The Fundamental Expression of Retardation
The Psychological Clinic Copyright, 1911, by Lightner Witmer, Editor. j Vol. IV. jSfo. 8. January 15, 1911. :Author: Koland P. Falkner, Ph.D.
The problem of retardation has been so often discussed at recent educational gatherings and in the educational press, that the discussion would seem to have passed beyond the stage where it would be profitable to enter upon a consideration of the statistics which serve to express the facts of retardation. I would not venture upon this field again did it not seem to me that a consideration of the age and grade figures now so familiar to students of the subject may point the way to a shorter and equally satisfactory ascertainment, of what must be regarded as the most essential fact of retardation.. That retardation of school children in general terms expresses a misrelation between the age of the children, and the grades appropriate to their age is more and more a generally accepted proposition. A table showing the age of the pupils in each grade is the accepted source of information. In the construction of such tables there is more and more uniformity. It is generally accepted that in the first grade a child is not to be regarded as over age or retarded until he is eight years old.
As it has been recognized that retardation is a problem primarily of the elementary school, the cases in which these tables include the high schools are relatively few. As yet no general rule has found adoption respecting the time when ages and grades should be ascertained, and the utmost variety is found in the school reports which give these tables. The conviction is, however, growing that comparisons between different cities, whatever their validity, can be most effectively made when the statistical basis is the same in the cities compared. The work which is being done by the U. S. Bureau of Education and the Immigration Commission has this marked advantage over previous inquiries.
GRADES AND AGES OF PUPILS ATTENDING PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS December 15, 1908. Ages in Years Under 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 30 Total Over age…. Percent over age. Elementary Schools?Grades 5 1,000 11,841 8,244 3,528 1,137 503 250 143 63 19 6 2 26,741 5,651 21.1 255 5,641 7,635 4,510 2,463 1,123 663 323 101 12 1 330 4,518 5,929 22,729 9,198 40.4 5,013 3,044 1,853 902 223 40 5 1 3 312 3,186 4,778 4,352 3,335 1,933 541 90 10 1 21,858 11,080 50.6 1 257 2,660 3,929 3,906 2,950 1,022 225 46 3 2 18,543 10,263 55.3 15,001 8,154 54.3 6 247 2,191 3,538 3,476 1,754 552 133 25 5 5 258 1,924 2,681 1,953 795 212 39 2 11,927 5,945 49.0 7,869 3,001 38.1 12 219 1,619 2,117 1,470 582 145 32 5 1 6,203 2,235 36.0 Total 5 1,000 12,098 14,218 15,994 15,026 15,669 15,159 15,581 13,947 7,730 3,190 990 214 42 5 3 130,871 55,527 42.4 1st 11 188 1,017 1,134 702 254 35 3 4 3,348 998 29.8 High School Years 3d 1 10 165 764 814 483 137 27 5 2,406 652 27.0 3d 1,622 407 25.0 4th Total 2 77 235 301 107 30 752 137 18.2 12 198 1,186 1,980 2,144 1,551 779 220 57 8,128 2,194 26.9 All Pupils 5 1,000 12.09S 14,218 15,994 15,026 15,669 15,159 15,593 14,146 8,906 5,170 3,134 1,765 821 225 60 138,999 57,721 41.5 Under grade Pupils Number Percent 3,528 5,647 7,979 8,769 9,900 9,647 5,613 3,190 1,692 951 520 225 60 57,721
Assuming that these figures are as valuable as some writers believe, in giving information about our schools, it can not be overlooked that the preparation of these tables, simple as they appear, is a task of considerable magnitude which often taxes severely the meagre clerical force which is at the disposal of school authorities. If there is any short cut to the information sought, it may be worth while to point it out. But the short cut, if one is to be found, must result from an analysis of the tables commonly presented.
The ages and grades of the children in the elementary and high schools of Philadelphia, December 15, 1908, are given in the accompanying table. For convenience of reference the table has been somewhat rearranged and the last three columns, giving derivative numbers not printed in the report, have been added by the writer.
In such a table the figure which attracts most attention, and the one most likely to be quoted in comparison with other cities, is the aggregate for the elementary schools, which shows that of 130,871 pupils, 55,527 or 42.4 per cent of the total, were above the normal age for their respective grades.
But is this the most characteristic figure in the table ? Is it that which tells us most about the retardation in the Philadelphia schools ? If the figure as a general average will answer for comparisons of Philadelphia with other cities enumerated at the same time, is it after all the best measure which the table affords of the extent of retardation in the city of Philadelphia ? There are some reasons for thinking otherwise. An analogy will show the grounds for such belief.
If we were to calculate the percentage of married people in the total population we should immediately perceive that the result would depend not only upon the number of married persons among the adults of the population, but also upon the number of children which it contained. Such a calculation would compare the married persons not with the marriageable, but with these plus the unmarriageable also. Now our statement of retardation does much the same thing. We have here in Philadelphia a percentage of 42.4 per cent of the school children above normal age. Now it is theoretically possible that these 130,871 children should all of them be of normal age or under, but it is not theoretically possible that all of them should be above the normal age. Among them there are 27,324 children under eight years of age who by the terms of the definition cannot be retarded. This leaves us 103,547 children of eight years of age and upward who may or may not be retarded, the table showing that 55,527 or 54.7 per cent of all are actually retarded. It appears therefore that instead of rather less than one-half the children it is rather more than one-half the children of Philadelphia who are retarded.
Theoretically the distinction which has just been made might affect the comparisons between different places. It is conceivable that in one communty the proportion of very youug children (under eight) in the population at large and therefore in the schools might be considerably larger than in another community. One can picture a town rapidly growing in population, and contrast it with another which is standing still. Practically, however, little weight need be attached to this consideration, merely for the purpose of comparison, since as a-matter of fact towns do not differ materially from one another in the distribution of ages in their population. But towns do differ considerably in the proportion of younger children in school. A city like Boston which enters its five year old children in the first grade must of necessity have less general retardation than one like St. Louis which does not receive children in the public schools till they are six years old, then sends them to the kindergarten and does not as a rule enter them in the first grade until they are seven years of age. The early start in Boston would permit the loss of two years before the child would be considered retarded, while in St. Louis the loss of a single year would put the child in the retarded class. None the less the difference, great as it is, is accentuated by the common method of calculating the percentage of retardation. The omission of children under eight years of age from the divisor would increase the resulting percentage more in Boston than in St. Louis.
But leaving comparison aside it is obvious that the statement that in Philadelphia 42.4 per cent of the school children are retarded, does not tell us what proportion of the school children suffer from the effects of losing time. Since the figures are commonly printed by grades as well as for the elementary schools as a whole, we have the means of correcting this impression. We find in our table that retardation in four of the grades, the first, second, seventh, and eighth, is about 40 per cent or less, but in the remaining four grades it is forty-nine per cent or more, reaching a maximum of 55.3 per cent in the fourth grade. If then at one stage of the school work the retardation reaches a maximum of 55.3 per cent, why is not this maximum a better measure of retarEXPRESSION OF RETARDATION. 217 dation in the Philadelphia schools than the average of 42.4 per cent as commonly calculated, or than the average of 54.7 per cent obtained by including only children of eight years of age and upward in the calculation ? The writer would answer the question by saying that the maximum is in fact a measure superior to either average. To accept such a measure would shorten the labor of ascertaining the amount of retardation considerably. We cannot tell in advance where the maximum retardation will be found. In most cases it lies in the fourth to the sixth grade. But once ascertained it would be perfectly practicable in future enumerations to confine the ascertainment of ages to this grade and those immediately above and below it, and this would be a saving of labor over the present method.
A consideration of the reasons for preferring the maximum to the average will seem to point out an even better measure of retardation, which will not only give us (in the opinion of the writer) the best single expression of the extent of retardation, but will also show the way to a short cut in securing the really valuable information.
To say that a child is retarded, means simply that for his age he is not sufficiently advanced in his studies. He may have begun too late, or he may have failed at some point in the course. Of these two ways the latter, however caused, is the most important. Very rarely indeed does a child by extraordinary progress pass from the retarded to the non-retarded class. If he is retarded he generally remains so and the number of retarded ones increases as the years go by. If all children were obliged by law to finish the eight grades not only the number of retarded children but their proportion to the whole number in each grade would increase as the grades advance. Such an increase in the proportion is seen in the Philadelphia figures from the first to the fourth grades, then slightly smaller proportions in the fifth and sixth grades, and finally much reduced proportions in the seventh and eighth grades. We can imagine a factory,?however distasteful the analogy be to many educators,-?operating on like materials and passing them through four or five distinct processes. Mistakes in handling may injure the product in each of its stages, so that when it emerges it is of first, second, third, and fourth quality. IsTow it is quite possible for the manufacturer to make an inventory of his stock in process and ascertain how much in each shop is below grade. This would be analogous to what the school man does when he ascertains the retarded children in each grade. But the interest is not in ascertaining the general average of deficiency of the material in process, but what it is in each of the several stages. This has its value alike for the manufacturer and the school man, if on the basis of such a showing he be able to put his finger upon the weak spots in his methods and introduce improvements. But the main interest of the maufacturer is in the finished product, in the percentage of the whole which comes out as first quality, and that which is of lower grade. After all, this is the main interest of the school man, and his maximum percentage of retardation shows the extent of the failure of his pupils from whatever cause to reach the set standard of proficiency. The maximum retardation in the grades approaches this measure of final results, and is therefore a better view of the extent of retardation in the schools of a given city than is the average. If there were a fixed grade in the public schools which all children must reach before they leave school, whether it were the eighth or the sixth, this grade would be the most appropriate point at which to measure the retardation of pupils. There is, however, no such grade. Liberty to leave school depends not on attaining a certain grade, but in attaining a certain age, generally fourteen years. It may then be that an examination of retardation with reference to the age of pupils will furnish a better measure of general results, than the examination of the grades.
It is perhaps curious that in the current discussion of retardation so much attention has been given to the pupils who are over age for their respective grades and so little to the reverse aspect, the pupils who are under the proper grades for their respective ages. The latter may well merit more attention than it has received. In the aggregate of a school system the number of over age pupils and the number of under grade pupils must be equal. So if instead of confining ourselves to the elementary schools we take into consideration the total of high and elementary schools we find that in Philadelphia they constitute 41.5 per cent of all pupils.
But the consideration of the pupils by separate ages brings out more clearly than that by separate grades the special characteristics of the general phenomenon of retardation. Our table shows that in the ages five to seven years inclusive there is no retardation, that the term is not applicable to these ages. Retardation begins with the eighth year of age, where in Philadelphia 22.1 per cent of the children are retarded. Retardation increases regularly with each year of age till we reach the age of thirteen years when the proportion reaches 68.2 per cent. After that it declines and does not again reach this medium till we reach the nineteenth year of age, when all the few remaining pupils are under grade. In the meantime the number of pupils has fallen off from 14,146 at thirteen to 225 at nineteen. ]STow if we follow the column of ages for the whole school population, we note that from six years to thirteen years of age the numbers at the different ages are very much alike. There is indeed some slight difference, a decrease in the age thirteen years as compared with those which precede it. But those which follow fall off very rapidly, and at the age of sixteen there are less than one-quarter as many children in school as at thirteen.
The age thirteen years marks the limit of compulsory education. This is the last year in which practically all the children are in school. The amount of retardation at this point measures the results of the work of the school system. In Philadelphia, as we have seen, more than two-thirds of the pupils arriving at the age of thirteen fail to reach the standard of proficiency set for that age. Is not this then the most significant measure of retardation in that city ? Note the fact that it applies only to pupils who by reason of their age have had an equal opportunity to move forward or to lag behind. Note again that is not applied to all students whatever their age, but is applied at the end of the course of training which the law prescribes for all children. Hence it, is characteristic of the school children generally. Practically no retarded children have missed being counted by leaving school, as would be the case if the calculation were made for instance at the age of sixteen years.
Valuable as is the knowledge of details for each age and for each grade, it results from the foregoing analysis that the best single statement of the amount of retardation in a given community is found in the proportion of thirteen year old children who are under the seventh grade in the schools.
It cannot escape observation that this significant figure is one of comparatively easy ascertainment. In Philadelphia schools thirteen year old children are found in all the grades, except the fourth year of the High School. A report from every teacher in the city giving name, grade, and the number of thirteen year old children in the grade, would be very simple to prepare, very simple to tabulate. In the Philadelphia schools on the date to which our table refers, it would have involved only 14,146 pupils, while the complete enumeration of elementary and high schools comprised nearly ten times that number.
In his work on school reports Dr Snedden suggests that certain elaborate statistics which from time to time may be necessary for a knowledge of school conditions may be taken at periodical intervals, as the government arranges its census operations. If this suggestion be applicable to the table of ages and grades, and there are few familiar tables more tedious to prepare, then the purpose of an annual showing might be preserved by confining it to the thirteen year old children, leaving the fuller and in other respect more illuminating details to be gathered for five year periods.
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