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PAGE 2—MAY 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
School Official Praises
District ‘4-Track’ Plan
WASHINGTON, D.C.
T he Washington “four-track”
high school plan, a program
tailormade to meet individual dif
ferences in older-age students,
apparently has proved a success.
Asst. School Supt. Carl F. Han
sen, author of the plan, told the
board of education last month
“unusual gains” under this diver
sified curriculum were reported.
The program was put into effect
experimentally last fall when
school people realized that a sin
gle, integrated school system
posed greater problems of student
achievement than could be ironed
out in a few years’ time.
(Washington schools began the third
year of integration last September. At
the end of the first year, the results of
the first citywide achievement tests
showed that District pupils on the aver
age were not measuring up to national
standards in reading, arithmetic and so
cial studies. In general, Negro pupils
made a poorer showing than did white
pupils.)
Hansen, in a progress report, asked
that the school board extend the four-
course curriculum setup to the city’s
11th graders next fall and to 12th grad
ers by September, 1958.
GROUPED BY SUBJECTS
Under Hansen’s plan, 5,000 10th grad
ers have been grouped in basic academic
subjects according to their learning
achievement. They are
5,000 Pupils assigned to one of four
In Program curricula: basic, general,
college preparatory or
honors. The basic program is largely
remedial while the gifted group (hon
ors) may double up on courses during
the year.
The program began on a trial run last
fall, with school board approval good
for one year. They must again give a
green light if the program is to con
tinue. In saying why it should continue,
Hansen reported:
“It is workable from a practical point
of view, though difficult problems re
main to be solved. It is flexible to per
mit pupils to move from one curriculum
to another as conditions warrant.
“Most of the teachers and principals
report a favorable point of view toward
the program although emphasizing
needs in materials and supplies, im
proved curriculum guides and teacher
training.
MAXIMUM OPPORTUNITY
“Finally, convincing evidence is al
ready available that grouping is step
ping up the achievement of both hon
ors and basic students. If properly man
aged, the four-level curriculum should
help to make it possible to offer a maxi
mum educational opportunity to stu
dents of different levels, needs and
achievement.”
Hansen told a reporter that the fact
that maximum educational opportuni
ties can be offered to all students should
provide “an answer to people afraid that
integration might reduce” such oppor
tunities.
While a complete testing of all basic
students will not be made until next
month, Hansen said that “test results
so far available show unusual gains in
achievement in basic subjects.”
MAKE GAINS
He cited McKinley High School where
34.7 per cent of 213 basic course 10th
graders made from two to five years’
gain in reading at the end of the first
semester. In arithmetic, 44.4 per cent
of 36 students made gains from one and
one-half to five years.
Honors grouping also has been “high
ly productive,” Hansen said.
In the basic group, 116 students were
transferred to the general curriculum
and two were transferred to college pre
paratory during the last semester. At
the same time, 44 students were trans
ferred from the general to the basic
group.
Ten students from the college prepar
atory and two from the general course
were transferred to the honors group.
Fifty honor students moved to the col
lege preparatory course. The remainder
of the 279 students transferred moved
between college preparatory and gen
eral.
HIGH DROPOUT RATE
Biggest change in enrollment at the
four levels occurred in the basic cur
riculum which in February showed a
drop of 324 from September’s 1,588. With
only 118 of these moving into higher
instruction levels, the “high incidence”
of dropouts in the basic curriculum ap
pears to account for the rest.
Hansen told the school board that
high school students are dropping out
of classes as fast this year as last. “I
don’t know the reasons for this higher
dropout rate . . . but we’re trying to
find out,” Hansen declared.
Local educators had designed the
ha' ic and general courses for students
likely to take jobs immediately after
graduation. They
To Keep Them hoped tailoring of
In School study offerings to stu
dent needs would hold
“border-line” young people in school
longer.
Asked if the four-track program had
reduced the dropout rate, Hansen said:
“A firm answer is not possible, because
of the absence of comparable data. How
ever, a study of 10th grade dropouts by
curriculum indicates a high incidence
in the basic curriculum (15.85 ner cent)
and none in the honors level.”
DROPOUT BY LEVELS
These are the current dropouts by
curriculum levels: Honors, 371 enroll
ment, none; Regular, 1,197 enrollment,
11; General, 2,074 enrollment, 134, and
basic, 1,588 enrollment, 252.
Dropout records on the total high
school level, however, show that 1,021
students left school from Sept. 10, 1956
to Feb. 1, 1957. This compares to 802 for
the same period last year.
Of the present classroom fatalities,
records show that 452 students left be
cause they were disinterested, overage,
retarded or failing. An additional 201 left
to work, 87 joined the armed services,
87 left for illnesses, 52 married, 28 were
“needed at home” and 114 left for mis
cellaneous reasons.
Hansen told the school board: “It is
quite clear that much more needs to be
done now than is being done to increase
the holding power of the school for the
bs' ic learner.
“In this connection, the answer is not
to be found in curriculum structure
alone. It is to be found in the classroom,
in what goes on between pupil and
teacher, and in the home and commu
nity, where attitudes, values and char
acter attributes are developed.
“There is no easy answer to any com
plex problem—and the education of re
luctant and handicapped learners is no
exception.”
POPULATION SHIFTS
Hansen said one factor that might be
affecting the schools’ lack of holding
power is the shifting of student popula
tion.
In one semester’s time, 2,000 high
school students withdrew to attend an
other school in the District or an insti
tution out of the city, Hansen said. “This
is the size of the student bodies of two
gcod-sized high schools,” he said.
“In my opinion,” Hansen added, “too
many parents are going along with their
children and moving to another school
district where their youngsters say they
would have an easier time.”
There “simply is too much shopping
around for more so-called favorable
learning situations,” Hansen said. “We
must educate the parents to this fact . . .
and to the bad effect it can have on their
children,” he emphasized.
PLANNED WORK-SCHOOL
School officials originally planned to
build up a work-school program in
connection with the basic course. Under
this plan, slow-learning students would
have an opportunity to work at the
semi-skilled job of their choice and at
tend classes too.
Hansen told school board members
that this plan “has not proved success
ful, so far.”
A survey of high schools on Feb. 25
showed that only five students had been
assigned to a work-school program
under the provisions of the four-track
curriculum.
“Placement on the job to date has not
been effectively done,” Hansen said,
adding: “This feature of the new cur
riculum has bogged down chiefly for
lack of personnel to coordinate the pro
gram.”
Hansen concluded: “We have to get
this phase of the program off the ground
. . . we have to sell the community.”
SEES COLLEGE NEED
Earlier in the month, Hansen ad
dressed a United Negro College Fund
meeting and said that any reduction in
the number of Negro colleges would be
SUPT. VIRGIL BLOSSOM
Describes Desegregation Plan
Supreme Court
Rules Against
Private School
^iting its 1954 decision in the Brown
v. Board of Education cases, the
U. S. Supreme Court held April 29 that
segregation in private schools which are
operated by public officials is unconsti
tutional.
The ruling came on appeal from a
lower court decision in Philadelphia’s
Girard College case. The “college,” an
institution for orphan boys from 6 to
18 years of age, was alleged to have
discriminated against two Negro youths
who sought admission.
The century-old school was set up
under the will of Stephen Girard, a
philanthropist who died in 1831. Girard
provided that the school should be
operated for “poor, male white chil
dren.”
In a brief order the Supreme Court
said that “the board which operates
Girard College is an agency of the State
of Pennsylvania.” It concluded: “There
fore, even though the board was acting
as a trustee, its refusal to admit (Wil
liam Ashe) Foust and (Robert) Felder
to the college because they were
Negroes was discrimination by the
state. Such discrimination is forbidden
by the 14th Amendment.”
# # #
a “calamity.” He said overcrowding in
colleges demanded that all colleges be
kept operating at their peak capacity.
“There is still a need for support for
Negro colleges under today’s condi
tions,” Hansen said.
Hansen emphasized he is not for
segregated colleges, and pointed out that
many so-called Negro colleges aren’t
segregated. He said in some instances
Negro high school graduates weren’t
qualified to compete in interracial col
leges because of a prior lack of educa
tional opportunity. He said there had to
be an upgrading in the pre-college edu
cation of Negroes.
ADOPT RESOLUTION
The Northeastern Regional Confer
ence, Department of Classroom Teach
ers, National Education Association,
meeting in Washington
Olher District passed a resolution
Developments which called for the
working out of integra
tion problems at the state and local
levels. The organization, which repre
sents 11 northeastern states and the Dis
trict, stated: “It is our conviction that
all problems of integration in our
schools are capable of solution at the
state and local level by citizens working
together in the interest of national unity
for the common good.”
Several members argued that the res
olution was “weasel worded,” and that
it “tries to put us on both sides of the
integration fence.”
However, Northeast Regional Direc
tor Richard D. Batchelder, Chatham,
Mass., assured the assembly that the
correct interpretation was to put the or
ganization solidly behind school inte
gration “in the manner outlined by the
Supreme Court in its implementation
order” which followed the famed de
segregation order.
On the national scene: The House
Education Committee last month voted
15 to 10 to delay final action until after
Easter recess on the federal aid to school
construction bill.
Aides said the full committee un
doubtedly will approve the measure,
which in the rewrite is a compromise,
granting $2 billion to the states.
# # #
Little Rock, Ark., Gets
‘Gradual’ Plan Okayed
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
'T'he Eighth Circuit Court of
-*■ A p p e a 1 s at St. Louis an-
nounced April 29 that it had
approved the Little Rock school
board plan to integrate the city’s
public schools gradually during
the next six years.
The court upheld District Judge
John E. Miller’s dismissal at Little
Rock, Aug. 28, 1956, of a suit by
32 Negro children and their par
ents, seeking immediate integra
tion in all the city’s public schools.
Under the school board’s three-phase
plan, integration is to start in Septem
ber at the high school level. Junior
high schools would be desegregated
within two or three years later. The
third phase would desegregate grades
one to six after completion of junior
high integration. The plan sets 1963 as
the deadline to complete the process in
all grades.
The appeals court opinion was writ
ten by three northern judges who
stressed that integration of southern
schools would have to be slower than in
other parts of the country.
‘REASONABLE’ VARIES
“A reasonable amount of time to
effect complete integration in the
schools of Little Rock, Ark., may be
unreasonable in St. Louis, Mo., or
Washington, D. C.,” the opinion said.
“The schools of Little Rock have been
on a completely segregated basis since
their creation in 1870.
“That fact, plus local problems as to
facilities, teacher personnel, the crea
tion of teachable groups, the establish
ment of the proper curriculum in deseg
regated schools, and at the same time
the maintenance of standards of quality
in an education program may make the
situation at Little Rock a problem that
is entirely different from that in many
other places.”
The opinion said the controversy cen
tered on the Supreme Court’s second
and implementing desegregation deci
sion, which said the lower federal
courts would have to decide whether
the action of school authorities consti
tuted “good faith implementation of the
governing constitutional principles.”
MIGHT SHORTEN TIME
“It may well be,” the opinion said, “in
the light of future events that the pro
posed program of integration extends
over too long a period and that complete
integration of all grades could be
effected in a shorter space of time than
now anticipated by the board.”
Wiley A. Branton of Pine Bluff, Negro
attorney who was assisted by Thurgood
Marshall of New York City, said he
hadn’t decided whether to appeal to the
Supreme Court.
Branton said he was pleased by “some
aspects” of the appeals court decision.
The decision, he said, would force the
school board to stick by its announced
decision to integrate, no matter how
long it takes.
“The courts have given us a cloak of
protection against some die-hard, anti
integration groups who might still try
to delay integration,” Branton said.
PLACEMENT NOT USED
Arkansas school districts apparently
are making little use of the pupil place
ment law adopted in the November
general election—but the situation may
change when the fall term opens.
A. W. (“Arch”) Ford, state educa
tion commissioner, said he had not re
ceived any requests from school offi
cials on how to apply the law and that
he had not heard of any district using
it.
However, he pointed out that school
districts are autonomous. The state edu
cation department serves only in an ad
visory capacity, and only an individual
check of 223 districts maintaining segre
gation would show whether the law was
being used.
USAGE DEPENDS
Most school men apparently regard
the placement law as something to be
used only if necessary to resist efforts
for integration. But some districts may
begin using the law when the fall term
begins to head off possible challenges of
segregation.
Other Arkansas devlopments during
April:
1) A state education department re
port showed the average salary for
white teachers was $2,375 in 1955-56
and $2,103 for Negro teachers. (See
“Under Survey.”)
2) Little Rock School Supt. Virgil T.
Blossom reported that nothing was in
sight to prevent completion of a new
high school the key to beginning high
school desegregation—by the opening,
the fall term. (See “School Boards ^
Schoolmen.”) |
COMMITTEE TO MEET
3) Lee Lorch, white mathematics
lessor at the Negro Philander Smith Co
lege at Little Rock, who was tried l
early April at Dayton, Ohio, on eig|.
counts of contempt of Congress for r f
fusing to answer questions about allege.
Communist activities, said he though
his fight against segregation at Nash
ville, Tenn., led to his questioning by
subcommittee of the House Un-Am e >!
ican Activities Committee. (See “Mg.
cellaneous.”)
A statistical summary published bv
the state education department shows
the difference between the average sal
ary of Negro and white teachers was
less in 1955-56 than in former years.
White teachers, averaging $2,375, dres
$272 more than Negro teachers, who av
eraged $2,103. In 1954-55, the averags
pay for white teachers was $2,338 and for
Negro teachers $2,043, a difference of
$295.
Teaching positions for 1955-56 totaled
14,512 of which 11,538 were white and
2,974 were Negro. The total white en
rollment was 316,709 and the Negro en
rollment was 102,000. The total expen
diture per child in average daily attend
ance was $162. The expenditure for white
schools was $171 and for Negro schools
$134. In 1954-55, total expenditures per
child in average daily attendance was
$156, with $166 for white schools and
$125 for Negro schools.
State Education Commissioner A. V
(“Arch”) Ford told Southern School
News that “There will be a significant
reduction in the difference between
white and Negro teacher pay in the 1957-
58 school year because many superin
tendents have talked to me about setting
up for the first time a single scale for
white and Negro teachers.”
McClinton Nunn, Arkansas-born Ne
gro director of the Toledo, Ohio, Metro
politan Housing Authority, while at Lit
tie Rock for a convention of housing of
ficials, said he was surprised at the pas'
sage of four pro-segregation bills by the
Arkansas General Assembly earlier B
the year.
“I hope that can be corrected and that
the state can carry on in the progressive
manner it previously had established.
Nunn said.
But regardless of the legislation, Nunn
said, Arkansas is making more progress
than any other state, including those is
the North, in providing Negro educa -
tional facilities. He drew this conclush®
from reading northern newspaper arti
cles about Arkansas and from his talks
with Arkansas Education Department
officials.
Little Rock public schools will befP®
desegregation at the high school level
schedule in September, School SUP 1
Virgil T. Blossom predicted. ^
Blossom gave this report to SoUT®^
School News: v }
A new high school (Little R**
third) is nearing completion and notn
is in sight to prevent its opening in &
tember. , ^
When the district began making P ^,
in 1954 for integration, completion 0
third high school was listed as the
the process at the high school level-
der the integration plan, mixed el
will be started at the junior high
an unspecified time which will
primarily upon how things go 111
high schools.
Little Rock now has two high sd'
—Central High for whites and n 0
Mann for Negroes. tra l
Latest figures show the new C® ^
High attendance area has 1,712 ' v r£j
and 200 Negroes. The Horace Mann »
has 328 whites and 607 Negroes-
new high school attendance area
has
r# .
b et°f
whites and 4 Negroes.
Under the district’s transfer
which was in effect several years ° c "^e
integration became a question in ^
courts, pupils are allowed to tra n
(Continued On Next Pag e )