COLLEGE COUNSELOR NEEDS

We need counselors to work with students in the areas of career choices, educational objectives, and personal decisions. Research has shown that approximately two-thirds of all college students choose or change their vocational objectives while they are in college. Where in an earlier era the faculty member performed the task of advising, today he lacks the time and he often has too many students. The problem is highlighted in a recent publication of the Office of Education at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. I quote:

The fact remains that attention to guidance in many institutions lags considerably behind attention to instructional programs, that many faculty members who are quite proficient in their subject areas have neither the training nor the inclination to undertake extensive guidance of students, and that the diversity of student characteristics demands more than perfunctory attention to the guidance function in programs purporting to offer flexibility in rate or depth of student learning.1

We still need the faculty adviser, but he needs people to whom he can refer the student with problems which require time.

Senator MORSE. I couldn't agree with you more on that.

I want to call Mr. Lee's attention where you make the recommendation for amendment to the bill to provide for this additional service. I would like to have an appropriate amendment drafted and printed at this point in the hearings record.

(The following amendment was drafted in accordance with the instructions of the chairman and has been sent to Dean Miriam Shelden for her comments. Further correspondence on this matter will be found in subcommittee files :)

AMENDMENT TO S. 580

On page 72, line 12, before the period insert a comma and the following: "or who are engaged in, or preparing to engage in, counseling and guidance work in a college or university".

Dr. SHELDEN. Thank you.

We need trained staff in all those areas of student services where people come in constant contact with students. Financial aids officers do more than dole out money. Student union and activity directors, because they work closely with students in planning extra class activities, become informal teachers and counselors. Admissions directors and orientation staff have the closest contacts with the incoming student as he makes the transition from high school to college. Foreign student advisors are person-to-person ambassadors implementing our foreign policy at home. The success or failure of a foreign student's stay at an American college or university can influence the attitude of that country toward the United States, for these foreign students, like ours, are the future leaders of their nations.

We need deans of men and women to organize and coordinate the program of student services within the college community, to be available to the student as he makes fundamental decisions and meets the day-by-day problems of the young adult-to meet what Gilbert

1 Cole, Charles C., Jr., and Lewis, Lanora G., "Flexibility in the Undergraduate Curriculum." U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education Bulletin No. 10 in series "New Dimensions in Higher Education." Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962, p. 55.

1

Wrenn calls the "persisting needs of youth." Student personnel staff working with young women have a special responsibility to help them see the radically changing life patterns of women and the need for high ability women to contribute their brainpower and skills to the manpower resources of this Nation without sacrificing their traditional family responsibilities.

TRAINED PERSONNEL SHORTAGE

Student personnel administrators recognize the acute shortages of trained counselors who work with college students. Individual institutions do have programs to train men and women in this field but fewer than 50 universities prepare persons directly for personnel

services.

Each year in the placement bureaus of the professional groups the number of jobs in proportion to the number of candidates increases. When I asked a longtime member of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers where he obtained new staff he said, "We steal them either from another institution or from the high school counseling staff." This technique may solve the problem of one institution but is of no benefit to educational institutions as a whole.

Employers everywhere are searching for trained staff. When trained people are not available, the only alternative is to fill the jobs with untrained staff unfamiliar with present-day needs. Today when we face crises in manpower, confusion of national and personal goals and values, we cannot afford to settle for those who, untrained, will do only half a job. Unfortunately, the half job they do is not in terms of the quantity of students they serve, but in terms of the quality of assistance they give.

The professional personnel organizations are attempting to remedy the crises by updating the knowledge and information of their current membership. But current membership of the several organizations is not sufficient to carry the load of increased student enrollment. We simply need more workers. The professional meetings of our organizations are vast training laboratories for their members. Foreign student advisers, student union directors, deans each group devotes major portions of its meetings to the training of new members and the upgrading of skills of its older members. Various groups have published career brochures trying to attract new people to the field. Yet the fact remains-without assistance, the shortages will get worse, and students will suffer. Therefore, we seek your help. Reflecting the concern of its membership, the National Association of Women Deans and Counselors in its recent national convention in Boston, Mass., on April 6, 1963, adopted the following resolution: Whereas NAWDC in 1961 and 1962 recommended in its resolutions that the provisions of the National Defense Education Act counseling and guidance training program be extended to include those students wishing to prepare for student personnel positions in junior colleges, colleges, and universities; and Whereas the National Education Improvement Act of 1963 (S. 580 and H.R. 3000) is now before the 88th Congress; and

Wrenn, C. Gilbert, "The Counselor in the Changing World," Washington, D.C., American Personnel and Guidance Association, 1962, p. 4.

lus for program improvement in all areas of the school curriculum, and that its favorable effects far outweighed any unfavorable effects.

Finding. School districts have recommended changes in administrative practices for Title III which are currently being put into effect. Implication. Continual feedback from school districts regarding any service program is essential to the improvement of administrative procedures and to adaptation to changed circumstances.

School districts were asked to recommend the changes in administrative practices that would be of assistance to them in the development of programs financed under Title III of the National Defense Education Act. Half of the districts responding requested that the deadline for submission of projects be shifted to the Spring. An almost equal number requested that the Bureau of National Defense Education Act Administration take steps towards revising its manual of instruction.1 One of ten school districts stated that the straight 50-50 matching should be made more flexible so that the poorer school districts might receive the benefits they need.

The California State Department of Education has already responded to the request for the Spring deadline by establishing April 24, 1962, as the deadline for applications for the 1962-63 fiscal year. The manual of instructions for the preparation of projects is currently under revision, and several statewide committee meetings will be held to obtain the reactions of school districts toward the changes proposed. The provision of more flexible matching requirements is under study.

CONCLUSIONS

Participation of a school district in Title III programs is related directly to the size of its administrative staff and inversely, to its wealth.

Title III of the National Defense Education Act has been successful in California in helping school districts to accommodate increased student enrollments and improve the quality of instruction in science, mathematics, and modern foreign languages.

Title III has stimulated school administrators in the state to initiate programs of instructional improvement; and the equipment and materials provided under Title III have acted both as motivation and reward to the teachers in the school districts involved. Secondary school district administrators credit the National Science Foundation with being the greatest single factor in program change.

Title III has achieved only limited success in the development of adequate in-service education programs for teachers and the encourage

Manual of Information and Instructions Regarding Application for Projects Under Title III of National Defense Education Act of 1958 (Public Law 864): Financial Assistance for Strengthening Science, Mathematics, and Modern Foreign Language Instruction-Grants for Acquisition of Equipment, Materials, and Minor Remodeling. Sacramento: California State Department of Education, 1959 (revised).

ment of effective evaluation programs. School districts report that they have insufficient funds to employ adequate staff for these purposes and are seeking aid either from such programs as are represented by the National Defense Education Act or programs established by the State Legislature.

Title III has stimulated the development of more complex and more highly specialized instructional programs, which include the increased specialization of teachers and greater attention to pupil placement.

Title III has been a favorable influence upon the school program as a whole. The criticisms regarding additional workload on school district staffs are more than counterbalanced by the use of ideas, equipment, and techniques developed in NDEA supported subjects and by the stimulation of improved programs in other subject areas.

The experience of the school districts indicates that even under the most favorable circumstances a minimum of three years is necessary for curriculum change, and that considerably more time is needed if large numbers of teachers are involved.

The total cost of the NDEA Title III program in California, including administrative costs, consultant and supervisory services, and matching funds for equipment and materials, has been approximately 90 cents per pupil per year.

Probably the most valuable result of the study is that it has proven that small amounts of money, when wisely spent as a result of careful planning, can effect a significant impact on the educational program in a school district and in the state.

Senator MORSE Now. Dr. MeMullen, we are delighted to have you.

STATEMENT OF DR. GEORGE M&MULLEN, LOS ANGELES CITY

SCHOOLS

Dr. M-MULLEN. Good morning. Senator Morse.

First I wish to express to you and members of the subcommittee our appreciation for the invitation to appear before you and submit testimony relating to ertain provisions of S. 360.

I am George McMullen, consultant to the associate superintendent of the division of instructional services. Los Angeles city schools. One of my duties is to coordinate work on National Defense Education Act subventions for our school system.

The Los Angeles city schools have participated in programs under Public Law No. 85-864 of the National Defense Education Act since its enactment in 1958. Projects developed and recommended for special consideration of the board of education are submitted only after considerable study. Although the staf believes that each recommendation for improvement of instruction deserves considerationregardless of the availability of National Defense Educational Act funds, we also have a responsibility to inform the board of education whenever this legislation can aid the school district.

LOS ANGELES EXPERIENCE UNDER NATIONAL DEFENCE EDUCATION ACT

The National Defense Education Act has made it possible for the Los Angeles city schools to

(1) Provide schools with certain equipment and materials more quickly than might otherwise be possible.

(2) Furnish greater financial support to instruction in certain subject fields without increasing expenditures of district funds.

(3) Advance the priority of certain items in budget planning by reducing substantially their cost to the district.

(4) Provide funds for experimental programs necessary to determine the need for improvements in the educational program.

Each proposal is given the utmost care in screening and analysis to insure the maximum effectiveness of the program. This is carried out to the extent that for each proposal a 5-year projected cost analysis is made on the impact of the proposal on the on-going budgets. It is not enough for us to know the cost of a project. We must know what related costs are involved in regarding additional supplies, consultant time for the development of materials, and the costs of maintaining the project over an extended period of time. This gives you an indication of the care with which these proposals are handled.

It is easily recognized that the ability to maintain basic programs of education-and indeed to make progress in the face of declining financial support-will require the utmost care in the handling of every dollar appropriated for the general purposes of education.

The Los Angeles system has been involved in the National Defense Education Act program since the beginning and has learned how best to make effective use of each dollar in this program.

The California State plan for project development is, in the eyes of the staff, a most significant vehicle for the development of sound, Wor le educational programs, when you are dealing with a large -tricts with limited financial resources.