obligations which face you, and, on the other hand, the duty and obligations that face the Nation.

We have to have some scientists in the military service. Would you acquire those by virtue of perhaps the ROTC method?

Mr. MEYERHOFF. Yes, sir. I think that these men should be given the option of entering military service or some national service in the scientific and technological fields. Let me give you an example This sharpens it somewhat, to say the least. I have sat down with Gen. Rodney Smith of the Corps of Engineers in the Army and have had him tell me in all sincerity that an engineer cannot function as an engineer during his first tour of duty. He must first learn to be a soldier. Why not? Why can he not carry on engineering duties? They would keep many more engineers in uniform and get them to reenlist if they did that instead of just making soldiers out of them through their first tour of duty.

SOLDIERS FIRST, ENGINEERS LATER

We urged General Smith, when he was in charge, to take that point of view, but he felt that they had to be soldiers first and engineers later. Meanwhile, they were losing much of their engineering skill. We believe that an engineer could very well practice his profession and be a soldier at the same time. It is not too much to ask him to do 2 or 3 things simultaneously while serving in the corps and serving his first tour of duty.

It is our conviction that first of all, the needs of the Army for engineers and the needs for scientists should be filled. They are a first obligation. After that, we believe that unless they can properly be used in uniform, it would be of greater benefit to the Nation in this particular technological offensive, to use them elsewhere, but to use them definitely in the national service.

Senator ALLOTT. Thank you very much.

Mr. MEYERHOFF. In these hearings many able minds have already contributed important and illuminating testimony. It would be presumptuous of me to think that I can add much that is new, but at the risk of repetition and oversimplication, I wish to deal with one educational matter that our commission believes is crucial in meeting our future manpower needs. May I preface consideration of this question with a few facts:

ENGINEERING DROPOUTS DUE TO INADEQUATE PREPARATION

1. Only 52 percent of the freshmen entering engineering courses complete the work for the bachelor of science degree in engineering. In the past 3 years, the percentage has dropped from 57 to 52, and the major cause of attrition is inadequate precollege training.

2. Approximately 60 percent of the young men entering our engineering schools enter with deficiencies in mathematics. About half this number is unable to meet the course requirements stipulated for entrance; the remaining half has had such poor precollege training that it is not equipped to handle freshman engineering mathematics. The CHAIRMAN. Doctor, do you have any figures as to what that figure might have been before World War II?

Mr. MEYERHOFF. No, sir, I do not.

The CHAIRMAN. That is a pretty high percentage.

Mr. MEYERHOFF. Very high.

Actually, in one college which I personally surveyed, 35 percent of the men entered without the paper requirements in mathematics and therefore had to take precollege mathematics. Then, 32 percent of those who entered with the paper requirements were unable to pass the course and had to repeat it.

PROPER PREPARATION IN MATHEMATICS

The CHAIRMAN. You might provide for the record, if you do not have it right here, just what you consider to be required preparation in mathematics for the student in engineering.

Mr. MEYERHOFF. Courses in algebra, of course, from elementary through advanced, trigonometry, plane geometry, are absolutely necessary. There seems to be some willingness now to dispense with solid geometry. But on the other hand there is the hope that there will be some elementary calculus included in the precollege program for engineering. That, however, is rarely offered in any of our high schools or even our private preparatory schools.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Doctor.

Senator ALLOTT. The calculus, then, is regarded as more important than advanced solid geometry?

Mr. MEYERHOFF. Yes, sir, that is correct.

Senator ALLOTT. Is there any reason why a student with a normal I. Q.-I do not know what a normal I. Q. is a normal average student cannot absorb calculus in high school?

Mr. MEYERHOFF. No, sir.

Senator ALLOTT. I am not talking about those on the lower end of the mental ability scale, but I am talking about the average and those above.

STUDENTS' ABILITIES INSUFFICIENTLY TAPPED

Mr. MEYERHOFF. For those above, in my judgment, there is no problem at all, so long as they do not take it too soon. They have to have the algebra and the trigonometry in order to get it. The abilities of our students, I think, are not tapped to the extent that they can be.

Last year the Department of Defense gave me one of these very constructive tours through several of the training centers in all the branches of the service. At Keesler Air Force Base I sat down some time with the instructor in mathematics. He was training these boys to use mathematics in electronics. He told me that he could take reasonably intelligent boys and, within 6 weeks, he could teach or review their elementary algebra, teach them intermediate and advanced algebra. They needed very little geometry, but what they needed, could be taught. They were taught trigonometry and an introduction to calculus. Of course they did very little else. He said that he had only 6 percent unable to pass that course.

He did not select the people. They were selected before they came to the Keesler Air Force Base. His secret was that he would teach them something and then he would show them how to apply it. The retention, he said, was remarkable because they could then go into

electronics work or technical work, and they retained all the mathematics they needed for the work.

The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, Doctor.

DEFICIENCIES IN HIGH SCHOOL TRAINING

Mr. MEYERHOFF. The third point I would like to talk about relates to deficiencies in high school training. These are likewise reflected in the comparatively small number of men who make grades of 80 or better on the Selective Service college qualification test. This I looked up, and it is 11 percent.

A grade of 80 or more must be obtained if any student is to qualify for student deferment, to continue into graduate study. Significant, though less conclusive, is the 50 percent of 4-F's who lack the mentality for military service, not to mention the even larger number of men who have been accepted for service but who have been put in the fourth, or lowest, category of intelligence and who are considered mentally or intellectually unsuited for any of the technical assignments available in every branch of the service. I might add, it is crucial in every branch of the service.

These facts have but one meaning. The training our young people are receiving at the primary and secondary school levels is not adequate for the technological age in which we are living. It will serve no useful purpose to assess the blame for the situation that exists, but its correction is of the utmost importance.

PRINCIPAL CAUSE OF ATTRITION: FAILURE IN MATHEMATICS

There would be no shortage of engineers or scientists, now or at any time in the immediate future, if the attrition rate in our colleges can be cut, say from 48 to 24 percent. And since failure in mathematics and other basic subjects is the principal cause of attrition, our first concern should be with the secondary school training of our youth.

In our public schools, there are several matters that demand changes for the better, but the principal problem requiring solution is the recruitment and the retention of good and well-trained teachers. May I cite figures gathered by Dr. Ray Maul, of the research division of the National Education Association. His survey of high school teaching needs was complete for 29 States.

FACULTY VACANCIES IN HIGH SCHOOLS

In a single year he found that there were 1,919 vacancies in mathematics, but only 1,047 teachers trained in mathematics could be found to fill these posts. The remaining 872 vacancies were filled by teachers trained in fields other than mathematics.

I might say that I was sorry for the 14 music teachers in that group who were forced to teach mathematics because of the lack of trained personnel.

Under these circumstances, is it any wonder that fewer than 40 percent of the freshmen entering our engineering schools are adequately prepared to take and to pass freshman mathematics?

APPALLING WASTE IN INTELLECTUAL MANPOWER

The record of dropouts in our engineering schools and departments of science represents one of the most appalling wastes with which we must deal now and for years to come. It is here that we should seek the scientists and the engineers we need, for these young men and women have demonstrated an interest in higher education, as well as the requisite intellectual capacity by passing college entrance examinations.

We do not have to worry either about their motivation or about their mental ability. To salvage them, however, we must concentrate upon the quality of precollege instruction, for it is here that the opportunity for a professional career in any field is either won or lost.

Senator ALLOTT. Doctor, at that point, it might be well to point out that on March 2 the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare released figures which show that about 1 out of 4 students who enter colleges drop out by the end of the first year. This equals roughly the number who drop out of the succeeding years.

Mr. MEYERHOFF. Yes, sir; that is correct. Of course, the highest mortality is in the first year, and it is good to weed out those who should not be in college at that time. Nonetheless, there are those who could stay if their precollege training were adequate.

RECRUITMENT OF NEW TEACHERS

Through its summer and all-year institutes, the National Science Foundation has already launched a splendid program to retrain and upgrade the teachers we now have in science and mathematics. But something more is needed-namely, a program to recruit new teachers. In large part, the responsibility must rest upon our States and communities, for they fix the teachers' salaries and create the social atmosphere in which they must work.

On the other hand, it is possible to provide funds and other incentives in legislation that will encourage young people to train for teaching as a career. Since training is a slow process, it may be hoped that, by the time they complete their college work, salaries and working conditions will be substantially improved.

FACULTY VACANCIES AT COLLEGE LEVEL

It is not only at the high-school level that well-trained teachers are needed. There is an equally ominous shortage at the college and university levels. In a survey of faculty needs in institutions of higher learning, specifically for academic year 1956-57, Dr. Maul found that 739 new faculty appointments were made in our schools of engineering, but 226 vacancies could not be filled-properly trained personnel were not available. Among mathematics departments, 411 new appointments were made, but there were 148 vacancies left. In the physical sciences, new appointments numbered 695, but 225 vacancies remained unfilled.

Although the possession of a doctor of philosophy degree is not necessarily the mark of a good teacher in our colleges and universities, it is an index of an individual's background for teaching. Dr. Maul found that there has been steady deterioration in the quality of training among teachers in our institutions of higher learning.

DETERIORATION IN COLLEGE TEACHERS' TRAINING

For example, in academic year 1953-54, 40.5 percent of the full-time instructional staffs in 829 institutions of higher learning held earned doctor's degrees, but among the new full-time teachers employed in that year, the percentage was only 31.4. In the ensuing years, the ratio dropped steadily, and in academic year 1956-57, the percentage of new staff members holding earned doctor's degrees was only 23.5. In the same period from 1953-54 to 1956-57-only 11.1 percent of the new teachers in engineering had acquired doctor of philosophy degrees, whereas 64.8 percent lacked even a master's degree.

Indeed, I might add here, in one of our major northern universities, and I can name it if you wish, 60 hours of freshman mathematics were taught by undergraduate majors in mathematics because of lack of personnel.

In one of our southern institutions with an engineering school, only 60 percent of the positions for mechanical engineers were filled as of last year.

PREVENTION OF SECOND-RATE EDUCATION

The Nation most urgently needs scientists and engineers with the best possible training we can give them if it is to maintain its economic supremacy and its position of military security. In Dr. Maul's words:

These institutions of higher education are already suffering a serious deterioration in the quality of their instructional staffs *** The total number of persons with high-level skills and comprehensive preparation does not equal the present demand *** Right now the total resources of the colleges and universities are not equal to the task which only they can perform. If they continue to be priced out of the market *** the quality of their educational service will deteriorate at the very moment it should be further strengthened * * * This means second-rate education for a larger and larger number of our youth.

NO SHORTAGE OF STUDENTS

We are not short of students. Our high schools and our colleges have the largest enrollments in history. More youngsters are earning high school diplomas than ever before, and approximately one-third of them are now entering institutions of higher learning. And more of them are paying their own way than ever before.

In September of 1957, 297,100 students were enrolled in engineering the highest enrollment on record, not even excluding the GI bulge of 1947-48, when 244,400 engineering students were enrolled. Although precise figures are not available for students of science, the situation in our departments of science is approaching and roughly parallels that in colleges of engineering.

There is no need, therefore, to channel more young people into these professional fields, even though we must take appropriate steps to continue the normal and ever-increasing flow. What we do need is to insure that the young people who are entering our institutions of higher learning in greater numbers will not get the second-rate education that Dr. Maul forecasts.

A first-rate education can be guaranteed only if there are faculties, facilities, and finances ample to do the job at the higher educational level, and only if there are teachers at the primary- and secondaryschool levels to give our young people the grounding in basic subjects that makes the difference between success and failure in college.