Rice thought it important to set standards for the schools o meet. In round percentages, the average school scores on his test for grades to 8 had been 60, 70, 60, 40, and 50. Rice decided that a school's achievement was adequate if the over average was 60% and four out of five grades reached the grade averages. He recognized that if another test were used, the level of difficulty might be different, but he was optimistic about the possibility of determining by research what percentage ought to be obtained. on a given item by a given group of students: “In due course of time there ought to be no difficulty in establishing standards in arithmetic with mathematical precision” (Rice. 1902. p. 291). Rice did not attempt to suggest a standard for the mechanical side of arithmetic, but he did have something to say about the time that ought to be devoted to arithmetic instruction. He found that the average daily time of arithmetic instruction in the schools he surveyed varied from 30 to 60 minutes and concluded that, although there was no clear relationship between time and achievement, 45 minutes was probably sufficient.