A Report to APRIL 1956 The Committee for ON EDUCATION FULL REPORT For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office COMMITTEE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, President of the United States-Honorary Chairman. S. M. BROWNELL, U. S. Commissioner of Education-Honorary Vice Chairman. MILDRED C. AHLGREN, Whiting, Ind., past president, General Federation of ETHEL G. BROWN, Los Angeles, Calif., president, National Congress of Parents and Teachers. RALPH J. BUNCHE, Kew Gardens, N. Y., Under Secretary, United Nations. JOHN COWLES, Minneapolis, Minn., president, Minneapolis Star & Tribune. ALBERT J. HAYES, Silver Spring, Md., president, International Association of MARGARET HICKEY, St. Louis, Mo., editor, Public Affairs Department, Ladies Home Journal. HENRY H. HILL, Nashville, Tenn., president, George Peabody College for Teachers. MILDRED MCA. HORTON, Cambridge, Mass., past president, Wellesley College. ALLAN B. KLINE, Western Springs, Ill., past president, American Farm Bureau W. PRESTON LANE, JR., Hagerstown, Md., Ex-Governor of Maryland. ROY E. LARSEN, Fairfield, Conn., president and director, Time, Inc., past chairman, National Citizens Commission for the Public Schools. THOMAS LAZZIO, Paterson, N. J., president, Local 300, UAW-CIO. JOSEPH C. MCLAIN, Mamaroneck, N. Y., principal, Mamaroneck Senior High School. WILLIAM E. MCMANUS, Washington, D. C., assistant director, Department of Education, National Catholic Welfare Conference. LORIMER D. MILTON, Atlanta, Ga., president, Citizens Trust Co. DON G. MITCHELL, Summit, N. J., chairman of board, Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. FRANK C. MOORE, Buffalo, N. Y., president, Government Affairs Foundation, Inc. HERSCHEL D. NEWSOM, Takoma Park, Md., master, National Grange. WILLIAM S. PALEY, Manhasset, N. Y., chairman of board, Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. JAMES F. REDMOND, New Orleans, La., superintendent of schools. MARTHA SHULL, Portland, Oreg., teacher and first vice president, National Education Association. RANK H. SPARKS, Crawfordville, Ind., president. Wabash College. POTTER STEWART, Cincinnati, Ohio, judge, U. S. Court of Appeals. JESSE G. STRATTON, Clinton, Okla., past president, National School Boards Association, Inc. HAROLD W. SWEATT, Minneapolis, Minn., chairman of board, Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co. H. GRANT VEST, Denver, Colo., State Commissioner of Education. MAYME E. WILLIAMS, Miami, Fla., teacher and president, National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers. CLINT PACE, Director. L 106 .1955 W59 Letter of Transmittal COMMITTEE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION, DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: Washington, D. C., April 6, 1956 The Committee for the White House Conference on Education, appointed by you to carry out the provisions of Public Law 530, 83d Congress, submits herewith its report, which includes the Committee's findings and recommendations in the field of elementary and secondary education. The report is in three principal parts: (1) the Committee's statements and recommendations, based on its own studies and the results of the State, Territorial, and White House Conferences on Education; (2) the report of the White House Conference as it was developed in that meeting November 28 through December 1, 1955; and (3) a summary of the reports of the 53 State and Territorial Conferences on Education called by the Governors at your request. Materials used in the development of this report are on file in the United States Office of Education. The issues confronting the schools are so complex and so bound to the inevitable changes of time that no one report can hope to be more than an installment of what must be a continuing study. Neither can a single report, on so broad a topic as the education of millions of American children and youth, represent either the exact opinions of a single person or any view shared by all. Some of the matters discussed in this report have been debated since the beginning of formal education, and some will be debated, perhaps, forever. The Committee's part of this report is not intended as a final pronouncement on the needs and resources of American education. It should be read for what it is: the statements and conclusions of a committee of 34 persons who, with their staff and consultants, considered the facts available to them within the time allotted. It is general in its nature because the diversity within the American school system does not lend itself to national patterns. On most questions, the Committee found itself in unanimous agreement. Its members held a wide variety of viewpoints and opinions and, in fact, were selected for their task partly on that basis. If they were to express themselves individually on the matters within this report, there would no doubt be many differences in emphasis and |