Table Of ContentUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
THE GRADUATE COLLEGE
.Pe.oember_.Oij_ 19^9
I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY
Charles Moore Allen
SUPERVISION BY.
ENTITLED The Development of the "Holding Power Study"
for the Xlllnoifl Secondary School Curriculum Program
BE ACCEPTED* AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
Doctor of Education
THE DEGREE OF.
(3. PfVCp~££w^K^
In Charge of Thesis
T cad of Department
Recommendation concurred inf
Committee
on
Final Examination']
(^u/h^h--*^-
* Subject to successful final^camination in the case of th'^ doctorate,
f Required for doctor's degree but not for master's.
6M—12-48—40199K
THE DEVELOPMENT OP THE "HOLDING POWER
STUDY" FOR THE ILLINOIS SECONDARY
SCHOOL CURRICULUM PROGRAM
BY
CHARLES MOORE ALLEN
B.S., University of Illinois, 192?.
M.S., University of Illinois, 1936
THESIS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OI-' THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
IN THE GRADUATE COLLEGE OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 19B0
URBANA. ILLINOIS
COPYRIGHTED
by
CHARLES MOORE ALLEN
1950
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The contributions of a number of writers
to the problem treated here are acknowledged in the
text. But especial thanks are due the Bureau of
Research and Service of the College of Education,
University of Illinois, for its financial assistance,
and the members of the committee whose advice and
criticism guided the study: Professors H. C. Hand,
C. W. Sanford, and B. 0. Smith.
Charles M. Allen
TABLE OP CONTENTS
Page
I The Conceptual Basis of the Problem 1
II The Definition of the Problem and Its Refinement . . 10
III Developing and Applying the Preliminary Study . . .. 18
IV Characteristics of the Drop-Outs Helpful in Later
Interpretation of the Data 50
V Soclo-Economlc Status 73
VI Family Structure 86
VII Ethnic Group 96
VIII Success at School Tasks 109
IX Ability to Do School Work 141
X Adaptations Made by the School 172
XI Miscellaneous Items . . . .. 188
XII The Significance of the Data for Individual Schools . 204
XIII Developing the Manual for Schools 215
XIV Criticism of the Study 217
Appendices
1 Schedule I of the Preliminary Study 221
2 Schedule II of the Preliminary Study
and Its Directions 230
3 Bibliography 261
4 Vita 268
5 The Manual for Schools 270
t
I THE CONCEPTUAL BASIS OF THE PROBLEM
In 1945 the Curriculum Committee of the Illinois Secondary
School Principals' Association turned its attention from Increasing
the contributions of high schools to winning the war to the general
improvement of the currlculums of Illinois high schools. The
Illinois Secondary School Curriculum Program which emerged was
based on a number of beliefs which are so generally accepted by
Amerioan leaders in public education that they are outside the field
of controversy. Among those beliefs appear the following which are
related to the problem reported here. They are given in the ini
tial publication of the Program under the heading, "Let Us First
As sume....
Hl. The curriculum consists of all of the experiences which
pupils have under the control of the school; thus it
Includes all organized activities of the secondary school.
"2. Effective curriculum revision is a grass roots Job.
Local communities under the leadership of the school
staff must study the demands of society and the basic
needs of individuals in order to develop programs of
secondary education suited to students in their commu
nities and to try them out in action....
H5. Local studies such as those concerned with recreational
facilities, community health problems, Juvenile
delinquency, occupational opportunities, population
trends, holding power of the sohool, and costs of
attending school, will provide the facts necessary for
arousing people to action.
H6. Consultants from outside the community may assist in
helping determine and delineate such studies as those
mentioned and in setting up innovating educational
programs to meet the needs discovered.... "•*•
1 Houston, Victor M., Sanford, Charles W., and Trump, J. Lloyd,
Guide to the Study of the Curriculum in the Secondary Schools
of Illinois, Springfield. Illinois'. Superintendent of Public
Instruction, 1948, p. 20.
Among the beliefs quoted above, it may be noted that the
"local studies" mentioned in item 5 had as their chief purpose
"arousing people to action". Another purpose is implied in the
following description of the "Holding Power Study"2 (the study with
which the writer is concerned) which also appears in the Guide:
"When large proportions of the secondary school population
drop out before graduation, it is obvious that some one or more
problems need solution. Information is needed regarding the pro
portion of all enrollees who drop out of school, the times when
they drop out, and the kinds of students who drop out in terms of
such factors as economic status, I.Q., school success, course of
study pursued, extent and nature of participation in extra
curricular activities, distance of the home from the school, be
havior problems, health Btatus, and the like. After the data have
been secured, an assessment should be made to gee what significance
these have for changes in the school program."3
While the last sentence does not state that the assessment should
be made by the local school community, those working as consult
ants In the Illinois Secondary School Curriculum Program have con
sistently emphasized this principle through their activities.
Acceptance of the principle that study of problems is like
ly to result in action to solve them is suggested by Miel when,
after proposing local study of the social scene not at a "remote
and distant" level as in the formulation of a philosophy,4 she
continues, "The study should be begun on a familiar and meaningful
level. In other words, social phenomena should be observed and
2 The term "holding power" as used in this title was not intended
to be an exact description of the nature of the study; rather it
was selected because it indicated in a general way the problem
with which the study dealt and was thought to have greater popu
lar appeal than a more precise, descriptive title.
3 Ibid., p. 32.
4 Miel, Alice, Changing the Curriculum, New York: D. Appleton-
Century, 1946, pp. 44-45.
' » •" ^g
3
data gathered In the local community. In that event curriculum
implications of the findlngB should be so obvious that they will
furnish strong drives for curriculum change." The implication
that local study of problems results in curriculum changes is clear,
as is the further implication that such study has a directional
effect.
The decision to include the Holding Power Study among those
to be made available to the secondary schools of the state rested
upon another belief generally accepted by leaders in American public
education: namely, that the public secondary school is expected to
serve all the children of all the people. Two exceptions to this
statement may be noted. First, a computation from data provided
by the Biennial Survey of Education indicates that 7.4 per cent of
all secondary school students were enrolled In private schools.
Second, according to S. A. Kirk of the University of Illinois, whose
special interest is the education of atypical children, the high
school might be excused from enrolling a maximum of 1.5 per cent of
the youth of high school age because of extreme physical or mental
handicaps. (From an oral statement to the writer.) The first of
these exceptions does not reduce the responsibility of the public
high school for out-of-school youth, while the second may be con
sidered negligible for the purposes of this study.
It is axiomatic that the school can serve most adequately
5 Ibid., p. 45.
6 Blose, David T. and Foster, Emery M., "Statistical Summary of
Education, 1943-44," Biennial Survey of Education in the United
Stfites, 1942-44, Chapter I, Washington, D.C.: Federal Security
Agency, U. S. Office of Education, 1947, pp. 9, 10.
4
those children who are in sohool. It follows that the number of
youth who, though promoted from the earlier school, are not now in
high school furnishes one measure of the effectiveness of the school
A knowledge of the characteristics of these youth, if they can be
discovered, may be expected to be of value in changing the curri
culum .
After accepting the foregoing beliefs, it is still possible
that the retention of high school youth in Illinois is sufficiently
high that no problem is involved. Convincing evidence on this
point is provided in a study by Richey. In reporting on a number
of factors related to high school enrollment in Illinois he pre
sented data from which Table 1 has been largely adapted. The table
should be interpreted with caution since the counties reported were
selected on a basis other than the number of children enrolled in
high school for each 100 population 14-17 years of age. Selection
on the latter basis might have raised the average of the first
group of schools shown in the table and lowered the average of the
seoond group. Allowing for that possibility, however, only rein
forces the conclusion that the persistence in school of high school-
age youth was a problem in many Illinois high schools in 1936, when
this study was made. The experience of the writer with Illinois
high schools since that year corroborates the Judgment of others
connected with the Curriculum Program that persistence in high
school continues to be a problem in a significant number of schools.
Those familiar with studies of youth of high school age who
were not enrolled in high sohool may raise a question of another
sort: Do not earlier studies indicate that factors over which the
TABLE 1
Children Enrolled in High School per 100 Population
14-17 Years of Age in Selected Illinois
Counties and in the United States in 1936
Children enrolled
in high school
per 100 population
14-17 years of age
Average for 14 Counties Enrolling
28 Per Cent or More of Total School
Enrollment in High School 75.7*
Average for 13 Counties Enrolling
17 Per Cent or Less of Total School
Enrollment in High School 39.0*
Highest County Reported 93.5*
Lowest County Reported 24.0*
United States 67.0**
*Richey, Herman G., "Factors of High School Enrollment in
Illinois," Scnool Review. 48:657-666, November 1940, p. 662.
**Foster, Emery M., Statistical Summary of Education 1937-38,
Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, Bulletin
1940, No. 2, Chapter I, Washington, D.C.: Federal Security
Agency, U. S. Office of Education, 1941, p. 11.
school had no control were most closely related to failure to attend
high school? If the answer to this question is "yes", perhaps a
study of the persistence of youth in high school should be concerned
not with the school's practices but with conditions in the larger
society.
In one of the early studies of persistence in school, Ayres
reports that "as a rule, children of foreign born parentage drop
out of the highest grades and the high school faster than do Amer
ican (sic) children." He recommends as means of improving the
7 Ayres, Leonard P., Laggards in Our Schools. New York: Russell
Sage Foundation, 1909, p. 115.
