1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

desegregation, have found it an excellent instrument to provide for the
slow, low-achieving students without hurting others.
By classes.—Some educators strongly condemn the track system because
it virtually freezes each student in a track in accordance with admittedly
fallible testing methods. Intraschool ability grouping by classes
for able, average, and slow learners meets this objection. Proven performance
in each subject is the basis of classification. A child in an
advanced class in science or mathematics may be in a slow class in
English. Thus, an overall classification of bright, average, or dull is
avoided. This kind of grouping has been useful in connection with
desegregation. 9 Of course, it can be used only in schools having two or
more classes in the same subject.
Special classes in English, 10 nongraded classes for overage students, 11
and other remedial classes 12 seem to fall in this category, although only
the lower level of the achievement range is singled out for attention.
Sometimes such classes in desegregated schools in fact serve Negro students
almost exclusively. 13
Ability groups within a class can be used in schools having only one
class of a particular grade, or subject. None of the educators attending
the <strong>Commission</strong>'s three education conferences discussed this method.
However split classes are a variant of the ability-group-within-the-class
technique. The superintendent of schools of Montgomery County, Md.,
testified at the <strong>Commission</strong>'s Gatlinburg conference that he had used this
method in an elementary school where most students were average or
below, while a few were highly talented. Under this plan 14 —
. . . the bulk of the students are in regular class by grade and the
top of each class has been put into a split class, so that we have a
group of first and second graders with one teacher, third and fourth
with one, fifth and sixth with one. These are the academically talented
students, both Negro and whites, who are in that school, and
they move along on this level and the others at the different rate
move along in the regular classes.
Supervised home study
Tutoring of the handicapped Negro pupil newly enrolled in a formerly
all-white school has been provided both officially and privately. The
superintendent of schools of San Angelo, Texas, told the <strong>Commission</strong>
that Negro students in his city performed so poorly when transferred to
a white high school that they requested segregation. 15
We believe this was brought on by their first report cards. At the
end of the first 6 weeks, all grades given to Negro students represented
8 A's, 13 B's, 37 C's, 13 D's, 20 F's, and 9 incomplete. This
average was approximately 15 points lower than the grades the
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