Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-20
RADIO IN SCHOOLS
TOBE GIVEN TEST
Board of Education Accepts
Offer of Sets for Ex-
-y
pertinent Here.

Radio viii be given a chance to prove
its educational value in Washington pub
lie schools as a result of the Board Of
Education's decision late yesterday to
accept the proffered loan Of q dozen
receiving sets for installation in Junior
high schools and in some elementary
| schools.
The board also received a new petit
| ton from the Teachers Union for
| clerical help in the administration Of
achievement tests to pupils, and, after
informal discussion, requested DR.. Frank
w. Ballou, superintendent, to submit
to it a complete report on the purposes
and value of the tests and the time re-
quired in conducting them.
Determination to experiment with
radio as an electrical adjunct was
reached when DIR. Ballou recommended
that the offer of the Eisenbrandt Radio
Co. to install receiving sets of ma
tionally known make in selected schools
be accepted. DR.. Ballou said he was
aware that acceptance of the offer
might be construed as willing alliance
of school authorities with an organiZa-
ton interested with the promotion of
radio use. He explained, however, that
since the semi-weekly broadcasts of
School of the Air" provide a basis
for serious experimentation, he was
convinced that without sets at their
disposal Washington educators would
have to rely upon the research and
observations Of others instead of TAX
ing an active part in the experiments
themselves.
The sets viii be installed in the near
future and observations made until
the end of the year.
Four Proposals Offered.
Or. Ballou's report on the achievement
and intelligence tests of pupils was re-
QueSted when the communication from
the Teachers Union pointed out that
from 3 to IS hours of extra work are
required of teachers to complete the
tests.
The union proposed for the teachers
relief in the administration of the tests.
That II teachers are to correct and
tabulate the test papers and the re-
suits, allowance of time be made in the
assignment of teachers doing the work;
that school sessions be suspended for
sufficient time to enable all teachers to
concentrate on and complete this work;
that annual substitutes be assigned to
the work; or that a clerical force be
employed either at the expense of the
building. or by asking an appropriation
by Congress.
A recent ballot showed 191 teachers
opposed to the method of administering
the tests; 2 in favor of it, and 35 GIN
GLIDING some teachers who were not
permanently employed) not voting.
These ballots subsequently were destroy
ed, the union advised the school board,
because there became prevalent, right
ly or mistakenly, fear that teachers
who opposed the plan being put into
effect would be regarded as insubordi-
nate or would be regarded as less ell
Gent because not cooperative.
Portable Plan Is Rejected.
The petition of the Sixteenth Street
Heights Citizens Association to compel
children living in the vicinity of the
portable schools at Fourteenth street
and Kalmia road to attend classes in
those structures was met with fiat
refusal. DR.. Ballou explained that a
growing antipathy toward portables on
the part of parents resulted in the
gradual reduction of the attendance at
one Of the two portables in that COM
munity to IL and for that reason the
building was closed. He added that an
number of children live in
the community to warrant construction
Of four-room permanent school house.
During the discussion on the portable
question, Harry o. Hine, secretary of
the board, read letter from F. L.
Huxley of 7040 Alaska avenue in which
the writer protested against the Six
tenth Street Heights Citizens ASsocia-
TONS efforts to compel attendance at
portable schools. He characterized the
portables as pig sites" unfit for school
use.
81 want to go on record as a tax
payer and resident of the District of
Columbia in protest against any such
resolution being carried as that adopted
by the Sixteenth Street Heights
Citizens Association, making it COM
pulsory to send child to said portable
schools, which in my estimation are
nothing more than a common pig sly,
a disgrace to the District, unhealthy, !
filthy, ill-heated and ventilated, besides
being poorly located" Mr.. Huxley's
letter set forth. Continuing, it read:
I'VE haven't vote in the District,
but I claim the right of a free born
American citizen and a taxpayer of
sending my child to a school in a we'll
built, properly heated and ventilated
building, and not pig sty."