The use of psychological tests in the educational and vocational guidance of high school pupils ...

Front matter

Author

ILM

Title

Introduction

The secondary school population of the United States has, since 1890, increased three times as fast as the general population. In the year 1915 there were 14.4 pupils of secondary grade for every 1,000 persons of the general population, whereas, in 1890 there were only five. According to recent estimates there are in the United States 14,000 high schools caring for 1,500,000 pupils requiring the services of 80,000 teachers, and calHng for the expenditure of $75,000,000 per year for salaries and maintenance.

The problem of administering the physical side of this vast educational enterprise has occupied the attention of school authorities to such an extent that small consideration has been given to the need for internal betterment. The average American community is willing to tax itself for material equipment. An imposing high-school building becomes a matter of civic pride. It is a good talking point in chamber of commerce literature, and can be shown to visitors as an index of the progressive nature of the community.

Many of our city high schools are housed in buildings superior to those occupied by the best colleges and universities a generation ago. Buildings costing from $500,000 to $1,000,000 are not uncommon; and it is perfectly safe to say that no other nation has begun to spend as much upon its secondary school buildings as has our own.

When, however, it comes to securing more money for teachers' salaries, for enriching the curriculum, or other matters of internal improvement, the task is much more difficult. The results obtained by spending money to make a better adjustment between the child and the curriculum, or between the child and his future place in the social order, are quite intangible. It is very difficult to prove to the tax-paying public that money so spent will pay ascertainable dividends.

Since the public is more willing to spend money on buildings that can be seen than on invisible internal betterments, reforms in our secondary schools have come very slowly. Natural con-

Introduction 7

servatism as well as considerations of economy have combined to sustain the traditional curriculum in seventy-five out of every hundred high schools.

So long as preparation for college was the chief end and aim of secondary education, the narrow, college preparatory course of study was satisfactory. But since the high-school population now comes from every class of home, and since only 10 percent of those who enter high school ever reach college, the demand has come to be more and more insistent that secondary education shall prepare the youth of the land for citizenship and vocations.

In the discussion of the proposed reorganization of secondary education large space is being given to the problem of educational and vocational guidance. The classical, college-preparatory, high school of former days had no need of educational guidance. There was only one course of study. It was a case of take it or leave it. Neither was there great need for vocational guidance. Those who could master the prescribed course of study were headed for the professions. Those who were unable to complete the course taught school or went back to the farm. The boy or girl in perplexity as to a life career could find wise and sympathetic counselors in the village minister, doctor, or lawyer.

The boy or girl of the present day faces a much more complex situation. The fields of vocational opportunity have been greatly multiplied. Where formerly there were six or seven possible lines of life work open to the educated man or woman, there are now literally hundreds. Some agency must take over the task of collecting, organizing, and imparting accurate information regarding possible vocational opportunities to the boys and girls in our high schools.

The necessary information is no longer easily accessible to the inquiring boy or girl. The "No Admittance Except on Business" sign bars them from shop and office alike. They have become more and more dependent upon imparted, as against first-hand, information concerning the qualifications necessary to success in the different fields of endeavor. The minister has been practically eliminated as a factor in vocational guidance, because the church reaches such a small fraction of the high-school population. A majority of parents have neither the disposition nor the means of acquiring adequate information regarding vocations to make them competent counselors. This means that the home is a much less important factor than it used to be in the vocational guidance of youth.

The high school, therefore, becomes the residuary legatee of the church and the home in the field of educational and vocational guidance. Whether the high school meets its opportunity for service in this new direction or fails entirely to function will depend upon the methods of educational and vocational guidance adopted.

The vital nature of guidance in education is well stated by Truman Lee Kelley:^

The modern idea of education is crystallizing into an effort to guide rather than to instruct — to answer a need rather than to cater to a curriculum. The growing recognition of the need of vocational and educational guidance is resulting in the establishment of bureaus endeavoring to give the former, and in the training of psychologists to solve the problems of the latter.

Also by J. M. Brewer :2

The development of men and women is the purpose of the school, and the selection of and preparation for occupations is one of the important features of this development. The school must therefore be organized with the vocational guidance of the child as one of the aims in mind.

This monograph embodies the results of a recent study by the writer involving the use of psychological tests in the educational and vocational guidance of high-school pupils. The data gathered and the conclusions reached are presented in the hope that those interested in the advisement problem in the high school may find herein helpful suggestions or be stimulated to make constructive criticisms in the light of their own experience.

The study was begun in the school year 1916-1917. All the pupils of the September and February entering classes of the Palo Alto Union High School were given the Stanford Revision of the Binet Intelligence Scale. In 1917-1918 group tests, Army Examinations a and b, and Army Alpha Test, Form 5, were given to more than 1,600 high-school pupils, representing nine different institutions.

^KeUey, Truman Lee. Educational guidance. (Teachers College, Columbia University Contributions to Education, No. 71.) New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1914, p. 1.

* Brewer, J. M. [The vocational- guidance movement. New York: Macmillan Company, 1918, p. 58.

Introduction 9

The high-school progress of these pupils has been noted; information as to vocational ambition, educational plans, etc. have been secured; teachers have been asked to give estimates of ability; and the school marks of those remaining in school have been obtained. The records made by 93 pupils who were graduated from high school subsequent to being given the psychological tests, and who entered Stanford University, have also been compiled.

The following chapters will indicate what the writer found to be the value of the tests as a means of predicting probable high-school, vocational, or university success. The word "probable" is used advisedly because it should be stated at the outset that the writer is not disposed to place undue confidence in the result of a single psychological examination, however thoroughly it may have been standardized.

The results obtained are at least suggestive of the methods of procedure, in the use of psychological tests by the high-school principal or teacher, that will throw the most light upon the problem of educational and vocational guidance in the high school.

Chapter II Psychological Tests As A Means Of Measuring

THE PROBABLE SCHOOL SUCCESS OF

HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS

The validity of the Stanford-Binet Scale, when applied to high-school pupils, has already been discussed by the writer in the issues of School and Society appearing October 19, and 26, 1918.^ In those articles it was shown that very significant correlations had been obtained between intelligence quotients,' (I. Q.'s), resulting from the individual tests of 107 high-school pupils and the school marks earned by the same pupils during the school year, 1916-1917; also between I. Q.'s and teachers' estimates of intelligence made during the same year.

Two years and a half later there were 66 of the original 107 high-school pupils remaining. Teachers who had known all of these pupils during their stay in the high school were asked to give estimates of their intelligence upon the same rating sheet as that which was used in 1916-1917. All school marks earned during the two and one-half years were averaged. Correlations were then found (a) between the I. Q.'s obtained in 1916-1917 and the teachers' estimates made in 1919; (b) between the average of all school marks earned up to April 1, 1919 and I. Q.'s obtained in 1916-1917; and (c) between the average school marks and the teachers' estimates made in 1919. Table I shows the close agreement between the correlations obtained in 1916-1917 and those found in 1919.

Table I shows that the correlations obtained in 1918-1919, when the same comparisons were madt as in 1916-1917, were

' Proctor, W. M. "The use of intelligence tests in the educational guidance of high-school pupils," School and Society, 8:473-78, 502-9, October, 1918.

* The intelligence quotient is obtained by dividing the mental age by the chronological age. Thus a twelve-year-old chronologically who tested eight years old mentally would have I. Q. of 0.66, expressed for convenience "66." The I. Q. is an index of relative brightness. For further discussion of intelligence quotient see: Terman, L. M. The intelligence of school children. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.. 1919, p. 7.

TABLE 1. COMPARISON OF CORRELATIONS OBTAINED IN 1916-1917 WITH THOSE OBTAINED IN 1918-1919*

Year

Correlation

between I. Q.

and Teacher

Estimates

Correlation

between I. Q.

and School

Marks

Correlation

between School

Marks and

Teacher

Estimates

Number

of

Cases

1916-17

1918-19

* Pearson's formula^ (shorter method) was used in making all correlations.

practically as high as those obtained in the first instance. The results of two and one-half years of follow-up work seem to indicate that the person who made the original tests with the Stanford- Binet Scale in 1916-1917, would have been in a position to give very helpful advice to all of the pupils tested by him; also that his predictions as to the possible educational future of each of these pupils would have deserved serious consideration by parents and teachers.

As a means of discovering individual dilTerences between school children in order that they may be grouped in classes according to ability, the individual psychological test has been shown to be a helpful tool. From the standpoint of school administration, however, the individual test presents serious difficulties. The time required to give an individual test to a high-school pupil varies from 40 minutes to 120 minutes. The total number of pupils that can be examined by a single examiner in a day will seldom exceed ten. The use of the Stanford-Binet abbreviated scale enables an examiner to test from IS to 25 pupils in a day. Even so, it is impossible to use the individual method when a rapid survey of an entire school population is to be undertaken.

Group mental examinations afford the only means of meeting the demand for a speedy and reliable method of measuring the mental abilities of large groups of people. Under the supervision

' Rugg, H. O. Statistical methods applied to education. New York : Houghton Mifflin and Co., 1917, p. 274.

of Dr. L. M. Terman the writer directed the giving of Examination a (Form A) and Examination Alpha (Form 5) of the Army Scale to 1,349 high-school pupils, representing eight California high schools, during the school year 1917-1918.

Examination a consists of ten tests: (1) Oral Directions, (2) Memory for Digits, (3) Disarranged Sentences, (4) Arithmetical Reasoning, (5)' Information, (6) Synonym-Antonym, (7). Common Sense, (8) Number Series Completion, (9) Analogies, (10) Number Comparison. The total possible raw score is 237. This test was given to portions of the first-year high-school classes in the Oakland Technical, Oakland Central and Fremont, Oakland, high schools and to all of the pupils present on the day of the examination at the Palo Alto Union High School. The total number of pupils was 715.

Group Examination Alpha consists of eight tests: (1) Oral Directions, (2) Arithmetical Reasoning, (3) Practical Judgment, (4) Synonym-Antonym, (5) Disarranged Sentences, (6) Number Series Completion, (7) Analogies, (8) Information. This test was given to all pupils present on the day of examination in the San Mateo, Redwood City, Mountain View, and Santa Clara union high schools. The total number of these pupils was 624.

These group mental examinations were applied to all of the pupils in each of the high schools enumerated above at exactly the same time. A sufficient number of examiners, trained by Dr. Terman, were taken to each high school, to cover the entire high school in one forty-five minute period. The size of the " groups ranged from 40 to 150. It took the writer and his assistant a total of 134 hours to test 107 high-school pupils by the individual method. Six trained examiners were able to give Examination a to 350 Palo Alto high-school pupils in 45 minutes. The test blanks were scored by university students. Their work was carefully checked and the results tabulated by the writer.

Group Test Results Compared with Individual Test Results

One hundred and sixteen of the high-school pupils tested with Examination a had previously been given the Stanford-Binet Scale. Table II makes comparison of the two kinds of mental examination. Although no Binet I. Q.'s are found in the group 140-149, six Army Scale I. Q.'s are between 140 and 149. This is because a higher mental age is attainable on the Army Scale than on the Binet Scale. For example, a high-school boy fifteen years and two months old passed every test in the Stanford-Binet

TABLE II. RELATION BETWEEN THE I. Q.'s OF 116 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS EARNED ON THE STANFORD-BINET SCALE AND THE I. Q.'s OF TH •: SAME PUPILS EARNED ON EXAMINA- TION a, ARMY SCALE

I. Q.'s on Examination a

, Army Scale .

I, Q.'s on

Stanford-Binet

Scale

80- 89

90- 99

100- 109

110- 119

120- 129

130- 139

140- 149

8 '

130-139

3 9

120-129

100-109

3 8

90-99

7 5

80-89

70-79 . . .

Median for Binet I. Q.: group, 110-119 Median for Army Scale I. Q. : group, 110-119 Correlation, Pearson's formula, 0.736; P. E., 0.029

Scale, thus earning a mental age of nineteen years and six months, and an I. Q. of 129. On the Army Scale, Examination a, he made a raw score of 219, corresponding to a mental age score of twentyone years and eleven months, and an I. Q. of 144.^ In other words, the Stanford-Binet Scale does not give the superior high-school pupil an opportunity to earn as high an I. Q. as he can earn on the Army Scale. This factor would tend to lower the

* Mental age norms for ^oth tests of the Army Scale were worked out by Dr. Samuel Kohs and the writer. It was found that about fifteen points of raw score on Examination a and Examination Alpha corresponded roughly to a mental age year. Possible raw score, Examination a, 237, possible mental age twenty-three years; possible raw score, Alpha 212, possible mental age 23 years and 2 months. See Appendix.

correlation between the two sets of I. Q.'s. The correlation obtained in Table II (+0.736) is a strong indication that if the Stanford-Binet Scale is a valid means of finding the mental level of high-school pupils, the Army Scale Examination a is also valid for the same purpose.

Army Scale Results Compared with High-School Marks

The school work of all the high-school pupils examined by means of the two army group tests was carefully followed up for the school years 1917-1918 and 1918-1919. The marks given were reduced to a comparable basis by assigning arbitrary values to each type of mark employed by the various high schools. Thus an "A" or a"l" was given a value of 95; a "B" or a "2," a value of 85, etc. Letters or numbers with plus and minus signs were given intermediate values. All of the marks earned by a given pupil were averaged, but no case was included in the tables unless the marks for at least two semesters of school work, the equivalent of one year, were available.

1. Army Scale, Group Examination a. — Table III makes a comparison between the I. Q.'s obtained from the Group Examination a and the quality of high-school work of 494 high-school pupils. The total number taking the test was 715, but only 494 cases had ratings for one year of school work.

Since the correlation obtained ( + 0.343) is 12.8 times the indicated P. E., it has considerable significance. While it is not as high as the correlation between Binet I. Q.'s and school marks found in Table I, there are several factors which may have tended to lower the correlation. The army tests were designed for use with soldiers in cantonments. Many of the questions have to do with matters of common knowledge about a military camp, but with which high-school pupils have no acquaintance. Tliis would especially affect the scores of high-school girls. There are twenty cases falling in I. Q. groups below 95, where the indicated school work is of a quality of 80 percent or above, and fifteen of these cases, or 75 percent, are girls.

Another factor which may have tended to lower the correlation is the skewness of the school marks curve toward the high percents. The median school marks group in Table III is 80-84.

TABLE in. CORRELATION BETWEEN THE I. Q.'s OF ARMY GROUP

EXAMINATION a AND THE QUALITY OF SCHOOL WORK

OF 494 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS

Army Group Examination a I. Q.'s

School Marks

84 or Lower

85- 89

90- 94

95- 99

100- 104

105- 109

110- 114

115- 119

120- 124

125 or Above

Totak

U

90 or above

3 5

2 9

85-89

75-79

70-74

65-69

1 2

3 3

9 4

19 14

19 11

1 1

7 2

1 1

98 54 11

55-64

Medians: I. Q.'s, group 105-109; school marks, group 80-84 _,

Semi-interquartile ranges: I. Q.'s, 6 points; school marks, 43^ percent ^ ;

Correlation, Pearson's formula, 0.343; P. E., 0.027

This represents a grade of "B" or "2." It is necessary for these high-school pupils to receive marks of "B" or "2" in all subjects required for university recommendation. The Palo Alto high school is in close proximity to Stanford University, and the Oakland high schools are in the immediate vicinity of the University of California. The fact that 68.8 percent of the grades given to these 494 high-school pupils were "B" or above is an indication that teachers were influenced in their marking by the demand for "B" grades for university recommendation. Many pupils with just average ability were given marks ranking superior. Hence there might be a rather wide difference between their mental ability as shown by the tests and their school progress as shown by their marks.

2. Army Scale, Group Examination Alpha. — Table IV compares the I. Q.'s of 480 of the high-school pupils of San Mateo,

Redwood City, Mountain View, and Santa Clara with their school marks. There were 624 pupils belonging to these high schools who took Examination Alpha, but only 480 cases came under the rule requiring ratings for one whole year of school work.

TABLE IV. CORRELATION BETWEEN THE I. Q.'S OF THE ARMY

GROUP EXAMINATION ALPHA AND THE QUALITY OF

SCHOOL WORK OF 480 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS

Army

Group Examination Alpha

I. Q's.

School Marks

84 or Lower

85- 89

90- 94

95- 99

100- 104

105- 109

110- 114

120- 124

125 or Above

* w

It

90 or over.

3 8 6

3 17 22

15 15 21

12 24 20

9 13 10

9 6

5 6 1

85-89

80-84

70-74

4 3

10 3 2

7 3

22 8

12 8 1

1 1

65-69

55-64

Medians: I. Q.'s, group 105-109; school marks, group 75-79 Semi-interquartile ranges: I. Q.'s, 6 points; school marks, 63^ percent Correlation, Pearson's formula, 0.413; P. E., 0.026

The correlation obtained in Table IV (-1-0.413) is 15.9 times the indicated P. E. and 0.07 higher than the correlation found in Table III. The higher correlation found in this table may be due to the fact that Examination Alpha was the result of careful revision of the first series of tests in the hght of preliminary experimentation in three army cantonments and the returns from the tests of several thousand school children. Also, the high schools in which Examination Alpha was applied were not in such close proximity to universities as were the high schools represented in Table III. The group median for school marks is 75-79, and only 48 . 8 percent of the ratings given in these four high schools ranged as high as "B" or over.

When account is taken of the possible reasons for the difference in the correlations as shown in Tables III and IV, it is safe to say that they are of approximately equal value. For use in the public schools Examination Alpha is the better scale, because it consists of but eight tests, can be given in less time, is scored more rapidly, and costs less to print.

Individual and Group Mental Tests as Means of Indicating Probable Retention or Elimination OF High-School Pupils

1. Elimination among pupils tested with the Stanford-Binet Scale. — On the first day of April, 1919, it was found that 41 of the original 107 pupils tested in 1916-1917 with the Stanford-Binet Scale had dropped out of school, leaving 66 still in attendance. Table V gives the distribution of the 107 cases, showing the I. Q.'s of pupils who left high school to go to work, of pupils who were transferred to other high schools, and of pupils who still remain in the same high-school.

table v. distribution on APRIL 1, 1919, OF 107 high-school PUPILS tested with STANFORD- BINET SCALE IN 1916-1917

BiNET I. Q.'s

Number of

Cases

Distribution April 1, 1919,

BY PeRCENTS

Out, Transfer'd

to Other High

Schools (%)

Remaining in Same High School (%)

79 or lower

80-89

29 27 22 15

9 22 27 13 33

90-99

100-109

110-119

120-129

130 or above

No. of cases

Median I. Q.'s

The only pupil testing below 80 I. Q. dropped out at the end of the first semester of 1916-1917 to go to work. All of those in group 80-89 who left school to go to work, did so by the end of the first year. Failure in school work has been recognized as the most fruitful cause of elimination from high : :hool, but the relation between mental ability and failure in school work has not heretofore been given due consideration. At the end of two and one-half years none of those testing below 80, and only 28 percent of those testing 80-89 remain in high school. On the other hand, 100 percent of those testing 110 or over are pursuing their studies either in the Palo Alto high school or in other high schools. When the average school ratings of the different groups is taken into account the close connection between mentality and elimination will be still more apparent. The average school rating of the 21 who left school to go to work was 73 percent; of tl e 20 trans erred to other high schools, 77 percent; and of the 66 remaining in the Palo Alto high school, 79 percent.

2. Elimination among pupils tested with the Army Examination a and Alpha. — Only five of the eight high schools where the Army Scale was applied were selected for follow-up work in connection with elimination because the records of the three Oakland high schools did not indicate whether the pupil leaving had been transferred to another high school or had gone to work. In the case of the Palo Alto, San Mateo, Redwood City, Mountain View, and Santa Clara high schools, it was comparatively easy to secure reliable data with reference to every pupil who took the test. The principals of all these schools had served in their respective positions from four to fourteen years, knew their pupils thoroughly, and had on record information concerning the movements of those who had left school since the giving of the Army Tests in 1917-1918.

Table VI gives for those tested with the Army Scale a distribution similar to that contained in Table V for the 107 tested with the Stanford-Binet Scale. The 955 pupils of the five high schools above mentioned have been distributed by I. Q.'s into four groups: (1) those who left high school to go to work; (2) those who transferred to some other high school; (3) those who graduated; (4) those remaining in high school on April 1, 1919. The follow-up work covered one and one-half years of school work. Figure 1 illustrates graphically the data of Table VI.

TABLE VI. DISTRIBUTION OF 955 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS ON

APRIL 1, 1919, WHO WERE TESTED WITH ARMY

TESTS IN 1917-1918 BY I. Q. GROUPS

Number or

Cases

Distribution on April 1, 1919, by

Percents

Army Scale

I. Q.'s Earned

1917-1918

Out, Transferred to Other High Schools

Out by Graduation

Remaining in Same High School (%)

79 or lower

80-89

90-99

13 73 202 283 221 101 62

61.5

34.3

26.2

12.3

4.0

6.9

1.6

30.8 52.0 53.5

100-109

110-119

120-129

130 or over

64.8 58.5 61.4 64.0

No. of Cases . .

Median I. Q.'s.

Percent I. Q.'s below 100. . .

62.4

25.0

17.6

26.5

A

•5

•

V

•

/ V

• i

V

A'

»v

X5 y

D r

.« lower ' »bo¥*

3 Out "ut work*. 138 case'«

FIGURE 1. ILLUSTRATING TABLE VI

In this table there appears to be a strong confirmation of the findings of Table V, as the following comparison will show:

TABLE VIA. MEDIAN I. Q.'s BY GROUPS

Out, Transferred to Other High School

Remaining in Same High School

Table V

94 96

110 110

Table VI

TABLE VIB. PERCENT OF PUPILS IN EACH GROUP WHOSE I Q.'s WERE BELOW 100

Out, Transferred to other High Schools

Remaining in Same High School

Table V

71.4 62.4

20.0 25.0

27.0

Table VI

26.5

The agreement between the two tables is the more striking when it is remembered that the 107 high-schools pupils of Table V were all first-year pupils when the tests were given, while the 955 pupils of Table VI comprise all the classes of five different schools.

The tendency, noted in the discussion of Table II, for girls to make lower scores on the Army Scale than boys accounts for the 5.5 percent of pupils with I. Q.'s of 80-89 who appear in the "out by graduation" group. These four pupils were all girls, and their average rating in school work was 83 percent.

Table VII indicates how school marks tend to correspond to mental level as indicated by I. Q.'s earned in the Army tests.

Considering the "at work" cases, it appears that only the three highest I. Q. groups were doing a passing grade of work. Lack of mental ability was perhaps the most potent cause of elimination, but it was not the only cause operating in these cases. When interest in the subjects offered, application, and ambition are lacking, high scores in the mental tests are not necessarily a

TABLE Vn. AVERAGE SCHOOL MARKS OF 955 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS, DISTRIBUTED ACCORDING TO THE CAUSES OF LEAVING

Cause of Leaving

79 I. Q. or

Lower

LQ.

LQ.

130 I. Q. or Higher

General Average

S

At work

65 59

64 67 83

72 76 79

72 84

70 82 85

75 85 84

87 86 92

71 3

Transferred

Graduated

75.3 84 5

Average marks by I. Q. groups

62.0

71.3

75.6

74.0

79.0

81.3

88.3

77.3 guarantee of school success. Turning now to the pupils transferred to other high schools, it appears that they made better average marks under every I. Q. group, except the very lowest, than did the "at work" pupils; but it is evident that some of them transferred to other high schools because of failure in school work. Later checking up will no doubt find them out of school entirely. All of the cases in the "out by graduation" group show high average school marks, even those whose I. Q. is between 80 and 89. These are the same four cases discussed in connection with Table VI. They illustrate how necessary it is for those employing mental tests to be conservative in accepting the results of any single test as final.

When the school marks earned by all of these "out" groups are averaged a series of marks is obtained, ascending gradually from the lowest to the highest I. Q. ratings, which indicates a definite tendency for the quality of school work to correspond to the mental level indicated by the Army tests.

A further following-up of the 153 who graduated from the five high schools between September, 1917 and April, 1919, brought out the fact that 94 of them were continuing their education in college, university, or normal school. The median I. Q. of those going on to higher educational institutions was found to be 116. One high-school girl, who earned an I. Q. of 140 on the Army Scale, graduated from the San Mateo high school at the age of fourteen years and five months. Because of the minimum age limit of fifteen years for entrance to the university, she was compelled to wait seven months before continuing her education. Had her case been included in the "at college" group, the median I. Q. would have been 118.