Large School System Research Articles

Outcomes of a Large High School Using the Three-Shift System

IN DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA, where provision must be made for educating nearly lo,ooo new students annually, planning and building new schools is a major challenge each year. In 1955 Dade County's school enrollment was 105,000 students; it is now bulging at the seams with 178,975, making this the nation's seventh largest school system. To overcome the lag between school planning and actual plant construction, one method used by this school system to increase a school's capacity by 50 percent is the three-shift system, with students starting classes at 7:30 A.M., 8:30 A.M., and 9:30 A.M., and dismissing at 2:15 P.M., 3:15 P.M., and 4:15 P.M., respectively. Large classes, such as television, choral groups, band and orchestral groups, study halls, and physical education classes are held during the peak hours when all students are on campus. Areas of study in a teacher evaluation of the three-shift school day at North Mi-

Climatology for guidance

Much of counseling literature stems quite naturally from large school systems where good or poor guidance operations flourish in an atmosphere somewhat detached from petty internal jealousies and aloof from pressures of local downtown interests. But what of the countless smaller communities where, with a paucity of other referral sources, the challenge is greatest for follow-through and finis to problems of youngsters? How grows the counseling concept in whistle-stop and rural market place? For any living thing to grow, flourish, or just exist there must be adaptable soil, at least a balance with natural enemies, and a favorable climate. The educational process in general needs such satisfactory conditions; but no area is so dependent on climate, so reliant on external factors as is the province of the school counselor. It is the contention of some that the guidance program is of such a nature that persistence and proof of the product will, in the tradition of Horatio Alger, always triumph. For administrators, teachers, or counselors to be carried away with this enthusiasm and faith can lead to a fate worse than death-a straw man guidance program that appears on faculty rolls, annual reports, and even school letterheads, but never fulfills its responsibilities. It might be better to have no program at all than one defrauding children, parents, and public by carrying the name but not the duties of a service purporting to challenge basic deficiencies in attitudes, behaviors, and emotional or psychological construction.

Disciplinary Status of White and Negro High School Students in a Large Southeastern School System

Recent decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States relative to racial segregation in the public schools have focused attention on the need for valid information concerning certain comparative characteristics of white and Negro teachers and pupils. A previous paper1 by the writer dealt with a comparison of certain characteristics of white and Negro teachers in a large Southeastern school system. These comparisons indicated that, with certain notable exceptions (i.e., average salary, amount of formal education, level of teaching certificate), Negro teachers compared unfavorably with white teachers. A second paper2 (in collaboration with R. Travis Osborne) compared the reading and arithmetic achievements of white and Negro sixth grade pupils in the same school system, with CA and MA held constant. In both subject areas, Negro students were notably retarded as compared with white students.

Psychological Services in Twenty-Eight Elementary Schools of Columbus, Ohio

THE VALUE of psychological services for a large city school system has never seriously been questioned. The demand usually exceeds the means. This is true not only in a 1 a r g e city, but also in county and state services. This study was done in an effort to clarify the major areas of de mand for psychological services in the elementary schools of Columbus, Ohio. The purpose of this study was: 1) to determine if psychological services were being distributed evenly among the various elementary schools ac cording to their enrollments; 2) to determine if the schools with high achievement records requ i red the same type and amount of services as those with low achievement records; 3) to determine the kinds of difficulties the elementary children were having; and 4) to see if the difficulties were being corrected through parental guidance and other means.

COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL HEALTH

THIS REPORT has been prepared primarily for the information and guidance of those physicians interested in matters of school health. Many physicians are perplexed by the subject of "school health." A better term, perhaps, is "health program for school age children." It emphasizes that "school health" is but part of an over-all planning for child health, which begins with birth (or prenatal life) and continues through the school years. The private physician surrenders none of his responsibility for the child's health when the child enters school. Instead, the school joins him and the parent as a third party interested in the child's health. The health of the child of school age is influenced by the teaching and environment of his school, by the program of public health in the community and by the direct services he receives. It is important that physicians, school personnel and public health authorities co-ordinate their activities by co-operative planning if the health program is to be successful. The private physician, who has been the medical adviser to the child during his preschool years, should play an important role in this co-operative activity of adjusting the child to the school environment. Not only should the child enter school in optimal health, but he should continue in optimal health throughout his school years. His good health is basically his parents' responsibility. The parents can be helped where and when necessary by a properly organized "health program for school age children." These programs vary greatly in how they are managed. The facilities and problems of a large city school system obviously will differ from those in a small community or rural area.

A Study of Certain Practices in Music Education in School Systems of Cities Over 150,000 Population

M USc is ONE of the newer subjects in the curriculum of the modern school. While it was first introduced into the public schools more than a century ago, its greatest period of growth has occurred within the past thirty years. During this same time many changes have taken place in educational thinking and writing which have had a profound effect upon the practices of the public schools. Music educators have been preoccupied with the ready reception of their program by the public and concerned over the problems which always appear during a period of rapid growth. Their attention has been directed toward quantitative rather than qualitative matters. Music has now been accepted as a basic part of the school curriculum, and there is no longer much necessity for its protagonists to promote and defend it. Their efforts should now be turned toward a critical evaluation of the total program. Numerous studies have been undertaken which show the status of music education in individual states, but they are usually brief and are aimed at exploring only the minimum essentials of the music program. The present study was designed to present a broader picture, as well as to circumvent certain weaknesses of previous studies. First, by including only large city school systems, the questionnaires could be sent directly to music directors. As leaders in their field, these persons were qualified to give detailed information about current administrative and curricular practices. They were used also as a panel of experts, and asked to express their opinions on certain controversial questions. Second, because of their similarity of training, the music directors possessed a fairly uniform understanding of music education terminology, and the data obtained from the questionnaire should, therefore, be reliable. Third, 19 percent of all the people in the United States live in the forty-eight large cities that participated in the survey. These cities are scattered throughout the country, and the replies were tabulated so as to note both national and regional practices and trends. A questionnaire was sent to music directors in fifty-seven cities of over 150,000 population. Of these, fortyeight, or approximately 84 percent were returned. In order to add validity to the survey the writer made personal visits to four of the participating cities.

The Role of the School in Juvenile Delinquency Prevention (With Especial Reference to Pupil Personnel Services)

A child is not born a delinquent. He may have become predelinquent by the time that he does enter school, since home and neighborhood influences are strong conditioning factors. In several of the large city school systems readiness tests, administered at the beginning of the first grade, indicate that many children for various reasons are unprepared to begin formal learning in reading and number work. After a year in school, during which they usually have special readiness curriculum experiences, a high proportion still are retained.' Frustration then, that leads to maladjustment in society, can start at this early level of a school career.

Factors Influencing Change in Children's Self-Concepts

related to teachers' and peer groups' perceptions of children's self-concepts (5). This article will report the findings relating to the influence of selected factors on changes in children's self-concepts. This second part of the study investigated the effects of four factors, (a) social-emotional climate, (b) teacher participation in an in-service child study program, (c) teacher acceptance of self and others, and (d) grade level, on changes in children's self-concepts in the fourth and sixth grades. Self-concept was defined as those perceptions, beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and values which the individual views as describing himself. The ideal self was defined in terms of those qualities which describe the person he would like to be. In this study data on children's self-concepts and ideal selves were obtained by means of a Q-sort, an instrument and technique which requires the subject to make a forced normal distribution of a series of self-referrent statements. The Q-sort developed for use in this study was a stratified random sample of 50 self-referrent statements which had been selected from a universe derived from responses of fourth and sixth grade children reported in a study by Jersild (3). Correlating the child's self-sort with his ideal sort provides a measure of his self - ideal self congruency and may be expressed in terms of a Q-correlation coefficient. Change in self-concept in this study was defined as change in self-ideal congruency. A representative sample of eight classrooms enrolling 251 children in seven suburban elementary schools of a large county school system in Maryland was selected for study. Classrooms were selected on the basis of their being willing to participate in the research and their being representa

FACTORS INFLUENCING CHANGE IN CHILDREN'S SELF-CONCEPTS

related to teachers' and peer groups' perceptions of children's self-concepts (5). This article will report the findings relating to the influence of selected factors on changes in children's self-concepts. This second part of the study investigated the effects of four factors, (a) social-emotional climate, (b) teacher participation in an in-service child study program, (c) teacher acceptance of self and others, and (d) grade level, on changes in children's self-concepts in the fourth and sixth grades. Self-concept was defined as those perceptions, beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and values which the individual views as describing himself. The ideal self was defined in terms of those qualities which describe the person he would like to be. In this study data on children's self-concepts and ideal selves were obtained by means of a Q-sort, an instrument and technique which requires the subject to make a forced normal distribution of a series of self-referrent statements. The Q-sort developed for use in this study was a stratified random sample of 50 self-referrent statements which had been selected from a universe derived from responses of fourth and sixth grade children reported in a study by Jersild (3). Correlating the child's self-sort with his ideal sort provides a measure of his self - ideal self congruency and may be expressed in terms of a Q-correlation coefficient. Change in self-concept in this study was defined as change in self-ideal congruency. A representative sample of eight classrooms enrolling 251 children in seven suburban elementary schools of a large county school system in Maryland was selected for study. Classrooms were selected on the basis of their being willing to participate in the research and their being representa

Are Educational Research Offices Conducting Research?

THE PURPOSE of this paper is two fold: (1) to summarize the responses yielded by a check-list constructed to survey the duties, responsibilities tech niques employed by, and the training and experience required of, research workers in large public school systems, state departments of education, and state education associations; and particularly, (2) to consider the check-list data in light of the hypothesis that many activities conducted under the name of educational research are improperly called research, in the accepted mean ing of that term.

A Study of Certain Practices in Music Education in School Systems of Cities Over 150,000 Population

M USc is ONE of the newer subjects in the curriculum of the modern school. While it was first introduced into the public schools more than a century ago, its greatest period of growth has occurred within the past thirty years. During this same time many changes have taken place in educational thinking and writing which have had a profound effect upon the practices of the public schools. Music educators have been preoccupied with the ready reception of their program by the public and concerned over the problems which always appear during a period of rapid growth. Their attention has been directed toward quantitative rather than qualitative matters. Music has now been accepted as a basic part of the school curriculum, and there is no longer much necessity for its protagonists to promote and defend it. Their efforts should now be turned toward a critical evaluation of the total program. Numerous studies have been undertaken which show the status of music education in individual states, but they are usually brief and are aimed at exploring only the minimum essentials of the music program. The present study was designed to present a broader picture, as well as to circumvent certain weaknesses of previous studies. First, by including only large city school systems, the questionnaires could be sent directly to music directors. As leaders in their field, these persons were qualified to give detailed information about current administrative and curricular practices. They were used also as a panel of experts, and asked to express their opinions on certain controversial questions. Second, because of their similarity of training, the music directors possessed a fairly uniform understanding of music education terminology, and the data obtained from the questionnaire should, therefore, be reliable. Third, 19 percent of all the people in the United States live in the forty-eight large cities that participated in the survey. These cities are scattered throughout the country, and the replies were tabulated so as to note both national and regional practices and trends. A questionnaire was sent to music directors in fifty-seven cities of over 150,000 population. Of these, fortyeight, or approximately 84 percent were returned. In order to add validity to the survey the writer made personal visits to four of the participating cities.

Qualifications of a good teacher

The faculty of Southern Oregon College of Education initiated, during 1953, an evaluation of the curriculum which educates elementary teachers. An exploratory committee was organized-to investigate the essential qualifications which would seem desirable in a good teacher. These qualifications, once determined, would then serve as guiding criteria in reorganizing the sequence and content of courses and in the elimination or addition of experiences for the teacher education student. Administrators, parents, teachers and students were personally interviewed during the year and asked five specific questions. Some thirty school administrators were solicited, who hired graduates of the college. Five were superintendents of systems consisting of at least ten school plants, five were superintendents of smaller school systems, of ten school plants or less, five were supervisors of large school systems, five were supervisors of the smaller school systems, five were principals of elementary schools consisting of at least twenty teachers and five were principals of elementary schools of ten teachers or less. Thirty parents were also interviewed. Ten of these parents had children in the first and second grades, ten had children in grades three and four, and ten had children in the fifth and sixth grades. Thirty elementary teachers were contacted; five teachers from each grade, first through the sixth. Twelve classrooms of children were interviewed, two classrooms for each grade, one through the sixth, giving a total of four hundred elementary children questioned. In all some two hundred elementary school systems were contacted. Finally one hundred twenty college students were interviewed, thirty from each year in college.

E. Science Education in a Large School System

In this article, Dr. Baker discusses some of the outstanding problems and possi bilities associated with science instruction in a typical large city school system. As a background, he summarizes a basic philosophy of science education and outlines current curriculum practices for the entire public school sequence of kindergarten through the twelfth grade. He concludes by outlining broader horizons for science instruction and by spelling out the implications of this enriched program in terms of the need for better prepared teachers of science.

Sex Differences and Legal School Entrance Age

Many children are not ready for the traditional first grade of public school when they are chronologically approaching six years of age. Particularly is this true of boys. Boys usually develop in nearly all respects more slowly than girls. Much of the re search in sex differences indicates that girls should be admitted at least three or more months younger than boys; or, better, that the entering age for boys should be raised three or more months. Studies over a ten-year period in the Tulsa schools indicate that there is need for different legal entering ages for boys and girls. However, it is freely granted that admission, ideally,should be on the basis of a comprehensive physical and mental test pro gram, thus providing for those frequent exceptions which will in evitably occur. However, this is not practicable in a large school system. The state legislature is probably the only body in a po sition to make a legal differentiation. Some Implications

The Rise of the Negro Assistant County Superintendent in West Virginia

The Negro Assistant County Superintendent of Schools in West Virginia represents the highest step reached thus far in the struggle of West Virgiina Negroes for full participation in the administration of their schools. In order to appreciate the worth of this office, it is necessary to know the development of educational administration in West Virginia and to know the status of the West Virginia school system prior to the adoption of the county unit system and the prevailing conditions which the county unit system sought to remedy. The participation of Negroes in the administration of schools for Negroes began with the Negro trustees. The magisterial districts, created, from earlier times, were divisions of the county. They were formed for the purpose of facilitating judicial affairs. This made them rather easily administered school units also. The schools in the magisterial district made up the unit, the control of which rested with the Board of Education of each of these districts. In each magisterial district the Board of Education was an elective body of three members. These board members were elected from various parts of the district in order that the interests of all would be represented. The Board set the salaries of teachers, provided for teaching quarters, and set the school term. Details such as hiring of teachers, visiting schools, hiring of school janitors, provision of supplies and repairs, settling disputes arising between the school and the community, and seeing to it that teachers secured decent places in which to live were functions delegated to a small group of men appointed by the Board of Education. This small group of men were known as trustees. It was in this capacity that Negroes began their service as school administrators. The majority of the schools were of either the one-room or the two-room type. The large and complex school systems in towns and cities, which we know today, were unknown to the trustees because of the fact that they functioned at a time when life and education were simple in the State. Eight counties: Kanawha, Fayette, McDowell, Raleigh, Harrison, Putnam, Greenbrier, and Sumners, used Negro trustees for supervising the Negro schools. Other counties used white trustees to supervise the schools for both white and Negro pupils. The Negro trustees, like the white trustees, served without pay. Most of them had a meager education and some were illiterate. However, indications are that they gave good account of their stewardship. Often through their unstinted efforts and cooperation with the teachers in charge, the standard of the schools was raised and many needed materials of instruction were provided which otherwise could never have been obtained. Boards of education in those days furnished little or noth-

Purposes Governing Curriculum Changes in City School Systems

THE aim of the present paper is to summarize evidence gathered in a study of the purposes dominating the curriculum changes in American city school systems during the period 1836-1944. For the most part, the data presented here are borrowed from a study previously published by the writer,' but additional data have since been gathered for more recent years in order to make possible an estimate of present trends in curriculum changes and to show the reasons for such changes. In the original study a total of 2,725 tabulations were shown for separate changes made or proposed in the curriculums of ten large city school systems during the period from 1836 to 1936.2 The ten cities were Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Louisville, Oakland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Seattle. The data were gathered from original documents of all kinds published by the school systems during the hun-

Remedial Programs in Relation to Basic Programs of Reading

basic reading program, indeed the entire school program, may be impaired. Likewise any kind of provision for remedial reading--the establishment of a reading clinic, part-time service by the principal in working with individual pupils, the assumption of responsibility for remediation by the regular classroom teacher-has its effect on the developmental program of reading. For this reason remedial measures need to be chosen with due consideration to the entire curriculum and the ultimate good of all the pupils. This article, through an analysis of the characteristics of eighty-three pupils who were refe red to the reading department either by principals or by the Psychological Clinic' of the Detroit public schools, attempts to throw some light on a few aspects of the problem of emedial procedure in large city school systems. This analyis, which was made in the autumn of 1943, was concerned entirely with pupils in the middle grades. The pupils represented forty-one elementary schools, approximately a fifth of those in the city. Sixty-nine of the subjects were boys, and fourteen were girls. Such a large proportion of boys is not unusual in surveys of remedialreading cases. The aid of three experienced teachers was enlisted in determining the types of pupils who were experiencing failure. One of these teachers spent

Administration of a Program of Continuous Pupil Progress

PERHAPS the most important factor in developing a program of continuous pupil progress is the freedom of the teacher to plan his own program within certain well-defined but rather broad limits. The administrators of most large city school systems in America have been guilty of preaching an activity philosophy-a philosophy built on learning through experience-and then imposing administrative and supervisory arrangements that reduce this philosophy to little more than so many pages in a book on modern education. They exhort their teachers to recognize individual differences and to democratize procedures. At the same time they require the teachers to instruct large classes, to group their pupils into grades, to present elaborately detailed content specified for those grades, to test progress in the light of standards of achievement for graded courses of study, to compartmentalize the program on a subject basis with so many minutes allotted to each subject, and to promote once or twice a year the pupils who have made the hurdles of a grade. Under conditions of this sort, though it may not be impossible for a teacher to develop a program of continuous pupil progress, certainly it is difficult. The writer's contention is that, within certain broad limitations defined by social demands, teachers must be free to develop cooperatively a program which will provide for the uninterrupted growth of their pupils. This point of view represents democratic school administration. Furthermore, it assumes a school personnel prepared to accept the responsibilities that are implied. During the past few years there has been a marked tendency in Philadelphia public schools toward wider latitude in interpretation, especially in the adaptation of courses of study to local conditions. Schools are also encouraged to make such modifications as are neces679

Some Principles of Supervision for Small Village Schools

STUDENTS concerned with the preparation of teachers have complained that large school systems often fail to do their part in training young teachers in service during the formative years just after graduation. Because of the requirement of two or more years of experience before one may teach in some of the large schools, most inexperienced teachers begin their careers in small villages, where they have almost no supervision and are left largely to their own devices. After some service in small schools a few of them may be employed in larger cities which have the advantages of supervision. In village schools with from six to fifteen teachers, no supervisors are employed, and there is little oversight of the teaching by the principal and the superintendent. Since approximately 49 per cent of the pupils in the United States attend schools in communities with populations of less than twenty-five hundred,' the problem of providing for the reasonable supervision of instruction in small schools is important. Supervision needs redefinition if it is to be applied reasonably to these small schools. This redefinition may be accomplished by answering the following queries in a way that may suggest a pattern of organization and procedures for putting the theory of instructional improvement into practice: (i) What officers of instruction in small village schools have supervisory functions? (2) What supervisory functions ought to be performed in small village schools and who should perform them? (3) How should the personnel of small village schools be organized to accomplish the functions of supervision suggested?

Cumulative Records for Elementary Schools

Scientific procedures developed during the past three decades have supplied educators with valuable measuring instruments and observation techniques. However, in most elementary schools the methods of recording the facts obtained by measurement and observation of individual pupils are still in an unsatisfactory stage of development. Only in the larger school systems are attempts being made to keep sufficient records to give a comprehensive picture of a developing child. Most elementary-school teachers are still too much concerned with attendance, tardiness, and enrolment statistics to find time for recording the more fundamental developmental data. It is the purpose of this article to indicate certain types of cumulative records which are desirable for the efficient management of an elementary school. The recording procedures suggested have been developed after a careful analysis of many types of record forms now being used in both private and public elementary schools. The aim of the writers has been to present a system of recording which is more complete than that used by most elementary schools but which is less complex than the systems employed by the best experimental schools. Provisions are made in the forms for types of data which are needed by school systems seeking to render an adequate educational service in the community. A system of records which aims at completeness must use some type of individual, cumulative folder. It is therefore suggested that a large folder of the expanding type be provided for each child. The administrator will find that the efficiency of his records will be increased many times if these individual folders are subdivided into 278