The median score for the entire group of 548 pupils was 107, the range 27 to 198. In each school the boys tested higher than the girls, but in two schools girls registered the highest scores. The median for boys was 115, with a range of 34 to 198, while the median for girls was 100, with a range of 27 to 187. The ages of these pupils ranged from twelve to nineteen years, but the thirteenyear-olds achieved the highest median score (118). The boy who scored 198 was but thirteen years of age.

The birthplace and previous schooling of each pupil were checked in an attempt to ascertain whether pupils who had had some of their training elsewhere would score higher than children who had had all of their training in Los Angeles. The median score for each of the two groups was found to be 95. By taking the median scores for each of the ten tests, it was found that Los Angeles 9-A pupils are weakest in arithmetic, word meaning, sentence meaning and mixed sentences.

Having secured the mental ability scores for all 9-A pupils, the next step undertaken was to attempt to correlate such scores with the school marks of the same pupils. School marks were tabulated in English, mathematics, history, science and general average.. Owing to the small number of cases in history and science, correlations were not run off for individual schools. Table I. shows the coefficients of correlation (Pearson r) for each of the eight schools in mental ability and the subjects indicated:

TABLE I

On the basis of "general average for all subjects" there were no failures. Hence, it was assumed that pupils are most likely to fail, under the present marking system, in the four subjects listed above.

Grouping the median scores in mental ability, coefficients of correlation, and percentages of failures, it was possible to recommend to the various Junior High Schools a revision or continuation of the system of marking according to the tabulated results from each school.

Such investigation invited attention to the type of marking system used in the Junior High Schools of Los Angeles. The system now in use is set forth in the table below:

TABLE IV Equivalents A-Excellent

Ratings

Per Cent, Values

1

90-100

The above system was adopted by highschool principals last year, but has not given general satisfaction. The use of the number "4" as a definite rating has been confusing and especially so when "conditioned" was not a very definite measure. After describing the 4" as 66 below 70, not passing, may be made up," the directions further say: "4 may be given also when work was satisfactory in character but incomplete as a result of dropping out before the end of the term, entering so late as to make it impossible to catch up, or absence on account of serious or extended illness." Moreover, some principals require the mark of “N.M." (no mark) when a pupil has been forced to remain away from school for an extended period but whose record is intact otherwise.

Consequently, there is no great amount of uniformity in marking and the distribution of marks is evidence enough that a better system is needed. One principal has carried on an investigation of marking in his school and has found that the rating of "1" has been issued in some classes to no pupils and in other classes to as high as 81 per cent. of pupils marked, the total number of "1's" issued by 67 teachers representing 21 per cent. of the entire high-school enrollment.

As the result of an extended discussion, the present marking system will undergo some revision. It is not unlikely that the normal curve of distribution will influence the composition of a new rating scale. Raising the standard of "1" is practically assured and it is not impossible that "61" will be made a passing per cent. rather than "70," in order that some discrimination may be made between pupils who are dull and pupils who fail. At least the number "4" will be used as a standard rating and per cent. values redistributed. Some such improvement will assist in rating pupils by mental ability tests. There is no probability that Los Angeles pupils will be promoted on the results of mental ability tests alone, but there is every indication that mental ability scores will be

consulted in awarding school marks. The present program calls for the testing of all Junior High-School pupils and all high-school seniors by the Terman Test. Dr. Terman, himself, is engineering the testing of all highschool seniors in the state of California and will run off correlations with teachers' estimates, and otherwise use the results as aids in vocational guidance.

At the beginning of the next school year it is planned to test all pupils in the Los Angeles schools by mental ability tests. Individual scores will be entered on transfer cards and each teacher will be supplied with record sheets of such scores together with the mental age of each pupil. Undoubtedly some adjustments in gradation will be made on the basis of mental age. To carry on such a program one chief examiner has been or will be appointed in each school, whose duty it will be to give the tests or supervise the giving of them. Scoring will be done by teachers trained for the purpose.

In connection with this investigation, the Division of Research is evolving a rating scale for use by principals in rating their teachers. It is modelled on the Army Rating Scale and will be used to supplement the present system of rating.

A committee of principals is working on an individual record card for the use of teachers. That card will include such measures as a pupil's name, age, mental age, physical rating and scholarship record. It is designed to serve two purposes: (1) to aid the teacher in recognizing individual differences, and (2) to assist in educational and vocational guidance. By the adoption of such methods of evaluation the administration hopes not only to attract more attention to the individual child and place him in the proper grade and school but to lessen the increasing number of failures. It is not improbable that this will call for alterations in the present course of study.

HARLAN C. HINES

LOS ANGELES CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT,
March 23, 1921

Volume XIII

THE TEACHING OF HISTORY AS A FACTOR IN AMERICANIZATION1

THE subject, "The Teaching of History as a Factor in Americanization," involves answers to three important questions. What is history? What is Americanization? How is history related to Americanization?" The first question is relatively simple; the second is difficult because of the conflicts it occasions; the third finds its solution in the answer of the other two.

What is history? An analysis of the various definitions that are advanced leads to the simple thought, that after all "History is everything that ever happened." In a word it is the past-the infinite past life of the present moment. This definition and its significance can be more easily appreciated by a little reflection upon the reasons that persons give for reading and studying history.

Men study history with many different objectives in view. Librarians tell us that it ranks second to literature in the number of books that are taken from the shelves. Why is this so? Allow me to present in briefest outline what more than a thousand prospective teachers and many more teachers in service have given me as their reason for reading this subject.

The great majority of persons whom I have met in classes read history books for the same reason that leads them to literature. They find their recreation there. History furnishes one with a good pastime. Folks take to it. It is a good hobby and

1 Delivered at Conference on Americanization and Citizenship called by the United States Commissioner of Education, Dr. P. P. Claxton, Atlantic City, February 28, 1921, 2 P.M.

Number 334

one that is frequently ridden. Roosevelt's "Winning of the West" is absorbingly interesting aside from the fact of its historical nature. It is a question whether Franklin's Autobiography is of greater Roosevelt, literary or historical value.

President Wilson and many others have written volumes about "History as Literature" and every one recognizes all literature as but one phase of history. There are many books of slight literary value that are popular because of the facts they present of the past. "The Stakes of the War," by Stoddard and Frank, is enjoying a wide circulation, although it is merely a collection of notes. The past in almost any of its aspects is so captivating that it becomes a recreational factor in the lives of many people.

Many persons study history in order to find a way of meeting their problems, if not actually to discover solutions to them. There is a growing tendency to preface scientific treatises with one or more chapters of a historical nature. Current literature is "a babel of sounds" to those who know little or nothing of the past. "What's happening in Europe" and what is happening everywhere else becomes an increasingly hopeless mystery to those who are ignorant of history. The solution of every problem rests upon one's knowledge of historical backgrounds and developments. The past is the past of the present and so is its only trustworthy interpretation. This knowledge of how present difficulty came to arise guides one's attack upon it as well as directs one's thought of