Table 2.23.16.-Curriculums offered, comprehensiveness of curriculums, and curricular classification of secondary schools attended by whites and Negro pupils, for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, by region, fall 1965

22295

55

39

54

34

40

42

0

6

There is no general tendency for minority pupils to differ from majority pupils on these measures. At the elementary and secondary school levels, an average of 4 percent of all students are in less-than-full-time attendance. Nationally, at both school levels, from 2 percent to 4 percent more minority than majority pupils are in parttime attendance. In most regions a difference of a similar magnitude exists between Negroes and whites.

Curriculums.-The data in table 2.23.15 reveal that between 90 percent and 95 percent of all senior high school students in the country are enrolled in schools offering college preparatory, commercial, and general curriculums. Eightyeight percent of Negro students are in secondary schools offering college preparatory curriculums, while the comparable figure for whites in the same county is 97 percent. More striking is their 75 percent enrollment in schools offering commercial curriculums compared to 94 percent for whites in the same county.

To get some indication of whether or not minority pupils have the same number of alternative curriculums available as white pupils, the ratio of curriculums offered to all six possible curricular offerings was computed (SM-11). Thus, if a school offers all six curriculums, its ratio is 100 percent, and if all schools in the region do so, the regional ratio also is 100 percent. The ratio for the average high school is about 88 percent for all schools in the country. While the racial averages vary about this average (from 82 percent for Puerto Rican Americans to 91 percent for Oriental Americans), minority-majority differences are small.

Senior high school principals were also asked to classify their schools according to their primary curricular emphasis. For the country as a whole, 95 percent of the schools were classified to be either (a) academically oriented (20 percent), (b) comprehensive in nature (74 percent), or (c) special-curricular schools concentrating on the culturally disadvantaged (1 percent). The remaining 5 percent are distributed among vocational, technical or trade schools, or nonresponse. Puerto Rican pupils are least often, relative to white pupils in the same county, to be in schools with academic emphasis. Negroes are slightly less likely to be in a school classed as academic and more likely to be in a special curriculum school. Regionally, there are wide variations, and among minorities there are some variations but with no consistent majority-minority differences.

Tables 2.23.17 and 2.23.18 present the data about the degree to which predominantly Negro and predominantly white colleges send representatives to interview secondary school students; and the proportion of all college representatives from predominantly Negro colleges. White colleges. much less often send representatives to schools attended by minority pupils than to schools attended by whites in the same county or by whites in general. This is especially the case for Negroes and Puerto Ricans.

The highest exposure of Negro students to white college representatives occurs in the metropolitan West, where the average is 12 colleges which is about 25 percent lower than the 16college average for whites in the same counties. Among other minorities, the difference in pre

Table 2.23.18.-Characteristics of college representatives visiting the high schools of the average white and Negro pupil to talk with interested students during the 1964-65 school year, for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, by region

Ricans where the average is about 10 colleges per school compared to almost 17 for whites in the same county.

2.24 Programs for exceptional children

Exceptional children need special services appropriate to their particular needs or talents. Many of these services, special classes, and programs are costly and require highly trained professional staff which the smaller or poorer school systems cannot provide. Recently, however, with increased Federal aid to education, more schools have been attempting to provide services which fit some of these needs. Since large proportions of ethnic minority groups are in the lower socioeconomic levels, one might expect proportionately more of the minority group children to need special attention to overcome educational disadvantages.

At the elementary level the most noticeable pattern is the consistently lower percentages for Mexican Americans and consistently higher percentages for Oriental Americans relative to the national norms. The differences do not generally appear to be the result of race since there are only minor differences with whites in the same counties. At the secondary level, the national pattern for Oriental Americans is almost the same as it was in elementary schools, but for Mexican Americans it is not quite as pronounced. Negroes are most deficient, relative to national norms, in the availability of remedial reading and arithmetic classes and in the availability of accelerated curriculums.

Regionally, the major differences for elementary schools are apparent between the South (including the Southwest) and the rest of the country. In almost every case the South and Southwestern regions are substantially behind the other regions.

At the secondary level the situation, although not as pronounced, tends to be the same. An example of how extreme the variation can be between regions is the availability of special classes for physically handicapped pupils: In the metropolitan South 8 percent of Negroes and 2 percent of whites in the same counties have such classes available; in the metropolitan West the comparable percentages are 53 percent and 82 percent. The fact that half of the Nation's Negro children live in the South must be kept in mind in observing differences of this kind.

School principals were asked a number of questions about testing, tracking, promotion, assignment to schools, and assignment to classes of pupils. These questions were asked about the prevalence of testing in the schools to determine the differences, if any, between the exposure of groups of pupils to intelligence and achievement tests. The prevalence of testing in public schools is indicated by the fact that principals report that approximately 90 percent of the Nation's pupils are in schools where intelligence and achievement tests are given at both the elementary and secondary levels. The achievement test is slightly more frequently used than the intelligence test at both levels. (tables 2.25.1 thru 2.25.4)

Among the racial and ethnic groups, the differences in exposure to intelligence tests are slight at both levels with the exception of the Puerto Ricans, for whom more pupils are in schools which do not give intelligence tests as compared with whites in the same county. Nationally, Negro pupils appear to have almost the same opportunity to take intelligence tests as white pupils, but this is not the case in every region of the country. For example, at the elementary level, 27 percent of the Negro students in the metropolitan Northeast are in schools which do not give any intelligence tests: the comparable percentage for white pupils in the same county is 15 percent. the secondary level in the metropolitan South the percentages are 15 percent and 0 percent respectively.

At

According to the principals' reports, achievement tests are widely used in both the elementary and secondary schools attended by all racial groups. Nationally, there are no noteworthy differences between Negro and white secondary students in regard to achievement testing in the schools they attend. There are however, quite different patterns of achievement testing in the various geographical regions of the country and also some differences between Negroes and whites within particular regions.

Some schools, as an aid to counseling, give "interest inventories" to pupils which reflect their feelings and preferences rather than indicate their knowledge, ability, or experiences. Relatively few students (16 percent) are in elementary