Years in School and Achievements in Reading and Arithmetic

Abstract

All studies of individual differences among pupils indicate that the amount of time spent in accomplishing a given task, no matter how simple, varies greatly. Some pupils read twelve times as rapidly and comprehend ten times as much as others of the same class. Yet they have all spent the same amount of time in school under the same instruction. This situation indicates that equal amounts of time spent on the same school task does not guarantee equivalent school attainments. The prevailing standard of promotion from grade to grade is a year's time spent in a given grade rather than the quality of work done or the standard of achievement reached. In case a pupil is not promoted, he is retained in the same grade on the assumption that another year or half-year in doing the same tasks at which he has previously failed will assure his suc cess in those tasks. If a superintendent wishes to secure better results in a given subject in his schools the first remedy usually offered is spending more time on that subject. The data submitted herewith bear on the question of the relation between time spent in school and achievement in reading and arithmetic. The Monroe Silent Reading Tests Form I and the Monroe Reasoning Tests in Arithmetic Form 1 were given to nearly nine hundred pupils in grades four to eight whose rec ords of school attendance were complete. The scores in silent-reading rate and comprehension were grouped according to the number of years pupils had spent in school. If a pupil in the fifth grade, for example, had spent only three or four school years in reaching that grade he was counted in the less-than-normal time group. If he were in the fifth grade and had spent five years in reaching that grade he was counted in the normal time group. If he had spent six or more years in 145