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Report Digest
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
to the
LEARNING INSTITUTE OF NORTH CAROLINA
(March 15, 1966, $82,473.00)
The Technical Assistance grant from The North Carolina Fund Board to
the Learning Institute of North Carolina was an effort to enable North
Carolina communities to take maximum advantage of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act and other federal education legislative funds.
Three technical assistants were employed in this project, one specialist
in each of three areas, pre-school, reading, and adult basic education. The
first two project components related to public school needs and were conducted
by LINC. The third, adult basic education, was sub-contracted to North
Carolina State University, Department of Adult Education on a two-year agree-
ment, with LINC adding other funds to the North Carolina Fund grant. This
project was a cooperative effort with the North Carolina Community Colleges
through which the services of the specialist were delivered.
A specialist for the pre-school component was hard to find and this
position remained unfilled until January, 1967, although LINC staff members
conducted some activity. The specialist for the reading phase began work in
June, 1966. The adult basic education component was transferred to North
Carolina State University in May, 1966. A specialist was employed, and that
project was initiated by July 1, 1966.
Technical Assistance Program Pre-School Component
The CSIP summer effort ic ~ote-acheok education was replaced by Head-
start when the latter program became oid tn' be available. These were among
the first general public efforts in pre-school service for North Carolina.
There were few teachers available with the specialized training desired for
pre-school education. The North Carolina Fund and LINC recognized a need
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to provide the missing technical service, and the pre-school component of
the TAP grant was planned to fill that need.
Among the activities and findings of the pre-school component are the
following.
(1) During the summer of 1966, a team of consultants was employed and
did a study of 20 Community Action Agency Child Development Centers in
different parts of the state.
(2) Many well-trained teachers were found in these centers with training
in elementary education but not pre-school education.
(3) Beginning in March 1967, 26 five-hour workshops were held for 75
pre-school employees of Community Action Programs.
(4) Consulting service was given to several other groups.
(5) As a result of the TAP pre-school component, LINC planned and OEO
made a grant of $227,000 to begin a pre-school demonstration in Greensboro.
This will provide in-service training for personnel presently working in
pre-school centers and will serve 45 pre-school children.
Technical Assistance Program Reading Component
The primary purposes for the TAP project in reading were (1) to aid
North Carolina Public School Units in the design and development of proposals
for funding under the ESEA and other Federal acts and (2) to provide assistance
in the design of new and innovative approaches to reading.
Under the directfion of the specialist beck s by LINC, this TAP component
conducted a number of in-service workshops, seminars, and conferences on
reading. These conferences involved Community Action personnel, reading
supervisors, public school administrators, reading teachers, college consul-
tants, and members of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
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College and University personnel who teach extension courses in reading
also participated. Emphasis was given to pre-school, ota elementary,
and secondary levels of reading. A special conference was conducted on
experimental approaches for teaching reading to the mentally retarded.
New tools and techniques in reading were stressed, among them the
Syracuse University films for use in the teaching of reading in secondary
schools. Two television programs dealing with reading in the secondary
schools were written and produced for the N. C. Department of Public Instruction.
The TAP specialist assisted in the development of a Title III (ESEA)
proposal in reading. This was submitted by the Greensboro City Schools,
funded for three years ($600,000) and will immediately serve the 21 public
school administrative units of the fifth North Carolina Educational District.
This is an in-service education reading project for public school teachers
and will serve over 2,000 pre-school and elementary. teachers each year.
The TAP specialist in reading has worked with over 2,200 teachers,
administrators, and college personnel during the program's 15 months of
operation.
Technical Assistance Program Adult Basic Education
North Carolina State University " Department of Adult Education
(abstract)
The project, "Training, Development, and Research in Basic Education
for Adults," was initiated July 1, 1966, by the Department of Adult Education
at North Carolina State University. The project was funded by the Learning
Institute of North Carolina with a grant of $27,500 from the North Carolina
Fund and $24,069 from LINC. The project was designed to help meet the social
and educational needs of undereducated adults in North Carolina through
training present and prospective Adult Basic Education personnel, developing
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educational materials especially designed for the target audience, and
researching problems associated with the undereducated adult population.
The accomplishments of the project for the period July 1, 1966,
through June 30, 1967, were:
North Carolina State University became the first university
in the nation to have a staff devoting full time to research,
training, and development in Adult Basic Education. The
University remains as one of the nine national centers for
the study of Adult Basic Education.
Adult Basic Education became an integral component of the
Department of Adult Education's program. A special course
entitled "Concepts and Principles of Understanding and
Motivating the Culturally Deprived" was developed as a com-
ponent of the Department's course offerings. Four of the
regular staff members in the Department have developed a
high degree of expertise in content areas related to the
undereducated adult population.
In cooperation with the North Carolina Department of
Community Colleges, a statewide teacher-training program
was developed for teachers and teacher trainers in Adult
Basic Education. More than 800 North Carolina teachers
and teacher trainers have participated in the program..
A library of curriculum materials was developed for
Adult Basic Education programs.
Two reading programs for adults were co-authored and
published by the Project Director.
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Two major longitudinal research projects in Adult
Basic Education were developed and initiated. The
funding of these two research projects will amount
to $1,700,000 over a five-year period,
A number of graduate students working on the project
have become involved in major research and develop-
mental projects. Two former graduate students have
accepted university faculty research appointments
in Adult Basic Education.
The establishment of the project enabled the Uni-
versity to receive grants for two National Teacher-
Trainer Institutes. Two-hundred and twenty (220)
teacher trainers participated.
Modern educational technology and other innovative
techniques have been introduced in Adult Basic
Education programs.
The activities of the project have been seriously curtailed due to
lack of funds for the second year of operation.
BUDGET PLANNED FOR PROJECT
July 1, 1966 " June 30, 1968
(Planned by LINC and North Carolina State University - Department of Adult Education)
Items 1966-67 1967-68
Personnel $31,136.00 $31,636.00
Matching 2,633.00 2,688.00
Supporting Services 17,800.00 12,300.00
TOTAL $51,596.00 $46,624.00
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Youth Educational Services
Tutorial Project
The North Carolina Fund education-demonstration projects have generally
been funded through another organization. This is the nature of the support
given to Youth Educational Services which was originally funded directly and
later through LINC.
YES proposed the development of a veluncede tutoring system for under-
achieving public school students. The tutors were to be young college adults,
some of whom had recently finished a four-year college program and some of
whom had not. Part of the project was a plan to extend involvement to
secondary school students who would act as tutors of lower grade level public
school students. YES also planned to give emphasis to the development of
local leaders. The energies and interests of these tutors were to be directed
toward individual problem solving on a one-to-one basis.
The initial idea, supported by LINC and The North Carolina Fund, resulted
in YES getting a larger budget from other sources than from either LINC or
The North Carolina Fund. Support has come, for the entire three-year period,
(1965-68) from the Fund For The Advancement of Education (Ford Foundation) "
$30,000, The Council of the Southern Mountains"$3,419, The Advancement
School"$2,000, The Office of Economic Opportunity"$274,359, Learning
Institute of North Carolina"$24,010, and The North Carolina Fund"$39,405.18.
Near the end of the Fund's grat to YES, the Fund requested an evaluation
by outside consultants.
The consultants reported that:
+(&)-. Tutors had shown significant improvement in their. own school grades.
A majority of the tutees interviewed were "A" and "B" students when they entered
tutoring and reported no general improvement in school grades.
(2) Negro teachers and parents alike are overly impressed with the
project and think it is helping the youth,
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(3) YES has set the stage for creative and independent thinking among
its tutors but has not exploited its opportunity.
(4) The tutoring approach has the potentiality to bridge the gap between
Caucasian and Negro youth who have been assigned to poorer elementary schools.
(5) YES central staff and local staffs have begun to help local people
identify community problems.
(6) Local communities are aware of YES's presence, and it is to the
credit of those local agencies which are not helping that they at least do
not prevent the operation of the YES tutorial project.
(7) YES's greatest long-term potential to the local area is building
up a cadre of local, well trained leaders among those who are tutors.
There are several weaknessess of YES as identified by the consultant team.
Among these are: ,
(1) The central administrative structure of YES is weak.
(2) There is no meaningful pre-service and in-service training program
for the YES field staff.
(3) YES is not exploiting the opportunity to be creative or to uncover
new teaching techniques.
(4) The recruitment of tutors needs serious tightening up and coordi-
nation. There is no screening of tutors, no regular or uniform reporting of
successful tutoring techniques to the central offices.
(5) There is no set policy on recruitment of tutees. The policy seems
to be that whoever will may come. The youth who need help the most are not
getting the tutoring.
(6) YES has no objective method of evaluating the progress of tutors
or tutees.
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(7) There is ineffective use and distribution of labor, The tutors
are tutoring in nearly every case on a one-to-one basis"one tutor to one
tutee.
(8) There is no effective counseling and guidance component built
into the program.
