A study of the mental development of children in differential rural environments

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fBE M B K A L DE¥BLOJ»ISd^0F mvwmwTiM* BbHAi' m v

IB

by

Qreydon Milford Worbois

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Child Welfare, in the Graduate College of ■"■"'the State University of XowaT ,.May# 1942

ProQuest Number: 10592890

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II

ACICROT MT>A.: JIhhT5 The author wishes bo acknowledge the encouragement Ralph II*

and

0jemann

completion

guidance

In the design and

oh this study*

acknowledgement

of Dr#

Is

also

Grateful made

to

Dean G* D* Stoddard for the original Impetus

given to the study

provision

of

facilities

for

Its

execution*

To

Assistants

who assisted In the pro­

gram*

the

and the

other Research

the author also wishes to ex­ press appreciation*

cowmn'B Page

er Introduot5.cn * * * * * * * * * * * * * Intelllgenoe * * * * * * * * * * * L&rj.gUS.g© * • * • # * • * • » ♦ * * • Iheoretical Position on the Cental K©tardation or AUural Children * II

IV

V

VI

School Environment • « • • Methods and Procedures Hesuits * * * * * * * Summary and Discussion

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24 36

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39 40 40 46 50

» * * *

61 64

Language Development Methods and Procedures • • • « - * • Results # * « * * « • * « * « * * Summary and Discussion * * * • • »

64 60

Academic . Achievement • « * • « • « » Supjects * « • » * • • • « + • * * Methods and Procedures « * * * * *. Results * * * ** * * * * *** 4 4 Summary and Discussion * * • '» *. * *

VII

12

18 19

The Development of Intelligence Suh ^© c ts * * * # * * * * * ■ Method 'and Procedure a . * Results # * • • • * • • • ■ Summary and Discussion » * Home Environment Method and Procedures P.©suits * « * • • « * Summary and Discussion

X 3

81 01

82 83 88

Conclusions * * n *sp

Appendix References * * , * *

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107

Iv

TABLE Of1 TABLES

Page Sable X*

Table II#

Sable XXX#

Sable IV#

Sable V*

Sable VI#

Sabi© VII#

Table VIII#

Table I3U

Table X*

Changes in IQ During Fir at Xear Attendance in Consolidated and One*Boom Schools, Holding Initial XQ and Age Constant • • • * « « * • *

20

Changes in IQ During First Two Years Attendance in Consolidated and One-^Bo'm Schools, Holding Initial IQ and Age Conet&nfc * * # * *

28

Changes in IQ for Children "High" and in. XQ ®ver the First Two Years School Attendance, Hold* lag Initial IQ. and Age Constant * * *

SI

Change® in IQ During the Second and Third Years Attendance in the Consolidated and 0»e*Ho©m Schools, Holding Initial IQ and Age Constant *

34

Parent Occupation of Children In Consolidated and One*Boom School En,v Ir omaont 3 * # # # * * * . . # ♦ *

43

Objectives Considered Most Important For Their 'Child to get fro®: School by Parent® of Consolidated and One* Hoorn School Children « • * * * * • »

43

Parent Bepli es on the Home interview for Children in the Consolidated and One-Eoom Schools • « «. « • * • # * *

47

.Percent of Times Items of Observed Activity Occurred in Consolidated and One-Boom Schools * * » » * * * »

69

Sub jects In Consolidated and On©*Hoorn Schools for "Effectiveness of Verbal Expression1* Test * * » » * * « • * • «

73

Beads Identified by Children in Consol­ idated and One-Boom Schools In "Effect* Iveness of Verbal Expression" Test * « 74

V

TABLE OF TABLES (oon't) Page Table XX*

fable XXI*

Stanford»Bl&et Vocabulary Chang© for Children in Consol Ida ted and 0 e-Boom Schools

76

Changes in Iowa Every Pupil

Vocabulary Test Scores for Children in Third and Fourth Grades of Consol­ idated and One-Hoorn Schoola * « * « Table XIII# Changes in Iowa Every Pupil Language Skill© Teat Scores for Children In Third and Fourth Grades of Consol­ idated and One-Boom School© « * * * Table XIV*

Table XV*

Table XVI*

78

79

Comparison of Scores on the Iowa Every Pupil Vocabulary Test Secured by Consolidated and One-Room School Children, Holding CA and IQ, Constant •

o*

Comparison of-. Scores on the Iowa Every Pupil Achievement Tost© Sectored by Canaoildated and One-Hoorn School Children, holding; CA and IQ Constant * « • » * » • * * * * * * * *

07

Change© in Scores on the Iowa Pupil Beading Test Secured by solidated and Gne*-Boom School Holding Initial Score and IQ Constant # « * * » • • • » » •

89

Every Con­ Children, • * * »

'Chapter X IHTB0D1ICTIOH Bural communities, as other cormaunltles, are faced with the problem of providing for the mental de­ velopment of their children*

One aspect In which the

rural community differs from uther cojjmmnities Is in the type of school provided*

One common type of school found

In rural communities is the one-room school* the rural consolidated school*

Another is

The ©ffeotlvenss of these

school environment© in promoting the mental growth of the children may not be the same* or the same as that for city schools*

It was proposed., accordingly, to find, out

if the environment ■"of the rural one-room, and the rural consolidated school community were associated with the men­ tal growth of children living In these environments* hide deviations from' the "average” community, such as isolated mountain groups, have boon shewn to In­ fluence the level of mental ability*

(Hlrsch, 1028* Sher­

man and Henry, 1933; Sherman and Key, 1032; hliocler, 1032)* then the limits of the environment are narrowed to the more wordinary

community segments the differences nay be expect­

ed to be usmaller#

Nevertheless it is those which arc Influ­

encing largo sections of the population*

furthermore, those

communities, less extreme In Isolation and la cl: of cultural progress, may be more amenable to modification* Within fairly wide limits the community may provide

adequately for the mental development of the children#

The

Immediate problem is whether rural school corammitios are within this range where children develop mentally as rapid­ ly as children in tiio general population*

Even if the dev­

iation of children in rural communities from the “average” Is small, the problem is mad© significant by the large proportion of the children of the United States living in these areas* Hot all mental abilities as measured by available tost© may be equally influenced by deviations In the envir­ onment#

BuraX environments, for example, may provide ade­

quate oppor tunItie s' and stimulation for the development of some abilities, while providing only meagerIp for others* It should be helpful to know If this condition is true and to know, what abilities are not developed as adequately by rural a© by urban children*

$uch findings may load to the

isolation and correction of the conditions which are inimical to growth In these' areas* Mental abilities may include many types of activi­ ties#

Since only a few could be otudlod Intensively In one

research project of this kind, two aspects were selected, namely, Intelligence as measured by the stanford-Blnefc scale, and language ability*

Only certain aspects of language could

b© included as this area in Itself Is a composite of many abillties#

The study therefore includes the results of cortain

standard measures of language ability, and other measures

which w b t b devised, all of* which aro explained in detail in Chapter V*

Intelligence HM K H IIWHIWI I WIIIH H*!!1! P* '

There are indications froivQ several studios point­ ing to the Influence or rural life on the intelligence of children*

The results based on the st&ndardisatlcn cases

for the 1937 revision of the Stanford-DInet Intelligence Tests (Term&n' and Merrill, 1957} Indicate that there m a y b e differential aspects of mental growth of rural children* For the youngest age group (2 1/2 to 5 years) the mean IQ on the composite of Forms L and M was 99*1 for the children of ^Bural Owners*”

For every age level thereafter the mean IQ

was lower than that for any other occupational classification* The difference is greatest for the 10 to 14 year*’level whore the mean IQ of this group is 92*4, or 7 •r< IQ points below the next lowest* that for wDay Laborers, II. ban and Faira!***

For

each of the age levels above 5 1/2 years the mean 'IQ for the children of wHur&! Owners11 is below 96*

The difference in

mean IQ. for all rural and urban children was 0*5*

Terraan and

Merrill mad© no conclusions, from those data but suggest that extensive research may reveal significant findings (p* 49)* Similar trends are seen In the study of Haggerty {1922} on rural'children In hew fork State*

Ho compared the

me&i&fc Mental Ag© of children in one-teacher scliools with that for children in four-teacher schools*

The difference

** 4 —

increased from half a year for Grade III to a year and a half for Grade y H X *

All of the differences showed the children

In the larger schools to be superior, and furthermore, the differences became progressively larger in the upper grades * Similar difference# were found when the pupils were class­ ified according to age*

For Instance, the median of the

scores for the twelve year old children in the larger schools was larger'than that of the twelve year old child­ ren In the one-room schools by an amount greater than the difference between the eleven year olds and the twelve year olds*

The test used was the Haggerty Intelligence Examina­

tion, Delta 2* Both of these studies indicate that older rural children are more Inferior to urban children than are young­ er rural children In scares on afemd&rd measures of Intell­ igence*

Kyte (1931) reviewed studies reported between 1920

and 1930 of Mental Age of children In rural and city schools* Bata from the states of Mississippi, Maw York, and Texas were available*

He concludes,

**The mean or the median scores of mentality by grades In most states from which Information .was ob­ tained disclose that the differences between firstgrade city-school scores end first-grade rural-school scores are comparatively slight, the advantage beinheld by the city schools* Grade by grade, the dif­ ferences increase, however, to such an extent that the Intelligence scare of the fifth-grade city-school child is goner ally the same as, or slightly higher* than, that of the sixth-grade rural school child*51 (p* 41}

*• .y ** Similar trends were found when analysis was made in terns of IQ*

This Is an Important point since the child­

ren of one kind of school may be younger than those of anoth­ er k i n d 'of school for any particular grade, and thus may have a lower Mental Age, but equal or higher IQ*

The results

would be more clear-cut if analysis could be made In terms of ago of pupils, or years of attendance rather than school grad©*

The policies of promotion differ among the different

kinds of schools* confusing the relationship between pupil growth and type of environment*

The crucial point is how

children develop under the impact of the surroundings•

It Is

not so significant from the standpoint of child development how a particular unit of one school compares \ij.mi a similar unit in another school* Whether pupils are promoted faster In one typo of school or not is possibly significant for the development of the child.

This may be ^particular factor of this typo of

school and should not be ruled out as has been done In none studies reported by Kyte*

For Instance, one type of school

may use the policy of promotion to enrich the curriculum whereas another gives additional curx*ioular experiences in the pupil1s same grade.

If each method of enrichment is

equally effective. It should be p e m i t t e d to be demonstrated In measures of pupil rrovvth*

Comparing cliil.ron of the same

age would be more effective In such cases than comparing children of the same grade*

The Importance of proper selection Is evidenced in the atody of Henson {1940}*

She matched subjects at­

tending a consolidated school with subjects attending oneroom schools on the basis of age, grade* ©ex, occupation of father, and education of mid-parent*

A differone© of 5*44 IQ

points was found on the Sutlmrn*Anderson group tost, which was significant at the two per cent level of confidence*

This

method of selection, however, loners the mean IQ of the child­ ren In the one-room school sample by throwing the bright young pupils out of the matching*

The children in this group for

any grade are somewhat younger and considerably more heterogeneous in age* since they are accepted earlier and are both promoted and retarded more frequently*

The bright, young

child* then, in any grad© mho had been accepted by the school at a young age and had been promoted rapidly would be too young to be matched with any in the same -grade of the consoli­ dated schools*

There is evidence that ©he used pupils in two

adjacent grades for the comparison which would mitigate tills factor of selection to some (but unknown) extent* The evidence that rural pupils of a particular age or grade are inferior to urban children of the same age or grad© is perhaps sufficiently substantiated to warrnkft refer­ ence only to this fact*

It appears more pertinent to include

only those studies which give some indication of the d evelop­ mental differonce© of toe two groups* of these studies Is Indirect*

The evidence from most

For example, they show that

*• *7 — older rural children are more Inferior to urban children than are the younger children*

A different rate of growth

la only one of the possible explanations*

Another common. ex­

planation has been that the brighter rural children tend to move to urban areas* ed from these data*

Growth' curves could hardly be determin­ It will bo necessary In determining

growth patterns to secure repeated measures on tire same childr on * Baldwin* Fillmore* and Hadley (1950) gave repeated tests to children In one-room and consolidated schools#

In

seventeen one-room schools 253 pupils were tested once* of whom 103 wore given another^ examination a year- later*

In two

consolidated■schools 425 pupils were examined once, of whom 101 wore re-examined*

The pupils were classed as average, a-

hove average, and below average on the basis of the first test*

Of the one-room school children 13$ of the boys and

8$ of the girls advanced from their original classj 20$ of the boys and 15$ of the girls were lowered*

Of the consoli­

dated school children 15$ of the boys and 27$ of the girls advanced to higher classification., and 4$ of the boys and 5$ of the girls were lowered*

Ihese results are not conclusive

since they are not shown to be reliable*

They may also be

confused by several factors such as differences in school experiences before initial test, differences in ages between the two groups, and differences In home envIronraent*

8 In the same study f the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station tests and the Detroit Kindergarten Test \mre given to the younger children#

When matched on basis of age, rural

children were not found to differ from city children in men* tal level up to five years of age#

At ages five and six, how­

ever, the farm children were inferior to city children with whom they were matched*

(p* 234)

The authors suggest that

the inferiority is a reemlt of failure on certain parts of the test*,

fhere was a tendency fox* the rural children to be

superior.on some items and inferior on others.* An apparent contradiction to these trends is found in the study by Fressey (1920} who’found that younger rural children were as inferior to n o r m based on city children as were the older children#

twenty*two per cent of the rural

children six, seven, and eight years of age were above the med­ ian of the city children for their'age on the MPrimer Seal©#1* A year previously, twenty per cent of the rural children in the upper grades of til© same area were found to bo above the median for their age on "Group Scale for hoasuring General In­ telligence*"

(Presley and Thomas, 1910-;-J0)

She concludes

that the younger children are accordingly no more Inferior than the older children*

However, the comparison of children

of different ages on two different tests might be questioned# This is especially true sine© the "f rimer Sealerf proposes to b© free from literacy and school training while the other scale does not*

This study of ^ressey Is the only expection

foxmd to the conclusion that older rural children arc rel­ atively more retarded than younger rural children#

As can

be soon the method by which she reached liar conclusion hard­ ly allows for the kind of comparison made* The evidence from these studies Indicates that tli© development of mental ability among rural children differs from that of ciy children#

The inference 1b Indirect in

most eases, except that of Baldwin, Fillmore, and &$k&loy$ since children of one age are compared with different child­ ren at another ago#

Many factors may account for the great­

er inferiority of the older children except a slower rat© of mental development of rural children# It seems to be significant therefore to study the factors in the rural environment which are related to diff­ erential growth patterns#

Tho some ch

led from one age to the next*

jj^ni

C-V-JL

-i. X

ahou 1cl b e s tud-

In the groups compared the

children should bo Initially as similar as possible In fact­ ors related to mental development* On© factor possibly significant for the Intellect­ ual develo menfc of 'rural children is the type of school at­ tended*

Hie one-room school characterised by multiple sub­

divisions and rigid class organisation Is a prevalent type of rural school system#, In Iowa there arc In round numbers 9,000 of these schools*

In Johnson County alone, where the

State University is located, there arc about 140 one-room schools*

In contrast,

there are a few consolidated schools

- 10 -

which more nearly approach the .type of school available to urban children*

It seems feasible, then, because similar

groups of children (:t*e» similar in certain defined respects) enter these schools at the beginning of their educational ca ­ reers, to compare their intellectual development as they con­ tinue under these two environments« nificant, if for

bo

fhe problem is mad© sig­

other reason, by the large number of child*

ren affected by these environments* It might be questioned whether tho influences of the school can be isolated from those of the home and commun­ ity*

In a sense the tern Mone-room school e n v i r o n m e n t o f

the child includes the home and the community*

Some of the

factors of these may be reduced by equating the groups, and by selecting groups which are similar in IQ, education of par­ ents, racial and cultural backgrounds, socio-economic status, and occupational level of parents, etc*

In a logical frame­

work tii© analysis may be divided into three nlevels*ft This terminology Is appropriate hocsue© at each level more factors are held constant, leaving tho differences between the groups attributable to more specif ic variables*

At tho

lust level

the children are equated only on uie basis of Initial IQ and C*A*

The differences in final measurement are to be attribut­

ed to tho school, plus the home, plus the community environ­ ment*

At the second level the pupils can be equated on the

basis of initial IQ, c*A*, and Home Rating,

'This attempts to

show differences in growth due to the school and other con-

-

11 -

munity Influences apart from tho home*

At the third level

initial IQ, 0*iW* Home Hating, and Community are held con­ stant and the differences are attributable to the school, plus any uncontrolled variables*

It Is hoped that many of

the Influences which cannot be measured and controlled will be held constant by selecting both groups from the same area* Analysis at this level would be possible If pupils attend one-room schools for one test-re-test interval and then at­ tend the consolidated school for another Interval*

The flex-

ibility of the laws and school organisation make this change In school possible* Practically, the first level Is much easier to car­ ry out than the others*

may be questioned if all of the

influences of the home can bo measured and held constant so that this may be ruled out as an effective factor*

There are

some things which may be measured and which m a y be held con­ stant for the two groups such as education of parents, and occupation of parents*

There are other things such as cultur­

al and racial background, or socio-economic status of parents which may bo held constant hy selecting similar groups in those respects*

It Is possible that, when these are control: -

led, other factors related to mental development would also be controlled because of their correlation with these controlled factors*'

In final analysis the comparison would remain at an

Inferential level, even though helpful J."O3-oltjLhs-Xi 2.i.X_l>)S V'OT-iAo* ■€* discovered by tills type of analysis*

At the third level the

comparison of the influence of the two types of school would b e .moat precisely shown since the •children would remain in tho ■same home and in the same community changing only In the type of school attended*

The limitation of this type of analysis

is in the small number of cases., provided*

There have been few studies of the dif fe;. once a in language development of rural children as compared with ur ban children*

However, it is possible that rural communities

make different requirements upon verbal skills than do urban communities*

In turn these differences nay be related to

differences in the language development of rural children* A few generalized statements

may serve as Indicators of seme

differences which might be expected* 1* Schools where the use of language is restricted largely to reiterating material recently assigned and studied would not tend to provide as ._:.uoh stimulation to the use of language in a spontaneous way as a school In which more functional use of language was required# 2* The organization of some kinds of these schools ,prohibit© the teacher from providing much stimulation for the individual child in a creative use of oral language* Even though she may be aware of the child’s particular interests and problems she has so many classes to prepare for, and. fthearn at their r e d tat ion, that time frequently doe© not permit her to provide for these needs. 3. Although wide differoneos are to be oxpected, the teacher of some of these schools does not have a fertile source of language expression# hany of these teachers have not attended college, and others have attended only

- 13 a raw weeks* $hile college Is not considered to be the only place for acquiring language facility it is possible, if not probable, that these teachers have not gained through alternative experiences a wealth of conceptual background for verbalization* Lany of these teachers are not widely traveled, nor are they astute students of human nature, or keen observers of n a tural phenomena * 4* Other sources of encouragement and training in the us© of language for tho rural child are quite as inadequate# The books especially constructed for attracting tho child’s interest and enriching tho meanings he associates with words are frequently not plentiful* Even when reference books are available the us© of thorn Is often not adequately notIvoted# 5# In general, the child in some of these rural schools is often not encouraged to verbalise his own experiences* Eventful, or even commonplace occasions of general interest, such as the trip to the back, lot to find the new calf, frequently remain unexpressed impressions# i’he changeb of nature and the seasons, the growth of plants, trees, crops, the beauty of a winter1s snow, the devastating deluge of hailstones, too often remain vaguely perceived although incomplete­ ly shared with the experiences of other children* Borne indication of the development of language of rural children Is glven In the study by Baldwin, T'illmore, and Hadley (1930)#

They divided the Items of the Stanford-

Binet Intelligence Tests Into language and non-language 1terns arbitrarily, and determined the total months credit for each*

These totals were compared with expected, months cred­

it if the language and non-language Items were pas:od equal­ ly frequently, and the Chi-square tost was applied#

xhls

test showed that the hypothesis of rino difference” may bo re­ jected In both the caao^ of the one-roon school child.en and the consolidated school children at a high degrvc of confi­ dence#

In other words It Is relatively certain that i'-ural

children fall a higher percentage ot the language items than

- 14 ~ the non-language Items«

lliey slight further have tested

the hypothesis that there was nno dlfiei ence,f between the one-room school children and the consolidated school child­ ren In distribution of language and non-language items* They states MLess than 50 per. cent In an age group succeeded In those tests in which syllables are to be repeated, ■pictures described, rhymes given and words defined* Greater success Is shown In the simple definitions of a few words, giving of similarities and cliffe. ences, statements of absurdities and of comprehension, making simple sentences, reass erfolying dissected sentences and stating the thought of a passage read or giving the answer to problems of fact* The consistent failure on vocabulary and picture tests, which recur at several levels, shows their difficulty for all of the children* In th© use of language in a creative way, such as def­ inition or description, the deficiency Is more marked than it Is in the answer* to a given question or prob­ lem* 111©s© results are in accord with those of tho an­ alysis of tho educational tests, which shows that the school subjects In which these children are most infer­ ior to the norms are reading, language, history and literature* This seems a logical outcome of an educat­ ional system in which rote learning and drill play a large part*3* (p* 246f„ ) It does not seem unreasonable in the light of these considerations to set up the hypothesis that rural children differ from urban children in certain aspects of language de­ velopment*

If differences should be found there might follow

certain Implications for the training of children in rural communities*

On the other hand If no differences were found

It might be safe to extend certain general1aations to rural children which had been based on the study of only urban children*

This would be an advantage both because many data

have already been accumulated on urban children, and because

— 15 —

In future

work It might b© more economical to studyurban

children*

In the main they are acre accessible*

theoretical Position on the Mental Several

Retardation

of Rural Children

studies have shown that the IQ, of older

children in the country is lower than the IQ, of the young­ er children*

It appears from these reports, tlion, that

the IQ of rural children may be related to the length of time spent under rural influences*

Since most of the data

are based on cross-sectional measures it has not been dem­ onstrated whether or not the ssrno children would show low­ ered XQ, on repeated measures*

Hie best indication that this

actually happens is found in the study of Baldwin, Fillmore, and Hadley where it was shown that children in one-room schools tended to decline in classification whereas children in the consolidated school tended to advance in classificat­ ion* It seems reasonable, then, to look at these types of rural schools in an attempt to discover some conditions which may be related to this Increased deficiency of rural cliliaren with higher chronological age*

The facilities arc

oi ten inadequate, with few books especially adapted to tho interests of children, little recreational equipment, and too often, no appreciable supply of materials commonly used to encourage constructive activities*

The leniency In btate

- 16 laws encourages the selection of zj©laiively Inexixrionced and poorly trained touchers*

bom© have no training beyond

high school, and others have only 12 weeks normal training* Many of them are as young as 16 or 17 years of age, have had no previous teaching experience, and expect to continue for only a limited time, or until they have enough experience to get Into a town school*

The teacher Is often handicapped

by lack of equipment and frequently does hot have the wealth of conceptual background, and understanding of the child*s learning process to provide him with the essential elements for mental growth*

They have an opportunity to learn, per­

haps better than many classes of t■.sellers, the interests and needs of Individual pupils, but often they do not have the ability or time to capitalize on this advantage* Impoverishment is assured by a rigid program im­ posed by the system of the school*

by this the child is

required to spend most of his time In relatively unsupervised work*

Only during hi a turn at "recitation” does he take an

active part in the group enter prise* portion of his school day*

—illa xo a voi/g small

1'he remainder ho is subjected to

silence and exclusion, or at least inactive vmrtlclpation, In the social interaction of the school group. Under these conditions It Is possible that the child does not find adequate opportunity to share his exper­ iences with other children and in turn share in the exporIone< of others*

He is prevented from full participation by the

system In which he finds himself*

As a result his skill

and knowledge might be expected to be less adequately de­ veloped than that of children not so restricted* From another standpoint the child In this type of school is commonly handicapped*

The content of the

School program becomes meaningful to the child only aa it is related to his previous experiences and as he is able to Interpret them by means of those previous experiences* Too often the teachers of some schools are able to relate the everyday experiences of the children to the 31lesson” in only a meager .way*.

Few one-room schools In the area

7

studied have In evidence materials from the farm life.with which the pupils are most familiar*

is probable that

these things don11 com© Into the school curriculum enough to make the ncontent” meaningful In terms of these objects th© child know© best*

It follows then that tinder such con­

ditions (to the extent they are present) the content of th© school is divorced from the "overly-day” exp .rfences of the child, and he does not see how they apply to M s —

dally life

except in so far as they are related to getting marks,

passing, pleasing th© teacher, etc*

This condition might

be expected to restrict the value of th© child1s school experience© for his mental growth*

The expected result

would be lowered ability in dealing .with these mental pro­ cesses and In using them as tools for solving problems*

Chapter II the

development

of

intelligence

The hypothesis to be tested In th© present chap­ ter iss

Are children of the same initial IQ and the earn©

age living under the consolidated and one-room school en­ vironments still the same in IQ after.a relatively long In­ terval?

If under one type of environment children gain or

lose more rapidly than under the other, differences will be found on repeated measures*

If this continues for some

time it may bo assumed that the growth patterns for child­ ren under th© two environments are not identical* It has been pointed out that to show mental growth trends clearly the same children should bo measured repeated­ ly over a relatively long. Interval*

Accordingly, the analy­

ses which follow are based on repeated measures of the same children*

Furthermore, it would bs helpful If the children

were as similar in age and IQ as possible at the initial measure*

This Is true since subjects with different levels

of IQ may not show the same growth trends*

Fortunately, the

children selected were very similar in initial IQ*

In age,

however, the children In the one-room schools were younger* It .was necessary, therefore, to make adequate allowance for this difference in the analysis* Th© purpose, then, is to study the growth of two groups of children of the same Initial IQ, with allowance

mad© for differences in ago, on© of which is under the en­ vironment for the one-room schools, and another of which is under the environment of th© consolidated school*

The children were selected from a rural area in which was located a consolidated school surrounded toy sev­ eral one-room, schools*

Enough of tho ono-room schools im­

mediately adjacent to the consolidated school were select­ ed so that there would b© about an equal number of consol­ idated and one-room school children*

Thirteen schools

were thus selected simply on the basis of location and proximity to the consolidated school*

Initial tests were

given to all the pupils in the First, Second, Third, and Fourth grades of the consolidated school and the one-roera schools.

From an analysis of these scores it appeared

that the children entering the schools, i.e. those in the first grade, were about equal in IQ, and it was decided to take repeated measures on the following three groups. Group A-— - Pupils having their first year of school attendance during either th© school year 1940-41 or 1941-42, Group B

Pupils having their first two years of school attendance during 1940-41 or 1941-42.

Group 0 *»— ****

Pupils having their second and third years of school attendance during 1940-41 and 1941-42.

■** 3 0 m

Pupils were not included In Group A or ..Group B If previous to the initial test they had had one hundred or more days attendance the previous year#

Some such arb­

itrary delimitation had to he made since pupils wore fra guently sent to school for part of their first year*

*upils

were not- included in Group 0 unless previous to the Initial test they had had just on® year of school attendance* and unless the year had been spent in the schools being studied* Those In the consolidated school must have had their first year In the consolidated school; those in the one-room schools must have had their first year1 in the school In which they were enrolled at the Initial test, or one of the other twelve pne^room schools included In the sample*

Actually

there was H a i l © shifting from one of these schools to the other,

.On© ease was excluded because the child had spent

only the last throe years in the United states. Many of the parents of these children are of Scandinavian stock, although all of them speak English In the horn©*

The racial background of the two groups’‘apparent­

ly Is very similar as judged from visitation In the homes of all the children a tudied.

This would be expected, of course,

since they are both, drawn from a relatively small area, the main occupation of which is farming.

Method and Procedures Th© full stanford-BInat scale, I'orm L, was given

21 —

In each case*

Bach examination was mad© as thorough as

possible, and was conducted by Research Assistants of the Child Welfare Research Station who had previously had train­ ing and experience In individual mental testing#

On repeat­

ed tests the policy was followed of not informing the exam­ iner of previous IQ rating secured by the child*

All of

the record blank© were double-checked to prevent errors in computing scores* The only special administrative procedure wa s the Interpretation of the upper age level where it could be as­ sumed that the subject would secure no more credit if the examination were continued*

To keep this factor constant

for the two groups It was decided arbitrarily that, if half or more of the Items were passed In the year previous to the first age level were all of the items were failed, the ex­ amination should be continued*

Xf no more Items were passed

in the next age level It was terminated with this double cell­ ing*

If a test item were .passed above the first age level

where all of the items were failed the examination continued until the next age level where all of the items were failed* Xt will be recognised by those giving this scale to pupils of this age that there will be only a low eases where this regulation applies*

It seem® that there would also be little

disagreement 'that when half or more of the Items are passed In th© ag© level just before the ncoiling” that the examiner

** 2S ** should assure him®©If that the child has hud an opportunity to demonstrate hia full ability*

Actually, the child will

rarely secure more than one item subsequent to an age level where all th© items were failed, hut since it was'Intended to make the examinations b,b adequate in every was as possible it was thought that this factor should be constant for both groups* In the consolidated school the examinations were conducted 1b rooms familiar to the children and in each case the examiner mad© sure rapport was established and that the child was at ease*

In the one-room schools effort was made

to secure rapport with the child before the examination and to make him familiar with the tea ting conditions*

Sine©

there were no available examination rooms, a car was equipped with removable front seats and adjustable table*

The exam­

iner could thus alt at about the child1© level, while the child had plenty of room on th© rear seat to work at the table, or stand up If he cared to do s-o*

The children soon became

accustomed to this Improvised wlaboratory*n

There is thus

no reason known to th© experimenter to suppose that the testing condition© had an unusual effect upon the results of i-ho child*© test* There were three eases, one in the iall of 1941 and two in th© fall of 1940, where th© examiner failed to secure an adequate examination In the one-room school group* This does not seem to be a result of the conditions of test­ ing since In each case the teachers said that they had dif­ ficulty in enlisting the cooperation of th© child*

it took

from one to several months for the teachera to pet the children to make a reasonable ©Iiort In tiaelr school work. Other than theso cases all of the children were included In repeated measures who had spent their school time In the school environments as outlined In the previous section* I'ae tests were given In the fall of 1940 begin: uixxg the last of September and extending to about the middle of December*

In the spring of 1941 the tests were given

between the middle of April and the middle of h a y •

In the

fall of 1941 the tests were given from the last we k in Sep­ tember to the middle of October*

For the spring measure the

tests we;. e given from the middle of February through the first week of March#

The lust series of measun ©s had to to

given earlier than was planned because of the shortened ed­ ucational program# In the fall of 1940 the pupils In grades One, Two, Three, and Four wore tested*

Repeated measures were taken

In the spring of 1941 on those In the First grade#

The fol­

lowing fall (1941) the pupils who had h&d their first year of school attendance the previous year were again retested, together with those just entering the fix-st grade*

In the

spring, 1942, those having the.tr first, second, or third yearfs attendance during the current year were again retest­ ed*

This allows for a comparison of three aronps *— A,* 13, * *'

and. C, as outlined in the previous section*

\ - "■

mm*

•# **

- 24 Results Group A

— ...w

— jfc l

w

The first group of children referred to above, Group A, spent their first year of school attendance In the consolidated and one-room schools either during the school year 1940-41 or 1941-42.

During the first year there were

14 one-room school children and 17 consolidated school child­ ren who were given a test in the fall and who continued in the school until the second test was given in the spring. During the second year there were 16 in the one-room schools and 17 in the consolidated school who had a test in the fall and continued in the school until the spring test.

The scores

for these 64 cases are analyzed In Table I* The children In the consolidated .chool secured practically the same mean IQ as the children In the one-room schools when tested in the fall of the first year of school attendance*-

During the year'., however, the children in the

consolidated school secured a mean gain of five IQ points, while those In the one-room schools gained on the average only one point.

The children In the consolidated aeliool

are about five months older

than those in the onc-rccm schools,

necessitating -allowance for tnis difference in the statistical analysis of the score* ■both initial IQ and Initial CA were hold constant by means of analysis of covariance*

This would allow for

any trends due to staticteal regression in the scores from

scores attributable to difl'eroncos In age bo two. n the one room and consolidated school children*

‘"'trlctly, it would

not be necessary to control Initial XQ since the differences are small*

However, controlling Initial IQ us well as age,

allows for a more precise comparison* It was found that the difference of five points between the consolidated and one-room school children on the final measure could be accounted for by *hance In lass than one per cent of the samples of this si^o*

In ether

words, controlling Initial IQ and ago, the difference in IQ at the end of their first year of school attend since Is s t a ­ tic tically significant at the one per cent level, as judged by an F-value of 8*7*

It Is fairly safe to conclude, then,

that the growth In intelligence as represented by the IQ is not the same In these two groups during their first year of attendance*

The children having their first two years of school attendance during 1940-41 and 1941-42 (Group B) wore given four tests, one in the fall and one in the siring of each year*

In the fall of 1940 the mo tin IQ of the consoli­

dated school children was 105 and that of the one-room child ren was 104*

In the spring of 1942 the moan IQ of those In

tho consolidated school was 121, end the mean IQ for those 1 the one-room schools was 108, as shown in Table II*

The son

Table I Change® in IQ During First Year Attendance In Consolidated and One-Boom Schools, Holding Initial XQ and Age Constant

Consolidated

H K