e great out-of-doors, and early hours of retiring." But
surely such distractions are not peculiar to the girls alone. The
economic needs that arise at the age of sixteen and later are often
considered to constitute a pressing factor regarding the continuance in
school. But VanDenburg[22] was convinced by the investigation, in New
York City, of 420 rentals for the families of pupils that "on the whole
the economic status of these pupils seems to be only a slight factor in
their continuance in school." A similar conclusion was reached by
Wooley,[24] in Cincinnati, after investigating 600 families, in which
it was estimated that 73 per cent of the families did not need the
earnings of the children who left school to go to work. The
corresponding report by a commission[25] in Massachusetts shows 76 per
cent. The same facts for New York City[26] indicate that 80 per cent of
such families are independent of the child's wages. But Holley
concludes,[27] from a study of certain towns in Illinois, that "there
is a high correlation between the economic, educational, and social
advantages of a home and the number of years of school which its
children receive." It will hardly be denied that even aside from the
relation of the family means to the school persistence, the economic
needs may have a direct influence on the failing of the children in
their school work, either because home conditions may be decidedly
unfavorable for required home study, or because of the larger portion
of time that must be given to outside employment, with its consequent
reduction of the normal vitality of the individual or of his readiness
to study. But, in spite of the possible interrelationship of these
factors, it still appears that the school entrance age of pupils will
serve as a valuable sort of educational compass to foretell in part the
probable direction of their later accomplishment.

3. THE AMOUNT OF FAILURE AT EACH AGE AND ITS RELATION TO THE
POSSIBILITY OF FAILING FOR THAT AGE

We have considered at some length the prognostic value of the age at
entrance. Here we shall briefly consider the prognostic value of age in
reference to the time when failures occur and the amount of failure for
such age. If we were to total all the failures for a given age, as
shown in Table I, what part will that form of the total subjects taken
by these pupils at the time the failures occur? In other words, what
are the percentages formed by the total failures o