1.  Some Are Evidently Misfits 76

2.  Most of the Failing Pupils Lack Neither Ability nor
   Earnestness 77

3.  The School Emphasis and the School Failures Are Both
   Culminative in Particular School Subjects 81

4.  An Indictment Against the Subject-Matter and the Teaching
   Ends as Factors in Producing Failures 83

5.  Summary of Chapter, and References 85

VII.—­WHAT TREATMENT IS SUGGESTED BY THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE FACTS OF FAILURE?

1.  Organization and Adaptation in Recognition of the
   Individual Differences in Abilities and Interests 87

2.  Faculty Student Advisers from the Time of Entrance 89

3.  Greater Flexibility and Differentiation Required 90

4.  Provision for the Direction of the Pupils’ Study 92

5.  A Greater Recognition and Exposition of the Facts as
   Revealed by Accurate and Complete School Records 94

6.  Summary of Chapter, and References 96

A STUDY OF THE SCHOOL RECORDS OF THE PUPILS FAILING IN ACADEMIC OR COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS

CHAPTER I

GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE SUBJECT

1.  The relevance of this study

As the measuring of the achievements of the public schools has become a distinctive feature of the more recent activities in the educational field, the failure in expected accomplishment by the school, and its proficiency in turning out a negative product, have been forced upon our attention rather emphatically.  The striking growth in the number of school surveys, measuring scales, questionnaires, and standardized tests, together with many significant school experiments and readjustments, bears testimony of our evident demand for a closer diagnosis of the practices and conditions which are no longer accepted with complacency.

The American people have expressed their faith in a scheme of universal democratic education, and have committed themselves to the support of the free public high school.  They have been liberal in their financing and strong in their faith regarding this enterprise, so typically American, to a degree that a secondary education may no longer be regarded as a luxury or a heritage of the rich.  No longer may the field be treated as either optional or exclusive.  The statutes of several of our states now expressly or impliedly extend their compulsory attendance requirements beyond the elementary years of school.  Many, too, are the lines of more desirable employment for young people which demand or give preference to graduates