Grade crossing

“ Scholars bringing new members, and teachers into whose classes they may come, should introduce them to the associate superintendent, who should at once take charge of them. No new scholar below the grade of Senior should choose his own class, although his desire to be with friends should be considered, so far as it will not interfere [67] with the established system of classification. Some large graded schools have a temporary class to which new pupils in the Intermediate and Junior grades are assigned for a few sessions until their permanent place can be fixed. ”

“ But in educational mission survey there is an added difficulty which arises from the fact that scholastic education is divided into many grades, and this division has no common standard in different countries, sometimes not even in the same country. We, then, who are seeking light not from one country only but from all, are compelled to simplify these grade distinctions as much as possible, and to accept the local definitions. ”

“ A very important part of the evening's work must not be omitted from mention. This was the presentation of certificates to the graduating class on the completion of the Elementary Normal Course ending with the 10th year or grade. The members of this class, one young man and two young ladies, have been reared up in our school, and would be a credit to any school. This is the first graduation from the course; and although the class is small, it has incited others to say, "I mean to stick to the school until I can stand where they did." ”

“ Under the older and simpler form of school organization, the one-room rural school, it was not uncommon for children to recite in one class in arithmetic, in another in geography or history, and in possibly still another in English. In our more highly organized school systems, with the attempt to have children pass regularly from grade to grade at each promotion period, we have in some measure provided for individual differences through allowing children to skip a grade, or not infrequently by having them repeat the work of a grade. ”

“ In the fourth grade average results are attained which are above the average. This school represents consistent, continuous growth from grade to grade of a highly desirable type. School D, on the other hand, makes improvement in speed and accuracy in the third grade, but fails to increase its rate in the fourth grade, and makes a record in accuracy which is distinctly below the record made by the third grade. ”

“ In smaller schools, falling into line without regard to grade may be all that is necessary. In schools of middle size pupils may fall into line by grades. At a second signal, after all is quiet, the lines pass to the rooms in good order, the boys removing their hats at the door as if they were entering the home or a church. No pushing, shoving or racing is permitted. The teacher who tries and is persistent and uniform about it, can by her kindness and conduct, readily secure this order and decorum without seeming to force it. ”

“ After the boy's admission into a class, he advances thenceforward, either with the whole class, at the general and solemn promotion every year, or, if he excels, as the reports and the Master will determine, he is not to be detained in that grade, but may ascend, at any time of the year, after a fitting examination. ”

“ The diagram for the Kentucky School shows progress of a slightly different type. In this school the sixth grade, as compared with the fifth, shows progress in quality, but very little in speed. Progress from the sixth grade on is about equal in quality and speed. Memorial School emphasizes speed almost exclusively up to the eighth grade, while Mt. Pleasant emphasizes quality. ”

“ The Commissioner of Education of New York State writes of the schools,— [1] “A child is worse off in a graded school than in an ungraded one, if the work of a grade is not capable of some specific valuation, and if each added grade does not provide some added power. The first two grades run much to entertainment and amusement. The third and fourth grades repeat the work supposed to have been done in the first two. Too many unimportant and unrelated facts are taught. ”

“ They remind their pupils daily of the 263on-coming examination and remind them of the dire consequences following their failure to attain the passing grade of seventy. They ask what answer the pupil would give to a certain question if it should appear in the examination. If they can somehow get their pupils to surmount that barrier of seventy at promotion time, they seem quite willing to turn their backs upon them and let the teacher in the next grade make what she can of such unprofitable baggage. ”

“ Examinations were held three times a year; there were two grades of certificates given, and 75 per cent was the passing mark. For the second grade the applicant was examined on arithmetic (oral and written) , grammar (oral and written) , orthography, geography, history, methods of teaching, penmanship, composition, and word analysis. To these subjects there were added, for the first-grade certificate, physiology and algebra. These were county certificates; the first grade was good for four years; the second grade for two. A first-grade certificate was necessary to teach the grammar grades. ”

“ Moreover, new scholars are continually entering the schools, and, while most of them begin at the foot of the ladder in the Primary Department, yet others enter at various ages and in various grades. Any system of promotion based merely upon acquirement attested by examination is sure to become in many instances a meaningless form when applied to the Sunday school. Yet acquirements and examinations need not be ignored in the graded Sunday school. There may be certain ages at which the pupils shall by right pass from a lower grade to a higher. ”

“ Another feature that is proving of benefit to the country schools is common school graduation. An opportunity to take an examination for graduation is given at various time, to eighth grade pupils in any of the schools. The diplomas admit to high school without further examination. ”

“ The reorganization of grade work which is necessary to carry out this program reaches deeper than the addition of new subjects. To make rotation complete, each teacher must be a special teacher and the pupils must move from room to room. Even the lowest grades must be organized under what is known as the departmental plan. Thus, even a second-grade child gets his reading with one teacher and his arithmetic with another. ”

“ Inasmuch as the colleges and the secondary schools are both uncertain as regards the meaning and aim of general education, it is not surprising to find the grade schools also at sea, their pupils the victims both of meaningless tradition and reckless experiment. The tradition of our grade schools, educational experts tell us, was brought by Horace Mann from Prussia. ”

“ On the other hand, practical efforts are being made in many quarters to overcome the rigidity of the graded system by devising methods of taking the individual out of the group whenever the course of study proves to be inapplicable to his particular needs. In Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the elementary schools have their programs for the various grades so arranged that language comes for every grade at exactly the same hour in the day; in like fashion, all arithmetic classes are held at the same time, and so with geography and the other subjects. ”

“ A middle group averaged between 75 per cent and 85 per cent in their work, and a third, slow group was made up of those who averaged below 75 per cent. At the end of the first month, he found that a certain proportion of his pupils, who had formerly hovered around the passing grade of 70, began to forge ahead. Many of them easily went into the fastest stream, but they were still satisfied with the minimum standing for that group. In other words, whether we like to admit it or not, most men and women and boys and girls are content with the passing grades, both in school and in life. ”

“ Scores on the Iowa test are calibrated to match the grade placement, so that a pupil who scores a reading-grade equivalent of 8.7 would be one month retarded in achievement, and a pupil who scores a reading-grade equivalent of 8.9 would be one month advanced in achievement. ”

“ Every boy on entering the Reformatory is placed in the third grade; if he behaves well he is placed in the second in a week, and a month after to the first grade; if he continues in a satisfactory course for three months, he is placed in the grade of honor, and wears a badge on his breast. ”

“ The requirement for compulsory education beyond the eighth grade is a relatively recent development in our history. Less than 60 years ago, the educational requirements of almost all of the States were satisfied by completion of the elementary grades, at least where the child was regularly and lawfully employed. ”

“ Since then pupils may pass regularly from the fifth grade of the primary school into the four year middle school, or after the completion of the seven grades of the primary school they may enter either a three or a four year middle school and finish in three years. Since the number desiring entrance to the middle school from the fifth grade is larger than can be accommodated, those of highest ranking educationally are admitted. ”

“ There has been established a grading system, which automatically eliminates the student who falls below grade, while the university maintains a statistical comparison of school and college records, so as to follow up the work of the high-school student, not only after he has entered college, but to bring the comparison with his record as a high-school student. ”

“ “What’s the matter?” asked the teacher, seeing her bewildered face.
“Why—why,” said Elizabeth Ann, “I don’t know what I am at all. If I’m second-grade arithmetic and seventh-grade reading and third-grade spelling, what grade am I?”
The teacher laughed at the turn of her phrase. “you aren’t any grade at all, no matter where you are in school. You’re just yourself, aren’t you? What difference does it make what grade you’re in! And what’s the use of your reading little baby things too easy for you just because you don’t know your multiplication table?” ”

“ Remembering that out of a total enrollment in the schools of our land of all grades, public and private, of 14,512,778 pupils, 96-1/2 per cent are reported as receiving elementary instruction only; that not more than 35 in 1,000 attend school after they are fourteen years of age; that 25 of these drop out during the next four years of their life; that less than 10 in 1,000 pass on to enjoy the superior instruction of a college or some equivalent grade of work, we begin to see the unlimited field before an Institution like this. ”

“ Of the 1,275 fifth-grade pupils, 435, or 34 per cent, are not only under-age for the grade, but they have progressed at more than normal speed. They are the exceptionally capable pupils of the grade. At the other extreme we find 209 children, or 16 per cent of all in the grade, who need special attention because they are both over-age and slow. Feeble-minded children rarely advance beyond the second grade ”

“ Sometimes the school allows a pupil to move up a grade or class, although it is known that he has not done the work below, because the parents of the child have influence and it does not seem safe to antagonize them.
Sometimes the pressure of numbers in the lower grades or classes is so great that the teacher sends a pupil on in order to make room for the younger pupils, even when it is evident that the pupil will not be able to carry the higher work. ”

“ The last day in September is always a promotion day for each pupil in every thoroughly graded school. In some cases the promotion is from one grade to another within a department, but it is quite as important that the fact of such progression should be noted as it is to give a diploma to the child who completes the junior course. ”

“ The teachers in the school make use of any illustrations from the practical life about them that fit in well with the work the grade is doing. Thus the third grade set up a parcel post system in their classroom, basing all their English and arithmetic work on it for some time, and80 learning to use a map and scales and weights as well. ”

“ The other teachers had an equally large number. It is hard to conceive of one man teaching such a wide variety of subjects and doing it efficiently. For the year 1876-77, the grades are given and of a list of sixty-one students, over 70% ^received grades over 90, 23% between 80 and 90, with only 3% between 70 and 80, and almost no failures. There is one grade of 99.86%, two others over 99, and two exactly 99. Such an overwhelm- 13 Judge Deady describes a Public Examination at the Grammar School in which his son failed in Latin because he did not decline a noun properly. ”

“ Think of boys being sent up to Oxford, who, after having spent on an average six years at a public school, are yet unable to read a line of Greek or Latin which they have not seen before. Yet so it was, and so it is, unless I am very much misinformed. It is easy for some colleges who keep up a high standard of matriculation to turn out first-class men; the real burden falls on the colleges and tutors who have to work hard to bring their pupils up to the standard of a pass degree, and few people have [243] any idea how little a pass degree may mean. ”

“ This lack of uniformity in the length of course in American Normal Schools is largely the result of the absence of any one standard of admission. While in England there is one examination, the Queen’s Scholarship, which must be passed by all, except University graduates who desire to enter an Elementary College, in America the conditions vary with each individual Normal School. Some require at least a certificate of graduation from a High School, some have an entrance examination of their own, which none may be excused, while others offer one to those who have no certificates to show. ”