We, as an association, have a particular interest in science information services. We realize their great importance to science and development of science as a whole. One of the most important lags of the moment being considered by some scientists is the lag between completion of a research study or report and the time when that report is put to use in further research or technology. The American Psychological Association publishes 12 scientific and professional journals, among which is the world's principal journal of abstracts in psychology. Like other scientific abstracting services, we are unable to handle fully the literature in our field without increasing significantly the size of our operation or developing new methods. FEDERATION OF ABSTRACTING AND INDEXING SERVICES Recently we have joined with other groups to form a federation of abstracting and indexing services with the objective of searching for solutions to our mutual problems. As yet such solutions have not been discovered and our experience leads us to believe that, until further study of the complex problems is completed, it is premature for our association to make any recommendation regarding advisable actions. We do, however, wish to place on record our continuing interest in the problem. We have had a definite display of interest on the part of the National Science Foundation. We mention this because it is our opinion that before a final decision is made as to how science information services should be handled, a further study of the problem is neces sary. We feel, after looking into it this past year or so, that the problem is much more complex, certainly, than we realized when we first got involved in it. NEED FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH A final area of comment, sir, has to do with research on educational problems. We feel rather strongly, in fact very strongly, about the need for research in all aspects of our educational system today. In the bills before us, the Congress is much concerned with scientific research and with education. Questions are raised as to the role of education in advancing research. But to achieve our aims we need to ask another question: How can research advance education? Research can serve education in the same way that it serves such fields as medicine and agriculture. It can test the effectiveness of new programs; it can establish principles which will suggest new procedures; and it can increase the effectiveness of old and new pro cedures. In our current concern for educating the talented, we are making changes in the educational program. We would be delinquent in our duties if we did not institute at the same time a program of evaluation which will tell us whether these various programs are producing their desired results. CONTROVERSIES OVER METHOD We need research to resolve the bitter controversies which now rage regarding educational policy and method. Many of these differences stem from our lack of basic knowledge regarding learning and learners. Only when we know what results various educational programs produce, and when those results are attested by objective scientific evidence, can we settle upon the best of the alternative programs. It is not enough to encourage teachers to put more effort into the teaching of their subjects by the traditional methods. The methods now available to schools are the product of centuries of tradition, but they are by no means proven to be the best. On the contrary, experimental investigations have shown repeatedly that many traditional methods are based in part on false principles and that new and more efficient methods can be invented to replace them. OTHER TYPES OF RESEARCH We need research not only on educational methods. We need a great deal of research on the problems of motivations, goals, and values; we need to know far more about aptitudes and their development; we need to know more about the social forces which encourage or discourage a youth from staying in school and entering a learned profession. Such knowledge as we have already gained through research provides insights and techniques with which we can make a somewhat better use of our human resources, but this use will remain comparatively inefficient until we know far more than we do now. Both of the bills before us recognize that research has an important part to play in education. S. 3163 provides for research in more effective methods of teaching foreign languages. S. 3187 provides for an Institute for Research and Experimentation in New Educational Media. Research in both these fields has already proven its value, and further research efforts are clearly warranted. We would endorse both of these proposals if they were the best that could be adopted— but we regard them as far too restricted. NO EARMARKING OF RESEARCH FUNDS Funds are provided for research on only on specific area in each bill. In our opinion, research funds should be free to follow research opportunity. To earmark funds, as these bills do, for one or two promising areas is to attract investigators into them at the expense of the numerous other research areas whose promise has not been so clearly realized. It is our feeling, then, sir, that consideration of research and the basic importance of it, not only in terms of developing new educational procedure but also in terms of evaluating educational programs, is of very great importance at this time. When the National Institute of Mental Health was organized, the prominent methods for treatment of mental illness were psychotherapy and shock therapy. But within a brief 10 years, shock therapy has nearly faded from the scene. The new techniques of psychopharmacology, barely above the horizon 10 years ago, have shown such promise that this very Senate committee has singled them out for special support and development. In education, likewise, there are numerous promising techniques and principles which merit fully as much research attention as new educational media, and other subjects as much in need of investigation as the foreign languages. Let me very briefly list, by way of example, some of the ways in which research is now opening new vistas. NEW VISTAS Serious questions have been raised about the mathematics curriculum. In high schools and the early years of college, the student rarely encounters the powerful living ideas of modern mathematics. One group of pioneers has already written a new high school mathematics course which is modern from start to finish. Other mathematicians are following the work of the Swiss psychologists Piaget and Inhelder, hoping that their new theories about how we acquire mathematical concepts will suggest a more powerful teaching method. A different approach to mathematics is represented in the teaching machines which Professor B. F. Skinner of Harvard is designing; if these machines succeed, they will provide each student with scientific amounts of practice and reward, freeing the teacher from the role of drillmaster and paper grader. Of even more fundamental interest is the recent proof at the University of Southern California that the aptitudes required for learning calculus depend very much on the way it is taught. This line of work may permit us to teach advanced courses far more thoroughly by using different methods for different types of students. We suggest that the bills before us be liberalized to make funds available for any studies likely to improve education in the fundamental subjects and the utilization of talent. A NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Serious attention should be given to the suggestion of a National Institute of Educational Research, to follow the successful pattern of the National Institutes of Health. Educational questions can be attacked by the same scientific methods that advance us in other practical fields. Nature hides her secrets well, and we dare not turn all our search parties in one direction. The creative investigator must be set free and encouraged to choose his own path. This has always paid off, and it will pay off in education. In conclusion, we would like to express the belief that both S. 3163 and S. 3187 contain basic provisions which can contribute very significantly to the "intellectual preeminence of the United States" and to what this means to our national security and defense, and to the goodness of life for all men. We hope that these provisions will soon be translated into action. The CHAIRMAN. Doctor, you have certainly brought us a very fine, able, and comprehensive statement here this morning. It has been most helpful. I might say it has been in a field on which we have had very, very little testimony, up to the time of your appearance here this morning. We are most grateful to you. Senator Allott, do you have any questions? Senator ALLOTT. Just one question. VALUE OF TESTING AND GUIDANCE If I were an average parent in any one of 10,000 towns in the United States, and you were trying to convince me of the value of testing and guidance, what would you say? Dr. RUSSELL. I will turn this over to my colleague. Dr. CRONBACH. I think the convincing evidence is the records of individual students. We have in this testimony one particular case which illustrates the sort of findings that come up over and over again of children failing in school or doing well below their ability, who become discouraged. The tests directed to these youngsters indeed often show to their parents the potential in their children had gone unrecognized. Help can be provided. Sometimes it is glasses. Sometimes it is remedial reading. Sometimes it is a pat on the back. But I am sure, sir, if you were to see the files and files and files of cases where the testing programs have discovered talent, you would be convinced that they can unearth a resource that must be found for us. Senator ALLOTT. You do not have to convince me, sir, but it occurred to me that while those of us who study this thing accept the value and feel the value of testing and guidance, that perhaps this has not always been put in the way so that the average father and mother realizes the real value it will be to the child. Dr. RUSSELL. May I comment on that? INCLUDING PARENTS IN PROGRAM I think this a very important point, and I would hope that counseling and guidance programs in the local schools would be carried beyond the school environment and the student life into the home and to the parents. It seems to me that here would be a contact which would help to accomplish part of what you have in mind. The parents should be brought into the guidance situation if we are going to get these talented youngsters trained. If they could be brought into the guidance situation and see that information can be provided to them which is to the advantage of their child and their relations with their child, I think the greatest conviction would come. A few cases in a community would do a world of good in getting other parents and families interested. Senator ALLOTT. I agree with that. It seems to me that in my experience, and I have talked with literally hundreds of parents in the past few weeks, that as many of them are frustrated in their efforts to secure proper testing or evaluation of testing that has been given, or proper counseling and guidance and coordinating it, as their children themselves are frustrated. Not only putting this testing and guidance and counseling into effect, but also coordinating it with parents seems to me is a real task, just as you have suggested. Dr. CRONBACH. This is a problem for strong leadership in communities and, unfortunately, it is true in this field, as in the field of foreign languages, which you have discussed earlier this morning, that many of these people who have responsibility in the local schools are filling an important job on inadequate training. The training provided in these bills is desperately needed. The CHAIRMAN. We appreciate you gentlemen being here this morning and the statements you brought us. Now, Mr. W. A. Shannon, executive director of the National School Boards Association. Mr. Shannon, you may proceed. STATEMENT OF W. A. SHANNON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION Mr. SHANNON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the National School Boards Association is a federation of 50 associations of school boards in all 48 States as well as the Territories of Hawaii and Alaska. More than 15,000 local boards of education and approximately 85 percent of the students of the public schools in the United States are represented by this organization. NSBA POLICIES Among the policies adopted by the association are: 1. State and local control of education.-The responsibility for providing public schools is legally vested in the several States, but in large measure the operation of the schools is delegated to local boards of education made up of lay citizens who serve their communities voluntarily and in most cases without remuneration. It is the policy of the National School Boards Association to support the principle that control of public schools shall always be vested in State and local school boards in accordance with State law. 2. Public and private-school relationships.-The National School Boards Association supports the American tradition of the separation of church and state, and urges that it shall be vigorously safeguarded. To this end the association advocates that funds raised by general taxation for educational purposes shall be administered by public officials and shall not be used to support any privately operated schools. The association recognizes and upholds the right of any group to establish and maintain schools financed by its own supporters with such governmental supervision as will assure a minimum standard of instruction and adherence to the Constitution and laws of the United States. The third principal policy I would like to refer to is increased support for public education, and I will only refer to section 3 (e). In principle, funds from Federal or other sources outside the State, intended for assistance of public education, shall be administered by the State education agency through the local boards of education in accordance with State policy and without resttriction other than simple accounting of receipts and disbursements. Senator ALLOTT. I realize the point of view because I have been on the school board and represented school boards from a legal viewpoint for many years, which prompts this statement. Are you a lawyer, by the way? Mr. SHANNON. No. BILLIONS WITHOUT STANDARDS Senator ALLOTT. But, surely, you would not think that Congress would vote, or if you were a Member of Congress that you would vote, what might amount to a billion dollars of money over a period |