The above distribution of pupils enables us to determine what percentage of the failing and of the non-failing groups graduate.  These percentages are identical—­31.5 per cent in each case.  The boys and girls are further apart in the former group (boys—­29.7, girls—­33) than in the latter group (boys—­30.6, girls—­32.1).  It follows, then, that the percentage who graduate of all the original entrants is 31.5 per cent.  This fact varies by schools from 20.8 per cent to 45.4 per cent.  And such percentage is in each case exclusive of the pupils who join the class by transfers from other schools or classes.  Our particular interest is not in how many pupils the school graduates in any year, but rather in how many of the entering pupils in any one year stay to graduate.

The greater persistence of the failing non-graduates, or the greater failing for the more persistent non-graduates, has already been given some attention in both Chapters II and III.  In the following distribution the non-graduates alone are considered.  The number persisting in school to each succeeding semester is first stated, and then the percentage of that number which is composed of the non-failing pupils is given.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE NON-GRADUATES ACCORDING TO THE NUMBERS PERSISTING
TO EACH SUCCESSIVE SEMESTER

                                      BY END OF SEMESTERS
                        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total (4205) 2787 1957 1572 999 761 390 234 60 23 4
Per Cent of
Non-failing (41.8) 24.5 20.0 16.4 13.9 12.7 7.2 3.8 1.6 0 ..

Only 20 per cent of the non-graduates who remain to the end of the first year (second semester) do not fail.  Although the failing non-graduates outnumber the non-failing ones when all the pupils who finally drop out are considered, their percentage of the majority increases rapidly for each successive semester continued in school.  That the non-failing non-graduates are in general not the ones who persist long in school is shown by these percentages.

2.  THE NUMBER OF FAILURES AND THE YEARS TO GRADUATE

The following table shows how the number of failures are related to the time period required for graduation.  The distribution in Table VIII shows a range from 1 to 25 failures per pupil, and a time period for graduation ranging from 3 to 6 years.  It is evident from this distribution that the increase of time period for graduating is not commensurate with the number of failures for the individual.  By far the largest number graduate in four years in spite of their numerous failures.  Nearly 70 per cent of the failing graduates require four years or less for graduation.  The number who finish in three years is greater than the number who require either five and one-half or six years.  The median number of failures per pupil is 4.  The pupils with fewer than 4 failures who take more than four years to graduate are not representative of any particular school in this composite, nor are those having 10 or more failures who take less than 5 years to graduate.