4.  THE PERCENTAGES THAT THE NON-GRADUATE GROUPS FORM OF THE PUPILS WHO HAVE EACH SUCCESSIVELY HIGHER NUMBER OF FAILURES

By merely adding the columns of totals for Tables VIII and IX, we are able to obtain the full number of pupils who have each number of failures from 1 to 25.  We may readily secure the percentages for the non-graduates in each of these groups by referring again to the numbers in the totals column of Table IX.  The following series of percentages are thus obtained.

  THE PERCENTAGE FORMED BY NON-GRADUATES WITH 0, 1, 2, 3, ETC., FAILURES
  ON THE TOTAL NUMBER WHO HAVE 0, 1, 2, 3, ETC., FAILURES

No. of Failures     0     1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8
Per Cent          68.4  65.7  68.5  77.2  69.0  68.0  70.6  67.3  63.5

No. of Failures     9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17+
Per Cent          61.8  63.6  69.0  61.2  66.0  65.3  70.0  61.5  69.4

That these percentages would be higher for the non-graduates than for the graduates (that is, above 50 per cent) would certainly be expected by a glance at their higher numbers in every group of their distribution.  But it would hardly be expected by most of us that the percentages would show no general tendency to rise as the failures per pupil increase in number, yet such is the truth as found here.  The reverse of these facts was found by Aaron I. Dotey, with a smaller group of high school pupils[41] (1,397), studied in one of the New York City high schools.  Still he also asserts that failure in studies is not a cause of elimination to the extent that it is generally supposed to be.  We may gain some advantage for judging the general tendency of the extended and varied series of percentages above, by computing them in groups of larger size, thus yielding a briefer series, as follows: 

  (A CONDENSED FORM OF THE PRECEDING STATEMENT)

No. of Failures      0   1 to 4   5 to 8   9 to 12  13 to 16  17 to 25
Per Cent           68.4   67.6     67.3      63.9     65.7      69.4

Not only do the percentages of non-graduates not increase relatively as the numbers of failure go higher, but there is a slight general decline in these percentages until we reach ‘17 or more’ failures per pupil.  Then for ‘17 to 25’ failures per pupil there is an increase of only 1 per cent over that for failures.  The number of failures does not seem directly to condition the pupil’s ability to graduate or to continue to in school.

5.  TIME EXTENSION FOR THE FAILING GRADUATES

We shall now inquire further what extension of time for graduating characterizes the failing graduates in comparison with the non-failing ones.