There has been considerable discussion of the question whether
psychological testing should be expected to conform to the ranking of
pupils in school. This discussion however, does not attack the question
in which we are especially interested, _i. e._, how to get the best
information from both. If the school level were measured by the
_progress_ made in school by passable work and not by the school
_position_ attained often merely through age or size, Binet would be
right in expecting that in general they would correspond among groups of
children in the public schools. Agreement with real school progress
could, therefore, be taken as a criterion of a good series of tests, as
it has been by Binet and Bobertag. On the other hand Meumann and Abelson
were right in objecting to the proof of the value of tests by agreement
with the school level, if they limited their objection to tests applied
to exceptional children and to using school _position_ as a final test
of school level. Lack of correspondence with our group of delinquents
is, of course, no indication of a weakness in the Binet scale. In
numerous instances they had been promoted in school because of age
without doing passable work. The reader should also see the evidence of
the teacher's bad judgment of a pupil's ability assembled by Terman and
by Terman and Knollen (_196_).
Terman has calculated the correlation between intelligence quotients
determined by the Binet scale and the teacher's estimates of scholastic
or of general ability. These gave coefficients of .48 and .45. Doll has
found for Goddard's data on school children that the correlation of
school grades is closer with life-age than with test-age, .84 as
compared with .73 (_12_). This indicates an influence of life-age upon
promotion. In a school for deficients Burt found the correlation of
teachers' estimates with Binet ages was .55, with mental retardation or
excess .59, with intellectual quotient .48. He quotes McIntyre and
Rogers as finding coefficients about .5 for similar calculations with
normal school children in Scotland (_85_). Starch has shown that
measured by the combined ability in reading, writing and spelling a
third of the pupils are in a grade behind and a third are in a grade
ahead of their ability (_186_).
However much we might disagree as to how close a correlation might be
expected between the Binet tests and school level, independent of the
relation to life-ages, or which is the better test, it is certain that
they afford two different symptoms of mental deficiency. It becomes our
immediate problem, therefore, to discover how the most information may
be gained from a careful interpretation of the test of school level. If
we had sufficient data, three sorts of checks might be formulated. 1.
What amount of school retardation will give us the best estimate of
mental deficiency among groups? 2. What amount of school retardation
should put an individual's mentality in question so that he should be
examined? 3. What amount of school success should put in question a
Binet diagnosis?
A. PRACTICAL USES OF THE SCHOOL TEST.
(a) ESTIMATING THE FREQUENCY OF DEFICIENCY BY SCHOOL RETARDATION.
We shall first take up the question of utilizing information about
school retardation in estimating the frequency of mental deficiency
among groups of delinquents. It is perfectly clear that retardation in
school position is not always an indication of mental retardation. A
child may be behind the position in school reached by the children of
his age merely because he has not attended school so long as his
companions. A census of school progress which we took in Minnesota
indicates that in general a large part, perhaps half, of the retardation
in school is to be thus explained even under compulsory attendance laws.
Some allowance is also to be made for physical handicaps, such as
defects of sight and hearing which are not corrected, illness which does
not cause prolonged absence, frequent change of schools, bad home
conditions, etc. Aside from absence, however, there can be no question
that greater or less degrees of mental retardation is the main cause of
retardation in school. Moreover a dull mind is often the reason for
beginning school at an older age and for staying away from an unsuitable
school environment as much as the law will permit. In any particular
case, it is to be noted, however, that all of the excuses for
backwardness in school are not likely to account for more than one or
two years of lagging for other reasons than dullness.
We cannot hope at present to get nearly so accurate a judgment about the
frequency of deficiency in groups by means of any school test as by the
psychological tests. Nevertheless, I believe that it may furnish us some
supplementary evidence. The main difficulty in formulating any general
rule for interpretation of the school level is that very different plans
of promotion prevail in different school systems. It is not uncommon,
for example, to find that a child will be promoted to a higher grade
regardless of his ability provided that he has spent two years with the
same teacher. This practise, of course, makes it impossible to judge a
particular individual's ability by the school grade he has attained
without knowing how he reached it. Nevertheless, spending two years in
each grade will begin to show in a general distribution of pupils by the
time we deal with 12-year-olds. I have gone over the tables of school
retardation of pupils provided by Strayer for several hundred cities in
the United States and I find that the percentage method of approach
gives us at least a rough cue as to what might be expected by any
general principle of interpretation (_189_).
Using age 7 as satisfactory in the first grade, 8 in the second, and so
on, we find that among 319 cities of all sizes, half of them had 2% or
more retarded four or more years in school position. This condition was
about the same for cities less than 25,000 as with the larger cities. On
the basis of school position for groups of children of all the school
ages it would, therefore, be safer to make a low estimate of the
frequency of mental deficiency on the basis of five or more years of
scholastic retardation in the groups and regard 4 years or more of
school retardation as a maximum estimate. Since most children leave
school at 14 it is generally best to regard all older as only 14 years
of age when estimating deficiency. I have not been able to check this by
school and test records on a group of children through all the grades.
Goddard's published records do not give the mental ages for those four
or more years retarded scholastically. Moreover, he only included those
in the sixth grade and below. For a group of young children this
estimate would undoubtedly be too low. The delinquent groups, however,
are all older. Most of them, if they lived in this country have gone to
school until they were at least 14 years of age. Wallin (_211_) and
Strong (_190_) also give records of school position to check the Binet
rating.
TABLE XV.
PERCENTAGES OF PUPILS 12 AND 13 YEARS OF AGE MOST SERIOUSLY RETARDED IN
SCHOOL
─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────
│ Percentages Retarded
─────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┬────────────────────
│ 4 or more grades │ 5 or more grades
Cincinnati, Ohio—June 1907 │ 8.8% │ 2.5%
Cleveland, Ohio—1909-1910 │ 3.0 │ 0.9
Des Moines, Iowa—1915 │ 1.0 │ 0.2
Memphis, Tenn.—June 1908 │ 6.6 │ 1.5
Minneapolis, Minn.—June 1915 │ 1.3 │ 0.5
Pittsburgh, Pa.—1913 │ 4.7 │ 1.1
Springfield, Mass.—Sept. 1907│ 1.2 │ 0.1
Reading, Pa.—1906-1909 │ 2.2 │ 0.4
─────────────────────────────┴────────────────────┴────────────────────
The distributions for Cincinnati, Memphis and Springfield are taken
from Ayres' Laggards in Our Schools. That for Minneapolis is from
unpublished data. That for Reading is from Snyder's Retardation in
Reading Public Schools. The others are from Superintendents'
reports.
By considering only pupils in the public schools who are 12 and 13 years
of age, the last years in which practically all are in school, we can
get a check upon this method of estimating for delinquent groups. I have
compared the age-grade distributions for those of these ages in eight
cities showing the percentages retarded 4 or more and 5 or more years.
They are given in Table XV. These records indicate that at least five or
more years retardation below a standard of age 7 in the first grade for
all who are 12 years of age or over might be taken for a low estimate of
the frequency of deficiency, and four or more years retardation for a
maximum estimate. Except under special circumstances those who are older
than 14 years should be considered as if the highest grade attained was
at 14 years of age. These borderlines of school retardation for the
purpose of estimating the frequency of deficiency check fairly well with
estimates for the Minneapolis and other groups of delinquents which have
been tested by the Binet scale, as we shall note later in this chapter.
In order that the school test of mental deficiency should be as good as
the Binet system it would have to provide a standard of school progress
relative to length of attendance instead of school position relative to
age. If one could say that a child was not above the lowest 0.5% of the
children of his age in the _progress_ which he had made in school
relative to the time actually spent in school, one would then have an
excellent standard for judging feeble-mindedness for any child who had
been in school for some years. It would be better if an uncertain region
were also defined. By the time that a child's ability has been passed
upon for four or five years and by different teachers, even from the
point of view of the needs of school work, one has a criterion for
mental ability in a particular community applied under long observation,
which no system of brief tests can hope to equal for some time to come.
Such a standard, however, is unfortunately not available since we have
too little information about school progress relative to attendance.
Even if it were available, psychological tests would still be an
important check upon the school judgment on account of the excessive
value put upon mere memorizing in school and on account of the emotional
repulsion to the school developed by some children of ability. Mental
tests would be necessary, moreover, for the younger ages.
(b) SCHOOL RETARDATION AS A WARNING OF THE NEED FOR EXAMINATION.
Even if no more is known than a person's grade in school at any age over
eleven it is an important cue as to his mentality. Here our problem is
not estimating deficiency among groups but the discovery of deficient
individuals. We wish to find the highest grade in school in which we are
at all likely to find children under present conditions who test in the
lowest 1.5% for their ages. Our records on 653 15-year-olds indicate
that a pupil of this age who tests doubtful is very rarely retarded less
than 3 years in school. It occurred only twice when tested ability was
judged by the 1911 tests, four times judged by the 1908 scale. None of
the 15-year-olds who tested presumably deficient were retarded less than
three years. In Minneapolis, as in many cities, the custom prevails of
promoting, regardless of passable work, after two years have been spent
in a grade.
We suggest, therefore, to be perfectly safe, it is well for every child
in court to be examined who is two years retarded in school below the
standard age of 7 in the first grade and is not able to carry work above
the seventh grade. This will include a considerable number of children
at the lower border of those presumably passable.
Binet used this standard of two years retardation in recommending
examination for children 9 years of age or over (3 years below age 6 in
the first grade) (_77_, p. 44). He adopted it from Belgium. It is also
quite commonly followed in this country. The New Jersey law provides for
special classes in any school district where there are ten or more
children four or more years behind grade. This probably means behind the
theoretical position of age 6 in the first grade, one year worse
retarded than we suggest examining. Goddard says in one place that “a
child who has been in school regularly and is two or three years behind
his grade is so suspicious that it is almost certain that he is
feeble-minded” (_116_). But later he is much more conservative and says,
“The child who is fourteen years old and cannot pass an examination in
fourth grade work is almost surely feeble-minded” (_34_). As judged by
Strayer's tables the suggestion that examination is desirable for those
two years behind a standard of age 7 in the first grade would tend to
bring in for examination about 18% of the school boys in half of the
cities of 25,000 population and over. This would not be too severe a
burden for courts which would be interested only in that portion of
these retardates who were brought into court.
This school test may be made of decidedly practical use by those working
in juvenile courts where most of the cases are with children over this
age. It can be applied in a very simple manner by subtracting 8 from the
child's age and only passing without testing those who are in a grade in
school higher than the number remaining. For example, if the child is 13
years of age, subtracting 8 gives 5. Now, if the child is in the fifth
grade or lower, or entered such a grade at the time he was of this age,
one should investigate the question of feeble-mindedness. Unless more
than one year of the retardation is explained by the person's absence
from school since he was six years of age, he should always be turned
over to an expert for examination. This retardation of two years in
school attainment below the standard of seven in the first grade may
indicate feeble-mindedness if the child has been attending school
constantly, although the chances are perhaps 6 to 1 that it does not. It
is very desirable that we should have more adequate data on this point.
A cautious court, however, would inquire into the mental ability of any
child—at least two years retarded in school, _i. e._, any child the
number of whose school grade is not higher than the remainder after
subtracting 8 from his life-age at the time that he entered his last
grade or who is not actually carrying the school work of an advanced
grade. This latter caution we must now consider.
(c) SCHOOL SUCCESS AS A CHECK ON THE BINET DIAGNOSIS.
The school test can give us still another practical cue as to
feeble-mindedness in examining children. Ability to carry successfully
school work of some grade certainly could be used as a systematic
criterion of passable intellectual ability. What school grade indicates
this is not at present possible to determine except as a rough practical
check. With the great irregularity in school grading at present known to
exist, it certainly would not be possible to say that fifth grade work
indicates a passable intellect, although some of the oldest local
schools for deficients, like those in Mannheim, do not pretend to carry
children above the fourth grade work. Speaking of the school success of
the intellectually deficient, Binet said: “One may draw the conclusion,
which is of practical value, that one need not seek children of this
group in the senior divisions of the primary schools” (_77_, p. 44).
This would correspond to the sixth and seventh grades in this country.
Tredgold gives a careful description of the highest work in a London
special day-school for the highest grades of deficients. It shows that
even fifth grade work would be beyond what is actually taught the
children in this school. He says:
“The work done by this class consists of reading and writing,
equivalent to normal Standard II; compound addition and subtraction
up to 1000, and simple multiplication and division. Excluding a few
children—who, in my opinion, are not really defective—it may be said
that the scholastic acquirements of none of these children come up
to the Standard II. In occupations and manual work they are
decidedly better, and a considerable portion of the children of this
class can cut out and make simple artificial flowers, knit rugs and
weave baskets, with a really very creditable amount of dexterity,
which redounds in no small measure to the patient, persevering and
systematic care of their teacher” (_14_, p. 173).
Some of our group with doubtful intellects do better than this. When
considering the borderlines with the Binet tests we decided that a child
was presumably passable if he scored a test-age of XI. This score would
not be made by 11-year-olds as a group, but could probably be attained
by 12-year-olds. We may then ask what is the corresponding school
position attained by 12-year-olds who have been continuously in school.
At the same time we must ask whether the lowest 1.5% of the children of
any single age can attain this school grade since it should be high
enough to exclude the deficients, no matter how long they have attended
school. We happen to have this information for a random group of
Minneapolis elementary school pupils on the basis of census of school
progress per years of schooling. Considering only the children who had
been in school since they were six years of age, we found that 82% of
186 12-year-olds and 92% of 174 13-year-olds had reached the seventh
grade, and that the lowest 1.5% of neither age nor of any of the older
ages could apparently carry the work of this grade no matter how long
they had remained in school. Our records included older pupils who were
in their eleventh year of attendance on the elementary schools.
Another indication that reaching the seventh grade is presumptive
evidence of passable intellects is found in the fact that none of our
group of 653 15-year-olds testing presumably deficient with the Binet
scale and only four of the six who tested doubtful intellectually had
reached the seventh grade. On the other hand those that think that a
15-year-old testing XI is deficient will be interested to find that 42
out of 51 who tested XI with the 1908 scale were in the seventh grade or
above. We are convinced, therefore, that it is a conservative position
to take that either passing the Binet tests XI in the 1908 series or
ability to pass successfully the seventh grade in school is good
evidence of a passable intellect. The rule, of course, does not apply to
those who are passed along to the seventh grade because of their size or
age regardless of ability to carry the work.
B. CHECKING DEFICIENCY AMONG DELINQUENTS BY THE SCHOOL TEST.
Let us see what the rough preliminary estimates on the basis of school
retardation would indicate for the Minneapolis delinquents. We may
disregard the upper limit of 14 years since compulsory attendance in
Minnesota for backward pupils continues until age 16. For the limits of
five and four years of retardation in school below the standard of 7
years in the first grade we would have estimates of 2.6% to 6% of
deficiency among the ordinary cases of delinquent boys and 14.7% to
23.1% among the ordinary delinquent girls. Among the recidivist group of
boy offenders 3% to 11% would be below these borderlines. Among the Glen
Lake School group 12% are four years or more and 4% five years or more
retarded. This last is to be compared with our judgment on the basis of
individual examinations with the Binet scale in which we concluded that
2% were presumably deficient and 5% doubtful as to deficiency. The
estimates on the basis of school retardation are somewhat too large.
This would certainly be true for older delinquents. In as much as the
laws for compulsory school attendance usually do not enforce attendance
after 14 years of age, it would probably be better generally to treat
all over 14 years of age as if they were of this age at the time of
leaving school. This limiting age of 14 checks more closely with the
mental examination records reported by Williams (_149_) and Ordahl
(_41_) for groups of delinquents in the California state schools.
With her unselected group of 88 women at the Bedford reformatory,
Weidensall found that 39% had not completed the fifth B grade (_60_, p.
23). This is not far from the estimate of presumable deficiency among
such inmates on our borderline with the Binet scale. Considering the
actual years of school retardation relative to years of attendance, so
far as she was able to discover, and adding the 8 who never attended
school, we have 20% five or more years retarded in school and 28% four
or more years retarded (_60_, p. 251). She says further regarding the
bi-modal distribution of ability which she found among her group:
“The division which alone served to separate the better from the
poorer subjects was that of the grade completed upon leaving school.
Those who had accomplished the completion of at least 5B grade
formed a curve which paralleled very closely that of the Cincinnati
girl of fifteen, while those who had not succeeded in passing 5B
comprised the majority of those who collected at the poorer mode of
the Bedford 88 curves. Throughout, the grade completed has proved to
be more often a measure of our subjects' ability to progress in
school, less often a measure of their opportunity to attend school.”
The administrative officers of institutions may make rough estimates of
the frequency of serious deficiency among their charges by regarding all
over 14 as if they were 14 years of age or under, disregarding those
under 12 years of age, tabulating the highest school positions reached,
and finding the frequency of those four or more and five or more grades
retarded below a standard of age 7 for the first grade. It would be well
for each court also thus to make an estimate of the size of the problem
of deficiency in its jurisdiction. According to the second suggestion
which we have made, the Minneapolis Juvenile Court, for example, should
plan to examine for mental deficiency all those two or more years
retarded in school or about 20% of the boys found delinquent and nearly
half of the girls. The prospect would be that the number sifted out as
having feeble intellects will be less than 10% of the ordinary run of
cases.
Let us study a little further into the detention home cases tested by
the Binet scale and see what additional light their school position
throws upon the question whether or not they are defective delinquents.
Four years retardation in school position would have called attention to
both of our sure cases of feeble-mindedness. On the other hand, it would
have brought in for examination only 4 out of the 7 doubtful cases.
Three years of school retardation would have sifted out all but one. Two
years school retardation, the rule suggested above, would have detected
all those who tested doubtful. It would have required 56 examinations in
this group to have found the eight cases suspicious under our test
criteria. We also find that, among the random 15-year-olds not
delinquent, examining all those 3 years retarded would have discovered
all that tested even doubtful intellectually.
Applying the rule that ability to carry seventh grade work is a good
indication of a passable intellect, we find that none of our Glen Lake
delinquents testing either presumably deficient or doubtful had reached
the seventh grade. On the other hand, if one were disposed to object to
saying that a person who passes Binet tests XI (1908) has a passable
intellect, one finds in reply that 16 out of the 22 Glen Lake delinquent
cases testing XI and three or more years retarded intellectually, _i.
e._, presumably passable, were carrying seventh grade work or better.
In examining individuals the importance of checking each of these tests
with the other seems perfectly clear. If a boy fails in the Binet tests
and shows better school ability one should certainly be cautious in his
diagnosis. On the other hand a boy who is seriously behind in school may
be found by the Binet scale to have a better intellect, so that the
inquiry must be further extended to determine the cause of his school
retardation. Retardation in school is generally not as fundamental a
symptom of deficiency as retardation in the tests because of the
numerous other causes of delay in school.
After allowance for the external causes of backwardness in school one
finds that the test of progress in school and the Binet examination not
rarely reach two different sides of the nature of unusual children found
in juvenile court. Working with these exceptional children, Dr. Kramer
observed that school performances were often notably different from
ability in the tests. After checking the two tests against each other in
examining 59 cases sent to him from the Society for the Care of
Delinquent and Dependent Children in Breslau and 59 children at the
psychiatric clinic in Berlin, he says regarding the result of this
comparison:
“For the valuation of the Binet method, it shows us that the first
objection which occurs to one, that the method tests only school
knowledge, is not correct. On the contrary it was found that we had
to do in high degree with that which was independent of what the
child had learned in school and with real abilities which the normal
child is accustomed to acquire by a certain age uninfluenced by
training and instruction.”
He emphasizes, however, that to answer practical questions regarding the
training of a child, “we must not only examine into the understanding
but the total personality must be taken into consideration” (_184_, p.
519).