With the exception of the two counties of Dukes and Suffolk, the per cent. of attendance throughout the State is above 90. The relative rank of Suffolk County is somewhat affected by the kindergartens recently established; it may result in part from the rule observed in many of the Boston schools, of not dropping from membership a pupil until it is ascertained that there is no probability of his return to school; the rule which drops from membership at the end of five days of absence is observed in many parts of the State. This rule is becoming quite general. It is a question whether some time intermediate. between these extremes for dropping from membership should not be adopted. The whole matter is entirely arbitrary. Uniformity here is exceedingly desirable.

By the above table it appears that the number of towns having a school attendance above 90 per cent. for the year is 234, an increase of 36 over the number of the previous year. The table shows that the number of towns having this high per cent. has increased in ten of the counties, that it remains unchanged in three and is lower in only one.

Of the 55 towns reporting over 94 per cent., 2 report 98 per cent.; 3, 97 per cent. ; 7, 96 per cent. ; 15, 95 per cent.; and 28 report 94 per cent. Forty-seven of these towns employ superintendents of schools, to whose influence, directly or indirectly, the improved attendance upon the schools may fairly be attributed. Among these towns, those which have adopted the superintendent plan of supervision since the passage of the act of 1888, for district supervision, have advanced the per cent. of their school attendance from an average of 90 per cent. for the year 1888-89 to 95 per cent. for the present year. This is an advance, taking 90 per cent. as the base, of 5.5 per cent. The result may fairly be reckoned as an incident to the employment of superintendents, and to that consolidation of schools which has taken place in many of the towns.

VI.

Table showing the Number of Towns in the Several Counties the
Ratio of whose School Attendance falls below Ninety, also the
Percentage of this Number to the Number of Towns in the
County.

The above table shows the same result in general indicated by Table No. V. It shows decrease in the number of towns whose average attendance is below 90 per cent. in all but three of the counties, and an increase in Suffolk County only. The number of towns whose attendance falls below 90 is 118, against 154 last year; and a ratio for the State of 33 per cent. of such towns, against 43 per cent. reported last year. This ratio is of towns, and not by any means indicative of the ratio, as already shown, of children whose attendance falls below 90 per cent.

The county of Barnstable has the lowest ratio of towns whose school attendance falls below 90 per cent., and the county of Berkshire has the highest ratio of these towns.

Table VII, on the following page, arranges the counties upon the basis of the ratios above indicated:

VII. Table of the Several Counties, arranged according to the Percentages of their Number of Towns having less than Ninety Per Cent. of Attendance.

VIII.

Table giving the Names of the Towns whose Average Attendance for the Year 1893-94 fell below Eighty Per Cent. of the Membership.

Table VIII includes the towns in the State - the only ones -whose percentage falls below 80. The list is reduced from the corresponding list of fourteen the previous year to nine the present year, and embraces but two towns that have had this low rank for the two successive years. But a single one of these nine towns has the ministrations of a school superintendent. It would be a blessing to the children if they had. It is not to be expected, however, with the conditions imposed upon some of these towns of sparse population and limited

means, that that regularity can be secured which is easily attained where population is more dense.

HIGH SCHOOLS.

IX. Table Showing the Number of High Schools in the State for Ten Years, from 1885 to 1894, with the Number of Pupils attending; also their Ratio to the Whole Number of Children in All the Schools.

In

From the summary of statistics of the high schools, it appears that there are 255 such schools in the State, that the attendance upon them is 30,540, and that the ratio of their membership to the entire school enrolment is 7.6 per cent. all these particulars there is an increase for the year of 8 in the number of schools, of 1,958 in the number of pupils, and of .4 of 1 per cent. in the ratio of high school pupils to the entire school enrolment.

The ratio of 7.6 per cent. does not indicate the proportion of school children that pursue their studies beyond the elementary schools. It simply shows what proportion of the entire school membership is in the high schools at any one time. On the supposition of a three years' course in the high school and a twelve years' course in all the schools, to obtain the approximate ratio of actual attendants upon the high schools to the entire school population, 7.6 per cent. should be multiplied by 4, which gives 30.4 per cent. On the supposition of a four years' course in the high school and a thirteen years' course in all the schools, 7.6 per cent. should be multiplied by 31, in order to obtain the approximate ratio; and this gives 24.7 per cent.

In other words, it appears from this reasoning that from 25 to 30 per cent. of the entire school population actually enter the high school, although only 7.6 per cent. are in the high school at any one time.

To say that 7.6 per cent. only of the school population enter the high school is a serious misuse of a percentage of school attendance which leads many people to underestimate the important place the high school holds in our public school system. So important is it that this per cent. of 7.6 should be correctly interpreted, that it is worth while to examine it another way, for its true meaning.

Suppose a school system of thirteen grades in which the number of pupils in each grade is just 100. Suppose, further, that the 100 pupils of each grade keep moving up without increase or reduction in numbers until they graduate from the high school. In this supposed case the entire school membership is 1,300, of which 400 are in the four upper grades, that is, in the high school. In other words,, or about 31 per cent., of the entire school membership is in the high school. To conclude, however, that but 31 per cent. of the school children in this supposed case ever enter the high school is clearly wrong; for it is obvious that 100 per cent. of the entire school population enter it. Now, if 31 per cent. in this supposed case indicates that 100 per cent. of the school population actually enter the high school, then the percentage of 7.6 under discussion indicates approximately that really 24.5 per cent. of all the children enter the high school, a result very close to that already reached. As a matter of fact, it is known that in some towns from 40 to 50 per cent. of the whole number of those who attend school actually enter the high school.

The number of towns required to keep high schools is 164; the number that do keep them is 234. The keeping of high schools by this large number of towns (70) outside of the legal requirement, together with the increased attendance and the increased ratio of attendance upon the schools, shows that the more advanced courses of instruction are demanded by the children, and that the people generously respond to the demand. Just what is the extent of the instruction given beyond the grammar schools is not indicated by the number of schools called by the name of high school.