The Unit of the Scale Equals approximately One-Tenth of the Difference
between the Best and Worst of the Formal Writings of 1,000 Children in
Grades 5-8. The Differences 16-15, 15-14, 14-13, etc., represent Equal
Fractions of the Combined Mental Scale of Merit of from 23-55 Competent
Judges.
Sample 140, representing zero merit in handwriting. Zero merit is
arbitrarily defined as that of a handwriting, recognizable as such, but
yet not legible at all and possessed of no beauty.
[Illustration: qual0.png: ]
Quality 4.
[Illustration: qual4.png: ]
Quality 5.
[Illustration: qual5.png: ]
Quality 6.
[Illustration: qual6.png: ]
Quality 7.
[Illustration: qual7.png: ]
Quality 8.
[Illustration: qual8a.png: ]
[Illustration: qual8b.png: ]
Quality 9.
[Illustration: qual9a.png: ]
[Illustration: qual9b.png: ]
[Illustration: qual9c.png: ]
Quality 10.
[Illustration: qual10.png: ]
Quality 11.
[Illustration: qual11a.png: ]
[Illustration: qual11b.png: ]
[Illustration: qual11c.png: ]
Quality 12.
[Illustration: qual12a.png: ]
[Illustration: qual12b.png: ]
[Illustration: qual12c.png: ]
Quality 13.
[Illustration: qual13a.png: ]
[Illustration: qual13b.png: ]
[Illustration: qual13c.png: ]
[Illustration: qual13d.png: ]
Quality 14.
[Illustration: qual14a.png: ]
[Illustration: qual14b.png: ]
Quality 15.
[Illustration: qual15a.png: ]
[Illustration: qual15b.png: ]
[Illustration: qual15c.png: ]
[Illustration: qual15d.png: ]
Quality 16.
[Illustration: qual16a.png: ]
Quality 17.
[Illustration: qual17.png: ]
Quality 18.
[Illustration: qual18.png: ]
* * * * *
This table reads as follows: Quality four was written by five children
in the second grade and two in the third grade, quality five was written
by twenty-two children in the second grade, two children in the third
grade, three in the fourth grade, three in the fifth grade, none in the
sixth grade, one in the seventh grade, and none in the eighth grade, and
so on for the whole table.[24]
A scale for measuring ability in spelling prepared by Dr. Leonard P.
Ayres arranges the thousand words most commonly used in the order of
their difficulty. From this sheet it is possible to discover words of
approximately the same difficulty for each grade. A test could therefore
be derived from this scale for each of the grades with the expectation
that they would all do about equally well. There would also be the
possibility of determining how well the spelling was done in the
particular school system in which these words were given as compared
with the ability of children as measured by an aggregate of more than a
million spellings by seventy thousand children in eighty-four cities
throughout the United States. Such a list could be taken from the scale
for the second grade, which includes words which have proved to be of a
difficulty represented by a seventy-three percent correct spelling for
the class. Such a list might be composed of the following words: north,
white, spent, block, river, winter, Sunday, letter, thank, and best. A
similar list could be taken from the scale for a third, fourth, fifth,
sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. For example, the words which have
approximately the same difficulty,--seventy-three percent to be spelled
correctly by the class for the sixth grade,--read as follows: often,
stopped, motion, theater, improvement, century, total, mansion, arrive,
supply. The great value of such a measuring scale, including as it does
the thousand words most commonly used, is to be found not only in the
opportunity for comparing the achievements of children in one class or
school with another, but also in the focusing of the attention of
teachers and pupils upon the words most commonly used.[25]
One of the fields in which there is greatest need for measurement is
English composition. Teachers have too often thought of English
composition as consisting of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and
the like, and have ignored the quality of the composition itself in
their attention to these formal elements. A scale for measuring English
composition derived by Dr. M.B. Hillegas,[26] consisting of sample
compositions of values ranging from 0 to 9.37, will enable the teacher
to tell just how many pupils in the class are writing each different
quality of composition. The use of such a scale will tend to make both
teacher and pupil critical of the work which is being done not only with
respect to the formal elements, but also with respect to the style or
adequacy of the expression of the ideas which the writer seeks to
convey. Probably in no other field has the teacher been so apt to derive
his standard from the performance of the class as in work in
composition. Even though some teachers find it difficult to evaluate the
work of their pupils in terms of the sample compositions given on the
scale, much good must come, it seems to the writer, from the attempt to
grade compositions by such an objective scale. If such measurements are
made two or three times during the year, the performance of individual
pupils and of the class will be indicated much more certainly than is
the case when teachers feel that they are getting along well without any
definite assurance of the amount of their improvement.
In one large school system in which the writer was permitted to have the
principals measure compositions collected from the sixth and the eighth
grades, it was discovered that almost no progress in the quality of
composition had been accomplished during these two years. This lack of
achievement upon the part of children was not, in the opinion of the
writer, due to any lack of conscientious work upon the part of teachers,
but, rather, developed out of a situation in which the whole of
composition was thought of in terms of the formal elements mentioned
above. The Hillegas scale, together with the values assigned to each of
the samples, is given below.
A SCALE FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF THE QUALITY OF ENGLISH
COMPOSITION