The school of highest social status shows a consistently greater rate of increase in median mental age relative to chronological age across grades, yet a smaller retardation percentage (33.5% vs 38.4%) than the lowest-status school¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1918 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? School A, of highest social status, has a consistently greater rate of increase than School C in the ratio of median mental age to median chronological age across grades, yet School A's entire-school retardation percentage (33.5) is smaller than School C's (38.4). → Toops 1918

Evidence¶

Toops 1918¶

Toops, H. A., and Pintker, R. (1918). Mentality and School Progress. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=Mentality+and+School+Progress+Toops+Pintner

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Graph I plots, for Schools A and C, the ratio of median mental age at each grade to median chronological age. The article interprets the greater rate of increase in School A as rising grade difficulty, and offers as "A possible explanation, although one on which we have no data" that School A eliminates more laggards.

"We see that School A, of highest status, has a consistently greater rate of increase than School C, the lowest in social status, and which is taken by way of affording a good contrast. Accordingly, since it is harder in School A for a child of normal intelligence to pass each successive grade than for a similar child in School C, we should expect School A to have much the larger percentage of retardation. Actually, however, School A has a smaller percentage, 33.5 for the entire school as compared with 38.4 similarly for School C."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Excluding a middle 'normal' school group raises the association between school retardation/advancement and median-mentality to Q = +.85 — related
• In Goddard's Vineland examination of 1547 pupils, only about half of mentally over-age and under-age pupils show corresponding advancement or retardation in school grading — related
• Schools retard more children than mentality levels would predict: 36.8% are below normal in school versus 20.1% below normal in mentality — related
• Median age per grade, not per cent of retardation, is the best single statement of the age-grade situation for most practical purposes — related