Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-03-06
Continued From First Page

Negro achievement averages were
below white. In 1947 colored 8-B
pupils. for example, tested in
reading. averaged three years
below grade. White 7-As the fol-
lowing year averaged a little
ahead of grade. although a school
survey found some Objectionable
lags among white children, too.
Prophecy Borne Out
The conclusion of a 1948 survey
printed and available to the
public-was that unless the
schools overcame educational
lacks. chiefly a need for more
teachers, the test lags would get
worse. The prophecy has been
borne out. and the Negro chill
dren show it most.
But Washington's school ade-
quacy isn't the only factor.
The city has also been absorb
ing many children from the
South. as reflected in the steady
climb of the Negro enrolment
from A per cent 10 years ago to
"a per cent now. Many Of these
youngsters come from schools
which. as an educator recently
pointed out at an Atlantic City
convention, let them out for an
annual cotton picking vaca-
ton" and they could hardly be
expected to be up to par. Tests
have shown Washington born
Negro children. even with their
own lags. ranking significantly
ahead of Southern migrants.
Some of these newcomers are
at all-Negro Armstrong High
School, where teachers are just
as worried about doing some
thing for them as in integrated
schools. Armstrong, which a
Negro member of the Board OF
Education recently charged was
becoming a dumping ground
for laggard Negro students, has
10 remedial reading and arith-
metic classes, some of which are
being taught on the fifth and
fourth grade level or lower. Only
II of the schools present 800
10th-gtaderS were reading on
grade level when they enrolled
last September, and not one 10TH
grade English class is being
taught the regular high school
curriculum.
Trouble Dividing Words
In one Armstrong classroom
the writer saw 16-year -old youths
drilling on dividing words like
cabbage" and Friday" into
syllables. The teacher later
passed out some big-print ele-
mentary readers, the first story
in which was titled who's
Afraid of the Big Black Bear?'''
In another room students were
having difficulty subtracting and
dividing. One boy said he
couldn't read aloud the number
"4,936,587," although he said he
could write it. The teacher said
he was having trouble getting
across the multiplication table
But regardless of where they
come from, there is no doubt
underprivileged children are CIV
ing teachers educational head
aches. And where they are in
integrated claSsrooms, there are
plenty Of added adjustment prob
lens thrown in.
How well are teachers manag-
ing to cope with the situation?
Schools are doing as much
grouping as well as special teach
ing as possible. At Armstrong,
the remedial program hasn't
shown significant results yet,
Mckinley High School has set
up on unprecedented remedial
program, with IA special classes
in reading and a somewhat
smaller number in math. The
program has already shown
encouraging results. Tests OF
141 Of the reading students
showed that between Sep
TENDER and January, Is per cent
gained a year or more in vocab-
ulary, "a per cent gained the
same in speed. and 38 per cent
gained equally in comprehension
Some Reach Grade Level
In arithmetic, where pupils
were given 100-problem test
the average improvement in one
class was "a points and in an
other class almost 30, and some
of the children pulled them.
selves up to grade level. Many
of the youngsters had perfectly
normal reasoning power but just
hadn't been using it properly.
At the Jackson Elementary
School, in Georgetown, where
children of congressman ane
diplomats share classrooms with
some whose parents are janitor!
and cooks, the top three grades
have been getting remedia
reading and arithmetic instruc.
ton daily. Miss Ruth E. Dick
principal, said one colored CIR
from the South made a year..
reading progress in two months
and two different colored moth
ers said, MY child is learning
for the first time"