The distances travelled by non-credit evening class participants of two adult education institutions, the University of British Columbia Extension Department and the Vancouver School Board Night Schools, were studied by means of the analytic survey method. The participants in most of the non-credit courses offered on the campus by the Extension Department in one term were included in the study. A much smaller sample population of courses was selected from the three major night school centers operated by the Vancouver School Board. The participants of both institutions were grouped into two categories, Unique or Common. Unique participants were those who could obtain the course they attended at that one location only. Common participants were those who could have chosen alternative course locations. The distances travelled from place of residence to course location by Unique and Common Extension participants were compared as were the distances travelled by Unique and Common night school participants. The chi-square test of independence was used in the comparisons of the distributions of Unique and Common participants while the significance of the differences between the mean distances travelled and between the median distances travelled was determined by the use of critical ratios. The .01 level of confidence was the criterion used to determine the significance of differences. Distances travelled by Extension participants were found not to be influenced by alternative course locations in the same community when these alternatives were public school night school centers. Participants came from the whole of metropolitan Vancouver and distance did not seem to be a barrier within this area. Alternative course location in comparable centers in the community was found to influence the travel patterns of public school night school participants. Courses available at a single location attracted participants from the whole community whereas courses offered at three locations tended to attract participants more from the neighborhood of the center. Although there was some participation from the greater metropolitan area, the night schools tended more to serve the city alone than did the Extension Department. These findings suggest that the usefulness or necessity of additional Extension course locations in the metropolitan area is questionable. However, an increase in the number of public school evening course locations would seem likely to yield increased participation providing care was taken to avoid the competition which may result when new locations are placed too close to existing ones. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study is to analyse the distances travelled to three urban night school centers in order to determine whether each serves separate areas or whether each serves larger, overlapping areas. The sample population consisted of 486 adults enrolled in twenty-two courses offered as part of the 1962-1963 program. Some of these selected courses were in subjects offered at all three centers; some courses were offered at two of the centers and the remainder were offered at only one center. It was thus possible to compare the centers while controlling for the number of centers offering the same subject matter. Distributions of distances travelled to each course and to each group of courses were prepared. The chi-square test of independence was used to compare the various distributions and the significance of the difference between mean distances travelled was used to provide additional comparisons. Maps were prepared illustrating the residences of participants and a correlation was made to determine the relationship between the distances travelled and the percentage of sessions attended by the participant. The results indicated that half of the 486 participants travelled less than 2.8 miles. More lived between one and two miles from the center they attended than in any other mile interval from the center. Only five percent of the participants travelled more than nine miles and less than one percent travelled more than fourteen miles. The statistical tests indicated that there was an association between the distance travelled and the center attended. It was found that when courses were offered at one center only, there was no statistical difference between the patterns of distance travelled to the three centers. Participants seemed to travel from throughout the city of Vancouver to attend, no matter which center offered the course. Women who attend courses designed for women only travel shorter distances than men who attend courses designed for men only. For courses offered at all three centers, adults travelled further to John Oliver Night School and to Technical Night School than to Kitsilano Night School. Travel distance does not inhibit the subsequent attendance of those who enroll. The opening of new night school centers during the past fifteen years was reviewed and it was found that a new center opened within two miles of a large well established center is unlikely to attract sufficient clientele to be economically successful. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

About one hundred years after British and Spanish navigations off Vancouver's shoreline, early settlement had resulted in the first two school locations within the area now known as Vancouver City: one in the north, associated with the Hastings Sawmill, the other in the south, connected with a Fraser River fishing settlement. Most of the small early settlements had been established for logging or fishing, and later for clearing of small-holding farms. The choice of Granville (later Vancouver) as the C.P.R. terminus speeded the rate of settlement and, with the incorporation of Vancouver in 1886, the regime of the Vancouver school system began. Inside the City boundaries, the first schools were within a half-mile to a mile walking distance of the early centre of settlement at Carrall Street. As public transport and False Creek bridges extended settlement around the nucleus, new schools were built within a half-mile of street-car service and at distances increasing outwards from the City centre. Outside the City, South Vancouver became a municipality in 1906; and Point Grey became one in 1908. They shared six small schools representing six small widely-separated settlements. Elsewhere, there was only the Provincial government school in District Lot #301 which, with Hastings Townsite, was annexed by the City in 1911. New school locations within all these areas reflected a rapid increase in new settlement from 1908 until 1914, dependent upon the extension of Interurban and street-car lines from the City. It was towards the end of the pre-war period that each of the two municipalities began to organize its own high school, a few years later than the first City high school, King Edward, which had been re-located south of False Creek. The real estate boom, 1908-12, had marked a doubling of City population to over 100,000; that of South Vancouver to nearly 40,000 and that of Point Grey to about 3,000. But when the economic growth was retarded by war and depression, 1914-24, the school-building programme stagnated. Overcrowding and temporary accommodation contrasted from the twenty-five new locations of the preceding era. By 1925, however, there were signs of renewed growth in the school pattern. Resulting from improved economic conditions and guided by the findings of the Putnam-Weir Report on schools, new locations were planned coincidental with the passing of the Town Planning Act. The new expansion, 1925-29, was very noticeable in the fastest-growing western part of Point Grey municipality where there had been much post-war "new" family settlement as well as outward movement from the City. South Vancouver, meanwhile, was slowly recovering from financial reverses which had left the schools unimproved for approximately eight years. The ensuing building programme, made necessary by extensive post-war settlement, started with accommodation additions to schools nearest the 16th Avenue City boundary and included one new location, the McBride Elementary School. In both municipalities much home-building had resulted from the extension of City settlement along the lines of communication and over the boundaries at 16th Avenue and Alma Road. Within the City, elementary school location had completed a half-mile pattern over the original area; but empty sections remained in the eastern part of Hastings Townsite. There, however, school sites had been acquired. As in the other two political units, more high schools were needed, especially as the Grade IX population formed 50% of the high school enrolment. In 1928, answering growing public demands for technical education, the Vancouver Technical School was built in the south-eastern part of the City, within easy reach of South Vancouver students. Other new buildings were junior high ones—according to the recommendations of the Putnam-Weir Report. After the three municipalities' amalgamation, from about 1929 to 1944, plans for new schools—as for urban development generally—were in abeyance due to unsettled social and economic conditions. Again temporary measures, such as the use of portable classrooms, were made necessary from increasing densities at the old school locations—first in high schools, then in the primary grades. Rising birth rates after 1934 as well as post-war immigration warned of greatly increased enrolments for post-war years. The succeeding fifteen-year span, 1945-60, saw the greatest building programme since 1886, in all types of schools. Especially were the new secondary locations notable—in the formerly empty or sparsely-occupied areas of eastern Hastings Townsite, the south-eastern sector, and the former C.P.R. land in central Point Grey. Not only had there been an extraordinary increase in family settlement in all peripheral regions of Vancouver, but there was a decrease in family settlement around the old nuclei—where there was a high population ratio of single workers and older persons. Induced settlement in the form of new housing estates had speeded the population regionalism, and it increased the danger of over-building elementary schools if birth rates should fall considerably in future years. An epilogue to the outward movement in the location pattern was the sale of C.P.R. land in the central area and the emergence there of a new residential core, with planned schools and shopping centre. The new residential heart of the City was approximately three miles south of the original nucleus on Burrard Inlet, and its new secondary school location immediately south of the old pioneer high school. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Students who withdraw from high school before graduating constitute a group of increasing public concern. The present thesis is a "reconnaissance", to gain some idea of dimensions, and of factors associated with school "drop-outs", with special reference to superior students, (1) The Permanent School Record cards of every student who had left school during the 1959-60 school year were reviewed for seven Vancouver secondary schools. Excluded from the study were (a) involuntary "drop-outs", over which the school had no control, and (b) transfers to other school systems, including some situations where there was insufficient information. (2) As the second stage of the study, record cards of fifty students who had intelligence ratings of 120 or over were examined for indications as to their performance (a) at school, (b) at home, and (c) in the community. (3) Twelve students in one school were then selected for more intensive exploration, this being done through interviews with students, parents, grade counsellors, special counsellors, school nurse, and social agencies. Examination of the total group of "drop-outs" indicated that their general level of intelligence was somewhat lower than that required for high school graduation. More than half the group were retarded for their age and grade. The largest number of "drop-outs" occurred in Grade XII and among the 18-year-olds. More boys than girls left school prematurely. Among the special group of superior children the largest number also occurred in Grade XU and among the 18-year-olds. But unlike the total group, they were not retarded for their age and grade. More than half were children of manual workers, both skilled and unskilled. An equal number of boys and girls were involved. In nearly every case the student had had some previous experience of failure in his school career, which in this group could be interpreted as an indication of malfunction, (personal, social or educational) rather than lack of ability. Absence from school for more than ten days in the year also appeared to be associated with failure to complete graduation. Geographic mobility did not appear to be a cause. Most of the children who left school prematurely had families who were experiencing varying degrees of stress, but who claimed to value education highly. There is evidence that these students, typically, had personality difficulties. They lacked the discipline necessary to postpone recreation in order to study. With a few exceptions they seemed to be getting along well in every area of their life except that of student. They were successful in finding work, although below their capacity, even in a period of high unemployment. They did not make use of the counselling services that were available to them. The degree of understanding and acceptance of social and personal problems apparently varies widely among the school staff. They are able to recognize under-achievement, but in general do not refer this problem to the special counsellor service. While the number of seriously disturbed adolescents is small, the need for adequate treatment facilities for them is urgent. More uniform recording of information about school "drop-outs" is needed for future research. Financial assistance, where necessary, should be provided at the high school level in cases of proven capacity. The need for appropriate extensions of counselling service is apparent. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate