The evening times., 1900-04-14

tion books were gathered up and brought
10 the District Committee room.
An arrangement was made with the
chief examiner OF the Census Bureau and
the chief examiner OF the Civil Service
Commission TO have the books marked and
graded upon a plan agreed upon.
After the marking was completed the
books were returned to the committee: and
inasmuch as each book bears a distinctive
number besides the name OF the pupil and
the schools. the markings are subject 10
Neriflcation."
The arithmetic examination paper is
printed in full in the report and the follow
ing comment upon the results Of the eX-
animation is made:
The paper was done in twenty minutes;
IL contains only such problems as occur in
everyday business life. and il is clearly
within the instruction given in the seventh
grade OF the 1.lSS pupils examined, hf-
teen did all the problems correctly: of this
number eleven were in the Business High
School. two were in the Central and one
was in each the cOlored and Eastern High
Schools or this number twelve We're pu-
pills of the Business High School twhitel.
While ! per cent Of the pupils made Ice per
cent in arithmetic. 60 per cent of those eN-
amined made 80 or above; 81 per cent of
the pupils made 20 per cent and above. The
average per cent attained by the ! lSS pu-
pills was 5SS2.
1t is entirely safe to say that less than
a third OF the High School pupils could
pass the ordinary arithmetic examinations
for clerical positions as set by the Census
Bureau or the Civil Service Commission,
Notwithstanding the fact that these pupils
have finished their instruction in arith-
metic This might be an argument
against the severity of those examinations
were it not for the fact that both the Cen
sus Bureau and the Civil Service Commits
sion have no lack of persons on their eli
gible rolls
After quoting the history examination
paper the report says:
Here again the questions were not only
well within the instruction received. but
no definite amount Of work was required.
All that was specified was the pupil should
possess in the language Of The report OF
the School Trustees. a clear. connected.
sequCntial view Of the whole subject "a
subject which they had been studying for
nye years. The markings were bss-d sim
ply on the excellence Of the work each pu-
pil did The average number - words
written was less than Zoe.
The history paper was taken also as
the basis % the examination fu sr.llfuE
grammar. anu anu TT.
the ties favored rhr TUFH- i-rsH~r .trF
were using their own vocabulary. ll#
they were iu doubt as fo thg a.eI uE 10
one Word thcy were ar liberty rn -r.
synonym.
NO pupH made Doe pfr r.rf .u h.sa.r
sna OF the lsk Hg Is l-f rr r.r .-uf
made 81 or over. and Hr. ~ Tr wair
- or over The average r.T ".u. H.rHl
hy The Ilss rup.s H history aas
lists are urHt given af Do words H''rn
m.s,pslie1 ~ fhs pupils .u. . rrf
humber of msaulrl l..f-s Cr r....H... wrong
answers given Co Nar.au- E..s.H- -H
nj uE up the result. uf .H.
fbs rtuort says
GradtuE of H"aL-
The following b. Ca rfarrrtr. aE s.rts
fer..8h.s to he examiners Ir El. grading
~ .rs book. as 90 history. sgataefssI ere
r1rs m...pe.lsd worE-. errors la rar.-ua-
tlau errors il use 1f vor5s. sHs pern1n-
-s.r.
! Incorrect use of hynh-r.
.taa NJ. .-diyisiou of words d. end of line.
a. N.--l.s. ppi Filg-ri between.
#h. s tendency t8 a-a Ui hgphtu In
compound words which should boz written
s- solid word. Manufactured compound
vnrHs
-tcl Use of hyphon between root Of word
and prefix or sufiiV: as. return failed.
, Msspclliug Of simple ordinary words
OF one and two syllables-
A tendency to use the comma g. too
frequently. Failure in a number Of in
stances to use the period - al the end OF
a sentence and after an abbreviaiion
- Incorrect use of the parenrhosis. Pu-
pills use the parenthesis TO enclose matter
which they desire cancelled this is wrong.
and leads the pupil to have a false concep-
tiGn Of the use of the parenthesis.
-. Penmanship very poor. large per
centsge writing backhand This was par
ticuIarly noticeable in the Central High
School books.
A large percentage wrote mixture OF
four or more styles OF penmanship. viz.
backward. vertical, Speucerian. etc. This
was observable in a number OF cases in a
single line of penmanship.
%. In marking the history it NJs appl-
rent thai a very large percentage OF the
pupils lacked the ability TO express them
selves intelligently in simple. choice. con-
else. and correct English. style and matter
being particularly poor. Their answers
betrayed crude ideas and concepti0ns OF
historical facts concerning their country,
and were expressed in very crude Ian
guage The questions in history were
simple and not misleading or technical.
Pupils displayed a lack of knowledge on
essential elementary facts in relation TO