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

183

ability Filipino children, grade for grade, are about three-quarters of a
year behind American children. In Grade III the difference is a half
year, in Grade IV a year, and in Grade V about a quarter of a year;
in Grade VI about a half year, in Grade VII about a year. On the
average, therefore, Filipino pupils are excelled by American pupils,
from Grades III to VII, inclusive, by about one-half a year. Instruction and testing in arithmetic reasoning demands some reading
ability of the sentence-meaning type. It demands also a grasp of
numerical vocabulary. It demands ability to recognize needed arithmetical operations. Finally, it makes use of skill in computation. The
significant fact to keep in mind in considering the results obtained in
Philippine schools in arithmetical reasoning is that reading and vocabulary are utilized, whereas in arithmetic computation they are not.
The differences between Filipino and American children in the three
types of ability under consideration appear interestingly as follows:
TABLE 7.-EXHIBIT OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN-LANGUAGE PROBLEM IN
THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN IN PHILIPPINE SCHOOLS
Amount of reading involved Difference in attainment between
Amount of reading involved Amenand Flpo p i~
American and Filipino pupils
Arithmetic computation. No reading................ No difference.
Arithmetic reasoning.... Some reading of sentence type. Filipinos 0.6 year behind Americans.
Vocabulary.......... Word meaning............. Filipinos 1j years behind Americans.
Sentence reading...... All reading of sentence type... Filipinos 1 years behind Americans.
Paragraph reading..... Difficult paragraph reading... Filipinos 2j years behind Americans.. The table presents in a perfectly concise manner the hampering effect
of the foreign language. It also presses home the fact that half or
more of the schools are securing a fair product in arithmetic.
We say "fair" with one important mental qualification, of course.
We have been comparing Filipino attainments with American median
attainments. These are the only attainments that are available with
which to compare Filipino achievements. Nevertheless it must be kept
clearly in mind that the American "median attainment" may not be
the most desirable attainment for Filipino children. Science has not
yet proved for the children of any country indeed how much power of
arithmetic reasoning, or computational skill, or spelling ability, etc., or
any other trait the schools should strive to develop. American schools
are now systematically employing scientific methods to find out how
high standards ought to be. So, in lieu of better bases of comparison,
we use American standards. It may very well be that for the next
few years, because of the language handicap, the Filipino standard in
each subject may be set lower than the American median achievement.
If this is done, it should be done with the idea in mind that in such
subjects as arithmetic (verbal problems) the desirable norm might soon