toward the problem boy has not changed and we still have tough ones. However, we can get to them quicker now and help them before they erupt.

Another school reported that "there has not been a single gang incident in or around the school during the current school year."

The per pupil cost of the Higher Horizon Program is only one-fourth of the cost of the Demonstration Guidance Project-$50 per pupil, instead of $200. It should be noted, however, that one-half of the salary of the guidance counselors is reimbursable by the Federal Government under the terms of the National Defense Education Act." Surely New York City is "doing a lot more for some children just to give them the same chance to learn" so that they may lead good and fruitful lives.

Greater Cities-Grey Area Programs

The Greater Cities-Gray Area Program, cosponsored by the Education and the Public Affairs Divisions of the Ford Foundation, includes various approaches to the problem of providing equal educational opportunities for the slum child. The dual sponsorship reflects a "recognition that the problems of the schools in the slum and gray area are directly related to immigration, housing and employment discrimination, family and community disorganization, lack of motivation, juvenile delinquency, etc.” 72

There are 10 Great Cities projects now in operation." Inquiry of each project director brought a reply from all but one " that children in the schools involved were in fact almost always members of some minority group. 75 All of the projects differ, yet all seem to recognize that the traditional public school program is oriented to middle-class, white culture, and fails to appreciate that the child who does not bring that cultural background to school with him is handicapped from the start. Two cities 7 that continue to have large numbers of Negro inmigrants from Southern States direct their programs to reception centers. These provide testing, remedial work, cultural enrichment, school and community orientation, with followup services during the regular school year. The recognition of a need for such a program emphasizes the fact that the mobility of Americans makes what happens in public schools anywhere a matter of consequence everywhere. A bad start in an inferior school for Negroes in a Southern State may require a remedial program in a northern or western urban center.

Three cities" use a coordinated school-community team approach similar to one aspect of New York's Higher Horizons Program. Another, that singles out gifted pupils of deprived backgrounds in grades 3 to 6 for a special enrichment program, is reminiscent of the Demonstration Guidance Project.”

Inservice programs to upgrade teacher competency in the language arts is a part of three programs.80 Several witnesses at the Commission's California hearings recommended that teachers of minority-group pupils be given special help in understanding the problems of the minoritygroup child. This is not a formal part of the inservice programs but may well be included.

81

84

Reorganization of the school program, including team teaching and other experimental methods and new materials, is the basis of two projects.82 Two are directed to adolescent children for whom the regular school program has not been helpful. One of these provides nongraded classes for overaged children at the junior high level; 83 the other a work-related program for the potential school dropout. The importance of guidance is mentioned in three programs. 85 None of them, however, emphasize the unique problems of guidance for the minority-group child that were brought to the Commission's attention at its California and Detroit hearings.86 Lack of counselors trained in minority-group problems is a frequent complaint; another is the tendency of counselors perhaps because of inadequate training-to guide minority-group students with reference to job opportunities rather than their individual abilities and interests. One witness, who had made a survey of guidance training in the public colleges of California and found it inadequate vis-à-vis racial minority problems, said that: "Training of personnel in anthropology, sociology, and psychology would improve the counseling functions." 87 A Berkeley, Calif., committee on interracial problems and their effect on education also recommended that counselors be given specialized training in interracial matters.

88

Whatever the limitations of these experimental programs, each provides a substantial number of minority-group children with better educational opportunities. In the aggregate they should provide a wealth of knowledge on new techniques that may help to shape future programs.

Oak Park, Michigan

Until November 1960 the Oak Park School District served only "highly motivated, highly ambitious, highly capable, and highly achieving" 89 children in a middle-class white community; then the State forced it to annex an adjacent all-Negro district." Its program to deal with "the introduction of a culturally different, disadvantaged Negro population" 91 must be considered as a program for a segregated situation because it is still in that phase.

In the fall of 1961 all present 8th- and 9th-grade pupils (about 125) at the Carver Negro district, will be admitted as 9th- and 10th-grade pupils at the Oak Park Junior High School for the first time."2 The total enrollment in these grades is expected to be between 300 and 400 each.93 Pupils above grade 10 in September 1961 will continue their

education in Detroit, where they have been in attendance on a tuition basis. Seventh- and eighth-grade Carver students will be transferred to Oak Park in September 1962. All students admitted to Oak Park from Carver will continue there until graduation. Thus, the program calls for the integration of the 9th and 10th grades in September 1961; the 7th, 8th, and 11th in September 1962; and the 12th in September 1963.

Immediately after the merger of Carver and Oak Park, the board of education announced that "all facilities will be used to achieve an orderly transition." " Implementation of this policy took three forms: (1) immediate action, such as the transfer of property and records; (2) short-term investigations into Carver conditions, including pupil health, adequacy of supplies and equipment, safety hazard and sanitary facilities, staff-parent relations, and the school-lunch program; and (3) long-term evaluation of curriculum, testing program, and teacher performance at Carver."

The president of the board of education of Oak Park School District explained to the Commission at Williamsburg that the items in the second category were deliberately selected as noncontroversial. He said: 98

No one can dispute the fact that poor health influences pupil achievement, that all children must have adequate materials with which to perform their daily tasks, and that parents in a community are entitled to know what is going on in their local schools."

Moving quickly in the area of the health of the Carver children, Oak Park found that "9_

99

although State law requires immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and polio for children entering school, only 49 out of 109 [entering pupils in September 1960] were immunized for the "triple" (D.P.T.) and 41 out of the 109 for polio. Of the entering 109 kindergartners, only 39 had received physical examinations. Above kindergarten, physical examinations were almost unknown and this was reflected in the condition of the children. Ninety-nine percent of the children needed dental care.

Having found that adequate health services from the usual community sources would not be available for 2 or 3 years, Oak Park sought funds from private sources for a temporary clinic. 100

Prompt action was also taken to provide an adequate school-lunch program for all Carver children after it was found that the existing school cafeteria served only 100 children. Increased food allotments through county and State agencies were sought and plans made to expand the capacity of the cafeteria fivefold.101

The long-range plans call for retention of Carver as a neighborhood elementary school serving the same Negro residential community it now

serves. Thus, Oak Park and Carver pupils would be segregated until junior high school. But plans include development of Carver's educational program to the level of the other Oak Park elementary schools to be financed by a 25 percent weighting of budget allowances in favor of Carver until that goal is reached.102

Dillard University program

In 1959 Dillard University used a foundation grant to start a 3-year experimental summer program designed to help students prepare for college by stimulating their study skills and broadening their perspectives and involvement in significant movements and ideas.103

Dr. A. W. Dent, president of Dillard University, explained the need for this program to the Commission at Williamsburg:

104

... From what I hear, nearly all colleges are faced with the problem of bridging the gap by one means or another between a student's achievement at the time of high school graduation and what is expected of a college freshman. For colleges with predominantly Negro students, the problem is particularly acute and additionally complicated by the many deprivations inherent in racial segregation.

The particular aim of the Dillard program, Dr. Dent said—105

... is to provide motivation, which they have not had up to this point, and to . . . [show them] that they do not necessarily need to be deprived from this point on. If I may tell you just a story which I told to these youngsters who came in last year, I was told the story of a little boy 6 years old who went to public school for the first time. . . and when everybody else was sitting, the little boy wanted to stand, and he just stood up, and the teacher said to him: "Sit down, Johnny." But Johnny didn't sit. And she said to him a second time: "Sit down, Johnny." And he didn't sit. The third time she walked over to his seat and put her two hands on his shoulders and just pushed him down in his seat, and he looked up at her and said: "You can push me down, if you want to, but in my mind I'm still standing up.'

The Dillard program is one to teach the Negro youth of the South to stand up in their minds.

Dillard's approach, Dr. Dent explained, is based upon the following assumptions 108

(1) that most graduates of Negro high schools in the South are inadequately prepared for standard college work;

(2) that this problem stems mostly from limited opportunities and experiences, and partly from inept or inappropriate teaching rather than from lack of native ability;

(3) that the basis [of] improvement is increased skill in the four areas of language, reading and writing, listening and speaking, and in mathematics;

(4) that success in college also depends upon an enthusiasm for learning; and

(5) that delaying the remedial and enrichment experience until college years, whether through remedial courses or through supplementary instruction, is inadequate and educationally expensive.

The program extends for an 8-week period during which the students work from 8 to 12 hours daily without college credit. Each week they spend at least 33 hours in intensive classroom instruction in writing, reading, mathematics, speech, music and fine arts, public events and world affairs, social and religious values, use of the library, and health activity. Once a week they visit a place of special historical or cultural interest in New Orleans.107

To provide the desired variety of professional competence, the ratio of teachers and counselors to students has been fixed at one or two.108 This low ratio is, of course, reflected in the cost of the program: $400 per pupil for the 8 weeks. This cost, however, includes a considerable amount of testing, study, and research, and the matching of the 40 summer students with 40 comparable students in the freshmen class and 1 or 2 staff people who give year-round attention to the program. The cost also includes a scholarship given to each participating student, representing about 75 percent of the tuition for the freshman year, on the assumption that they might otherwise have worked during the sumAfter the freshman year, scholarships are available only on the basis of academic performance and need.110

mer.

109

Only two groups have now finished both the summer program and their freshman work. Since they were selected to represent a fair geographic and scholastic sample of Dillard's incoming classes, surely it is significant that the proportion of them on the freshman dean's list was 10 times greater than that of others.111

SUMMARY

Most of the programs discussed in the first part of this chapter for helping Negro pupils adjust to higher academic standards, are privately