In  the  fifth  grade  Nos.  3,  5,  9,  and  13  and  in  the
sixth  grade  Nos.  16,  18,  21  and  26  failed  in  arithmetic;
they  are  allowed  to  take  '  make-up '  examinations  in  Sep-
tember, 1917,  and  to  be  promoted  then  if  successful.*
Some  portion  of  these  June  failures,  I  feel  certain,  may
be  ascribed  to  the  method  of  grading  the  examination
papers.  It  is  the  custom  for  the  5th-grade  and  6th-grade
teachers  in  the.  Leal  School  to  give  half-credit  for  a
solution  whose  method  is  correct  but  whose  computation
is  wrong,  and  I  understand  that  all  promotions  have
been  based  on  this  method  of  grading  papers.  The  pa-
pers for  our  Special  Group,  however,  were  graded  by  the
superintendent,  who  gave  no  credit  for  problems  worked
by  the  right  method  but  with  incorrect  answers  (unless
possibly  when  there  was  only  a  slight  clerical  error).
We  have  no  official  right,  of  course,  to  question  the
decisions  of  the  superintendent  of  schools.  He  felt,  we
understand,  that  the  pupils  of  the  Special  Class  were
prone  to  inaccuracy  and  that  that  fault  must  be  eradi-
cated, and  secondly,  he  felt  that  if  a  child  were  to  qualify
to  do  two  years'  work  in  one,  he  ought  not  only  to  do
faster  work  but  also  a  better  grade  of  work  than  pupils
who  are  permitted  to  progress  through  the  grades  at  the


*In  September,  Nos.  3,  4,  5,  13,   16,   21,   26,  and  34  passed  examina-
tions for  promotion.     No.  18  moved  out  of  town.
