of compliance have been filed by approximately 20,000 school districts, 2,600 colleges and universities, and 5,000 other educational institutions. The regular assurance of compliance was not applicable for about 2,280 public school districts in the South and border States under the Commissioner's guidelines. The Office of Equal Educational Opportunities developed a voluntary desegregation plan for 1,960 of these districts. For an additional 200 districts, a final order of a Federal court was accepted as a desegregation plan. Negotiations have not yet been terminated with respect to 40 school districts. Legal hearings have been held, or are being scheduled, for 80 school districts cited as failing to comply with requirements of title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Examination of records and reports from recipients and on-site examination of operations in school districts or educational institutions are used to determine compliance. Inquiries or investigations are undertaken in response to specific complaints or, on a random-sample basis, by a full compliance review of selected school districts or educational institutions. To accomplish this, 18 of the 50 new positions will be assigned to field activities. Whenever an instance of noncompliance is encountered, every means is used to attain compliance on a voluntary basis. When all efforts for voluntary compliance have failed, the Office undertakes a full investigation which can result in a legal hearing on noncompliance. If sustained, funds to the school district or educational institution may be withheld pending compliance. To date, only a few investigations have been undertaken. The 50 additional positions requested in 1967 will provide the nucleus of an investigation staff required to assure compliance of title VI. The National Center for Education Statistics, created on January 1, 1965, is responsible for providing overall direction and coordination for the statistical program of the Office of Education. This responsibility includes the administration of the National Defense Education Act title X program of grants to States for improvement of statistics. Program emphasis for fiscal years 1966 and 1967 The expanding role of the Federal Government in the field of education requires that the office expand accordingly in collecting and analyzing data. It is necessary to assess and evaluate the effects of Federal programs on the educational system, and to make analyses of data leading to a better understanding of the operation of the entire educational system. The center is embarking on a new and more comprehensive series of analysis. This new approach, using techniques of operations analysis, will explore the relations among various categories of data. The new data to be collected will include achievement data on students at all levels, socioeconomic data on students and teachers, and considerable basic economic data. This will make it possible to evaluate the extent of improvements in the education of students, taking into account the costs involved in providing these improvements. Plans and programs The great increase in activities in the center will call for an expansion in the program planning requirements. It is anticipated that in addition to the development and coordination of the statistical program of the Office of Education, the Division of Plans and Programs will devote considerable attention to the coordination of survey activities of the center. This is to include development and maintenance of realistic schedules. This division will also be responsible for generally overseeing the application of operations analysis techniques to strengthen and improve the management activities of the center. The publi cations program of the center will also be administered by this staff. Data sources and standards The Division of Data Sources and Standards consists of the Field Programs Branch, the Data Compatibility Group, and the Systems Design and Development Group. The Field Programs Branch has as one of its major functions the implementation of the standard items in the cooperatively developed handbooks. This Branch also has the ongoing responsibility of administering title X of NDEA. Additional emphasis will be given to the tasks of providing consultative assistance in the field and furnishing guide materials to aid States and local school systems in establishing records which serve their needs and the needs of the Nation for current, adequate, and reliable information about education. With the availability of standard items about pupils, staff, and instructional programs, this work is of primary importance in fiscal year 1967. The Data Compatibility Group, responsible for cooperatively identifying, classifying, and defining records items and terms to be maintained in comparable and compatible form by all school systems, will continue its current project in fiscal year 1967 to standardize instructional program items and terms. The handbook manual on educational finance will be revised and brought up to date with special emphasis to be given to accounting for educational programs for which finance data are scant. A cooperative project to revise the State reporting handbook, a necessary guide to reporting of compatible educational information to the Federal Government, will be undertaken. The service of the Systems Design and Development Group through the design and development of a basic educational data system will continue in fiscal year 1967, providing a means of data communication which has been only marginally treated in all of the years of education in America. Additional staff are requested to undertake the revision of the handbook manual on educational finance and the State reporting handbook, as well as furnishing consultative assistance in the field. The greatly increased program responsibility of the Office necessitates much more statistical analysis to support operational, evaluative, and planning functions. Analytical resources will be available on an unprecedented scale as computer technology is applied to the vast store of data produced by program operations and by mechanization of data flow from the field to the Office of Education. There will be increasing demands on the staff to develop statistics and projections to support the legislative program, including estimating cost of programs and developing and analyzing allotment formulas. Additional staff will enable this Division to meet its growing responsibilities in the regular survey program, the analysis of data to be collected in the new comprehensive program, and the legislative and methodological areas. Statistical services This Division is composed of the Research Services Branch and the Data Services Branch. It is responsible for providing technical assistance from the point of view of statistics and data processing for all surveys and other research activities conducted by the Office of Education. The Division provides data processing and computer programing services on an officewide basis, and assists in obtaining Bureau of the Budget approval for Office of Education survey questionnaires. During fiscal year 1966 developments in the areas of data handling and data processing resulted in improvements in manual and machine processing in spite of an increased volume of work. In addition to ongoing periodic surveys all of which were processed "in-house" during fiscal year 1966, the following new activities became active and will be entering the data handling and data processing stages in fiscal year 1967: (a) The "in-house" handling of data on certified personnel received from State departments of education as part of the basic educational data systems program. In fiscal year 1967, data on school facilities will be added to the program. (b) Implementation of the data-flow system for instittuiontions of higher education will become a reality in fiscal year 1967 with the initial emphasis on higher education facilities. (c) Plans have already been developed and tested for the establishment of universes of school districts, school plants, and elementary and secondary schools in order to meet ever-increasing Office requirements for basic information and for sampling. (d) In fiscal year 1966, the Office entered into active planning with respect to a new program of comprehensive analysis of educational data by means of a technique usually called operations analysis or operations research. (e) Emphasis will be placed on expanding and improving the technical services offered to sponsors of surveys throughout the Office. New services contemplated include design and copy preparation of survey questionnaires, development of analysis procedures to indicate statistical output of surveys. Operations analysis The Division of Operations Analysis will continue as major programs in fiscal year 1967 the two activities begun in fiscal year 1966: first, the selection of the classes of variables relevant to the educational system and estimation of their parameters; and second, the determination of the relationships among the variables within each class and between key variables in different classes. As a third program of effort, the development of the national analytical model will be begun. The first of these programs will assess the significance of the influences of selected variables on the educational system and provide estimates of known precision of critical values for these variables. The second will have as its outcome partial models and submodels of various facets of the educational system. Development of national models for the flow of students and staff will be brought to completion, and refinements and extensions to smaller segments of the system will be undertaken. The level of effort devoted to studies of educational finances and their impact on educational curriculums, and on students and staff will be increased and brought to bear directly on the evaluation of major educational programs. To the fullest extent possible the results of these efforts will be integrated in the third program of initial overall model developments efforts. To continue activities begun in fiscal year 1966 at an increased level of effort, and to launch new activities directed toward overall model development and evaluation of educational programs, additional personnel is requested. National Center of Educational Statistics new positions for fiscal year 1967 This activity provides the Office of Education with overall professional administrative services in the areas of management, budget and finance, personnel, general services and contracts and construction service. It renders assistance and direction to headquarters and field programs of the Office and develops, recommends, and carries out approved procedures and policies needed to administer an effective overall national education program in the most economical and efficient manner possible. Requirements for 1967 Continual efforts will be made to achieve the maximum return for each dollar spent in administration as well as to determine through managerial studies and reviews, any savings that may be possible in operations and attainment of objectives. Management This branch operates the Office of Education Management Information System and provides the Office with administrative and management assistance and guidance by providing organizational structure and functional statements, issuance of Staff Manual Guide, records and reports management, methods and procedures studies, work force analyses, and in conjunction with Budget, develops and coordinates a cost reduction program. In 1967 one professional is requested to assist with the operation of the Office Management Information System. Finance Responsibilities in this area consist of providing fiscal accounting services to the Office and maintaining records and special accounting detail necessary for all direct appropriations as well as transfers to and from other agencies. Recommends and carries out new financial policies and procedures as well as changes to existing ones as a result of GAO decisions, new programs, or other regulatory requirements. Many new provisions for Federal assistance to the Nation's educational programs are contained in legislative acts such as Higher Education and Elementary and Secondary Education Acts. The acts provide for expansion of efforts over the next few years which will bring about a greatly increased amount of vouchers to be processed, paid, and audited as well as new reporting and accountability activities. In order to keep up with this workload an increase of three positions is requested for 1967. Budget This branch carries out the many and varied activities associated with preparing and administering the budget for the Office. This involves working with 18 direct appropriations totaling over $3 billion and transfer or reimbursement accounts totaling about $250 million. Specific activities include preparing appropriation requests, including supplementals and plans for legislative proposals, analyzing estimates and justifications of plans for Office programs and providing recommendations and consultation to programs prior to preparation of final submissions. Two additional positions are requested to prepare tables, exhibits, and the ever-increasing numbers of reports and requests for budgetary data by Congress, the Bureau of the Budget, and the Department. Personnel Provides a centralized total personnel program for the Office which includes recruiting, placement, administration of promotion plans, training and development, employee relations and classification. Assist the various components of the Office in determining the types of jobs required to accomplish a given task in instances of new or expanding programs, develops and initiates agency promotion plans; conducts periodic position classification services; coordinates recruitment efforts for the Office to insure maximum benefits from efforts expended in obtaining quality applicants to fill jobs and continually evaluates the overall effectiveness of the personnel program including long-range needs, making recommendations for major policy changes as the occasion arises. To enable increased activities in the filling of current vacancies, turnover, and new positions that have been requested for 1967 and the growing need for employee development will require two additional positions. General Services This branch is responsible for all general administrative services required for the Office which include procurement, building management and space planning, reproduction, mail and messenger services and the distribution of publications. The expansion of the Office has placed a heavy workload in all of these areas, and to insure continued prompt and efficient service, two positions are requested. Contracts and construction services Provides a professional contracting service (including grants) as well as legal and engineering competence and guidance, in construction, to the Office of Education. Legal and engineering reviews are provided to Office of Education programs in planning and construction of facilities which are to be funded by Office of Education grants or contracts, by assisting them in the various phases of planning, review, and final acceptance of a project. Recommendations are made to programs whenever it is found that certain advisable changes or inclusions should be incorporated in the plans before final submission for bids or awards are made. Responsibilities also include writing all Office of Education construction con 60-302-6624 |