Evening star., 1949-01-24
Montgomery Pupils
Talk and Read Well,
Lag in Arithmetic

Children in the elementary schools
in Montgomery County rate high in
vocabulary mastery, language usage
and reading skills generally, accord
ing to a report released yesterday
by Mrs. Ruth G. r. Nadel, president
of the Eastern Suburban Area Study
Group of Montgomery County.
Mrs. Nadel's report was based on
a recent study involving 1889 chill
dren of the fourth, fifth and sixth
grades attending eight elementary
schools in the county's eastern sub
urban area. Tests known as the
Iowa every-pupil tests of basic skills
were used. The committee was
very much impressed" the report
said, "by the tremendous detail in
which skills are identified in these
tests. 1t became apparent that
reading and arithmetic a very much
more complicated processes than
the layman might suspect.
In reporting the children well
above average in vocabulary mas
terry, language usage and reading
skills generally, Mrs. Nadel said
they Jagged in capitalization and
punctuation and arithmetic. Spell
ing proficiency was the national
average.
Achievement Progress.
an their general skill in language
(punctuation, capitalization, SPELL
ing, language usage and sentence
sense) there was a definite pro-
gression in achievement of fourth
fifth and sixth graders. with the
fourth grade at the average, the
fifth grade month ahead in
achievement, and the sixth grade
almost half a semester ahead OF
the national mean.
"A breakdown reveals much. All
three groups are below average in
punctuation, from / to 3 months.
In capitalization, the 4th graders
are a year below average, the 5th
graders 2 months behind, but the
9Th graders reverse the picture by
being months ahead. Our spelling
scores are exactly what the national
average for each grade would indi-
cate, with 5th graders accelerated
by month.
The most interesting facts are
revealed in a breakdown of Ian
guage usage. Here the 4th graders
are almost years ahead of the
norm, 5th graders are IL years
ahead and the 9Th graders 70 OF a
year accelerated! The significance
of these figures would seem to indi-
cate that the methods used to en-
courage the development of such
skills as the correct use of pronouns,
verbs. adjectives, adverbs, word
forms, ETC., are particularly success
full"
Weakness Found Existing.
"An analysis of the results Of the
arithmetic tests show that weak
ness exists in all three grades in
fundamental operations, fact that
the Board of Education recognizes
and is working definitely toward
correcting. We are from two to
three months behind the national
expectancy in these fundamentals.
On the other hand our children are
from one to three months ahead of
the norm in their fundamental
knowledge of arithmetic terms,
quantities, symbols and reading and
writing of numbers. They are even
more accelerated in their ability
to solve problems the application
of arithmetic), with each Of the
grades being fully one-third Of a
year ahead Of the norm.
"The total arithmetic score indi-
Gates that the fourth grade is very
slightly below average, with the
fifth and sixth grades meeting the
national average exactly
Mrs. Nadel concluded the report
by urging parents to help their
children in practicing what they
have learned.