of the program, students, and their parents as well, must be introduced to the totally new concept of complete individualization of instruction within the framework of the open classroom. They are therefore given an Introductory Packet which lists the procedures they are to follow and explains how to do the various types of lessons. The teacher and students then discuss how they are going to learn, what the benefits are, and what responsibilities are involved. NOTE: Detailed specifics can be obtained by writing to John Dewey High School, 50 Avenue X, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Phone (212) 373-6400). ★COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM FOR AMERICAN SCHOOLS A NATIONAL AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, AFL-CIO FOREWORD Almost as soon as the right to collective bargaining began to be won by teachers in the early 1960's, members of the American Federation of Teachers started to translate their conceptions of optimum teaching andlearning conditions into the language of collective bargaining contracts. The first such design was negotiated for a selected number of elementary schools in New York City in 1964. Similar programs were incorporated into union contracts in Cleveland, Baltimore, Yonkers, Chicago and Detroit and into legislation in California and Colorado. The most famous of these programs was the More Effective Schools plan in New York. It provided for four teachers for every three classes; class size maximums of 22 (15 in kindergarten); increased supportive personnel, such as psychologists, psychiatrists, speech and hearing therapists; reading, art, drama and other specialists; more teacher aides, and greater teacher and parent involvement in administrative decision making in the school. The More Effective Schools program was tested, retested and tested again. Such agencies as the Psychological Corporation and the American Institutes for Research found that it accelerated the learning rate of children, just as the teachers who designed it planned that it would, and the United States Office of Education chose it as "exemplary." Project READ in Chicago, the Neighborhood Education Centers in Detroit and other saturation programs showed similar successes. The demand for similar designs at all levels of education-from pre-school to the community college-prompted the Executive Council of the AFT to establish the Council for a Comprehensive Program for American Schools (COMPAS), under the chairmanship of Simon Beagle, who headed the National Council for Effective Schools for many years and is a nationally known advocate of grassroots teacher involvement in educational design and decision making. The work of the various COMPAS committees under Mr. Beagle's tutelage has resulted in four National Designs-for the elementary school, the middle school, the high school and the community college. The AFT is proud to present its Comprehensive Program for American Schools as its answer to those critics who believe that the way to solve the problems in education is somehow to tinker with the only relationship which results in learning-that between the teacher and the taught. David Selden, President INTRODUCTION The crisis facing our school is nationwide. This crisis is both result and cause of a host of social ills. No one school district is immune. This is tragic for our nation's children, their parents and for our country. If it is true, and we believe it to be so, that "our youth is our nation's most precious natural resource and our schools our first line of defense," then this crisis facing public education is as dangerous to each of us as any which may exist. Our free public school system is the only social agency to which the vast majority of our multi-ethnic population is exposed. It is in our schools where we should provide opportunities for intellectual challenge, integrated relationships, and cultural and emotional enrichment. In view of our economic wealth and our great reservoirs of knowledge, we as a nation are spending relatively less on our schools than many poorer countries. Too many of our schools lack the commitment and the means to fulfill their basic educational obligations. The gap is widening at a tragic pace because of current social changes. A recent publication by the U.S. Office of Education titled "The Right to Read" (October 12, 1972) contains the following revealing statement: "Even with its sophisticated communications methods and its advanced publications system, the U.S. has close to 19 million totally or functionally illiterate adults and 7 million elementary and secondary school students with severe reading problems. In large cities, between 40 and 50 percent of these children are underachieving in reading." This is an understatement. A previous evaluation report, also by the USOE, titled "Education of the Disadvantaged" (April, 1970), states that more than 17 million American children are educationally and/or economically deprived, a majority living in non-urban school districts. The report deplores the failure of fiscal authorities on all government levels to provide the funds needed to make possible lasting educational improvements. The "Right to Read" lists the following basic guidelines, which of course the AFT considers most commendable and acceptable, but unattainable without the money needed to implement them. • With the exception of 1 percent of the population considered uneducable, people can learn if programs are designed to meet their specific needs and strengths. • Teachers and other educational personnel can adopt new ways if they are provided with methods which they are confident will aid them in working more effectively with their students. • Intelligence is native to all ethnic and economic groups, and when expectations are equal, productivity will be basically equal as well. • The necessary knowledge to solve the reading crisis is available. What remains is for that knowledge to be applied so that it will result in better teacher training, more effective educational programs, and the use of those new programs in classrooms and communities. • Parents are concerned about their children's educational process |