The high school failures

by F. P. O'Brien

PERCENTAGE OF PUPILS FAILING OF THE PUPILS
IN SCHOOL FOR THAT PERIOD

Semesters	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Per Cent	34.2	37.3	38.5	40.2	38.2	37.1	30.0	24.0

There is no difficulty in grasping the simple and definite significance of these figures, for they tell us that the percentage of pupils failing increases for the first four semesters, slightly declines for two semesters, with a greater decline for two more semesters. These percentages of failures are based on the number of pupils enrolled at the beginning of the semester, and are accordingly lower than the facts would really warrant since that number is in each case considerably reduced by the end of the same semester.

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3. THE DISTRIBUTION OF FAILURES

That the failures are widely distributed by semesters, by ages, and for both boys and girls, is shown in [Table I].

TABLE I

THE DISTRIBUTION OF FAILURES ACCORDING TO THE AGE
AND THE SEMESTER OF THEIR OCCURRENCE[A]

SEMES-		AGES										UNDISTRIB-
TERS	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	UTED	TOTALS
1B.	0	20	321	650	575	167	34	16	2	. .	. .	10	1795
G.	1	19	356	813	611	236	67	3	0	. .	. .	13	2119
3914
2B.	. .	2	95	423	534	256	57	27	4	. .	. .	5	1403
G.	. .	6	99	483	589	280	91	5	0	. .	. .	7	1560
2963
3B.	. .	0	17	267	443	363	96	22	5	0	. .	2	1215
G.	. .	1	28	318	548	317	99	15	0	2	. .	1	1329
2544
4B.	. .	. .	5	101	437	403	169	32	7	2	. .	5	1161
G.	. .	. .	4	102	475	425	160	39	6	2	. .	6	1219
2380
5B.	. .	. .	1	19	195	377	214	61	13	3	. .	6	889
G.	. .	. .	0	15	277	438	212	60	15	0	. .	3	1020
1909
6B.	. .	. .	. .	4	70	322	326	99	33	3	. .	6	863
G.	. .	. .	. .	9	117	407	349	78	33	4	. .	3	1000
1863
7B.	. .	. .	1	0	17	155	227	106	16	4	1	4	531
G.	. .	. .	0	2	14	200	299	127	38	0	0	3	683
1214
8B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	0	42	173	109	49	2	. .	5	380
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	2	58	244	140	49	10	. .	3	506
886
9B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	0	31	32	18	1	. .	. .	82
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	4	39	67	31	5	. .	. .	146
														228
10B.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	1	16	9	3	0	. .	29
G.	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	3	13	10	3	1	. .	30
59
Summary
B.	0	22	440	1464	2271	2085	1328	520	156	18	1	43	8348
G.	1	26	487	1742	2633	2365	1563	547	182	26	1	39	9612
17,960

[A] The expression of the above facts in terms of percentages for each age group was found to be difficult, since failures and not pupils are designated. But the total failures for each age group are expressed (on [p. 36]) as percentages of the entire number of subjects taken by these pupils for the semesters in which they failed. Such percentages increase as the ages rise. A similar statement of the percentages of failure by semesters will be found on [p. 41].