Extensive materials describing programs that might be established have been furnished the State educational agencies for their use in working with local agencies in developing such projects. Examples of projects now being funded by title I are those conducted in the evening which include reading-incentive seminars and reading clinics, since one of the most significant characteristics of school dropouts is serious reading re tardation. Among deprived students the reading problem often is closely related to lack of incentive and to the absence of books. Social workers are employed to do home visiting in an attempt to solve problems relating to home and the school. Other projects are set up in such a way that school dropouts can work toward a high school diploma and develop employable skills. Still other projects are designed to identify the potential dropout and establish program specifically designed to prevent their dropping out. The Office of Education is collecting data on dropout changes over a period of years comparing all schools in a State to schools involved in title I projects. A uniform nationwide definition will be used. Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has motivated educators to initiate innovative and exemplary programs designed to increase the holding power of schools as well as to attract school dropouts into special programs. The initial group of projects selected to title III funding include these projects which are directly concerned with school dropout problems. Orange County, Calif.: For a summer school for dropout recovery. Prince Georges County, Md.: For Operation DIRE (dropout identification, rehabilitation, and education). Pittsburg Unified School District, California: For a dropout prevention project. School Administrative District No. 5, Rockland, Maine: For a demonstration teaching center for slow learners and disadvantaged youth. The following projects are concerned with other problems as well as dropouts: Magnolia, Ark.: For a center for diagnostic and remedial services. Vigo County School Corp., Terre Haute, Ind.: For a diagnostic, counseling, and remedial center. Salina Unified School District No. 305, Kansas: For a learning disabilities center planning study. Board of Cooperative Educational Services, First Supervisory District, Penfield, Monroe County, N.Y.: For an educational diagnostic and service center. Kansas City, Kans.: For a cultural and educational youth development center. Du Pont-Fort Lewis School District No. 7, Washington: For a student-family counseling center. In addition, several title III projects relate to remedial education and to learning disabilities which are preventative of situations giving rise to increased school dropout. The stated purpose of the Vocational Education Act of 1963-to strengthen and improve the quality of vocational education and to expand the vocational education opportunities in the Nation-related directly to the dropout problem. A high percentage of schools reporting on the 1963 dropout campaign emphasized the need for strengthening vocational education. Students also expressed a desire for more vocational courses and frequently cited the absence of specific vocational training as their reason for dropping out of school. The Vocational Education Act provides vocational education opportunities for high school students and high school droputs as well as graduates and other adults who need additional or specialized training. It seeks to improve the quality of vocational education by providing funds for grants for research, experimental and pilot programs, teacher training, and similar projects. Emphasis in these projects will be given to the needs of the youths who have academic, socioeconomic, or other handicaps a group containing a high percentage of actual and potential school dropouts. The act provides funds for locally administered work-study programs. Since a sizable number of students leave school because of a need to contribute to the financial support of their families, or because they cannot afford the expenses incident to remaining in school, these work-study programs help reduce the number of dropouts. Under another provision of the Vocational Education Act, the 1967 budget includes a request of $3.5 million for the initial planning and architectural fees every one of them will get a job the minute he or she steps off that stage with a certificate in his hand. Walk outside the door and they will be hired tomorrow night. You cannot say this of your bachelor of arts people. Mr. Howe. Although we are not here to propose new legislation, I can say that I agree with you about the need— Mr. FLOOD. You are here to propose anything you wish. Mr. Howe (continuing). For education beyond the high school. Essentially, this is in the realm beyond the high school, although some of it may be combined with what goes on in the high school. Mr. FLOOD. You are aware of the thousands of young men and women who do not want to go to college for 4 years. They consider it an appalling waste of their time and funds. They do not want to do it. There was a time 15 years ago when mama and papa insisted on it because they were keeping up with the Joneses and drove them like cattle into the universities and colleges. Many of them do not want this. You are not helping them or doing them a favor. They want to go to my institute, and there ain't none. Mr. FOGARTY. Is there and other legislation you want to propose tonight? Mr. Howe. No, sir. Thank you very much. COLD WAR BILL OF RIGHTS Mr. FOGARTY. What about the cold war bill of rights we passed today, upstairs? How will that affect education? Mr. Howe. The GI provisions for continued education? This will provide opportunities for a considerable number of people. It will supplement the kinds of things that we are doing with loans and with scholarship grants and with fellowship grants under various programs. It seems to me this does make sense. it. Mr. FOGARTY. We all voted for it. I doubt if anybody voted against SCHOOL DROPOUTS We will place the statement we asked you to have prepared on school dropouts in the record at this point. (The statement referred to follows:) SCHOOL DROPOUTS Recent statistics indicate that some progress is being made toward solution of the dropout problem. The number of high school graduates has doubled in the last 10 years. This compares with an increase in total enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools of only 40 percent during the same period. The proportion of ninth-grade students staying on to graduation has been increasing slowly but steadily in recent years. Despite this gradual progress, however, the problem of school dropouts remains a critical one for the Nation. Several pieces of legislation enacted by the 88th Congress and 1st session of the 89th Congress provide strong support in meeting the dropout problem. One of the most significant is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Title I provides financial assistance to local educational agencies to meet the special educational needs of educationally deprived children. In fiscal year 1966, $14.700.000 and $16 million in fiscal year 1967 will be used to assist these educationally deprived children. The guidelines for title I call specific attention to the need, as a part of a Falanced program, for local educational agencies to develop projects specifically gned for school dropouts. Extensive materials describing programs that might be established have been furnished the State educational agencies for their use in working with local agencies in developing such projects. Examples of projects now being funded by title I are those conducted in the evening which include reading-incentive seminars and reading clinics, since one of the most significant characteristics of school dropouts is serious reading re tardation. Among deprived students the reading problem often is closely related to lack of incentive and to the absence of books. Social workers are employed to do home visiting in an attempt to solve problems relating to home and the school. Other projects are set up in such a way that school dropouts can work toward a high school diploma and develop employable skills. Still other projects are designed to identify the potential dropout and establish program specifically designed to prevent their dropping out. The Office of Education is collecting data on dropout changes over a period of years comparing all schools in a State to schools involved in title I projects. A uniform nationwide definition will be used. Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has motivated educators to initiate innovative and exemplary programs designed to increase the holding power of schools as well as to attract school dropouts into special programs. The initial group of projects selected to title III funding include these projects which are directly concerned with school dropout problems. Orange County, Calif.: For a summer school for dropout recovery. Prince Georges County, Md.: For Operation DIRE (dropout identification, rehabilitation, and education). Pittsburg Unified School District, California: For a dropout prevention project. School Administrative District No. 5, Rockland, Maine: For a demonstration teaching center for slow learners and disadvantaged youth. The following projects are concerned with other problems as well as dropouts: Magnolia, Ark. For a center for diagnostic and remedial services. Vigo County School Corp., Terre Haute, Ind.: For a diagnostic, counseling, and remedial center. Salina Unified School District No. 305, Kansas: For a learning disabilities center planning study. Board of Cooperative Educational Services, First Supervisory District, Penfield, Monroe County, N.Y.: For an educational diagnostic and service center. Kansas City, Kans.: For a cultural and educational youth development center. Du Pont-Fort Lewis School District No. 7, Washington: For a student-family counseling center. In addition, several title III projects relate to remedial education and to learning disabilities which are preventative of situations giving rise to increased school dropout. The stated purpose of the Vocational Education Act of 1963-to strengthen and improve the quality of vocational education and to expand the vocational education opportunities in the Nation-related directly to the dropout problem. A high percentage of schools reporting on the 1963 dropout campaign emphasized the need for strengthening vocational education. Students also expressed a desire for more vocational courses and frequently cited the absence of specific vocational training as their reason for dropping out of school. The Vocational Education Act provides vocational education opportunities for high school students and high school droputs as well as graduates and other adults who need additional or specialized training. It seeks to improve the quality of vocational education by providing funds for grants for research, experimental and pilot programs, teacher training, and similar projects. Emphasis in these projects will be given to the needs of the youths who have academic, socioeconomic, or other handicaps-a group containing a high percentage of actual and potential school dropouts. The act provides funds for locally administered work-study programs. Since a sizable number of students leave school because of a need to contribute to the financial support of their families, or because they cannot afford the expenses incident to remaining in school, these work-study programs help reduce the number of dropouts. Under another provision of the Vocational Education Act, the 1967 budget includes a request of $3.5 million for the initial planning and architectural fees every one of them will get a job the minute he or she steps off that stage with a certificate in his hand. Walk outside the door and they will be hired tomorrow night. You cannot say this of your bachelor of arts people. Mr. Howe. Although we are not here to propose new legislation, I can say that I agree with you about the need Mr. FLOOD. You are here to propose anything you wish. Mr. Howe (continuing). For education beyond the high school. Essentially, this is in the realm beyond the high school, although some of it may be combined with what goes on in the high school. Mr. FLOOD. You are aware of the thousands of young men and women who do not want to go to college for 4 years. They consider it an appalling waste of their time and funds. They do not want to do it. There was a time 15 years ago when mama and papa insisted on it because they were keeping up with the Joneses and drove them like cattle into the universities and colleges. Many of them do not want this. You are not helping them or doing them a favor. They want to go to my institute, and there ain't none. Mr. FOGARTY. Is there and other legislation you want to propose tonight? Mr. Howe. No, sir. Thank you very much. COLD WAR BILL OF RIGHTS Mr. FOGARTY. What about the cold war bill of rights we passed today, upstairs? How will that affect education? Mr. Howe. The GI provisions for continued education? This will provide opportunities for a considerable number of people. It will supplement the kinds of things that we are doing with loans and with scholarship grants and with fellowship grants under various programs. It seems to me this does make sense. it. Mr. FOGARTY. We all voted for it. I doubt if anybody voted against SCHOOL DROPOUTS We will place the statement we asked you to have prepared on school dropouts in the record at this point. (The statement referred to follows:) SCHOOL DROPOUTS Recent statistics indicate that some progress is being made toward solution of the dropout problem. The number of high school graduates has doubled in the last 10 years. This compares with an increase in total enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools of only 40 percent during the same period The proportion of ninth-grade students staying on to graduation has been increasing slowly but steadily in recent years. Despite this gradual progress, however, the problem of school dropouts remains a critical one for the Nation. Several pieces of legislation enacted by the 88th Congress and 1st session o the 89th Congress provide strong support in meeting the dropout problem. One of the most significant is the Elementary and Secondary Education A of 1965. Title I provides financial assistance to local educational agencies meet the special educational needs of educationally deprived children. In fis year 1966, $14,700,000 and $16 million in fiscal year 1967 will be used to asthese educationally deprived children. The guidelines for title I call specific attention to the need, as a part of balanced program, for local educational agencies to develop projects specific. designed for school dropouts. |