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centage of ninth graders staying on to graduate from high school, so that the figure of 56 percent of high school graduates going on to college should not give us too much comfort.

There are a great many young people who for a number of reasons and very basic reasons perhaps, drop out before graduation because of the fact that there is no hope for them to continue beyond high school.

Senator KENNEDY. I was just going to ask some questions about that. I think there is a variation between the figures that were given as to the ones that start in 9th grade and finish the 12th grade and perhaps we could get that straightened out in the record.

Dr. CHASE. Senator, I have some figures developed for the committee bearing on the question. For the 4-year period from 1960 to 1963

Senator MORSE. What page, Doctor?

Dr. CHASE. That is on page 8 of the committee's report, down toward the bottom of the page, the school in the area where the median family income is above $10,000, 73.7 percent of its graduates attend college; and the three schools of lower income, where the family median income was between $5,000 and $7,000, the percentages were 27 percent, 21 percent and 37 percent, respectively.

So that the range within the District for that 4-year period was 21 percent, and 21.1 percent for one of the schools where the family income was lowest ranging upward to 73 and a fraction where the family income was above $10,000.

Even so, my own feeling is that cost is only one of the factors and that the whole set of other factors related to the expectations that are developing which dispose many youngsters from these low-income families from finishing high school and going on to college, and the committee considered this very carefully and all of us believed, this may not be in actual figures, it is hard to document, but all of us believe that the existence of these public colleges in the District would itself change the expectations that many of these young people have in schools like Cardoza, for instance, and that many more of them would, therefore, complete high school, would interest themselves more keenly in academic pursuits, and that a very much higher proportion would go on to college.

Senator KENNEDY. Have you found, following that up, that the areas in the country where colleges are more easily available for young men and women that the rate of drop out from schools, from high schools from the 9th to 12th grade, is lower?

Dr. CHASE. I do not have figures on that. It has been well established that proximity to college is a big factor in attendance at college, and proximity to a low-cost or public-supported college is an important factor.

I do not recall the study, perhaps Dr. Muirhead does, that has made this connection with persistence in high school, although I think there is some general information that indicates that there is such a connection.

Dr. MUIRHEAD. We have a study, which we would be glad to submit for the record, which indicates the persistence in high school, the percentage of high school graduates going on to college, and relates the information to the support of public higher education in the

particular State or area. It seems to me, Mr. Kennedy, that perhaps some correlation could be drawn from such data.

Senator MORSE. I would like to have that study, and I think Senator Kennedy has asked a question that is important. If we can find the data dealing with it; if you can help us, Dr. Muirhead, I wish you would.

Senator KENNEDY. Why is not-if I could get an explicit answer on it-why is not the college system that we have here in the District of Columbia or in the surrounding area satisfactory at the moment?

Isn't the fact that we have three or four or five different colleges, George Washington, Georgetown, Howard University, a number of others; why is that not satisfactory in the college-university system? Why do we need a kind of college system that you have described? Dr. CHASE. I would state a view on that.

One thing the figures show is that Howard University is the only District of Columbia institution that accepts any considerable number of District of Columbia high school graduates. I think in one year there were only 140 graduates of District of Columbia high schools that attended the other 4 universities; I could look that up, but that is my impression. It was very low.

Howard is accepting a comparatively large number, but Howard does not have the facilities, the space, for additional students, it is committed to a national mission, and while it delights in serving the District as best it can it does not feel that it can take on this whole burden.

Now, the other universities simply are not meeting it because of the nature of their admission requirements, because of their costs, the figures on that have been entered into the record, and for a whole set of other reasons; and the record, I think, shows that in every city where there exists excellent public institutions and excellent private institutions the whole tone of the area is upgraded and the city becomes a much more and more attractive center for higher education so that the addition of the public facilities, the Committee felt, was very urgent, indeed.

It is perfectly clear that the comparison with what is being done in the several States and in major cities that the residents of the District of Columbia do not have access to low-cost opportunities for higher education or opportunities which will take care of many able students with "C" records in high schools, which Senator Morse referred to earlier.

Senator KENNEDY. I think that is a good answer, very helpful. I think-going back to the figures you used-the figure was the $5,000 to $7,000 class; do you have that figure at hand?

Dr. CHASE. Yes. where the family median income was between $5,000 and $7,000, there were three schools that had this, and that percentage was 27 percent, 31.1 percent, and 37 percent.

Senator KENNEDY. I wonder, that is the three schools-that is attending college after they graduated from high school? Dr. CHASE. Yes.

Senator KENNEDY. Now, what percentage of the boys and girls starting the ninth grade graduate from those schools? I would be interested in that figure. I would be interested in what the chance of a child starting the ninth grade with a family median income between

$5,000 and $7,000, what chance he had, really, of going to college if he lives in the District of Columbia.

Dr. HANSEN. Let me supply that for the record. (Information requested follows:)

Number of 10th- and 12th-grade pupils, number and percentage of graduates, and number and percentage of 4-year college enrollees of selected senior high schools and of the total senior high schools of the District of Columbia public schools for the years 1961-651

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1 Percentages appearing in the column headed "Graduates, June the number of graduates and the number of 10th graders in the same school in October 2 years before. 9th grade figures cannot be computed because there is no way of identifying what graduates of any junior high school went to a specific high school; students might have dropped out, enrolled in a suburban high school, or entered a private school.

2 College enrollees are pupils who entered 4-year colleges on a full-time basis.

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Senator KENNEDY. Also, what percentage of your families here have incomes in the District of Columbia of less than $5,000?

Dr. HANSEN. I will have to supply that, too.

(Information requested follows:)

The percentage of families in the District of Columbia which have annual incomes of less than $5,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census 1960 report, is 39.9 percent.

The distribution of the families with less than $5,000 is as follows:

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Senator KENNEDY. I think that is quite a high percentage, is it not? Dr. HANSEN. Yes, sir.

Senator KENNEDY. I wonder what the chance for opportunitiesI mean if we talk about free society, it is one thing a person having a Ford or a Cadillac, it is entirely a different kind of a situation of depriving them of an educator or an adequate education; and it seems to me that because a person is born in a family that perhaps does not have as high an income as another family does not necessarily mean they are not as bright, and our society indicates, and particularly in the Capital City of the United States, the capital of the free world, a child that comes from a family that has an income of less than $5,000 has only a tenth or one-twentieth of a chance to go to college as somebody whose income is over $10,000, it raises serious question about our whole society because education is actually the key to opening the door for the future, and if they cannot have an education, and particularly the figures that have been placed in the record here about the opportunities for jobs later on, the ability to support one's family, a child cannot go on to a college and have that kind of an education or have the kind of education that his talent and his energy and his interest warrants, then I think that we have really failed the next generation of Americans, and, of course, that is a very serious indictment.

I would like to have-if I could finish-I would like to have all those figures the opportunity of a child, first the $5,000 to $7,000 class, and how many of those start the 9th grade and finish the 12th grade.

Senator MORSE. Dr. Muirhead and Dr. Hansen, will you compile the figures?

Dr. HANSEN. We can supply that.

Senator KENNEDY. Under the $5,000, because you have quite a number in the District of Columbia living under the poverty level, what is the chance of a ninth grader going on to college in that level?

I think if we can make the study the chairman suggested of finding out if they felt there was a college here and an opportunity to go on in their education at not a great cost to their family, and the possibilities of continuing that education, what is that as demonstrated in other cities.

For instance, in the city of New York where we have free college education, some of the cities in California and other areas, what kind of a difference that made having that kind of an education.

Maybe we could have some kind of a paper on that, because I would think in the debate on the floor of the Senate it will be needed.

Senator MORSE. Dr. Muirhead, I am going to assign that seminar paper to you.

(The information requested follows:)

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION

Percentages of female high school graduates who did not enter college within 1 year after completing grade 12,1 by aptitude percentile,2 and family income

3

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1 College attendance was reported by respondents to the mail questionnaire who constituted about 67 percent of the Project TALENT sample of 12th-grade pupils.

2 Academic aptitude was measured by a composite of 9 Project TALENT tests (C-002). Percentiles are based on a representative sample of pupils in grade 12 (March-April).

3 Family income for 1959, as estimated by 12th-grade pupils on the "Student Information Blank," item No. 173, in 1960.

Note. Data are taken from Project TALENT in U.S. Office of Education cooperative research program project 2333.

Percentages of male high school graduates who did not enter college within 1 year after completing grade 12,1 by aptitude percentile, and family income 3

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1 College attendance was reported by respondents to the mail questionnaire who constituted about 67 percent of the Project TALENT sample of 12th-grade pupils.

2 Academic aptitude was measured by a composite of 9 Project TALENT tests (C-002). Percentiles are based on a representative sample of pupils in grade 12 (March-April).

3 Family income for 1959, as estimated by 12th-grade pupils on the Student Information Blank, item No. 173, in 1960.

NOTE. Data are taken from Project TALENT in U.S. Office of Education cooperative research program, project 2333.

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