The leader., 1897-04-28
DIR. Rice's Test Applied to the
Brookhayen Public School.

BrOokhaven Public School.
Doubtless all are familiar with
the name of DIR. Rice, who for
many years has devoted his whole
time to the study of American Ed
ucational problems. All will re-
call the stir created in 1892 aud
1893 by his articles OH "The Pub
lie School System in the United
States" For many years he has
been of the opinion that the efforts
on the part of the child during his
schooling are not adequately re-
warded by the results. At pres.
ent he is writing for the Forum a
series of articles, whose object is to
point out some means of remedy
ing existing defects.
In the December Forum he dis
cusses "Obstacles 10 Rational Eda.
cational Reform In his opinion
the greatest obstacles to improve.
ments ale a. a lack of "Standards
by which the teacher may be able
to determine when his task, in a
given branch, has been satisfactOr.
lily performed; (2) lack of stand
ards which will enable rs to judge
how much time is needed to secure
definite result" AS step to.
ward establishing these needed
standards Dr. Rice has devoted
the past two years to examining,
in a number of school branches
spelling, penmanship, English com.
position and acknowledgements
taught 10y every conceivable meth
cd, in schools representing very
large section of our country.
His researches in spelling were
begun in February, 1895, and ex
tended over a period of sixteen
months. During this time he made
three different tests. The results
of these tests and DIR. Rice's con-
clusion from them are published in
the April Forum under the caption,
''The Futility of the Spelling
Grind"
Each test was of a different
kind. The first test consisted of
list of fifty words to be written
from dictation; in the second test
''tho words were written in sen
tences, fifty words being EN-
plOyed in the fourth and fifth year
classes, and seventy-five i'll the
sixth, seventh and eighth. In pre-
pairing this test special care was
exercised to omit words whose pro-
nunciation would tell the secret"
The third test was made in the
form of compositions. Tie COM
positions represented the reproduc-
ton of a story specially prepared
for the purpose.
AS DR.. Rice regards the results
of the first test with suspicion, and
as the special story used in the
third test is not given. determined,
after a consultation with the
teachers directly interested, to give
the test DIR. Rice used to the pu-
pills in our fourth, fifth, sixth, sew
enth and eighth year classes. For
the information of the patrons of
the school, | wish to state the re-
suits of this test. The averages
are based on the number of words
correctly spelled i'll every hundred.
For example, an average of 20
means that a pupil spelled correct.
ly 20 words in 100 or 80 words in
SO. =
FOURTH YEAR.
DIR. Rice examined 212S fourth
year pupils belonging to 30 classes
in u schools. The lowest class
average was 53.3, the highest, ,79.S;
the average for all, 64.2.
l gave the test to twenty six pu-
pills in our fourth grade. They
made an average of 72.1.
FIFTH YEAR.
There were 80 classes of fifth
year pupils numbering 2236, ex-
amined by DIR. Rice. The class
averages ranged from 66.4, the low
est, to S3.6, the highest. The gen.
eral average was 75.1.
The twenty-three pupils present
to take the test averaged 1876.
SIXTH YEAR.
The number of sixth-year pupils
was 1877, members of 80 classes.
The averages of the sixth year
classes run from 81 to 80, the gen
eral average being 70.4.
The twenty.seven members of
our sixth grade, who took the test,
averaged IA.
SEVENTH YEAR.
1870 pupils belonging to 2S