LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL THE HONORABLE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE SIRS: I have the honor to present the sixth in the series of interim reports stemming from the U.S. Metric Study, prepared by the National Bureau of Standards. This Study was authorized by Public Law 90-472 to reduce the many uncertainties concerning the metric issue and to provide a better basis upon which the Congress may evaluate and resolve it. I shall make a final report to the Congress on this Study in August 1971. In the meantime, the data and opinions contained in this interim report are being evaluated by the Study team at the National Bureau of Standards. My final report to you will reflect this evaluation. Respectfully submitted, Mannice H. Stano Secretary of Commerce Enclosure LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL Honorable Maurice H. Stans Dear Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to transmit to you another interim report of the U.S. Metric Study, which is being conducted at the National Bureau of Standards at your request and in accordance with the Metric Study Act of 1968. The Study is exploring the subjects assigned to it with great care. We have tried to reach every relevant sector of the society to elicit their views on the metric issue and their estimates of the costs and benefits called for in the Metric Study Act. Moreover, all of these sectors were given an opportunity to testify in the extensive series of Metric Study Conferences that were held last year. On the basis of all that we have been able to learn from these conferences, as well as the numerous surveys and investigations, a final report will be made to you before August 1971 for your evaluation and decision as to any recommendations that you may wish to make to the Congress. The attached interim report includes data and other opinions that are still being evaluated by us to determine their relationship and significance to all of the other information that has been elicited by the Study. All of these evaluations will be reflected in the final report. Sincerely, Lewis M. Branscombe Lewis M. Branscomb, Director Enclosure FOREWORD This report concerns the U.S. educational system. No other sector is so nearly unanimous in its endorsement of the metric system than is education. This report examines the role that education would play, as well as the problems and opportunities it would experience, in a national change to metric. Reports covering other substudies of the U.S. Metric Study are listed on the inside front cover. All of these, including this report, are under evaluation. Hence, they are published without prejudice to the comprehensive report on the entire U.S. Metric Study, which will be sent to the Congress by the Secretary of Commerce in August of 1971. This report was prepared by the Education Development Center (EDC) of Newton, Massachusetts. The project at EDC was directed by Dr. Berol L. Robinson, under the general guidance of a steering committee composed of Dr. Jerrold R. Zacharias, Acting President of EDC; Kevin H. Smith, Executive Vice President of EDC; Dr. Charles Brown of the Ford Foundation; and Dr. Bobby J. Woodruff, Ridgewood, New Jersey, High School. Professor N. H. Frank of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carlyle E. Maw, Jr., of Harvard University and the University of Chicago served as senior consultants to the project. Others who assisted in the project were Mrs. Cheryl Doyle, Mrs. Wendy Baron and Miss Kathleen Ennis of the Education Development Center, and Mr. Bruce D. Rothrock of the National Bureau of Standards. In addition, many educational institutions and organizations were visited to gather data for this report, and well over a hundred persons made contributions to the work of the Education Development Center, for which it is grateful. In this as in all aspects of the U.S. Metric Study, the program has benefited from the independent judgment and thoughtful counsel of its advisory panel and the many other organizations, groups, and committees that have participated in the Study. Daniel V. De Simone, Director Bilingualism in Measurement Language The "Costs" of Not Going Metric and Recommendations B. Teacher Training - Preservice and Inservice Preservice Training and Teacher Qualification 54 |