EDUCATIONAL SURVEY SERIES Survey of the St. Louis Public Schools EDUCATIONAL SURVEY SERIES Survey of the St. Louis Public Schools By CHARLES H. JUDD DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Assisted by J. F. BOBBITT, J. B. CRAGUN, F. H. DANIELS W. F. DEARBORN, F. B. DRESSLAR. G. W. EHLER F. N. FREEMAN, W. S. GRAY. S. O. HARTWELL W. R. McCoRNACK. G A. MIRICK, H, C. MORRISON E. A. PETERSON, and H. O. RUGG IN THREE PARTS PART TWO - THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK WORLD BOOK COMPANY 1918 CONTENTS PART II. THE WOBK OF THE SCHOOLS CHAPTEE PAGE IX. NON-PROMOTIONS AND TWO-QUARTER PROMOTIONS IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Charles H. Judd 1 X. OBSERVATIONS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUC TION Greo. A. Mirick 39 XI. THE CURRICULUM SITUATION J. F. Babbitt 77 XII. READING William S. Gray 117 XIII. ARITHMETIC Charles H. Judd 187 XIV. HANDWRITING Frank N. Freeman 213 XV. SPECIAL SCHOOLS Walter F. Dearborn 259 XVI. HIGH SCHOOLS A. B. Meredith 289 INDEX 357 PART II The Work of the Schools PART II THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS CHAPTER IX NON-PROMOTIONS AND TWO-QUARTER PROMO TIONS IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BY CHAS. H. JTJDD Summary . This chapter discusses the extent to which pupils in the elementary school fail of promotion and the extent to which other children are carried along faster than the normal by be ing promoted two quarters at a time. The records of non-promotion and two-quarter promotion are tabulated in full for all of the schools. They show that non-promotion is very high in the early quarters of the first grade. It is relatively high again in the fourth and sixth grades. In some of the grades two-quarter promotions balance as they should iion-p-romotions. Ingeneral non-promotions are not as high as in some cities, showing that the work of the schools is, on the whole, successful. Great irregularities and variations in practice appear in in dividual schools. Full details are supplied. RECOMMENDATIONS It is recommended that reports on non-promotion and two quarter promotions be made a regular feature of the adminis tration of the schools. To this end the reports on these matters should be filed and tabulated each quarter in the central office. It is recommended that a committee of principals be created to formulate principles which shall render more uniform the practices of the school system in regard to promotions. 1 SURVEY OF THE ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS NON-PROMOTIONS AND TWO-QUARTER PROMO TIONS IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS The success of a school system is indicated in very large measure - by its ability to carry the children in the grades for ward at a normal rate. Any child who fails to complete the work of a grade in the time allotted in the course of study becomes a burden to the school system. For example, if a child has done the work of the third grade in arithmetic, but is judged by his teacher to be so unsuccessful in this work that he is required to repeat it, evidently the school system is carrying in the third grade a double burden. Furthermore, it has been shown by careful studies of a few such eases that it is sometimes altogether disadvantageous for the child him self to be required to repeat the work. He comes back to the arithmetic the seeo-nd year discouraged because of his failure the year before, confused because he does not understand the problems and has not mastered the methods of their solution during his first yearof work, and as a result of these unfavor able conditions he gradually becomes more and more discour aged and does less and less satisfactory work, with the result that at the end of the second year he is intellectually more re tarded in this subject than he was during the first year. These comments are enough to make it clear that whenever a child fails in any grade the school system ought to face the fact that it is dealing with a difficult problem and must adopt methods that differ from the methods that brought on the issue...