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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1958—PAGE 7
St. Louis Launches 3-Track Program
To Meet Achievement Level Needs
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
rpHE PROBLEM OF TAKING Care of
A children who have different
achievement levels and needs in
the same school system is being
attacked by the St. Louis Board
of Education this January with
the inauguration of an experi
mental three-track program in
the city’s nine general and two
vocational high schools. Students
are to be divided into three
groups — superior, average, and
low achieving.
Since studies for the three-track pro
gram began in 1950, long before the
city’s high schools were desegregated
in January 1955, school officials point
i out that the plan did not come into
being because of integration. Privately,
they expect the plan to be of value in
coping with difficulties caused by the
< inferior background and elementary
education of some Negro students.
/
Background for the experimental
| three-track program, Director of Sec
ondary Education Robert L. Baker said,
( was a series of evaluation studies that
showed the existing system was neg
lecting the upper 12 to 15 per cent of
students and also neglecting the needs
of the lower group. The emphasis in
the new plan is as much toward cor
recting the deficiencies of the lower
group as toward enriching the kind of
education received by the good stu
dents.
The students immediately affected by
the new plan will be the 2,700 children
entering high school in January. These
either have been or are being divided
into four categories by means of care
fully worked out criteria based on
achievement rather than on I.Q. There
( are four categories, rather than three,
because the upper track includes two
levels, the major learners—advanced
standing, and the major learners.
The major learners—advanced stand
ing will be the mid-term product of a
program for gifted children that was
started in the sixth grade level three
years ago. There are nearly 800 chil
dren in the program now. These chil
dren are 130 I.Q. or above, and have
been trained in nine elementary school
centers. They have had two years of
conversational French, and in the
eighth grade they have been taking
ninth grade French. They have had
, algebra, using high school texts. Some
are already studying chemistry.
When they enter high school in
January, the major learners—advanced
standing will be concentrated in three
high schools: Beaumont, Southwest
and Cleveland. They will be kept in
high school four calendar years and
must earn a minimum of 42 credits, in
cluding four years of English, three
years of social studies, two years of
mathematics, two years of science, and
two years of language. Telescoping of
courses, such as putting three terms
of geometry into two, will be tried.
Here is a first-term course pattern
for a major learning—advanced stand
ing high school freshman: English,
health, and geometry, plus two electives
of which one must be chosen from
these three: biology, advanced lan
guage, or beginning language.
The major learners, lower part of
the upper track, are being selected as
the semester ends; and they, together
with the upper part, are expected to
comprise about 12 per cent of the en
tering high school class. The major
learners have to be about a half-year
ahead of the nationwide ninth grade
level, and reading scores are of prime
importance. These children will be dis
tributed throughout the high schools,
as will the average and low achieving
groups.
MAJOR LEARNERS PATTERN
Major learning students must earn
38 credits in the four-year high school
program. Course pattern for the first
term includes three required subjects,
English, health and algebra, and two
electives, one of which must be either
language or biology.
Students in the middle or average
group are expected to be about 55 per
cent of the number entering high school
in January. They must earn 34 credits
and can choose one of four patterns of
study—college preparatory or three
types of practical arts: industrial home
economics and business education. The
college preparatory pattern of study
requires English, civics and algebra in
the first term, with 1 or 1% electives.
The college course requires eight
credits as against six for the other
courses.
Track III, the low achieving group,
will include about 33 per cent of the
January class. Graduates will receive
a regular high school diploma. The cur
riculum will be based on the Missouri
state requirement of 16 units of high
school credit in addition to physical
education. Efforts will be made to
remedy deficiencies in English and
arithmetic. These children will receive
courses in general science and general
mathematics. They will follow standard
levels in the English program in the
ninth year and will remain in this pro
gram until they complete Level D (7.4)
in both composition and reading, or
until they have been in high school four
semesters. After that, they will be as
signed to the appropriate English levels
program.
Track III students, it is planned, will
get priority in scheduling for driver
education and training because the
ability to drive a car has important
vocational application.
The St. Louis public school system
no longer keeps records according to
race. However, it is estimated that the
white-Negro ratio in the major learn
ers—advanced standing group is about
five to one in favor of the white, the
ratio among major learners is three or
four to one on the white side. For
Track II the ratio may approximate
the 60-40 white-Negro ratio that pre
vails in the St. Louis school population,
and for Track III the Negro percentage
is thought to be higher because most
of these students come from areas of
economic deprivation.
It will be four years, of course, be
fore the three-track program is opera
tive throughout the St. Louis public
high schools. The program has been
carefully prepared under board of
education direction, and emphasis has
been placed on the fact that the plan
is experimental, as well as on the fact
that a child’s placement is based on
“achievement,” with full provision for
switching to a different track if the
individual situation warrants.
ENGLISH IS KEY
Asked what was meant by achieve
ment, a school official said: “What a
child has done in being able to read,
write, speak and take care of himself
in computation.” He added that chil
dren who did well in reading were
usually high in science and social
studies too. English is the great prob
lem, and for the last three years the
St. Louis system has had an English
levels program in the third through the
ninth grades. Composition, spelling and
grammar are stressed.
One advantage of the new plan is
thought to be that it will no longer be
possible for a student to wander
through the high school curriculum,
selecting at random from a smorgas
bord of electives, only to find out too
late that his credits do not measure up
to college entrance requirements.
Henceforth students and parents should
be aware of what is going on. The in
tention, moreover, is to have students
in all three tracks at all schools. Often
they will be taking the same course in
the same class room. Effort will be
made to avoid permitting a stigma to
be attached to membership in a lower
achievement group.
“We haven’t even looked at I.Q.’s,
and we’re not going to look at them,”
a school official said.
DIPLOMAS FOR ALL
There is a high school diploma at
the end of all three tracks under the
St. Louis plan, but at three high
schools — Roosevelt, Beaumont and
Vashon—the Board of Education main
tains a “terminal education program”
for children who have reached age 16
and have not been able to get an
eighth grade diploma. This was started
two years ago and now involves more
than 75 children who attend high
school, but not for credit.
The “terminal education” group gets
a stiff dose of English, arithmetic, and
civics. The children are taught in
small classes—not more than 20 to a
class—under supervision of specially
trained teachers. They may take part
in athletics and are eligible for the B
teams. They usually are in high school
for two years, up to age 18. Federal and
state authorities help in vocational
training and guidance.
It would be possible to expand the
terminal education program to an en
rollment of several hundred if qualified
teachers could be found, school officials
say. The program is said to have
worked very well.
50 STUDENTS PROTEST
On Dec. 18 approximately 50 white
students walked out or refused to enter
Central High School, a St. Louis public
school at North Garrison and Natural
Bridge avenues, in a minor incident
that arose out of a dispute the previous
day between a white sophomore girl
and a Negro freshman girl.
The school principal, A. B. Jordan,
told reporters the dispute and subse
quent altercation concerned ownership
of a sweater.
Both girls were sent home. Jordan
visited the white girl’s mother that
afternoon and told her to keep her
daughter away from school while offi
cials decided what action to take. The
Negro girl was told to bring her father
with her to school the next day (Dec.
18) to confer with the principal. In
stead the girl brought a note from her
father saying he could not come at
that time, and she also brought the
sweater, which she turned over to the
principal.
‘BRING FATHER’
The Negro girl was sent home and
told not to return until she could bring
her father with her.
Those students who remained out
side the school congregated across the
street, jeering and calling to fellow
students inside the building. There was
no disturbance inside the school, and
classes went on as usual. Six police
cars were dispatched to the scene. A
15-year-old white girl who took part
in the demonstration was arrested and
later was released to her parents.
Jordan, talking to students outside
the school, learned that they had heard
the Negro girl had been permitted to
return to school and that the white girl
would be compelled to transfer to an
other school. He explained that this
was not true. Student leaders and
members of the football team also
talked to the group outside, urging
them to return to classes.
Virtually all had returned to classes
by the end of the day and the next day
things were reported back to normal.
Central High School has an enrollment
of 1,300, of which about 10 per cent are
Negroes. Some of the students involved
Texas
(Continued From Page 6)
when it comes to spending money.
Tnese people, u.awitfirgly or not, do
tiore to undermine the cause of local
> self -government than the most vocal
advocates of federal power.
One thing is certain—nothing pleases
'' e advocates of cer.tialized govem-
, ®ient as much as the failure of state
and local governments to live up to
‘aeir responsibilities. Such failure
strengthens their contention that the
®deral government is the only gov-
er nment that can do a job properly.”
Jim Stickter of Corpus Christi, a
Member of the Republican state com-
, rn 'ttee, criticized the so-called “NAACP”
registration bill. (H.B. 5. See “Legisla
te Action.”) Stickter, a white man,
^>d any NAACP list registered un-
J; T the law can include his name—
he will join the organization in
^rdest against Texas’ new law.
The GOP official said he planned to
°' n any other group “slated for harass
ment.”
dr*
s - . enough uninvolved Americans as-
- ?r, *n protection of minority rights, we
‘ never have an American Hitler,”
k commented.
... e San Antonio Express and News
torially blasted the legislature for
jJ^rng the registration act. It called
' \ Pr°-segreg?tion legislative session
cynical farce dedicated to dema-
g °ae politics.”
^CHERS DOWN RESOLUTION
v oL^? aS ® tate Teachers Association
Wo i ^ own a surprise resolution which
ior ^ h av e criticized the legislature
. Pro-segregation acts. Miss Kather-
Wo i upp °f Falfurrias, South Texas,
have had the teachers “deplore
^ Sage °f the anti-troops bill and the
Propriation to help local districts de
fend state laws.
“We believe these measures to be
damaging to the public schools of
Texas,” she said.
Dr. H. M. Landrum, superintendent
at Spring Branch, near Houston, moved
to table the resolution, saying “it
wouldn’t be right to come along and
criticize the legislature for something
it has already done.” His motion car
ried, with a scattering of opposition.
The Texas Poll, a private opinion
research agency, reported that Presi
dent Eisenhower’s popularity had
dropped sharply since the Little Rock
integration dispute.
To the question, “In general, do you
approve or disapprove the way Eisen
hower is handling his job as Presi
dent?”, 78 per cent of the Texans
interviewed replied “approve” in No
vember 1956.
One year later, only 48 per cent ex
pressed approval. In November 1956,
when President Eisenhower was re
elected, only 15 per cent of those inter
viewed said they “disapprove” of his
action. In November 1957, outright dis
approval was voiced by 40 per cent.
3 OF 4 DISAPPROVE TROOPS
Three out of four persons repiled
that they did not believe it was neces
sary for the President to send troops
to Little Rock. Even among Texans who
said they still approve of the Eisen
hower administration, only 48 per cent
said they believe it was necessary to
send troops.
The Hale-Aikin committee, set up by
the Texas legislature to study the pub
lic schools’ needs, will meet Jan. 18.
Composed of legislators and educators,
the group will look into building needs,
curriculum, teaching requirements and
salaries, and financing. It will make
recommendations to the legislature
which will meet in January 1959.
The Southern Association of Colleges
and Secondary Schools asserted that
directors of Texas Technological Col
lege at Lubbock “acted in haste” and
“violated the spirit of standards” in
refusing to continue the employment of
three faculty members. (See SSN, Au
gust and September 1957.)
The statement was released by Leo
Chamberlain, outgoing president of the
association’s commission on colleges, at
the annual meeting in Richmond, Va.
The views and activity of the three
faculty members on racial and political
questions was said to be a factor in
the directors’ action.
TENURE PLAN APPROVED
Jim Lindsey of Midland, vice chair
man of the board, said the “matter has
been closed.”
“I was especially pleased with the
association’s approval of our new plans
for faculty tenure and I am sure that
under the new tenure plan Texas Tech
will grow in academic stature,” Lind
sey commented.
The city of Houston elected Lewis
Cutrer as mayor over the incumbent
Oscar Holcombe in an election where
Cutrer was charged with offering spe
cial inducements to Negroes.
Cutrer, a Houston city councilman,
received 63 per cent of the total vote.
Holcombe has for years been one of
Houston’s strongest political figures.
Analyzing the election returns, The
Houston Post said that 26 predomin
antly Negro precincts gave Cutrer 94.7
per cent of their vote. The winning
candidate received 12,684 of the 13,394
votes cast in these precincts.
NEGRO TURNOUT LARGER
Turnout in the largely-Negro pre
cincts averaged 41 per cent of the eligi
ble voters, or 2 per cent higher than for
the city as a whole. Cutrer’s majority
totaled more than 26,000 votes.
During the campaign Cutrer denied
Mayor Holcombe’s charge that Cutrer
planned to integrate the city’s swim
ming pools and to install Negroes in
some city jobs now held by whites.
Asked if he thought the racial issue
influenced the outcome of the election,
Holcombe declared:
“I just didn’t get enough votes.”
A reporter for The Houston Post,
John Pate, was manhandled and ejected
from a meeting of the Citizens Council
of America. An unidentified man
grabbed him, Pate said, as Chairman
Robert W. Milner, an oilman leader of
segregation forces in Texas, attempted
to take away literature which the re
porter had picked up at the meeting.
Milner warned Pate that “The Post
had better lay off the Citizens Coun
cil” and asserted that the newspaper
“doesn’t stand up for patriotic organi
zations.”
The chairman said that reporters will
be barred from future meetings of the
Citizens Council in Houston.
Pate, 23, is working toward a master’s
degree in political science at the Uni
versity of Houston. # # #
in the disturbance were said to have
been subjects of disciplinary action be
cause of truancy in the past.
The National Council of Churches,
meeting in St. Louis the week of Dec.
1, reaffirmed its stand that “racial seg
regation, both in the churches and in
society, is a violation of the gospel of
love and human brotherhood.” The
council represents 34 Protestant, Ortho
dox, and Catholic denominations, with
38,000,000 members.
Christians in their local communities
were urged by the church council to
take on the task of eliminating racial
segregation in schools and elsewhere.
The council expressed hope that fed
eral troops would not have to be used
again.
New president of the council, the
largest and most representative Chris
tian body in the nation, is the Rev.
Edwin T. Dahlberg, pastor of Delmar
Baptist Church in St. Louis, affiliated
with both the American (Northern)
and the Southern Baptists. In his ad
dress to the general assembly here, Dr.
Dahlberg took occasion to say:
ST. LOUIS PROGRAM LAUDED
“In spite of the fact that we have not
accomplished in St. Louis all that we
would like, we are proud of what has
been accomplished in the integration of
the public schools. This is due in large
measure to our superintendent of
schools, Dr. Hickey, who with his col
leagues made careful preparation for
this step long before the Supreme
Court decision. Educators were brought
in from school systems already inte
grated, to lecture on their procedures.
“Ministers, policemen, teachers, presi
dents of the student bodies, and cap
tains of athletic teams were brought
into democratic conference, and briefed
on what to look for. There was then a
gradual, step-by-step approach, begin
ning on the college level and going on
into the high schools and elementary
schools. The result is that we had a
minimum of difficulty, although every
thing is not yet as ideal as we would
like it to be.”
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Negro
pastor who led the Montgomery (Ala.)
bus boycott, shared an assembly plat
form with the Rev. Liston Pope, dean
of Yale Divinity School. Both called for
stronger action by churches in elim
inating racial segregation. Both said
progress was being made toward that
end.
# # #
Louisiana
(Continued From Page 5)
college” could open to its first fresh
man class in 1958. NAACP officials said
Negroes will attempt to enroll at the
school when it opens. LSU is under
court desegregation orders at all lev
els, but presently only the graduate
school has Negro students.
Louisiana’s sports segregation law
(barring participation of Negroes and
whites in the same contest) was behind
Colorado State College’s decision to
cancel three Christmas holiday basket
ball games in the state.
The CSC team has one Negro player,
Ollie Bell of Colorado Springs. Gov.
Steve McNichols of Colorado ordered
the college president “to send the whole
team or we don’t play.” The college’s
board of athletic control then can
celled the Louisiana trip. Colorado
State was scheduled to play Tulane
University at New Orleans, McNeese
College at Lake Charles, and Centenary
College at Shreveport. McNeese is de
segregated, but it has no Negroes on its
athletic teams.
# # #
District of Columbia
(Continued From Page 4)
predominantly segregated city.”
The Metropolitan Police Boys Club
may continue to operate segregated
branches because it is a private or
ganization, District Court Judge Bur-
nita S. Matthews ruled on Nov. 27.
Judge Matthews held the club is pri
vately controlled and financed even
though nine policemen work fulltime
for the club and most police officers on
government time are permitted to col
lect funds for it.
In reaching her decision, Judge Mat
thews relied, in part, on an old case in
volving Howard University. At that
time, it was decided that the primarily
Negro university is a privately con
trolled institution even though the fed
eral government contributes heavily to
its support. # # #