The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-06-19
NEWARES PLACE
AMONG COUnTRY'S
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Prof. Leonard P. Ayres Analyses
Report. of Russell Sage
Foundation.
MASSACHUSETTS FIRST
AND NEW JERSEY LAST.
Foreign Pupils Not Responsible
for Poor Showing in the
Various Grades.
BY LEONARD p. AyREs.


The n phase of civic activity which
In America consumes much of the pub
lie revenues, and which by its very
allure has generally bafied all at
tempts at comparison, is the public
school system.
Because the school deals in individ-
uals rather than in inanimate nate
rails it a been claimed that ii is i'm
possible to compare the system of one
city with that of another in achieve
ment. There are many respects In
which this claim is a valid one.
During the past two years the Rus
sell Sage Foundation, of New York
city, "a conducted an extensive in
v~estigation into school conditions In
different American cities. The results
of this inquiry will furnish educators
all over the country with facts which
they canno afford to ignore, concern
ing the number and cost of r~epeaters,
the number of backward or retarded
children, the rate at which the pupils
progress through the grades, the pro-
portion Of beginners who continue un-
til they graduate from the elementary
course and many other similar sig
niflcant measures of school efficiency.
Backward children.
A child who is older than he ought ito
be for the grade he is in constitutes a
serious problem for himself, his teach
er and the community. These children
make the work of the school teacher
much more difficult, fill seats in al
ready overcrowded school rooms, and
finally. becoming discouraged at their
slow progress through the grades, drop
out after having received only the bare
rudiments of an education.
Among thirty-one cities studied Med
ford, Mass. makes the best record,
with only rs per cent of her children
in the retarded class, while the poor
est showing Is found among the negro
children of Memphis, where over Is per
cent. ape retarded. !
In no school system in America do all
of the children who enter the first grade
complete the course. They become dis
couraged and leave school before reach
ing the eighth grade. Among sixty
three cities studied Newark occupies
the ~ffty-seventh place in respect to the
proportion of pupils carried to the final
grade. Here 2S per cent. of the children
get a common school education; Of each
hundred who begin, twenty-eight con-
tinue to the eighth grade and seventy
two drop out.
where xOd begins.
Cities vary not only in the proportion
of children who complete the elenlen-
tary course, they also differ in respect
to the point at which children begin to
dror out in large numbers. In the aver
age American city the tendency is to
carry all children to the sixth grade.
half of them to the eighth, and n in
ten through the high school. Newark
ranks in fifty-seventh place in respect
to the magnetic powers of her schools.
Here the first grade in which children
begin to leave in large numbers is the
fifth.
In the matter of pupils who continue.
through the high school there is ever
greater variability among the different
cities than in respect to the continue
ton through the grammar grades. The
best record is made by Newton, Mass.
where for every hundred children who
start in the first grade of the primary
school, thirty-eight continue through
the high school. Among the f1fty-one
cities studied Newark ranks number
forty-eight. carrying 8 per cent. of all
her children through the entire course.
Rates of Progress.
The fact thai the schools in different
cities have in them large numbers of
backward pupils means that many of
the children are not making normal
through the grades. Educa-
tors are more and more beginning to
upon the pupil who repeats grades
as a trustworthy barometer of school
efficiency. Among ffty-1ye cities still
died Newark ranks in forty-eighth
place, with 20 per cent. of her children
in the repeating class. 1t costs this
city nearly ST. 1870, 900 a year for her
schools. OF this sum about $500. 900 is
annually spent for educating repeaterss
1t has long been known that more
girls than boys go to high school and
rnore girls than boys stay to graduate.
schools are better fitted for girls than
for boys. This Is true in Newark, as
elsewhere,
Index of Emcfency.
We cannot the effects of edu-
patton on children who pass through
our schools. There are. however. GER
tain phases of the work of our school
which we can measure and
so as to shape them into
standards of measurement and corn
parison.
1t has been pointed out that many
leave school before completing
the elementary course we also know
our schools are overcrowded in the
Iower grades and contain few pupils in
upper ones. In other words, the
ratio Of finished product to raw mate
rial is lower than 1t should be, while
the size of the plant is greater than it
should be for l. work it is doing.
Among 81 school systems studied,
Newark is In the 5sth place on the list
Of efficiency with an index of SO per
cent.
II Is significant that the first seven
cities at the head of the list are in
Massachusetts. When results are COM
puted by States, Massachusetts, makes
The best record, and New Jersey the
worst, with Ohio exactly in the middle
position. Almost invariably when it IS
that a city has a less creditable
standing In any respect than has been
commonly thought, the Immediate rel
spouse Is that no surprise should be