RETARDATION OF PUPILS. This term is popularly used by educators to mean that a pupil is old in years for his grade, on the basis of being in the first grade of the elementary school course at the age of six or seven years. According to this general plan. all pupils who were eight years old or more, and were found in the first grade at any time during the school year would be considered as retarded. In the same manner all second grade pupils nine years old and over are retarded. This general standpoint of a leeway of two years in the standard age with its possible ap plication at any time during the school year when the data may be collected from pupils and teachers is, however, far too loose in its ap plication to serve as a very definite measure. The proper standard of age is that a pupil should begin the elementary school course at the first opportunity presented after he has passed his sixth birthday. In most cities this opportunity comes within six months, and the custom of midyear promotions is quite universal. In order to provide for those cities which pro mote only once a year, the standard should be made six years but less than seven years for beginning the first grade; seven years but less than eight years for beginning the second grade. This scale of pupils' ages is not based upon the mere fact that a pupil is in a certain grade at some time during the school year, but upon the pupil's commencement of the work of a certain grade involving the actual completion of previous grades. This definite standard has been adopted by the superintendents of New York State. Age is figured as of the nearest birth day. The exact definition of retardation is, however, not covered even by this well-defined plan of figuring age for beginning or com pleting a particular grade, becauSe many chil dren do not start school at the age of six years, but wait until they are seven or eight years old, and once entering their progress is in many cases entirely regular. The correct conception
of a retarded pupil is one who has spent a longer time in school than the usual period required to finish a given grade or place him at the beginning of the next advanced grade. In other words, the normally progressing pupil completes one grade in one school year, and a retarded second grade pupil would be one who began that grade with more than one year of previous schooling; a retarded third grade pupil would be one beginning that grade with more than two years of previous schooling, etc.
The age basis alone is inaccurate for all pupils who do not happen to eater school be tween their sixth and seventh birthdays. On the basis of time-in-school, however, no pupil is charged with retardation unless he has actually spent more than the allotted time to achieve a given point in his school progress. Owing to the absence of complete progress rec ords in schools at the present time, however, the age basis is the only measure on which in formation is available on a broad scale, and for this reason it is valuable and its compila tion is worth while. Modern practice com bines the tabulation of both age and progress figures. It is evident that a pupil may get an early start and make normal progress. An other may make a late start and progress normally, and since a given pupil may be young, normal or overage, and may at the same time make rapid, normal or slow progress, we have nine possible categories of pupils with ref erence to these conditions, as follows: 1 Underage and rapid progress 2 Normal age and rapid program 3 Overage and rapid progress 4 Underage and normal progress S Normal both as to age and progress 6 Overage and normal progress 7 Underage and slow progress S Normal age and slow progress 9 Overage and slow progress These are best shown in the following as rangement of the groups: According to this plan the results of the statistical reoearch in the cities undertaking this work during 1916-17 are given.