the focus of the ordinance was on assessing student achievement in the preliminary, or elementary curricula. in essence, the examinations were being positioned in the primary role of gatekeeper between the primary and secondary schools of the state of new york. the need for a gatekeeper examination system was due in part to the state’s 1864 school funding formula, which allocated public funds to private academies based on criteria that included the number of enrolled students. typically, the academies used money distributed from the state literature fund to offset operating expenses, and any expenses in excess of funds received from the state were passed on to students and their families in the form of “rate bills.” under this system, individual academies could realize economic advantages by lowering academic standards and enrolling less qualified students. in 1864, during a time of war, the new york legislature became concerned about this issue of who was and who was not qualified to be enrolled in the common, mostly private academies of the state and also in the rare, public high schools of the state. the timing of the legislature’s concern and actions in 1864 may have been related to two conditions that existed during the civil war: the military’s need for young men of fighting age and a period of fiscal austerity in school funding.