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PAGE 6—FEBRUARY 1958—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
D. C. Study Shows Low Score in Reading Readiness
WASHINGTON, D.C.
lmost 50 per cent of Washing
ton’s elementary school chil
dren fall into the “low normal” or
“poor risk” groups in reading
readiness despite the fact the ma
jority of them are average or
above in intelligence.
This was disclosed Jan. 22 with
the release of an exhaustive ele
mentary school study which un
derscored the educational task
confronting District school offi
cials. It produced recommenda
tions for a strengthened school
program and if it is not successful
“other and more drastic means of
improvement.”
“Any school system which fails to give
its students the ability to read with
facility should not be tolerated by the
community,” said School Board Presi
dent Walter N. Tobriner.
PROGRESS CITED
Another report on the junior and
senior high level recorded an “unusual
degree of progress” for students in the
basic or slow-learning level of the
District’s four-track system.
Nationally, President Eisenhower sent
his four-year billion-dollar federal
school aid proposals to Congress. The
administration had hoped to avoid con
troversy by centering control of the
grant program in state and local gov
ernments. But the proposals immedi
ately ran into trouble. Rep. Adam
Clayton Powell Jr. (D-N.Y.) said he
would seek to attach his anti-segrega
tion rider. Prominent southern Demo
crats denounced it for leading to fed
eral control. Others in both the South
and North said it didn’t go far enough.
The administration also asked Con
gress for more than $1 million to carry
out provisions of the new civil rights
law. To date the Civil Rights Commis
sion has virtually nothing on which to
spend money. Its first three choices for
the top job of staff director turned
down the post.
WILKINS HEARD
At its 49th annual report meeting in
New York Jan. 6 the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People heard Executive Secretary Roy
Wilkins decry appeals for a slow-down
in racial integration.
“We have heard the cries for ‘cooling-
off,’ for ‘slowing down’ and ‘taking it
easy’ and similar slogans,” Wilkins told
150 NAACP members. “Our reply is
that we are already going slowly, ac
cording to law and order. Ninety-three
years have passed since emancipation.
... We think the time is long overdue
for us and our children to enjoy these
rights.”
In a report from NAACP General
Counsel Robert L. Carter, the organ
ization was urged to “push ahead” with
“renewed fervor” for school desegre
gation. He said the NAACP must also
press its drive to increase Negro vot
ing.
NAACP membership, the group was
told, had declined from 350,000 in 1956
to 302,000 in 1957 under “stepped-up
legal attacks on southern units.” Wil
kins said that while the association had
experienced “the greatest financial year
in its history,” it had acquired an over
all deficit of $52,734—resulting from the
cost of court actions in the South. He
reported also that the total 1957 income
into the general operating fund was
$716,174 as against $682,906 in 1956.
NEW BILLS SEEN
Although most observers see little
chance for any considerable new leg
islation outside the defense-security
field, new civil rights bills will be in
troduced.
Meanwhile, Sen. Richard B. Russell
(D-Ga.) asked the Post Office to in
vestigate use of his franked envelopes
by the Seaboard White Citizens Coun
cil to mail out literature blaming inte
gration on a “Jewish-Communist con
spiracy.” The Post Office also is investi
gating the legality of stamps which
bear the words “Remember Little Rock”
and which are being distributed
throughout the South by the white
Citizens Council.
DISTRICT SCHOOLS
The comprehensive report on the
reading problem in Washington elemen
tary schools caused the board of edu
cation to shelve a proposal to set up
remedial reading classes after school
hours. Reason for this was the report
identified a multitude of serious needs.
The reading readiness tests adminis
tered last fall showed wide divergences
between schools and neighborhoods. The
tests were given to 12,594 first graders
in 124 local elementary schools. Chil
dren falling into the “low normal” or
“poor risk” groups numbered 49.7 per
cent of the total enrollment.
But School A had 61 first graders in
the “superior,” “high normal” and
“average” categories; only eight in the
“low normal” and “poor risk” range.
School B had six students in the high
er groups and 87 in the lower. No
schools were identified by name in the
survey which was prepared by the Dis
trict’s Office of Elementary Education.
POINT TO ‘MOBILITY’
One of the “chief educational prob
lems” emphasized in the report is the
“mobility” of Washington school chil
dren. Studies in other cities have shown
that children who stay in the same
school achieve at a higher rate than do
those constantly on the move. But in
Washington the frequency with which
children transfer from school to school
is 45.2 per cent, a “very high” figure
according to the report.
Washington first graders had a medi
an score of 65 in the reading readiness
exam compared to a national median of
71. It was significant that local young
sters who had attended kindergarten
achieved a median score of 68, while
those who had not scored a 54 median.
“The test results reveal,” the report
stated, “that children with kindergarten
experience show a greater readiness for
learning.”
But in many schools where reading
readiness was lowest there were long
waiting lists for admission to kinder
garten. More than 300 children are now
on waiting lists at 20 of these schools.
FACILITIES LACKING
Similarly there are waiting lists for
clinical examinations and special place
ments. Principals requested clinical
examinations for 3,276 children during
the 1956-57 school year but only 1,227
were given because of lack of facilities.
More than 230 children who have been
tested and recommended for placement
in special classes are still in regular
classes because of lack of space. In ad
dition the survey noted “a great many
children who present serious emotional
and behavior problems for whom there
is little help and no placement.”
The survey further identified “poor
teaching” as a cause of many of the
children’s difficulties. It noted how edu
cation is disrupted by the numerous
changes in teaching personnel — 22
buildings have over 40 per cent of the
faculty on temporary status.
The IQ scores, measured in the third
grade, showed an average of between
90 and 110 in 87 schools, an average
of between 80 and 90 in 23 schools and
over 110 in three schools.
COACHING NOT DESIRED
Advising against coaching after school
hours because the total educational
program should be strengthened, the
report recommended expanded kinder
garten facilities, in-service courses for
teachers and provision of elementary
counselors and assistant principals.
School Board President Tobriner
called for frequent testing of school
children in the hope that Washington
ultimately will come abreast of and
exceed national averages. If not, he said
other means of improvement must be
tried.
In reporting progress under Washing
ton’s four-track system in the second
ary schools, Asst. School Supt. Carl F.
Hansen said achievement tests show
that some District junior and senior
high school pupils are doing better than
average in learning science and English
expression but are lagging in mathe
matics. The tests show:
Twelfth grade—Median scores in na
tural sciences and correctness of ex
pression above average; basic social
concepts and quantitative thinking be
low average.
Tenth grade—In natural sciences, six
of 10 high schools scored from four to
37 points above the national norm.
Ninth grade—Compared with 1956 test
results, the 1957 city medians are two
months higher in word meaning and
arithmetic reasoning but paragraph
meaning is two months lower and
arithmetic computation one month be
hind.
Eighth grade—Local scores compared
to national norms fall behind one year
and two months in paragraph meaning,
seven months in word meaning, one
year and one month in arithmetic rea
soning and one year and three months
in arithmetic computation. However,
these results show consistent improve
ment over a year ago.
The District Board of Education has
voted $1,000 as its share of a study of
unwed motherhood among Washington
teenagers. The survey is currently
underway and will pull together city-
wide statistics on the extent of the
problem so that remedial steps can be
recommended. It was prompted by last
year’s fragmentary study of Washing
ton’s “junior mothers” by Dr. John R.
Pate. The Pate study mainly concen
trated on the problem in southwest
Washington.
Partly as a result of the Pate study
the Commissioners Youth Council has
extended its program of specialized
counseling and psychiatric services to
the Jefferson Junior High School in
southwest Washington. In addition to
working with unwed mothers, the proj -
ect also seeks to help newly arrived
families from the South.
President Eisenhower’s educational
aid program emphasizes grants for
strengthening mathematics and science
instruction and eliminates general aid
for school construction. In his message,
the President described his program as
an “emergency stimulant” which must
“be later carried on by those who must
continue to carry the responsibility—
the local school districts, universities
and industry.”
But Sen. Harry F. Byrd (D-Va.) im
mediately declared that “once started
it will grow and grow and open up a
Pandora’s box of spending and even
tually lead to federal control.” The
same fear was expressed by Rep.
George H. Mahon (D-Tex.), a key
member of the House Appropriations
Committee.
In attacking the proposals for not go
ing far enough, Alabama Democrats
Sen. Lister Hill and Rep. Carl Elliott
said they would sponsor a “defense
education” program four times larger
than the one planned by the adminis
tration. They would provide 40,000 an
nual scholarships of some $1,000 each,
mainly for scientific, engineering and
mathematics training.
PLAN DESCRIBED
The President’s plan in the first year
would provide 10,000 federal scholar
ships with preference given to students
with good high school preparation in
science and mathematics. Graduate fel
lowships would go to 1,000 students the
first year. There also would be match
ing grants to states for aptitude testing
and counseling of students, and grants
to strengthen state departments of edu
cation and local school systems.
To finance it over a four-year period,
it is estimated the federal government
would put up about $1 billion and the
states would put up “between $550 mil
lion and $600 million.”
Of the funds sought to administer the
new civil rights law, $750,000 would go
to the Civil Rights Commission which is
charged with investigating alleged vio
lations of voting rights and assessing
the need for more civil rights legisla
tion. The budget also includes $342,000
for the Justice Department’s new civil
rights functions which include seeking
court injunctions to prevent or stop
violation of voting rights because of
race.
FUNDS ADVANCED
To get the Civil Rights Commission
started, however, the President ad
vanced it $200,000 from his emergency
fund. At the commission’s first meeting,
the three southern and three northern
members agreed on choices for the staff
director.
But subsequently Chairman John A.
Hannah told reporters “the President
was unable to interest” any of the top
three in taking the job. Hannah said the
commission cannot make any real start
on its assignment until it gets a staff
and it doesn’t want to hire any staff
members until the director is selected.
This means further delay in the work
of the commission which was given a
life of two years and used up four
months in the selection of its own mem
bers. Had the director, like commission
members, been appointed before Con
gress reconvened he could have been
given a recess appointment and gone to
work immediately. But now he cannot
get on the payroll until the Senate ap
proves him.
Both commission members and the
staff director’s nomination must clear
the Judiciary Committee headed by
Sen. James O. Eastland (D-Miss.).
Eastland said he will act “very prompt
ly” to schedule hearings. The nomina
tion of Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers
went through his committee with no
trouble.
Despite Rogers’ asking for a “cooling
off” period on civil rights legislation,
the Little Rock, Ark., integration inci
dent has upset the assumption there
would be no push for further civil
rights legislation this year.
Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R-N.Y.) an
nounced he will sponsor a bill reinstat
ing Part Three of the original civil
rights bill, thereby allowing the Justice
Department to seek injunctions in all
civil rights cases including those con
cerned with school desegregation.
MORSE HAS BILL
Sen. Wayne Morse (D-Ore.) also
said he will introduce a new civil rights
bill and Sen. Paul Douglas (D-Ill.) an
nounced he would introduce one under
bipartisan sponsorship. Douglas sug
gested that in lieu of placing emphasis
on penalties for civil rights violations,
the new bill may provide some addi
tional aids and inducements to full com
pliance with the 14th Amendment in
all parts of the country.
Little Rock already has produced two
bills diametrically opposed to each
other. Rep. Kenneth B. Keating of New
York, ranking Republican on the House
Judiciary Committee, filed a bill to pre
vent a state governor from using the
National Guard to obstruct enforcement
of a federal court order. Rep. Arthur
Winstead (D-Miss.) filed a bill to pre
vent the President from using the Na
tional Guard or regular armed forces to
enforce a federal court order.
Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) in
troduced a resolution to establish a
commission to study the powers of the
federal and state governments under
the Constitution and also to study prop
er boundaries of the legislative, execu
tive and judicial branches of the
federal government. He declared there
is a “dangerous trend in motion” be
cause of the “growing imbalance” with
in the structure of the federal govern
ment brought about by the “rash” of
court decisions.
AWARD TO CONGRESS
Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation
League of B’nai B’rith will award its
America’s Democratic Legacy Award to
Congress for passing the first civil rights
bill since Reconstruction.
In particular, the league emphasized
the long debate was free from “Negro
baiting and racial slanders which in the
past had pockmarked civil rights de
bates.” For this the league credited
Democratic leaders in both houses and
the floor leaders of the southern bloc,
Rep. Howard W. Smith (D-Va.) and
Sen. Russell (D.-Ga.).
Sen. Russell expressed outrage at the
use of his envelopes by the Seaboard
White Citizens Council, declaring it
was done without his knowledge or
authority. He asked the Post Office “to
take appropriate action.”
Each envelope had a three-cent stamp
over Russell’s frank and had printed on
Mississippi
(Continued From Page 5)
stated that “as mother of four daugh
ters, now living in the South, Mrs.
McCorkle feels that southern ladies
have a definite contribution to make in
our struggle for states’ rights and racial
integrity. She feels that the ladies can
be very effective in your membership
drive and in your educational program.”
OTHER NEW OFFICERS
In addition to Secretary Patterson,
other officers elected for 1958 by the
Association of Citizens Councils of Mis
sissippi, are Ellett Lawrence, printing
and office supply company executive of
Greenwood, finance chairman; Bob
Parish, president of the Bank of Green
wood, treasurer; and W. J. Simmons of
Jackson, administrator and editor of the
monthly Councils’ publication.
The Regional Council of Negro Lead
ership in Mississippi plans to aid Ne
groes who are denied permission to
register to vote. It has programmed a
drive to gain registration of 100,000 Ne
groes in the state.
Aaron Henry, druggist of Clarksdale
and executive secretary of the council,
said preliminary plans to aid Negroes
were outlined at a Jan. 3 meeting in the
all-Negro delta town of Mound Bayou.
“There is a strong possibility that in
its face: “United States Senate, ‘A
Tragedy of Errors,’ Remarks of Hon.
Richard B. Russell of Georgia.”
In the envelope were a reprint of an
address by W. E. Michael, Sweetwater,
Tenn. lawyer in the Clinton, Tenn.
school integration cases; a mimeo
graphed sheet soliciting contributions
to the “John Kasper legal attack fund”
and a folder entitled “The Coming Red
Dictatorship.” The latter includes a
statement that Kasper was jailed be
cause he “exposed the Jewish-Commu
nist conspiracy behind racial integra
tion.”
Russell said the envelopes originally
were used by the Committee for Con
stitutional Government in New York to
mail out reprints of the Michael article
which Russell has inserted in the Con
gressional Record. Russell said he had
been told 2,500 to 3,000 of the envelopes
had been sold by the Committee to a
Washington group with the under
standing they would be used solely to
mail out the reprints. The Committee
for Constitutional Government said it
had “nothing whatever to do” with in
clusion of the anti-Semitic material.
The “Remember Little Rock” stamps
under investigation by the Post Office
show soldiers with bayonets pointed at
the backs of teenagers. Post Office offi
cials have not yet commented on their
legality but noted federal law forbids
putting anything on the outside of a
mail wrapper intended to reflect in
juriously on the character or reputa
tion of anyone. Atty. Gen. Eugene Cook
of Georg'a reportedly announced that
all his official mail was carrying the
stamps.
The NAACP’s fight to continue to
work in the South was taken to the
Supreme Court. On Jan. 16, the court
was asked to declare that an Alabama
court violated constitutional rights in
fining the NAACP $100,000 for refus
ing to disclose a list of its members.
ARGUMENTS HEARD
During the arguments Ju tice Felix
Frankfurter said from the bench that
the only issue before the court is the
validity of Alabama’s contempt order.
A broader issue, which may require an
other suit, is the validity of recent laws
and state court actions aimed at the
NAACP in the South.
The NAACP cannot operate in Ala
bama until a restraining order is dis
solved. That order was issued after the
NAACP failed to register under the
state corporation laws. The NAACP
cannot get a hearing on the order until
it purses itself of contemnt. It can
purge itself of contempt only by dis
closing its membership, which it re
fuses to do.
NAACP lawyers contended that Ala
bama’s purpose was not to make it
comply with registration laws but to
oust NAACP from the state. Edmon L.
Rinehart, assistant attorney general of
Alabama, agreed that Alabama wanted
the NAACP ousted but only because of
its long history of ignoring the corpora
tion law.
“Has Alabama ever done this [oust
ing a corporation] before?” asked Jus
tice Hugo L. Black, a native of Ala
bama.
“We never had a case like this be
fore,” Rinehart answered.
Rinehart’s argument was based ma ; n-
ly on the grounds the NAACP had not
properly appealed its conviction to the
state supreme court. The NAACP ar
gued that the contempt order was un
constitutional because the heavy fine
violates due process. # # #
the near future a request will be made
to sheriffs and circuit clerks in counties
where we are having difficulties,” he
said. “We would make written requests
to permit Negroes to register and vote,
and if unheeded, the council plans to
appeal to the federal Civil Rights Com
mission.”
HEADS VOTER LEAGUE
Albert Powell of Jackson, commander
of the American Legion Negro P 05 ^
whose charter was recently revoked by
the state executive committee because
of asserted activities in the NAACP,
has been elected president of the State
Progressive Voters League, composed
of Negroes. The league is cooperating
with the regional council in its eff° rt
to increase Negro registration for vot
ing.
Powell has announced he will app ea ^
the post’s revocation to the national or
ganization.
The Rev. J. F. Redmond of Greenville
who addressed the voters league’s stat e
convention in Jackson in January, aS '
serted that “men of both races in tb e
state must sit down and work out prob
lems together.”
He urged Negroes to pay their P°
tax, go to the polls and vote, stating
that “the day will come when the rna |J
who gets office will talk of what he
do for the Negro.” # ^