a Tti^-^f. State Department of Public Instruction Studies in Educational Measurements in Wisconsin Bulletin No. 1 A Report On The Use of Some Standard Tests For 1916-17 By w. w. theisen Supervisor of Educational Measurements Issued by C. p. CARY State Superintendent Madison, Wisconsin 1918 A REPORT ON THE USE OF SOME STANDARD TESTS FOR 1916-17 BY W. W. THEISEN Supervisor of Educational Measurements ISSUED BY C. P. GARY State Superintendent State Department of Public Instruction Madison, Wisconsin 1918 4 Table of Contents Page Chapter V. — Reading _^ 105 The Median Scores by Cities 108 The Distribution of Scores 111; What Elements in the Teaching of Read- ing or in the Reading Needs of Chil- dren Contribute to Differences in their Reading Acquirements? 114 Some Suggested References 118 INTRODUCTION The following pages aim to present some of the findings ar- rived at through the application of standard tests and scales to the measurement of results in school subjects in Wisconsin for the school year 1916-17. . It is in no way to be considered as a final report on the subjects included. Its conclusions must be regarded as tentative only. The work in standard tests and measurements instituted by the state department of education during the past year has as its primary aim the improvement of instruction. Its purpose is to discover, first, in objective terms, the degree of success achieved in the teaching of school subjects, and second, to point out possible means of improvement. To measure the achievement of pupils on a state-wide scale is an undertaking requiring no mean amount of labor. It is of course physically impossible for any one person to conduct standard tests in any large proportion of the schools of the state even in a few subjects. This has made it necessary to depend in no small measure upon the cooperation of others. Were all or even a large proportion of the teachers, principals, supervisors, and superintendents in the state trained in the su- pervision of instruction through standard tests and scales, it would be a relatively simple matter to ascertain the achievement of the children of the state in a number of subjects. In the absence of any such favorable conditions, no small portion of the time of the supervisor in charge of educational measurements has of necessity been devoted to the training of teachers, prin- cipals, supervisors, and superintendents in the field. To reach larger numbers in less time, this type of activity has been con- fined in the main to cities employing large numbers of teachers. The tentative Wisconsin standards of achievement in a number of subjects given in the pages following are consequently made up of figures representing pupils' scores in cities, except for the tests in spelling and handwriting, which were given in a large 6 The Use of Some Standard Tests number of rural and graded schools as well, through the coop- eration and assistance of those in charge of these schools. The standards proposed in this report are to be regarded as tentative only. As teachers and superintendents become better trained in the application of tests and scales, and as more and more schools are included in the returns, the reliability of the results obtained will be increased. The present proposed stand- ards will have served a useful purpose if they tend to increase the accuracy with which pupils' products are judged, if they assist teachers in determining to a larger extent the degree of their teaching success, and if they suggest possible directions for improvement. For those who are not fully acquainted with the needs and possibilities of standard tests and scales in bringing about im- provements it may be well to indicate briefly some of the ways in which they are being employed. In the first place, the meas- urement of school products through the application of standard tests and scales represents an effort to measure success objectively in terms of the results achieved by the children. This removes two serious limitations to the older method of measuring results by examination. The two limitations of the older method are these: (1) teachers' judgments differ so materially as to what should be expected of a given grade of pupils that a fourth or a fifth grade standard of work does not mean the same thing in two schools; (2) teachers differ in their judgment of the worth of children's products. Standard measurements are be- ing utilized to fix more definitely the degree of achievement or standard to be reached in successive grades and to increase the reliability with which children's products are judged. The measurement of achievements in school subjects affords a means of discovering certain facts directly related to the super- visory and administrative program, and of evaluating the teach- ing methods employed. It is to the teacher that standard tests and scales are most helpful when properly used. . This is a fact as yet realized by few teachers. Progressive teachers and su- pervisors are making use of them to measure the attainments of classes in terms of some definite standard, as for example, to discover whether certain sixth grade pupils exceed or fall short of the standard of 25 on the Woody subtraction test. They em- ploy them to discover the range and variation of the perform- Introduction ^ ances of the individuals in a class, the seriousness of the over- lapping of performances from grade to grade, the progress from year to year or over some other given interval. The possibilities of standard tests as diagnosing instruments are just beginning to dawn upon many teachers and supervisors. They are being employed by some to aid in diagnosing class, group, and individual teaching needs, as for example, to find out how seriously progress in arithmetic is being affected by such matters as lack of facility in borrow^ing, pointing off, mul- tiplication or division of cipher quantities, inverting fractional divisors, or failure to estimate answers ; or how progress in his- tory or geography is affected by inability to comprehend the thought of what is read ; or how success in spelling is hindered by failure to acquire the habit of analyzing words for their diffi- cult parts ; or how inability to write a good composition is to be traced to failure to exercise the imagination, to think coherently, or to faulty mechanics. Standard tests and scales thus become a means of measuring the success of the methods of teaching used. They stimulate teachers to a more careful study of aims, methods, results, and class and individual teaching needs. Su- pervisors find them especially serviceable as time savers, enabling them to make more accurate observations of certain phases of the teaching in much less time than when each classroom must be visited one or more times. They apply standard tests to measure the success of different methods, of method versus no method, and of different courses of study. The results of the tests and the factors involved furnish a basis for discussion be- tween teacher and supervisor, or between the teacher and the pupil or the parent. They enable the supervisor to compare one school with another, or the school system with other school systems. From an administrative point of view, standard tests and scales are being used to establish a more equitable basis for pro- motion, to determine the desirability of promoting or trans- ferring individual pupils, or of promoting them in certain sub- jects. This is frequently done in spelling, where under an ar- rangement of parallel programs, each pupil takes spelling in whatever grade most nearly fits his ability to profit by the spell- ing teaching. Again, standard tests are used to locate unclas- sified pupils. The results furnish a basis in some schools for 8 The Use of Some Standard Tests sectioning pupils for purposes of instruction into slow, average, and rapid advancement sections, or of placing them in special classes. Some schools in Wisconsin and elsewhere are begin- ning to employ standard tests for purposes of preliminary di- agnosis of pupils suspected of mental incapacity, or for select- ing pupils to be recommended for more complete mental test- ing. Standard tests are being used by others to determine the advisability of certain eliminations, additions, or changes in the course of study or in textbooks, either for the school as a whole or for certain groups of pupils. Many schools, for example, are finding it advisable as a result of test scores to omit many words previously included in spelling lists, to place the major emphasis upon words commonly used but misspelled, and to provide a more intelligent arrangement of review exercises in spelling and arithmetic. In some schools the test results furnish a basis for determining the time to be allotted to a given subject. Unusu- ally proficient classes or individuals may be excused for a time from regular spelling or writing periods, or again it may be found that certain classes or individuals could profitably give more time to thought reading. Others discover that it is advis- able to restrict the time given to subjects yielding but a small return on the time investment. One other significant application of standard tests is that made by the superintendent in reporting upon the success of the schools to the board of education or to the community. The results furnish tangible evidence of the successful achievements or shortcomings of the schools, and afford a basis for discussion with the boards as. to the need of additional expenditures for textbooks, supplies, and teachers' or supervisors' salaries. Some superintendents are still unnecessarily timid about applying standard tests lest it may appear that their schools are not up to standard or at least not up to the point of efficiency that the public has been led to believe. That this is a false attitude for a superintendent to take, thoughtful school people will readily agree. If the schools really are superior, standard meas- ures and tests will reveal the fact. If they are deficient at any point the condition, when recognized by the superintendent, can be remedied. In the preparation of the report contained in the pages fol- lowing the writer is indebted to the many superintendents, prin- Introduction ' 9 cipals and teachers of the schools cooperating in giving the tests. He is especially grateful to Miss Elizabeth A. Ahern, statistical assistant, who made many of the tabulations and computations ; to Dr. B. E. Buckingham of the State Board of Education for many valuable criticisms and suggestions ; and to Mrs. Cecile White Flemming of the State Department of Education for a critical reading of the manuscript. CHAPTER I SPELLING Opportunity was given to each county, to a number of state graded schools, high schools,^ and cities to participate in a test in spelling. The purpose of the test was (1) to throw light on the spelling proficiency of Wisconsin children, and the probable causes of weakness; and (2) to stimulate interest in, and efforts toward improvement in teaching, through the scientific study of results. The test selected from the Ayres list of 1000 common words was uniform in all schools. In rural and state graded schools and in the case of several high schools, the test was sent out from the office of the state superintendent and was given under the immediate direction of the principals, supervisors or superintendents of these schools. The test in most city s6hools and in a number of high schools was given during the fall of 1916 under the immediate direction of the supervisor of edu- cational measurements. In rural and state graded schools the test was given near the close of the first semester. The following letter was sent to each county superintendent. Office of the State Superintendent Madison, Wis., Dec. 19, 1916. We will appreciate it very much if you will cooperate with us to the extent of giving the accompanying spelling test in your schools. If you do not give it in all schools please arrange to have it given in the first fifteen schools, taking alphabetically the surnames of the teach- ers in your county. We enclose directions for giving the test and scoring the results, a ^ Graded schools having two or more departments and not organized as free high school districts are commonly organized under the law as "state graded schools." Those of two departments are known as sec- ond-class graded schools and those of three or more as first-class. 'iThis organization is common in villages. The term "high school" as used here refers to the elementary grades in schools of cities and towns organized as district free high schools. For the most part they include cities of 1500-3000 population. 12 The Use of Some Standard Tests copy of which is to be sent to this office. The test is to be given with- out previous study. In order to make results comparable it should be given before January 13. We are enclosing also a questionnaire calling for certain data on the course of instruction in spelling in your schools. Yours very truly, Supervisor of Educational Measurements. - The questionnaire sought to discover certain facts as to the course of study and organization of the work in spelling and the relation of these facts to the results obtained in the test. Questions to be Ansicered With Respect to The Course of Study in Spelling n HI IV V VI VII vni 1. How many minutes per week are de- 2. What is the relative proportion of time devoted to oral and written 3. How many new words are taught per 4. What is the source of the words used. (Check V) 5. What proportion of words is derived from each of the above sources Spelling 13 The Test The words selected for the test were arranged in three groups of twenty-five words each. The words for grades III and IV were selected from the L list of Ayres scale, those for grades V and VI from the Q list and those for grades VII and VIII from the U list. Ayres Spelling M^ords Grades 3 & 4 catch^ warm clothing able suit watch fell buy walk soap small summer express lesson father table talk right road next four power because country another 5 & 6 7 & 8 sometimes meant engage earliest terrible distinguish period consideration employ assure select probably firm foreign convict responsible command beginning crowd difnculty publish finally term develop relative issue entire material measure •mere serve senate remember respectfully effort agreement due unfortunate running majority position elaborate ledge citizen primary necessary Saturday divide information receive These words are selected from lists that have been standard- ized. According to Ayres each word in any one list presents approximately equal difficulty for children of a given grade. The averages which children in Wisconsin may be expected to reach on any given list are those attained by 70,000 children in 84 cities throughout the United States. The average per cent expected in each grade when the pupils have completed just half of the work of the grade is as follows : Grades Av. % III ._73 IV V 73 VI 84 VII 73 VIII 84 ^ Through an error in typing this word was given as cash instead of "catch." It is not probable that this has made the test more difficult. 14 The Use of Some Standard Tests Instructions for giving the test The following uniform instructions were given to all schools. Paper- — See that all children are provided with paper of uniform size, preferably of large tablet size. Giving the test. 1. Have each pupil write his name, age, grade, school, whether boy or girl, and teacher's name at top of sheet. 2. Pronounce each word distinctly, but do not syllabicate, or give phonetic sounds. Use each word in a sentence immediately after you have pronounced the word. 3. Scoring papers — Mark all misspelled words. All words written over thus — as — are to be counted wrong.^ Mark the number correct in the upper right hand corner of each paper. Place the names of the children alphabetically on a sheet by grades, and enter opposite each name the number of words correctly spelled. Place the papers in a bundle with this sheet on top. Forward the papers to the superin- tendent's office as soon as possible. The Returns Returns were received from thirty-nine counties aggregating 1173 one room rural schools, from 132 state graded schools, and from 35 high and city school districts. Returns were received from a few additional counties and state graded schools which could not be used owing to the fact that the scores for each grade were not entered separately. A few reported averages only. These were likewise of necessity omitted in making up the com- bined scores for the state. While it was suggested to county superintendents that fifteen schools (i. e. one room rural schools) would be a sufficient number it was gratifying to note that some gave the test in every school in the county. In a number of cases the results within the county were made the subject for discussion at institutes held during the year. This attitude upon the part of superintendents and principals can hardly fail to re- sult in an improvement in spelling in many parts of the state. The returns which were recorded in usable form represent in the aggregate 36,564 children distributed as follows : Rural 15,825 State graded 7,465 High and city _ 13,111 1 Possibly a more satisfactory instruction would have been to mark all illegible answers wrong. This was discovered after the test had been given in a few schools, but it was deemed best to preserve uni- formity in the directions to all schools. Spelling 15 The Results The results are not particularly encouraging, a fact which may be judged from the average scores for each class of schools shown in Table I. They are in fact an indictment of the teach- ing of spelling in Wisconsin. The average scores attained in each class of schools, the combined score for all classes of schools and Ayres expected average may be seen in Table I, The aver- age score for each grade and Ayres standard are represented in graphic form in Figure I. Table 1. — The Average Ptr cent of Words Correct in Each Gla$» of Schooln 35 cities and liigh schools 132 graded scliools o9 counties (1173 rural schools) Combined average Ayres standard Ill JV V VI YII 52 74 55 72 61 64 80 59 74 67 64 79 60 71 63 59 78 58 72 63 73 88 73 84 73 VIII 73 78 73 74 84 Number children tested 13,111 7.465 15, 825 36,401 Note: It should be recalled that in most of the cities the test was given during the faU months of the first semester. All but 8 of the 35 cities are conducted on an annual promotion basis. From these facts it is estimated that the children in rural and state graded schools had completed on the average nearly one month more of the year's work than children in cities. Rural and state graded schools should be ex- pected therefore to attain an average score approximately 2% higher in grades three and four and 1% higher in the remaining grades. When compared with Ayres' averages attained by children in 84 American cities Wisconsin schools appear to be from one- half year to a full year behind. Children in cities do not appear to have spelled as well as children in rural and state graded schools. In tests of this sort some errors in scoring are apt to be made. It is assumed, however, that as many papers will be marked too low as too high. In that event the average is neither raised nor lowered. Unusual care was taken in some of the cities to insure accuracy in scoring. City scores may therefore be considered as somewhat more accurate than for other classes of schools. There is little reason to believe, however, that the fig- ures for rural and state graded schools represent greater leniency in marking. 16 The Use of Some Standard Tests A question may be raised as to whether the scores made by our children are a reliable measure of their spelling ability. Undoubtedly more reliable results could be obtained by testing several times. While it was not possible to do this estimates can be made. By employing a method commonly used in statis- tics one may compute from the data of Table 2 the chances of making higher or lower scores on repeated tests.^ By this meth- 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 TTT 11 V VI VII VI T I ^^ ^--^ _^ ..^ ^^ ^^^ ^,' ^ .. ^^^^^ .^--^^ ^-^^^ ,. ,, '' ""^^^ „,-- ' ~~~-~_^ „'"" " -'' Average for Wisconsin Sshools Ayres StEuidard Tig I Averaga Spelling Scores in Eaoh Grade for All Schools Combined Compared with Ayrea Standard od the writer estimates that the chances are even that a truly lepresentative score in the third grade would not be above 61.6% or below 56.8% i. e. 2.4% higher or lower. The chances are more than four to one that it would lie between 64% and 54.4% i. e. not more than 4.8% higher or lower than the present' score of 59.2%. The chances are more than twenty to one that it would lie between 66.3% and 52.1% i. e. not more than 7.2% higher or lower. The chances are even that the true score will differ less than 2i/^% from the present score in any grade. From these facts it appears that no matter how liberal we may care to be Wisconsin children cannot be said to be good spellers. Why children in Wisconsin appear to be poorer spellers than ^ The method based on the theory of normal distribution is that of computing the standard deviation, dividing it by the square root of the number of children and multiplying by .6745. The formula used is P. E. S. D. (probable error) = .6745 — T he standard deviation (S. D.) is the Vn square root of the sum of the squares of the differences between each individual score and the average. The S. D.'s in terms of number of words spelled by grades are: III. 7.13: IV, 5.55; V, 6.76: VI, 5.95: VII, 6.55; VIII, 5.33. The corresponding P. E.'s are: .59, .45, .57, .51, .62 and .50 respectively. To convert these figures to terms of per cent multiply by four in each case. Thus, .59 X 4 = 2.36 or roughly 2.4 used in the computation aV^ove. Spelling 17 children elsewhere is rather difficult to discover. " We in Wiscon- sin are certainly not willing to entertain even a remote idea that Wisconsin children are naturally inferior to children elsewhere in ability to spell. We are even reluctant to admit that spelling is not as well taught in Wisconsin as elsewhere. In the face of Ihe facts, however, it is difficult to escape the latter conviction. It is evident that two things will be necessary (1) a careful scru- tiny of the course of study in use, (2) an examination of the methods of teaching employed. One other factor that should be considered is the reliability of the standards established by Ayres. The words used in Ayres' list of 1,000 common words were originally given as tests in sets of 20 words in two consecutive grades in a large number of cities. Following this first test Ayres rearranged the words in sets of 20 and gave each set in four consecutive grades. The fact that all of the words used were not carefully tested in every grade made it necessary to estimate what children in some grades would do in spelling certain words. This may have resulted in setting standards that are too high in some cases. Ayres claims, however, that they are approximately correct if as many as 10 words are used as a test.^ Further evidence in support of the standards was obtained in the course of the Cleveland survey, and in Baltimore and New York City. Using words that should be spelled by 73% of the children who have completed one-half of the grade, no grade in Cleveland was found to be more than 3% below or above.^ Briggs and Bamberger tested among others 5,950 sixth grade children in New York City and Balti- more.^ The words used included all of those given to Wisconsin children in the fifth and sixth grades. By recording the per cent correct for each individual word it is possible to determine from their report the average for the 25 selected words of our test. The writer has computed the average for these words from their data and finds that the 5,950 children made an average of 89.5%. These children were tested during the second half year of the grade and would be expected to reach a grade of approxi- mately 88 or 89%. If these children were able to reach Ayres standard there seems to be no reason why Wisconsin children in the sixth grade should not have made a better record than 72%. ^ Ayres: A Measuring- Scale for Ability in Spelling-, p. 34. ^Judd: Measuring the Work of the Schools, p. 87. 3 School an«i Socifity Nov. 3. 1917. 18 The Use of Some Standard Tests It should be noted, however, that Ayres makes the point that a test of words which should be spelled by 73% of the pupils in- cludes words varying from those to be spelled by 69% to those to be spelled by 76% of the pupils. This is a range of 7%. 73% then signifies an average for the list. It is possible that in choosing the words for our tests a greater proportion of the more difficult words were selected. That such was the case is doubt- ful. The figures of Briggs and Bamberger indicate that our di- vision between easier and more difficult words for grades five and Table 2. — Dittribution of pupils' scores according to Ihe number of toorda correctly spelled List L List Q List U Number Per cent of words of words corr«ct correct III IV V VI VII VIII 112 17 61 16 16 6 1 4 146 20 104 23 38 8 2 8 131 26 148 47 60 25 3 12 163 46 155 46 64 24 4 16 167 44 145 , 60 89 41 5 20 173 57 197 77 100 37 6 24 222 68 199 78 99 47 7 28 179 65 202 90 111 70 8 32 213 86 227 110 153 68 9 36 238 96 259 128 152 74 10 40 228 145 262 145 162 75 11 44 216 116 260 148 212 128 12 48 251 145 246 161 231 142 13 52 243 160 255 193 205 143 14 56 269 162 301 198 245 180 15 60 283 188 309 261 267 228 16 64 295 232 299 287 296 219 17 68 286 267 332 329 283 291 18 72 323 326 322 348 313 290 19 76 323 355 291 362 311 339 20 80 342 464 331 443 324 393 21 84 332 534 324 476 340 467 22 88 369 666 292 513 330 492 23 92 413 771 326 533 270 526 24 96 354 926 293 538 239 496 25 100 357 936 6,918 235 6,375 605 6,215 159 5,069 387 Total. . . 6,628 5,196 Average per cent correct Average numb'r cor- rect Median number cor- rect 59.2 77.5 57.6 72.1 63. 14.8 19.4 14.4 18. 15.8 16.3 21.7 15.5 20. 17.1 74.2 18.6 20.4 Spelling 19 six was approximately equal. The range, however, was found to be greater than 7% as given by Ayres. The easiest word "sometimes" was spelled correctly by 97% and "information" the most difficult one by 78%. But even though our selection in some grades may have resulted in choosing a greater number of words of more than average difficulty it can scarcely account for differences as great as those between the averages attained by Wisconsin children and the standards set by Ayres. That not all children are poor spellers may be seen from Table 2 giving the distribution of scores according to the number of words correctly spelled. There are a number of children in each grade who exceeded the expected average for that grade. They include children who are by nature endowed with greater spelling ability, children who are better graded, and children who have been better taught. Since there were 25 words on the test, each word is equivalent to 4 per cent. Hence children in grades three, five and seven who spelled more than l'8 words exceeded the average. of 73% set for these grades. Those who had 22 or more words correct in grade four equalled or exceeded the standard of 88% for that grade. Similarly children in grades six and eight who had 21 or more words correct equalled or exceeded the standard of 84% for these grades. These children may be said to have spelled better than average children in American cities who have com- pleted one-half of the work of their respective grades. There are 14,887 of the 36,401 children, or slightly less than 41%, who spelled as well or better than Ayres average for American cities. These were distributed for each class of school by grades as follows (Table 3) : Table 3. — Number and x>«i' cent of Children iclio Sptlled as xcell or better than Ayres expected Mid-year Average Ill IV v VI VII VIII 1 T»tal No. % No. % No. 682 i 454 656 ~?^92 % 37 83 29 No. 1,102 607 - 956 T665 % 42 48 41 Is" No. 844 473 656 1,973 % 39 47 35 "39~ No. % No. 6,825 3,402 4,660 % Rural State Graded . Higrh and City 1,204 602 684 43 48 •28 IT 1,527 50 730; 53 l,042i 41 1,166 536 666 4S 53 41 43 46 35 Total.... 2.490 3,299 48 2,368 48 14,887 41 20 The Use of Some Standard Tests The proportion in cities is naturally lower because of the fact that the tests in cities were given somewhat earlier in the school year. There were pupils in each grade who failed on all of the words and others who spelled only a very few of the twenty-five words correctly. Still all were classified by their teachers and princi- I^als as pupils having third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth grade spelling ability. Obviously the term "fifth" or "sixth grade spelling ability" has little significance. Children in grade eight who spelled less than fourteen correctly i. e. an average of 56% are to be considered as possessing not more than sixth grade spelling ability. Similarly children in other grades making very low scores are to be considered as possessing the spelling ability of average children several grades lower than that in which they are now found. Some teachers either have been negligent in their spelling requirements for promotion, or know little of what constitutes fourth grade, or fifth gr^de, ability in spelling. Others apparently have accomplished little in the way of teach- ing children how to spell common words. The results in each class of schools will be considered briefly. The results in rural schools The following table gives the average scores obtained in each county together with the combined result for all rural schools and the expected average. The highest and lowest scores for each grade are indicated in bold face. The rural school average for each county was obtained from the combined distribution of the scores for all rural schools reported from the county. Spelling 21 Table 4. — Average Ayres Spelling Scores in Rural Schools — By Counties Number List L List Q List U Number Counties of schools of children tested III IX V VI VII VIII tested 1 15 81 90 67 83 71 79 105 2 27 78 83 68 76 82 81 245 3 59 65 80 61 79 69 80 650 4 14 ' 58 78 43 74 56 64 194 5 15 53 70 37 68 56 71 203 6 13 61 73 57 72 79 70 134 7 16 48 78 49 61 52 63 218 8 15 65 79 62 70 74 89 168 9 60 55 87 58 67 59 81 1,398 10 65 61 79 54 70 65 74 834 11 11 61 71 64 62 48 55 166 12 31 63 78 63 78 55 73 369 13 8 46 70 44 68 46 73 118 14 125 70 77 65 70 65 70 1,352 15 14 50 65 44 59 61 68 220 16 8 61 80 57 54 62 71 93 17 80 63 76 59 74 67 78 827 18 8 65 90 66 83 71 86 161 19 15 60 77 58 74 60 76 256 20 63 70 83 63 75 66 77 918 21 16 60 79 47 80 44 79 156 22 11 58 82 49 53 55 77 140 23 14 72 85 67 82 70 78 177 24 39 62 74 56 68 62 71 550 25 15 71 82 49 68 62 70 190 26 15 69 74 68 72 73 78 271 27 17 65 70 53 61 56 66 1 266 28 69 65 77 59 66 67 73 1,021 29 12 82 83 78 87 81 77 155 30 9 65 70 56 75 65 61 83 31 24 69 82 61 72 57 76 284 32 24 72 79 66 79 67 75 240 33 42 56 86 60 83 59 81 322 34 6 68 86 61 78 71 82 146 35 7 33 52 50 67 52 64 113 36 16 69 68 58 80 55 73 189 37 72 59 67 57 58 58 63 649 38 94 67 84 63 74 64 75 2,114 39 11 49 78 77 74 66 ! 65 1 1 130 Rural school average 64. 79. 60. 71. 63. 73. 15, 825 i ^^ 88 73 84 73 84 22 The Use of Some Standard Tests Judged by Ayres standards rural children in Wisconsin do not spell well. They average not less than ten points below the standard in every grade. However, when compared with other classes of Wisconsin schools as will be seen from Table I, they are not conspicuously poorer nor better spellers than the pupils in the cities and villages. The fact that rural children spelled somewhat better than children in cities can be accounted for by the fact that the tests in most cities were given earlier in the year. If we consider that each list of words was given in two grades we may compare grade three with four, five with six, and seven with eight. Each of the advanced grades shows improvement over the three earlier using the same lists of words. It is notice- able, however, that grade eight has only attained Ayres standard for grade seven and that grade six does not quite reach Ayres fifth grade standard. The number of counties that reached Ayres standard The number of counties equalling or exceeding and the num- ber falling below Ayres expected for each grade are indicated in Table 5. Table 5. — Number of counties equalling or exceeding and number falling below Ayres Standard in each grade Ill IV V n VII VIII Number counties tested 39 3 36 39 2 37 39 2 37 39 1 38 39 5 34 39 Number equalling or exceeding standard Number below standard 2 37 It will be seen that very few counties reach the expected aver- age in any grade. Referring again to Table 4 it will be seen that only four counties, numbers 1, 2, 8, 18 and 29 reached the expected standard in more than one grade. The best showing is made by county 29 which exceeded the Ayres standard in four grades and did not fall less than seven points below in either of the other two grades. County 35 makes the very lowest scores in two grades and a poor showing in each of the other grades. Spelling is evidently better taught in some counties than in others. Spelling 23 Figure II represents graphically the average attainment for the 39 counties, the highest and lowest scores in each grade and Ayres standard. Were the children in each grade in every county able to spell as well as average children in the counties having the best spelling for each grade, Wisconsin rural children would be considered good spellers. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30" 30 10 Jli- M- -m. _mi Average Score for All Counties Coal Inei Average of Rlgbest Average of Lowest County County Ayres Standari Tig. II The Average Spelling Score for 39 Counties, the Highest and Lowest Average Scores In Each Orada and Ayres Standard The results in state graded schools'^ The returns from first and second-class state graded schools have been combined and a single average obtained. The schools almost without exception have only annual promotions and the average scores may well be compared with Ayres standard which represent scores for children Avho have completed just half of the work of a grade. The averages attained by combining the results from all state graded schools are given below : Table 6. Grades Ill IV V VI VII VIII State Graded Averages Ayres Standard 64 73 80 88 59 73 74 84 67 73 78 ■ 84 From Table 6 it will be seen that children in state graded schools are likewise below Ayres expected standard in every grade. The number of points below the standard varies from ^ See first pag-e of this section for explanation of the term "state graded schools." 24 The Use of Some Standard Tests six in grades seven and eight to fourteen in grade five. While the results compare favorably with those in other types of Wis- consin schools they are by no means satisfactory. The results in high schools and cities^ It will be recalled that the test in rural and state graded schools was given at a time when the children had spent approx- imately one-half year in the grade and that the standards estab- lished by Dr. Ayres are for scores made at that time. In sev- eral high schools^ and cities the test was given earlier in the school year and a fair evaluation of the work must therefor take ac- count of the date of the test. Among cities having only annual promotions, those tested during the first semester may be ex- pected to attain averages somewhat less than the standard, while those tested during the second semester should exceed it. In the case of schools having semiannual promotions it is estimated that the standard averages should be reached about November 15th and April 1st for the first and second semesters respec- tively. For a test given at other times the expected average can only be estimated. To aid in making such estimates the standard averages, the average expected a full year earlier and estimated averages to be attained one-half year earlier or later are given in Table 7. Table 7. — Standard and estimated averages for successive half year^ Standard average 1 year earlier . Estimated average \ year earlier Standard average Estimated average \ year later. . Lis tL III IV 1 50 73 62 81 73 88 81 91 List Q 58 66 73 79 VI List U VII VIII 73 79 84 58 66 73 79 73 79 84 ■• Unfortunately a few cities in which the test was given are not in- cluded. In some cases' the superintendent did not wish his school to be included because "^f the poor showing. In other instances complete re- tiirns were not received. 2 The term "hig-h school" refers to schools in cities and towns or- ganized as district free high schools. 3 Estimated averages ar^ cc^putf-d on the basis of normal probability. See any table of probability for the amount to be added or subtracted when estimating performnnnps at given times. Consult Ayres mono- graph, "Measurement of Ability in Spelling" p. 29f for the method used by Ayres in arranging his scale. Spelling 25 The average scores by cities arranged in approximate order of the portion of the work of the grade which pupils had com- pleted at the time of the test are given in Table 8. Table 8. — Average Ayres Spelling Scores in Cities List L List Q Lis t U Number Wis. Date Tested Section Tested of cities children ^ III IV V VI VII VIII tested 1 9 28—16 R 39 75 47 71 51 79 248 2 10- 3—16 B 39 68 46 75 63 70 529 3 10-10-16 B 28 71 54 70 65 64 386 4 10-23—16 B 29 50 30 76 72 72 195 5 10-24-16 B 42 61 57 65 51 56 470 6 10—25-16 B 69 76 55 70 1 65 81 211 7 10—26—16 B 51 74 oo 77 1 62 71 351 8 10—27-16 B 41 71 54 67 64 65 179 9 11— ..—16 B 42 75 55 71 61 81 2,075 10 2— 5—17 A& B 61 79 49 66 61 76 1,868 11 12— 5—16 B 59 79 48 74 53 65 307 12 12- 8—16 B 50 78 57 70 57 63 439 13 12—13—16 12—14-16 B B 74 55 80 77 73 66 84 71 124 14 69 271 15 12-15—16 B 54 60 50 74 67 81 195 16 12-.. — 16 B 49 6f 53 70 65 71 200 17 12-..— 16 B 47 73 52 79 52 73 346 18 12— ..—16 B 60 88 76 S7 66 74 91 19 12 -..-16 B 65 93 50 65 65 88 114 20 12—15—16 B 65 64 60 85 66 82 175 21 12—28—16 10_18— 16 B A &B 65 47 78 69 40 22 59 74 41 72 384 23 3-13— i7 A&B 55 80 53 76 52 274 24 1-10-17 B 35 63 43 73 59 80 201 25 1—11—17 B 51 67 38 67 42 62 244 26 1—11—17 B 39 79 51 66 63 119 27 1_11_17 B 71 77 44 82 80 53 85 28 1—11—17 B 74 84 (;5 80 68 89 155 29 11 16 A &B 64 77 74 88 74 427 30 3—29—17 A&B 67 82 56 75 63 71 924 31 12— 5—16 A&B 53 76 64 72 77 75 765 32 12— 16 12—20—16 A&B A&B 42 52 63 82 44 64 44 74 266 33 60 '76 253 34 4— 2-17 A 75 80 61 73 54 82 116 35 4— 5—17 ^ 62 52 82 1 74 72 55 93 72 71 89 84 Combi ned Average. 61 73 13,111 Ayres Standard . . . 73 88 1 73 84 73 84 26 The Use of Some Standard Tests The Mghest and lowest scores in each grade are set in bold face. They are summarized in Table 9. TablIe 9. — The highest and lowest average scores in each grade in cities Ill IV V VI VII VIII Lowest % 28 75 50 93 30 76 44 93 41 80 53 Highest % 89 The lowest third grade average was 28% or more than 20% less than these children should have scored at the middle of their second year. The highest third grade score was 75%, only two points above the mid-year standard. It was made by a school that had completed approximately three-fourths of the year's work, and which should therefore have made a score still higher. The lowest fourth grade score is just 50%, or second-grade stand- ard. The highest is 93. One fifth grade averaged only 30%. The highest fifth grade average was 76%. In the sixth grade the highest score was 93% and the lowest 44. Grade seven varied from 41% to 80%, and grade eight from 53% to 89%. How it is possible for one school to score only 30% in the fifth grade or how another can fail to exceed 53% in the eighth grade when another makes an average of 89%, is difficult to compre- hend. Certainly the work in spelling either has not been wisely administered or has not been well taught in cities making an un- usually poor showing. Such results are unjust to the child and to the community which pays for his education. From Table 8 it will be seen that even allowing liberally for the time of giving the test few cities made a strong showing in any grade. No city exceeds Ayres standard in all grades. Three cities, Numbers 13, 18 and 29 equal or exceed it in three grades. Three others, numbers 19, 28 and 35 equal or exceed it in two grades. Four others, numbers 20, 27, 31 and 34 exceed it in one grade. The number of cities that reached or exceeded Ayres standard and the number that failed to do so for each grade is shown in Table 10. Spelling 27 Table 10.^ The number- of cities equalling or txceeding Ayres Standard and the number falling below in each grade III IV V J Vl^ VII VIII Number cities tested 34 2 32 33 2 31 34 3 31 34 4 30 .j33 29 30 Number cities equalling or ex- ceeding Ayres standard Number cities falling below Ayres 4 26 When we consider the fact that a number of cities for each grade have not reached the standard which shouldliave been at- tained a year before, it can be said without gross unfairness that Wisconsin cities are lagging more than a half year behind the standard of American cities in spelling. Whether the sys- tem of annual promotions so prevalent in the state, the course of study, or the methods of teaching are the contributing causes is a matter which individual superintendents must seek to dis- cover. The combined Wisconsin score for each grade in cities, Ayres standard for each grade and his standard to be attained one year earlier are represented graphically in the figure following : 2I1L Tig. Ill Th« Average Score for 35 Cities Conpared with Ayres Standard and the Standard to be Attained by the Saae Children One Tear Earlier Differences in success in spelling are due to several causes. Some teachers attempt to cover too much ground. The result of this is superficial teaching. Too often the words are poorly 28 The Use of Some Standard Tests selected. This results in an emphasis upon words which chil- dren will have little occasion to use, and in the neglect of com- mon words which they ought to know how to spell. Some teach- ers do not expect as much of their pupils as others. In some cases the teacher misjudges the spelling ability of her pupils. This appears to, have been the case with many of the teachers whose pupils were tested. No teacher would knowingly be sat- isfied with such spelling ability as the test revealed in many schools. Teachers as a whole pay too little attention to individ- ual differences among their children. A teacher may regard all of her pupils as of fifth grade spelling ability, when as a matter of fact some are only the equivalent of third or fourth grade spellers, and others have the ability of sixth or seventh grade pupils. An illustration of the variation in average performances which may occur between buildings in the same city may be seen from the table below. The third grade in one building averages 19% and another 60%. One fourth grade averages 58% and another 80%. Four of the highest scores for each grade occur in one building. The figures it must be remembered are for children in the same city, where standards of grading are supposed to be equal or nearly so in all buildings. More care in grading, how- ever, is a quite evident need in this city. It will be well for every superintendent to seek for efEeetive means of dealing with such situations. Table 11. — Average Ayres' spelling scores in different buildings of one city Buildings Grades Average of 1 2 3, 4 5 6 7 8 9 all buildings 3 44 19 35 33 46 44 60 44 43 41 4 78 68 67 70 68 72 80 5S 77 I 71 5 54 46 37 51 43 50 57 41 41 47 ■6 65 72 62 68 66 67 57 73 66 7 40 61 42 60 45^ 63 35 51 57 56 39 60 50 61 44 8 59 1 Owing- to the form in which the report was made the results for this city are not included in the preceding- tables. Spelling 29 The variation within a grade and the overlapping of perform- ances from one grade to the next for another city may be judged from the distribution of scores for grades three, four, five and six in Table 12. Good, average and poor spellers are found in the same grades. Table 12. — Showing variationtcithin grades and the overlapping of per- formances for one city Number of words cor- rectly spelled Per cent of words correct List L List Q III IV V VI 4 8 12 23 27 24 26 2 5 10 13 1 2 3 2 3 3 4 16 17 2 12 2 5 20 20 1 13 1 6 24 17 6 13 4 7 28 22 4 10 4 8 32 15 9 14 9 9 36 22 7 15 8 10 40 11 12 10 4 11 44 13 9 18 12 12 48 18 12 16 10 13 52 17 12 13 13 14 56 17 10 22 17 15 60 18 17 11 19 16 64 17 16 22 19 17 68 15 18 16 21 18 72 13 21 14 18 19 76 8 19 11 10 20 80 17 31 17 28 21 84 12 36 18 24 22 88 18 50 13 31 23 92 6 27 14 23 24 96 7 50 13 19 25 100 6 48 13 31 Total 426 422 348 330 Average % cor rect 42. 75. 55. 71. Since grades three and four were given the same test -these grades may be compared with each other, as may also five with six. There is a significant overlapping of one grade on another. Many third grade children exceed a large part of the fourth 30 The Use of Some Standard Tests grade, A similar condition exists in the fifth and sixth grades as may be seen in Table 13. A considerable proportion of the third and fifth grades exceed the averages attained by the next higher grade in each case. There are many in the fourth and sixth grades who fail to reach the average attained by the next lower grade. Table 13. % of 3rd grade who exceed 4th grade average 17.4 % " 4th " " fall below 3rd grade average 10.9 % " 5th " " exceed 6th grade average 32.5 % " 6th " " fall below 5th grade average 21.2 % of 3rd grade who exceed lowest 25% of 4th grade 28.1 % " " " " " " 50% " " " 11.5 % " " " " " " 75% " " " 3.4 % of 5th grade who exceed lowest 25% of 6th grade 47.6 % " " " " " " 50% " " " 28.1 % " ' " " 75% " " " 12.6 More than a fourth of the third grade children exceed the lowest fourth of the fourth grade, 11.5% did better than half of the fourth grade. 3.4% did better than 75% of the fourth grade. In the fifth and sixth grades this overlapping is even more marked. Almost half of the fifth grade did better than the poorest fourth of the sixth, more than a fifth exceeded half of the sixth grade, and one-eighth did better than three-fourths of the sixth grade. More than 15% of the fifth grade children are above Ayres sixth grade standard. Superintendents should seek effective means of dealing with such situations as those in the two cities represented by Table 11 and 12. Two administrative measures are being employed in some cities. One is to arrange the daily programs so that all spelling occurs at the same period of the day. A child studies spelling in whatever grade is most nearly his own level of ability. Another is that of housing several classes of the same grade in one building and then sectioning them according to ability. Children strong in spelling will quite frequently be found to be the same individuals who are strong in other subjects. When this is done the course of study can be more nearly made to fit the needs of each group. Children who are already able to spell many of the words which others are striving to master need not Spelling 31 squander time waiting for these poorer spellers. They may be assigned more advanced work or set at some other more profit- able task. The Questionnaire on the Course of Study in Spelling As stated previously schools were asked to report such facts as the time devoted to spelling, the number of new words taught per week, the sources of the words used, the proportion of words from each source and the relative proportion of time devoted to oral and written spelling. The purpose of asking for these facts was to discover what variations exist and what if any bearing these facts have upon the results obtained. In the case of rural schools, reports were submitted in many cases for each school rather than for the county as intended, thus greatly in- creasing the work of tabulating the returns. The Time Devoted to Spelling The median amount of time per week given to the teaching of spelling for 165 rural schools selected at random from 24 counties, 29 state graded schools, and 21 high schools and cities, as reported by principals and superintendents, is shown in the accompanjdng table. The median indicates in each ease that one-half of the schools represented by the figures above devote more and the other half less than the figure given. The relia- bility of the figures is of course dependent upon the reliability of the reports submitted by teachers and superintendents. Only in some rural schools is there reason to believe that significant errors may sometimes have been made in reporting. Table U.—JVumber of Minutes per Week Devoted to Spelling 11 ID IV Y VI VII VIII 165 rural schools State graded schools 45 50 70 50 60 75 50 75 75 50 50 75 50 67.5 75 50 75 85 55 75 High schools and cities 75 The figures indicate that the typical school does not spend an undue amount of time on spelling. In fact the time is small, 32 The Use of Some Standard Tests especially in rural schools. A reasonable amount is 75 minutes per week or 15 minutes per' day including both study and teach- ing periods. This means roughly 5% of the total school time. Schools which give much more time than that to the subject of spelling should stop to consider whether such a policy provides for a fair apportionment of the time among all of the subjects on the daily program. Some teachers reported several hundred minutes per week given to spelling in each grade. Superin- tendents should not tolerate such extravagant and unwise use of time. On the other hand, satisfactory results cannot be se- cured when too little time is allowed. It is not likely that any but unusually capable teachers can develop good spellers in less than ten minutes per day or three fifteen minute periods per week. Until such time as we have evidence to the contrary, it will be well to allow 15 minutes per day for the intensive teach- ing and study of spelling. The small amount of time given in some schools seems to indicate a tendency on the part of some teachers to rely upon the incidental teaching of spelling to secure satisfactory results. This is probably one of the causes contributing to poor spelling in "Wisconsin. The Record of Two Enrol Schools in One County Table 15. -The time devoted to spelling, the num'ber of new words taught per week, and the average scores in two rural schools in one county III IV V VI VII VIII School. A T ~S60 1o w ~15 ~15 A T W A T "350 ~65 W ~25 A T loo "65 W "so A ~89 T 1 W A T Iso "75 w ~io ~30 A B.... ~30 "I5 89 l~5 ~30 60 ~80 T=Number minutes per week, score. W=>f umber of new words per week. A = Average The need of standardizing the time devoted to spelling is strikingly portrayed in these two rural schools in one county. Both attempt to accomplish almost equal amounts of work as shown by the number of new words taught each week, yet school °A at the cost of much more time, accomplished on the whole far less than school B. The teacher in school B makes much better use of the time at her disposal. She is apparently a better teacher of spelling. There can be no doubt that much time is Spelling 33 squandered where such extravagance is shown as in school A. This is a serious matter particularly in rural schools where the number of days attended each year and the number of years a child remains in school are, on the whole, less than in other classes of schools. When spelling is well taught, fifteen minutes per day is ample time. When poorly taught, no amount of time will secure satisfactory results. The Time Devoted to Spelling and the Average Spelling Scores in Eight Counties Eight county superintendents gave averages only in reporting the time given to spelling in the schools tested. In some coun- ties, these averages are known to have been accurately computed, but it is feared that in a few the figures represent estimates. However, the average time as reported and the average score made on the test are given in Table 16 in the h^pe that other county superintendents may be induced to make a more careful study of the relation of time to results in spelling. Table 16. — The Average Time Devoted to Spelling and the Average Spelling Scores in Eight Counties Ill IV V VI VII VIII Counties T A T A T A 63 60 67 66 37 64 59 58 T A T A T 40 60 150 75 60 44 1.0 50 A I 30 41 100 75 * 41 150 20 70 56 81 t)2 53 80 65 55 30 46 100 75 42 150 25 83 3t) 90 74 70 88 77 87 30 61 150 75 * 63 170 30 40 72 150 75 50 48 170 30 75 83 83 6i 68 84 66 67 40 3rf 150 75 60 43 150 50 66 59 71 62 56 88 67 59 77 2 81 3 79 4 5 71 71 6 72 7 73 8 81 T— Time in minutes per weelc, A— Average % of words correct. *— Spelling tauglit in connection with reading. In Table 16, counties three and seven give more time to spell- ing than any of the others. Do they make the best showing on the test? County three makes the best score in the third and fourth grades. In the fifth grade, its score is low but still su- perior to that of the other counties. On the whole, this county pays high for results which, with two exceptions, are not above the expected average. In county seven, no grade reaches Ay res 34 The Use of Some Standard Tests standard. This county likewise pays high for what it gets. In county five, spelling is taught in connection with reading through grade five. The unsatisfactory results in this county may be noted from the fact that it makes the poorest score in four of the six grades tested. The table indicates further that the best seventh and eighth grade scores Avere made in counties devoting not more than ten minutes per day to spelling. Time and Average Scores in Ten State Graded Schools Table 17 gives the time devoted to spelling and the average scores made in ten first-class state graded schools, (i. e. schools with three or more grade teachers.) Table 17. — T?te IHme Devoted to Spelling and the Average Spelling Score in Each Grade for Ten Fiist- Class State Graded Schools iir 1 1 IV V VI VII VIII T A T A T A T A T A T A 1 100 72 100 94 125 61 120 73 125 60 125 78 2 so 60 SO 82 30 67 75 79 75 75 75 77 3 50 74 i 50 96 50 50 75 92 75 66 75 75 4 50 61 , 25 82 25 61 25 56 50 66 50 89 5 100 76 100 97 75 47 60 65 65 73 65 63 6 100 72 100 94 100 71 100 91 100 76 100 80 7 75 68 75 75 75 52 55 80 75 74 75 84 8 75 73 75 82 75 68 75 68 75 62 75 82 9 75 57 75 90 75 55 75 80 75 79 75 80 10 75 55 50 69 50 68 50 78 75 90 75 94 T— Time in minutes per week. A— Average % of words correct. Here again it is evident that more time does not necessarily guarantee better results. The best scores in the three upper grades were made on a seventy-five minute per week schedule. The best scores in the third, fourth, and fifth grades were made in schools giving one hundred minutes per week. In grades three and four, however, they are only slightly superior to the averages made in schools in which spelling receives only one- half as much time. Spelling 35 Time atid Average Scores in Ten High Schools, and Cities Table 18 shows the number of minntes weekly given to spelling and the average scores on the test for 10 selected high schools and cities. Table 18. — Number of Minutes per Week given to Spelling and the Average Scores for Ten High Schools and Cities 09 11 III IV V VI VII VIII s T T 30 At. 61 T Av. T Av. T Av. T Av. T Av. 1 25 50 79 60 49 60 66 60 61 60 76 2 75 75 62 75 82 75 72 75 93 85 71 85 89 3 75 60 75 88 50 76 50 87 50 66 50 78 4 120 120 47 100 73 175 52 200 79 140 52 125 78 5 , , 100 75 125 80 75 61 73 70 54 75 82 6 30 50 65 75 64 75 60 100 85 100 65 100 82 7 65 75 69 125 76 75 54 100 70 100 65 100 81 8 150 150 51 125 67 125 38 125 67 125 41 75 62 9 75 100 54 100 60 100 50 60 74 60 67 100 81 10 100 115 100 74 100 80 85 73 60 84 The figures give us further evidence that under present meth- ods of teaching spelling, a larger amount of time spent upon the subject is not necessarily rewarded by better results. In grade three the two schools that made the lowest scores give the most time to the subject. In grade four the two schools attain- ing highest averages do so on a 15 minute daily allotment. The lowest score was made on a schedule of 20 minutes per day. The highest fifth grade score occuri'ed in a school giving only 10 minutes per day to the subject and the lowest in one giving 25 minutes per day. The school giving the most time to spell- ing, 175 minutes per week or 35 minutes per day, attained an average score of only 52%. The two best scores in the sixth were made in schools giving 75 and 50 minutes respectively per week, i. e., 15 and 10 minutes per day. The school which gives 200 minutes per week attains a score only slightly above the average of the ten schools. Again in the seventh and eighth grades some of the highest scores were attained where the time allotments are relatively short and some of the lowest scores were made at a relatively high time cost. The figures of Tables 17 and 18 seem to indicate that in these schools at least the results bear little relation to the time given 36 The Use of Some Standard Tests to spelling. The correlations by the Foot Rule method are in- significant.^ The Sources of Words Used in Spelling The replies to the question calling for the proportion of words derived from the reading text, the spelling text and other sources, indicate that the first two of these are far more popular with teachers than the third. While time has not permitted a care- ful summary of the answers received from all schools, there is sufficient evidence to warrant the statement that reading texts are gvien an undue prominence as a source of spelling material. It is not unusual in lower grades to find that all of the spelling words are selected from the reading text. In upper grades the spelling text predominates as a source. There are very few schools that do not derive at least a part of the words taught from the reader. Of 300 rural schools selected at random, only 9 do not use the reader as one source in some grade. Every one of 28 state graded schools and nearly all of the high schools and cities that answered the question, select some words from read- ers. The proportion ranges from ' ' a few " to ' ' all. ' ' The aver- age scores made on the test and the percentage of words taken from the reading text by two state graded schools that select a high proportion from the reader in every grade are shown be- low. Neither one of these two schools comes near the expected spelling average in any grade. ^ Closeness of relationship is commonly computed mathematically by certain well known formulae. While a considerable number of cases should be used when computing correlations, the writer has taken the liberty to calculate correlation figures for Tables 17 and 18 by the Spearman Foot Rule method. By this method the schools are ranked in order in both factors. If each school held the same rank in both time and results the correlation would be said to be perfect. Perfect correlation "is represented by unity or 1. Zero represents no correlation and — 1 represents perfect negative correlation. The correlation thus obtained for Tables 17 and 18 when converted to terms of the Pearson coefficient by the formula r = 2 cosiHg ^(1 — ^R) — 1, are by grades: TABLE 18 — .500 — .338 — .212 — .153 — .448 .0 — .275 TABLE 17 Grade III + .310 " IV + .490 V — .109 " VI + .448 " VII + .109 " VIII .0 Ave. + .208 Spelling 37 Table 19. — Average Scores and tlie Per cent of Words Derived fi-om the Beading Text in Two State Graded Schools III IV V VI VII VIII Schoo % R Ave. %R Av«. %R Aye. %R Ave. %R Ave. %R Ave. A B 97 50 47 61 ? 86 72 69 95 86 57 47 95 86 65 o9 to 86 36 66 90 86 69 69 % R = per cent of words derived from readinjr text. While no significant conclusions can be attached to the re- sults attained in these two isolated schools, there is good reason to believe that the question of the source of the spelling material and the results obtained on the test are intimately related. The unusual prominence given to the reading and spelling texts in Wisconsin appears to be a cause contributing to the poor show- ings made on the test. The writer regrets that time has not permitted the collection of sufficient detailed evidence on this point. Many teachers do not appear to realize that the vocabu- lary of the language used in the reader and that used by the child in his writing and in his thinking are materially different. Eeaders are written by adults, and too often in the language of adults rather than of children. Much of the subject matter deals with experiences foreign to most children. Teachers must seek to discover the words which children use when writing and that they will continue to use in later years. These are the words they need to know how to spell. Efforts must be made to enlarge the vocabulary used by children, but judgment must be exercised in developing it in the right direction. Precious time should not be taken up with the teaching of many words which children will never have opportunity to spell. Under the caption "other sources" the baneful influence of the Wisconsin State Fair list, especially in rural schools, is not infrequently noted. Geography, language, history, agriculture, arithmetic and physiology are mentioned as other sources of material. This represents an improvement, but many of the words in these sources are of a kind which the child will never be called upon to spell outside of the schoolroom. One county superintendent encourages the spelling of words which the child 38 The Use of Some Standard Tests encounters in the home, on the playground, and in newspapers and magazines. He reports that "Children are assigned cer- tain work such as: 'Bring to class as many words as you can which you find used in the kitchen, at the table, etc. ' ' ' Here again caution must be exercised or unnecessary words will be in- cluded. In some cases children are encouraged to keep note- books for recording words which they do not know how to spell. In some schools where good teaching of spelling was observed, each child was being encouraged to keep an individual list of the words which he misspells in his written work. This method of selecting the words which each child needs to know should be encouraged. Some superintendents ask each teacher to prepare a list of the words which children misspell in written work. These are assembled and form the basic spelling list. This list is then supplemented by words occurring in some of the more scientific studies of spelling, such as those of Ayres, Jones and others. Such procedure in the selection of spelling material is altogether too rare. It is to be hoped that the results of the state-wide test will bring home to teachers and superintendents the necessity for a wise and careful selection of the words which children shall be taught. Teachers and superintendents will do well to become familiar with the scientific studies of common words in order that they may know what are the words that are most commonlv used and the number of them. They should make a careful study of the works of Jones, Cook and O'Shea, Ayres, Ballou, Pryor, Anderson, The Kansas City Committee on Spelliner, and others of a similar nature. A bibliography of these will be found at the end of the section on spelling. The Number of Nevv^ Words Taught Is it better to teach a few new words each day, or many? This is a question which should be faced squarely by every teacher of spelling. It is doubtful whether many teachers in "Wisconsin give it serious consideration. If the best teaching results are to be had by teaching ten or more new words each day, then it is certainly poor economy to teach only one or two. On the other hand, if the best results are to be had by teaching a few words thoroughly, it is unwise to teach a large number 'V^^ith little concern for thoroughness,. This theory is supported Spelling 39 when we consider the results of the test in the light of the num- ber of words reported as taught in each class of schools. While it cannot be said that the attempt to teach too many words is the sole cause of poor results in spelling in Wisconsin, it is no doubt a contributing factor. That Wisconsin schools attempt to teach a large number of new words daily, if they report their prac- tices correctly, may be judged from Table 20. Table 20. — Median Number New Words Taught per Day Rural State Graded High School and City II III IV V VI VII 3 5 6 8 8 10 4 6 6 8 7 10 3 4 5 5-6 7-8 6-7 VIII 10 10 6-7 The table is based upon the same 165 rural schools referred to in the section dealing with the time devoted to spelling, 29 state graded schools and 18 high and cWj schools. Table 20 gives the median number of new words taught daily in each class of schools. These figures mean that one-half of the schools rep- resented teach more than the number of words represented by the median, and the other half teach fewer. From grade three 1o grade eight the median rural school attempts to teach from 5 to 10 new^ words daily and the median state graded schools from 6 to 10. In high and city schools the median ranges from 4 to 7. These numbers, paticularly in rural and state graded schools are high. They appear striking when we recall that one- half of the schools represented teach a still larger number of new words daily. There are rural schools for each grade that report 20 or more new words taught daily. The highest number reported from state graded schools ranges from 10 in the second grade to 20 in the eighth. In high schools and cities the highest number re- Dorted is 6 in the second. 10 in the third, 13 in the fourth and 20 in grades five, six, seven and eight. Some of those who report the largest numbers are probably including words children have already been taught in some earlier grade. Often, however, the 40 The Use of Some Standard Tests teacher has no knowledge of what words were taught in preced- ing grades. Table 21 shows for the schools of Table 18 the number of new words taught daily as well as the number of minutes per day allotted to spelling and the average scores on the test. Table 21. — T7ie Number of Neic Words Taught, the Numher of Minutes 'per Bay Allotted to Spelling and the Average Scores on the Test in Ten Cities Clti's II III IV V VI VII VIII T W A.V. T w A.V, T W Av. T W Av T W Av T W A.V. T W Av. 1 2 3 5 15 1 5 6 15 15 ?4 20 10 15 30 20 20 2 I 5 4 4 8 3 61 e-" 60 47 7t 65 69 51 54 10 15 15 20 25 15 2- 25 20 23 2 5 8 5 5 5 g 4 5 13 79 n 8S 731 80, fii' 7fi 67 60 12 15 10 35 15 15 15 25 20 20 "3 5 8 6 5 6 8 5 8 23 49 T> 76 52 61 60 54 38 50 74 P 15 10 40 ■'6 20 25 12 50 3 6 % 15 8 7 8 6 8 17 66 93 87 79 73 85 70 67 74 80 12 17 10 28 14 20 20 25 12 17 4 8 8 8 6 7 9 6 8 61 71 66 52 54 65 65 41 67 73 12 17 10 25 15 20 20 15 20 12 4 8 8 9 6 7 9 6 9 ? 76 89 73 4 5 24 5 73 82 6 7 8 9 10 6 IS 30 15 2 7 3 3 82 81 62 81 84 ...|....| It is clear that most of these schools attempt to teach more new words than modern theories of teaching spelling uphold. One is amazed at the variations in the conceptions which super- intendents have of the number of new words that should be taught. The least variation from 4 to 9 occurs in the seventh and eighth grades. The widest variation is found in the fifth grade where one school requires the teaching of three new words daily, and another twenty. " School number one teaches only a few words daily and gives but a small amount of attention to spelling. It made a rather low score on the test. Several fac- tors may enter into this low record. In the first place we have no data on preceding years. While the words now taught are few in number, they may be poorly selected. The teaching may cen- ter too largely upon unusual words rather than upon common words which children need to know how to spell. This school miffht profit by a more generous time allotment and a better se- lection. Finally the methods of teaching employed should be investigated. In school number eight, which made a very poor record on the test, the number of new words taught is less than in most schools of the table and the time given to spelling is lib- eral. Poor teaching is apparently the most significant cause of poor results here. Spelling 41 The Total Number of Words to Teach At the rate of two per day, approximately 2,500 words, i. e. words tliat are new and which present ditiicuities, can be pre- sented by direct teaching during tlie elementary school course. Many more will, of course, be learned incidentally. At the rate of ten per day, this number would be increased by 10,000. The latter is a figure much larger than necessary to meet the demands of the child's written vocabulary. Careful studies of the writ- ing vocabulary of children and adults indicate that the words which people use are fewer in number than we ordinarily sup- pose. Jones^ found only 4532 different words used in the 75,000 themes written by 1,050 children in grades two to eight inclu- sive. No child used more than 2,812. Ayres,- in a study of the spelling vocabulary of 2,000 personal and business letters, found 542 common words. Cook and O'Shea^ found 5,200 different words in the family correspondence of 13 adults. Eldridge* records 6,002 different words in a total of 43,989 words which occurred on two pages of each of four Sunday papers of Buf- falo. This number would have been somewhat smaller had he not included as separate words every form or variation of each word that occurred. The teachers in Boston^ working under the direction of Mr. Ballou found 840 words that proved to be difficult for pupils to spell in their written work. These form the minimum list for the Boston schools. 2,542 additional words are used to form a supplementary list. In an extended investigation of the ' ' words actually used and missed by pupils ' ' in original compositions, the teachers of Kansas City, Mo.,° un- der the direction of Mr. Melcher found 1,926 words missed three times or more. This list has recently been increased to 3,262. Anderson'' in a recent study at the University of Iowa analyzed * Jones. Concrete Investlg'ation of the Material of English Spelling. W. F. Jones. Vf^rmilHon. S. D. ^ Ayres. Spelling- Vocabulary of Personal and Business Letters. 3 Cook fi: O'Shea. The Child and .His Spelling — Bobbs. Merrill Co., Indianapolis. * Eldridge. Six Thousand Common English Words — Niagara Falls, 1911. ° Boston. Spelling. Dept. of Educ. Investigation & Measurement, Bui. I & TV. « Kansas City. Preliminary Report of the Committee on Spelling, Re- search Bulletin, No. 2. 1916. Also final report of the Committee on spelling, 1917. (Unpublished.) '' Anderson, W. N. The determination of spelling vocabulary based upon written correspondence. Univ. of Iowa Doctor's Dissertation. 1917. 42 The Use of Some Standard Tests the written correspondence of persons over 18 years of age in SIX occupational groups. 3,723 letters were collected by pupils m 23 Iowa cities and villages. The letters represented 361,184 running wprds, but 77 different words made up one-half of the total number and 442 three-fourths of them. There were 9,223 different words in all, 3,217 of which were used only once. Mr. Anderson selected 3,105 words for his final list choosing those that occurred in three or more of the occupational groups and with a total frequency of five or more. Starch^ tabulated 1,000 running words from each of 40 contributors to current maga- zines. He found 5,903 different words, 1,783 of which occurred three or more times. Words appearing less than three times were not placed in the final list unless they occurred in the study of either Ayres, Jones, Eldridge or Cook and O'Shea at least three times and were found by another of them at least once. His final list contains 2,626 words. The results of all but the three last mentioned and of seven other lists have been summarized by Pryor.^ He finds only 1,309 words occurring in six or more of twelve lists. All of these studies emphasize the fact that the writing vocabularies are limited and nowhere nearly as comprehensive as the ordinary spelling text would have us believe. This makes it incumbent upon teachers to exercise caution in selecting the words to be taught as spelling. While several of the studies referred to above may be criticised on the ground that they omit some rather common words, it is probable that the needs of most children will be satisfied when they acquire a writing vocabulary of three to four thousand words. This does not mean that a child is to be taught to think entirely in terms of ideas that can be expressed by this number of words. A distinction must be made between teaching words to be spelled and teaching words for growth in vocabulary and in ideas. Many of the latter he will not need to learn to spell. He should be taught to spell those words which he is likely to use in writing. - An unpublished study of the vocabulary of current literary writers by Daniel Starch, University of Wisconsin. 8 Pryor. A sug-gested minimal spelling list. Sixteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part I, Public School Publishing- Company, Blooming-ton, 111., 1917. Spelling 43 The Methods Used in Teaching Spelling Undoubtedly one significant cause of poor spelling is poor teaching. It is the consensus of opinion of the supervisory staff of the State Department of Education, that spelling is one of the poorest taught subjects in the curriculum. The work of hundreds of teachers is observed in the classroom each year, but comparatively few teachers are found who teach spelling well. In fact it may be said that in a large percentage of the cases, spelling is not taught at all. The assignment of the lesson is frequently of this type: "Take the first column of words on page eighteen. ' ' After ten minutes permitted for study, a writ- ten test is given on the list of ten words. A pupil who has ten correct receives a mark of one hundred for the day, and one who misspells three words receives a mark of seventy. Here the lesson ends. The next day the same routine procedure is re- peated. This is not teaching, and no teacher should receive a salary for such gross incompetency. Some of the more successful teachers of spelling first of all exercise wisdom in selecting the material to be taught. Second, they attempt to adapt the material used to the needs of the indi- vidual children in the class. There is little merit in requiring a pupil to spend time in studying words which he already knows how to spell. To expect him to divide his time equally between each of the words in a spelling list is sheer waste of valuable time. His time should be spent upon those which he does not Imow, with the greater emphasis upon the more difficult of these words. The studies of Buckingham^ and Ayres^ have indicated clearly that words which might be regarded as equally difficult do not prove to be so. Teachers should seek to discover which are the truly difficult words. These will require greater effort and more drill for successful mastery. Tidyman in the issue of School and Society for June 30, 1917, gives a useful table for estimating the relative difficulty of words. In this table, reproduced in a modified form below, a word mis- spelled by 97% or more of the pupils in a grade is considered as having a difficulty of 10 for that grade. A word missed by 'Bucking-ham: SpeHing Ability; Its Measurement ajid Distribution, Teachers CoUege, N. Y. *Ayres: Measurement of Ability in Spelling-, Russell Sage Founda- tion, New York, 1915. 44 The Use of Some Standard Tests less than 5% in the third grade has a comparative difficulty of 2. Thus a word missed by nearly all in the third grade is ap- proximately 5 times as difficult (the ratio of 10 to 2) as one that nearly all can spell. In grades four and five the ratio would be 10 to 4, i. e. 214 times as difficult. Table 22. — A Table for Determining the Difficulty of Spelling words Per cent of incorrect spellings. Relative Difficulty Ill IV V VI VII VIII 100—97 10 10 10 10 10 10 96 89 9 8 9 8 9 8 9 8 9 9 9 88-73 9 72-51 7 7 7 8 8 8 50—29 6 6 7 7 7 7 28—13 5 5 6 6 6 7 12 5 4 2 4 4 5 4 5 5 6 5 6 4— 1 5 Successful teachers of spelling employ good teaching methods. They spend a greater proportion of the time set aside for spell- ing in the actual teaching of spelling and only a small part of the time in testing, i. e. in written spelling. Some test the work of an entire week at one time. Thus four periods are given to teaching and one to testing. This not only allows more time for teaching but affords better opportunity to discover whether a pupil has really mastered a word. Successful teachers see that impelling motives for wanting to learn how to spell are established. An appeal is made to the child's normal instincts and interests. His desire to learn how to spell may be influenced by his desire to excel in the spelling recitation or the spelling contest. It may be increased by a wholesome desire to be able to express himself more fully in his written work. He may be interested in improving his own ability to spell, particularly if he is taught to keep records which indicate the amount of his improvement over a given period of time. Good spelling teachers are careful to associate each new word with the child's previous experience so that the word becomes Spelling 45 full of meaning for him, and becomes a part of his writing vocabulary. They make use of each of the avenues of approach to children's intellects. Some children may learn to spell a word more easily through seeing it in written form, and attempting to recall the picture of it later. Others may benefit most through hearing it pronounced clearly and distinctly, while others again may grasp the sequence of the letters through pro- nouncing the word themselves. For still others, ease of learn- ing is facilitated by writing the word or tracing it. A successful teacher of spelling does not fail to take account of the fact that some parts of the word are much more diffi- cult to the child than others. She trains a pupil to analyze each word which proves troublesome, in order to discover the particular parts or combination of letters which present the diffi- culty. Some teachers when writing new words on the black- board indicate the difficult parts by colored crayons. The need of examining words for their difficult parts may be illustrated from a few test papers. The different frequencies of the several misspellings which occurred on these words serves to indicate that some parts of a word are much more difficult to master than others. The incorrect spellings by 258 eighth grade pupils on 10 selected words and the frequency of each misspelling are given in Table 23. Table 23. — Showing the Misspellings "by 258 Eighth Grade Pupils on Ten Selected Words and the Frequency of Each Misspelling earliest probley 3 divide be^rinning earlyest 17 probabUy 3 devide 18 beg-ining- 57 earlest 12 probable 2 devid begenning' 4 ealiest 2 probbably 2 devive beganlng 2 earlist 10 probely 2 divid beg-ianing 2 earlists 4 probibly 2 begening' earlelst propaly 2 responsible beginng earleast probabily responcible 13 beginnigin S earlyiest probabaly responsable 10 begning eariliest probabley responseable .5 hegglng earliest prohabyly respondsible 4 beggining' earilist probily responible 5 begaining earilistist probobly responable 2 begeaning eariest probbely responcibel dlfficnltr earlerest probabely responsuble dlficulty IS earlys probbubly responsble diffuculty 9 earlry probiablly responsibble diffaculty 7 erleast problably responsibly difflcullty 4 elarelest problay responciable diffculty 4 ealerist proberably proubably responsiable difucalty 3 probably responiable responisable difflculity difaculty 2 2 probaly 20 propably respondsable diffeculty 2 probly 17 propibly respounsiple difficult probbly probaUy 9 6 propley brobely respuancable diflcult difficultle 46 The Use of Some Standard Tests difficultly dificulity difficuily difficulting difflcality diffacullty diffaculity diffucalty diffucaly diffulty diffuclt diffculity difcolty defuclity deffeculty divaculty differculity finally finaly 43 finely 11 finnally 11 flnnaly 5 finialy 4 flnially 2 final flnily finealy finanlly finial respectfully respectfuly respectably respectifuly respectively respectually respectufuly respectifully respectally respectly respectibly rspecfuly respecfully respectufully respectully respectafully respecfuly respecufuly respicfully respectiful respectbly respectable respectably respectaly respectily respectiveally respectivaly nessaceray respeatfuly nessecry respacile nessecty reseptfuly nesesary receptfully nesecery repefully nesacesary refebling neseratory nesser necessary neccasary neccessary 14 neccisary nessary 10 neccecary nessesery 6 neccessary nessecery 4 4 neccary nececcary nessessary necesarry nescessary 4 necacery nessisary 3 necessisary nessasary 3 necessarily neccesary 3 neceessary nesscary 2 necceary nesseccary 2 neasary neseccary 2 nesessary 2 receive nesscessary 2 recieve 54 necssary 2 recive 5 nessesary recieved 2 nessacary recived nessicary recivice nessacery receieve In the word earliest the most frequent misspelling occurs in the letters lie. The ear and st are much oftener correct. Incor- rect pronunciation seems to account for such misspelling of probably as probaly given twenty times and probly fifteen times. Of the 51 children who misspelled responsible, 42 did so on the letters si; 16 used c instead of s. The parts respon and ble were usually correct. Beginning illustrates the difficulty of the double consonant. 67 of the 73 pupils who spelled the word incorrectly neglected to double the n. In difficulty incorrect vowels, and neglecting to double the / account for the principal missf)ellings. In finally most children who erred knew the first three and the last two letters but they did not know what comes in between. They doubled the n or did not double the I or they had difficulty with the vowel a. One source of error on respect- fully is in the double Z but another is undoubtedly due to not knowing the pronunciation of the word. Substitutions of s for c or vice versa and double consonants appear to be the most fre- quent causes of incorrect spelling on necessary. The chief difficulty in divide is in the first vowel given as e. Another error comes through the silent letter. Receive was most often misspelled as recieve. Familiarity with the rule that e precedes I after c would help these childern. This study of incorrect spellings indicates very clearly that not the entire word but distinct parts of it cause misspellings. Spelling • 47 Very rarely does the beginning and the end of a word offer difficulties. The difficulty may arise from double consonants, obscure or silent letters, pronunciation, vowels or consonants pronounced alike. Another cause of misspelling not illustrated by these words is that of homonyms. In addition to the points already indicated in good teaching of spelling, it should be noted that many successful teachers do not expect to teach children all the words they will ever use. They train the pupils to use the dictionary when uncertain as to the spelling of a word. They acquaint pupils with a very few of the simplest rules. Conclusions 1. The schools of each class represented, fail to reach the ex- pected spelling average in any grade. 2. There is a wide range in the average scores made, indicat- ing that results are much more satisfactory in some schools than in others. 3. There is a wide range in the spelling abilities shown by pupils nominally classed as being of the same grade. In nearly every grade there are some children who failed entirely. There are others in every grade who made perfect scores. Being in a grade apparently means little as far as spelling is concerned. 4. Among high schools and cities there are few schools that attain expected average standings in any grade, even when due allowance is made for the time of the year when the test was j)iven. Comparatively few reach the expected average in any grade. 5. There is a wide difference in the time allotted upon the Aveekly program to spelling. The time most commonly allotted in each class of schools is : rural 50 minutes ; state graded 75 minutes ; high schools and cities, 75 minutes. 6. Schools vary widely in the number of new words which they attempt to teach per week. The median numbers in rural and state graded schools are higher than in high schools and cities. The median numbers for the various grades vary in rural schools from 5 in the third grade to 10 in the eighth, in state graded schools from 6 in the third to 10 in the eighth, and in high schools and cities from 4 in the third to 7 in the eighth. 48 The Use of Some Standard Tests 7. The principal sources of words used are the reading text and the spelling text. 8. Among the apparent causes of poor results in spelling are : a. The attempt to teach a large number of new words each day rather than a few words well. b. The selection of words largely from the reading and spelling texts, and with little regard for pupils' need of knowing how to spell them. e. Improper grading of the children. d. Inefficient teaching of spelling, including : (1) A disregard for differences in the individual needs and the ease with which children may be taught. (2) A cHsregard for differences in the difficulty of the words taught. (3) A disresrard for differences in the difficulty of the different parts of a word. (4) An entire absence of actual teaching in many cases. (5) A poor command of the technique of the teaching process. e. Failure to teach spelling as a regular subject. Recommendations 1. That the time devoted to spelling, including both study and recitation, be 15 minutes per day in all grades above the second. 2. That teachers attempt, through the direct teaching of spell- ing, to equip children with a vocabulary of 3,000 to 4,000 com- mon words. Not more than four new words should be taught daily. 3. That in selecting the words to be taught, the more scientific studies of spelling vocabulary be freely consulted. 4. That the reading text be rarely used as a source of words to be taught for spelling, and that only such spelling textbooks be used as are based upon scientific inquiry as to the words which children need to learn how to spell. 5. That teachers require each pupil to keep an individual list of the common words which he misspells in written work, and that this means be used to discover the individual needs of each child. Spelling 49 6. That the results of studies in the relative difficulty of words be freely consulted in order to determine more fully the relative teaching efforts to be devoted to different words. 7. That wherever feasible, pupils be grouped for the purpose of spelling with others of somewhere near their own ability, irre- spective of the normal grade in which they may belong. 8. That in the teaching of spelling, modern methods of pre- sentation be used, a. First of all, care should be exercised to develop im- pelling motives within the pupils for wanting to know how to spell, e. g. those produced by such factors as interest in improvement, rivalry, and the desire to express one's self more fully. b. Second, each new word should be carefully associated with the child's own experience so that he may understand its uses. c. Third, each of the known avenues of approach should be utilized. Appeals should be made through the eye. the ear, the vocal cords, and the hand. d. Fourth, pupils should be taught the habit of analyz- ing a word for its difficult parts and to concentrate upon the particular syllables, or letter combina- tions, which make the word difficult. Some Suggested References The Words To Teach Anderson, W. N. The Determination of a Spelling Tocatulary Based Upon Written Correspondence. University of Iowa, Department of Education, Doctor's Dissertation. Contains in addition a brief re- view of all important previous studies of spelling vocabularies. Ayres, Leonard P. Measuring Scale for AMlity in Spelling. Russell Sage Foundation, Division of Education, N. Y. Contains 1,000 common words. Boston, Department of Educational Investigation and Measurement Bulletin No. I or No. IV, Spelling. Contains minimum and sup- lementary lists. Cook & O'Shea. The Child and His Spelling. Bobbs Merrill Co., N. Y. Contains a list of words used in family correspondence. Eldridge, R. C. Six Thousand Common English Words. R. C. Eld- ridge, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Johnstown, Pa. List of Words Selected by the Teachers of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Contains words used in daily lessons. Jones, F. W. Concrete Investigation of the Material of English Spell- ing. Vermillion, S. D. Contains words found in written themes. Kansas City, Mo. Preliminary Report of the Committee on Spelling. Research Bulletin No. 2. Contains words which children use and misspell in original compositions. See also mimeographed final . report of the committee. 50 The Use of Some Standard Tests Pryor, H. C A Suggested Minimal Spelling List in Sixteenth Year Book, National Society for the Study of Eduoaiion. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. Starch, Daniel. List of words derived from literary productions, Sil- ver Burdett & Co. (in press) Determining the Difficulty of Words Ayres, L. P. Measuring Scale for Ability in Spelling. Russell Sage Foundation, N. Y. Boston, Department of Educational Investigation and Measurement Bulletin No. IV. Spelling, Determining the Difficulty of Spelling Words. Buckingham, B. R. Spelling Ability: Its Measurement and Diairibu- tion. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, N. Y. Methods of Teaching Spelling Boston, Department of Educational Investigation and Measurement. Bulletin No. XI. The Teaching of Spelling. Buckingham, B. R. Spelling. This is Chapter III in Teaching Ele- mentary School Subjects, by Rapeer and Others. Published by Scribners. Charters, W. W. Teaching the Common Branches, Chapter I. Hough- ton Mifflin Co. Cook & O'Shea. The Child and His Spelling. Bobbs Merrill Co. Janesville, An Educational Survey of. See Chapters VIII and XIII. State Department of Public Instruction, Madison, Wisconsin. Suzzallo and Pearson. Comparative Experimental Teaching in Spell- ing, Teachers College Record, Nov. 1911. Suzzallo, Henry. The Teaching of Spelling. Houghton Mifflin Co. Wisconsin Manual of the Elementary Course of Study, Spelling. De- partment of Public Instruction, Madison, Wisconsin. CHAPTER II ARITHMETIC Arithmetic is a "tool" subject. For that reason if for no other it should be taught in the most economical manner possible. It is not uncommon for schools to devote as much as one-sixth of the entire school time of the elementary grades to the subject of arithmetic. The wisdom of such a profuse time allotment is questioned by school men and women. Their questions are mainly three : ( 1 ) ' ' Is it necessary that the course of study in- clude as much arithmetic as it now does?" (2) "Is this gen- erous time allotment rewarded by a corresponding success in arithmetical achievements of the children?", and (3) "Is so much time required to attain such success ? ' ' The first of these questions has been propounded for some years and is resulting in the elimination of some subject matter regarded as nonprac- tical. Careful students predict a much greater elimination than has yet taken place. How far this can be carried is yet to be de- termined by experimentation. The standard tests given in Wis- consin schools in 1916-17 have among other things attempted to answer in part the second of these questions. The data gath- ered in answer to question two serves to throw some light on question three. In measuring success in arithmetical achievement certain standardized tests have gained rather wide usage. For measur- ing the work in fundamental operations at least two series of tests are in common use. These are the Courtis and the "Woody tests. For measuring success in reasoning problems a number of tests have been devised, the best known being the Stone test. The Courtis tests consist of a series of relatively simple examples in the four fundamental operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. With these tests successful achieve- ment is measured by the speed with which the examples are 52 The Use of Some Standard Tests solved. The number of "Wisconsin schools reporting their re- sults on the Courtis tests in 1916-17 was not sufficient to war- rant us in discussing the results at this time. The Woody tests in the fundamentals consist of a series of four tests, one for each of the fundamental operations. The ex- amples in these tests are so selected as to include a variety of types from very simple to relatively difficult examples. Achieve- ment on the "Woody tests may be measured by the difficulty of the examples which a given class can solve, or by the number of examples solved. The latter gives a fairly accurate indication of the difficulty of the examples which the class can solve. The nature of these tests may be judged more fully from the repro- duction of the test in multiplication which follows. Multiplication (1) 3X7 = (2) 5X1 = 2 (3) X 3 = 4 (4) X 8 = (5) 23 3 (6) (7) •SIO 7X9 = 4 50 3 (9) 254 6 (10) 623 7 (11) 103H 8 (12) 5096 6 (13) 8754 8 (14) (15) 165 235 40 23 (16) 7898 9 (17) 145 206 (18) 24 234 (19) 9.6 4 (20) 287 .05 (21) 24 24 (22) 8 X 5i = (23) li X 8 = (24) 16 2* (2^) J X i = (2fi) 9742 59 (27) 6.25 3.2 (28) .0123 9.8 (29) 4X2 = (30) 2.49 36 (81) 12 15 25 32 ~ = (32) 6 dollars 49 . 8 jents (33) 24 X 34 (34) = 4X4 = 987i 25 (86) 3 ft. 5 in 5 2i (37) X 4i X li = (38) .09634 .084 (3§) 8 ft. 94 in. 9 The Achievements of "Wisconsin Children on the Woody Tests Fifteen cities reported their results in addition; sixteen in subtraction; fifteen in multiplication and seventeen in division. In some cities each of the four tests were given and in others only one or two. The returns represent twenty-one cities in all. The writer directed and assisted superintendents and principals in the giving of the tests in all but three of these cities. In these three cities the tests were given by principals or superintend- Arithmetic 53 ents after a conference with the writer in which the details of giving and scoring were discussed. The test sheets were cor- rected by the teachers who were provided with a set of answers. They were instructed to check the papers a second time. In a lew cities the papers were examined by a second person. This should have been done in all. However, in a number of schools a casual examination of papers to detect inaccuracies in scoring seemed to indicate that errors of this sort approximately bal- anced each other, i. e., as many were scored too low as too high.' It is possible that in some schools the rating of papers by teach- ers has resulted in scores that are too high. The distribution of the scores on the test for each fundamental operation is shown in the tables following. These tables indi- cate the number of children in each grade solving each of the possible numbers correctly, e. g. The distribution for the ad- dition test reads as follows : In grade three, five pupils had none correct, seven had one correct, four had two correct, etc. In grade four two pupils had four correct, one had five correct, etc. The total number of pupils tested in each grade, the median scores and Woody 's standard median scores are shown at the foot of each table. ^ There are those who would have all papers corrected by disinterested parties but in that case much of the benefit to be derived from a test is lost to the teacher who has little opportunity to discover the peculiar weaknesses of the children in her class. The best results will be had where careful directions are given to the teacher who scores the papers for her own room, and where all papers are carefully rechecked by a single person. 54 The Use of Some Standard Tests Table 24. — Distribution of Scores in Wood'!/ Arithmetic Test Series A. According to Number of Examples Correct Addition Subtraction No. No. problems Ill IV V VI VII VIII problems Ill IV V VI Vli VIII correct correct Q 5 7 4 7 9 17 17 20 24 45 67 81 114 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 8 28 27 16 7 12 15 31 42 62 99 134 109 3 10 5 6 6 9 8 10 14 18 29 35 50 1 3 2 1 1 2 3 2 1 2 1 5 6 2 2 2 ""a 6 8 2 1 1 1 3 4 7 1 1 2 5 11 9 14 1 8 Q 2 2 3 4 10 1 1 4 1 n 12 3 1 1 13 92 18 8 1 1 13 149 52 19 3 1 14 98 98 42 64 10 21 14 15 110 107 73 92 20 38 9 12 1 4 2 15 ■ 1 1 16 118 88 37 4 3 2 16 90 111 36 6 2 17 96 115 35 12 1 17 82 111 87 26 3 4 18 91 134 66 10 3 18 43 123 103 30 8 1 19 93 126 79 33 5 5 19 44 156 127 67 10 6 20 86 143 109 S3 8 1 20 26 148 184 58 21 13 21 54 170 141 44 15 8 21 22 118 154 63 22 11 22 42 124 132 64 25 9 22 3 56 130 73 32 23 23 20 101 126 79 18 16 23 2 37 119 97 52 23 21 4 67 87 96 37 19 24 1 23 60 103 52 29 25 5 39 68 88 34 30 25 6 40 107 69 28 26 1 21 73 76 44 32 26 5 28 105 92 54 27 9 44 86 61 43 27 1 19 99 98 69 28 9 11 1 49 29 31 84 101 93 77 68 89 51 46 66 28 29 30 15 7 3 98 99 69 91 83 83 81 29 92 30 2 92 31 4 26 99 108 93 31 1 33 92 SS 32 22 76 123 126 32 1 38 75 94 33 11 81 108 111 33 25 60 83 34 1 5 67 102 110 34 1 18 43 82 35 5 3 1 51 24 21 6 109 81 38 21 1 130 111 70 35 35 5 22 5i 36 37 38 39 Total 1,315 1,332 1,230 1,333 1,178 1,116 Total Median . . . 1,269 1,317 1,227 1,256 1,020 935 Median ... 15.5 20.2 22.7 28.4 31.9 33.1 13.3 18.1 20.8 25.6 28.4 30.3 Woody's Woody's Standard Standard Median... 14.5 18.3 23.1 29.8 32.4 34.0 Median... 11.2 15.7 20.4 25.0 28.5 31. T Arithmetic 55 Table 25.— Distribution of Scores in Woody Arithmetic Test Series A: According to Number of Examples Correct Multiplication Division No. No. problems Ill IV V . VI VII VIII problems Ill IV V VI VII VIII correct correct 57 ?fc 44 88 87 80 79 80 64 1 2 3 4 5 18 23 32 27 29 44 38 11 8 8 20 17 21 37 1 1 2 3 5 8 18 31 31 49 1 1 3 3 9 3 1 1 7 6 4 5 1 5 6 2 1 7 8 45 45 46 78 10 20 1 4 8 2 2 1 1 9 10 58 35 40 57 9 11 2 3 9 10 51 42 101 148 32 35 4 10 2 11 50 37 69 ?3 11 20 2 2 11 12 31 99 145 179 40 74 11 15 1 5 i 12 1 1 1 13 24 70 42 4 2 1 13 14 154 82 15 3 2 14 23 97 41 11 1 1 14 9 141 78 27 6 1 15 15 93 72 13 4 1 15 3 118 91 27 11 5 16 14 100 83 11 2 16 3 104 88 31 8 3 17 13 99 110 22 3 i 17 4 93 98 52 16 6 18 95 148 35 4 2 18 84 109 51 16 7 19 8 64 129 37 4 2 19 55 116 54 26 22 20 2 53 133 50 1 3 20 51 134 79 37 21 21 5 32 102 58 14 5 21 47 104 79 43 22 22 1 18 74 45 13 8 22 46 102 105 47 30 23 17 52 54 21 13 23 31 IM 111 75 34 24 10 32 73 28 5 24 23 80 122 93 41 25 6 28 77 30 14 25 17 61 115 93 63 26 2 22 82 49 15 26 3 70 128 101 72 27 3 17 86 63 40 27 2 38 118 113 90 28 8 9 103 83 72 86 41 58 28 29 1 1 28 22 94 95 135 110 108 •Ay 1 131 30 4 2 3 1 1 75 84 58 49 43 22 15 9 7 1 G5 91 88 85 79 67 33 25 14 6 63 73 91 94 10 J 89 72 51 42 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Total Median . . . 16 15 12 4 5 2 2 88 61 44 40 28 14 6 138 100 104 93 66 48 23 117 31 141 32 100 33 111 34 85 35 69 36 42 37 38 S() 1 Total 907 l,i54 1,188 1,220 989 919 480 1,790 1,692 1,631 1,514 1,326 Median ... 6.8 15.2 It'. 2 27.3 30.9 33.2 7.6 13.5 19.6 25.1 28.4 30.0 Woody's Woody's Standard Standard Metlian. .. 4.7 n.i 18.3 26.1 30.6 32.9 Median... 5.8 9.9 16.5 23.8 27.4 30.1 Variation Within Grades. Are All Children of a Grade EqvMly Equipped? Were one to judge the ability of Wisconsin children in the lundamental operations by the best performers in each grade he would be forced to conclude that their work is excellent. On the other hand were he to judge by the work of those who made the poorest records he would class the work as very poor. The 56 The Vse of Some Standard Tests difference between the best and poorest in each grade for each of the four tests is very marked. Apparently some children are much too good for the grade and others, either as a result of poor teaching, poor grading, poor attendance, or otherwise, are far below average children for their grade. The best pupils often solved several times as many examples as the poorest. In no case did they fail to solve more than twice as many on any test. When we consider only the middle 50 per cent of the group, the range is still large as may be seen from Table 26. Table 26. — Range of Scores Made by Middle 50% of Pupils in Each Grade Ill IV V VI VII ■VIII Addition 12.2- 18.7 10.7- 16.0 4.0- 10.2 4.7- 10.2 17.7- 22.4 15.0- 20.5 11.7- 18.1 10.7- 17.1 20.4- 25.9 18.7- 22.9 16. n- 21.6 15.4- 2S.3 24.5- 31.9 22.4- 28.7 23.1- 30.8 21.3- 28.7 28.7- 34.6 25.6- 31.4 28.0- 33.7 24.9- 31.6 30.2- Subtraction 3b. 5 27. &- Multiplication 32.8 30.3- Division 35.6 27.0- 32.8 When we consider that one-fourth of the pupils in each grade made scores still lower than the lower figures of Table 26, and that another fourth made scores above the higher figures in each case, the variation among children of the same grade in ability to perform the fundamental operations appears very striking. Yet the children in any given grade were classed by their teach- ers as belonging in that grade. Apparently the best judgment was not used in grading many of these children. Some of them are capable of doing more difficult work while others are at- tempting work that is now beyond them. The latter especially would profit from a careful study of individual needs by teach- ers. In such a study teachers should encourage pupils to find the peculiar processes which each has failed to master. That many children in each grade are no better equipped in ability to perform the fundamental operations than others in grades below, or that some in each grade are far in advance of others in grades above may be seen more clearly from the sec- tion on "Overlapping" following — "Overlapping" being the technical term for this condition. Arithmetic 57 The Overlapping of Performances from Grade to Grade ' ' Overlapping ' ' is serious only when it is marked. Poor grad- ing of children on the basis of their ability to do the work of the grade is perhaps its most direct cause. This failure to grade according to abilities, or needs, is due to the failure of teachers to recognize differences among children and to certain adminis- trative difficulties, in part real and in part fancied. By reference to the Tables 24, and 25, showing the distribution of the scores made on each test it will be seen that there was a decided overlapping of scores for each test. Some third grade pupils did much better than the poorest eighth graders. The presence of overlapping may be seen more clearly from Table 27, showing the scores attained by various proportions of each grade. Table 27. — The Scores Attained by Various Proportions of the Pupils in Each Grade *rh« term "lower 10 percentile" refers to the score which just 10 % of the group failed to reach and which 90^^ exceeded. The 'Mipper 10 percentile' refers to the score which 10% exceeded and which 90 ^o failed to reach. In the sixth grade the upper 10% not only surpassed the median of eighth grade children on each of the four tests bul 58 The Use of Some Standard Tests they exceeded Woody 's standard for the eighth grade on all ex- cept subtraction. We are inclined to ask whether all children in the seventh and eighth grades should not be expected to do as well as the best 10% of the sixth. If the performances of these sixth grade children represent what can be accomplished with good teaching in the sixth grade then the seventh and eighth grades appear to have done little more than mark time. Undoubtedly, much of the teaching effort during the years that have preceded has been squandered. With improved teaching methods and better adaptation of the subject matter to individ- ual needs, at least 90% of the seventh and eighth grades ought to do as well as the best tenth of the sixth grade. In fact there should be little need for teaching the fundamentals of arithmetic in these grades, for if 10% of the sixth grade were able to reach their present standing, a much larger portion of that grade should be able to do so. with good teaching. Certainly there should be no excuse for such a poor showing as was made by the lower tenth of the eighth grade. Only in multiplication did they do as well as the best tenth of the fifth grade, and only in multiplication did they score above either the sixth grade me- dian, or above Woody 's sixth grade standard. The amount of overlapping in upper grades is on the whole greater than. in lower grades. This is accounted for in part by the fact that less emphasis is placed upon the teaching of the fundamental operations in the upper grades and in part by the fact that the examples on the tests were arranged in the form of a graded series. The graded series comes about through the ar- rangement of the examples in order of increasing difficulty. The proportionate increase in difficulty from one example to the next for the simpler examples in the forepart of the tests is greater than in the later and more difficult parts.^ An examination of the figures of Table 27, reveals the fact that with only two exceptions the upper 25% of each grade ex- ceeded the performances of the lower 25% of the next higher grade on each of the four tests. The two exceptions occur in the third and fifth grades on the test in multiplication. With few exceptions the best 10% of each grade did better than the me- ^See Woody's Monograph: "Measure.ments of Some Achievements in Arithmetic," p. 17. - ' - Arithmetic 59 dian of the next higher grade and better than the poorest tenth two grades above. The only exceptions to the former were in the third grade in multiplication and division, and the fifth grade in subtraction and multiplication. The exceptions to the latter were in multiplication for the third and fifth grades. Seemingly the best 25% of the children in each grade would be better equipped to do the arithmetic work of the next higher grade than 25% of the children now in these higher grades. It is highly probable that the upper 10% of each grade are better prepared than a large proportion of the next higher. Now it should be observed that we do not know whether the same individuals who are among the highest in one of the four fundamentals are also among the highest in the others. This is a matter which principals and teachers should investigate. The tests give indication that some of the pupils in each grade possess superior arithmetical ability. If it is found that certain pupils are superior in all of the fundamentals it would be well to find out what they can do on a test in reasoning problems. If they prove superior also in this phase of arithmetic, the probabilities are high that they are ready for promotion in arithmetic at least. Failure to maintain a high relative standing in reasoning abil- ity may indicate that for some pupils less time should be devoted to drill in the fundamentals and more to drill in reasoning. In the case of pupils who are strong in one or more of the funda- mental operations and not in the others specialized or individual drill may be highly profitable. Drill upon the particular oper- ations in which they reveal a weakness should be given. The Median Scores — How Well Do Wisconsin Children Perform in the Fundamental Operations? Table 28 is arranged to show median scores for all Wisconsin children tested and Woody 's standard. The medians when omitting the records of cities having only annual promotions tested late in the year, are also shown. In the latter one city is omitted for addition, two for subtraction and three each for multiplication and division. 60 The Use of Some Standard Tests Table 28 Median Scores for all Gitiea and When Omitting Cities Having Annual Promotions Tested in April and May Ill IV V VI VII VIII Addition Woody 's Standard Median Median for all cities a^ ... Median for cities b 14.5 15.5 15.1 11.2 13.3 13.6 4.7 6.8 6.2 5.8 7.6 18.3 20.2 20. 15.7 18.1 17.9 11.1 15.2 14.9 9.9 13.5 12.4 23.1 22.7 22.5 20.4 20,8 20.6 18.3 19.2 19. 16.5 19.6 18. 29.8 28.4 28.2 25. 25.6 25.3 26.1 27.3 27.2 23.8 25.1 24.2 32.4 81.9 31.8 28.5 28.4 27,9. 30.6 30.9 30.7 27.4 28.4 27.7 34. 33.1 33. Subtraction Woody's Standard Median. Median for all cities a Median for cities ib Multiplication Woody's Standard Median. Median for all cities a 31.7 30.3 30.1 32.9 83.2 32.9 Division Woody's Standard Median. Median for all cities a Median for cities b 30.1 30. 29.3 ' a includes all cities, b omits cities having only annual promotions, tested in April and May Wisconsin children perform well on the fundamental opera- tions in grades three, four and five. Their proficiency in the three remaining grades is not so evident, particularly when an- nual promotion schools tested in April and May are omitted. The best showing in the three upper grades is made in multipli- cation and the poorest in addition. Variation by Cities Table 29 gives the record in median scores for each city on each test given in that city. The median scores for all cities combined and Woody's standards are inserted for comparison. The records for the different cities are arranged approximately in order of the portion of the work for the grade completed at the time of the test. Arithmetic 61 1 ! OOlfllftct>«DOOt~«0 • oi OJ ■00 «S ; IM CO ■ © cot- ^ t~ -W 00 to • (M "* to '• i^feS : • t-US ■<»< O IN CO '■a. •* lO -* -* : "? •00 to o lo in t> O 5^1 rH O C» rH Ci M • •lOlH i-os t-^co • © IM 00 •* MMCOMiniOT-IO '• toj-^coodododooo • V5 -* 05 f^oo'i-^ 00 ON c^ oj ci oj oo' CO M 1— ( t- OS 00 CO O r^ M OT Tji l-H in • T ■o -* to • -H CO l>i .' t-OO ©IN odt-^«4iN © IH CON Co' iH T-t 1~i -a -a < 1— < l-H 05©tD^50o■J^ t-<(MrH'rt1 |e^ rHIft • CO CO (N ; CO CO CO 0000 l-H © CO CO CO CO ^ eoec ■*©«)t~eoo(MosoocooOQO to 00 -*oo 00 05 IM IM > 1-IC0O5C0O1C0COU5 c^o moot---* ■ cJt-It-^r-i 1-H iHl-lS • ^-t-Ht^ooioinuio 00 t- 53 Si IM CO h-t ■*t-{Oioi>mo(MQO 1 to-*io • to •* N • rH i-H i-H © U5 in SI'S CO o ^ to (N t~ «i SrSrift ?rS'oooo o"c5"^ o o o « « r 5aa ■>o H c tc i5 s o> g 62 The Use of Some Standard Tests o OS O «1> • SjOO l> lO N t- *J • (N CO ■* • ooo OiH gggS : SSS5?5SSS^ : 00 CO OS ■ rH CM CM CM M • CO CO 8^ OO O 5^ lO • C^QOCOrHlOOW • t- mm • • US CM ^ ■* ,-iOOO^(Ml>OlC« ■ COCM(NCMO^CN(NC5 tX CO O • OS 1-1 00 t~ (>] CJ>-^lO00C0pr-» {MT-ICN(Mi-tCM(MC ^ ; SO o US 00 t- ■ c 00 ';- j 50 00 t-^ lO 00 OS COCO ^©.-1 : • ■* t- • o • • '• OS 00 li^ O OrH • t CO -# 1 -* • • : iH*5 03 to ggg§ • FSfe^ : :gS :?? : : • Os^ • cq CO gg S OsiOiMiO'-l'J'tC'M • CO CO lO • IlO • lA • us to COt^ 1 «o o> i> 00 i^ 00 00 00 • (M (^.l CO (N CM eO rH OJ ; M w w • ^^ * tQ :^g i~ to Pi ■■3 00-^OOOOC5C3rHOl • • (M -rt* 'in 'in • • CM CM CO s Oj.-'00000OdD5O00 • :SS :§3 :8 : :S OS 00 1> •* t> CV5 ^QOOOOO • lO '^ lO 'US ■ • • N CO IN i-( . i> CM m • 00 ® in • o • • :3g USt-I 1-- ■ CO CM ■ cc O m ■ • r-l 00 •cq CO • flOt- C-1 •TUtO • as 00 00 US t- • >-i in • rH .-1 to ^ pqffl mfq mm wrt M fq pq =3 =3 n n fQ pq J8 =8 t>t'CDl>t-l>t-l>l>t^I:-t*' - i-HiHt— IrHrHi— It— tiHr-fiHrHi— irHi—irHi— IrHi— t ^^ "* 03 CO o'5r$'S5't^5"» N iftt^Jooo ■* oo £3 ■*! «> s 5 o'o'o'frrS'rH sf^inSfsOiM C<5mifl'*«050l*ll s a 03 a >. H»5Ml^l«5Dl:-ODOSOjHNM^ig*^OP»g] ^ 1§ 1 ^ : 1 Arithmetic 63 Table 30 gives the number of cities that equalled or exceeded Woody 's standard and the number below for each grade and test. Table 30. — The Number of Cities Equalling or Exceeding Woody' s Standard and Number Below Addition Number eauallingr or exceeding Woody's Standard Number below Woody's Standard Subtraction Number eaualling: or exceeding Woody's Standard Number below Woody's Standard multiplication Number eijualling or exceediDg Woody's Standard Number below Woody's Standard Division Number eauallingr or exceeding Woody'.s Standard Number below Woody's Standard III IV V VI VII 7 11 7 3 3 6 3 7 12 12 12 14 9 10 6 3 2 5 4 6 8 12 12 12 5 2 1 1 3 7 3 13 11 10 10 2 2 3 6 7 VIII The results in addition As indicated previously many Wisconsin schools appear to be weak in addition in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Only two cities make a good showing in all three of these grades. The larger of the two is a school having semiannual promotions tested very shortly after mid-year promotions. Addition ap- pears to be well taught in this city. The other of these cities has only annual promotions. The tests were given late in the year and pupils should be expected to exceed the standard set. In grades three, four and five one-half or more of the schools represented exceeded the standard set. Drill in addition does not appear to be neglected in these grades. Giving the tests in a city late in the year is not necessarily a guarantee that such a school will exceed the standard in addition. Some schools tested late in the year did little if any better than others tested early in the year. The results in suhtraction In subtraction again few cities are below Woody's standard in the third and fourth grades. Approximately two-thirds are 64 The Use of Some Standard Tests above in grades five and six. Half are above in grade seven, and only three out of thirteen in grade eight. The grammar grades again appear to be the weakest links in the chain. The results in multiplication Wisconsin schools make their best showing in multiplication. In the fourth and fifth grades only one city is below standard. Two are below in the third and three in the sixth. In the sev- enth five are above the standard and seven below. In the eighth these figures are reversed. The results in division The lower grades in most cities made a good showing in divi- sion. For obvious reasons few gave the test in grade three. In grade four only two are below standard. In grade five eleven of the fourteen cities did better than the expected standard. In the fifth and sixth grades many more are above than below, but not so in the eighth grade. Here only five of the seventeen cities reached Woody 's standard. Why do Wisconsin Schools Apparently do Well in the Work in Fundamental Operations in the Lower Grades and Fail in the Upper? This is one of the most perplexing problems raised by the tests. Several factors may be involved. For one thing the teachers in the earlier grades clearly do not underemphasize drill. Then too Woody 's standards for these grades may be somewhat low. The same can scarcely be said of the standards in upper grades. In view of the types and number of examples on each test, the upper grade standards do not seem high. The addition test contains 38 examples, the subtraction 35, the multi- plication 39, and the division 36. This means that an eighth grade pupil might fail on four examples in addition and still do as w^ell as Woody 's standard. He might fail on three examples in subtraction, six in multiplication and five in division and yet be regarded as better than a median pupil. This is certainly a liberal allowance, particularly when we consider that the tests call for the application of no processes commonly introduced later than grade six. Only failures in denominate numbers Arithmetic 65 may be attributed somewhat to the courses of study. The Wis- consin Manual for rural schools, followed in part by some cities, discourages the teaching of these processes. What then accounts for the mediocre showing of the grammar grades? Simply a lack of sufficient facility in the manipulation of the necessary processes. Arithmetic is not wisely taught in these grades. Too little attention is given to the discovery of the specific needs of individual children upon which they need to be drilled. This may be seen better from a few typical illustrations. Table 31 from tlie Janesville Survey gives the average eighth grade scores for each of five buildings on each of ten examples of the division test. The writer's observation of results on these examples in other schools has convinced him that Janesville did neither worse nor better than the average. Table 21.— Ten Troublesome Examples in Grat le VIII Per cent of pupils wlio solved each of ten examples correctly— for the city and b.v buildings Example City 71.9 67.6 77.7 53.2 33.8 51.1 33.8 45.3 28.1 18. 139 Buildings 1 2 3 4 5 2 -i- 2 — 64.5 61.3 74.2 35.5 35.5 48.4 38.7 38.7 25.8 35.5 31 61.1 66.7 77.8 55.6 5.6 27.8 16.7 61.1 33.3 5.6 18 89.7 65.5 79.3 65.5 34.4 51.7 34.5 41.4 27.6 3.5 29 71.4 75. 82.1 46.4 42.9 64.3 32.1 57.1 32.1 25. 28 69.7 2.1)25.2 69.7 25)9750 75.8 .003). 0936 72.7 3i H- 9 — 39.3 i ^ 5 — 54.5 6/4 ^ ^'5— 39.4 52)3756 36.3 531)37722 24.2 9) 69 lbs 9 oz 15. No.pupils taking test 33 Such extremely low scores are typical of many schools and can only be explained on the ground of insufficient teacliing. An analysis of 1500 errors made by 182 seventh and eighth grade pupils on the division test showed that even though the test of- fered many more opportunities for errors in simple subtraction, Inultiplication and division such matters as failures to invert, 66 The Use of Some Standard Tests incorrect placing of the decimal, omisson of ciphers in the quo- tient, and failure to reduce answers to lowest terms were among the most frequent sources of error. ■How can teachers improve the ability of pupils in funda- mental operations even though they may te doing as well as average children? This is a question to which teachers may be inclined to give little thought if their pupils are doing average work. Fre- quently, however, either still better results could be obtained, or results that are just as good, could be had in less time. In the latter event the best pupils could have more time for other subjects. Teachers should study the needs of indi- vidual children much more than they do. For example in one city a fifth grade of 41 children was 0.8 of an example above Woody 's standard on the test in subtraction, yet a study of the papers revealed the fact that one-half of the pupils had made errors in borrowing. Twenty-three pupils, while able to solve a number of examples in subtraction of fractions, failed to re- duce answers to lowest terms or did not reduce correctly. The statement of an answer as 2Vg=:i/4 was common. One pupil in this class solved all of the examples in subtraction of fractions and two of the three in subtraction of denominate numbers, but missed three in subtracting decimals of the equation form. This child apparently could profit more if permitted to take sixth grade work in arithmetic. Such class deficiencies as in- dicated above, or such unusual proficiency as that of this one pupil too often pass unnoticed when the class as a whole is doing as well as average children. Often it is not until we examine elosel}^ the work of each individual that we discover the particu- lar differences in the needs of the pupils of the same class. In a sixth grade of 33 pupils tested in subtraction, whose median score was more than three examples above Woody 's standard, 59 errors or almost two per pupil were in borrowing. These were contributed by 18 pupils. The errors were of two kinds, in one the pupil apparently disregarded the fact that he had previously borrowed, in the other he proceeded as though he had not borrowed when he really had. Eleven pupils made errors of the first sort and eleven made errors of the second sort, but strange as it may seem, seven of those making errors of the first kind made none of the second, and seven of those Arithmetic "' making the second type of error made none of the first sort. From this it would seem that drill in examples with borrowing is needed for this class but some of the pupils need to have their attention called to particular kinds of borrowing. One pupil, for example, made eight errors through disregarding the fact that he had borrowed, but none through subtracting as if he had borrowed when he had not, and another pupil made five errors of the latter sort but none of the former. In this same sixth grade 14 pupils gave 15% as the answer to 27 the example ^25/ Fifty errors were made because of failure to reduce, or incorrect reduction of the fractional part of the answer to lowest terms. These errors were contributed by 24 pupils. Fifty-nine errors by 26 of this class occurred in subtrac- tion of decimals of the equation type, that were due to incorrect placing of the subtrahend. In numerous instances minuend and subtrahend were interchanged. The class was clearly weak in this type of exercise. Twenty-six errors were made in funda- mental combinations, and an equal number in placing of the decimal point. Errors of the former kind were limited to 16 pupils and the latter to 17. The analysis of the errors made by these typical classes illus- trates a type of study which teachers should make frequently, but which they rarely do. Teachers would often be amazed at the peculiar mental processes of pupils, if they were to have them retrace audibly, each step of an incorrect solution. Were teachers to study the needs of their pupils in such manner as we have described, it would result in more intelligent drill exercises. A class which revealed weaknesses in subtraction or division would not be drilled blindly upon subtraction or division, but the major emphasis would be placed upon the particular sub- traction or division processes in which the class proved to be weak. Not only would there be a more careful selection of the type of exercise to be used for class drill, but a more intelligent direction of each individual pupil's energies. Such practice would either develop a greater degree of facility in manipulat- ing the fundamental operations than most children now possess, or equal facility would be acquired with a smaller time expendi- ture. 68 The Use of Some Standard Tests ; Summary and Conclusions Children in Wisconsin city schools perform well in the funda- mental operations of arithmetic in grades three, four and five. The best showing for all grades is made in multiplication and the poorest in addition. Many schools are particularly weak in addition in grades six, seven and eight. The eighth grade in most schools is not only weak in addition but in subtraction and division as well. The high scores made in the three lower grades indicate that a greater amount of attention is being given to arithmetic in these grades than is necessary. This becomes more evident than ever when we consider that this unusual pro- ficiency is lost in the upper grades. The tests indicate wide differences in the arithmetical achieve- ment among pupils of the same grade. The overlapping of per- formances from grade to grade is so great as to indicate that many upper grade children are doing little else than marking time. These wide variations and marked overlappings are to be attributed mainly to differences in the quality of the teach- ing, differences in native endowment, to improper grading and to unequal attendance. Some pupils apparently are attempt- ing work that is beyond them and others are being permitted to proceed at a pace altogether too slow to tax their capacities. Teachers will need to make more careful and intensive studies of individual needs in order to discover how to help each pupil to improve and to advance at a rate commenstirate with his abilities and needs. Some Suggested Eeferences Discussions on the Use of Tests in AritJimetic Anderson, C. J. The Use of the Woody Scale for Diagnostic Purposes. Elem. School Jour., June 1918. Asbaugh, E. J. The Arithmetical Skill of Iowa School Children. Univ. of Iowa Extension Bulletin, No. 24. Boston, Dept. of Educational Investigation and Measurement, Arith- metic Bulletins 7 and 10. Bush, Maybell G. The Fundamental Number Facts. School an4 So- ciety, Sept. 1, 1917. Chase, Sara E. Waste in Arithmetic. Teachers College Record, Sept. 1917. Cobb, Margaret V. A Preliminary Study of the Inheritance of Arith- metical Abilities. Jour, of Educational Psychology, Jan. 1917. Arithmetic 69 Counts, G. S. Arithmetic Tests and Studies in the Psychology of Arithmetic. Univ. of Chicago Supplementary Educational Mono- graphs, Vol. 1, No. 4. Courtis, S. A. The Reliability of Single Measurements with Standard Tests. Elem. Sch. Jour., Mar. and June 1913. Gist, A. S. Errors in the Fundamentals of Arithmetic. School and Society, Aug. 11, 1917. Haggerty, M. E. Indiana University Studies in Arithmetic. Nos. 27 and 32. Holloway, H. U. The Relative Difficulty of the Elementary Number Combinations. Univ. of Pa. Doctor's Dissertation, State Gazette Pub. Co., Printers, Trenton, N. J. Kirby, T. J. Practice in the Case of School Children. Bur. of Pub., Teachers College, N. Y. Monroe, W. S. A Report of the Use of the Courtis Standard Research Tests. Bur. of Educ. Measurements, State Normal School, Em- poria, Kan. Phelps, C. L. A Study of Errors in Tests of Adding Ability. Elem. Sch. Teacher, Sept. 1913. Smith, J. H. Individual Variations in Arithmetic. Elem. Sch. Jour., Nov. 1916. Stone, C. W. Standardized Rcusoninci tests in Arithm,etic and How to Utilize Them. Bur. of Pub., Teachers College, N. Y. Thorndike, E. L. Measurements of Ability to Solve Arithmetical Prob- lems. Ped. Sem., Dec. 1914. Uhl, W. L. The Use of Standardized Materials in Arithmetic for Diag- nosing Pupils' Methods of Work. Elem. Sch. Jour., Nov. 1917. Woody, C. Measurements of Some Achievements in Arithmetic. School and Society, Aug. 19, 1916. Woody, C. Measurements of Some Achievements in Arithmetic. Bur. of Pub., Teachers College, N. Y. See also various school survey reports: Butte, Cleveland, Denver, Grand Rapids, Janesville, Nassau Co. N. Y., Salt Lake, San Fran- cisco, St. Louis. Standard Tests in Arithmetic Fundiwiiental Operations Judd, C. H. Cleveland Survey Tests. Department of Education, Uni- versity of Chicago. Courtis, S. A. Courtis Standard Research Tests, Series B. 82 Eliot Street, Detroit, Mich. Kallom's Boston Tests in Addition of Fractions. Bulletin No. 7, De- partment of Educational Investigation & Measurement, Boston. Monroe's Diagnostic Tests. Bureau of Educ.Measurements, State Nor- mal School, Emporia, Kan. 'Woody's Arithmetic Scales, Series A. Bureau of Publications, Teach- ers College, N. Y. Reasoning Buckingham's Reasoning Tests. These will be found in the Survey of the Gary & Prevocational Schools, New York City Board of Edu- cation, or in the Third Conference on Educ. Measurements, Univ. of Indiana. Starch's Arithmetical Scale A. Daniel Starch, Univ. of Wisconsin. Stone's Reasoning Test (Original Series). ) Bur. of Publications, (Equivalent " ).f Teachers College, N. Y. 70 The Use of Some Standard fesis Methods of Teaching Arithmetic Brown & CofEman. How to Teach Arithmetic. Row, Peterson & Co. Charters, W. W. Teaching the Common Branches. Houghton Mifflin Co. Freeman, F. N. The Psychology of the Common Branches. Houghton Mifflin Co. Jessup & Coffman. The Supervision of Arithmetic. Macmillan Co. Jessup, W. A. Economy of Time in Arithmetic. . 14th Yearbook, Na- tional Society for Study of Education. Klapper, F. The Teaching of Arithmetic. D. Appleton & Co. Kendall & Mirick. How to Teach the Fundamental Su'bjects. Hough- ton Mifflin Co. McDougle, E. C. A Contribution to the Pedagogy of Arithmetic. Fed. Sem., June 1914. Smith, D. E. Arithmetic in Rapeer's book. Teaching Elementary School Su'bjects. Seribner's. Smith, D. E. The Teaching of Arithmetic. Ginn & Co. Suzzallo, H. The Teaching of Primary Arithmetic. Houghton Mifflin Co. CHAPTER III WRITING Handwriting, though one of the original "three R's, " is per- haps more often poorly tanght than any other subject. It is a subject which, under haphazard methods of teaching, yields per- haps less on the time and money invested in teacher service than any other subject, and one which brings a large return with good teaching. The fact that writing is often poorly taught is due not alone to a lack of knowledge of the technique of teaching others to write well but to an entire absence of standards. It is exceptional to find a teacher who has any definite conception of how well children of a given grade should write with a given amount of training. With the development of the Thorndike, Ayres and others handwriting scales it has become possible to measure handwriting objectively. It is now possible to say that a given specimen of handwriting is as good as quality 12 on the Thorndike scale or quality 60 on the Ayres scale and that it was produced at a rate of a certain number of letters per minute. Through the application of these scales it is possible to say that a given quality of handwriting represents average performance for a given grade or that it is better or worse than the average. It is also possible to measure the amount of improvement over a given period of time, or the variation within grades, as well as to compare achievement this year with achievement last year. In order that such data as these might be available for Wis- consin and in order to acquaint a larger number of teachers with methods of testing handwriting, instructions for giving a test and for scoring the papers were prepared. They were sent to each county superintendent, to principals of the County Train- ing Schools and to each of the Normal schools. County super- intendents were asked to give the test in five rural schools. Each training school was asked to test an equal number. Each nor- 72 The Use of Sojne Standard Tests mal school was asked to test three state graded schools. In ad- dition the test was given in a number of cities under the personal direction of the writer. The following letter of directions was sent to county super- intendents in January 1917, Office of State Superintendent To County Superintendents: We shall be very glad to receive your cooperation and assistance in establishing standards in handwriting for Wisconsin. The direc- tions for testing the handwriting are as follows: 1. Schools to be tested — Select the last five rural schools taking alpha- betically the surnames of the teachers. 2. Date of testing — Any time previous to March 1st. 3. Who shall conduct the test? — Preferably the superintendent or the supervisor, but it may be given by the teacher if you are certain that she imderstands the directions perfectly. 4. Directions to be followed by the tester — a. Materials — Provide each pupil with unruled paper of uniform size. Use ink wherever possible. b. Data to be secured from pupils — Have each pupil place upon the 'back of the sheet his name, age, grade, date, whether boy or girl, county, school and teacher's name. c. Time to be allowed — Allow the children to write for exactly two minutes. The tester must have a watch with second hand. d. What the children are to write — In grades 4 to 8 the series of words "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven," etc., as far as they can go in the time allowed taking time to write well. In grades 2 and 3 have them write only the words "one, two, three, four" and repeat as often as time permits writing well. Caution — Be sure that children know how to spell the words to be written. Instruct them to omit all commas. e. Returning papers to the county superintendent's office — All papers are to be tied in a package, labelled with county, school, and teacher's name and forwarded to the county superintendent. Each county superintendent will be sent a copy of instructions for scoring the papers and the necessary tabulation sheets. Sincerely, Supervisor of Educational Measurements. Each county training school was asked to select the five rural schools most easily accessible, and each normal school to test the three state graded schools most easily accessible. The series of Avords indicated in the letter to county superintendents was used as a subject in all except in those tested by principals of train- Writing 73 ing schools, where for certain reasons the sentence "one boy ate three apples" was substituted. A copy of directions for scoring the papers may be seen below. Directions for Scoring Handwriting 1. Scoring papers for quality of handwriting. a. Who shall score the papers? — Each paper is to be marked by- three judges, preferably the county superintendent, the supervisor, and one other competent person. Each judge is to work independently. b. Scale to be used — Thorndike (This may be secured from the Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, New York, 5c). c. Judging the childrens handwriting — Compare each child's writing with samples on the scale without previous knowl- edge as to the mark assigned by any other iudee. Placp upon the hack of each paper the number of the sample on the scale to which the child's writing most nearly corre- sponds in merit. d. Computing the final mark on each paper — Take as the final mark the middle score, e. g. if a paper has marks of 9, 10, 11, its final mark is 10. If it has marks of 7, 8, 11, its final mark is 8. If two marks are alike that score is the final mark, e. g. if the marks are 9, 9, 11 assign it a final mark of 9. 2. Scoring the papers for speed of handwriting. Determine the total number of letters written by each child in two minutes. You will find it to your advantage to prepare a score card which will indicate at a glance the total letters written if the last word written is "sixteen", "seventeen", etc., e. g. the words from one to fifteen inclusive totnl 74 let- ters. Correct for letters omitted or added. Count dashes or commas if present as letters. 3. Reporting scores to the office of the state superintendent. Prepare one of the enclosed tabulation sheets for each school tested and forward to the office of the State Superintendent. The office will be glad to receive returns also from any schools scored with the Ayres Scale (Published by the Divi- sion of Education. Russell Sage Foundation, New York). If time permits it will be interesting and profitable to score by both scales. In training and normal schools papers were scored hy stu- dents and faculty members, under the direction of members of the respective fnoulties. In some cities the tests were scored by teachers and in others by students of the teachers training course, after some preliminary practice in scoring. 74 The Use of Some Standard Tests The Returns Eeports were received from twenty-four county superintend- ents, eleven county training schools, and three normal schools. Data were collected by the writer in eleven cities. The returns from county superintendents and training school principals represent 173 rural schools and 30 different counties. Two county superintendents made returns for more than five schools and three for less. In some cases the instructions to select the last five schools, taking alphabetically the surnames of the teach- ers, were not carried out because of difficulties entailed in reach- ing these schools. This has prevented in part what was intended to be a random selection but it is probable that it has not ma- terially effected the results. The results reported by county superintendents for speed of handwriting in a few cases were so high as to arouse suspicion as to the accuracy with which the time was kept. Accordingly a follow-up letter was addressed to each county superintendent reporting, asking in detail as to the conditions observed. In every case where the test was not given by either the county superintendent, or by the supervising teacher, and wherever it . could not be stated that the two minute time limit had been ex- plicitly observed, the results were rejected for speed. As a re- sult of these eliminations the returns for only 141 rural schools representing 28 counties were used in computing the speed of liandwriting for rural schools. Speed was recorded in only five of the eleven cities tested. The Eesults — ^What quality of writing do Wisconsin chil- dren PRODUCE .^ The distribution of scores. Table 82 gives the distribution of all pupils' scores in terms of the Thorndike scale for quality of handwriting. The median scores and Freeman's standard are fdso shown, Writing 75 Table 32. — Distribution of Scores for Quality of Handwriting — Thorndike Scale Qualitj' II III IV V VI VII VIII 4 18 46 7 27 5 7 1 2 1 6 76 64 39 12 10 6 5 7 194 233 168 99 43 19 15 8 197 350 334 238 174 100 90 9 121 300 371 362 364 260 224 10 29 60 126 134 137 138 121 11 26 67 129 125 196 226 223 12 2 24 45 62 83 114 140 13 1 12 15 30 60 69 82 14 3 1 8 14 23 29 15 2 5 1 7 8 1 16 7 2 1 17 16 24 17 6 18 3 Total 710 1,147 1,237 8.7 1,077 9.0 1, 099 9.4 982 10.3 979 Median 7.6 8.2 10.7 'Freeman's Standard . 8.2 8.8 9.6 10.1 11.0 11.7 12.1 '■ Converted from Ayres to Thorndike units by Kelly's method of equat- ing the .two scales. "Each Thorndike unit equals 7.9 as great a dis- tance as an Ayres unit." The scores range from those rated as of quality 4 scarcely legi- ble as handwriting, to those rated as of a quality 18. Only 25 however were rated below quality 5 and only thirteen as better than 16. Some appreciation of the merit possessed by specimens rated at each of steps 4 to 16 of the Thorndike scale may be jiained by reference to Figure IV. The specimens are arranged in order of merit as judged by the scores. With the exception of the two specimens rated as 14 and 16, which are taken from the Thorndike scale, the speci- mens represent writing produced by children for the Janesville survey. In grade two the quality of handwriting produced by Wis- consin children ranges from 4 to 13, and in grade eight from 6 to 18. While progress is evident from grade to grade there is a marked overlapping of achievements in writing. Considerable 76 The Use of Some Standard Tests ifl&ted at ^^.{ndj^ /t>^^ir ^tk'^M, ^jf^^^ 12 ^yViu-tr- cy^^^LtxJ^_Q^ -^po-i/c/t^ --^^^..^i/^^ cy^L-^f-^pc^ Fig. IV. Specimens of Each Quality o f Handwriting. ^ 1 Reproduced from "An Educational Survey of Janesville, Wisconsin." Writmg 11 numbers of children in grades two and three excel many children in every grade above, including the eighth. The best writers in the second and third grades exceed the poorer half of the eighth grade. The poorest writers in the eighth grade do not write as well as average second graders. Some children are naturally good writers early in life. Others will make good writers only with unusually careful teaching. Children in the second grade whose writing already possseses the merit of quality 11 on the Thorndike scale will need to devote but little attention to im- proving their Avriting during the elementary school period. For these children it will be more profitable to spend much of the time ordinarily devoted to writing practice to other subjects. Table 33. — 77u; Median Scores, the Lower and Upper 25 Percentiles and the Range of the Middle 50% in Quality of Handioriting 11 111 IV V VI VII VIII Lower 25 percentile Median 6.7 7.6 8.5 1.8 7.3 8.2 9.1 1.8 7.8 8.7 9.6 1.8 8.2 9.0 10.2 2.0 8.6 9.4 11.0 2.4 9.0 10.3 11.4 2.4 9.1 10.7 Upper 25 percentile Range of middle 50% 11.9 2.8 While the median indicates the score that just half of the pupils were able to attain, it is desirable to know how well other portions of the children did and how widely these portions dif- fer. Table 33, computed from Table 32, gives the median score, the lower and upper 25 percentiles and the range of the middle 50%. These figures are represented graphically in Figure V. The writing of the poorest fourth of the pupils did not exceed the figures representing the lower 25 percentile. That of the best fourth was better than the figures indicated by the upper 25 percentile. Subtracting the figures representing the upper and lower 25 percentiles we have the range of the middle half of the pupils. It will be seen that this is never much less than two steps. In the eighth grade it becomes almost three steps. That the writing attainments of half of the children should vary so much is surprising, but it becomes much more so when we con- sider that one-fourth of them were unable to write as well as the lower figure in Table 33 and another fourth wrote better than 78 The Use of Some Standard Tests the higher figure. The poorer writers have accomplished little for the time spent in writing. Every teacher should attempt to dis- cover the reason for this. She should help each child to discover his particular shortcomings and how they might be remedied. 1. " II I V V V VII VTtl 11 10 9 —"" „.,-'-" . — -^" - ^^ 8 ^^^ _„»- — • — ■"" ^ ,,«- — '— ^ '^^^^, , ''-'' ■^ -"" «i Upper 35 P« Uedlan rcentlle Lower 35 P( rcectlle 1 Flg.V. The Median Scores and the Lower and Upper 35 Percentiles In Quality of Handwriting The median performances The median^ or middle performance for each grade for 7,231 Wisconsin children in rural, graded and city schools, and for children in each separate class of schools may be seen in Table 34, For purposes of comparison the median scores for 28,000 Iowa children and for children in the better half of 56 cities tested by Dr. Freeman are also given. ^ ^ The median score means that just half of the children in any given grade wrote better than this and half did not write as vsrell. - The Iowa and Freeman scores have been converted from terms of the Ayres scale to the Thorndike scale by Kelly's method. Writing 79 Table 34. — 1' he Median Scores in Quality of Handwriting for Each Class of Schools — Thorndike Scale 11 Cities 9 Graded schools 30 Counties (173 Kural schools) Wisconsin median *Iovv a standard *Freeman"s standard.. II III IV V VI VII VIII 7.5 8.0 8.6 9.0 9.3 10.5 10.7 7.5 7.8 8.2 9.0 9.5 9.3 10.0 7.7 8.5 8.6 9.1 9.5 10.3 10.7 7.tj 8.2 8.7 9.0 9.4 10.. i 10.7 8.3 8.8 9.4 10.0 10.4 11.0 11.5 8.2 8.8 •d.^ 10.1 11.0 11.7 12.1 Number children tested 3,866 720 2,645 7,231 28,000 56 cities * Converted from Ayres to Thorndilie units by Kelly's method of equating- the two scales. "Each Thorndike unit equals 7.9 as great a dis- tance as an Ayres' unit." The writing of Wisconsin children on the whole shows distinct progress from grade to grade. This is true for each class of school though in certain cases the improvement is slight. There is little difference in the median quality of the handwriting pro- duced in each class of school. Variations of from 0.1 to 0.3 are not more than might reasonably be expected where the scoring Avas done by judges with a limited amount of training. The graded schools alone depart rather sharply in some grades from the median for all schools. The returns from this class of schools are scarcely large enough in number however to be representa- tive of all state graded schools. When comi3ared with Iowa children, Wisconsin children do not make a favorable showing, Iowa children lead by a margin varying from 0.6 of a sfep to an eiitire step. This margin of superiority for Iowa children, instead of decreasing, mounts liigher as we proceed from the lower to the upper grades. This is difficult to explain unless it be that the time given to the teach- ing of handwriting in Wisconsin has not been used to the best advantage. Successful results in handwriting require not only 1hat time be spent in writing, but that the art of writing be well taught. Fifty minutes per Aveek which represents the average amount of time given to handwriting in American cities^ should be sufficient time in which to accomplish satisfactory re- sults. How Wisconsin writing compares with that of Iowa and with Freeman's standard may be seen from Figure VI. 1 See Holmes' study in the "14th Year Book of the National Society for the Study of Education." 8^ The Use of Some Standard Tests How well may Wisconsin children he expected to write? Good schools should not tolerate mediocre performances in any- subject. If the scores given above represent how well Iowa and Wisconsin children can write without any serious attempt to bring about good writing, what may we expect when it is well 13 12 II III IV V V] Til Till 11 10 ^.-' ^-""^ ^--^^ 9 - "Z^-^'"^ ^^ 8 7 :r.—^ ^^ 6 5 4 Freeman's S' Iowa Standa: andard— 56 C d — 38,000 itles Children Wisconsin Fig,TI, The Quality of Handwriting in Wisconsin Conpared with the Freeman and Iowa Standards taught? The scores represented by Freeman's standard in Table 3-4 give us at least a tentative goal to be attained. Is there any valid reason why "Wisconsin children may not be expected to reach this standard?. With a concerted attempt to improve the quality of handwriting it should be possible to do so in the near future. Quality 12, Figure VII, which represents approxi- mately median eighth grade performance by the Freeman stand- ard is not too much to expect of children who are about to leave the elementary school and who will receive little if any system- atic training in handwriting thereafter. Freeman's standard was derived by computing the median scores made by the better half of fifty-six cities- tested. It rep- Writinjg 81 resents at least an entire school tested in each oi" these cities. The specimens for the fifty-six cities were scored by a single in- dividual and are therefore to be considered as possessing a sat- isfactory degree of validity. I J JCci/-^^U^-tcC iKaJ- 0(J Fig. VII Quality 13 on the Thorndlke Scale Repreaentlng Approximately Freeman's Elghtb Grade Standard Variatioit by schools. Are all schools equally successful? The median scores by counties representing the attainments in rural schools are given in Table 35. Table 35. — Median Scores in Quality of Handwriting — By Counties Counties II III IV V VI VII VIII No. children tested 1 8.3 7.5 8.0 e.8 7.5 8.3 6.5 S.8 7.1 7.6 8.3 7.7 8.3 6.9 8.0 8.3 6.8 8.5 8.0 7.8 S.9 7.3 7.5 8.0 7.1 e.o 8.2 8.1 8.0 8.1 8.4 9.0 8.4 7.9 8.3 9.3 7.4 9.;; 8.5 7.9 9.2 9.0 11.0 7.0 8.3 7.5 7.8 9.3 7.8 7.9 10.1 9.4 8.4 8.5 9.5 8.6 8.5 8.8 8.6 7.9 8.3 8.4 9.1 7.9 8.2 8.6 7.1 9.4 8.6 8.0 11.5 !).4 9.8 7.4 7.8 8.1 9.0 11.3 "s.9" 9.2 8.0 8.7 8.4 10.7 8.8 S.4 a.i 9.2 8.3 9.4 10.0 9.2 8.6 8.9 8.6 7.6 9.8 8.5 8.6 9.7 9.1 11.2 9.8 8.6 9.3 8.3 12.8 9.1 8.8 10.8 10.5 8.3 9.3 12.3 9.0 9.0 8.9 10.5 10.0 10.3 9.5 9.3 8.6 9.5 9.1 9.0 10.8 10.0 9.1 9.0 9.3 13.7 10.8 8.9 9.0 8.0 13.0 9.3 9.1 11.5 11.2 9.0 9.0 13.5 9.3 10.0 9.0 9.3 10.7 9.3 9.5 ""9!8 10.5 10.8 9.0 11.0 9.5 9.1 9.3 10.1 14.7 10.7 10.8 10.0 10.0 13.8 9.0 11.0 11.9 9.4 9.3 9.5 12.0 8.9 8.5 10.0 11.4 10.8 10.7 10.3 8.5 12.0 9.8 9.7 11.0 13.8 9.3 9.6 11.0 11.3 14.6 10.5 9.1 10.5 10.8 12.3 11.1 9.0 11.0 10.8 10.5 "i'i.k" 10.5 10.7 10.8 10.8 10.3 71 74 3 79 i 150 56 6 109 7 121 8 99 9 83 10 214 11 65 12 72 l,j 167 11 68 15 70 10 43 17 66 18 85 19 47 20 82 21 97 9') 77 23 151 •■>i 87 57 2G 46 74 •1J 71 •59 82 30 82 Median for 173 rural schools... 7.7 S.5 s\6 9.1 9.5 10.3 10.7 2,645 Considerable variation is to be noted. Some counties appar- ently secure much better results than others. The validity of the results is effected somewhat however by the small number of 82 The Use of Some Standard Tests children tested and also by the limited amount of training pos- sessed by the scorers. Table 36 gives the median scores for each of eleven cities arranged in approximate order of the portion of the work of the grade completed. The Iowa and Freeman stand- ards are again inserted for purposes of comparison. Table 36. — Median Scores in Quality of Handwriting for Eleven Wisconsin Cities— Thorndike Scale No. Cities Date Tested II III IV V VI VII VIII children tested \ 9_28— 16 10_ 9_]6 9.4 9.2 9.3 9.5 52 2 7.6 8.9 10.9 10.8 414 3 10— 23— 16 8.6 9.3 9.2 9.4 11.3 8.8 405 4 12— 5—16 8.2 8.6 7.9 8.8 9.2 9.8 313 5 12— 8—16 8.8 9.0 8.9 10.3 10.0 9.7 434 3_29— 17 7.3 7.8 8.9 9,1 9.5 10.2 11.0 1,061 7 5_10— 17 7.8 8.4 9.4 8.7 9.4 11.1 288 8 3- 6-17 7.8 8.4 8.9 9.3 10.9 11.0 456 9 3- 8-17 8.3 8 6 9.3 9.3 lO.'S 10.7 13.1 138' 10 4_10-]7 8.0 7.7 8.1 8.7 9.1 11.2 9.4 223 11 4-12-17 6 8.3 8.8 8.0 8.9 9.0 12.0 82 Combined City Mediaii 7.5 8.0 8.6 9.0 9.3 10.5 10.7 3,866 Butte June 8 2 8.0 8.8 8.9 11.6 11 2 12.1 Des Moin Palt Lake Starch's > 7.3 9.3 8.2 8.1 10.7 8.7 8.4 10.9 9.3 8.9 11.2 9.8 9.5 12.1 10.4 10.0 13.1 10.9 June tandard — 7.5 Freeman's standard i 8.2 8.8 9.6 10.1 11.0 11.7 .12.1 8.3 S.8 9.4 10.0 10,4 11.0 11.5 ^Converted from A.vres to Thorndike UDits by KelLv's method of eauatin? the two scales. "Each Thorndike unit eauals 7.9 as great a distance as an Ayres unit." The highest scores for each grade are indicated in bold face type. It is evident that were all schools to achieve the results ob- tained by the city making the highest score in each grade, Wis- consin schools would compare favorably with schools elsewhere. They would then equal the median Iowa handwriting in two grades, exceed it in three, and fall below in two. They would equal the Freeman standard in two grades, exceed it in one and fall below in four. Certainly the scores made by these schools would be none too high to expect where writing is well taught. It is to be noted that four of the highest scores for the different grades were made in one city. This is a comparatively small city using a certain popular method of handwriting. The specimens were scored by members of the teacher training class of the high school under the personal supervision of the writer. They were scored after a period spent in practice judging upon samples of Writing 83 Imown value. It is difficult to account for the very low scores made by children in some cities in certain grades. A few cities do not make a satisfactory showing in any grade. The scores point to but one conclusion — ivriting is not well taught. Re- sults are not commensurate with the time given to the subject. The Results in Speed — How Rapidly do Wisconsin Children Write? The median scores in speed Table 37 gives the median scores in speed of handwriting for each class of school and for all schools combined. These may be compared with the median achievements for Iowa children and for the children in the better half of 56 cities selected by Free- man. The median scores in speed in all schools combined and for the Iowa and Freeman standards are represented graphically in Figure VIII. Tablk 37. — The Median Scores in Speed of Handwriting for Each Clats of Schools Number II Ill IV V VI VII VIII children tested 5 cities 29.9 43. 54.6 62. 61.9 75.8 78.9 1,985 9 fe'raded scliools 36.7 48.1 61.5 71. 82.5 84.3 96.3 720 28 counties (141 rural sciiools) 36.9 56.1 59.3 69.4 73. 78.8 88. 2,079 Wisconsin Median 34.2 49.6 57.2 66.4 68.2 77.9 84.7 4,784 Iowa Standard 3!j.2 49.6 61.9 65.5 72.6 75. 76.5 28,000 Freeman's Standard. 36. 48. 56. 65. 72. 80. 90. 56 cities Table 37 shows that in the matter of speed state graded schools lead over rural and city schools. This lead is quite marked in grades pix, seven and eight. Referring to Table 34 showing the quality of handwriting it appears however that speed has been gained at a sacrifice of quality. It is only in grades five and six that the graded schools excel the record for all Wisconsin children in speed, and yet maintain a quality as good as they. The high rate of speed attained in graded schools is much above either the Iowa or Freeman standards in grades five, six, seven, and eight, but the quality is much below either of these stand- 84 The Use of Some Standard Tests ards in each of these grades. Rapid writing is desirable but it must be accompanied by a satisfactory quality of the product. J Tl I TV \1 V^ jyi viii. ^,,^ ^.^^ -^ ^""^^^^^^^'^ -^^?^^ _^_t- -''' ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Freeman's Standard - 56 Cltlea ■ Iowa Standa Wisconsin rd - 38,000 Children fig.VIII The Median Speed of Handwriting for All Echcole Comrared with the Iowa and Freeman 'a Standards In justice to these schools it may be said that the series of words used may have tended to cause an undue effort to be placed upon speed. The series was not different however from that used in cities and in most rural schools. Furthermore when the me- dian speed for the two groups of rural schools, each using a dif- ferent series of words, are compared it is seen that only in some grades did those using the series, "one two three four," etc. write at a higher rate of speed than did those using the series, "one boy ate three apples." This may be seen from Table 38. Table 38. — The Median Scores in Speed in Rural Schools Writing the Words, "One, two, three, four," etc., and in Those Writing "One boy ate three apples " II III IV V VI VII VIII "One, two, three, four," etc — "One boy ate three apples " 35 41 56.5 55.4 .55.9 64.2 71.1 65. 73.3 72.6 78.8 78.8 90.4 81.8 Referring again to Table 37 it will be seen that city children, as far as the cities which reported scores in speed are representa- Writing 85 tive of all cities, do not write as rapidly as children in rural and graded schools, nor as rapidly as Freeman's standard. They exceed the Iowa standard in grades seven and eight. Eural schools on the whole make the best showing of Wiscon- sin schools in writing. Their quality is not inferior to that of other classes of schools and their speed is more nearly in accord with desirable standards in most grades. "When the combined results for all schools in speed of hand- writing are compared with Iowa scores and with Freeman's standard, (Figure VIII), Wisconsin children are not as a whole s^lower writers. They probably write as rapidly as average chil- dren who have not been taught to write with any particular attention being given to their rate of writing. It is in point of quality that Wisconsin children fail to do well. They should be expected either to produce a higher quality at their present rate of writing or to produce their present quality at a higher speed. It is when both speed and quality are considered to- gether that Wisconsin children do not appear to have attained a high grade of efficiency in handwriting. Variation in speed of writing within grades Whether children of a grade write about equally rapid may be judged from a distribution table for all of the scores. The distribution of scores in speed of handwriting for 4.784 children representing 141 rural, 9 graded and 5 city schools is shown in Table 39. How much children of a given grade vary in the rate Table 39. — Distribution of Scores For F^peed of Handwriting Speed TI IIT TV V VI VII VIII 0- 20 . . 8-2 293 110 45 or; 13 5 28 207 150 157 09 59 30 12 1 2 i ■■>.?, 13^ ll.l 174 157 99 53 18 13 2 2 1 17 61 81 114 107 12fi 83 55 26 5 4 3 8 .50 63 119 130 118 89 54 33 18 4 3 4 27 .36 60 105 122 123 80 48 27 15 7 91-40 18 41- 50 14 51- 60 50 61- 70 74 71-80 100 gl- 90 108 91-100 122 101-110 66 Ill 120 37 121 130 14 131-140 6 4 1 1 2 1 161-170 1 Total Median 580 34.2 757 49.6 790 57.2 683 66.4 692 68.2 656 77.9 626 84.7 86 The Use of Some Standard Tests of writing may be judged from the range of the scores in each grade. In grade two the rate varies from that of 82 pupils who wrote less than 21 letters per minute to that of 5 pupils who pro- duced more than 90 letters per minute. In other grades the range is even greater. It is evident that some children in each grade write with a speed several times that of others in the same grade. The marked overlapping (i. e. children of a lower grade exceeding the speed of others in grades above) appears to indi- cate that some children begin as slow writers and continue to be slow writers throughout. Others are rapid writers early in their school life and continue to be rapid writers. This supposition if correct contains an important implication for teachers. If the habit of writing rapidly is to be developed, teachers must consciously train pupils in that direction. Left to proceed with- out guidance, there is little assurance that a pupil will develop even a fair rate of writing. The presence of pupils in grades six, seven, and eight. Table 39, who do not write more than 60 letters per minute is to be regretted. Unless strenuous efforts are made in the near future these children will leave the elemen- tary schools with writing habits too slow for efficiency in the business and commercial world, or any other occupation requir- ing the use of writing. The Eelation op Speed and Quality To discover opportunities for improvement, the variations in both speed and quality need to be considered. Do all the chil- dren of a grade write about equally well or equally rapid ? Do some schools produce good but slow writers ? Do others produce poor but rapid writers? Are there others in which children write both well and rapid or both poor and slow! The varia- tions in quality were noted in Table 32. Those for speed were shown in Table 39. Unfortunately in most cases it did not ap- pear feasible to request that results be recorded in a form that would indicate the scores in both quality and speed for the same pupils. Some appreciation of the relation which may be ex- pected can be judged from the results in one grade in Janesville shown in Table 40. Writing 87 Table 40. — Distribution of Handwriting Scores in Speed and Quality for Grade Seven Speed Quality 0-40 41- 50 51- 60 Gi- ro 71- 80 81- 00 91- 100 101- 110 Ill- no 121- 130 Total 5 1 1 6 7 1 1 6 1 5 1 3 1 3 6 5 10 2 8 i i ' 3 1 ...... 1 8 10 8 3 3 1 "n" 2 9 3 i 5 2 5 1 "i" 2 3 1 2 9 9 44 10 23 11 2 2 44 12 10 13 1 1 8 14 1 Total 4 T 18 25 34 26 14 8 4 2 142 Median ie.2 From Table 40 it will be seen that some pupils are both poor and slow writers. There are others who write well and rapidly. Still others write at a fair rate of speed, but their quality is poor. Some produce a fair quality, but have a low rate of speed. It is desirable that children produce writing of good quality at a fair speed. Evidently some children need to improve in qual- ity, some in speed and others in both. The scores in both speed and quality for the five cities report- ing both are shown in Table 41. City No. 3 on the whole makes Table 41. — Median Scores in BotJi Speed and Qualify for Fine Cities Reporting Both Cities 1. Quality Speed .. 2. Quality Speed .. 3. Quality Speed .. 4. Quality Speed .. 5. Quality Speed .. 6.0 24.4 33.8 7. .'J 26.1 III 8.3 48.0 7.8 19.0 8.6 48.2 7.8 45.5 7.8 44.2 IV 61.7 8.4 44.7 9.2 •59.6 8.9 56.3 8.4 63.4 8.0 55.0 9.4 75.5 9.3 68.4 9.1 56.5 8.9 69.9 VI 8.9 68.3 8.7 65.8 10.5 63.0 9.5 56.6 9.3 70.7 VII VIII 9.0 66.3 9.4 80.2 10.7 61.6 10.3 75.6 10.9 81.5 12.0 73.0 11.1 91.1 11.0 77.5 11.0 77.0 the best showing in quality and city No. 5 makes the best record in speed. Taking both quality and speed together, these two cities are superior to the other three. Apparently those that place more emphasis on speed get better results in quality. S8 The Use of Some Standard Tests Figure IX is intended to represent in graphic form a combina- tion of the scores for quality and speed for each type of school. The portion of the bar to the left represents the median score in quality and the portion to the right the median score in speed in each case. The total length of the bar may be taken to repre- sent a combination of speed and quality. II IV c in VI VII VIII Quality 7.S- 7.7 7.8 _L6. TT 86 3X ss SJ- 321 _a3_ 10. ^ 10.7 10.0 Speed C - City G - State. Graded R - Rural Fig. IX. Speed and Quality of Handwriting in Each Class of Schools by Grades Summary and Conclusions The quality of writing in Wisconsin schools is only fair. It la not as good as that of Iowa children. Exceptions, however, occur. Some schools are markedly superior to others. There are some good writers in every school. The attainments of many of the children however represent an insufficient return upon the time invested. Fifty minutes per week is sufficient time to secure good results, but many fail to do so because of poor teach- Writing 89 iiig. Children wlio exhibit unusual skill in their writing attain- ments should be permitted to devote much of the time ordinarily- given to writing to other subjects. This may serve also as an incentive to others to improve. The handwriting of pupils whose product is poor should be carefully studied to discover the teaching needs of each. In studies of this type the Freeman handwriting scale Avill be found helpful. When writing is well taught schools should be able to reach the standards set by Pro- fessor Freeman. Wisconsin children are not on the whole slow in their speed of writing. When speed and quality are taken together, how- ever, they do not compare favorably with Iowa children or with the standard set by Freeman. Rural schools make the best fchowing when both factors are considered. In state graded schools speed seems to be attained at the price of quality. Rapid writing is to be desired but it must be produced at a fair quality. The fact that some write several times as rapidly as others, and the fact that Wisconsin children write as rapidly as average children without Ibaving given particular attention to speed, suggests that a gain could be made if teachers made a conscious effort to improve the speed of slow writers. Rate of writing becomes a fixed habit which should be shaped early in life. Un- der present conditions some children will leave school with a "writing rate too slow for efficiency in any line. Much as some may stress the use of the typewriter the ordinary man writes with his hand. The grocery clerk, the saleswoman, the office worker, the banker, the reporter, the army clerk, and the teacher are all required to take notes which call for legibility and speed. Both must be stressed in the teaching of handwriting. Some children need to improve the quality of their writing, others their speed, and some both. Some Suggested References Discussions on the Measure7nent of Handwriting Ashbaugh, E. J. Handwriting of Iowa School Children. Extension Div. Bui. No. 15, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. Ayres, Leonard P. A Scale for Measuring the Quality of Handwriting of School Children. Russell Sage Foundation, New York. Ballou, F. W. Boston Dept. of Educational Investigation and Meas- urement Bui. No. IX, Penmanship. Price 7 cents. Breed & Down. Measuring and Standardizing Handwriting in a School . System. Elem. Sch. Jour., Mar. 1917. 90 The tise of Some Standard Tests Freeman, P. N. An Analytical Scale for Judging Handwriting. Elem. School Journal. Apr. 1915. Freeman, F. N. Handwriting. Chap. V., Fourteenth Tear Book of the National Society for the Study of Education. Freeman, F. N. Some Practical Studies of Handwriting. Elem. School Teacher, Dec. 1913. Freeman, P. N. Survey of the St. Louis Public Schools, Vol. II, Hand- writing. Graves, S. Monroe. A Study in Handwriting. Jour, of Educ. Psy., Vol. VII, Oct. 1916. Gray, C. T. A Score Card for the Measurement of Handwriting. Bui. 37, Univ. of Texas, Austin, Texas. Gray, C. T. The Training of Judgment in the Use of the Ayres Scale for Handwriting. Jour. Educ. Psychology, Feb. 1915. Johnson & Stone. Measuring the Quality of Handwriting. Elem. Sch. Jour., Feb. 1916. IJudd, C. H. Measuring the Work of the Schools. Handwriting. Re- port on tests in the Cleveland Survey. Russell Sage Foundation, N. Y. King & Newcomb. Improvement in Handwriting. Educ. Admin. & Supr., Oct. 1916. Koos, L. V. The Determination of Ultimate Standards of Quality in Handwriting. Elem. School Jour., Feb. 1918. Starch, Daniel. The Measurement of Efficiency in Handwriting. Jour. Educ. Psychology, Feb. 1915. Starch, Daniel. The Measurement of Handwriting. Jour. Educ. Psy- chology, Oct. 1913. Thorndike, E. L. Handwriting. Bureau of Pub., Teachers College, New York. Thorndike, E. L. Means of Measuring School Achievements in Hand- writing. Educ. Admin. & Supr., May 1915. See also various school survey reports: Butte, Cleveland, Denver, Grand Rapids, Janesville, Nassau Co., N. Y., Salt Lake, San Fran- cisco, St. Louis. Scales for Mea\suring Handwriting Ayres. A Scale for Measuring the Quality of Handwriting of School Children. "Three Slant Edition." Russell Sage Foundation, N. Y. Ayres. A Measuring Scale for Handwriting. "Gettysburg Edition." Freeman. Chart for Diagnosing Faults in Handwriting. Houghton Mifflin Co. Thorndike. A Scale for Haindwriting of Children. Bur. of Publica- tions, Teachers College, N. Y. Methods of Teaching Handwriting Bliss, D. C. Handwriting in Rapeer's book. Teaching Elementary School Subjects. Scribners. Charters, W. W. Teaching the Common Branches. Handwriting. Houghton Mifflin Co. Clark, A. W. The Teaching of Handwriting. Ginn & Co. Freeman, P. N. The Psychology' of the Common Branches. Hand- writing. Houghton Mifflin Co. Freeman, P. N. The Teaching of Handwriting. Houghton Mifflin Co. Kendall & Mirick. How to Teach the Fundamental Subjects. Hough- ton Mifflin Co. Lister, C. C. Muscular Movement in Handwriting. Macmillan. Helpful suggestions will also be found in the published courses of study of various places. CHAPTER IV COMPOSITION An attempt was made to measure success in English composi- tion in fifteen schools. In each case the test was given and scored under the immediate direction of the writer. The subject used was, "How I Should Like to Spend Next Saturday."^ Pupils were instructed to write a composition not to exceed one ])age in length. Twenty minutes were allowed. No preliminary discussion of the subject was permitted. The "Hillegas Scale for Measuring English Composition" and the "Trabue Nassau County Supplement to the Hillegas Scale" were used in rating the papers. The former was employed in schools tested durir.g the first half of the year. In schools tested during the second semester botli scales were employed. If scores were to be re- corded' in terms of one of the scales, the other was used as a refer- ence to enable the scorer to verify his judgment of a given speci- men. The Trabue scale reproduced below consists principally of isipecimens written upon a subject almost identical with that used in the test. This made it more serviceable than the original Hillegas Scale and removed the criticisms sometimes offered against the Hillegas Scale, namely, that a number of the speci- mens are not original productions of children. THE TRABUE SCALE What I should like to do next Saturday Value 0. I went going on to the Dox Saturdaye dnd day we the boys and I well going home and I well going the boys, and I will going these read in and they to night, and we or night. I well going a ground shalt and I gone out I will going to shea shouse and I will shoe or the skill of the shea of night. 1.1 I intend to mak a snou man and make an fort and fort snou ball at chidern and hau I whist ma frant carolyn cole what were me I will going to the mauiss on Saturday. Georga will come went me. ^ In a few cases Should was inadvertently given as Would. &2 The Use of Some Standard Tests at night I will going out went my mother to the marce I will mak the snou man and the fort in the moning and in the afternoon I will go to the mauies. I whist there whest school on Saturday 1 . 9 one next S aturday I expect to go to the city leve next G atur- day to see my ofriend archie king I am going to grow to the baning balys circus with hime next S aturday fefore I go I have to do my jobs feedsing the cows ard horse ard chinkens and geese next Saturday My friend is a very good fellow to go and see So my mother S aid "If I do my work during Easter week vacation I can go to the barning baley circus with hime 2.8 Once a pon a time there was a girl. One day she asked me what I was going to do next Saterday so I said, "I am going to go for a swim." And she said, "thats just were I am going to." next Saterday came we both went down together. We came home at noon time, after dinner we went to the picktures. There we had a good time. And then came home at night. 3.8 I would like to go out in the after noon and play catch- ing the ball. Go over to Bertha's house and have a few girls to come with me and be on each others side. I have a tennis ball too play with. The game is that one person should stand quite aways from another person and throw the ball too one then another. Someone has to be in the middle and try too get the ball a way from someone t)ien she takes this persons place who she caught the ball from. Then till every person has a chance. 5.0 Next Saturday I should like to go away and have a good time on a farm. I should like to watch the men plowing the fields and planting corn, wheat, and oats and other thingte planted on farms. Next Saturday I will go the Pioneer meeting if nothing hap- pens so that I cannot go. I should like to go swimming but it is not warm enough and I would catch a bad cold. I should like to go to my aunts and drive the horses, I do not drive without some' older person with me, so I cannot go very often. I should like to see my aunts cat and her kittens, too. I think I can, to. 6.0 I should like to join my girl friends, who are going to the city on the 9:05 A. M. train. They are going shopping in the morning and will have lunch to-gether, then they are going to the Hippodrome. After the Hippodrome, they are all. going home to dinner to one of the girls houses, she lives on Riverside Drive so they expect to take the "Fifth Avenue Bus" up there. The evening will be devoted to playing games, singing and dancing. 7.2 If I had a thousand dollars to spend, I think I would take a trip to San Francisco by train with the rest of the family, and stop at a sea-side hotel. It would be glorious to see the surf again, and to escape from the cold blustering weather of December for the balmy breezes of the ocean, and the whiff of orange blossoms. We could take long drives under shady trees, visit the orange and olive groves and bathe in the surf. Think of bathing in the ocean in December! Coming home again I should enjoy stopping at Yellow Stone Park. It would be lots of fun to camp out, and to ride over the Composition °^ prairies on frisky ponies. It would be very interesting to notice the change of climate as we got farther east, and to go to bed on the train one evening feeling warm, and waking up the next morning feeling very chilly. I am afraid by the time I would get home a thousand dollars would be pretty well used up; but if not I would like to give a party. 8.0 One Sunday, towards the end of my summer vacation, I was in bathing at the Parkway Baths. In the Brighton Beach Motordrome, a few rods away, an aviation meet was going on. Several times one of the droning machines had gone whirring by over our heads, so that when the buzzing exhaust of a flier was heard it did not cause very much comment. Soon, however, the white planes of "Tom" Sopwith's Wright machine were seen glimmering above the grandstand. Everyone stood spellbound as he circled the track several times and then headed out to sea. He was seen to have a passenger with him. Suddenly, the regu- lar hum of his motor was broken by severe pops, and the engine ran slower, missing fire badly. In response, to Sopwith's move- ments, the big flier tilted and swooped down to the beach from aloft like an eagle. The terrified crowd made a rush to get out of the way as the airship came on, but Sopwith could not land on the beach, but skimmed along close to the water instead. Suddenly his wing caught the water, and the big machine somer- saulted and sank beneath the waves. The aviators soon came bobbing up and were taken away in a launch, but the accident will not soon be forgotten by those who saw it. 9.0 The courage of the panting fugitive was not gone; she was game to the tip of her high-bred ears; but the fearful pace at which she had just been going told on her. Her legs trembled, and her heart beat like a triphammer. She slowed her speed per- force, but still fied industriously up the right bank of the stream. When she had gone a couple of miles and the dogs were evidently gaining again, she crossed the broad, deep brook, climbed the steep left bank, and fled on in the direction of the Mt. Marcy trail. The fording of the river threw the hounds off for a time; she knew by their uncertain yelping, up and down the opposite bank, that she had^a little respite; she used it, however, to push on until the baying was faint in her ears, and then she dropped exhausled upon the ground. The first sample on the scale is very poor in quality. Each successive sample represents increased merit. The merit in- creases by approximately equal increments as may be judged from the values attached to the successive samples, 0, 1.1, 1.9, 2.8, 3.8, 5, 6, 7.2, 8, 9. The value attached to each sample is the result of a large number of judgments based upon the theory that differences equally often noticed are equal. Thus if one- half of the judges estimate a given specimen A as possessing more merit than another specimen B and one-half estimate B as superior to A, the best we can say is that the two possess equal merit. Were all of the judges to rate B as superior to A we would know that B is better than A, but not how much better. 94 The Use of Some Standard Tests But if only 75% of the judges consider B as better than A, then B is superior to A by some definite amount. If in addition 75% of the judges regard a third specimen C as better than B, and an equal per cent regard a fourth specimen D as better than C, and so on, we have the essentials of a scale. Each successive sample then represents a uniform increase in merit, and this uniform in- crease (i. e. an increase which 75% of judges recognize) becomes the unit to be employed in constructing the scale. It was through a process such as this that the samples on the scales were selected from a large number of specimens. Specimens which did not conform to the ''75%" distribution of judgments, were re- jected. As a matter of fact the scale makers did not find an entire set of specimens that conformed to this requirement, but they selected those which most nearly did so. It is for that rea- son that instead of having a scale with values 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc, we have 0, 1.1, 1.8, 2.8, 3.8, 5, etc. To use the scale we place the pupil's specimen beside the scale and find the particular scale sample to which the child's produc- tion most nearly corresponds in general merit. It is best to find first a sample on the scale which is not as good as the pupil's specimen. Then a second scale sample should be found which is clearly superior to the child's production to be rated. This establishes the limits within which the correct value of the speci- men we are rating lies, and facilitates the work of scoring. This method was used in each school tested. Where doubt arose as to whether a given specimen deserved the mark of a particular scale sample, e. g. 5, the scorers were instructed to compare it with the scale sample just above, i. e. 6, and the sample just be- low i. e. 3.8. If the pupil's specimen appeared to be better than the scale sample below, but not as good as the one above, i. e. better than 3.8 but not as good as 6, it was to be given the mark of the intermediate step, in this case 5. The mark was placed on the back of the specimen, obscured from view, and the paper rated by a second judge. If the two judges agreed the paper was not scored further. If they disagreed it was rated by a third judge. Then if two of the scorers agreed their mark was taken as the final mark. If all three differed the intermediate mark was taken, on the assumption that one judge rated it too high and the other too low. Composition 95 Before scoring the papers of an actual class the teachers who rated the specimens were given some preliminary practice in the use of the scale. For this purpose selected specimens of known value from Thorndike's ''English Composition, 150 Specimens Arranged for Use in Psychological and Educational Experi- ments," were used in many cases, though not in all. As a part of the preliminary practice, and in order to enable teachers to form some notion of the advantages of marking with a scale, they were first asked to rate each practice specimen on a scale of 100. After recording these ratings they were asked to rate each specimen in terms of the scale. To convert the latter to a per cent basis the scale ratings were multiplied by 10. When all had completed their ratings the correct or standard value for each specimen was made Imown. The number of points which each specimen was rated too high or too low, both with and with- out the scale, was then recorded. In every case it was found that the group of teachers as a whole rated more accurately with the scale than without. This was not always true of every teacher nor of every specimen. In most schools improvement resulting from the use of the scale was shown by a decrease in variation from the correct values of from one-third to one-half of that when judging without the scale. A detailed account of the preliminary experiment in one of the schools tested will be found in the issue of School and Society for February 2, 1918. In this school fifteen teachers were asked to rate twelve speci- mens. It was found that when estimating on a scale of 100 they were not only far from the correct value, but they rated almost invariably too high. Mediocre specimens were given a good mark. On the other hand some very good specimens were rated too low, because the teachers failed to appreciate their real merits. If the practice of rating mediocre specimens too high is general in everyday work, and there is good reason for be- lieving that it is, teachers are undoubtedly not getting the best out of their pupils. Instead of stimulating pupils to the highest quality of thinking they are capable of, the teachers are too readily satisfied with mediocre efforts. The occasional use of a scale to measure the quality of children's compositions should do much to stimulate better work in composition. "When asked to grade specimens for their general merit on a scale of 100, the teachers, as teachers in most schools, eoraplained 96 The Use of Some Standard Tests that they must know the grade to which a given specimen be- longed. This is due to the fact that teachers use one arbitrary standard in one grade and another in the next. If they are asked to tell what a mark of 80% on a seventh grade paper should be if that paper were produced in the sixth, they are utterly at sea. The fact that these teachers estimated poor specimens unduly high and that they underestimated some of the very best, seems to be good evidence that teachers ordinarily mark on the basis of their general impressions. When they are asked to rate a composition with a scale, and to make general merit the basis of their rating, they are not adopting a basis v/hich is essentially new or different. These 15 teachers were on the average 19.1 points away from the correct or standard value for each specimen when judging upon a 100 per cent basis. When they used the Trabue scale to, aid them in their rating they averaged 11.6 points from the standard value. Thus they improved their judgments by an average of 7.5 points or 39.1% for each specimen, in their first efforts at using a scale. With continued use they could doubt- less improve their ratings still more. Experiments in judging handwriting indicate that improvement in accuracy of rating with a scale continues over a considerable period of practice. (See Gray, Journal of Educational Psychology, Feb. 1915). If improvement continues in judging such a simple function as handwriting, there is no reason to believe that it would not con- tinue to improve in a complex function like composition. The writer found in a single experiment with fifteen judges that im- provement in rating composition continued to show in each of the four successive practice periods. Not only did the judgment of these teachers as a whole im- prove when aided by a scale, but the judgment of every teacher, except one, improved on one-half or more of the specimens. This one teacher was the best of the twelve judges without the scale. Yet she improved on four of the twelve specimens. She rated six the same in both cases. On two she did not judge as accurately. Out of 180 individual ratings required (i. e. 15 teachers judging 12 specimens) 125 or 69.4% showed a gain, 20 remained the same and 35 were not as good when using the scale. The results of this experiment indicate the increase in accuracy X)i judging compositions to be gained from the use of a scale. Composition 97 The Median Scores. What is the quality of the compositions v;hich Wisconsin children write? The median scores for each city by grades together with the date of the test and the sections tested are shown in Table 42, The median for all children tested, together with Trabue's proposed standards are given at the foot of the table. The schools have been arranged in ap- proximate order of the portion of the work of the grade which the children had on the average completed. Table 42. — Median Scores in Composition hy Cities' Cities Date tested Section tested III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI NO. Of children tested 1 9/28/16 10/ 3/16 10/ 9/16 10/23/16 11/27/16 12/ 5/16 12/12/16 1/ 9/17 1/ m 3/24/17 3/ 8/17 4/10/17 4/12/17 6/ 4/17 6/ 6/17 Total.... B B B B B B B B A&B A&B A A A A&B A&B 3.9 4.9 3.7 4.2 4.7 4.2 2.7 4.2 3.8 3.7 4.4 4.2 4.2 '4.' 8 A 4.9 5.6 4.2 4.6 5.0 4.4 3.7 5.4 4.0 3.8 4.2 4.1 3.8 5.3B 4.5A 79 9 2.4 1.9 '2!6 2.6 1.7 '2!6'" 1.7 1.7A 4.0 2.7 2.9 3.2 2.3 1.6 2.5 2.8 2.4 2.9 2.1 3.0 2.9 3.2 4.4 3.0 3.7 4.3 2.4 2.6 3.9 3.3 2.8 3.7 3.9 3.5 3.6B 5.0 4.3 5.3 530 3 331 4 5 4.8 5.7 6.7 467 344 6 4.4 4.7 4.9 4.2 4.3 315 7 331 8 353 9 1,209 10 11 5.9 6.9 1,208 84 12 4.5 4.3 5.4B 5.6A 186 13 14 4.9 5.0 5.4 169 128 15 114 5,848 Combined Median .. 2.0 2.7 3.5 3.4 4.0 4.0 4.5 4.3 5.0 4.6 i>.5 5.8 6.0 6.6 6.5 6.4 6.9 Trabue's Standard. . ^ Those desiring to make comparisons with schools outside of Wisconsin may do so by refer- ring to page 287 of "An Educational Survey of Janesville, Wisconsin." The children as a whole in these Wisconsin cities do not make a commendable showing. There is, however, a considerable dif- ference between the scores of different cities. The median for all eighth grades is only 4.6 which means the average eighth grade pupils did not write a composition as good as sample 5 on the Trabue Scale. Median sixth grade children did little better than the sample of the scale valued at 3.8. The median cf 2 for the third grade is just above Trabue's sample 1.9. The progress from median third grade performance to median eighth grade performance is less than three steps on the Trabue scale. This is certainly inadequate improvement for five addi- tional years of effort. In the best schools the median score was an entire step and sometimes as much as two steps higher on the s'cale. Why this difference, or why some schools should do much 98 The Use of Some Standard Tests Ijetter than others is somewhat difficult to understand. In some cases the scores may have been somewhat lenient, but the prin- cipal cause is a difference in teaching. Composition is better taught in some schools than in others. A single illustration will make this clearer. City No. 4 made a good showing in the elementary grades, particularly when the date of the test is considered. This school gives much attention to oral composition. The socialized recita- tion, in which pupils are encouraged to express themselves freely, is in use in this school. These two facts have resulted in shift- ing the major emphasis in language teaching from mechanics to thought work. The children in this school, more so than in some others, are primarily concerned with what they have to say. They are concerned with saying something worth while first of all. The mechanics, the cast, or framework, for what they say is secondary. This does not mean that they do not acquire a knowledge of the necessary mechanics of good composition equal to that of other children, but they do it as a result of a felt need for clothing what they have to say. A few selected papers from the test in this school follow : By a Fourth grade girl — age 10. Rated as 3.8 Next Saturday I would like to go to Appleton and play with my cousins. T would go with my mother, father, and sister. I would go at 10 a clock in the morning so I would have lots of time to play or do anything that came along. I would go and have a ice-cream with my cousins in the afternoon. "When I came home I would spend the rest of the afternoon playing or doing something like that. Then I would eat supper and after supper go home on the street-car at about 8 a clock. When I came home I would go to bed. By an Eighth grade boy — age 12. Rated, as 6 Saturday is the only vacation day of the whole school term except- ing holidays of which there are very few. I should like to go rabbit hunting next Saturday out to some farm. It is just the rabbit sea- son now and a fellow's fingers are twitching for the want of shooting a rabbit. Besides hunting there is pleasure in roaming around in the woods or plying about a marsh or swamp in a boat. There are many ether things to shoot such as squirrels, partridges, and ducks. I would like to know of any fellow who would not like to do this next Saturday. By a Tenth grade hoy — age 16. Rated as 7.2 I would like to spend next Saturday along the lake shore hunting ducks. Hunting is one of the finest sports there is and as the duck season is now open and the ducks seem quite plentiful, nothing appeals Composition 99 to me more than a days shootting. The very thought is invigorating. Anyone who has ever hunted knows what the attraction is. There are no words to explain how you feel when sitting behind a "blind" watch- ing a flock of ducks come sweeping, pass, circle, and then land among the decoys with a splash. Then the sport comes, when you rise up and pump shell after shell into the flock and then go out in the skiff and gather in your game. To hunt is the instinct of man which hb in- herited from his primeval forefathers. And through all the ages in which man has become slowly civilized that instinct has still remained, even though greatly moderated. The medians in schools which made high scores should serve as a tentative goal which others may hope to attain with im- proved teaching. Certainly a school in which language work is well taught should reach Trabue's standard. While it is an ideal rather than an actual standard, it appears to be neither impossible of attainment nor too exacting. That this standard is not too exacting may be judged by referring to the scale speci- mens. In fact it is lower than the best fourth of the pupils in several of our grades are already doing. This may be seen by reference to the figures for the upper 25 percentile in Table 43. Surely it is not asking too much that seventh grade children write a composition as good as quality five, or that pupils in the ninth grade of the high school write as well as quality six. That the standards set by Trabue from grade four on are not impos- sible of attainment, is shown by the fact that some schools in every elementary grade did even better. The Variation Within Grades — Do All Children of a Grade do Equally Well? The number of pupils in each grade whose papers were rated at each of the different steps may be seen from Table 43. The median and the lower and upper 25 percen- tile scores are shown at the foot of the tables. One-half in each grade did better than the median and the other half did not do as well. Three-fourths of the pupils in each grade did better than the lower 25 percentile and one-fourth did better than the upper 25 percentile. There is a very decided difference between the composition attainments of the best and poorest in every grade. The range of third grade scores extends more than half the length of the scale. One-half of the children however were between 1.3 and 2.8. In the sixth and seventh grade the range extends almost over the entire scale. This means that compositions produced by children in these grades range from the very poorest to almost the very best that we may expect. 100 The Use of Some Standard Tests Table 43. — Distribution of Composition Scores According to Quality For 15 Cities No. of Value of ill IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI children specimen! tested 59 216 140 34 314 3S9 139 283 6 62 197 1 34 121 4 12 84 124 1.83 1 3 778 2.60 1 1,218 3.69 50 254 318 356 261 212 24 7 3 1,485 4.74 12 80 172 292 226 204 55 25 1 1,067 5.85 1 42 72 107 126 159 87 35 17 646 6.75 10 21 61 71 85 65 52 16 381 7.72 3 1 18 21 23 22 31 7 126 8.3S 4 2 16 1 23 Total 478 1,126 1,026 1,103 868 783 257 167 45 5,848 Lower 25 percentile 1.3 1.9 2.5 3.2 3.4 3.6 4.9 5.6 2.0 2.8 2.7 3.6 3.4 4.3 4.0 5.0 4.3 5.3 4.6 5.7 5.8 6.6 6.6 7.4 6.4 Upper 2a percentile 1 Tbe results have been entered in terms of the steps on the original Hillegas scale. The results for the few schools reported in terms of the Trabue scale have been distrib- uted according to the nearest Hillegas scale step to which each pupil's score corre- sponded. Thus specimens rated 3.8 on the Ttabue scale appear opposite 3.69 in the table. The lamentable thing about it all is that these very poor and very good composition writers are too often in the same grade, and often in the same class with no provision being made to fit the teaching to their varying needs. Some children have been promoted to the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades who are ill no sense capable of doing the quality of language work that should be expected in these grades. Evidently the ability to write an average composition does not play the part that it should in determining fitness for promotion in some schools. Many of these children could derive greater benefits from the study of composition if placed in grades or classes where the work is nearer their level of comprehension. The upper 5% of the fourth grade pupils who already do as well as median eighth graders, or the upper quarter who now exceed the lower quarter of the seventh grade, will never be urged to the limit of their capacities unless they are given a different type of work, or are advanced more rapidly than others in the grade. Unless their ability is recognized they are apt to improve but little during the remaining years. Unless teachers can ap- peal to their imagination or can tax their real thought powers, they may become indifferent toward language work and even grow to dislike school. This will be particularly true if teach- Composition 101 ers insist upon drilling all of the class upon rules of formal grammar. What we have said of the fourth grade applies equally well to other grades. These brighter children in each grade should be .permitted to advance more rapidly. Work should be given them that is more nearly within their capacity. Wherever possible the brighter children should be grouped to- gether for language work, even though it be only a small group within a given grade or class. Similarly children of less capacity should be grouped together. Their deficiencies may be due to unfavorable language condi- tions in the home, to inferior mental endowments, or to poor pre- vious school training. But whatever the cause, the fact of their lack of development should be recognized. They should not be thrown in "helter-skelter" with others who are unusually ac- complished to succeed or flounder as best they may. They should be grouped with others who for the time being are approximately their equals. When children are grouped as we have indicated, teachers can more nearly adapt the work of the course to individual needs. The lockstep method of teaching all pupils in a class as though they were of the same level of attainment and thinking ability needs to be broken down in language teaching even more so than in other subjects. Slavish adherence to the "equality" method of treatment perhaps more than any other cause is re- sponsible for the poor showing in many schools. It accounts for the unusual degree of overlapping of abilities, i. e. where large numbers of children in lower grades excelled no small pro- portion of the children in several grades above. This is re- vealed in Table 43. The Kind of Work WJiich Teachers Demand — What Qualities do teachers value in children's compositions? Another factor only slightly less responsible for poor results in language, is the formal type of excellence which teachers expect, and with which they are satisfied. So long as teachers prize minor qualities to the neglect of the more valuable attributes of good composition they will fail to develop the best in children. Mechanical per- fection is too frequently the aim, both in the elmentary gra_des and in the high school. Content receives secondary considera- tion. Just as overemphasis upon formal grammar fails to de- velop children who will habitually use correct form in written 102 The Use of Some Standard Tests and spoken English, so too overemphasis upon the mechanical phases of composition fails to develop children who can produce oral or written compositions of genuine merit. Too rarely does it develop in a child a desire to express himself. All too often composition writing becomes a drudgery, and not a privilege. Almost without exception the teachers in schools tested, when asked to list the qualities which they prize in composition, men- tion mechanical qualities first. Among these they give: Spelling Paragraphing Use of capitals Punctuation Gramm.ar Sentence structure Apparently they would exercise little better judgment in grad ■ ing a paper than does the college professor who marks a paper "failed" if it contains three misspelled words, regardless of the ideas it expresses. Too many teachers, it is feared, have been influenced by the type of college instructor who fails a theme for what is commonly known as a "comma" fault, serious though it may be mechanically. It was usually only after some discus- sion that thought qualities, such as the following, were brought out: Unity Maturity of thought Emphasis Coherence Life Vividness Originality Imagination Color Choice of words Visualization Figurative language Many of the mechanical features are such as would pass un- noticed in oral composition, and therein lies one advantage to be gained from oral language work. Mechanical features are less apt to be placed in the foreground. Thought qualities have a greater possibility of being stimulated. Insufficient attention to oral composition is then another cause, which helps to account for the unsatisfactory attainments of children in composition. But even though gain will be made by a greater stress upon oral language, the best results can never be expected until teach- ers aim consciously and definitely at the development of the thought side. Thej^ must lead their pupils first of all to think, to observe, to have ideas, to reflect upon their experiences, and to tell them. Teachers must concern themselves above all with T\-hat children have to say, and only secondarily with the way in Composition 103 which it is said. Under this system, form will not be neglected but ability to use it will be acquired because the child feels a need for saying what he has to say in the most effective way. Some Suggested References Discussions on the Mea/surement of Composition Ballou, F. W. Scales for the Measurement of English Composition. Harvard-Newton Bui. No. 2. Breed & Frostic. Measuring English Composition in the Sixth Grade. Elem. School Journal, Jan. 1917. Chapman & Rush. The Scientific Measurement of Classroom Products. Composition Scales. Silver Burdett & Co. Haggerty & Brown. The Measurement of Improvement in English Composition. English Journal, Oct. 1917. Haggerty, M. E. Measurements & Diagnoses as Aids to Supervision. School d Society, Sept. 8, 1917. Hillegas, M. B. A Scale for the Measuremnet of English Composition by Young People. Bur. of Publications, Teachers College, N. Y. Also in Teachers College Record, Sept. 1912. Hudelson, E. Standards & Measurements in English Composition Second Conference on Educ. Meas., Indiana Univ., Bloomington. Kelly, F. J. Teachers Marks, Composition. Bur. of Publications, Teachers College, N. Y. Stark, W. E. Measurement of Eighth Grade Composition. School d- Society. Aug. 7, 1915. Theisen, W. W. Improving Teachers' Estimates of Composition Speci- mens with the Aid of the Trabue Nassau County Scale. School d- Society. Feb. 2, 1918. Trabue, M. R. Supplementing the Hillegas Scale. Teachers College Record, Jan. 1917. "Willing, M. H. The Measurement of Written Composition in Grades IV to VIII. English Journal, Mar. 1918. See also various school surveys: Butte, Salt Lake, Denver, Janesville, Grand Rapids, Nassau Co., N. Y., St. Paul. Composition Scales Ballou's Harvard Newton Composition, Scales. Harvard University Press. Price 10c. Hillegas — Scale for English Composition by Young People. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, N. Y. Price, 3c; in quantities, 2c. Thorndike Extension of the Hillegas Scale. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, N. Y. Price, 8c; in quantities, 5c. Trabue's Nassau County Supplement to the Hillegas Scale. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, N. Y. Price, 8c; in quantities, 5c. Willing Scale. Used in the Denver Survey. Bureau of Measurements and Standards, Emporia, Kansas. Methods of Teaching Composition Charters, W. W. Teaching the Common Branches. Row, Peterson & Co. Charters, W. W. 16th Year Book, National Society for the Study of Education, Part I. Minimal Essentials in Elementary Language and Grammar. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. 104 The Use of Some Standard Tests Deming, A. G. Language Games for all Grades. Beckley Cardy Co. Earhart & Small. English in the Elementary School, Elementary School Journal, September 1915. Goldwasser, I. E. Method and Methods in Teaching of English. Heath & Co. Hosic, J. F. Composition in Rapeer's book, Teaching Elementary School Subjects. Scribners. Hosic, J. F. Reorganization of English in Secondary Schools. U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin No. 2, 1917. Hosic, J. F. The Elementary Course in English. University of Chi- cago Press. Hosic, F. J. nth Year Book, National Society for the Study of Edu- cation. Composition Standards in Grades Two to Eight, Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. Klapper, Paul. The Teaching of English. Appleton & Co. Leiper, M. A. Language Work in Elementary Schools. Ginn & Co. Palmer, G. H. Self Cultivation in English. Houghton Mifflin Co. Parker, S. C. Methods of Teaching in High Schools. Chapter XI. Ginn & Co. Parkinson, L. D. Variety in Composition Assignments. English Journal, June 1918. Sheridan, B. M. Speaking and Writing in English. Sanborn & Co. CHAPTER V READING For the year 1916-17 systematic attempts to measure success in reading achievements were confined to silent reading. Other pliases of reading work such as rates of silent and oral reading, expression in oral reading, and ability to read orally without error, all of which are important for certain purposes, and nearly all of which receive distinct emphasis in the elementary grades, might be tested. Those who are especially interested in test- ing these phases of reading are referred to the works of Gray. Among these are his monograph, ' ' Studies in Elementary School Reading", and his reports on reading in connection with the St. Louis and Grand Rapids surveys. AVhile it would have been desirable oftentimes to have secured data on each of the various phases of reading ability, it was de- cided not to recommend tests requiring a large amount of labor, or which required scorers to exercise considerable judgment in marking papers. To those who desired to measure results in reading it was suggested that success in thought reading be tested first, on account of its overshadowing importance. Progress in and out of school depends largely upon ability to interpret the printed page. While the first few years of a child's reading efforts are devoted largely to a mastery of me- chanics it is for "the purpose of enabling him later to understand the language of books and to derive information from history, geography, science and literature. The child who is unable to grasp clearly the thought of the problem in arithmetic, or the events recorded in his history text, has little hope of success in these subjects. It is of small concern to his successful advance whether his oral reading is fluent and devoid of mechanical er- rors. If a child is to go through school and out into life as a clear thinking progressive citizen, he must be trained not only to read. 106 The Use of Some Standard Tests but to relish reading for the information it gives him and for the growth of ideas that it stimulates. No other mission which the school has is more important than such training. Nothing is of more consequence to a nation than a body of growing thinkers. Its citizens must be trained to read what its thinkers are writ- ing, and to exercise judgment as to the worth of what is read. The small proportion of our citizens who read the kind of ma- terial which stimulates intelligent thinking, can be charged largely to the failure of the schools in the past to develop the right kind of reading habits. It was for reasons such as these, that tests which measure ability to grasp the thought of the printed page were favored when recommendations were made to those desiring reading tests. In suggesting reading tests to be used during the year 1916- 17, the writer more often proposed the Kansas Silent Reading Test than any other. The test not only measures success in rapid thought reading but is easily administered and scored. The latter consideration was especially important in view of the fact that few teachers and superintendents in Wisconsin had had previous experience in giving standard tests. While criti- cism might be offered against certain of the paragraphs on the test, the simplicity and definiteness of the instructions for giv- ing the test, scoring the papers, and tabulating the results seemed to outweigh any objections that might be raised. The Kansas Silent Reading Test, the nature of which may be judged from the selected paragraphs shown on the page follow- ing, combines the elements of thought and speed. It contains a greater number of such paragraphs than can be answered by any pupil in the time given, five minutes. The paragraphs vary from those that are very easy to those that are quite difficult. A definite value is attached to each and a pupil's score repre- sents the sum of the A^alues attached to paragraphs correctly in- terpreted. There are three tests in the series. Test I for grades three, four and five, Test II for grades six, seven and eight, and Test III for high school grades. Eighteen cities reported their results on the test in the ele- mentary grades. Two of them included the scores made by high school students. The test in 15 of these cities was given by the writer. In most instances, however, he was assisted by the su- perintendent or some person designated by him. In each ease Reading 107 No. 8. Value 2.6 Here are two squ ares. Draw a line from the upper left-hand corner of the small square to the lower rig-ht-hancl corner of the large square. D D Ko. 9. A farmer puts one-half the hay from his field into the first stack, then two- thirds of what is left into a second stack, and the remain- der in a third stack. Which stack is the largest? No. 10. Below are two squares and a circle. If the circle is the largest of the three, put a cross in it. If one square is smaller than the circle, put a cross in the large square. If both squares are smaller than the circle, put a cross in the small square, D O D No. 11. "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. The lowing herds wind slowly o'er the lea. The ploughman homeward plods his weary way. And leaves the world to darkness and to me "— ■ Gray) Study the above quotation carefully. The author lets us know his feeling about the coming of night. If you think his feeling is one of fear and dread, underscore curfew. If his feeling is one of peace and gladness, underscore ploughman. No. 12. Read these carefully: Bears are larger than bugs. Houses are larger than Ijears. Mountains are larger than houses. Then bugs are not as large as mountains. I have tried to make no false statement among these four. If I have succeeded, underline the word success. If I have failed, un- derline the word failure. success failure 108 The Use of Some Standard Tests the person assisting, first observed the writer give the test, and Avas instructed by him before attempting to give the test himself. The principal requirement necessitating caution was that of ac- curate timing. In the three schools in which the tests were not given under the immediate direction of the writer, the persons in charge were experienced in giving standard tests. The Median Scores hy Cities How well do Wisconsin children read? The median scores, the date of the test and the sections tested for each city are in- dicated in Table 44. " B " sections in schools tested during the first semester, or " A " sections in those tested during the second refer to schools having only annual promotions. Table 44. — Median Scores For Kansas Silent Reading Test By Cities Cities Date of test Spction tested Test I Test II Test III No. tested in IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII 1 9/28/16 10/ 3/16 10/10/16 2/12/17 11/ 2/16 11/ 9/16 11/27/16 12/ 7/16 12/12/16 1/10/17 1/ 2/17 3/24/17 3/ 6/17 3/ 8/17, 5/10/17 1/ /ir 4/10/17 4/12/17 B B B A&B B B Bi B B B B A&B A A A A&B A A 14.6 12.1 15.3 12.0 13.3 12.8 13.5 13.1 17.3 12.0 11.1 13.8 11.9 ,12.8 14.6 14.4 10.7 19.0 14.5 14.7 14.6 15.3 '26!6' 10.8 13.5 17.6 30.5 23.2 132 2 1.2 1.7 3.3 5.7 3.4 2.3 14.0 4.4 5.1 5.3 6.9 7.0 10.7 9.3 14.2 17.8 15.3 16.7 15.2 19.2 15.9 12.2 18.0 19.2 16.5 21.6 16.0 15.9 20.1 17.0 16.5 16.3 20.2 18.9 20.4 28.1 16.2 17.4 16.5 19.6 21.3 20.1 17.7 13.0 16.3 30.8 19.8 20.3 552 3 431 4 494 719 g 476 7 8 9 422 ..1 316 96 10 11 12 13 14 5.3 11.9 4.9 5.3 4.5 2.1 6.0 6.3 0.8 11.0 17.4 9.2 10.0 11.2 6.3 11.8 11.3 8.5 17.5 14.8 12.1 14.7 14.7 10.6 16.9 15.0 12.0 358 152 22.4 24.4 27.6 26.4 1,390 517 128 15 16 17 18 303 760 228 75 Median Standa 4.3 5.3 8.B 9.5 13.6 13.2 14.1 13.9 17.1 19.8 7,549 rd r 1 1 The cities are arranged in the approximate order of the por- tion of the work of the grade which the children had on the av- erage completed at the time of the test. Thus, pupils in the first city of the table had completed less than one-ninth of the work of the grade, while those in the eighteenth had completed approximately eight-ninths of the grade. Children in cities near the foot of the table should score much higher than those in cities near the top. An examination of the table reveals the fact that as far as these schools are representative, Wisconsin children are below Reading 109 the standard in the third and fourth grades. This is in line with conclusions drawn from reading exercises witnessed in these grades. Few teachers give sufficient attention to training young children to get rapidly and accurately the thought of what they read. In the remaining elementary grades Wisconsin children read better than the standard set by 100,000 children in other states. The table reveals further that different schools attain different degrees of success in the teaching of reading. With the possible exception of the scores for the third and fourth grades of schools tested early in the school year, the median scores bear little relation to the work of the grade which the children had completed. Some of the very lowest scores were made late in the year. Since Test I was identical in grades three, four and five, com- parisons may be made between these grades. Similarly grades six, seven and eight in which Test II was used may be compared. Some fifth grade classes did not do as well as others of the fourth. Likewise, some fourth grade classes made a lower me- dian score than some third classes, and some even lower than the standard of the third grade. The poorest eighth grade class scored lower than the standard for grade six. The best eighth grade classes scored more than double that of the poorest. The best sixth grade score is nearly double that of the poorest. Such conditions sre unwarranted and cannot be accounted for on any other ground than that some schools accomplish much less than they are capable of. When sixth grade classes in some schools can read as well as eighth grade classes in others, as happens, eighth grade teachers should be asked to explain why their chil- dren have attained no greater proficienc3^ On the other hand successful teachers in the sixth grade, and elsewhere, should be asked to explain the secrets of their success in teaching reading. Demonstrations should be arranged which other teachers may be permitted to see and to discuss. Better teaching, closer supervi- sion of the methods employed, and more careful examination of successful methods of teaching reading, as well as an abundance of suitable reading material will be necessary in many schools before the limit of the possibilities in reading development can be even approached. 110 The Use of Some Standard Tests The scores shown for school 11 and for the third grade of school 8 deserve mention. For the latter the writer verified the results by examining the paper of each child' in the single class represented. These children are unusually capable and will bear watching throughout their school course. School 11 made a good showing not only in the third grade but in others. It is a good illustration of successful results attained through a con- scious effort to develop good reading. The interest of the su- perintendent in this city led him to measure the achievements of the pupils in other standard reading tests. For this purpose the Starch and the Thorndike reading tests were employed. It is significant that the children again far exceeded the standards set. Undoubtedly, the children in this school are good readers. Two phases of the method of teaching reading in this school account in a measure for its success. One of these is the group- ing of the children. Pupils of a given grade are divided for the purposes of the reading recitation into several small groups. Each group reads material suited to the abilities of the children in it. As many reading texts may be in use at a given moment as there are groups. Children of a group commonly read to the other members of their own group while the teacher passes from one group to the next. This not only gives a pupil an oppor- tunity to read material suited to his own ability to comprehend, but it gives him much more frequent opportunity to read than under ordinary classroom methods. He spends less time in hear- ing some one else read what is no longer of interest to him. The other phase of the reading method in this school which accounts for the unusual ability of the children is the large amount of reading that is done in the course of a school year. As a re- sult, in part at least, of the frequent opportunity that children have to read under the grouping system, they read much more than the average number of books. They learn to read hy read- ing. Certainly the success attained in the school to which we have just referred should commend the method for trial in other school systems. The writer's observation leads him to believe that the mediocre results obtained in several of the schools is to be accounted for in part by the niggardly policy adopted by school boards toward the purchase of sufficient reading material. In some schools the children read onlv one-half or one-third as Reading 111 many books as in others. When superintendents are asked to account for it, their usual reply is, that the board has been un- willing to purchase additional material, and that teachers do not feel warranted in asking pupils to purchase books whicli they will use but a few short weeks. Such an undemocratic pol- icy on the part of boards of education cannot be too severely condemned. A policy since adopted to meet this situation in one of these schools is worthy of note. On the strength of recommendations made, the board purchased a number of sets of supplementary readers but not in sufficient quantity to provide all buidings Avith a set of each. Provision is made for systematic exchange of sets between buildings. On a certain day of each week, known as "book exchange" day, sets that have been completed are forwarded to the superintendent's office which acts as a clear- ing house. These sets are apportioned to different buildings by the supervisor of grades. At the close of the afternoon session, messenger boys from these schools come for the books which are thus available for use on the following day. While this system is especially adapted to use in large school systems, it can be employed to a limited extent by small schools in neighboring villages. At the comparatively small additional cost of trans- portation, two small schools could under a cooperative arrange- ment double the number of books available. The Distrihufion of Scores How well does the reading of some children in a grade com- pare with that of others 1 Table 45 serves to indicate the varia- tions in reading achievement for the children in each grade. Comparatively few teachers would admit offhand that such marked variations are possible within a grade. . Yet the table confronts us with the^ facts. A few of the very low scores, par- ticularly in the third grade, may be due to failure to under- stand what was wanted. But no such explanation can account for the fact that the best third grade readers attained a score four times that of the standard median for their grade. In each of the other grades there are children whose score was nearly three times that of the standard median for their grade. A considerable proportion of each grade failed to attain a score half as large as the expected standard. Moreover, an unusual 112 The Use of Some Standard Tests proportion in each elementary grade did better than many chil- dren in grades above. More than one-fifth of the children in the third grade read better than the poorer half of the fourth grade. Similarly, nearly one-fifth of the fourth grade surpassed the poorer half of the fifth grade. More than a third of the sixth grade excelled the lower half of the seventh and a third of the seventh grade pupils read better than median eighth grade chil- Table 45. -Distribution of Scores in Kansas Silent Reading Test For 11 Cities Store Test I Test II Test III III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII 0- .9 193 163 139 84 126 183 125 82 56 45 29 12 4 1 46 42 61 54 71 176 187 158 144 122 73 47 17 4 4 2 5 11 13 14 31 69 118 148 i74 218 201 in9 87 21 12 10 4 2 2 5 13 18 46 115 121 126 115 14.5 144 71 44 24 31 2 2 4 1 3 8 5 41 67 90 114 110 182 156 127 89 55 69 n 2 2 2 1- 1.9 2- 2.9 ■i 6 7 15 37 44 67 85 161 164 163 96 55 93 34 5 4 2 1 1 5 5 11 17 14 37 31 25 34 19 31 10 8 a- 3.9 1 1 1 2 2 5 5 23 17 14 18 10 31 7 6 2 3 1 1 4- 4.9 5- 6.9 1 7- 8.9 9-10.9 2 6 5 11 8 11 16 14 21 4 12 2 5 1 1 11-12.9 13-14.9 o 15-17.9 5 •18-20.9 10 21-23.9 3 24-26.9 14 27-29.9 ■^0-34.9 6 13 35-39.9 3 40-44.9 5 45-49 9 50-59 9 2 60-69 9 70 79 9 1 2 1 1 1 Total 1,242 4.3 5.3 1,208 8.6 9.5 1,305 13.6 13.2 1,026 14.1 13.9 1,137 17.1 16.2 1,040 19.8 19.2 254 21.4 22.7 IbO 24.7 24.7 1-21 26.0 26.1 66 26.4 Standard Medran 28.3 dren. Were these children who exceed the median of the grade above to be grouped with the upper half of the higher grade for purposes of reading, in every school, there is good reason to be- lieve that better reading results would be obtained than under present conditions. This has been attempted in one school sys- tem to the writers knowledge with satisfactory results. It would seem either that ability to read plays little part in determining promotion, or that teachers diifer widely in the de- gree of reading development required for promotion. Both factors very likely help to account for the extreme variations in the reading ability of pupils nominally in the same grade. Reading 113 Many too, fail to recognize the true abilities of their pupils. This may be illustrated from an inquiry made by the writer re- garding one of the two eighth grade pupils whose score on the test fell between 50 and 59.9. The teacher when asked how she accounted for the unusual score of this boy, replied that he was not a bright boy at all. But upon further questioning she ad- mitted that he was a strong pupil in all work requiring thought. He was not fluent in oral reading and was afflicted somewhat with "bashfulness". She had formed her estimate upon surface qualities alone. No doubt many teachers have revised their opinions of a number of their pupils as a result of the test. The use of various standard tests is recommended for that purpose. Regardless of whether or not teachers have judged the ability of their pupils accurately, or have promoted wisely, the condi- tion of wide differences in reading ability among these pupils is an actual and present fact, which needs to be taken into ac- count in planning work for them. The condition which Table 45 reveals is particularly serious as it applies to the eighth grade. These children are about to enter high school very unequally prepared to undertake the study of English and other secondary school subjects. Definite training in reading in the high school for some, will be perhaps the most economical means of meeting this situation, and is therefore recommended. Some of the in- dividual differences, shown by Table 45, have resulted from the teaching, others from inequalities in the native endowments of the children. Teachers must be brought to see that equal ef- forts on their part, or on the part of pupils often produce very unequal results. Some of these children have had the advan- tage of better teaching, but others have probably acquired greater facility in reading with no greater effort, simply because they were more richly endowed by nature. In order that no mis- takes may be made in estimating the ability of the individuals in a class as the result of a single test, other standard reading tests should be applied. A composite result of several tests will afford a much more satisfactory diagnosis of individual ability in reading than a single test. When a satisfactory diagnosis of the reading abilities of each child has been made his work should be planned accordingly. Children of somewhere near equal attainments or interests may be grouped together tem- porarily. These groups may be flexible and readily changed. 114 The Use of Some Standard Tests Not all children in the class need be required to read the same material, or need be expected to progress at the same rate. What elements in the teaching of reading, or in the reading needs of children, contribute to differences in their reading ac- quirements? Good readers will be found to differ from poor readers in knowledge of the mechanics of reading. As a result of insuffi- cient familiarity with the mechanics, the poor reader spends much of his time in puzzling out the pronunciation of words. This serves to distract him from the thought of what he reads. The good reader proceeds uninterrupted and is able to retain what he reads as an organized whole, and to reflect upon it. The poor reader is often handicapped by a lack of knowledge of the meanings of words. Until he understands their meaning he has little hope of getting the thought of what he reads. Hence arises the need for selecting different reading materials for each of the different groups of the class. All need not read the same stories or even the same books. Poor readers should be given material within the range of their comprehension, introducing only a few words at a time that are new to them. It is poor economy. to select material so difficult that only the brightest can enjoy it. Pupils differ in their ability to grasp the thought of what they read. Gray in his study of reading in the St. Louis schools found that even though pupils might be equally proficient in their mastery of mechanics they might differ materially in their ability to master the thought. Some can apparently reflect upon the story as a whole while others can deal only with very small parts of it. Their ability to organize their ideas as to the worth of what they have read differs. Wide differences will be found in the amounts which they can remember of what is read. A marked difference will be found in the rates of their oral and silent reading. This fact undoubtedly accounts in part for the wide variations in reading scores shown in Table II. Some pupils acquire habits of slow reading early in their school course and remain slow readers often for life. Gray in his study of reading in the St. Louis schools found that in some classes the rate of oral reading for the most rapid readers was more than four times as great as that of the slowest. The writer has found Reading 115 that the most rapid readers in a class seldom read less than three times as much as the slowest in the same time. Finally differences in interests should be taken into account. Interesting material is a prerequisite to all good reading. The type of story that is most appealing to boys in intermediate and grammar grades is often quite different from that which appeals to girls. This is a matter of common knowledge among libra- rians in children's departments of our public libraries. To be of most service, reading material for children reared in foreign language homes should involve experiences which they can ap- preciate. Factors in teaching which account for differences in the re- sults obtained are several. Among the most important of these is the attention given to preparation. Too many teachers make little preparation for the day's lesson. They trust largely to their memory for the story of the lesson, instead of preparing a number of motivating questions which will require pupils to do reflective thinking about today's lesson or that will help them to prepare tomorrow's lesson. Too frequently their questions are of the trivial, ''who was John?" sort. They are such as occur to them at the moment and lack any deep seated purpose. The teacher who asked her children how they would paint the story in today's lesson, or how they would dramatize it, broached questions that required her pupils to do reflective thinking. Such questions not only supply pupils with a motive but require them to organize, to weigh values, to exercise judgment, to select essentials from nonessentials, and provide them with opportun- ity for the exercise of initiative. A second important factor is the teachers familiarity with the field of reading material. Too often teachers are unacquainted with the best available material for children. Rarely do they have anything like an adequate acquaintance with the literature best adapted to children of various interests. Another important factor sometimes resulting in a handicap to children is the teacher's lack of facility in teaching the me- chanics of reading. She is unable to give pupils the help re- quired to master new situations. Poor readers frequently are permitted to spend undue time in pondering over the pronuncia- tion of a word. The result is that less time is left for reading. Pupils can often be made more independent by the acquisition 116 The Use of Some Standard Tests of a few simple rules or by being taught to look for parts of a word that are familiar. The aims in primary reading established by a school are a mat- ter for serious consideration. Many teachers, particularly those enamored by certain well advertised schemes of teaching prim- ary reading, insist that the sole purpose is to develop ability to use the mechanics of reading. Others wisely train children to get the thought of the story from the beginning, as well as to master the mechanics. Gray after his study of the reading achievements of the children in Cleveland, Grand Rapids and St. Louis concludes : ' ' It is evident that of two schools, the one which masters the mechanics as it is developing in its power to interpret the printed page will rank superior in general reading ability to the school which masters mechanics alone. "^ If good reading is desired it is important that pupils spend the reading period in reading. Easy reading is much to be pre- ferred to material that makes the recitation a word stumbling exercise. Pupils should read material because it appeals to their imagination, because it is entertaining, or because it gives them useful information, and not for practice in mere word calling. In one of the schools tested the writer observed a third grade read- ing exercise in which most of the children spent more time in waiting to be told the pronunciation of words than in actual read- ing. Approximately one-third of the recitation period had been spent in acquiring the pronunciation of difficult words. This was followed by oral reading. The first boy called upon hesi- tated on the third word encountered. The class pronounced it for him. He hesitated again after reading three words farther. He continued thus until he had finished two or three lines. A second pupil did much the same. A third read a paragraph fluently without error. A fourth and a fifth read much as the first two. Another was able to read a paragraph without help. Here the lesson closed without a comment having been made by the teacher or pupils. Four additional pages were assigned for the next day's lesson. The story, that of "The Meadow Mouse, ' ' would have been interesting to children more advanced than these. As it was, very little practice in reading was being ^Gray: Chapter on Reading in the Survey of the St. Louis PubHc Schools, Reading 117 given, and that of a kind not designed to make thoughtful readers. Much of the material which children are called upon to read lacks vitalizing interest. It is of a kind not intended to result in reflective thinking. Teachers often need to exercise choice. Keading texts need not be followed slavishly. Unappealing stories need to be omitted or made appealing by the teacher's en- largement upon them. Unusually good stories, not in the read- ers in use, may often be mimeographed or written upon the board. Few teachers seem to realize that a' reading recitation can be conducted in any other way than as an oral exercise in which each pupil reads a few lines in turn. More practice in both oral and silent reading is needed. In the ordinary class a pupil has opportunity to read once during the recitation period. If he is one out of a class of twenty, he is occupied about one-twentieth of the time of the reading period in oral reading practice. What more glaring illustration of inefficiency could be found than this 1 Such procedure not only affords negligible practice in oral reading but it requires a pupil to listen to the re-reading of ma- terial no longer of interest to him. In addition it deprives him of valuable time that could otherwise be spent in silent reading. Sectioning the class into small groups is one means of securing for the pupils more practice in oral reading. Another method is that of allowing a pupil who has a new and well prepared story to read it to the class. The child who reads to his class in this manner has a motive for developing good expression and his classmates have a motive for listening. Some class periods should be spent in silent reading. To center attention upon the thought of what is read the teacher may at times prepare well directed questions to accompany the exercise. Facility in rapid thought getting can be increased by the fre- quent use of practice exercises. The teacher may assign a new selection, or mimeographed copies of selected paragraphs may be distributed. At the end of one minute, or some other definite period, pupils may be asked to write answers to questions which the teacher has prepared, or they may be asked to reproduce what they can remember. The results should be made the basis for a study of individual needs. 118 The Use of Some Standard Tests Emphasis upon rapid reading, particularly in the lower grades should be insisted upon by supervisors. Many of the low scores that were made in the test are undoubtedly due to the fact that pupils have been permitted from the beginning to choose their own rate. As the result the habit of slow reading has become strongly fixed. Finally the need of definite standards in reading attainments should be mentioned. Many teachers fail to develop good read- ers because they are unaware of the fact that their puj)ils have made less than average progress. Not only should definite class standards be set but each pupil should know how his record compares with the standard for the class. How well a class reads may be measured by applying standard reading tests. Records on these tests should be kept prominently before the class. Subsequent progress may be determined by the use of tests of similar design. Some Suggested References Discussions on the Measurement of Reading Brown, H. A. The Measurement of Efficiency of Instruction in Read- ing. Elementary School Teacher, Vol. XIV, June 1914. Brown, H. A. The Measurement of Alility to Read. Bureau of Re- search. Bulletin No. 1. New Hampshire Department of Public Instruction. Gray, W. S. Methods of Testing Reading. Elementary School Journal, January 1916, February 1916. See also issues of November and December 1916. Gray, W. S. Studies of Elementary School Reading Through Standard- ized Tests. Supplementary Educational Monograph No. 1. Chi- cago University Press. Gray, W. S. Reading. Survey of the St. Loiiis Public Schools, Vol. II. Haggerty, M. E. Scales for Reading Vocabulary of Primary Children. Elementary School Journal, October 1916. Haggerty, M. E. The Ability to Read: Its Measurements and Some Factors Conditioning it. Indiana University Studies No. 34. Holmes, H. W. and Others. Harvard Bulletin in Education, No. 5, June 1917. Contains bibliography of measurement in elementary school subjects. Harvard University. Judd, C. H. Measuring the Work of the Schools. Cleveland Survey Reading, Russell Sage Foundation, N. Y. Judd, C. H. The 15th Tear Book of the National Society for the Study of Education, Fart I, Reading 1916. Kelley, F.. J. The Kansas Reading Tests. Journal of Educational Psychology. February 1916. Kelley, F. J. The Kansas Silent Reading Test. Kansas State Normal, . Emporia, Kansas. Bulletin No. 7, Vol. IV, New Series. Monroe, W. S. A Report on the Use of the Kansas Silent Reading Tests. Journal of Educational Psychology, Dec. 1917. Reading 119 National Society for the Study of Education, llth Year Book, Part II. Contains a good bibliography of references on the measurement of reading and other subjects. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, Illinois. Thorndike, B. L. An Improved Scale for Measuring' Ability in Read- ing. Teachers College Record, Nov. 1915, Jan. 1916. Thorndike, E. L. Measurement of Achievement in Reading: Word Knowledge. Teachers College Record, Nov. 1916. Thorndike, E. L. Reading as Reasoning: A Study of Mistakes in Paragraph Reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, June 1917. Thorndike, E. L. The Understanding of Sentences: A Study of Errors in Reading. Elementary School Journal, Oct. 1917. Uhl, W. L. The Use of Results of Reading Tests as a Basis for Plan- ning Remedial Work. Elementary School Journal, Dec. 1916. Zirbes, Laura. Diagnostic Measurement as a Basis for Procedure. Elementary School Journal, March 1918. See also various school survey reports: Cleveland, Denver, Grand Rapids, Janesville, Nassau Co., N. Y., San Francisco. Selection of Reading Material. Dana, J. C. American Library Economy, Course of Study for Normal School Pupils on Literature for Children. Elm Tree Press, Wood- stock, Vermont. Gray, W. S. A Study of the Emphasis on Various Riases of Reading. Instruction in Two Cities. Elem. Sch. Jour., Nov. 1916. Kendall and Mirick. Hoiv to Teach the Fundamental Branches. What to Read. Hough1;on Mifflin Co. Munson & Hoskinson. Library and Supplementary Reading Books Recommended for Use in Elementary Schools. 16th Year Book, National Society for the Study of Education. Public School Pub. Co., Bloomington, 111. Standard Reading Tests Brown's Silent Redding Tests. Pres. H. A. Brown, State Normal School, Oshkosh, Wis. Fordyce's Scale for Measuring the Achievements in Reading. Univer- sity Publishing Company, Chicago. Gray's Reading Tests: Silent and Oral. Dean W. S. Gray, University of Chicago. Haggerty's Visual Vocabulary Tests. For Grades I and II. Bureau of Coop. Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Haggerty's Reading Test; Understanding of Sentences. Scale Beta — a revision of Thorndike's Scale Alpha. Bureau of Coop. Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Kansas Silent Reading Tests. Bureau of Educational Measurements and Standards, Emporia, Kansas. Monroe's Slandarized Tests in Silent Reading (a revision of the Kan- sas Silent Reading Tests.) Bureau of Educational Measurements and Standards, Emporia, Kansas. Starch's Silent Reading Tests. Daniel Starch, University of Wiscon- sin, Madison. Thorndike's Improved Scale for Measuring the Understanding of Sentences: Scale Alpha 2. Bureau of Publications, Teachers Col- lege, N. Y. Thorndike's Improved Scale for Word Knowledge or Visual Vocabu- lary: Scale A 2. series x and series y; Scale B. series x and series y, Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, N. Y. 120 The Use of Some Standard Tests Methods of Teaching Receding Bobbitt, F. Report of the School Survey of Denver, Part II, Reading Literature and Memory Work. School Survey Committee, Denver. Briggs and Coffman. Reading in the Public Schools. Row, Peterson Co. Coffman, L. D. and Frances Jenkens. Reading in Rapeer's book. Teaching Elementary School Subjects. Scribners. Freeman, F. N. The Psychology of the Common Branches. Reading. Houghton, Mifflin Co. Gray, C. T. Types of Reading Ability. University of Chicago Press. Gray, W. S. 16th Year Book, National Society for the Study of Edu- 'cation. Gray, W. S. Relation of Silent Reading to Economy in Education. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. «Gray, W. S. The St. LouAs Survey. Reading. Board of Education, St. Louis. •Gray, W. S. The Grand Rapids Survey, Reading. Board of Education, Grand Rapids. ;Huey, . E. B. The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading. MacMillan Company. Jenkens, Frances. Reading in the Primary Grades. Houghton Mif- flin Co. Judd, C. H. Fourth Indiana Conference on Educational Measurements. Discussion of Reading. School of Education, University of In- diana (in press). Judd, C. H. Measuring the Work of the Schools. Reading. Russell Sage Foundation, N. Y. Kendall and Mirick. How to Teach the Fundamental Subjects. Houghton Mifflin Co. Klapper, Paul. Teaching Children to Read. Appleton & Co. Maple, E. 0. Teaching Reading in Vincennes, Indiana. Elem. Sch. Jour., Oct. 1917. Proceedings, Indiana State Teachers Meeting, 1916. Schmidt, W. A. An Experimental Study in the Psychology of Read- ing. Univ. of Chicago Press. Thorndike, E. L. Proceedings of a Conference on Educational Meas- urements. Indiana Univ. Bui., Vol. XII, No. 10. The Psychology of Thinking in the Case of Reading. Phychological Rev., May 1917. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 490 885 2