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

January January
1958 <strong>1961</strong>
(percent) (percent)
Track I l 7- o 20. 7
Track II 45-9 5 2 - 4
Track III 47.1 21.3
Terminal education 2 5.6
1 St. Louis secondary schools operate 3 basic curriculum tracks: track I for aboveaverage
achieversj track II for average achievers, and track III for below-average
achievers.
2 This classification includes graduating students, who because of intellectual limitations
and age do not appear to be able to benefit from the regular track III program.
The key to the entire program seems to have been inspired leadership.
Dr. Shepard encouraged principals to initiate programs for raising pupil
performance and changing teachers' attitudes toward the possibility of
higher pupil achievement. 42 Teachers were admonished to stop "teaching
by supposed IQ"; parents were told of the poor performance of their
children, urged to cooperate with the school on homework assignments,
and instructed how to do so. 43 Children were spurred by assembly
programs, field trips, peptalks, honor assemblies, and posters. 44
Dr. Shepard explained to the <strong>Commission</strong> his concept of the differentiated
treatment of pupils he calls teaching by IQ, with the following
story: 48
. . . here was a teacher who had copied the IQ numbers down the
line from a list in the principal's office . . . throughout the semester
if the teacher called on Mary, let us say, with an IQ of 119, she
followed somewhat this pattern: If Mary didn't respond quickly,
"Well, now, come on, Mary. You know you can do this. You
know how we did this yesterday," or bring up an analogous situation.
She encouraged, she stimulated, until Mary came up with
the proper answer, or what the teacher at least considered an adequate
one. However, when she called on poor John with his 74
IQ, if he mumbled something fairly audible, why, this was wonderful
; pat him on the back and, "Be sure and be here tomorrow. You
can wash the windows and help move the piano and water the
flowers, and the erasers must be washed," and so forth. This is
the kind of encouragement that he got with a 74. This is teaching
by IQ. She was a little horrified at the end of the semester when
she turned in her grades. She looked under the glass and saw that
the columns she had copied for IQ's were locker numbers. Now,
this is about what goes on.
The table below, showing the improved performance of the children in
the Banneker schools (which by January <strong>1961</strong> had equaled national
norms), suggests that elaborate and costly remedial programs may not
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