LIST OF TABLES. PUBLIC SCHOOL PUPILS-GENERAL INVESTIGATION, TABLE 1. Grade and age-Number of pupils of each age in each grade, by Pare 2. Race, sex, and grade-Number of pupils of each sex in each grade. 3. Race, sex, and age, by grade-Number of pupils of each age in each 4. Race and grade, by age-Number of pupils of each specified age in each grade, by general nativity and race of father of pupil...... 264-278 5. Race distribution in each grade-Percentages... PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS IN ELEMENTARY GRADES AND KINDERGARTEN, TABLE 1. Number of teachers in each grade, by sex and general nativity and race.. 979 280 281, 282 2. Number of teachers engaged in teaching each specified number of ..... 283,284 ST. LOUIS. The investigations of the Immigration Commission of the city of St. Louis relate exclusively to the public school pupils. The general tables here presented are in two parts-those relating to the pupils and those relating to the teachers. In both cases the information was obtained by the grade-record sheets, the form of which is described in the introduction to this volume, where the method of tabulation is also explained. The general character of the resulting tabulations is set forth in the introduction, together with certain considerations as to the value of the resulting tables. The present note is concerned with the results of the tabulation for the city of St. Louis. PUPILS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The number of pupils reported to the Immigration Commission as being in attendance in the public schools of St. Louis on a day early in December, 1908, was 70,928. A comparison of this figure with the official records of the school system shows that the figure which is most nearly comparable is that giving the average annual attendance for the school year 1908-9, which was 69,936, or somewhat less than the number which was reported to the Commission. The attendance on a representative day is expected to correspond with the average conditions prevailing in the school. This correspondence would, of course, be approximate and not exact. This being found to be the case in St. Louis, affords most satisfactory evidence that the enumeration conducted in the city for the Immigration Commission was comprehensive and complete. Divided by grades, the pupils in the St. Louis schools were distributed as follows: These figures show that in St. Louis there is a wide extension of the kindergarten system, inasmuch as the number of pupils in the kindergarten is very close to that in the first grade. Indeed, it is the practice in St. Louis for nearly all the children to pass through the kindergarten before being admitted to the first grade, a practice which is by no means general in American cities. Possibly because of the large number of children in the kindergarten there is less divergence between the numbers in the first grade and in the second grade than is commonly observed-in fact, the numbers in the grades beginning with the first decline as the grades advance in numbers in fairly regular sequence-with the result that in the eighth grade the number of pupils is just about one-third of that found in the first and second grades. Between the eighth grade and the first year of the high school there is a more considerable diminution in numbers. In order that a more compact view of the distribution of the pupils as between the upper and the lower grades may be had, the following table divides the elementary grades into two groups-grades 1 to 4, designated as primary, and grades 5 to 8, designated as grammar grades and compares these groups with the kindergarten and high school. The percentages here calculated bring out clearly the high attendance in the kindergarten, which is 10 per cent of the total number of pupils and considerably larger than the number to be found in the high schools. As between the primary and grammar grades it will be noted that the former are little less than twice as numerous as the latter. An examination of Table 1 shows that in spite of the large number of pupils in the kindergarten, there are only 38 pupils in the schools of 5 years or under. These, it must also be explained, have slipped in in contravention of the general rules of the school system. Under the law of the State of Missouri, no child can be educated at the public expense until the age of 6 years has been reached. In accordance. with the school practice in St. Louis, most of these children entered the kindergarten, as already stated. At the age of 6 years, there are 6,334 pupils in the St. Louis schools. At 7 years of age this number reaches 7,714. It remains at about this figure until the age of 14 years. At the age of 13 years, there are 7,653 pupils, but this number falls at the age of 14 to 5,139, and at the age of 15 years has diminished to 2,955, or less than one-half of the number found at the age of 13 years. Table 1 gives in detail the distribution of the pupils in each grade by ages. In order to form a compact statement of the material here groups. This can be done by adopting the idea which is quite familiar in current educational discussion of an appropriate or normal age for each grade. Given such a normal age, the pupils in each grade divide naturally into two classes-those who are of normal age and those who are not this age, or overage. In like manner the pupils of a given age divide into two analogous groups-those who have reached the appropriate grade for their age and those who have not done so, and who may be designated as "undergrade." Overage and undergrade pupils are also designated as "retarded." In current educational discussion of retardation, the most common form of expression is that which refers to each grade and ascertains the number of overage pupils. In the following table is given a statement for the public schools of St. Louis which shows in each grade the number of overage pupils and the percentage which this number bears to the whole number of pupils. In the public schools of St. Louis 33,204 pupils in all the grades are retarded. This number is 56.3 per cent of the whole number of pupils. By reason of the fact that few pupils enter the first grade before the age of 7 years, the proportion of retarded pupils in the first grade is larger than is commonly observed. It is 44 per cent, and this proportion increases until the fourth and fifth grades, where it reaches nearly two-thirds of all the pupils. After the fifth grade the proportion of retarded pupils declines, and in the eighth, or final grade of the elementary schools, the proportion is less than it is in the first grade. The reason for this diminished proportion lies in the fact that while the grades diminished considerably in number after the fifth, this diminution is more rapid among retarded pupils than among those who have made normal progress. Thus, in the fifth grade, there are 4,774 retarded pupils, and in the eighth grade 1,379, or somewhat more than one-third as many. On the other hand, there are in the fifth grade 3,505 pupils of normal age, and in the eighth grade exactly 2,000, or more than one-half as many. When the effort is made to express retardation by determining for a given age the number of pupils who are undergrade, particular care must be observed not to extend this calculation beyond the ages in which the children are normally in school. If the compulsory |