exemplary approaches to staff development and training from different perspectives. Two of these efforts are based at Regional Educational Laboratories, one at a university and one in the private business sector. SOUTHWEST EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY The Early Childhood Education Learning System developed by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin, Texas provides the instructional materials for a comprehensive sequential program for economically disadvantaged children, ages 3-5. The four components in the system are (1) instructional materials, (2) staff development, (3) parent-community involvement, and (4) the environment for learning (learning ecology). Testing of the first three components, already underway, includes 656 Spanishspeaking children (all in the Southwest), their teachers, assistant teachers, and parents. Evaluation results indicate that the learning system is making a significant difference in the physical, social, and intellectual development of the 656 children. The need for more resources becomes critical as the instructional materials, staff development (training) packages, and parent education materials have been developed sufficiently to the "exportable" stage. Resources are needed now to make the system available to more children in many different settings. Successful diffusion of the system involves an array of tasks requiring skills in communications, multi-media presentations, packaging, and design for usage. Exportable packages which can be used in a variety of settings are much more economical, per pupil served, then the person-to-person training that has been essential to the program as it was being developed. The tasks are, nevertheless, expensive. The Training Program. The staff development component of the learning system is designed to enhance and extend the teaching skills and classroom management capabilities of the teachers of young children. The Laboratory's program is aimed primarily at Spanish-speaking children, with the first instruction in Spanish. Thus, the staff must be bilingual. Because "qualified" (i.e., with baccalaureate degrees and teaching certificates) bilingual teachers are in short supply. the Laboratory suggests persons with less formal training be employed as teachers and assistant teachers in the program. The teachers may be high school graduates who speak English and Spanish fluently. The assistant teacherscommunity members and usually parents-are not required to have high school diplomas. But they, too, must be literate in both Spanish and English. Basically, the training program developed by the Laboratory includes these topics: Classroom management, teacher expectations (attitudes and behaviors toward children), guidelines for teachers to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses in working with young children, guidelines for planning each day's activities utilizing the Laboratory curriculum materials and adapting them as necessary to the individual needs of the specific children. Each topic includes films, videotapes, filmstrips, photogrophs, simulation activities, and written materials. Presently, the training package is delivered by the Laboratory during one week of preservice workshops and two hours per week of in-service training. Every effort is being made to make the training package completely exportable and thus wean its users from the idea that Laboratory personnel must train all participants in the program. Teachers and assistant teachers receive identical training. The Laboratory, in its training program, has built in the procedures of career ladders for sustained advancement of the teachers, assistant teachers, and community specialists in the program. These career ladders, now utilized almost entirely by teachers and assistant teachers, may be expanded to a wide range of related fields. (For example, the use of multi-media in classrooms with young children can provide other manpower training possibilities for parents. Use and maintenance of the equipment could well lead to opportunities in photography. electronics, and allied fields.) As the career ladder works at present, the teachers and assistant teachers sustain their own advancement through participation in programs made possible through cooperative efforts between the Laboratory and local colleges and universities. On-the-job accomplishments are tied in with special courses offered by the academic institutions. The teachers and assistant teachers, thus, are able, concurrently with their teaching tasks, to prepare themselves for a wide choice of jobs. In addition to teaching, these include social work, community development, classroom design, and parent education. In the future, these career development opportunities should be widely expanded. While Day-Care Centers are recognized almost universally as a first program in revitalizing communities and in improving families' economic positions, they are themselves a major manpower training area. However, this is but a small part of the benefits of Day-Care Centers. They free economically disadvantaged and undereducated parents to participate in other training programs and other occupations to increase their skills and economic well-being. They also provide a vehicle for positive family education. UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA The Institute for Development of Human Resources is an interdepartmental research agency of the College of Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. The Institute was organized in September, 1966, and its first large-scale project was in parent education of disadvantaged mothers in the North Central Florida area. In its growth, the Institute has reflected the synthesis of strong interest in infant growth and development, parent education, cognitive and language development, and systematic observation. Parent Education. A major unit in the Institute's broad program is The Florida Parent Education Model funded by Head Start. The key elements of the program are the training of the mother (one or two to each classroom) in the role of combined parent educator and teacher aide along with training the teacher in the use of the slide. The services of parent education seeks to influence the behavior and attitudes of parents, as well as the physical setting and materials provided, based on the belief that all have a direct impact on the child before and during the school years. The Florida Parent Education Model has been tested at outposts in Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Washington, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Evaluation results from each of the (11) outposts indicate that the design is valid and aided in making a significant difference in the over-development of some 1,317 children across the nation. Training and Staff Development. Because the parent educator is involved in instructional and data-gathering functions, she is distinguished from ordinary teacher aide and there is need for special training in instructional and datagathering skills. The teacher needs similar training in order to interpret the data obtained and supervise the activities of the parent educator, and make informed decisions. In addition, related staff is needed to score, process, interpret and feed back information to the classroom situation. The training of parent educators and teachers takes place in Summer Workshops conducted at the University of Florida in the summer of each year. Workshops consist of a five-day-week, eight-hour day, three week program. Pre- and In-Service Training. Training consists of instructions in (a) interviewing mothers and explaining the program to them, (b) the nature of the learning tasks to be taken into the home, and (c) techniques for teaching the tasks to the mother in the home. The training period focuses on problem-solving activity, role playing and other forms of practice, small and large group discussions, seminars and home visits with Florida parent educators. Additional training is provided through a nine-day workshop in the participating outpost following the summer workshops. The total cost of training of the parent educator in the Institute is $1,500.00 per trainee. An expanded in-service training program going from nine days to twenty days would increase the cost from $1,500.00 to $2,000.00 per person. For a specific example, the Education at Age Three Program consists of four product development programs for pre-school children: Head Start, Follow Through, Parent/Child Education and Program Operations. The goal of this program is to produce an internally consistent curriculum (together with training programs for teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents) that will provide an effective program of education for children between the ages of three and nine. The two major objectives of this program are to create or adapt (a) instructional materials for children that will develop a healthy self-concept as it relates to learning in the school and home and will enable them to develop their intellectual abilities; and (b) teacher training materials and procedures that will insure the effective use of these materials. The principal goal of the training and staff development program is to develop and implement a training program which will increase the competence of nonLaboratory personnel in educational product-development, testing, and dissemination. The need for this program is indicated by the lack of (a) educational products which have been developed in a systematic way, starting with clearly stated objectives and ending with a product which has been tested to determine if its objectives have been achieved, and (b) effective agencies to facilitate the dissemination and installation in programs of those products that have been developed and tested. FAR WEST LABORATORY FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT The Laboratory, located in Berkeley, California, is concerned with the development of program components in four major areas: Teacher education program. Communication program. Education-Beginning at three program. The program is funded by the United States Office of Education through the Division of Educational Laboratories in cooperation with representative universities in California, Utah and Nevada. Far West Lab serves a total of 2,153 children and their families in 15 participating communities in California, Nevada, and Utah. A staff of 218 workers (roughly 80% paraprofessional and 20% professional) provides direct services to the children and families. A total of 463 man-weeks is devoted to the training of the entire staff. The cost per trainee is between $1,500.00-$2,000.00 depending on the quality and length of the training program. UEC EDUCATIONAL DAY-CARE The Educational Day-Care Division of UEC Inc. represents a unique model child care program, the first comprehensive program of early-childhood education and day-care installed on a large scale which is designed especially to strengthen the role of the family in helping children prepare for success in life. The educational component of the program represents a new approach to learning based on more than 150,000 observations of children by learning specialists and parents. The basic program of planned learning designs built into a family-oriented child care program has proven successful with more than 3,000 preschool children in five Northeastern states, and a model system for four Pennsylvania counties under contract with the State's Department of Public Welfare. Training and Staff Development. A main feature of the UEC Educational Day-Care Systems is the recruitment and development of staff drawn from the neighborhoods immediately served by the programs. Many of those employed on the staff are high school dropouts, persons who have never worked before regularly, or whose work experience has been confined to low-level jobs with little chance for advancement. Many members of the staff are neighborhood mothers who have been trapped in their homes caring for their own children, but who now are given the opportunity to place their own children in the program and at the same time begin a rewarding career of their own. Others are neighborhood fathers who previously have only been able to find work as busboys or as day laborers, but who now, through pre-service and in-service training, can find a long-term career in child development family service that is not only rewarding to themselves but also of great value to their community. In the start-up phase, highly qualified professionals are employed in supervisory, administrative, and training positions that demand professional education and experience. A Director of Personnel, assisted by a resident of the community, is responsible for staff recruitment, and a Director of Staff Development and Training is responsible for staff training. The following steps are followed in selection and training. A. PRESCREENING OF APPLICANTS Applicants for staff positions are screened to determine their empathy with children and their ability to work with children, parents, and other staff memhers. As part of the screening process, each applicant is given a specific, open ended adult-child learning task drawn from the system's child learning program, and is asked to carry out the learning task while being observed by members of the personnel staff. The applicant's effectiveness in carrying out the task with the child is of decisive importance in determining whether the applicant is employed. B. PRE-SERVICE TRAINING All new employees are placed in an intensive three-week pre-service training program working with children with the assistance of qualified staff members to familiarize them with all aspects of the Educational Day-Care programs. During the pre-service training, the new staff members are given the opportunity to develop their abilities to work with children, parents, and other staff members. Those who succeed are presented with a certificate of achievement and placed in staff positions within the program. Those who fail are screened out of the program. C. PROBATIONARY EMPLOYMENT AND IN-SERVICE TRAINING New employees who successfully complete the pre-service training program are employed for a probationary period of six months, during which they take part in an in-service training program and are continuously evaluated by supervisory personnel. If they successfully meet the goals established during their probationary employment, they become members of the permanent staff. All members of the staff continue to participate in in-service training as long as they are employees. D. TRAINING COMPONENTS Because the attitudes of staff members to children, parents, and other staff members are critical to the success of the system, the pre-service and in-service training programs place great emphasis on attitudinal values as well as factual understanding of the methods and procedures of the program. The capacity of staff members to be resourceful, flexible, and supportive is vital both to the development of children and to the involvement of parents. The programs enables both adults and children to interact as individuals and give the staff many opportunities to make important decisions. The pre-service and in-service training programs make use of the following components: 1. Role-Playing Sessions. Trainees play adult and child roles in simulated situations that lead them to a better understanding of Educational Day-Care policies and procedures. After every role-playing session, a group discussion is held to relate the activities to their success in achieving desired results. 2. Child-Adult Sessions. Trainees carry out program procedures with children under the guidance of training staff. At the conclusion of each child-adult session, participants, trainee-observers, and training staff members discuss situations and actions that occurred, relating them to desired results. 3. Instant-Playback Videotapes. Training staff uses the TV-Studio-on-Wheels to record portions of role-playing and child-adult sessions, so that through instant-playback trainees have the opportunity to see themselves in action and gain better self-understanding of the effects of their actions. 4. Training Films and Videotapes. The training programs make extensive use of child-care films, child-development films, and other training films and videotapes-many of which have been especially produced to explain in audiovisual form various aspects of the program. After the showing of each film or videotape, group discussions are guided by training staff members to relate the contents of the films or videotape to the Educational Day-Care programs. 5. Audiotapes on Child Development. An extensive library of audiotapes has been specially produced to explain specific details of child development and how to meet specific child development problems. These tapes are used both within the staff training programs and in the parent education and parent involvement programs. E. CAREER LADDER To provide encouragement for staff members to find rewarding lifetime careers in the profession of child care and child development, Educational Day-Care Systems establish a career ladder with seventeen levels that can be spanned by an employee in less than a dozen years. A previously untrained high school dropout who demonstrates empathy with children, parents, and other staff members and an ability to work within the procedures of the programs, can, with the aid of the staff-development and training programs, rise to a position as a senior center director. One of the major goals of the training program in UEC Educational Day-Care Systems is to make the program exportable to a participating community without the need for continuing involvement on the part of the designer. The designer would be available on a continuing basis in areas of consultation and monitoring but would rely on a successful training program to insure smooth continuity of program operation. THE PENNSYLVANIA PROJECT Through a contract with the Department of Public Welfare of the State of Pennsylvania, UEC INC. is designing an educational day care program to serve the needs of 2,000 children and families. Over 500 employees are being trained at a cost of $1,500.00 per annum, per trainee. REFERENCES Katz, L. G., and Weir, M. A. Help for Teachers in Preschools: A Proposal: Hon. DOMINICK V. DANIELS, Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Labor, Washington, D.C. NATIONAL FARMERS UNION, Washington, D.C., March 3, 1971. DEAR CHAIRMAN DANIELS: I wish to comment, in behalf of the National Farmers Union, on the emergency employment legislation now pending before your Committee. I respectfully request that this statement be made a part of the record of the public hearings on H.R. 3613, H.R. 17, and H.R. 29. My comments will be directed primarily to H.R. 3613. The National Farmers Union strongly supports enactment of H.R. 3613, the Emergency Employment Act of 1971. We are convinced that the problem of unemployment in America today has indeed reached emergency proportions, and we urge favorable action on H.R. 3613 early in this Session of the Ninety-second Congress. Beyond the macro-economic argument for jobs to stimulate the economy, we see at least two other compelling reasons for early enactment of the public service employment programs authorized in H.R. 3613. First, as the professional polls have indicated consistently over the past several years, an overwhelming majority of the American people favor employment over welfare payments as the primary means of guaranteeing a decent economic livelihood to every American. Second, there are plenty of neglected and unfinished public job needs in America that are begging to be fulfilled by individuals seeking to work. In light of the task to be done and the desire of our people to work, it simply makes good sense to expand public employment opportunities to all Americans who are able and seeking to work. In your hearings on H.R. 3613 and the related bills that are currently in progress, you have had an opportunity to hear the urban perspective on unemployment from mayors and other urban officials across the United States. Unemployment is indeed in large part an urban problem, and many clearly definable public service jobs are available in the Nation's cities for placement of the unemployed. H.R. 3613 can and should be the means of helping the cities to match up the unemployed with such public service jobs. Farmers Union fully recognizes and supports the need to meet the urban dimension of the unemployment problem. We would urge, however, that acute unemployment and underemployment in rural areas not be glossed over, and lost from sight, in the rush to meet the urban segment of the problem. In order to get a somewhat accurate idea of the demand for greater employment opportunity in rural America, it is necessary to look beyond unemployment sities and in addition consider income and poverty figures. The reasons are |