Urban Crisis Is Jolting Ed School, Dean Reports

The freshly felt impact of the urban school failure has plunged the School of Education into a period of "malaise," "worried questioning," and redirected inquiry, according to the annual report of Theodore R. Sizer, Dean of the Faculty of the School of Education.

In his statement of the state of the Ed School during the year 1966-67, Sizer also lashes out at the Federal Government for what he feels are its inadequate and misguided efforts at reforming core-city education.

Sizer credits three sources with outlining the dimensions of the crisis in urban education: an emerging and highly critical "Non-Establishment" drawn largely from younger members of the academic community; ghetto disaffection; and new social science data.

Little Help

But, according to Sizer, professional educators reeling before the size of core-city problems have received little help from Washington.

On the one hand, Sizer points out, "Plans to strengthen the police and National Guard are now more in the Federal rhetoric than those to strengthen the schools."

On the other hand, "the increasing demands for 'results' from Washington" has unbalanced the already "paltry" federal spending in favor of action programs, when research is the most pressing current need.

"We know little to guide policy and reform," says Sizer. "Yet the Federal Government is spending a tiny sum on basic inquiry--and the 90th Congress appears ready to cut even that."

Research Bias

As outlined in the Report, the Ed School's response to the urban crisis has concentrated on research rather than action programs, and particularly on evaluating the effect of outside of school factors on learning.

Much of the work was channeled through the now defunct Center for Research and Development in Educational Differences. Federally funded, the Center was disbanded this year because the Office of Education disagreed with the research bias, preferring programs that promised concrete results, such as new curricula or educational devices.

Many of the individual projects, however, have succeeded in getting direct funding from the Office of Education, Sizer adds.