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PAGE 8—MARCH, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
MARYLAND
Anne Arundel County Accelerates Grade-a-Year Plan
A n accelerated conclusion of
its desegregation program
has been voted by the Anne
Arundel County Board of Educa
tion in a move that opens both
the 11th and 12th grades of white
school to Negro transfers next
fall. In recent years, the Anne
Arundel board has proceeded at
a grade-a-year pace.
The speedup was recommended by
the county school superintendent, Dr.
David S. Jenkins, who advised the
move, in part, because it would assure
continuation of federal funds for the
county, heavily impacted with govern
ment installations. Dr. Jenkins told the
board that probably no more than a
dozen students would be involved if
the 12th grade was desegregated along
with the 11th, since few would be
likely to change high schools in the
last year before graduation.
With approximately 7,000 Negroes in
a countywide enrollment of 47,500,
Anne Arundel desegregated its first
three grades in the fall of 1956, the
fourth grade in 1957, the fifth and sixth
grades in 1958, and since then has ad
vanced desegregation a grade at a time
in the secondary schools. As of last
fall, 1,524 Negroes were enrolled in
predominantly white schools and an ad
ditional 60 have been shifted since that
time.
In an interview for Southern School
News, Mrs. John H. Norris, president
of the Anne Arundel Board of Educa
tion, said, “As an impacted area we
receive help from Federal school aid
and that was our reason for including
the 12th grade. From the outset, we
have wanted to desegregate as rapidly
as we could, and it became wise at this
time to finish it up.”
Maryland Highlights
Desegregation of the last two
grades at one step will bring Anne
Arundel County’s desegregation pro
gram to its conclusion a year ahead
of time.
White and Negro children of pre
school age have been enrolled at two
Baltimore public school centers in an
experimental program intended to
overcome cultural disadvantages be
fore they enter the regular curricu
lum.
Enrollment data for the current
school year shows that close to 59
per cent of Baltimore’s Negro enroll
ment is in 112 schools having pupils
of both races.
Negro school in Annapolis after Christ
mas, Mrs. Norris said, “That was an
overcrowded, obsolete school and we
had promised the parents to correct the
situation. It would not have been wise
to rebuild on the site, so we enlarged
a nearby white school and moved the
children there.”
As for new school construction, Mrs.
Norris said, “We hope we are building
new schools in the areas where they
are needed without regard of race.”
Negro Preference
Nearing the end of six years on the
school board, Mrs. Norris said, “So far
we have had very little difficulty with
the desegregation program. We are
quite well pleased. We can say that in
Anne Arundel we have more than
token desegregation.
“With grades one to 12 open next
fall, and with the junior college already
operating on a desegregated basis, our
transition program is completed. From
now on, it is up to individuals to do
as they please. Each year more Negro
children enter the nearest schools, and
I anticipate more integration in the
years ahead.”
Asked whether the county would try
gradually to close out Negro schools,
Mrs., Norris replied: “Normally we
won’t close any schools; we need them
too badly. We wouldn’t close a school
to help or hinder integration.” Re
minded that the county had closed a
Desegregation, Baltimore Schools
(Net enrollment, Oct. ’62)
Race
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
Elementary
White ..
74
42
37
31
31
32
34
33
28
26
Negro ..
50
51
46
44
43
42
45
45
44
40
Both ...
0
38
48
59
59
66
65
65
74
82
Total .
124
131
131
134
133
140
144
143
146
148
Secondary-
Vocational
White ..
20
11
4
3
2
2
2
3
1
o
Negro ..
9
10
11
9
12
10
11
13
11
11
Both ...
1
11
17
21
22
24
24
23
28
30
Total .
30
32
32
33
36
36
37
39
40
41
Total
White ..
94
53
41
34
33
34
36
36
29
26
Negro ..
59
61
57
53
55
52
56
58
55
51
Both ...
1
49
65
80
81
90
89
88
102
112
Total .
154
163
163
167
169
176
181
182
186
189
Data compiled by Baltimore Department of Education.
Each
school
with
annex, 11 any, is
counted only
once.
Elementary includes elementarv-iunior
nigh combinations. The
189 schools contain 202 administrative organizations.
Mrs. Norris pointed to Bates High
School in Annapolis as the real test of
desegregation. Prior to desegregation,
Bates was the only Negro secondary
school in the county. “By and large,
Negroes continue to prefer Bates, al
though other secondary schools—some
of them closer to their homes—are open
to them. The board goes along with
their choice, since they do not appear
ready in their own minds to make the
change. Bates represents the area where
we will see real integration when it
comes. But it probably will take a long
time, since it has to come slowly and
voluntarily to mean anything.”
Questions also were asked of Mrs.
D. Ellwood Williams, the most out
spoken integrationist on the Anne
Arundel Board of Education. Asked her
reaction to the county’s desegregation,
Mrs. Williams said: “I am happy about
it. It’s a good program, and Anne Arun
del has done a good job. The credit is
due Dr. Jenkins [the county school
superintendent]. He recommended the
latest move, as well as the previous
steps. It is his program and the board
has supported him.”
In reply to a question as to whether
she considered the county to have more
than token desegregation, Mrs. Williams
said she did: “We have opened up the
situation, and have done it fairly. A
child may go to the nearest school and
be admitted. He doesn’t have to seek
the approval of the county superin
tendent or the school board. Negroes
have had the opportunity in all schools,
including high schools.”
Leader of Group
Active in the United Church Women,
Mrs. Williams was instrumental after
the Supreme Court decision in the or
ganization of a small citizens group in
the county that sent a resolution to the
Anne Arundel board urging it to make
a study and recommendations leading
to desegregation of county schools.
Mrs. Williams recalls now that she
had become a member of the school
board by the time the resolution was
acted on. A biracial citizens advisory
group was named (with Mrs. Norris,
now president of the board, as one of
its members), and the group recom
mended gradual desegregation at a
somewhat faster pace than was finally
adopted.
While expressing satisfaction with
the desegregation of pupils, Mrs. Wil-
Schoolmen
Early School Admissions Program
Opens in Baltimore Blighted Area
The first two groups of four- and
five-year old children entered two
Baltimore schools in February as par
ticipants in “a specially planned edu
cational program which seeks to dis
cover ways to meet the unique needs
of children living in depressed areas of
the city.”
Made possible by a $155,000 grant
from the Ford Foundation, the three-
year experimental program is known
as the Early
School Admissions
Project.
Thirty children
were selected to
attend spe -
cial classes at each
of two schools
under teaching
teams consisting
of a senior teach-
er, assist
ant teacher and
teacher aide. Vol
unteer workers also have been drawn
to the project to bring additional skills
into the school experience and also to
reach into the children’s homes to en
list the interest and co-operation of the
parents. Of the two schools selected,
one is almost wholly white and the
other predominantly Negro.
The project was conceived by Dr.
George B. Brain, Baltimore’s school
superintendent, who has been disturb
ed, along with school administrators in
other large American cities, by the
ever-increasing number of “culturally
deprived” children who are behind
from the day they enter school and re
quire extensive special education as
they get older.
Largely Negroes
Although Baltimore school officials
never speak in terms of race, the bulk
of the children in the disadvantaged
group are Negroe’s, since Negroes are
the child occupants of Baltimore’s
blighted inner-city residential areas.
No hard and fast definition of cul
tural deprivation exists, but deprived
areas are identified by such charac
teristics as excessive population dens
ity, low value and poor condition of
dwellings, absence of a male as head
of a household, over-ageness in school
grades, non-promotion rate and grade
levels in reading and arithmetic.
Of Baltimore’s 168 census tracts, 56
contain a majority of children who
could, according to the Department of
Education, be classified as culturally
deprived. Lying principally in the city’s
central core, the 56 tracts contain more
than 76,000 children, of whom 46,000
have intelligence quotients of 85 or
below. What they mean in terms of the
school system as a whole is demonstra
ble: One out of every five children in
Baltimore’s sixth grades is reading 2.4
grades below normal and is 1.9 grades
below normal expectation in arithmetic.
Statistics show that in Baltimore, as
in other large cities, the culturally de
prived children fall farther behind the
older they get. In the second grade they
score only a few months below grade
level, but by the time they reach the
fifth grade they are on average 2.1
grade levels behind in reading and
1.7 in arithmetic. Their scores on mental
ability tests consistently average five
to seven points below their scores of
three years previously.
Present Provisions
At present, Baltimore is providing for
11,200 culturally deprived children in
special elementary and secondary
school programs designed mainly for
the mentally handicapped. Another 35,-
000 children are considered to need the
special programs, although there is
neither the staff nor the space to pro
vide the training
The Early School Admissions Project
is intended “to enrich the lives of cul
turally disadvantaged 4- and 5-year
olds” who are not yet in school and
who number in Baltimore an estimated
16,000. The object is to see if, by work
ing with a trial sampling, the “cultural
experiences” gap can be reduced and
the children made ready for a regular
elementary school program. Four addi
tional centers are planned in addition
to the two opened in February.
All the youngsters in the initial pro
gram have been drawn from depressed
Baltimore Enrollment in Biracial Schools
(Net Roll, October, 1962)
BIRACIAL
ONE-RACE
ORGANIZATIONS
Pupils No. of
ORGANIZATIONS
Pupils No. of
Total
Total
Enrolled
Orgs.
Enrolled
Orgs.
Pupils
Orgs.
Elementary
White
..24,805
80
19,889
28
44,694
Negro
.. 38,096
80
27,933
40
66,029
Total ...
,. 62,901
80
47,822
68
110,723
148
Secondary-
Vocational
White
.. 34,626
37
1,502
3
36,128
Negro
.. 20,164
37
13,017
14
33,181
Total ....
. 54,790
37
14,519
17
69.309
54
Total
White
. 59,431
117
21,391
31
80,822
Negro
.. 58,260
117
40,950
54
99,210
Grand Total .
.117,691
117
62,341
85
180,032
202
Data compiled by the Baltimore Department of Education. Combination
schools, such as an elementary-junior high, are counted as two separate admin,
istrative organizations, giving Baltimore 202 school organizations in 189 schools.
liams said, “We haven’t done too good
a job with the integration of teachers.
We have done something, but we
haven’t really accepted the Negro
teachers who have applied. It looks bad
to hire uncertified white teachers on
an emergency basis when qualified Ne
gro teachers are available.”
Mrs. Williams expressed the convic
tion that new schools had been built in
the county without regard to race since
she had been on the board. She also
expressed approval of the recent clos
ing of a small Negro school in Annap
olis.
“It would have been a great mistake,”
Mrs. Williams said, “to do anything but
get those children out of there and into
the larger school. And do you know
what’s being done with the closed-
down school? It’s being used for li
brary cataloging. That’s real prog
ress.”
Under Survey
Baltimore Reports
10 More Schools
With Both Races
The number of Baltimore schools
with biracial enrollments has increased
by 10 in a year’s time, while the num
ber of Negroes attending schools with
white pupils has increased by 6,913,
according to 1962-63 enrollment data
released for the first time this year by
the Baltimore Department of Education.
Close to 59 per cent of Baltimore Ne
gro pupils attend schools having bi
racial enrollments, an increase of 3.7
percentage points over October, 1961,
enrollment data. Nearly three-fourths
(73.5 per cent) of the white enrollment
is in the biracial schools.
Of the 189 public schools in the city.
112 have pupils of both races, while 2t
remain all-white and 51 remain all-
Negro. The number of all-white schools
is three less than a year ago; the num
ber of all-Negro schools has dropped
by four, and three additional schools
have opened on a biracial basis, malt
ing an increase of 10 in the total of
schools with pupils of both races.
For the first time since desegregation
began, Baltimore has no secondary
school that does not have at least half
a dozen Negro students in it. In the last
school year, there remained one all-
white secondary school out of the score
that existed prior to desegregation.
(Baltimore does have three all-white
secondary-vocational units that are
housed in elementary schools and are
counted with the elementary schools
rather than as secondary schools).
Secondary Schools
In contrast to the disappearance of
the all-white secondary school, the city
has 11 all-Negro secondary schools,
which is two more than in 1953, the
year before desegregation began. Thirty
of the secondary schools have both
white and Negro students, making a
total of 41 secondary schools.
The school system during the pas*
year continued to gain Negro pupils
and lose white ones. The white total
dropped from 81,772 to 80,822, while
the Negro increase was from 93,265 to
99,210. Negroes now represent 59.6 pe r
cent of the elementary school popula
tion, 47.8 per cent of the secondary'
(See MARYLAND, Page 9)
Meeting Their First Teacher
Duane Fox, 5, Mrs. Maryanne Savage, and Brenda Culp, 4, gel acquaint
Early School Admissions Project at Baltimore.
ted '*
areas of the city, according to Mary A.
Adams, assistant superintendent for
elementary education. She described
the project on opening day as “essen
tially an attempt to provide an environ
ment which will overcome limitations
in the children’s experience.”
The co-ordinator of the project is
Catherine Brunner, who emphasized
that by taking the children early the
Department of Education hopes to
overcome the factor which causes the
children to fall farther and farther be-
nut c
hind and ultimately to drop
school at the earliest possible ag • ^
“Their limited education can jj r gp-
far-reaching consequence,” M 1 gpd
ner said. “They are not prepare oPJ jc
jobs or to insure their own e
security.” w Nor^
The project was hailed hy • g^ti-
Weis, executive director of ^ th e
more Youth Commission.
type of program we need v % gjyc
in Baltimore,” he said, >■ bre^
the culturally deprived an ev
in education.”
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