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A Study of Achievement Marks of Rural Eighth -grade Pupils of Madison County, Nebraska During the Years 1932 to 1937 Inclusive

George Garfield Hansen, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

As a pupil in a rural school the writer spent many days under the supervision of a teacher, who at times was at the point of a nervous breakdown caused by the fear of what might happen if her pupils did not pass the county eighth-grade examinations.Many days were spent in uninteresting drill just to be able to pass the examinations, at the same time overlooking the most important elements of teaching, which include attitudes, problem-solving ability and habitat that are not revealed by examinations which stress only factual memory. Much time was given to eighth-graders at the expense of other pupils.Later when the writer had the occasion to conduct such examinations and observe the state of mind of some of the pupils, who came to take the examinations in a strange situation; and heard the pleadings of teachers and parents such as: "Please see that my pupil (or my child) gets through," he wondered if the rural teacher could not be trained and trusted to assume the responsibility of promoting her own pupils.Working in a community where the value of eighth-grade examinations is constantly questioned and the method of administration deemed unfair, because rural pupils have to go to a town or city school to take the examinations, the writer became interested in making a study of this problem.

Subject Area

Educational tests & measurements|Secondary education|Educational evaluation

Recommended Citation

Hansen, George Garfield, "A Study of Achievement Marks of Rural Eighth -grade Pupils of Madison County, Nebraska During the Years 1932 to 1937 Inclusive" (1940). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAIDP13774.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAIDP13774

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