No. 1, do you or can you give us any indication as to whether or not you think her profession would have been of assistance had they been involved in the New York City situation that was in the press this morning, where the teachers resigned because of physical danger?

Mr. NIEMEYER. Well, the problem that you refer to of the resignation of the teachers over the lack of discipline in a particular school is really the outcome of a tremendously complex situation in the school, and I think that I would just-I would be very naive if I were to say that just the inclusion of teacher aides would make a difference in such a situation.

I have not-this is a school that my colleagues have not been working in, so I have no firsthand account. I do know, however, that my college is working in 25 elementary and junior high schools in Harlem, and they are representative of the most educationally deprived schools in New York and Chicago, and all of the other big cities, and we have no situation of this kind. We are more concerned about the kind of protest which got crowded off the papers today, in which the parents of 125 and 36, 36 being a new school that is going to be the primary branch of 125, which will be the upper school branch of the hyphenated school, the parents picketed the school on Thursday and Friday, and then withdrew and sent to temporary schools located in churches around 1,200 of the 1,800 children on Monday, and I didn't have any report of what happened yesterday.

This is a protest over-and again it is an illustration of the complications which a big school system faces. The protest is here, protest by parents, and I have met with them and at their invitation, and talked with them a number of times, and I met with them at a meeting with Dr. Donovan, who want simply to have a voice in interviewing and making a recommendation about candidates who are the candidates on the list for the job of principal.

They feel, these parents, that unless the principal feels that the parents have some voice in the school, and unless they, the parents, have had that voice, and thus have some confidence in the principal of the school, that there can't be a good school, and I think they are right.

Now, I don't think that if you have that, it alone will give you a good school, but I don't see how you can have a really good school when the parents and the administration of a school do not have mutual respect.

And so I am as troubled about that as I am about resignations over people being slugged. Now, I don't like people being slugged; don't misunderstand me.

Mr. STEIGER. You would contend, however, and perhaps Mrs. Williams might wish to comment, that the individual attention which a paraprofessional can give in assisting the professional teacher can go a long way toward removing or alleviating some of these problems. Would you agree with that?

Mr. NIEMEYER. Well, I would say this, that the children in schools of this kind need, as I will just repeat what I said to Congressman Carey, they absolutely have to have more adults working with them than 1 per 30.

Secondly, if this does not happen, they are not going to develop even the basic skills which must be developed in elementary school, and,

thirdly, if the parents see that their children are not learning how to read, just the simplest elementary things which must be learned in elementary school, these parents are going to have no sense of confidence in the school. They then transmit that to the children.

In addition, you see, it is very difficult for a child to feel very good about the world, and about himself. if he does not have any of the skills which he can see all around him are needed to compete in that world. If he feels that he is excluded, if he has no sense of mastery over his environment, and you get this through knowing something, and knowing how to do various things, so that we have this vicious interaction system set up, in which the lack of learning creates attitudes which are self-deprecating and then which are hateful toward other people.

Then you get repressive discipline instead of supportive discipline that has to be introduced to keep things together, and I have had teachers tell me, many of them, that by the time these youngsters are up in the school, then the only way you can keep them quiet is by this constant-what I call negative discipline so it is true that in some situations, you have explosions, you have kids who hate the school, and hate teachers, and this is one of the greatest-and when you say that perhaps there are millions of kids like this, either in school or just coming out of those schools, you realize that we have a tremendously tragic situation and dangerous situation.

Now, in all of that, I would say that the introduction of more adults and the only way you are going to get them is either by the use of older students, or, and these are not mutually exclusive, or people like Mrs. Williams, this would be one little thing that can be done, but it is only one, and I would not present it here in any sense as a panacea, and I am sure Mrs. Williams would feel that way, too; is that right? Mrs. WILLIAMS. Definitely.

Mr. STEIGER. You make the point, or Dr. Klopf makes the point in this presentation that was given earlier, that it is important that the cooperation of 2-year and community colleges be sought in the development programs for auxiliaries. Is this, in your view-and I don't know what Mrs. Williams' background is

Mr. NIEMEYER. She is a high school graduate, I believe.

Mrs. WILLIAMS. Yes.

Mr. STEIGER. Do you think it should be both the high school graduates and working toward getting more community college, junior college people?

Mr. NIEMEYER. I don't know what to say about the junior colleges. We are bringing representatives of junior colleges or community colleges from various parts of the United States together this spring, at Bank Street or in some city in the United States and we will have a 2- or 3-day session, talking about this whole problem of the relationship of the junior college, both to their graduates entering teaching, in various ways, and their modifying or modifying their program or enlarging their program so that people like Mrs. Williams can be brought in, and being up the job ladder, the career ladder, toward a goal which is beyond the goal which she has already achieved.

Mr. STEIGER. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I am through with my questions, just simply say that I think that the concept that Dr. Niemeyer,

Mrs. Williams, and Dr. Klopf have presented is a very exciting one. I think it is one that this committee and this Congress should explore further. Perhaps it is possible that we might even make some strides in opening the horizons that I think exist in the utilization of the paraprofessional. I commend Mrs. Williams for the work that she is doing. It is vital, very necessary, and I commend you, Dr. Niemeyer, for being willing to come here today and for giving us the benefit of the background and experience that you have had in this field. I think you have done an outstanding job, and I am grateful that you came, grateful that you gave us a chance to hear from you. Mr. NIEMEYER. Thank you.

Mrs. WILLIAMS. Thank you.

Mr. SCHEUER. Well, Mr. Steiger just made my speech. All I can add is a ditto on it. And I will add one question as a postscript, Dr. Niemeyer. Having observed the development, perhaps the Topsy-like development of the teacher aide as an institution, can you give us any suggestions as to amendments or legislative direction that we can give to this rapidly growing field of activity, either insofar as training of the aide is concerned, or the orientation of the profession?

Can you give us some guidelines that we might include in the legislation, or in the legislative history of this bill?

Mr. NIEMEYER. Well, I believe that out of the study which we referred to, various criteria for guidelines are beginning to emerge, or have emerged. I think it would be-I would be very glad to ask my colleagues to prepare some kind of a document. Dr. Bowman is coming down on Saturday to testify; whether she could have something like that drawn up before Saturday or not, I don't know, but I am sure that it can be done rapidly, and the study isn't over yet, so we are a little bit reluctant to say this is the definitive list, but I am sure that we would be only too happy to pass on anything that we think is worth passing on to you.

Mr. SCHEUER. Well, thank you very much, and I will just append my ditto mark to Mr. Steiger's fine statement.

Mr. NIEMEYER. We appreciate very much this opportunity.

Mr. SCHEUER. We appreciate your coming down to this committee. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

(The following material was submitted by Mr. Niemeyer for the record :)

A COMPOSITE PICTURE OF FIFTEEN DEMONSTRATION TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR AUXILIARY SCHOOL PERSONNEL CONDUCTED IN 1966

"No one ever listened to me before," said a trainee in a Project to Prepare Teacher Aides for Working with Disadvantaged Children conducted by the Department of Education, San Juan Regional Office in Puerto Rico. Understandably, this auxiliary-participant in the Summer Institute became an effective "listener" in one-to-one or small group relationships with pupils in the practicum' classroom, applying to her work with children in an economically deprived section of San Juan the insights she had gained as to the art of listening and the joy of being heard. In the practicum, she, like the 49 other auxiliary participants, was teamed with a teacher who was himself a participant in the Institute. These 50 teacher-auxiliary teams experimented together in 50 separate classes, with the auxiliary performing a variety of functions related to

1 Practicum is defined as a sustained supervised training experience with children in an actual educational setting.

the learning-teaching process and the teacher playing a triple role: (1) as teacher of the class, (2) as guide to the auxiliary, and (3) as a learner, himself, in terms of effective utilization of the auxiliaries' services. Later, in group counseling sessions, teachers and auxiliaries reviewed their experiences in the classroom and explored the meanings as well as the possible values of their new roles and relationships.

At the University of Maine's Project to Train Auxiliary School Personnel (Teacher-Aides) in connection with NDEA Institute for Advanced Study for Teachers of Disadvantaged Children, listening was also an important function of the auxiliaries, who were mothers receiving Aid to Dependent Children. One pupil in the practicum was heard by a visiting consultant telling an auxiliary about his frustrations in class. The auxiliary was able to interpret the experience to the boy, and the boy's problems to the staff. Some aspects of his complaints were considered by staff and resulted in programmatic changes.

In the Pilot Program to Train Teacher Aides, conducted by the Detroit Public Schools, a spirit of openness to new ideas was evident. Auxiliaries had been used for two years in this school system but the policies restricted their utilization to clerical, custodial and monitorial functions. The teacher auxiliary teams in the Institute were told, in effect, to throw out the "rule book" during the practicum, and to explore just how far they could go in involving the auxiliaries in the learning-teaching process with benefit to the pupils. The teacherparticipants, though willing to put aside the rule book, had to deal with their own not-too-covert fear of auxiliaries usurping the professional's role in the classroom. The director, and the school system supporting him, guaranteed professional standards while the auxiliary appeared not only to understand the need for guarantees based on role differentiation, but openly expressed their desire for maintaining clear lines of role definition. "We work as a team," said one auxiliary, "with the teacher having authority and responsibility, like the head of a firm or the captain of a ship."

In Berkeley, California, during the Project on Teacher Education and ParentTeacher Aides in a Culturally Different Community, an aide reported, “One day I went to a child as I had been doing every day since coming to the classroom almost a month ago, to give him help in reading certain words. The child gave me a beautiful smile one I'll never forget-and said proudly, 'I don't need you any more.' He was on his own. He knew I would be there if he needed me. He now felt sure enough to work by himself." The child who is present physically but completely absent mentally during the independent work period often needs the presence of a concerned adult to help him use the time for such study most profitably. Such a function was performed by aides this autumn in the Berkeley Unified School District schools serving disadvantaged children.

These projects were four of the 15 demonstration training programs financed by the Office of Economic Opportunity and coordinated by Bank Street College of Education as part of its nation-wide Study of Auxiliary Personnel in Education.

The programs were studied in two groups: the preservice group comprising nine programs with preservice training only, and the inservice group comprising six programs with a very brief preservice program followed by an extended program in the regular school situation. All nine preservice programs were of the "institute" type that is to say they enrolled small groups of participants to work intensively for a relatively short period of time (two to eight weeks).

COMMON AIMS AND ELEMENTS

Despite the broad range of geographical distribution and programmatic variations, it is possible to draw a composite picture of the demonstration programs since they all share basic objectives and have certain elements in common, such as: 1) The auxiliary-participants in all projects were selected wholly or in large measure from those at or below the poverty level; 2) Every program combined theoretical instruction with learning through experience in a practicum or regular school classroom; 3) All projects were committed to experiment with auxiliaries in new functions which were directly related to the learningteaching process rather than functions which were indirectly related to instruction, such as simple clerical tasks; 4) There was pre-planning with the local school systems in every case so as to assure employment for the auxiliaries who satisfactorily completed the training program, and to gear the training to the needs of the school system (though not to lose the vitality and growth components in this recognition of reality requirements); 5) Every project had a research director on its staff and included a component of self-evaluation in its program; 6) All were funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity and were coordinated under the Bank Street College of Education Study of Auxiliary Personnel in Education.

These mutual elements were requirements for funding by the O.E.O. in this matrix of demonstration training projects. At work conferences for project directors convened by Bank Street College of Education, these common elements were fused into one basic purpose, which undergirded their diverse but cooperative activities, i.e.

"To formulate hypotheses as to principle and practices which appear to be effective in actual practice for the:

1. role definition and development;

2. training;

3. institutionalization of auxiliary personnel as part of the learningteaching process."

To develop the role of the auxiliary as an integral and contributive factor in American education required an understanding of the whole complex of roles, responsibilities, and relationships involved in the learning-teaching process. Consequently, in the Work Conference for Directors, prior to the completion of project proposals, there was consensus that teachers and administrators had a great deal to learn as well as to give in these training programs. In nine of the 15 programs, therefore, teachers were enrolled as participants to work with auxiliaries in the classroom; to explore role possibilities not only for auxiliaries but also for themselves, in terms of new and more complex professional roles in an aided teaching situation; to evaluate their experiences; and to plan for more effective utilization of auxiliaries in the future. In the projects where there was dual participation (teachers and auxiliaries), role development was facilitated, in the opinion of staff and participants alike.

The principal dilemma appeared to be the conflict between role definition which was recognized as necessary to institutionalization, and role development which was a dynamic of each classroom situation where auxiliaries were utilized. The degree of responsibility assigned to an auxiliary is dependent upon the interaction of a particular teacher and a particular auxiliary operating within a given structure and responding to the special needs of individual pupils. A delicate balance seems to be required in order to provide the specificity that means security along with the flexibility that promotes growth.

In those six projects in which there was a component of group counseling for participants built into the program, there appeared to be far less fear on the part of teacher-participants that standards were threatened by the introduction of non-certified personnel into the classroom. In counseling sessions, teachers tended to recognize and understand their feelings of being somewhat threatened by the presence of another adult in the classroom, and to begin to develop some inner strength to cope with this insecurity.

In some programs, administrators also attended as learners and planners for at least a portion of the training—a significant addition not only to the training program, but to ultimate institutionalization.

2 Berkeley, Howard, Jackson, Maine, Puerto Rico, and Riverside.