and which had an enrollment of 14,620 pupils in 1916; and if we are
justified in classing these schools as averaging above the median rank
of the schools for these states, then the statistical facts presented
in the following pages may seem to be a rather moderate statement
regarding the failures of high school pupils for the states referred
to. It must be noted in this connection, however, that it is not
unlikely that such schools, with their adequate records, will have the
facts concerning failure more certainly recorded than will those whose
records are incomplete, neglected, or poorly systematized.

A partial comparison of the teachers is possible between the schools
represented here and those of New York and New Jersey. More than four
hundred teachers comprised the teaching staff for the 6,141 pupils of
the eight schools reported here. Of these about 40 per cent were men,
while the percentage of men of all high school teachers in New Jersey
and New York[4] was about 38 for the year 1916. The men in these
schools comprised 50 per cent of the teachers in the subjects which
prove most difficult by producing the most failures, and they were more
frequently found teaching in the advanced years of these subjects. It
is not assumed here that men are superior as high school teachers, but
the endeavor is rather to show that the teaching force was by its
constitution not unrepresentative. It may be added here that few high
schools anywhere have a more highly selected and better paid staff of
teachers than are found in this group of schools. It is indeed not easy
to believe that the situation in these eight selected schools regarding
failure and its contributing factors could not be readily duplicated
elsewhere within the same states.


A SUMMARY OF CHAPTER I