| Schools | Enrollment | ||
| Boys | Girls | Total | |
| Academic high schools Central East Glenville West Lincoln South | 804 607 405 246 277 213 | 711 688 611 377 329 238 | 1,515 1,295 1,016 623 606 451 |
| Total | 2,552 | 2,954 | 5,506 |
| Technical high schools East Technical West Technical | 1,161 515 | 548 242 | 1,709 757 |
| Total | 1,676 | 790 | 2,466 |
| Commercial high schools West Commercial East Commercial | 249 49 | 528 96 | 777 145 |
| Total | 298 | 624 | 922 |
| All high schools | 4,526 | 4,368 | 8,894 |
About three-eighths of the high school pupils of the city are in the technical and commercial schools. Of the boys 56 per cent are enrolled in the academic high schools, 37 per cent in the technical schools, and seven per cent in the commercial schools. Of the girls 68 per cent attend the academic high schools, 18 per cent the technical schools, and 14 per cent the commercial schools. In the commercial high school approximately two-thirds of the enrollment is made up of girls. In the technical high schools the opposite condition prevails, the girls constituting less than one-third of the total enrollment, while in the academic high schools the girls outnumber the boys by nearly one-sixth.
Ages of Pupils
The distribution as to ages is shown in Table 5. The largest group is made up of children seven years old. Between 14 and 15 over 30 per cent leave school. The loss from 16 to 17 is approximately 43 per cent, from 17 to 18 about 44 per cent, and from 18 to 19 nearly 62 per cent.
The compulsory attendance law requires boys to attend school until they are 15 and girls until they are 16. That the law is not adequately enforced is demonstrated by the heavy loss between the ages of 14 and 15, and the fact that the loss between 15 and 16 is approximately the same for both boys and girls, although girls are required to attend one year longer than boys. Additional evidence as to the laxity in the enforcement of the compulsory law is found in the results of an inquiry conducted by the Consumers' League of Cleveland in the spring of 1916, in cooperation with the survey.
TABLE 5.—AGES OF PUPILS ENROLLED IN PUBLIC ELEMENTARY, HIGH, AND NORMAL SCHOOLS IN JUNE, 1915[TableList]
| Age | Boys | Girls | Total |
| 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Over 20 | 4,255 5,012 4,496 4,268 4,093 3,747 3,700 3,676 3,445 2,358 1,190 672 403 135 41 ... | 4,180 4,815 4,407 4,103 3,951 3,593 3,646 3,631 3,271 2,291 1,163 680 358 156 52 22 | 8,435 9,827 8,903 8,371 8,044 7,340 7,346 7,307 6,716 4,649 2,353 1,352 761 291 93 22 |
| Total | 41,491 | 40,319 | 81,810 |
An attempt was made to follow up the cases of all the children who had left one public elementary school during the period of one year preceding the study. The work was done by the case method and the homes of the children were visited. The total number of cases studied was 117, of whom 89 were girls. It was found that one-third of these children had graduated and gone on to high school. Another third had gone to work, and of these, 40 per cent had done so without graduating. The children constituting the remaining third were staying at home, and among these a majority had dropped out without graduating.
Of the eighth grade graduates one-half were found to be illegally employed, as they were less than 16 years of age. Among those who dropped out and went to work before completing the course 80 per cent were illegally employed.