course. . . . Repeaters in various subjects (91 cases, Freshmen 56 or 61.5 per cent, sophomores 30 or 33 per cent, juniors 5 or 5.5 per cent, seniors 0). Some of the pupils of this group were repeating but one subject, but most of them were deficient in more than one.

...

Pupils with I. Q.'s of less than 90, Terman's minimum I. Q.

for high school work......

Pupils with I. Q.'s of from 90 to 100...

Pupils with I. Q.'s of 100 to 105......

Pupils with I. Q.'s of 106 to 124...

.24.2%

..28.6%

.22.0%

.25.2%

... The highest score in the repeating group is equaled or exceeded by but one per cent of all the pupils, while the lowest in the group tests was exceeded by 99 per cent of the pupils of that particular grade. Seventy per cent of the pupils of the group of repeaters were equaled or exceeded by at least 30 per cent of high-school pupils of that grade-46 per cent of the 70 per cent by at least 50 per cent while 23 per cent were equaled or exceeded by from 75 to 99 per cent of normal high school pupils.

While approximately 25 per cent of the group lacked sufficient ability to do successful high school work, another 25 per cent were found to be above the average. Thus the results showed the presence of a double problem-that of doing the best possible work for those lacking ability and, at the same time, motivating the work of pupils who can but apparently won't. Indeed although slightly more than half of the group tested were below average high school intelligence, 43 per cent were evidently repeating for some other reason. Lack of mental ability, then, explained the failure of but 57 per cent of the number examined, unless it is true that a classical student must possess ability considerably above high school average in order to do successful high school work.

31. The Limits Set to Educational Achievement by Limited Intelligence

[COBB, Margaret V., "The Limits Set to Educational Achievement by Limited Intelligence," Journal of Educational Psychology, November, 1922, Vol. 13, pp. 449–464; 554.]

One way to get a very general look at this problem is to consider continuance in high school in relation to intelligence. It is obvious from the figures that sophomores do better than

freshmen in the tests, juniors than sophomores, and seniors still better. Is this because the less intelligent pupils have found the way too hard, and have dropped out? Or is it to be explained by the mental growth of the children, and the additional information and skill which they have acquired? We may grant at once that both causes are at work; improvement in scores (above what practice brings) appears when the same children are tested as freshmen, and again as seniors; while of a given freshmen class those who drop out before senior year are somewhat more largely from the lower than from the upper half of the distribution. . . . It is not yet possible to decide just how much of the yearly gain to ascribe to each of these factors. Growth, instruction and added experience are perhaps to be credited with more of it than is elimination of the less intelligent; but all we can say quite surely is that each plays an important part. This yearly gain, which is about 15 points at first, and decreases somewhat, is still found when high school seniors are compared with college freshmen.

This relation of intelligence to continuance in school may be brought out also in another way. The Army figures show very definitely that at the time these recruits were of high school and college age, say 5 to 10 years ago, the more intelligent youths all along the line remained longer in school than those who made lower scores. . . . Of those scoring less than 35 on Alpha, 4 in 100 reported that they had entered high school; of those scoring 155 or better, 92 in 100, or 23 times as many, so reported.

32. Intelligence and Persistency in High-School

Attendance

[FEINGOLD, Gustave A., "Intelligence and Persistency in High-School Attendance," School and Society, October 13, 1923, Vol. 18, pp. 443-446.]

The questions are frequently raised: To what extent has the American high school increased its hold on its pupils during the past quarter of a century? In what year or years do high-school pupils tend to drop out in the largest numbers? And finally, what class of pupils fail to persist in high school? A comparative study of these problems reveals the fact that more and more pupils tend to persist in each one of the three upper classes, as shown by figures of high-school attendance in the country at large for the past 30 years or so. ... We may say that in the

space of 28 years, there has been a gain of one whole year of high-school attendance on the part of American children. . . If we take a high-school entering class of 1,000 pupils and give them an intelligence test, we find that approximately 100 or 10 per cent. will be mentally superior; that is to say, their mental age will be between 2 and 4 years above their chronological age, giving them an average I. Q. of a little above 120. About 650, or 65 per cent., will have average intelligence, or a mental age that is just about equal to their chronological age, and some 250, or 25 per cent., will have less than average intelligence or an I. Q. that varies from anything as low as 70 up to 94. . . . The pupils of average intelligence tend to persist in high school about twice as long as those of inferior mentality. This is shown by the fact that 42.5 per cent. of the former remain to become upper juniors as against 44.6 per cent. of the latter who remain in school long enough to become lower sophomores. Indeed, beginning with the upper sophomore year, the ratio of pupils of average ability to those of inferior ability is 2 to 1, while the ratio of the superior individuals to the inferior ones becomes almost 3 to 1, and rises in the next two semesters to 4 to 1.

Apparently a standard high school composed exclusively of the type of pupils who constitute the lowest 25 per cent intellectually, could not exist if it persisted in giving regular highschool instruction. There is no question but that fully 75 per cent., and perhaps 80 per cent., of the lowest quarter of a highschool entering class has not the mental ability to go beyond the first two years of high-school studies.

33. The Relation Between the Intelligence and Vocational Choices of High-School Pupils

[FEINGOLD, Gustave A., "The Relation between the Intelligence and Vocational Choices of High-School Pupils," Journal of Applied Psychology, June, 1923, Vol. 7, pp. 145-146; 149-153.]

Now it happened that in June 1922, all prospective Freshmen of the Hartford Public High School, some 1,200 in number, were given a modified Army Alpha test and the passing mark was set at 76 points, equivalent to an I. Q. of 103 and to 50 per cent intelligence on our scale of 100. By dividing that scale into ten deciles, the uppermost, or "A" mental level, corresponded exactly with the occupational groups that fell into the "A" mental level on Fryer's scale. Therefore, it was merely necessary to draw lines through all corresponding points of division on the

Freyer scale and note whether the vocational choice made by a pupil of a given degree of intelligence fell within his mental level on the converted scale or not.

Investigations conducted by various psychologists have demonstrated that the I. Q. does not change appreciably. The writer has thus far retested two high-school classes at intervals of two years and has found practically no change in the average I. Q. attained by the same pupils as Freshmen, and two years later as Juniors. Thus, the average I. Q. of 288 Freshmen who had entered the Hartford High School in Sept. 1920, was 111; their average age having been 14 years and 6 months, and the average number of points scored by them on the writer's modified Alpha test having been 96, which is equivalent to a mental age of 16 years 2 months. The average number of points scored by these same 288 pupils in Sept. 1922, when they become Juniors was 116, which is equivalent to the mental age of 17 years and 1 month; their average I. Q. was consequently 104.

By adopting a percentage scale of mental alertness, the base of which is 152 points, equivalent to 100 per cent intelligence, for high-school Freshmen tested three weeks before graduation from grammar school, and a scale with a base of 172 points for Sophomores, one with a base of 186 points for Juniors, and one with a base of 196 points for Seniors, the latter three groups tested at the beginning of their class careers, the writer has found but little displacement from one mental level to the other as the pupils progressed from the Freshmen to the Senior year and were subjected to two separate tests. . . .

There is a conspicuous tendency for the superior pupils, those of "A" and "B" mentality, to underrate their ability and to choose a profession that falls in a mental level considerably below their own. And there is still greater tendency for pupils of low mentality to choose professions that lie considerably above their mental levels. . . .

To be sure the claim may be made, and justly too, that the so-called professions lie within the three highest mental levels, and inasmuch as the very presence of boys in high school already indicates a leaning toward some profession, it is only natural that they should tend to overrate their ability, as judged by their vocational preference, rather than to underrate it. But this simply shifts the argument back one step by taking the problem out of the high school and placing it within the grammar school and home. It merely means that American children tend to over

rate their ability even before they get into high school. Judged by the large proportion of high-school failures, it being something like 60 per cent, one must say that the above statement is not far from being accurate.

Moreover, it is significant to note that among the mental failures a larger proportion, fully 48 per cent, choose a profession that lies in the "A" and "B" levels than do the pupils of either "E" or "D" ability, the percentages of excessive vocational overreaching in their cases being 40 and 42 respectively. In other words, the distribution table plainly shows that the lower an individual stands in mentality, the higher seems to be his vocational ambition. Whether this is a manifestation of compensation, the desire filling the gap within the mind, or whether it is simply a further indication of poor judgment and inability to envisage the future in matters practical as well as ideal, is a topic for separate discussion.

Nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence at hand to indicate that it is the latter and not entirely the former. Investigating the proportion of pupils in the various mental levels who survived the high-school curriculum for at least two years, the writer has found that in the Hartford Public High School fully 73 per cent of those who fail in intelligence at the beginning of their Freshman year do not succeed in becoming Juniors. Either they drop out of school altogether, or remain in a lower class because of poor scholarship. .

Before summing up the results of our study, we must once more forestall the probable objection that the reason why these pupils tend to overrate themselves by choosing vocations that lie so high above their own mental levels is because their intelligence has been judged too early in the stage of mental development. There is no ground for such criticism. First, because the average mental age of these pupils was 15 years and 6 months, their average I. Q. 107. This is considerably higher than the average mental age and I. Q. for the American population as a whole. In the second place, the "A" mental group of these pupils coincided exactly with the "A" group on the Occupational-Intelligence Scale in the number of Alpha points scored. . . . Thirdly, an intelligence test given to 105 evening high-school pupils, all of whom were grammar school graduates, some of them being college graduates, some grammar school teachers, one professional nurse, three machinists, and most of the others timekeepers, bookkeepers, store clerks, and office clerks, yielded an average score of 90 points, which is only five points above the