During the academic year 1968-1969, the Title I ESEA sponsored “Teaching
English as a Second Language in the Public Schools” (in the NYC Board of Education)
was in its second of a projected three year program. The programs under this grant
which are being considered in this evaluation are the Pilot Projects Using Linguistically-Oriented Materials and the Reception Class Project (Non-English).
The focus for the former is “on a linguistic approach to the teaching of beginning
reading” and for the latter “on teaching English to non-English speaking pupils (es-
pecially new arrivals from Puerto Rico) on helping them adjust to school life, and on
teaching the fundamental skills.”
The Merrill Programs had been established in 1 967 in a first grade class in each
of eight schools in Brooklyn. Three of these schools have been dropped from the
project as the result of decreasing enrollment in one school in an urban redevelopment area and for unspecified reasons in two other schools. In each of the remaining five schools, the first graders continued with the Merrill materials in the second grade and a new first grade class was initiated in ’68-69.
The Miami program, instituted in a first grade class in each of eight schools in
Manhattan 1967, was continued for the second grade for the students of the original
first grade classes and in seven of the eight schools a new first grade class was initiated.
The eighth school which has been involved in numerous experimental programs de-
cided not to extend the programs.
The Reception Class Project, initiated in February 1 968 on a pilot basis was continued in three schools (one elementary school, one intermediate school and one senior high school) in Manhattan. It was not feasible to complete an evaluation of this
project for a variety of reasons. During the academic year there were at least three
different project directors appointed to head the project, the current director being
appointed in mid-spring. Because of this, it was not possible to set up any visits to the
schools until the week of the 1 9th of May. Each of the five classes visited was housed
in a less than desirable room (poor lighting, too small, no black board). In one school,
it was apparent that the so-called reception class project was no different than other
ESL classes that had long before been established in that school.
As a result of these situations and in order to provide the new project director
with more of an opportunity to gain supervisory control of the program, it was de-
cided to delay any evaluation of the Reception Class Project until the third year of the
program.
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