As any intensive study must almost necessarily be limited in its scope, so this one comprises for its purposes the high school records for 6,141 pupils belonging to eight different high schools located in New York and New Jersey.  For two of these schools the records for all the pupils that entered are included here for five successive years, and for their full period in high school.  In two other schools the records of all pupils that entered for four successive years were secured.  In four of the schools the records of all pupils who entered in February and September of one year constituted the number studied.  There is apparently no reason to believe that a longer period of years would be more representative of the facts for at least three of these four schools, in view of the situation that they had for years enjoyed a continuity of administration and that they possess a well-established organization.  The fourth one of these schools had less complete records than were desired, but even in that the one year was representative of the other years’ records.  The distribution of the 6,141 pupils by schools and by years of entering high school is given below.

High school pupils in:             Entering high school         number
in the years            studied

White Plains, N.Y. 1908, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12 659
Dunkirk, N.Y. 1909, ’10, ’11, ’12 370
Mount Vernon, N.Y. 1912 224
Montclair, N.J. 1908, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12 946
Hackensack, N.J. 1909, ’10, ’11, ’12 736
Elizabeth, N.J. 1912 333
Morris H.S.—­Bronx 1912 1712
Erasmus Hall H.S.—­Brooklyn 1912 1161
——­
total 6141

As it is essential for the purposes of this study to have the complete record of the pupils for their full time in the high school, the 6,141 pupils include none who entered later than 1912.  Thus all were allowed at least five and one-half or six years in which to terminate their individual high school history, of successes or of failures, before the time of making this inquiry into their records.  No pupils who were transferred from another high school or who did not start with the class as beginning high school students were included among those studied.  Post-graduate records were not considered, neither was any attempt made to trace the record of drop-outs who entered other schools.  Manifestly the percentage of graduation would be higher in any school if the recruits from other schools and the drop-backs from other classes in the school were included.