A Misleading Average
News and Comments.
A figure not infrequently found in school reports is the average age of the pupils in each of the elementary grades. Such series conform to the same type. In the lower grades there is usually a greater interval than one year between the average ages of successive grades and in the upper grades an interval of less than one year. Generally speaking the tables, like most of the tables in school reports, are printed without comment, though occasionally a report is found which points out as the obvious interpretation, that while pupils progress more slowly than the course of study in the lower grades, they advance more rapidly in the upper grades.
The Memphis, Tenn., report of 1907-08 offers a striking instance because the same report contains so much excellent material to show the falsity of the conclusion. It prints the following figures: Memphis, June, 1908. United States. White. Colored. 1903. Number Average Number Average Average Grades. in grade. in years. in grade. in years. in years. 1 2043 7 2223 8.5 6 2 1278 8 860 10.9 7.6 3 1269 9.9 686 11.6 9 4 1089 11.1 420 12.8 10 5 798 12.1 288 13.7 11 6 790 12.9 200 14.0 12 7 579 13.7 131 14.8 13 8 392 14.5 80 15.5 14
On these figures the following comment is made,?”The white schools here are very close to the national average. It will be seen that the average child in the first grade here is older than in the United States in general, but that notwithstanding the fact that our children are older when they enter school, they finish the work of the highest grade in the grammar schools at the same age as the average children of all sections, and in less time.”
There is in fact in the figures cited for1 the United States an interval of 8.5 years between the first and eighth grades, while in the Memphis white schools it is 7.5 years, and this apparently has led the writer to believe that Memphis children finished their school work in less time. If he had observed that in the colored schools the interval is 7 years it is possible he would have hesitated to have drawn the conclusion that the colored pupils advanced more rapidly than the white pupils.
But of course the figures really tell us nothing about progress, but simply the ages in the grades. The interval between the average ages in the upper grades is less than one year, not because pupils advance more rapidly but because the older pupils are dropping out of school. An age and grade table published in the report gives abundant means/ of proof. There were in the fourth grade 1089 pupils of whom 716 or1 65.5 per cent were retarded. In the eighth grade there were 392 pupils yof whom 193 or 49.3 per cent were retarded. Such a loss in the proportion of retarded pupils might it is true be due to greater progress, but when it is taken in connection with the great drop in number? it is not likely. There were in the fourth grade 273 pupils of normal age or under, in the eighth grade 199, the difference being 174. On the other hand the fourth grade contained 716 retarded pupils, the eighth grade 192, a difference between the two grades of 524. It is probable that the present eighth grade has lost pupils in about these proportions, i. e. about three over age or retarded for each pupil of normal age and under.
In the colored schools, where retardation is still greater, similar comparisons are still more striking. The fourth grade contained 33 normal pupils, the eighth grade 15, a difference of 18. The fourth grade contained 387 retarded pupils and the eighth grade 65, a difference of 322. Now if these differences represent approximately the losses which the present eighth grade group has had in the last four years, then they ?re in the ratio of one normal age pupil to nearly eighteen retarded pupils.
In further evidence that the average is reduced by the elimination of over age or retarded pupils we may cite the experience of Providence, I. In that city no child can leave at the age of fourteen years to go to work without a certificate. Of all the certificates issued in 1907-08 only 22.5 per cent were given to children who were in normal grades for the age 14 years, and 77.5 per cent were given to those below the normal grade.
The average age as printed in the school reports is doubtless correct, the conclusion not infrequently drawn from it is undoubtedly wrong. The error has arisen from a failure to take into account the diminishing numbers in the grades upon which such averages are based and the causes of such diminution.
Roland P. Falkner. Special Schools and Glasses,?the Administrative Problem. In the current report of the Superintendent of Public Schools for Philadelphia, which is just now in press, Dr Brumbaugh gives an effective statement of many of the administrative problems that arise in connection with the organization of special schools and classes. This admirable consideration of Philadelphia problems will doubtless prove helpful to many other communities. The question of the special class versus the special school is treated with great thoroughness. The Psychological Clinic has therefore deemed it serviceable to publish in these columns the paragraphs dealing with these problems. Superintendent Brumbaugh’s report for 1908 will also repay careful examination by any one interested in the statistical treatment of public school problems.
“Until comparatively recent years the Public School systems of this country have been developed and operated to meet the educational requirements of the average or normal child. So exclusively has attention been thus directed to education ‘in the mass’ that the existence of variations from the so-called normal has hardly been recognized, much less taken into account in the practical regime of the schools. The pupil who failed to keep step with his fellows or who because of physical or moral defect seriously interfered with the regular work of a class tended to drop out, or to be forced out, of school and the problem of the exceptional child disappeared with him.
“The enactment of compulsory education laws and the gradual improvement in the enforcement of the law, however, forced the problem upon the attention of the schools and of the school authorities. Special schools, and special classes in regular schools, have been established in many cities throughout the United States, for truant, incorrigible, backward and otherwise defective pupils of whose presence it is imperative that the regular classes be relieved and for whose education adequate provision is equally imperative.
“The first special school for the truant and incorrigible was established in this city in 1898. The number of such schools has grown to nine (9) at the present date. The first class for1 backward children in a regular school was established in 1901. The number of such classes has grown to six (6) and one school?the John Quincy Adams?of six (6) classes has been organized as a special school for backward and mentally deficient children only. With but two exceptions, the special schools, though originally intended for the truant and incorrigible only, have by a natural classification of the pupils attending them been organized for backward and mentally deficient pupils also. The schools, however, are small, varying in size from but two (2) to a maximum of seven (7) classes and make provision for only 1000 pupils. There are in all twentythree (23) disciplinary classes with an enrolment of 458 boys; and twenty-five (25) backward classes (six of these are in regular schools) with an enrolment of 350 boys and 107 girls. (Report for November, 1909.) As these figures show, the growth of the system of special schools and classes has been slow and uneven, and far from equal to the demands for the proper segregation and training of the defective child. “The pressing need for special classes has been generally admitted and more or less accurate estimates of the number of pupils to be provided for have from time to time been made. Ten years ago a census of mentally deficient children attending the public schools was taken by the principals, who reported approximately 1000 such children. The principals did not receive expert assistance or direction in this work and, no doubt, many mistakes in the diagnosis of individual cases were made; but the fact that in 637 of the cases reported the pupils had been two to three years in one grade and 144 had been three years or more in grade serves as a check upon the returns and would indicate that the census was probably not very far wide of the mark. No account was taken at this time of other classes of defectives.
“In February, 1909, a census of the mentally sub-normal and of the truant and incorrigible children in the public schools was taken under the direction of the Bureau of Health acting in conjunction with the Department of Superintendence of Schools. The returns were carefully collated and published in a special report by a Committee of the Philadelphia Teachers’ Association.* The Committee was composed of representative teachers and principals of both regular and special schools, the head of the department of psychology of the Normal School, two district superintendents and an associate superintendent. This committee was m close touch with the Bureau of Health and with the Department of Superintendence and the results of its investigation are significant and valuable. The report thus prepared shows?to employ round numbers only?about 500 denominated as ‘feeble minded’ in all the public schools of the city. Of these about 50 are enrolled in special schools, so that special provision is made for only about one-tenth of all the cases. About 1500 ‘truant and incorrigible,’ one-third of whom are in special schools, are also reported. The census probably under-estimates the number of defective children in the city. It undoubtedly is a fair indication of the need for special schools and classes for the sub-normal child. “A careful, scientific study of this question is in my judgment highly desirable and I have therefore appointed, under the authority of the Board of Education, the following committee to undertake the work: Milton C. Cooper, District Superintendent; Holman White, Principal Northeast School; Dr Walter S. Cornell, Bureau of Health; Louis Nusbaum, Principal Binney School, Secretary; Oliver P. Cornman, Associate Superintendent, Chairman. This committee will endeavor to determine as accurately as possible by individual examination of cases the number of sub-normal children in the schools and the degree of backwardness of each pupil reported. The committee will continue its work throughout the school year 1909-10 and its investigations will no doubt furnish data of value for the solution of the problem of the education of the backward child. “It must also be noted that the special schools have not been distributed geographically so as best to meet the needs of the system. I he several areas and school populations served by these schools vary enormously. Schools Nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are not properly located even as regards their own territory. No. 7 is the only special school west of the Schuylkill River. There should plainly be several centres for special classes in a district so large as West Philadelphia. The relative inaccessibility of some of the special schools is shown in the variation in enrolment in these schools. While the schools as a whole accommodate about one-sixth of the estimated number of defectives of the city, some of the schools have but one-tenth, others nearly one-third of the defectives of their respective territories.
“Another indication of the unevenness of the growth of the special schools is found in the varying proportions of boys and girls enrolled in the several schools and the disproportionate number of boys in the total for all the schools. There are approximately as many backward girls as backward boys in the public schools, yet the special schools and classes contain but one-third as many sub-normal girls as boys of corresponding type, and while cases of chronic truancy and disorderly conduct are much more numerous among boys than girls, nevertheless there are truant girls, and girls who are otherwise fit subjects for disciplinary classes, but no provision whatever has been made for them. In consequence, girls who exert a truly demoralizing influence upon a class and otherwise retard its progress are often retained in school because the law compels it or because the loss to the normal pupil is endured rather than have the unfortunate girl suffer exclusion from such benefits as she may derive from the regular class. On the other hand, cases that become intolerable are sometimes forced out of school just at a time when they most need sympathetic guidance and control to save them from continued error and future misery. There can be no question but that provision should be made whereby such girls may be retained in school under the best educational influences possible to accord them. In justice to the normal child this can only be done by segregation of such pupils in special classes. “It is of equal, if not of greater, importance to secure properly qualified teachers for the special classes as it is to provide a sufficient number of well equipped class-rooms. Unfortunately the conditions under which the special schools have been established and maintained have not been favorable to the development of a corps of teachers as exceptional in character as the nature of the work really demands. The salary paid special teachers is the same as that for primary grades in the regular schools; the grammar grade teacher of a special class receives less salary, therefore, than a teacher of a corresponding grade of a regular class. The absence of salary inducement, together with the relatively inferior environment of the special schools as now constituted and the special character of the work have made it difficult to obtain teachers of experience at all, much less to secure those who have special preparation for this field of work. Indeed, in the earlier years, vacancies in these schools were sometimes filled by the appointment of persons without certificates to teach. In recent years, no such appointments have been made, but persons without previous teaching experience have been assigned to these important places. It should be stated that a number of the teachers in the special schools have taken university and other special courses and have visited training schools and institutions for defectives in order better to qualify themselves for their positions, and there is much good work being done to-day in the .special schools and classes. What has been done voluntarily by some, however1, should be made a condition of appointment for all. Teachers in sufficient numbers to meet the demands, however, cannot be induced to make the necessary special preparation for this work unless the salary for these positions be made somewhat higher than that for the Regular grade positions. The provision of such a salary increment for those who obtain the requisite qualifications is a necessary preliminary, therefore, to raising the standard for teachers of defective children and for improving the quality of the work in special schools and classes.
“The need of professional training for work in special classes is generally recognized and opportunity for securing it is now afforded by courses given in both the regular term work and in the summer schools of many teachers’ colleges, and in the pedagogical and psychological departments of universities and in training schools for defective children. It would, in my judgment, be feasible and highly desir’able for such courses to be offered in the normal training schools under the Board of Public Education. Until the supply of trained teachers may be largely increased much improvement may be expected, however, by a careful selection of experienced teachers in the grades who by reason of patience, sympathy and other gifts of temperament have natural aptitude for special class work. A few teachers of this character who have charge of special classes have been notably successful and have found the work so interesting that they prefer to continue in it rather than return to the regular class-room.
“The schools have suffered also in that they have not heretofore received the amount and kind of supervision that is essential for their highest welfare. The principals of these schools have each a class to teach in addition to suffering the numerous interruptions occasioned by official visits of medical inspectors, attendance and probation officers, and interviews with parents. In consequence they not only have little or no time for supervision of the work of the school, but are even obliged to neglect, more or less, the work of their own classes. Moreover, the Director of Special Schools was able to give but a portion of her time to the supervision of these schools as she had charge also of the sewing m the elementary grades, and the District Superintendents were not brought into official relation with the special schools except to receive their statistical reports and to supervise the transfer of pupils to and from the schools. A partial remedy for the lack of professional supervision will be found in the arrangements that have been made for this year whereby the District Superintendents have been given official charge of the special schools within their respective territories, and the general direction of the work of the schools has been assigned to one of the Associate Superintendents. This will not only secure for the principals and teachers of the special schools a greater share of professional assistance and direction, but should lead to a closer relation between the special and the regular schools and an understanding of each other’s problems that will be mutually helpful.
“The amount and kind of supervision that should be accorded the special classes, however, cannot be secured unless they be brought into a still closer relation to the regular schools. The backward classes that have been etablished in regular schools are under the direct charge and daily oversight of principals trained in the work of supervision who are thus enabled to study at close range the problem of the backward and the mentally deficient pupil. Disciplinary classes also should be established upon a similar basis. The advantages inherent in a plan of organization whereby the special classes become an integral part of the regular schools are many and important. It reduces to a minimum the ‘institutionalizing’ of the defective pupil by affording him the opportunity and the benefit of association with his more normal fellows in many general exercises of the school. Under judicious management, the fact that he is segregated as a special pupil may seem to him in no essential different from the classification by grades of all the other pupils. It thus removes the stigma that invariably attaches to a special school as such and lessens the opposition of parents to the transfer of their children to special classes, and the transfer of pupils from regular to special classes and vice versa becomes easier of accomplishment. It brings the teachers of regular classes into closer contact with the problem, and enables them to diagnose with greater accuracy special cases that come under their observation. In many cases special treatment may thus be secured for a child before it is too late to apply the proper remedy. Observation of the work in special classes, moreover, may not only furnish the grade teacher with valuable suggestion for her own work, but so arouse her interest in the problem as to lead her into the work herself. The transfer of teachers from regular to special work is therefore facilitated. “The establishment of additional special schools or classes would not wholly solve the problem of making adequate provision for children who deviate markedly from the normal. The truly feeble-minded or imbecile child should not be permitted to attend a day school class, regular or special at all, but for the good of society as well as for his own greatest benefit, should be committed to an institution for permanent custody. This is imperative in order to prevent multiplication of the evil. The mental deficiency of children of feeble-minded or lower grade is incurable, but under proper institutional care, these unfortunates may be trained to be partially, if not wholly, self-supporting while their lives are made as happy as possible. Until this method of treatment shall be adopted for the mentally deficient, they should at least be separated from the merely backward pupil of the special class. In other words, backward classes should be established in such numbers as to permit of a better classification of the pupils. This could be done at very little expense, as a brief consideration will show. If the average attendance of 40 per teacher of the regular class were raised to but 40.5 pupils it would permit of the formation of nearly 100 special classes of 15 to 20 pupils each without the necessity of making any increase at all to the total teaching force.
“There are also, unfortunately, certain cases of chronic truancy and incorrigibility for which the special schools offer little or no hope of improvement or cure. The child’s home environment and habits outside of school may be such as to counteract the good results of the healthful moral influence of a well-conducted special school, and the only solution of the problem is the complete and continuous control of the child during such period as may be necessary to set him upon the proper road in life. The establishment of a parental school is, therefore, an essential condition of the proper treatment of this question.
“Unlike the training school for the permanent custody of the mentally deficient children committed to it, the parental school aims to retain its pupils for a limited period only. As soon as the pupil entrusted to its care has made such improvement as to give reasonable assurance that he may resume his place with normal children, he is returned to his home and to regular school work. Should the home environment be of such a character as to endanger the state of moral health attained in the parental school, the boy should be retained in the school until through private assistance or philanthropic societies interested in this work, a place may be found for” him under good family conditions. The parental school may thus be made to serve the purpose not only of upbuilding the physical and moral health of the pupils but also as a temporary refuge until home conditions rather than institutional training Eiay be secured for them.
“Such a school bears the same relation to a special school or disciplinary class as the latter bears to the regular classes of our public schools. The special class is established for the two-fold purpose of (a) relieving the regular class of a group of pupils who take a disproportionate share of the teacher’s time and effort and thus interfere with the progress of the normal child and (b) of providing the most favorable conditions for the effective education of the pupils segregated. Similarly the parental school would further the interest of the troublesome, hut not completely incorrigible, pupils of the disciplinary class by removing from this group the child of truly vicious habits or criminal tendencies whose only hope of reformation is to be found in the special regimen of nutrition, physical education and carefully exercised control of an institution planned along modern lines for this specialized educational function. Until parental schools are established, our disciplinary classes are liable to contain such , a proportion of this type of pupil as to render them doubtful, if not totally unfit, places for the ordinary truant’ and difficult pupil for whom they are really planned and for whom they could otherwise render a valuable service.
“The establishment of a parental school has been regularly urged by the Chief of the Bureau of Compulsory Education in his annual reports. The necessity for it has been noted also by magistrates before whom the delinquent children are brought and indeed, by practically all who have had experience in dealing with the chronic truant and incorrigible boy. New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and a number of smaller cities have already established parental schools. Philadelphia should also be included in the list of cities making adequate provision for the unfortunate juvenile delinquent who, either by reason of unfortunate heredity or the evil influences of a hopelessly inferior environment, is in danger of becoming a criminal charge upon the community. The cost of providing and maintaining a modern parental school would be returned many times over not only in the reduction of expenditures for maintenance of criminal courts and penal institutions, but in the service ultimately rendered the community by the redemption of the youthful offenders to lives of useful citizenship. “To summarize briefly the recommendations of this report in regard to the education of the defective child:
“1. The buildings in which special schools are located should be modernized, or where this is impossible, their1 use abandoned and the equipment of the classes should be made full and complete in every essential particular.
“2. These classes should be so located as to be readily accessible to the pupils of the territory contributing to them and so grouped as to permit separate classification of the disciplinary pupils from the backward and of the merely backward from the mentally deficient or feebleminded. “3. Additional disciplinary and backward classes should be established where conditions will permit and provision should be made for girls as well as for1 boys.
“4. The special schools and classes should be as closely related to the regular schools as possible and be given the advantage of trained supervision.
“5. Care should be exercised in the choice of teachers for special classes. Only teachers of experience and those who have had special training for the work should be appointed. Some increase over the salary of the regular grade positions should be given as an inducement for teachers to undertake the work.
“6. The normal training schools of this city offer courses to give professional preparation for special class work as the system of special education develops and the demand for qualified teachers increases. “7. Every effort should be made to secure institutional care for the feeble-minded children and those of still lower grade of mentality. “8. A parental school should be established for chronic truants and incorrigible children who cannot be treated successfully in the special class.”
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