LIST OF TABLES. PUBLIC SCHOOL PUPILS GENERAL INVESTIGATION. Page. 136-139 TABLE 1. Grade and age-Number of pupils of each age in each grade, by sex. 133-135 2. Race, sex, and grade-Number of pupils of each sex in each grade, by general nativity and race of father of pupil.... 3. Race, sex, and age, by grade-Number of pupils of each age in each grade, by sex and by general nativity and race of father of pupil. 140-176 4. Race and grade, by age-Number of pupils of each specified age in 177-191 5. Race distribution in each grade-Percentages.. 192 193 PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS IN ELEMENTARY GRADES AND KINDERGARTEN. TABLE 1. Number of teachers in each grade, by sex and general nativity and 194 race. 2. Number of teachers engaged in teaching each specified number of 195 PAROCHIAL SCHOOL PUPILS-GENERAL INVESTIGATION. TABLE 1. Grade and age-Number of pupils of each age in each grade, by sex. 196 197 grade, by sex and by general nativity and race of father of pupil. 198-206 4. Race distribution in each grade-Percentages 207 207 PROVIDENCE. The investigations of the Immigration Commission in the city of Providence concerned the pupils in the public schools, the teachers in these schools, and the pupils in the parochial schools. The investigations of the Commission have resulted in a series of general tables, printed herewith, concerning these three more or less distinct investigations. The forms and methods by which the material was gathered and tabulated are fully explained in the introduction to this volume. This introduction gives also a description of the general tables, together with a discussion of the purposes which they serve. PUPILS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The number of pupils reported to the Commission as being in attendance in the schools of Providence on a day early in December, 1908-9, were 25,260. The official records for the schools show that during the school year 1908-9 the average attendance for the year was 25,557. There is little divergence between these two figures. Their comparative equality demonstrates that the figures for a single day in December are representative of usual conditions and are also evidence that the enumeration undertaken for the Commission was complete and comprehensive. Divided by grades the pupils of the Providence schools were as follows: There is, as usual, a somewhat larger number of pupils in the first grade than in the second, but the numbers for the second, third, and fourth grades are practically identical. The fifth grade shows some falling off, and the sixth grade follows in about a like proportion. With the seventh and eighth grades the diminution is more rapid, the last named comprising about one-half as many pupils as grades 2 to 4. a See pp. VII to XVII. A more compact view of the distribution by grades is given in the following table, where the lower grades 1 to 4 are grouped as primary, and the upper grades 5 to 8 as grammar grades. It appears that 51.4 per cent of the pupils of the Providence. schools are in the primary grades, and these pupils, together with those of the kindergarten, constitute not a little more than one-half of the whole number of pupils. In the upper grades the high schools have 8.8 per cent of the pupils and the grammar grades 34.3 per cent. An examination of Table 1 shows that by ages there are somewhat over 1,000 pupils, mostly in the kindergarten, who are 5 years of age and under. At 6 years of age there are about 2,000 pupils, the maximum number of pupils at any age being 2,700 at 11 years. Between the ages of 13 and 14 years, there is a drop from 2,614 at 13 to 1,593 at 14 years of age. At the age of 15 there are a little more than 1,000 pupils remaining in the schools. A further examination of Table 1, which gives the pupils in each grade by ages, reveals the fact that there is no precise correspondence between the ages of the pupils to the grades they occupy. Each grade has pupils of various ages, while the pupils of a given age are scattered through various grades. In order to present a compact statement of the results of this table, we may resort to the idea that for each grade there is an appropriate age, and conversely for each age an appropriate grade. Hence, from the whole mass of pupils we may in each grade distinguish those who are overage, or in each age we can distinguish those who are undergrade. Whether one or the other group be considered, it is evident that their state of advancement in school work is unsatisfactory, and in current educational discussion such pupils are designated as "retarded" pupils. Applying the first criterion, and distinguishing in each grade the number of overage pupils, the following table results: In this table there is given for each grade the ages which are higher than those generally considered appropriate for the grade, the number of pupils of these ages, and the percentage which they form of the whole number of pupils. From a comparison of the total number of retarded pupils, with the whole number of pupils in the schools, we find that somewhat more than one-fourth of the pupils, or precisely 27.8 per cent, are retarded. In the early grades the retardation is not so great as the average, but it grows constantly in proportion, so that while in the first grade 16 per cent are retarded, in the fifth grade, where retardation reaches its maximum point, the proportion is 39.4 per cent. After the fifth grade the percentage declines, and in the seventh and eighth grade is somewhat below the average for all the pupils. Attention has already been called to the fact that in these grades the number of pupils is considerably less than in those which precede. This diminution of the whole number of pupils is brought about to a large degree by the retarded pupils leaving school more rapidly than those pupils who have made normal progress. The application to the Providence figures, or those of any school system, of the idea that the pupils of certain ages are retarded because they have not yet attained the proper grade for their age, must of necessity be limited to those ages in which presumably all the children are in school. If the calculation be extended to children of a greater age we are confronted with the fact that some of the children who are retarded in their studies have already left the school and thus escape record. In the following table such a computation is given for the special class of pupils who are 10, 11, and 12 years of age. . With 26.5 per cent of the pupils retarded at the age of 10 years, the proportion grows as the age of the pupils increases, until at the age of 12 years the retarded pupils are 41.1 per cent of the whole number. The average for this group of pupils is 34.1 per cent. This average is calculated not only for the purpose of showing how it should properly be done, but also in order that it may serve hereafter as a means of comparison with analogous averages, which, however, relate to smaller groups within the whole number of pupils. The primary consideration which dictated the investigations of the Immigration Commission was the matter of race, and the general tables herewith presented giving a full statement of pupils by sex, grade, age, and race constitute the distinctive contribution of these tables to educational statistics. There is space in this introductory note merely for a brief mention of some of the nore important results |