ession of the schools. In each of these schools the principals have
capable assistants who are charged with the keeping of the records,
although they are aided at times by teachers or pupils who work under
direction. In three of the larger schools a special secretary has full
charge of the records, and is even expected to make suggestions for
revisions and improvements of the forms and methods. In view of such
facts it seems doubtful that one could anywhere find more dependable
school records of this sort. It was true of one of the schools that
the records previous to 1909 proved to be unreliable. There is no
inclination here to deny the existence of defects and limitations to
these records, but the intimate acquaintance resulting from close
inquiry, involving nearly every factor which the records contain, is
convincing that for these schools at least the records are highly
dependable.

However, there is some tendency for even the best school records to
understate the full situation regarding failure, while there is no
corresponding tendency to overstate or to record failures not made. Not
infrequently the pupils who drop out after previously failing may
receive no mark or an incomplete one for the last semester in school.
Although a portion or all of such work may obviously merit failure, yet
it is not usually so recorded. In a similar manner pupils who remain in
school one or two semesters or less, but take no examinations and
receive no semester grades, might reasonably be considered to have
failed if they shunned examinations merely to escape the recording of
failures, as sometimes appears to be the case when judged from the
incomplete grades recorded for only a part of the semester. A few
pupils will elect to 'skip' the regular term examination, and then
repeat the work of that semester, but no failures are recorded in such
instances. Some teachers, when recording for their own subjects, prefer
to indicate a failure by a dash mark or by a blank space until after
the subject is satisfied later, and the passing mark is then filled in.
One school indicates failure entirely by a short dash in the space
provided, and then at times there occurs the 'cond' (conditioned) in
pencil, apparently to avoid the classification as a failure by the
usual sign. One finds some instances of a '?' or an 'inc' (incomplete)
as a substitute for a mark of failure. Again, where there is no
indication of failure recorded, the dates accompany