Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-03-24
COLLEGE CLUB STRONGLY OPPOSES
PLAN FOR LOCAL" SCHOOL SURVEY
In Emphatic Statement Points Out That Such Investigation
Will Mean Nothng-Protesfs Against Appropriation of
$4,000 Now Before Finance Committee-Urges That At
tenton BE Centered on Necessity for Federal Survey

what your children need most. Think
it over, all you fathers and mothers,
and then act as seems best to you.
The Kamehameha Schools. Mills
institute and Oahu College are not
only willing to be surveyed. but have
asked to be allowed to pay for the
privilege of sharing in such inspection.
! But why the governor and the whole
department should stick in an adobe
resistance is difficult to understand.
| The College Club contends further
that statistics for public information
should be Ineligible to the public.
| The public may not be on to their
curves but it should be able to
make sense Of stated results. When
a report is technical. explicit refer
| ences should be given to its sources.
When comparisons depart from the
iardinary rule of comparison, like to
: like, such deviatiofIs should be noted.
Some Of the terms Of the local survey
| are about as comparable as the sue
rose content OF cane field and
Searby shredder Both pertain to SUI
gar and both begin with s.
There are lies, damned les. and
| Statistics The reasons for this old
saw are commonly two; the observer
has some pet theory in mind to be
supported. or he forgets that statistics
| deal not in simple raw facts, but in
| relations between facts, which rela-
tions are EXPRESSED in the technical
terms Of mathematics. - ~:
I'm regard to the graduation per-.
centages of the eighth grade; the final
examinations of 1914 stand out In the
memory of school children, parents
and teachers in a class by themselves.
Nothing like them had ever occurred
before, nor. 1t is safe to say, is likely
10 occur again. The strange manner
| In which the test was administered
TO panic-stricken children made il a
| yeritable school Waterloo. II does not
seem fair to previous administrations
to measure their, efficiency in the
schools by the low per cent the child
rem obtained on that fatal day. The
superintendent himself recognizing
this difficulty has devised definite
rules of marking rebates, such as
one-half credits on capitals. etc. In
the record of this examination COM
parable to the record of 1915. His
hnblie statement, however, makes no
reference to rebates. The 1914 ana
the 1915 examinations were not by
similar tests. The 1914 and the 1916
were also not by similar tests.
In regard to the meaning of spell
ing averages In mainland schools, sas
quoted by the superintendent in the
biennial report, two members of the
College Club committee called upon
the superintendent to ask for an ex-
PLANTATION. Where did he get the fig
ures? Out of "a book was the answer,
with the book in evidence But what
do they mean? How we're they de.
rived? The superintendent attempted
general to explain. He could add no
light whatever. lie, too, could only
aver that he found them in the book
Were his own figures derived in the
same manner as the strange percent
! ages, "a and 76, and so, comparable
He did not know. Yet the superin,
tendent and inspector general had
seen fit, by means OF these cabalistic,
uninterrupted symbols To make
statement claiming for the islands the
championship record of the nation In
spelling. The II and 76 Per cent of the
biennial, report are unknown quanti-
ties; what the College Club objects to
! Is that the basic terms of this com.
parison are not known to be compar-
able. Experience In many public and
private schools would tend undoubted-
ly to show that the school children
of Hawaii are exceptionally good spell.
efs. Is this claim OF the championship
record, then, the result of comparative
tests, conducted with an absolute
mathematical accuracy As the gov
ernor says: Comment is unnecessary
Before any reply to its letter of
March was received from the super
intendent, the College Club committee
sent a letter to DR.. Leonard Ayres of
the Russell Sage Foundation, New
York. With it were enclosed the BIZ
ennial report of the superintendent
and the clubs letter of March z, pub
lished In the Star Bulletin of March
10. II asked for Interpretation of the
figures "a and 76, and in view of the
carry on such surveying as lessening
the possibility of money for a federal
survey asked a cabled answer.
$50 now the College Club and the
department OF public instruction.
alike, are waiting in darkness for en-.
@lightment Seyenty.seven per cent and
rs per cent-what can they mean?
Meanwhile, the department of public
instruction is still asking an appropri-
alton of $4,000 that it may find more
things In books. il DR.. Ayres answers,
whether by cable or letter, such an
swer will be published at once
brushing aside all these learned
statistics, the College Club believes
that what this territory needs and
wants is report as to our schools
from competent observer who has
no axe to grind.
That Is exactly what federal sur
yey means. x. x. IL
THE COLLEGE CLUE"
BY Kate w. Forbes, Its President.
by Agnes C. Weaver, Its Chairman of
Com mitfpo an 0coI JpforaSfc