The high school failures

by F. P. O'Brien

[Table I] reads: the boys had 20 failures and the girls had 19 failures in the first semester and at the age of thirteen; in the second semester, at the age of thirteen, the boys had 2 failures and the girls 6. For each semester, the first line represents boys, the second line girls. There is a total of 17,960 failures listed in this table. In addition to this number there are 1,947 uncompleted grades for the failing non-graduates. The semesters were frequently completed by such pupils but the records were left incomplete. Their previous records and their prospects of further partial or complete failure seem to justify an estimate of 55 per cent (1,070) of these uncompleted grades as either tentative or actual but unrecorded failures. Therefore we virtually have 1,070 other failures belonging to these pupils which are not included in [Table I]. Accordingly, since the number can only be estimated, the fact that they are not incorporated in that table suggests that the information which it discloses is something less than a full statement of the school failures for these pupils. In the distribution of the totals for ages, the mode appears plainly at 16, but with an evident skewness toward the upper ages. The failures for the years 16, 17, and 18, when added together, form 68.1 per cent of the total failures. If those for 15 years are also included, the result is 86 per cent of the total. Of the total failures, 65.7 per cent are found in the first two years (11,801 out of the total of 17,960). But the really striking fact is that 34.3 per cent of the failures occur after the end of the first two years, after 52.2 per cent of the pupils are gone, and with other hundreds leaving in each succeeding semester before even the end of the eighth. In [Table II] we have similar facts for the pupils who graduate.

TABLE II

THE DISTRIBUTION OF FAILURES ACCORDING TO THE AGES
AND THE SEMESTERS OF THEIR OCCURRENCE FOR THE GRADUATING PUPILS

SEMES- TERS	AGES
	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	TOTALS
1B.	0	66	84	60	5	2	3	. .	. .	. .	220
G.	4	68	123	68	23	4	0	. .	. .	. .	290
												510
2B.	0	30	95	96	41	3	2	. .	. .	. .	267
G.	1	25	119	121	30	11	2	. .	. .	. .	309
												576
3B.	0	6	108	98	71	22	1	3	. .	. .	309
G.	1	15	101	158	78	20	5	0	. .	. .	378
												687
4B.	. .	4	54	157	107	36	6	0	. .	. .	364
G.	. .	1	45	186	143	51	7	2	. .	. .	435
												799
5B.	. .	1	10	82	142	82	17	4	3	. .	341
G.	. .	0	9	145	187	88	22	9	0	. .	460
												801
6B.	. .	. .	4	34	158	139	32	9	2	. .	378
G.	. .	. .	2	70	235	178	40	13	1	. .	539
												917
7 B.	. .	1	0	10	115	140	65	4	4	1	340
G.	. .	0	2	7	130	187	69	19	0	0	414
												754
8 B.	. .	. .	. .	0	31	122	65	25	2	. .	245
G.	. .	. .	. .	2	45	150	95	37	2	. .	331
												576
9 B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	0	24	23	13	1	. .	61
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	4	32	40	24	0	. .	100
												161
10 B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	1	11	5	3	. .	20
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	3	12	6	1	. .	22
												42
Summary B.	. .	108	355	537	670	571	225	63	15	1	2545
G.	6	109	401	757	875	724	292	110	4	0	3278
												5823

In the facts which are involved and in the manner of reading them, this table is similar to [Table I]. The mode of the distribution of totals for the ages is at 17 in this table. Further reference will be made to both Tables [I] and [II] in later chapters of this study. (See pages [36], [37], [41], [42]).

A further analysis of the failures is here made in reference to the number of pupils and the number of failures each.

TABLE III

A DISTRIBUTION OF FAILING PUPILS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER
OF FAILURES PER PUPIL, IN EACH SEMESTER

NO. OF FAILURES	SEMESTERS										TOTALS
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1 B.	459	430	375	352	271	221	157	113	22	11	2411
G.	561	535	428	421	328	261	167	123	35	9	2868
					32.5%							5279
2 B.	271	242	211	206	149	144	79	68	19	4	1393
G.	271	253	238	204	177	142	127	84	17	6	1519
					34.9%							2912
3 B.	144	106	81	73	59	60	45	27	6	2	603
G.	207	103	81	75	75	83	52	38	20	3	737
					35%							1340
4 B.	83	39	33	30	27	32	10	10	1	1	266
G.	95	50	38	35	27	39	19	19	3	0	325
					31.8%							591
5 B.	6	3	5	8	7	8	7	2	0	. .	46
G.	3	2	6	5	1	10	6	5	1	. .	39
					55.3%							85
6 B.	. .	. .	3	3	0	1	1	. .	. .	. .	8
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .
					25%							8
Tot. B.	963	820	708	672	513	466	299	220	48	18	4727
G.	1137	943	791	740	608	535	371	269	76	18	5488
					10,215

[Table III] tells us that 459 boys and 561 girls have one failure each in the first semester of their high school work; 271 boys and the same number of girls have two failures in the first semester, and so on, for the ten semesters and for as many as six failures per pupil. The failures represented by these pupils give a total of 17,960. A distribution of the total failures per pupil, and the facts relative thereto, will be considered in [Chapter IV] of this study.