"One district which has taken a step in the right direction in Olympia, Wash., where a 2-year technical training institute, operated under board of education auspices, trains vocationally oriented personnel in data processing, electronics, and related skills. The institute has been operating for almost a year in an old abandoned department store (renovated at minimal expense for laboratories, classrooms, and offices), with a faculty recruited primarily from local industry (the instructors are paid a competitive wage), and a curriculum that is in a constant state of change because the students are forcing practical and necessary modifications.

"While the Olympia vocational school is not set up specifically for the training of nonacademic students, many of those enrolled are considered to be in this category; they are, in fact, gaining a technical education that (1) has never been available before, and (2) will qualify them for employment upon graduation. The institute is operated as a separate educational unit by the board, and is set up as a post high school institution. As a result, it has enrolled dozens of persons who have been away from formal education for years, but who feel no shame at returning to gain knowledge in higher education.

"In effect, the school is a compromise with local factions who originally wanted to establish a community college, but who have settled for this kind of training school to service local employment needs. The fact that it is achieving its goal can be seen by the makeup of its first class in data processing. There are 21 students, 3 of whom were previously unemployed, plus several housewives, high school graduates, and older persons who are looking for work. They all have one thing in common—a high mathematical aptitude and they are all being trained in the art of programing a data processing installation.

"Of course, high mathematical aptitude is not necessary for all data processing jobs. As the institute gains momentum and support in the years to come, it is likely to expand and train machine operators, technicians, repairmen, and maintenance personnel as well.

"For the moment, however, the institute is confining its data processing training to the programing function. (During the course of their instruction, of course, the potential programers operate the equipment; in their laboratory sessions, they also produce useful data processing records for the school district.)

"WHY TEACH DATA PROCESSING?

"The decision to train students in data processing was not taken lightly. 'Olympia is the State capital,' says Superintendent Rolland H. Upton, 'and 13 of the larger departments in our State Government use data processing in their recordkeeping. We held some conferences with knowledgeable people in the various departments, asking them to advise us as to the kinds of trained personnel which were in demand in the field, and which, in their opinion, would continue to be in demand. The discussions convinced us that our community (and most others) needed a training couse in data processing, programing and management, and that properly selected trainees who took this course would be in demand at good salaries.

"It also became apparent,' continues Upton, 'that a full 2-year course should be offered for persons who would specialize in this field, and that there should be variations in the program to permit special training in specific cases. For example, there should be an accommodation for on-the-job upgrading for people already involved in data processing-people who want to get ahead.'

"Upton's discussions with State officials also convinced him that it would be in the best interests of the community to offer electronics and secretarial training at the vocational school, because both skills are so much in demand in Olympia. Being the capital, Olympia has more than its share of secretarial jobs to fill, and the State of Washington has a booming aviation-electronics industry. "The message for schoolmen is clear,' says Upton. 'We didn't just move into this vocational training area blindly. No district should. As we did, every community's schools should investigate and determine what its local employment needs are, then train vocational students to fill those career jobs. In most instances, data processing will be one course to offer.'

"Knowing what the district wanted to teach in its vocational institute was only a start, however. Converting the plan to a program took administrative activity in five general areas; housing, facility, enrollment, curriculum, and financing. Here's how Superintendent Upton and his staff approached each of these problems.

"HOUSING

"We had no available classroom space in the district,' Upton reports, 'and since we lacked capital funds, there were only two possibilities. We could acquire temporary portable classrooms, but discounted the idea because we knew this would be a permanent institution and wanted permanent quarters. We then considered, and acquired, a former department store which was still under lease by the owner, Montgomery Ward Co. It was a structurally sound building of 20,000 square feet consisting of four floors (including a mezzanine and base ment). The amount of space was about twice as much as we felt we needed, but we were able to justify the leasing costs by moving in our district administrative offices from another building, and apply that rent to the new quarters. The extra space also gave us room to expand our program when necessary, as it probably will be within a few years.

"One thing that appealed to us about the old department store was the fact that it was not cut up by partitions. It was genuine "loft" space, and we were free to develop the interior without limitations. By partitioning, treating the ceilings acoustically, and bringing in heavy electric cables, we were able to create an excellent teaching space.

"We set the basement aside for storage space and half the first floor was give over to the district office. The remainder of the first floor, plus the entire mezzanine and top floor, were for the use of the vocational school.

""The area where data processing is taught is all on one floor, and occupies a rectangle about 30 by 60 feet. Included in this area are a classroom, two laboratories, with machines, and a combination counseling space and office. Since our operation is not large, and there are times when only one instructor is on duty, we have many glass partitions so as to achieve visual supervision of the entire area. We attacked the problem of planning the facilities within the area by making scale models of the various spaces and facilities, and taking into account the various relationship, traffic patterns, etc. We moved the models about until we had a plan that we felt would work best-and that final plan has served us well. Our course, we employed an architect to assist us in planning and supervising the changes within the building.'

"With regard to facilities, the school's computer lab has IBM 1620 and 1622 equipment. The unit record (punchcard equipment) lab has such equipment as an interpreter, verifier reproducer, collator, card punch, tabulator, sorter, and accessory equipment such as file cabinets and card racks.

"The classoom is not equipped with desks. Says one instructor, 'Desk aren't feasible in a school of this type. We find that two-man tables are better. We have 13 of them plus an instructor's desk, and they are just what we need.'

"THE FACULTY

"In general,'remarks Superintendent Upton, 'a district must choose between two types of vocational instructors: those who know quite a bit about teaching, but are not completely expert in their subject fields and those why know the subject matter, but who don't know a great deal about teaching. In view of the technical nature of our curriculum, we felt it best to hire technicians and train them to teach. It is easier to teach methodology and instructional techniques to data processing experts, than vice versa."

"As a director or principal of the technical institute, the district hired a former Navy Officer with a career background in electronics. He was a member of the training faculty of the Boeing Aircraft Co., when Upton lured him away with a competitive salary. 'In arriving at his salary,' Upton says, 'we recognized that we would have to pay a competitive rate and so we made no attempt to relate his compensation to our district salary schedule for administrators."

"The remainder of the school's facility consists of four full-time instructors, supplemented with several part-time teachers who are still regularly employed in the field in which they teach. The full-time instructors are all specialists and experts. The chief instructor of the data processing department, for example, had been a programer in one of the State government agencies.

"In setting salaries for the faculty, Upton 'generally stuck to the district salary scale for teachers-but to make our salaries competitive, we set up a scale of "equivalents." We matched years spent in the actual practice of the in structors specialties against the years spent in academic preparation and expe

"THE STUDENTS

"We actually had to recruit our first students,' reports Upton, 'because we got started late in the school year. Graduating seniors were not particularly attracted to our program at first, probably because they had already made plans along other lines. But we were able to recruit with success by word-of-mouth advertising and by utilizing local communications media. We simply set forth the information that courses were being offered in data processing (and electronics and clerical and secretarial work) to any who were interested, regardless of age or present occupation.

"In all, about 50 persons appeared for interviews and applied for enrollment in the data processing program. They asked all kinds of questions, all the way from "What is data processing?" to technical questions which indicated a deep knowledge and interest in the subject. Of the 50 who showed initial interest, 41 returned at a later date for a math-oriented aptitude (programers aptitude test, available from IBM) and additional interviews with the program instructor to discuss test scores and aptitudes. Remember, at the start, at least, our data processing instruction is designed to turn out programers-the highest data processing skill. At some future date we'll probably offer training in the less demanding skills.

"An initial class of 21 students was selected from this group. The test was not, in itself, the determining factor for admission to the school. Other factors were grades which the student had earned in high school, and the personal interviews in which efforts were made to discover the interests of the applicants, their maturity and probable staying power. We felt that of the 21, 15 had an excellent opportunity to succeed as data processing programers. Six were in the marginal category. The latter had registered test scores that were below the optimum for predicted success, but they possessed personal characteristics and other traits which impressed us. Our experience with the class, however, has further impressed us with the validity of aptitude testing as a predictor of success.'

"The initial 50 applicants for data processing instruction ranged in age from 17 to 47. Twelve were unemployed at the time of their application, 9 were students, 8 were engaged in clerical work, 7 were factory workers, 5 were already in data processing, 4 were housewives, and 5 had miscellaneous backgrounds. More than half of these persons indicated that they were trying to find themselves in an employment field, and 17 stated flatly that they were looking for better jobs. Upton regards this as an indication of how important school programs can be to a community.

"THE CURRICULUM

"The State board of vocational education provided Olympia with its basic curriculum for data processing. The district was already teaching some data processing (such as basic machine operation in an adult evening school), and parts of this material were incorporated into the technical institute's lesson plans. Additionally, the district acquired curricular material made available by the U.S. Office of Education. (This material in turn, is based on a curriculum being taught at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif.)

"Finally, the district asked people who had been advising on data processing (especially State officials who would be employing the school's graduates), to comment on the content and adequacy of the course of study. Many of their suggestions were adopted.

"As finally developed, the curriculum is heavily oriented toward mathematics, with particular emphasis on the math used by the data processing industrybinary and octal numbering systems, probability and statistics, statistical analysis, etc. In addition, a great deal of time is devoted to such subjects as basic bookkeeping, knowledge of the data processing vocabulary, principles and structure of accounting, accounting data, etc. Emphasis is also placed on programing analysis-analyzing data and structing it (translating it into machine language) for processing.

"As it was originally planned, the curriculum left much to be desired. In the first place, it did not provide enough time to explore deeply into technical areas which attracted the interests of the students. Also, instructors frequently found that they barely had time to cover a unit in class, with no time remaining for the practical application or demonstration in the laboratories. For these reasons, the curriculum is in a constant state of change, a situation that bothers no one, so long as the changes are designed to improve the course.

"Now, toward the end of its first year of trial, it appears as if the basic curriculum will not change, but the time allotments will. Major curriculum changes will wait until the school expands.

"WHAT IT COSTS

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'Financing the school was our chief concern,' says Upton. There were no local funds earmarked for the founding and maintaining of the school.

"We investigated very carefully and determined that we would be able to finance the school only if the board of education would permit us to do a little "pump priming" by drawing from surplus funds of the district for the expensive initial effort-heavy expenditures for furniture and equipment. The first year's budget, we figured, for the entire school, would run about $120,000 (see end of article), and we would have to juggle funds to make ends meet. the costly first year, however, we felt that we could finance the school completely from student fees, State funds (which are provided under law for the encouragement of vocational and technical education), and Federal aid.'

After

"The district, already paying $6,000 a year for 3,000 square feet of office space in another building, leased the department store (20,000 square feet) for $10,000. The district offices were moved into the store, and for an additional $4,000 there was a net gain of 17,000 square feet.

"After the first year, however, the rent for the store is to be reduced from $10,000 to $8,000. So, in effect, the district acquired housing for its new vocational institute for only $2,000 a year above previous costs. Additionally, the new lease agreement contains a provision that the rental payments could, on the option of the district, apply to the building's purchase.

"The basic funds for operating the technical school came from several sources. State aid based on attendance amounted to about $46,000, and the district received another $17,000 from the State because it was actively involved in a planned program of vocational-technical education. NEDA funds to the tune of $44,000 were received for partial compensation of personnel and equipment. 'All told,' says Upton, 'the school is actually costing us only about $14,000 the first year in out-of-pocket expenditures. We feel that it can be justified. Incidentally, our actual experience with the budget has shown that our estimates of financing were fairly accurate. We have not had to revise our figures. "In conclusion,' say Upton, 'let me say that I often refer to this technical school as an adventure in the teaching of data processing.' Adventure or not, it is certainly a consideration for every school district that believes the philosophy of meeting the needs of individual students.'

"WHAT IT COSTS

"Here's a glance at the Olympia district's first-year budget for the technical institute. As the close of the first year approaches, Superintendent Rolland Upton reports that no significant changes have had to be made:

"This is a full-time man, but half his salary is charged to supervision and half to

(Short recess taken.)

Senator MORSE. The hearing will come to order.

I will proceed to hear the next witness. Before I do, I want to thank Dr. Patrick for his testimony. I think the panel discussion this afternoon, along with the two reports which I have made an appendix to the record, the report of the panel of consultants on vocational education and the summary report, make such a persuasive case that there is little for this chairman to do but to place your statements in the record.

Mr. Eberle, you may proceed.

STATEMENT OF FRED EBERLE, ACTING STATE DIRECTOR OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, CHARLESTON, W. VA.

Mr. EBERLE. With your permission, I would like to submit a prepared statement and hope that it will be included in the hearings, and that I may read excerpts from the statement in hopes of saving time.

Senator MORSE. The full statement will be printed at this point in the record and you may proceed to summarize it.

(The prepared statement of Fred W. Eberle follows:)

PREPARED STATEMENT OF FRED W. EBERLE, ACTING STATE DIRECTOR OF VOCATIONAL

EDUCATION, WEST VIRGINIA

Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I am Fred W. Eberle, acting State director of vocational education for the State of West Virginia. I am appearing on behalf of the West Virginia Vocational Association and the American Vocational Association, and wish to speak in support of the proposed substitute for title V of S. 580 which will be offered by Dr. Milo J. Peterson, president, American Vocational Association.

I am grateful for this opportunity to appear before you. My remarks shall deal with information about our various program activities in West Virginia and the need to expand and extend vocational and technical educational programs to the point where they will meet the needs of our youth and adults so as to make them greater contributors to their family, community, State, and National welfare.

All programs of vocational and technical education are an integral part of the total public education program of the State. The courses are provided in vocational agriculture, vocational homemaking, vocational industrial, distributive, practical nursing, and technical education by the county boards of education as part of their regular school program. Fifty-three of the State's 55 counties now provide 1 or more of the 6 types of vocational and technical education. The following list shows the breakdown of these services as to the number of counties that are providing the service:

It is obvious that many students in the high schools of West Virginia have limited opportunity to enroll in a vocational or technical education course. The most limited well be found in distributive and technical education. According to data obtained from the West Virginia Department of Education Research Service, the total high school enrollment for 1961-62 was 124,948. The high school enrollment in the Federal-State-county supported programs of vocational and technical education was 19,898 for the same period. The vocational and technical education programs are accommodating only 16 students out of every 100. Another figure that must be considered when studying the need for expanding vocational and technical education in West Virginia is the one that

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