5. DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS DROPPING OUT—SEMESTERS—AGES

[Table V] presents the facts concerning the time and the age at which the failing pupils drop out of school. [Table VI] furnishes the corresponding facts for the non-failing drop-outs.

TABLE V

DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAILING NON-GRADUATES,
SHOWING THE SEMESTER AND THE AGE AT THE TIME OF DROPPING OUT

	AGES										UNDIS-
SEMESTERS	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	TRIB.	TOTALS

1 B.	1	40	49	50	18	0	1	1	. .	. .	1	160
G.	3	40	65	47	23	4	0	0	. .	. .	3	185
													345
2 B.	. .	9	56	88	56	22	6	2	. .	. .	3	242
G.	. .	6	72	119	61	24	3	0	. .	. .	6	291
													533
3 B.	. .	4	30	40	23	10	7	. .	. .	. .	0	114
G.	. .	3	35	51	32	13	7	. .	. .	. .	1	142
													256
4 B.	. .	1	16	66	86	34	16	2	. .	. .	3	224
G.	. .	1	19	60	70	59	18	3	. .	. .	0	230
													454
5 B.	. .	. .	2	12	36	21	8	4	. .	. .	3	86
G.	. .	. .	4	17	48	28	9	3	. .	. .	1	110
													196
6 B.	. .	. .	1	6	48	52	38	10	. .	. .	1	156
G.	. .	. .	1	11	52	49	26	5	. .	. .	2	146
													302
7 B.	. .	. .	. .	2	12	35	21	7	0	. .	1	78
G.	. .	. .	. .	2	15	21	15	4	1	. .	0	59
													137
8 B.	. .	. .	. .	0	10	23	19	19	2	0	2	75
G.	. .	. .	. .	2	10	31	29	10	4	2	3	91
													166
9 B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	1	4	4	2	. .	1	1	13
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	1	6	12	4	. .	0	0	23
													36
10 B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	1	3	3	1	. .	8
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	4	3	3	1	. .	11
													19
11 B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	0	0	0	. .	0
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	2	1	1	. .	4
													4
Tot. B.	1	54	154	264	290	201	120	50	6	2	14	1156
G.	3	50	196	309	312	235	123	34	9	4	16	1292
													2448

[Table V] reads: In the first semester 1 boy and 3 girls drop out at age 13; 40 boys and 40 girls drop out at the age of 14; 49 boys and 65 girls, at the age of 15. In this table, as elsewhere, age 15 means from 141/2 to 151/2, and so on. Any drop-out, as for the second semester, means either during or at the end of that semester.

TABLE VI

DISTRIBUTION OF THE NON-FAILING NON-GRADUATES, SHOWING THE SEMESTER AND THE AGE AT THE TIME OF DROPPING OUT

	AGES
SEMESTER	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	TOTALS

1 B.	17	118	141	106	39	3	4	1	1	430
G.	11	159	235	160	51	19	4	4	0	643
											1073
2 B.	0	7	49	50	18	7	3	0	. .	134
G.	1	1	59	42	31	10	7	2	. .	163
											297
3 B.	. .	. .	7	16	11	5	1	0	. .	40
G.	. .	. .	14	22	33	15	3	2	. .	89
											129
4 B.	. .	. .	5	13	11	10	1	0	1	41
G.	. .	. .	7	20	31	16	2	1	1	78
											119
5 B.	. .	. .	1	2	9	1	2	0	. .	15
G.	. .	. .	0	3	10	9	4	1	. .	27
											42
6 B.	. .	. .	1	4	14	3	2	0	. .	24
G.	. .	. .	0	5	17	13	7	3	. .	45
											69
7 B.	. .	. .	. .	0	2	2	2	1	. .	7
G.	. .	. .	. .	1	2	7	1	1	. .	12
											19
8 B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	1	1	1	. .	3
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	3	1	1	. .	5
											8
9 B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	0	. .	0
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	1	. .	1
											1
Tot. B.	17	125	204	191	104	32	16	3	2	694
G.	12	170	315	253	175	92	29	16	1	1063
											1757

[Table VI] reads similarly to [Table V]. The distribution of the age totals for the pupils dropping out gives us medians which, for both boys and girls, fall within the 17-year group for the failing pupils, but within the 16-year group for the non-failing pupils. For [Table V] the mode of the distribution is at 17, but for [Table VI] it is at 15. The percentages of dropping out for each age group are given below. First, all the pupils of Tables [V] and [VI] are grouped together for this purpose, then the boys and the girls for Tables [V] and [VI] are considered separately to facilitate the comparison of facts.

PERCENTAGES IN EACH AGE GROUP OF THE TOTAL NUMBER DROPPING OUT

Ages	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Per Cent	0.8	9.5	20.7	24.2	21.0	13.3	6.8	2.4	1.2

It is readily seen from the above percentages that, as would be expected, the drop-outs are most frequent for the very ages which are most common in the high school. There is no special accumulation of drop-outs for either the earlier or the later ages. But, if in any semester we consider the drop-outs for each age as a percentage of the total pupils represented for that age, the facts are more fully revealed, as is indicated below for certain semesters.

PERCENTAGES OF DROP-OUTS FOR EACH AGE, ON THE TOTALS FOR SUCH AGE
IN THE FIRST, SECOND AND FOURTH SEMESTERS

	AGES
	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Semester 1	6.8	18.2	23.1	32.6	38.3	35.0	40.0	40.0	. .
Semester 2	4.0	8.1	14.8	18.3	22.2	30.0	40.0	33.0	. .
Semester 4	0	9.0	11.8	12.5	16.5	24.6	35.2	50.0	. .

If these semesters may be taken as indicative of all, an almost steady increase will be expected in the percentages of drop-outs as the ages of the pupils rise. It follows, then, that the older ages have the higher percentages of drop-outs when this basis of the computation is employed. We may, however, make some helpful comparisons of the ages of drop-outs for boys and for girls by merely using the percentages of total drop-outs for the purpose.

PERCENTAGES OF FAILING DROP-OUTS IN EACH AGE GROUP,
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS SEPARATELY

	AGES
	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Boys	0	4.6	12.5	22.8	25.1	17.4	10.3	4.3	1.9
Girls	.2	3.8	15.1	23.9	24.1	19.0	9.5	2.6	2.2

Here it appears that, of all the boys and girls who fail before dropping out, the school loses at the age of 14, for example, 4.6 per cent for the boys and 3.8 per cent for the girls. As a matter of mere convenience, the percentages for age 21 are made to include also the undistributed pupils in [Table V].

PERCENTAGES OF THE NON-FAILING DROP-OUTS IN EACH AGE GROUP,
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS SEPARATELY

	AGES
	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Boys	2.4	18.0	29.4	27.1	15.0	4.4	2.3	0.7
Girls	1.1	16.0	29.6	23.8	16.4	8.6	2.7	1.6

These percentages are computed from the age totals in [Table VI], just as the ones preceding are computed from [Table V]. It seems worthy of note here that close to 50 per cent of the non-failing drop-outs occur under 16 years of age, for both the boys and the girls; but that the number of the failing pupils who drop out does not reach 20 per cent for the boys or the girls in these same years. It is likewise remarkable in these distributions that the percentages for boys and for girls show such slight differences in either of the two groupings.