DARTMOUTH AND THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

In 1902 Dartmouth joined with other New England colleges in establishing the New England College Entrance Certificate Board. In May, 1914, Dartmouth withdrew from this- Board, and announced that in the future she would deal personally with all schools which sent pupils to her. The chief reason for Dartmouth's withdrawal was that she had ceased to be a New England college, drawing two-fifths of her students from other sections of the country. With schools outside New England the College was in personal touch, and this proved of such mutual value that Dartmouth desired to accomplish the same relation with the New England schools. Other objections to the New England College Entrance Certificate Board, which have been rather vehemently voiced by certain of its critics, may also have influenced this action; many felt that the Board would be more useful to education in New England if it undertook some form of personal inspection, as do similar Boards in other parts of the country; if it did more to aid the small rural high school, of which there are many in New Hampshire, to send pupils to college; if it cooperated more fully with the state Departments of Education, which have grown greatly in influence in New England, and which are responsible for the standards and courses of the public high schools.

For the class entering in the fall of 1914 the College used the New England College Entrance Certificate Board's list. It accepted students by certificate from thirteen other schools also, which sent twenty-one men to the Freshman class. All of these schools had at some time been on the Approved List of the Board; five were again placed on this List in 1915; only one had been removed for the poor scholastic record of its students (the three students who were admitted to Dartmouth by certificate from that school were above the average in scholarship during their Freshman year). Of these thirteen schools three were small schools in New Hampshire, which sent pupils to college so infrequently that they were unable to remain permanently on the Approved List of the Board. The Principals of two academies, which chiefly prepare boys for Yale and Harvard, imagined that the new Dartmouth scheme meant a lowering of standards. The four boys whom they sent on certificate to the College were all dropped for poor scholarship and the College officially warned these schools that such misuse of Dartmouth's attempt to cooperate with the secondary schools would not be permitted in the future. Out of a large number of schools, snot on the Board's Approved List, which applied for the right to admit pupils to Dartmouth by certificate in 1915, the College approved only nine, which sent fifteen students. Five of these schools were small New Hampshire schools, which sent nine pupils; the scholastic work of the men admitted this year from New England schools not on the Board's Approved List is fully the equal of those which come from schools on its List.

Last fall an Executive Secretary was added to the Committee on Admission, and full announcement was made of the new method by which Dartmouth will select those schools which may admit their high-stand pupils without examination. Printed matter and Application Blanks were sent to the eight hundred schools which have sent pupils to Dartmouth in recent years. The main feature of this plan is that it aims at cooperation, rather than criticism, and strives to make the relation between school and College personal rather than perfunctory. As far as possible members of the Faculty representing the Committee on Admission will visit schools which desire Dartmouth's certificate right. These visits will enable the school to understand exactly what type of work Dartmouth is striving to do, and will show the College the problems of the high school. On the visits undertaken so far, personal interviews with the Principal and teachers have been of great value; a talk at Assembly upon questions concerned with college preparation has frequently been given; in many cases the boys who are preparing for college, or those definitely preparing for Dartmouth, have been met and their questions answered. It is the hope of the Committee that this personal touch with the schools will explain to them exactly what type of boy will make a real Dartmouth man. The Executive Secretary feels that one of the most important features of his work so far has been in persuading certain boys, who were ill-prepared and whose interests were along other lines, not to attempt to enter Dartmouth. If this method can improve the quality of the Dartmouth undergraduate body, and can relieve the College from dropping a large number of men, because of scholastic disability, it will justify itself.

While most of the actual carrying out of this plan is as yet in the future, certain concrete results have been reached by the Committee. It has recommended that, in keeping with its idea of cooperating with, rather than simply criticising the schools, honors during Freshman year shall be announced with the name of the school which prepared the honor candidate; it will request the Trustees to announce publicly the schools whose graduates make the highest standing in the first semester of Freshman year, and to award to the highest some fitting trophy. The Committee feels that the fourteen members of the Faculty, who during the recent examination period visited twenty-seven high schools, learned definitely some of the problems of the high school, and will thus be better able to determine what Dartmouth's relation to these schools should be.

Any new scheme, such as this, is inevitably misinterpreted. There are those who have implied that by this new method Dartmouth desired to increase its student body; it has even been suggested that the remarkable increase in the last two Freshman classes is to be explained on this basis. A brief investigation of statistics completely disproves this. Out of nine hundred and twenty-nine Freshmen admitted in 1914 and 1915 only thirty-six would have been debarred if Dartmouth had remained upon the New England College Entrance Certificate Board, and five of these came from schools which, the following year, were on the Board's Approved List. Instead of increasing the student body by a lowered standard, this new plan attempts to raise the quality of students admitted, and prevent the admission of the boy who, because of lack of preparation or lack of interest in the things for which Dartmouth stands, will not make a good Dartmouth product. Nor is this scheme the handing over to the state Departments of Education the right to decide which schools shall admit to Dartmouth without examination; the Committee has had the advice and cooperation of such Departments in New England, which seemed much interested in the plan, but Dartmouth, not being a state institution, will continue to determine which schools shall have the certificate right. It is also obvious that this is not, really, an admission scheme, as it has nothing to do with subjects required for admission, or the credits which are given for high school work in those subjects. The plan has to do with the relation between the College and the school alone, and not with questions of an individual candidate's credits for admission.

In order to secure the advice and interest of the Dartmouth alumni who are engaged in teaching, the Committee has already held five informal dinners and conferences in various parts of New England and New York. Probably a similar lunch and conference will be held at the annual meeting of Superintendents in Detroit in February. As a result of these gatherings the Trustees and Faculty have gained many ideas of value upon the question of the proper relation between Dartmouth and the secondary schools; the College has been urged to do more to send out Dartmouth men into the field of education, and after they have engaged in this work, keep closer to them by correspondence, the publication of a list of the alumni who are engaged in teaching, and other such evidences of the College's interest in their work.