for a permanent and continuing census, if 11.9 per cent of the children who drop out, or 7.2 per cent of those who enter (assuming practically the same happenings to all children as to this group), can leave the schools and no information can be secured of their whereabouts other than that they have dropped out of school. The number of children7.7 per cent of the dropped or 4.7 per cent of the entering group-leaving the public school and entering private school suggests a failure to progress as desired on the part of the child or parent. This fact is further shown in the 6.1 per cent of the dropped or 3.6 per cent of the entering group who leave school for various reasons (such as failure to get on with the work of the grades, dissatisfaction with the teacher, and the like), either to secure private instruction or not to attend school at all, but after having remained out for several years return to the public schools as new pupils. There can be no question about the fact that failure to progress is a cause of much of this leaving the public schools for other schools. Of the 29 children who entered private schools, 79.3 per cent were retarded and 20.7 per cent were not retarded, and of the 23 children who left the public schools and later returned as new pupils, 87 per cent were retarded and 13 per cent were not retarded. It is evident that the new compulsory school law will affect most of these cases and tend to reduce the dropping below a certain age, at least to a very great extent. SUMMARY. The following points should be noted in connection with the progress of the 627 children who were in the 1A grade in September, 1906: 1. Six children, or less than 1 per cent (0.96 per cent), completed the work of the elementary schools in less than the normal time. All of these children entered the high school. 2. Fifty children, or 7.9 per cent, completed the work of the elementary schools in seven years, or normal time. Of these, 48 children, or 96 per cent, entered the high school. Therefore the total number of children from the 1A grade in September, 1906, who had entered the high school within the normal time is 54, or 8.6 per cent. 3. One hundred and ninety-four children, or 30.94 per cent, were still in the elementary school in September, 1913. The median number of terms made by these children was 9.8 for the boys and 10.8 for the girls, although the median age was for the boys 13.5 years and for the girls 13.3 years. In relation to normal progress these children had made in seven years only 76.8 per cent. 4. Three hundred and seventy-seven children, or 60.13 per cent, had left school. Of this number, 92 (24.4 per cent of 377), or 14.7 per cent of the total number, had made no repetitions before they left school, while 285 (75.6 per cent of 377), or 45.6 per cent of the total number, had repeated before they left. 5. Of those who had dropped out of school, it was found that 25.7 per cent had left the city, 45.9 per cent had gone to work, 7.7 per cent had gone to private schools, 11.9 per cent were unknown, and the remainder had dropped for minor reasons. It was further shown that 88.5 per cent of those who go to work had repeated grades before they left. CHAPTER III. PROGRESS OF CHILDREN IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (NEGRO). In most of the studies that have been made concerning the progress of children through the schools, colored children have not been separated from the white children; or if they were separated, they were studied under identical conditions with the white children. This is due to the fact that most of these studies have been worked out in school systems where provision for the two races is made in the same school building under identical conditions, and not separated, as in the city of Richmond and other cities throughout the South. In Richmond, however, there has been an attempt on the part of the school authorities to make the instruction for colored children different from that for white children. In some schools for colored children considerable emphasis is placed on manual work, which consists chiefly of chair caning, basketry, sewing, cooking, and shopwork. In such subjects as geography and history, and, in some cases, civics and hygiene, the subject matter for the two races differs widely. This difference in subject matter becomes even more prominent in the secondary schools. In such subjects as reading, writing, arithmetic, and language the subject matter and standards for the children of the two races are practically the same. If the 547 Negro children who were in the 1A grade September, 1906, are divided according to their progress, the following distribution into groups will be secured: Distribution of 547 Negro children who were in grade 1A in September, 1906. For the purpose of ascertaining the progress made by the children in these different groups, each group has been studied separately and in the order mentioned above. TABLE 8.—Age, grade, and progress of finished group (Negro). Table 8 shows that out of a group of 547 colored children who entered or were in the 1A grade in September, 1906, not any were able to complete the course in less than seven years, and only 17, or 3.1 per cent, had finished in seven years, the normal time. Of these 17 children, 14 were girls and 3 were boys. Of the total number who had finished, 1 boy and 13 girls, or 82.3 per cent, entered the high school. Two boys and one girl, or 17.7 per cent, did not enter the high school. Consequently, only 2.6 per cent of the children who were in the 1A grade in September, 1906, entered the high school in the normal time. TABLE 9.-Age, grade, and progress of unfinished group (Negro). Table 9 gives the distribution by grades and by ages of those children who were in school September, 1913. Of the 547 children who were in the 1A grade in September, 1906, only 116, or 21.3 per cent, were still in the elementary school September, 1913. From this it is seen that of the 547 Negro children for whom the school system planned, only these 116 children and the 17 children who had finished, or 24.4 per cent, availed themselves of the opportunity for as long a time as seven years. This table further shows that the children who are still in school are scattered from the 7B down to the 3A grades. All of them had been in school seven years, which was the normal time to complete the 14 terms. 7 boys and 4 girls had completed 13 terms. 3 boys and 10 girls had completed 12 terms. 5 boys and 10 girls had completed 11 terms. 6 boys and 11 girls had completed 10 terms. 11 boys and 12 girls had completed 9 terms. 8 boys and 10 girls had completed 8 terms. 6 boys and 2 girls had completed 7 terms. 6 boys and 2 girls had completed 6 terms. 2 girls had completed 5 terms. 1 boy had completed 4 terms. The median number of terms made by these 116 children is 8.4 for the boys and 9.3 for the girls, while the median age for the boys is 13.2 years, and for the girls 14.4 years. It would seem, then, from these median ages that at least half of these children have remained in the elementary schools as long as was planned for them normally, but they fell far short of accomplishing what was planned for them. If the amount of actual progress is estimated in relation to normal progress, as was done in case of the progress made by the unfinished group of white children, the following data are secured: Number of terms nine groups of boys and girls should have made, and number actually The boys made 65.5 per cent normal progress, or 34.5 per cent retardation. TABLE 10.-Age, grade, and progress, table of nonretarded-dropped group (Negro). TABLE 11.—Age, grade, and progress of retarded-dropped group. Ages. Sex. Grades in which dropped. 5 46 Total. 4A 4B 5A 5B 6A 6B 1A 1B 2A 2B 3A 3B 44 Tables 10 and 11 show that the remaining 414 children, or 75.6 per cent of the 547 children in the 1A grade in September, 1906, had left school prior to June, 1913. Of this number 109 (26.3 per cent of the 414 children), or 19.9 per cent of the total group, had not repeated a grade, while 305 (73.7 per cent of 414 children), or 55.7 per cent of the total group, had repeated one or more grades during the time |