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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 )