substantially improved and the means to include local school boards as active participants in the planning and implementation of such programs.

12. REIMBURSEMENT FOR LOCAL PLANNING COSTS

The National School Boards Association recommends the inclusion within all federal legislation and administrative regulations of provisions to insure that the planning costs incurred by local school districts be included as a reimbursable cost in the administration of such programs.

13. EXTENSION OF THE YEARS OF EDUCATION

A. The National School Boards Association recommends that local school districts conduct pilot programs of early childhood education, with provisions for evaluation, follow-up and appropriate involvement of other community agencies, and, further, that local school districts experiment with various organizational patterns of education in an effort to embrace all organized public efforts in education within a cohesive whole.

B. NSBA further urges state departments of education to study and consider the best ways to organize, administer and finance a system of public schools extending two years below the traditional first grade and two years beyond the traditional twelfth grade, as appropriate to their individual states.

C. The National School Boards Association recommends the transfer of Head Start programs from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Office of Education, to alleviate fragmentation of the total educational effort.

14. NEGOTIATIONS LEGISLATION

The nature of teacher-administrator-board relationships continues to be an issue of serious and growing proportions. The Delegate Assembly requests the NSBA Executive Office to collect and disseminate information on this subject to the state school boards associations. It recommends that the state associations address the many facets of this complex subject with earnest attention, to the end that they may develop principles and criteria useful in preparing or evaluating negotiations legislation with a view to retaining the authority and responsibilities of school boards.

15. RECIPROCITY OF TEACHER CERTIFICATION AMONG STATES

The Delegate Assembly requests the National School Boards Association to take leadership in urging the chief state school officers to study the feasibility of reciprocity of teacher certification and its merits and disadvantages to individual states.

16. GUIDELINES AND REGULATIONS

The National School Boards Association believes that policies and guideline statements for school desegregation should be in keeping with the intent and provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and should be uniformly applicable throughout the nation.

17. FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION

The National School Boards Association reaffirms its support of the principle that federal funds for public educational purposes should include funds in the form of general aid, administered without federal control, through the United States Office of Education and the appropriate state agency in accordance with state policy.

The National School Boards Association supports the passage of legislation to the extent that it embodies these principles.

NSBA recommends that the Congress provide for a study of existing and proposed legislation so that the will of Congress can be reached in an orderly manner and without creating added difficulties for local school districts.

It further recommends that legislation adopted as a result of such study be designed so as to encourage and allow long-range local planning, as well as provide for an orderly implementation of any modifications.

The full resources of the National School Boards Association are offered to cooperate in this study.

18. APPRECIATION

The success of a meeting of the magnitude of the 1967 Convention of the National School Boards Association is dependent upon a great many persons who contribute materials, services, time and talents. To express the Association's gratitude for these efforts, it is requested that letters of appreciation and thanks be sent to program participants, planning and hospitality committee members, exhibitors and others who contributed to this success. The Delegate Assembly expresses its commendation and appreciation to the NSBA staff for their extraordinary efforts in preparing for and carrying out the 1967 convention program. The NSBA President is asked, further, to express the special gratitude of the Delegate Assembly to the Portland School Board and to the Oregon School Boards Association for the warm hospitality extended and for their many services to assure a successful convention.

19. SCHOOL BOARD REPRESENTATION ON NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEES

The Delegate Assembly requests that the NSBA Board of Directors and staff actively seek to obtain local school board representation on all national advisory committees involving the public elementary and secondary schools.

The Delegate Assembly further urges that provision be made for substantial participation and involvement by local school board members in the formulation of national guidelines and regulations which affect the local public schools.

STATEMENT BY EILEEN D. COOKE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON OFFICE, AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

EDUCATION PROFESSIONS DEVELOPMENT ACT, TITLE V OF S. 1126

Miss COOKE. My name is Eileen Cooke. I am assistant director of the Washington office of the American Library Association, a nonprofit, professional organization of more than 35,000 librarians and laymen who are dedicated to the development, extension, and improvement of library service as an essential element in the educational, business, scientific, and cultural resources of the Nation.

Mr. Chairman, it is an honor and a pleasure to have the opportunity to appear before this committee in support of the legislation to amend and extend title V of the Higher Education Act-the Education Professions Development Act.

Because of the increasing complexity of daily living and our expanding technology, more importance is attached to the role of education and specialized skills than ever before. It is essential, therefore, that all our people have every possible resource available human and material-to draw upon in order to inform themselves to the limit of their capacities and to lead productive lives. With this in mind, the American Library Association endorses the provisions in the Education Professions Development Act, which aim to coordinate, broaden, and strengthen programs for the training and improvement of teachers and other educational personnel so as to improve the quality of teaching and to help meet the critical shortages of adequately trained educational personnel.

The provisions in the proposed title V amendments to the Higher Education Act are essential if our schools, colleges, and universities are to meet the demands not only of overwhelming enrollments but of student needs to achieve educational excellence.

In the manpower report submitted to Congress in 1967, attention is called to the "paradox of prosperity," to the fact that expansion of our economy will not, by itself eliminate all unemployment. The President emphasized the need for moving in new directions to meet this perennial problem. He said, "We must bridge the gap between education and work."

Considering this, we recognize that the teaching profession must function as the central arch in our national effort to span this gap. The Education Professions Development Act, being considered by this committee, could well provide the supporting pillars to undergird this desperately needed bridge by helping to meet the acute educational manpower needs.

According to the manpower report:

The demand for teachers rose by roughly 10 percent between 1965 and 1966, because of the new school improvement programs made possible by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and a growth in enrollments slightly larger than anticipated. At the same time, there was apparently a decline in the proportion of new graduates of teacher training courses who actually went into teaching (presumably because of the availability of other attractive positions).

This same critical situation exists in the field of librarianship, a profession closely allied to teaching. So pressing is the problem that the American Library Association is devoting a day and a half of its conference in San Francisco next week to the crisis in library man

power. This is “* * an effort to reach a degree of common understanding of the problems involved in the manpower shortage and a measure of consensus about steps to take to resolve the problems," according to ALA President Mary Gaver.

The members of the American Library Association are pleased and appreciative of Congress recognition of the need for well-trained, highly qualified librarians in authorizing grants to institutions of higher education to assist them in training persons in librarianship under title II-B of the Higher Education Act. When this program is adequately funded, it can do much to alleviate a critical situation. However, there are still abysmal shortages of librarians to staff all types of libraries, and the most urgent need at present is in the school libraries serving the children and young people of the Nation. While this condition exists, all possible assistance, such as provided in title V-C, is needed to attract and train more qualified persons to serve as school librarians and library aides.

During the 1966-67 school year, the prospective teacher fellowship program (title V-C of the Higher Education Act) provided 70 fellowships for courses in the field of library science out of the 1,530 allocated. And, under the experienced teacher fellowship programs, 40 of the 937 allocated were in the field of library science.

However, in 1967-68, none of the 1,500 experienced teacher fellowships were awarded for library training, and only two library schools were allocated training funds under the prospective teacher fellowship program.

Even though commendable progress is being made in increasing the number of qualified school librarians, there still remains an acute shortage of personnel. The acceleration of the expenditure of large amounts of money including such Federal programs as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for school library resources and other printed and published materials has created an enormous demand for many more school librarians than are available. Librarians are essential to insure wise expenditure of funds for books and other materials and to plan programs making these materials both accessible and useful to the children and young people who need them.

Not more than 25 percent of the school libraries are staffed with trained librarians, and of those librarians many need additional institute-type training to meet the demands placed on today's school libraries. Lack of adequately trained professional school librarians is the most serious handicap in providing effective school libraries that support every facet of the elementary and secondary programs of instruction.

For example, a study by Harry T. Gumaear, director of college curriculums for teacher education, New Jersey State Department of Education, considered the school librarian shortage in New Jersey, including the needs of public and private schools, elementary and secondary schools, and predictive data about enrollment. Mr. Gumaear found that New Jersey alone requires more than 250 additional school librarians for each of the next 10 years if the students in New Jersey schools are to have adequate library service.

If the total needs of the 50 States are considered, it is obvious that there is a manpower crisis in school librarianship, as well as in the teaching profession as a whole.

In the legislation now being considered by the committee (title V of S. 1126), the potential for the general improvement of education is great. Section 502 (a) proposes the establishment of a National Advisory Council on Education Professions Development. It is to be hoped that balanced representation will be provided on such a council, including representation from school librarianship or library education. Such representation is important because school librarians deal with instructional materials affecting teaching and learning at all levels and because the use of educational media affects the quality of teaching.

Part D authorizes grants or contracts for carrying out programs or projects to improve the qualifications of persons who are serving or preparing to serve in educational programs in elementary and secondary schools. It is our understanding that the term "educational media specialists," as used in this part, covers the whole range of media, and includes school librarians as well as audiovisual specialists. School librarians today are concerned with the acquisition and dissemination of all educational media.

In addition to the great need for training and retraining at the professional level, there is also need for the type of training which would be provided in part D, section 531 (3) of the bill now being considered in the House (H.R. 10943). This would provide "programs or projects to train teacher aides and other nonprofessional educational personnel."

Teacher aides have provided valuable assistance to school libraries in helping the trained librarian. For example, a recent report from North Carolina indicates that in almost every school where teacher aides have been used, such aides have been assigned to assist in the school library program because of the need for improved library service in reinforcing the education programs.

Part E, section 541 (a) authorizes the Commissioner to make grants or contracts with institutions of higher education to assist them in training persons who are serving or preparing to serve as teachers, administrators or educational specialists in institutions of higher education. In this connection, we assume, likewise, that the term "educational specialist" includes not only audiovisual specialists but librarians who serve in junior or community colleges, senior colleges, or universities.

It is our belief that the Teacher Corps has great potential for strengthening and expanding educational opportunity for children in depressed urban and rural areas. We urge, therefore, that this program be continued and improved, and adequate appropriations provided.

In view of the critical shortages in all areas of teaching, we strongly recommend prompt enactment of the proposed amendments to title V of the Higher Education Act.

On behalf of the American Library Association, I wish to express our gratitude for your courtesy, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, in permitting us to express our views on this important

measure.