ministrators, teachers, curriculum supervisors, educational broadcasters, authorities in various fields, and professional organizations in the U.S. and Canada. The AIT Board of Directors establishes areas for exploration on the basis of needs expressed by representatives of the states and provinces at meetings conducted by AIT. Study teams organized by AIT then determine how television can make a significant contribution to the classroom in these areas. Projects are refined through reports distributed to all interested persons and discussions at subsequent meetings. State and provincial agencies pool resources to finance projects. The consortium of agencies involved in a project provides overall guidance through the production period. Representatives of the agencies meet with AIT staff, the project's curriculum design team, and other consultants to review the development of the television and related materials, guide information activities for introduction of the series, and plan its effective utilization. Production is done by selected agencies under the supervision of AIT and the consultants. AIT also organizes smaller cooperative efforts to finance the production of exceptionally promising classroom series conceived by individual agencies and of new versions of existing series that have proved their effectiveness. A consortium of state and provincial agencies, under the management of AIT, is developing and financing the project, with additional support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Exxon Corporation. Educators and educational broadcasters gave the essential learning skills high priority at a 1973-74 series of regional meetings called by AIT to determine the curriculum areas where television could be most helpful. More than two years of preliminary planning, involving several hundred American and Canadian educators, followed the regional meetings. The schedule for the initial series is: instructional design (July 1976 through June 1977), experimental production (July 1977 through February 1978), regular production (March 1978 through December 1979), broadcast (beginning September 1979). An integral part of the project's development is the process of formative evaluation-testing the effectiveness and appeal of the programs and printed guides with teachers and students, evaluating the results, and revising the materials accordingly. Extensive classroom testing is planned for all programs and guides at all levels. BOARD OF DIRECTORS AIT is governed by a Board of Directors of sixteen members-twelve Americans appointed by the Council of Chief State School Officers, three Canadians appointed by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, and the Executive Director of AIT. The members of the board serve staggered three-year terms. Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, before we go on, could I be briefed on what your organization does, Mr. Cohen? Who owns it? Mr. COHEN. We are a nonprofit corporation. We are governed by a board of directors whose majority are chief school officers in the United States, with several from Canada. They are appointed by the Council of Chief State School Officers in this country and the Council of Ministers of Education in Canada. We are really an instrument of the things that they have in common, that they are willing to fund in common. Mr. COLLINS. Is this secondary in it or just college level, community college? Mr. COHEN. Elementary and secondary. The bulk of our work is at the elementary school because presently more kids can use broadcast in the elementary school than in high school. Mr. COLLINS. Are you in TV primarily? STATEMENT OF PATRICIA A. CONNER Ms. CONNER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. I would like to ask you to switch channels, because I am going to be talking about radio audio exclusively, for the moment. My overviews of public radio and education are based upon 9 years of active experience within public broadcasting and preceded by 5 years of classroom teaching in the inner city of Atlanta. While I was in Atlanta, I became an instructional radio specialist for the city of Atlanta, and then I moved to South Carolina to establish the statewide instructional radio network, and now I am deputy director for Development, Research and Planning with the South Carolina E.T.V. and Radio Network. The writers of H.R. 3333 must be praised for the very broad framework of this bill, which includes insulation, increased Federal programing support, and freedom of public radio stations to interrelate. In like fashion as the Carnegie Commission, the authors of this bill had the wisdom to set telecommunications for learning as a priority. This special category for education and instruction in the endowment will assist public radio in fulfilling its potential as an educational resource. Learning services are often the least lucrative in public radio, and as such, require built-in support in the endowment. The bill visibly recognizes the differences between radio and television, which is gratefully noted by radio. However, fuller recognition of those differences needs to emerge, particularly in the continuing need for expansion and development of the public radio system. Public radio having just completed its first decade has made significant progress. The much-praised informational and cultural programing of public radio has enriched the fabric and understanding of our society, but it represents only a portion of the service that can be, that is beginning to be. I refer to the variations on audio technologies which are increasingly enabling public radio's |