THE USE OF TESTS IN THE SELECTION OF PUPILS FOR RAPID ADVANCEMENT1 By Beatrice Candee Vocational Service for Juniors, New York City
A large group of problems in the vocational counselling in the New York City schools centers around the rapid advancement classes. The New York school system provides that any child whose school record warrants it, at the time that he enters junior high school, may be recommended by the principal of the elementary school which he is leaving for rapid work. This means that he will do 7 A and 7B in one term and 8A and 8B in the next, thus gaining full year's time. The principal of the junior high school must place any child so recommended in the rapid class and cannot remove him unless he fails. Fifteen per cent of the children in the system are supposed to carry this double program. This percentage has been determined by research. It is entirely possible that fifteen per cent of the total school population of New York is capable of rapid work. The difficulty is that this cannot be interpreted to mean fifteen percent of every school. As might be expected in any large city, the distribution of ability varies widely from one school to another according to the section of the city. It is true that this fifteen per cent rule is not rigidly enforced. There seems to be no particular objection to a school having more than its alloted quota of rapid classes. The difficulty comes where the range of ability is low. Here large numbers of children attempt rapid work who logically should not do so. Many of them fail and others go on at the cost of greater effort than should be required of any child and are handicapped in their later work by the lack of thoroness in these two grades. There are various reasons why this happens. Teachers and principals tend to judge a child in relation to the group with which they are dealing, altho the curriculum for the rapid classes is constant throughout the a
city. The children themselves are always so eager to make rapid advance that they cooperate willingly with such a scheme, and only the teachers of the rapid classes and the vocational counselors, who have to worry about their work, see any objection to it. Chart I shows the distribution of I.Q.'s for four different junior high schools in the city. Schools A and B were given the same group 1
An address given at the meeting of the National Vocational Guidance Association, Feb. 21, 1930, Atlantic City, N.J.
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test, the Haggerty Delta 2, by the same person. C had the same test, administered by a different person, and D had the Otis Advanced, Form A. A ranges from 60 to 170 I.Q. with a median at 113; B
from 50 to 150 with
a median at 100; C from 50 to 150 with a median D from 50 to 160 with a median at 96. The highest fifteen Percent of A would include only I.Q.'s over 138, in B everything over 115, in C over 114, and in D over 119.
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Distribution oflQs
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A large group of problems in the vocational counselling in the New York City schools centers around the rapid advancement classes. The New York school system provides that any child whose school record warrants it, at the time that he enters junior high school, may be recommended by the principal of the elementary school which he is leaving for rapid work. This means that he will do 7 A and 7B in one term and 8A and 8B in the next, thus gaining full year's time. The principal of the junior high school must place any child so recommended in the rapid class and cannot remove him unless he fails. Fifteen per cent of the children in the system are supposed to carry this double program. This percentage has been determined by research. It is entirely possible that fifteen per cent of the total school population of New York is capable of rapid work. The difficulty is that this cannot be interpreted to mean fifteen percent of every school. As might be expected in any large city, the distribution of ability varies widely from one school to another according to the section of the city. It is true that this fifteen per cent rule is not rigidly enforced. There seems to be no particular objection to a school having more than its alloted quota of rapid classes. The difficulty comes where the range of ability is low. Here large numbers of children attempt rapid work who logically should not do so. Many of them fail and others go on at the cost of greater effort than should be required of any child and are handicapped in their later work by the lack of thoroness in these two grades. There are various reasons why this happens. Teachers and principals tend to judge a child in relation to the group with which they are dealing, altho the curriculum for the rapid classes is constant throughout the a
city. The children themselves are always so eager to make rapid advance that they cooperate willingly with such a scheme, and only the teachers of the rapid classes and the vocational counselors, who have to worry about their work, see any objection to it. Chart I shows the distribution of I.Q.'s for four different junior high schools in the city. Schools A and B were given the same group 1
An address given at the meeting of the National Vocational Guidance Association, Feb. 21, 1930, Atlantic City, N.J.
TESTS IN SELECTION OF PUPILS
211
test, the Haggerty Delta 2, by the same person. C had the same test, administered by a different person, and D had the Otis Advanced, Form A. A ranges from 60 to 170 I.Q. with a median at 113; B
from 50 to 150 with
a median at 100; C from 50 to 150 with a median D from 50 to 160 with a median at 96. The highest fifteen Percent of A would include only I.Q.'s over 138, in B everything over 115, in C over 114, and in D over 119.
at
96;
Springlq&(f
Distribution oflQs
School ft
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/ /
/
/
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