The development of guidelines which would protect the rights of such school aides while making effective use of them. STAFF TRAINING There is general recognition that effective teacher training programs are most important for effective education. This is especially true for staffs in those schools which may be selected to begin implementation of such programs as suggested by the AFT. The AFT recommends: • Discussions be held between the school district and the nearby colleges and universities which train the major segments of the district's school staff to formulate realistic teacher pre-service education programs. • The selected schools become educational laboratories for such colleges and universities with possibilities for training programs for teachers during the school day and after school hours. The selected schools become teacher resource and teacher training centers with carefully planned cooperation between schools of education and the school district. • The staff exchange program to be planned and implemented between the selected schools and the schools of education in each of the cooperating colleges and universities. The cooperation and involvement of the State Department of Education be sought. Time and resources be scheduled for all involved in such staff training programs. RESEARCH AND EVALUATION No one discipline or professional group has a monopoly of wisdom or all the needed skills even in its own special area. Education is no exception. The need for continuing research is important and so is the need for timely well-conducted evaluation of educational experimentation and programs resulting from such research. This is, of course, also true of existing educational programs. Of paramount importance is the involvement of the actual practitioners, the classroom teachers, in such research and evaluation. The AFT recommends: • Classroom teachers must be provided the time, resources and special assistance to carry on their own research; experimentation with innovative use of techniques, material, curriculum content; cooperative evaluation of the results of their research and experimentation; and corrective modifications as they may be suggested by the findings from such evaluation. Provide for an evaluation of the total school program by an accredited outside evaluative agency with the school staff involved in the process. 97-457 73 pt. 5 14 DEMOCRATIC STAFF INVOLVEMENT It is essential that the school staff, especially the classroom teachers, be genuinely involved in determining school policy, and in the implementation of such policy as may concern them. Such involvement will make for effective cooperation, coordination and implementation by a concerned understanding staff-to the advantage of the students. The AFT recommends: • Teachers, individually and collectively through their chosen representative, should have opportunities to consult with the school administration and be involved in decision-making policies. • Time must be scheduled for such discussions, consultations and classroom preparation. There should be enough personnel to allow each classroom teacher to meet with colleagues, parents, students, community leaders, supportive services, etc. without depriving children of instructional time. Each staff member should be scheduled time to make this possible. INTEGRATION The AFT's program stresses that quality education and school integration are both necessary if we are to educate our nation's youth to live in and give support to an integrated society to which they are committed and in which they have a personal stake. Such an integrated and pluralistic society does not mean the elimination of the values that can be derived from the sharing and the development of the contributions from the multi-ethnic groups in our nation. Therefore, the AFT recommends: The elimination of the track system. • The organization of heterogeneous class groups based on sex, class, race, ethnicity, achievements, adjustment, etc. Since the AFT national high school design makes possible individual student programming, the organization of heterogeneous class groups should create no problems. • The training of staffs in the techniques and understandings needed to work effectively with such heterogeneous class groups. The creation and purchase of materials and texts furthering integration. • The development of proper relationships with all groups in the school and in the community. • The establishment of parent and community education programs. The creation and use of opportunities for inter-and intra-group involvement in the educational process. The AFT recognizes that there are many local situations which make full racial, ethnic, or religious integration difficult because of the preponderance of a single class, ethnic, religious or racial group. Such situations exist in many areas in Washington, D.C., New York City, and in most large urban centers. However, there is enough evidence to indicate that quality schools, even if located in ghetto areas, will attract students from non-ghetto areas because of their quality. COST It is estimated that $600 more per student per year can make it possible for a school to implement a program based on AFT suggested guidelines provided space is available. The difference in cost may result from variations in cost factors in the different communities. It costs an average community about $6,000 per year to contain a wrong-doer in a detention center when youngsters get into "trouble." It costs $6,000-$8,000 per student per year in a job-training program for dropouts. How much does it cost society to maintain our growing numbers of unemployables (poorly educated youths) on welfare? How much does it cost society to fight drug addiction? (Most drug addicts come from the ranks of the poorly educated.) Even if the program helped only 25 percent of the students who, without such programs, would join the ranks of the dropouts and unemployables, society would more than recoup what it may spend for effective education. As Prof. Alan Campbell so well stated in his report to the California School Boards Association (July 1966), "Piecemeal, part-time efforts by school districts to improve the lot of educationally disadvantaged children are wasteful and virtually useless." The cost for AFT programs is really minimal when compared to the cost to taxpayers for providing the funds needed to pay for the social and economic consequences resulting from our failure to provide for effective education. SUMMARY OF THE BASIC EDUCATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR A REDESIGNED COMPAS HIGH SCHOOL It is comprehensive. It is co-educational. It serves all students. It is viable in size for a total student register of between 2,000 to 2,500. It provides opportunities for the advancement of the gifted child. It provides opportunities for success for the slow learner and for those who enter with some educational deficits. • It provides the needed teaching-learning conditions for the physically-handicapped and the emotionally-troubled. • It provides high-skill training for the mechanically-gifted and repetitive skills training for the less-capable students. It is a dual-purpose school which puts as much stress on the importance of occupational training as it does on academic training. • It requires all students, during the first year, to take double-period exploratory in six (6) different skill areas. It provides a sufficient number of shops to accommodate at least 50% of the school population who may select an occupational skill as their major. It requires the vocational student to take his vocational major for a minimum of four periods a day for three years. It is sensitive to the changing needs and interests of both students and the staff. It provides for both teachers and students important areas for individual choice, self-initiated activities and individualized instruction and counselling. It provides the student with the choice of attending school for an additional period per day to enrich the program. • It provides a curriculum which will qualify both a vocational and an academic major for entry into the college of their choice. • It has a school plant to accommodate all phases of quality education including a sufficient number of shops for instruction in at least six different occupational skills. • It provides a 13th year skills program on a full-day basis, which offers students the equivalent of a two-year high school occupational course. • It makes the 13th year skills program available to: a. high school graduates who wish to learn a particular skill b. college dropouts who wish to learn a skill c. adult and young workers who wish to upgrade their skills d. unemployed youths and adults e. high school dropouts • It provides a full-time employment counselor with a background of industrial experience working with the state employment service and the labor department. It provides for the formation of an active career education or vocational advisory board. It provides for the follow up of graduates and dropouts up to the age of 25 for purposes of re-evaluating the relevance of the academic and occupational curriculum. It provides adequate counselling services both by teachers and guidance counsellors and other supportive clinical services. • It provides for auxiliary services to allow teachers to devote their full time to teaching. It has a staff ratio which permits maximum registers of 22 on all non-shop subject classes and maximum registers of 15 in classes teaching occupational subjects. It provides for the employment of a sufficient number of laboratory specialists and audio-visual technicians. It provides equal value to all curriculum areas. It provides a complete program of co-curriculum activities. • It provides for the training and employment of highly-qualified committed staff. It allows and provides for flexibility in programming, instruction, in use of materials and of school and classroom space. It provides for on-going evaluation of special projects and total programs of staff and student activities. It utilizes the resources of the community. It permits a great deal of latitude and opportunity for a fluid, flexible approach to school and class organization, largely to be determined by the specific needs and development in each of the schools. The classroom teachers can play a leading role in the decision-making process. CONCLUDING STATEMENT This national design for the high school is devised to meet today's educational needs of the schools. Hopefully, the additional space, trained staff, and the budgetary resources needed to implement the design's basic guidelines will offer opportunities for creative thinking and experimentation with new and modified teaching and supervisory practices; for improved school and community relationships; for new and creative use of teaching materials; for creative and effective use of personnel; for a new look at our children, their needs, and their potential for learning; and for a study and evaluation of the teaching and learning processes. The AFT does not offer the suggested design as the final and only solution to the many problems facing our high schools. Improvements are open-ended. No one group or one discipline is today in a position to propose final solutions. The joint effort of many related groups and related disciplines is necessary. However, since the AFT's major responsibility is to advance the cause of public education, it must continue to meet this responsibility in an active, intelligent, and forceful manner. The educational needs of our nation mandates others to join this effort. Simon Beagle, Chairman |