that of their parents, is the lowest of any group. This situation is the result of many factors associated with a migratory life and with a condition of poverty which characterizes seasonal and intermittent agricultural employment. Even such educational opportunities as are available to these people are often neglected. These opportunities, however, can be greatly improved through State action to assist local educational agencies to meet burdens imposed by the presence of migrant workers' children, and by adult education programs conducted by the home States of these workers. Although the condition of migrant workers is more widely known than that of other culturally and economically impoverished groups, their educational needs are not markedly different. The meeting of these needs is a proper concern of the States. The most obvious reason for the more general awareness of the problems of migrant agricultural workers is the fact of the wide geographical dispersal of such workers. Our evidence indicates that at least some county or other school systems in all but seven or eight States have children of migrant agricultural workers residing in them from time to time. No accurate national figure of the total number of migrant children exists, but estimates range from 350,000 to 500,000. In many counties, the impact upon the local schools is severe when the peak season of the crop harvest coincides with the school year. This is the type of condition, Mr. Chairman, to which you referred to as existing in San Antonio, Tex. It occurs in many other places. Obviously, State financial assistance is needed for such school districts. But despite growing interest and State action to deal with this problem, much remains to be done. The Office of Education has sought to supply leadership in two ways to encourage effective action to meet this problem. First, the Office has organized or participated in regional conferences dealing with the educational needs of migrant workers and their children. The most recent of these was the Western Education Conference for 12 Western States, held by the Office in Phoenix, Ariz., on the 8th and 9th of April, 1960. Following this, on April 10-13, the Office participated in the Western Interstate Conference on Migratory Labor, in Phoenix. This is the latest of a series of regional meetings aimed at interstate action on these problems. Secondly, through the cooperative research program, the Office has contracted for five cooperative research projects in the field of the education of children of migrant workers. These projects are concerned both with the basic learning problems of these children and with the organization of school agencies to meet their needs. For the information of the committee, I have a brief summary of each of these five projects. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I should like to request that these summaries be inserted in the record at this point. Mr. BAILEY. Hearing no objection, the request will be granted. (The summaries referred to follow :) FINAL SUMMARIES OF RESEARCH SUPPORTED UNDER THE TERMS OF PUBLIC LAW 531 Duration: 1 year and 9 months (January 1, 1957, to September 30, 1958). "The present study has sought to clarify the educational patterns of migrant children in two localities in Van Buren County. The findings may not be expected to apply to all migrants. Given the fluidity and turnover within the migrant labor force, the data cannot be claimed to reflect the situation today or next year. Nevertheless, the data are in accord with the few existing reports of migrant education. "The research suggests that a variety of experiences affect the education of the migrant child. Although few families 'like' migrancy and plan to continue, the length of years in migrancy and the amount of moves each year serve to gradually retard school-age children. Later starts in school, frequent withdrawals, and absences diminish school contacts. Where parents are also uninterested, it is not surprising to find retardation and dropouts so common among these children. "What is perhaps more surprising is the high valuation which is placed upon schooling. Indeed, considering the nature of the handicaps which face the migrant, the retardation of children is perhaps less than might have been predicted. Given the migrant circumstances, it is the dependence upon children's income which seemingly is a fundamental block to educational advancement. "Favorable attitudes to teachers, growers, and businessmen suggest the possibility that encouragement and assistance by local people might be helpful. Summer schools would benefit a substantial minority, especially those in the Keeler area. As education becomes increasingly important to the individual as well as to the society as a whole, migrants may be expected to desire, rather than merely approve of, education. The community which provides these opportunities to its children, permanent residents or migrants, will aid those children, the community itself, and the Nation." Final report accepted: August 21, 1959. Title: The Improvement of School Organization and Administration to Meet the Needs of Children of Migrant Farm Workers (USOE/307). Investigator: William G. McDonough. Institution: State Department of Education, Denver, Colo. Project No.: 307. Starting date: January 1958. Closing date: December 1960. "PROBLEM "The purpose of this study is to improve educational facilities, organization, and curricula for the children of domestic agricultural migrant workers. "MAJOR OBJECTIVES "1. To identify existing obstacles in the education of children of migrant workers; "2. To identify the best methods for teaching migrant children; "3. To find ways to integrate the educational program for migrant children with the total school program; "4. To establish better systems for recordkeeping in relation to these children; and "5. To investigate needed inservice training programs for teachers of migrant children. 1 This brief description of the completed research project has been prepared by the principal investigator as part of the final report (pp. 21-22) and does not necessarily represent the viewpoint of the Office. Additional information should be obtained from the individual whose name is given above. (The final report of the above title can be purchased from Western Michigan University Press, Kalamazoo, Mich., 50 cents a copy.) "PROCEDURES AND DESIGN "Several experimental summer schools for migrant children will be established. Other schools with migrant children will cooperate in the study as a control group. Through observation, interviews, analysis of extant records, questionnaires, and tests, data regarding the ability, achievement, health, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, etc., of migrant children will be gathered. State legal provisions affecting the education of migrant children, psychological factors affecting their assimilation into American life, and the implications of data regarding migrant children to preservice and inservice preparation of teachers will also be studied." Title: Late School Entrance and Children's Adjustment.2 Institution: Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla. Duration: 3 months (June 16, 1958, to September 15, 1958). "In order to study the relationship between late school entrance and children's adjustment, 51 children from fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, Fla., who entered schools in these counties between December 1, 1957, and February 15, 1958, are compared with a matched as well as a stratified (randomly selected from each room) group of children starting school at the regular school opening in early September 1957. Statistical comparisons are made between the late and early school entrants on their scores on: Sociometric tests, Ohio social acceptance scale, Haggerty-Olson-Wickman behavior rating schedules, schedule B, Iowa adaptation-manifest anxiety test, and the California test of personality. The Wiley child guidance attitude scale was administered to the teachers of the children before the study began. Comparisons are made on initial (at school entry) scores, end-of-year scores, and change or progress scores on all test instruments are studied. The results are generally negative in that the scores on personal-social adjustment of late school entrants differ little from those of early school entrants. The results are: "1. Early school entrants tend to hold their social status positions (sociometric and OSAS scores) throughout the year. Considerable constancy in scores exists. "2. The shifts (gain or loss) in status of early school entrants, which do occur, show a significant relationship to number of late school entrants coming into the group, over the short period of time October-February, but the number of newcomers does not appear to be related to changes in the original group members over longer time periods. Greater losses in status occur more frequently when many late entrants come in a short time period. These findings occur with sociometric test data; however, the OSAS does not reveal a shifting in acceptance scores related to numbers of late school entrants. "3. Late school entrants tend to choose the already well-chosen members of the group on the sociometric test on both the 'work' and 'play' criteria. "4. There are no differences in early school entrants' choices for late school entrants on the two criteria, work and play, in February; however, by April the early school entrants direct significantly more of their choices to late school entrants on the 'work' criterion than on the 'play' criterion. "5. Late school entrants are below the original group members in social status through the year. The difference on the OSAS is not significant in April and the late school entrants appear to be making some progress in social status gains. Significant gains are evidenced between February and April on both sociometric and OSAS data. "6. Late school entrants do not differ significantly from early school entrants at any time in the year on their scores on the anxiety test, H-O-W, or California test of personality. "7. Teachers' child guidance attitudes as measured by the Wiley child guidance attitudes scale do not appear to be related to the late school entrants' measures of adjustment (test score gains and losses during the year). 2 This brief description of the completed research project has been prepared by the principal investigator as part of the final report (pp. 33-34) and does not necessarily represent the viewpoint of the Office. Additional information should be obtained from the individual whose name is given above. 55908-60- 2 "The data on social status and social acceptance were most definitive in distinguishing between early and late school entrants. Other tests measuring adjustment revealed no differences between early and late school entrants. relationship of late school entrance and measures of school achievement remains unexplored." Final report accepted: November 20, 1958. The Title: Late School Entrance, Social Acceptance and Children's School Achievement.3 Investigator: Dr. Walter D. Smith. Institution: Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla. Duration: 10 months (January 1, 1959-October 31, 1959). "This study was conducted to test certain hypotheses of a social psychological nature which could be related to pupil mobility in the public schools. Its applied goal was to investigate: (1) the effects of late school entrance on children's school achievement, (2) the effects of the entrance of many new children during the school year on the school achievement of the early or regularly entering children, and (3) the relationship of social acceptance to school achievement. "The subjects were the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade pupils from 53 white public school classrooms in Pinellas County, Fla. Forty-seven late school entrants (entering school between November 23, 1958, and February 13, 1959) were selected from these schools and matched with 47 early school entrants on the basis of age, IQ, sex, socioeconomic status, and classroom assignment. In addition to the matched experimental-control group (matched late and early school entrants), 93 late school entrants (also entering school after November 23, 1958) were selected from the same grade ranges from all late school entrants in the county and compared with 93 randomly selected early school entrants from one representative school. These matched and unmatched groups constituted the 280 subjects used in this study and provided the data upon which all analyses were based. "The hypotheses tested were that: (1) late school entrants would make less achievement progress; (2) låte school entrants' social acceptance scores would be positively related to achievement; (3) achievement progress would be greater in classes with fewer new entrants; and (4) the combined effects of late school entrance and low social acceptance would produce lower achievement progress. "In order to test these hypotheses, all subjects were administered two forms of the Metropolitan achievement test, the Pinter general intelligence test, the Syracuse scale of social acceptance, and the McGuire-White socioeconomic index. Controls were administered the appropriate grade level forms of the Pinter and the Metropolitan tests and general information sheets were completed by the teachers in October; late school entrants, or experimental subjects, were given the same tests in February. All subjects in the matched groups were given the McGuire-White socioeconomic index in March 1959. Between April 27 and May 1, 1959, alternate forms of the Metropolitan achievement test were given to all subjects; the Syracuse scale of social relations was also administered at that time. These "Achievement data used in testing the hypotheses were taken from five subtests of the appropriate form of the Metropolitan achievement tests. were: word knowledge, reading, spelling, arithmetic computation, and arithmetic reasoning. Raw scores were converted to grade equivalents and average monthly gains were computed. Differences in progress in school achievement between matched groups of late and early school entrants were tested by means of 't' tests. The relationship between social acceptance and achievement progress was tested by the Spearman rank order correlation method. The effect of late entering children coming into classrooms upon achievement progress of the early school entrants in the classrooms was tested by a simple analysis of variance of achievement progress scores. The combined effects of social acceptance and late entrance was tested by means of a distribution-free analysis of variance technique. 3 This brief description of the completed research project has been prepared by the principal investigator. Additional information should be obtained from the individual whose name is given above. "The results of the statistical analysis did not support the hypotheses. There was evidence that late school entrants made somewhat greater achievement progress than did the early school entrants. In addition, no significant relationship was found between social acceptance and school achievement. In examining the data on the several subtests for the combined effects of late school entrance and social acceptance on school achievement, it was found that late school entrance was associated with greater school achievement progress and lower social acceptance. The original hypothesis was not supported. "The interpretation of results included the suggestion that late school entrants might be more 'teacher' oriented and might strive harder to achieve. The possibilities of late school entrants coming from homes and schools or greater 'motivational' value for school achievement was also raised. Failure to control other personal-social characteristics of the subjects is also to be considered as well as errors in testing procedure calling for different dates for administering first tests to the two groups. "It may well be that the social psychological significance of moving from one school to another may not be so great in today's schools. A clinical approach to the problems, concentrating on individual cases, is suggested." Final report accepted: November 18, 1959. Title: Determining an effective educational program for children of migratory workers in Wisconsin. Investigator: Dr. Donald R. Thomas, assistant professor of education. Project number: 674. Period of operation: September 1959 to September 1960. "This study proposes to determine an effective educational program for children of agricultural migratory workers in the State of Wisconsin. The intent of the total study is to answer three questions. One, is it possible to predict the arrival of specific migrant children in specific areas at specific times with enough accuracy that programs of education for those children are feasible? Two, can the operation of programs of education for migratory children be made financially realistic enough to insure permanent establishment of such programs through local community, State, and Federal resources? Third, can a teaching program appropriate to the needs of migrant children be developed which will achieve significant results for all of the children in the short periods of time available? "The initial phase, represented in the current project, will be to develop form X which crew leaders will be asked to file, along with their labor contract, listing the names, ages, and home school of all children accompanying their crew. Confirmation of the arrival of such children at the predicted time and place in Wisconsin will be tabulated. Simultaneously, on the bases of the returns of form X, a second form, Y, will be sent to the home school of the children thus identified, seeking a brief educational assessment of each child. Stage 1, just described above, will respond only to the predictive procedure question. Stage 2 and 3, based upon and dependent upon stage 1, will be concerned with (1) the location, financing, and operating of appropriate schools in cooperation with the Wisconsin State Department of Public Instruction, and (2) the development of a curriculum for such schools, and will be constituted as an extension to the current project." Mr. FLYNT. May I say also, Mr. Chairman, that if the committee should be interested in further details concerning these projects, three of them have been completed and full details of the findings could be made available. While these bills are concerned with the educational deficiencies of the children of migrant agricultural workers, we would emphasize that education is but one of the many problems of these underprivileged people, and that the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has both an active interest and ongoing programs of leadership in a wide range of the problems affecting this group. For instance, the Public Health Service has a unit devoted exclusively to the health needs of migrant workers. I have here an extremely |