room use. In the composition test, the pupils wrote sentences of their own composition. The words misspelled in these sentences were tabulated and checked against the Ayres spelling scale (Table XXV 1 and Diagram 12). In both

DIAGRAM 12.

- DISTRIBUTION OF SPELLING ERRORS IN COMPOSITION TEST FOR EACH SET OF WORDS

ABCDEFGHI J K L M N O P Q R S TU

2

Sets of Words in Ayres Spelling Scale

W X Y Z

cities more than 66 per cent of all the errors in spelling made, and nearly 50 per cent of the different words misspelled, were found in the Ayres scale. The Ayres spelling scale consists of the one thousand most frequently used words of the English language, arranged in twenty-six sets, each set being designated by a letter of the 1 Appendix, p. 406.

2 Measurement of Ability in Spelling, Leonard P. Ayres.

99 66

66

alphabet. The words in set A are very simple, as "me," "do"; the words in set B are a little more difficult, and so on. The mode for both New York and Boston classes falls at set J. The first ten words in set J are "seven,' ," "forget," "happy,' ""noon," "think," "sister," " cast," "card," 'south," "deep." On the average, such words are spelled with an average accuracy of 84 per cent by third-grade children, and with an accuracy of 100 per cent by sixth-grade children. Yet these were the words most frequently misspelled when used spontaneously by adult foreign born.

It is apparent also that the type of words such classes for foreign born need to study are those found in sets G to L. According to Ayres, thirdgrade children spell all these words with 75 per cent of accuracy. A score of 75 per cent for a given group of words is usually taken as indication that this group is the proper subject of study for the group in question. The spelling needs of immigrants in the evening classes, judged by frequency of errors, would therefore seem to be those of third-grade children. In other words, most of the content of the special lessons used in this investigation and in the regular work of evening schools is over the heads of the pupils and beyond their needs.

The conclusion is that in the selection of suitable material, and in the organization of courses of study, measurement should be constantly used as an aid in determining what subject matter is of most worth. Choice of content should not be

left to the eccentricities of textbook makers or to the passing and unchecked whims of the teacher. If the actual needs of the immigrant, as expressed in his own projects, are not to determine the work done, there should be careful evaluation by measurement of the difficulty of the subject matter used for class work.

USEFULNESS OF TESTS

Many other illustrations of the application of measurements to educational problems might be given, but those described above should make clear the chief functions of measurement in education. These may be summarized as follows: (1) Defining the goals or standards of instruction and evaluating subject matter in terms of these goals; (2) measuring the abilities of classes or individuals and determining their abilities and needs with reference to the established standards; (3) determining, after an attempt has been made to bring about the desired changes, the degree of success achieved. On the basis of such testing, teaching and supervision can be intelligently directed, the most efficient methods selected, and the effectiveness of the educative process continually improved.

VII

EDUCATIONAL SERVICE STATIONS

THE previous chapters have emphasized the fact that the attention of the American public has been focused on the problem of the education of the immigrant adult. The fact has been brought out that to-day America is awakening to the truth of the situation and is becoming "grimly determined to bring the message of American ideals within the reach of all its inhabitants who are of foreign birth. Herein lies a great opportunity and as considerable a source of danger, because the problem of the education of the foreign born as an aid to Americanization is not at all the same as that of training the immature child.

The pupils in our evening schools have from twenty to sixty years and more of experience behind them. They are in the midst of life, and under the pressure of life's insistent demands. Their desire for education and their specific needs are clearly defined. To be acceptable, the training the school offers must meet their needs immediately, adequately, efficiently. Can it be truly affirmed of the courses now given in our

evening schools that they do meet the situation in such manner?

CONVENTIONAL TEACHING DOGMATIC

Consider, for instance, the present status of classes for teaching English to foreign born. Passing over the inadequate financial provision which limits the number of sessions, ignoring the fact that adults must sometimes sit in seats meant for children and study from texts and materials designed for childish minds, forgetting the unfavorable conditions, such as the strain of one or two hours of intellectual effort at the close of a long, hard day, let us consider only that the conception of education which pervades all such work is the conventional one of a teacher who teaches and of learners who learn.

Conventional work in education, whether in the elementary school or in the university, proceeds largely on the assumption that the teacher, because of his superior knowledge, skill, or power, is able to do something to the pupils which transforms them into more capable beings so far as the field of study in question is concerned. Accordingly, the teacher carefully studies his subject matter, organizes it in ways which seem to him most effective, and during class time carries out his prearranged plan, the pupils submitting passively to his direction. As a result, conventional education is dogmatic, the teacher is an autocrat, the good pupil a submissive creature who yields unquestioning obedience and indus