is not adequate in every particular. The retardation of pupils may be due to ill health or other cause which can be removed.” A great “other cause” is poor attendance, especially in the lower grades. While the educational system of the United States may be the best in the world, nevertheless, as Dr Falkner claims. “The question is not, Is the education good or not, but do tliey get it ?” They do not get it in the primary grades. The primary children do not enter late, they do not stop early, but they do attend school irregularly.
In order that I might present a definite statement of the extent of irregular attendance, I collated the records of the attendance of children in all the grades of the school district of which I am supervisor. Upper Darby is a township contiguous to Philadelphia on the west. There are seven settlements, from five of which the attendance records have been examined and analyzed. In one of these, the records of the eight elementary grades were 6’tudied for ten years; in another for five years; in another for eight years, and in the other two for six and five years respectively. The high school records, which were also examined and classified in the same manner as the grade records, cover a period of fourteen years.
Four thousand and forty-one (4041) annual records or enrolments were examined and the data classified in five sections. In the high school section, grades nine to eleven, there were 392 enrolments, including both boys and girls; in the intermediate sections, grades four to eight, there were 883 boys in one section and 914 girls in the other, a total of 1797 enrolments; in the two primary sections, grades one to three, there were respectively 958 boys and 894 girls, a total of 1852 enrolments. These 4041 enrolments do not represent as many different children. So far as this study is concerned the same child might have been represented with as many as fourteen enrolments. As a matter of fact he is never represented with the maximum number possible. Some of the children, however, were enrolled on the records for twelve years, nine in the grades and three in the high school. These children would appear in my data with twelve annual enrolments. Very few were represented with as large a number of enrolments as this. In all, 874 children are involved.
Although the number of children is relatively small, nevertheless the records of a small group of children over a long period may furnish better data for conclusions than the records of a large group of children for a short period of time. Epidemics, unusual weather conditions, or some local disorder are less likely to have a disturbing influence upon the results.
Table I shows the percentage of pupils who have attended for each ten-day division. Thus, of the 958 primary boys enrolled,
TABLE I. Percentage of Attendance. Days attended 191?200 181?190 171?180 101?170 151?1 GO More than f 141?150 131?140 121?130 111?120 101?110 i to i 91?100 81? 90 71? 80 Gl? 70 51? 60 i to $ 41? 50 31? 40 21? 30 11? 20 1? 10 i and less High School 35.8 16.5 9.7 5.6 3.4 71.0 2.4 2.9 2.4 2.0 2.9 12.6 1.5 2.0 1.5 1.8 2.0 8.8 1.4 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.8 7.5 Intermediate Boys 4-8 22.9 14.9 7.9 7.8 6.7 60.2 5.2 3.4 2.9 4.0 2.9 18.4 1.8 1.0 2.7 2.7 1.6 9.8 2.0 2.5 2.5 3.5 1.1 11.6 Girls 4-8 21.6 16.0 11.8 9.3 5.1 63.8 2.8 3.3 3.3 2.8 1.2 13.4 1.5 1.6 1.5 1.5 2.9 9.0 2.0 3.7 3.2 4.0 .9 13.8 Primary Boys 1-3 8.4 10.9 8.7 7.6 5.7 41.3 5.2 3.8 3.8 5.2 3.2 21.2 3.7 1.6 3.0 1.9 3.6 13.8 3.7 5.9 5.4 6.2 2.5 23.5 Girls 1-3 8.9 9.1 8.6 8.3 6.1 41.0 5.2 4.1 4.6 3.9 2.1 20.3 2.6 2.0 3.2 3.9 3.4 .15.1 4.0 5.7 4.8 5.6 3.5 23.6
5.2 per cent attended between 141 and 150 days; 3.2 per cent between 101 and 110 days, and so on. The inspection of this table does not show any significant differences between the atten ance of the boys and girls, either in the intermediate or piimary grades. A summary of the results has therefore been piepare in table II, showing the percentages of pupils, boys and girls toget er, in the high school and in the intermediate and primary gra es, attending more than three-fourths of the time; from one-half to three-fourths of the time; from one-quarter to one-half of t e time; and the percentage attending only one-quarter of tlie time or less. Seventy-one per cent of the high school pupils attended more than three-fourths of the time; G2 per cent of the inter92 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC mediate pupils attended more than tliree-fourtlis of the time, and only 41 per cent of the primary pupils. Thus the primary grades are at a marked disadvantage in comparison with the high school grades, so far as attendance is concerned. In the eight grades below the high school, barely one-half, 51 per cent of the children, attended more than three-fourths of the time. In 1908, GO per cent of the children in these grades were promoted. The percentage promoted does not differ much from the percentage attending more than three-fourths of the time. Sixty per cent promoted
TABLE II. Percentage of Attendance (Summary). Days attended High School Intermediate PrimaryMore than i More than 140 days i to J to j and less 71.0 73.4 12.6 8.8 7.5 62.0 66.0 15.9 9.4 12.7 41.1 47.0 20.7 14.4 23.5
may seem low, but this figure is based upon the total enrolment, and not upon the number who took the examinations, as is so often done in statistics of promotion.
Of the pupils attending less than three-fourths of the time, we find the following interesting comparisons. Attending between three-fourths and one-half of the time, we find 12 per cent of tlio high school pupils, 16 per cent of the intermediate, and 21 per cent of the primary pupils. Attending between one-half and onequarter of the time, we find 9 per cent of the high school pupils, 9 per cent of the intermediate, and 14 per cent of the primary pupils. Attending one-quarter of the time or less, we have 7 per cent of the high school pupils, 12 per cent of the intermediate, and 23 per cent of the primary pupils. About one-quarter of the primary pupils miss threie-fourths of the time for which tlie table has been prepared. If “doing time” in school is essential, we should expect that irregular attendance of this character would necessitate extra years on the student’s part to cover the grades. The law presumes that satisfactory attendance does not permit of more than six days’ absence each month, that is to say, every pupil is supposed to be present 70 per cent of the time, or 140 days in 200.* In grades four to eight, 34 per cent fail to attain ?Act of May 29, 1907, Section 1, P. L., page 316. “The school board In each district shall have power, at Its June meeting, to reduce the period of compulsory attendance to not less than seventy per centum (70 per centum) of the school term in such district.”
this standard of attendance, and in grades one to three, 53 per cent. That the migratory families cannot make up this difference appears from the fact that such families have children above the age of the primary grades, as well as children in these grades. I 1 I ? I I I I | I I I ! < I I I I I ? Too no | m m too so to fo 10 ISO Curve I?High School Grades 9-11, Boys and Girls. Curve I?High School Grades 9-11, Boys and Girls. I I I I I I tOO HO 160 150 Curve II?High School Pupils Who Graduated. Curve 11?xiign ocnooi Pupils Who Graduated. 94 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC The results of tables I and II are sihlown graphically in curves I to IV, pages 93 and 94. Curve I shows the state of affairs in the high school. The days attended are distributed along the base line in divisions of ten each. The percentages of children attending are shown in the vertical column and by the height of the curve above the base line.
The curve shows that 36 per cent of the high school pupils attended between 191 and 200 days; 18 per cent attended between 181 and 190 days, etc. The arrow points to those who attended between 141 and 150 days, just meeting the presumption of the law. The part of the curve to the right of this section indicates the relative proportion of high school pupils who failed to meet the requirements of the law.
Curve II exhibits the attendance of those high school pupils who graduated. Forty-four per cent attended 191 to 200 days. No pupil graduated who did not attend at least 141 days, the minimum requirement of the law. This is the best curve of attendance. Pupils who get the most from the school, give the maximum of time to it. If children are really to obtain the advanI I I I I I I I I t I I I I I I I I I I 2 CO ISO 160 140 Hi 104 tO 60 44 10 ISO Curve IV?Primary Grades 1-3, Boys and Girls. Curve IV?Primary Grades 1-3, Boys and Girls. I I I I I I I I I I I I II I I I I I 200 ISO HO I no /to too 80 to {Q 20 /so Curve III?Intermediate Grades 4-5, Boys and Girls. Curv3 III?Intermediate urades 4-5, tfoys and Oirls. IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE 95 tages which the schools offer, the curves for all grades should approximate the form of curve II. Quite a different condition of affairs is shown in curves III and IV. Of the intermediate boys and girls, only 66 per cent have attended 141 days or more, meeting the presumption of the law. Both curves, but especially the curve of the primary grades, are too stocky. Too large a percentage of the children are attending too small a number of days per annum, as is shown by the large area of the figure which is to the right of the arrow indicating the minimal requirement of the law. In both curves a second rise is to be observed at the right of the curve, more distinctly noticeable in curve IV than in curve III. In fact the curves have two maxima, the one on the left showing that the largest number of pupils have attended from 170 to 200 days, and the one on the right showing that a larger number attended from 10 to 50 days than attended from 80 to 100 days. There is evidently some cause at work which is responsible for this marked tendency of children, especially the primary children, to attend school for a very small number of days each year. This tendency, which is more pronounced in the primary than in the intermediate grades, does not appear at all in the high school. If a table of absences be compiled to compare the high, middle, and primary grades, it will look like this: High Intermediate Primary G Pe/cent.1 Per*cent. Per cent. Missed ^ time 29 38 59 ” l/o ” 16 22 39
” ^ ” 7.5 12.5 23 A very important cause of retardation in the primary grades is inadequate and irregular attendance. I he public schools are for the education of the people. The parents and guardians of children must be educated by the public school authorities to appreciate the effect of irregular attendance. Once retarded does not necessarily mean always retarded, but it is extremely difficult for a child to pick up what has been lost in the primary grades. This fact should be brought home to parents. The primary grades are perhaps the most important part of the school system. We should give more serious attention to our public school beginners and to their beginnings.
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