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Negro High-School Graduates and Nongraduates

SCHOOLS

Relation of Their Occupational Status to

Certain School Experiences

CHOOLS are beginning to realize that the adequacy of their educational programs must be measured largely by the effectiveness of the adjustments made by their students to life situations. This is particularly true of programs of vocational education and guidance. One important means of appraising such programs is through follow-up studies of graduates and nongraduates of the schools under consideration.

Follow-up is perhaps the most difficult phase of a guidance program, and little research has been done in this field. Follow-up work is expensive, difficult to administer, and the demands made upon the personnel performing the functions are delicate and exacting. It is more of an individual matter than most of the other guidance functions. Mass follow-up data, with which this pamphlet is concerned, therefore, find their greatest value when used as guides in indicating trends, in pointing out common problems, and in suggesting approaches that may be applicable to many situations. Also, they may be helpful in emphasizing the need of schools making greater use of the slower and more expensive case-study method.

On account of the rapid changes taking place in our modern economy and the consequent demands upon workers, follow-up studies and services are more essential today than ever, and may become increasingly so in the future. The demands have increased in number and complexity at a more rapid rate than the changes which the schools have made to meet them. In fact, schools cannot meet the situation by giving attention to an individual only while he is in the regular day school. Recognition of this fact is causing educational institutions to formulate and put into operation plans which will keep them abreast of the changing occupational world, both in its economic and social aspects, and of the advances made in psychology as it applies to the individual and to society. On the basis of the knowledge thus gained, they are revising their policies and reorganizing their programs. This pamphlet, which is a supplement to the report on the National Survey of Vocational Education and Guidance of Negroes conducted by the Office of Education,1 presents certain data on Negro high-school

1 U. S. Department of the Interior, Office of Education. Vocational education and guidance of Negroes. By Ambrose Caliver. Washington, U. S. Government printing office, 1938. 137 p. (Bulletin 1937, No. 38.)

graduates and nongraduates that may be helpful to those responsible for the education of this racial group (1) in providing a picture of the occupational status of the products of their schools; (2) in helping them to appreciate the need of such follow-up studies for their particular institutions; and (3) in suggesting the importance of revising their programs in terms of the needs as shown by such studies.

Data and Their Sources

The data for this pamphlet were collected in the National Survey of Vocational Education and Guidance of Negroes; they supplement Chapter IX of the report of that Survey on Information Helpful in Formulating Guidance Programs. The information was collected by means of questionnaires administered through personal interviews with 20,260 persons who had graduated from or dropped out 2 of high schools in 33 States and the District of Columbia during the 10-year period from 1926 to 1935. The study included 3,918 men graduates, 3,642 men nongraduates, 7,348 women graduates, and 5,352 women nongraduates.

The report of the Survey referred to gives the following information about the graduates and nongraduates: Their present age and age when they left school; grade reached in school; curriculums pursued; vocational training obtained; effect of vocational training in securing a job; for whom they worked; employment while in school; activities followed immediately after leaving school; and father's occupation. Treatment of any of the above items in this pamphlet will be for the purpose of showing relationships between these items and other factors not shown in the previous report, such as the age of and grade reached by the respondents when they left school; the reasons given for leaving school; and their post-school activities in relation to their school experience.

Background Factors

Age and grade left school.-Information concerning the age at which one leaves school and the grade reached is important for counselors as they assist individuals to make an effective occupational adjustment. To have both items of information about a large group of persons should be an additional aid to counselors in indicating the ages and grades at which students may be expected to leave school. The ages of both nongraduates and graduates differ only slightly in the 2-year periods from 1926 and 1927 to 1934 and 1935 as shown in table 1. A larger sampling of those who withdrew or graduated in the earlier years (1926 and 1927) may have shown different results. However, in view of the number of high schools for Negroes at that time, and of the manner of selecting the schools studied in this investi

2 Hereafter referred to as nongraduates.

gation, it is believed that these data (19,751 cases) represent a fair sampling. The data are presented here as an example of the kind that should be useful to counselors, and also for comparative purposes in connection with future studies of a similar nature. In comparing the data for one period with similar data for another period, certain factors which may have an influence should be considered. For example, during the 10-year period under investigation such factors as the following should be considered: Changes in the economic status of Negroes; stricter enforcement of the compulsory school attendance laws; and governmental assistance, such as National Youth Administration work-scholarships and social-security aid. These factors may have had an influence in keeping children in school longer and in assisting older children to return to school.

TABLE 1.-Number and median ages in years, of nongraduates who left high school at given grades and of graduates from the eleventh and twelfth grades during designated years

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Reason for leaving school.-The data were analyzed to ascertain if the size of the community in which the respondent attended school had any relationship to the reason he left school. Communities were grouped according to the following sizes in population: 2,499 or less;

198092°-40--2

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