A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

MEASUREMENT OF INSTRUCTION

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There is at hand, however, objective evidence on the matter. For
the 223,710 subject examinations given in the survey all directions were
conducted in English. Half of the tests were given by American members of the Commission, half by Filipino associates. There is no appreciable difference in the scores of tests given by the two groups. A
definitely controlled test which was made at the beginning of the survey
led to this conclusion.
The most significant measure of the comprehension of spoken English
is the performances of the children on the tests which involved no reading
of directions. Test IV (arithmetic computation), Test IX (spelling and
understanding of dictation), and the Non-Language Test for mental
ability, are of that type.
The data of Chart VII are so unusual as to be startling in their
significance. Grade for grade, through the elementary school, Filipino
children develop as much skill in arithmetic computation as do children
in the United States. Thirty-two thousand children in forty-five municipalities in all parts of the Islands were measured. The median achievements of Filipinos in Grade III, Grade IV, Grade V, and Grade VI are
actually in excess of the corresponding American achievements. This is
the situation, in spite of the fact that all explanations and directions
have been made in a foreign language. This is clear-cut evidence of the
extent to which spoken English in the classroom is understood. Thinking that Philippine schools might secure the result by using an undue
proportion of the school time, we have investigated the allotment of time
devoted to arithmetic in the two countries, and find that no such explanation is sound. The number of minutes per week devoted to arithmetic in the first six grades is almost the same.
The data of Charts XII and XIII which give the results of the
Non-Language Tests, confirm the findings from the arithmetic study.
Filipinos, grade for grade, nearly approximate the scores of American
children. Ignoring for the moment the question of comparative intelligence, we are forced to the conclusion that Filipino children in
the fourth grade could not have followed the complicated directions
of the Non-Language Tests, all given orally in English, by Filipino
examiners, unless they had marked ability to comprehend spoken English.
There is at hand, however, an even better measure of the pupils'
ability to understand spoken English-the result of the dictation test,
No. 9. This consisted of the original unmodified Stanford dictation
test. It comprises the following sentences:
Second and third grades start here
My good little boy.
Your school is out today.