Wednesday. April 17. 1974
7
Program Effects Debated
really parent to the
analysis
7
The kids love it, but some of their parents and teachers are afraid the Follow Through behavior analysis program at Wooddawn Elementary School may be detrimental to the children's education and ability to interact with people.
Although many educators and parents said the children in behavior analysis were learning at a faster rate than children in a conventional classroom, some teachers who work with children after they leave the program disagreed.
According to five teachers who are now teaching students who have participated in the behavior analysis program, most of their students are academically behind students who haven't been a part of the program.
odlawn receive
One teacher said that when students
reached the fifth grade their academic level ranged from first grade level to fifth grade
"Many of them were unable to read. Most of them were unable to read on grade level . . . All bat one child was below grade level." she said.
Another teacher said the fourth grade class ranged from second grade level to fifth grade, ninth month level. Only two of these students had attained fifth grade
"These two probably would have been there whether they had Follow Through or a pass."
"I can't account for what other people say, but what other people are saying is inaccurate, and I have individual data to they (the students) are doing well," be said.
conventional classroom anyway," she said.
Don Bushell, associate professor of human sciences at the project director, disagreed that behavior analysis students were behind when they
entered a conventional classroom.
Joyce Higgins, a parent aide in the second and third grade class at Woodaund is very happy with the progress of her two daughters in the behavior analysis program. Higgins said her first grade daughter was on the third grade level in arithmetic and about the third grade level in reading.
According to the teachers in the behavior analysis program, the main strength of the program is its ability toIndividualize students by using individualism to run by only one teacher, behavior analysis classes
have one lead teacher assisted by three or four parent aides.
Sherrill Bushell, kindergarten teacher, said it was very unusual for two students in her class to be working at the same level at the same time.
"It is a truly individualized system," she said.
Some of her students, she said, were still in a basic phonics workbook while others were learning.
Misuse of Funds Alleged
Allegations of forgery and mispropriation of federal money have been mounted against the behavior analysis program by a group of researchers at McGraw-Hill University.
Bette Mallonee, a former staff trainer with the program, said yesterday that she was paid from funds set aside for travel expenses while she was working as a research data collector in the program.
Mallonee said her name was forged on Kansas Department of Administration travel coupons to pay her for work as a
The University of Kansas is currently investigating these and other allegations of financial irregularities in the Follow Through program. Del Shakel, executive vice chancellor, said Monday that the University was conducting a complete audit of Follow Through funds and that results of the audit should be released "within several days."
Ronald D. Hamilton, University of Kansas comptroller, said yesterday that he thought it was unethical and illegal to pay a salary from an account other than the one prescribed for salary payment.
Mallone received $36,428 for trips to Louisville, Ky., and Mounds, Ill., trips she said she never took.
"I did not go on any trip to Louisville or Mounds," Mallonea said. Feb. 11 in a sworn statement. "The money carry in a check is mine."
Travel vouchers in the University of Kansas Controllers Office show that Malcolme received $100 for a trip to Mounds in Iowa. The university is offering these vouchers.
Each child is expected to accomplish a set amount of work, but the amount and difficulty of the work is determined by the student's ability, according to Bushell
Malloree said she knew of others who had been paid for services in a similar manner.
Mattie Miles, director of the Follow Through program in Louisville, said yesterday that Mallonee wasn't in Louisville from May 6 to 13, 1973, as the travel voucher says. Mallonee was in Louisville for two weeks and the teachers in three Louisville schools, according to the voucher.
Mallonee said that when she received the money she was told that it wasn't unlawful.
"At the time I thought it was okay, except my family and friends knew I wasn't, in Louisville," she said.
She said she thought a secretary in the program forged her signature on the vouchers but she declined to give the person's name because she had "some very dear friends who work there."
Nancy Swintering, who has a child in the program, said at least two other program employees had been paid for services.
Swearinger said that Alice Fowler, a former parent coordinator with the program, received $400 from travel vouchers for trips she didn't take. The money was to have paid her salary, Swearinger said.
"I never traveled," Fowler said Monday. "I was a salaried employee."
Fowler said she was unable to travel because her husband was working in Houston and he had to stay in Lawrence to look after
Travel vouchers in the comptroller's office show that Fowler
received $209.60 for a trip to Mounds on May 18, 1973, and $160
for a trip to Portageville, M., on March 27, 1973.
Sweetarigen said Rex Storiker, a teacher, was paid last year by travel nurses while he was a student教师 with the school.
"The only time I was paid for traveling was when I traveled," Stoner said. He said he was a salaryed employee and received a salary paycheck for his work as a student teacher separate from his travel expenses.
Comptroller Hamilton said that to travel with expenses paid by the program, a "request for travel" form must be filled out and signed by both the traveler and the department chairman or program director.
stronger said he had traveled to Philadelphia, Trenton, N.J. St. Louis and other places. Three there were of Stonger's old friends, who were friends with him.
When the traveler returns, he must make out a list of expenditures and turn them in on a travel voucher form if he wants to be reimbursed. Hamilton said. There is a limit of $32 a day for travel and travel and $24 for room and board for travel within the state.
Hamilton said he thought it would be unlikely that a single person could submit false travel requests and vouchers because
can see someone doing this one time without being caught," he said. "I can't see anyone doing it for an extended period of time."
Swearingen said the practice of turning in expenses for a trip that hadn't been taken was common practice within the business world.
Russell M. Tyler, the administrative manager for the program, said yesterday that the practice didn't occur within the program, even after he was told of the allegations made by Mallonee and Swarinenen.
"We can't afford to let anyone do that," he said. "We are often short of money as it is."
Tyler said that he did sign travel requests but that any one of five secretaries would type the expenses on the travel voucher for himself.
Secretaries sometimes sign a person's name to a voucher but signify that they do so by an印章 or a signature stating that the person is a
He said that someone other than Mallone could have signed her travel voucher "with her approval."
Mallonee said many persons in the program padded their vouchers with cab fares and telephone calls. The University doesn't make a traveler submit a receipt for reimbursement for cab fares or phone calls.
"They (program people) have a good system when they put down so much telephone and cab fare expenses." Mallone said.
Hamilton said that padding a travel voucher or receiving funds for a trip that wasn't taken was "halifation of state
Students Earn, Spend Tokens . . .
From Page 6
qualifications, Bushell said, but the Woodlawn school still can function adequately as a basis for the rest of the behavior analysis programs.
"It's nice to be working with poor kids," he said, "but it's not essential that they be poor unless you assume that poor kids are different."
Congress made the decision to explicitly limit the Follow Through program to poverty families, Bushell said. He he said didn't disagree totally with this decision because Follow Through was a "way of addressing the problems created by a whole
Harold Siegier, principal of Woodlaw and Grant Elementary Schools, recommended to the Lawrence School Board that he introduce a program be discontinued after this year.
There has been enough opposition from parents and teachers to the program that its goal is to make it more accessible.
group of social institutions who have necteted novtery kids."
Steigrist said Woodlawn was too small to offer parents the option of enrolling their children in behavior analysis classes or conventional classes.
He also said that the behavior analysis program created some problems with the
Sleegrist said there was tension between teachers of behavior analysis classes and teachers of education.
"Parents can't accept the idea of ignoring negative behavior," he said.
The Lawrence School Board will decide on whether to continue the behavior and attitude of students.
parents and the teachers.
Arnabel Nelson, second and third grade teacher, said, "The (academic) range of the reading levels."
Nelson also stressed the value of individual instruction for individual students.
dividual instruction for individual students. However, those who taught students who had been in behavior analysis said the constant attention that students received in the classroom made it difficult for them to perform well in an institutional classroom with only one teacher.
"They find it very hard to budget their time, to stick with an assignment for any length of time or to finish up the task without the teacher saying, 'Come on now, you have to finish this!' . . . Their attention is soon very short," one teacher said.
Another teacher said it was very difficult for students who came out of behavior analysis to take an assignment and work on their own.
"These kids sit there until you explain every little detail and almost do the work."
"If you put them in a group they either start googling around or they just sit and watch the rest."
"It seems to be very hard for them to read a direction and understand it," another
Teachers and aides in the behavior analysis classes said they tried to make the students' adjustment to conventional classrooms easier by phasing out the token reward system and teaching students to independently before leaving behavior analysis
Sherrill Busbell said children in behavior analysts classes didn't have unusual traits.
See REPORTS Page 10
Independent
Children learn to perform their lessons on their own in the "independent room" at school.
Communication Gap ...
independent room, and students aren't rewarded by tickets for the completion of
office knew about the giving of answers, she said, but she didn't know whether the answer was right.
"They saw it," Bryant said. "There was no way around it. They told me I was one of the best (parent aides), and if that's true, I know there's something wrong."
She said that after a time she began thinking that she "couldn't understand why a 'good' teacher would give a child an answer, and this was one of the reasons she resigned.
"I did it all the time," she said. "But after you sit down and think about it, you're really not teaching them if you're telling them the answers."
Bushel said that the practice of prompting children, such as sounding out the first letter in a word, was an accepted method of behavior analysis teaching, but the giving of an answer directly to a child was unacceptable. She noted that the practice in the behavior analysis program.
The controlling body for most behavior analysis projects is PAC. However, Woodhawn's PAC has existed only during the past two years, and meetings have been discontinued.
"Woodlawn's PAC wasn't started at the beginning like other behavior analysis projects," Don Bushell said. "This was a major problem in getting parents involved. In other Follow Through behavior analysis groups, they are always aware of everything that is going on."
Many persons have said that Woodlawn's PAC has had little say in matters concerning the behavior analysis program.
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Administration heads such as Taylor, said that the school board had decided that the choice between behavior analysis and classroom management consent. But he said parental consent
At its January meeting, PAC voted 9-7 to remove all research from Woodland because parental consent had been given in all cases, Swearingen said.
Billy Spears
Chet Nichols
Bob Case
Al Brune
and friends
Boogie
For Annabell Nelson, it has been a difficult year.
The story of Woodlawn school may never be known, but Swaringen and others have written it.
The most obvious overruling, according to Swertinger, was of PAC's research policy, which said that "these doing have no impact on our approach to principal and the teaching team involved.
Swearingen, who attends almost all PAC meetings, said they were marked by bickering between pro and con factions. She also said any decision made by PAC was overriden by the behavior analysis department.
"A lot of bad feelings have been stirred up," she said. "An objective evaluation is the only way to determine whether the program should stay. I would be willing to have people come in to observe. I think we can resolve the situation in a reasonable way so that children can benefit from our alternative approach."
"At first I thought we were just a bunch of gossipy women who got together to talk behind people's backs," she said. "But then more people became involved, and I started to get phone calls from parents who would call me to, but they wouldn't leave their names."
Annabel Nelson called PAC "non-functional" because a majority of the people on PAC no longer had children in the program, as required by PAC bwLbws.
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Union Ballroom
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should have been obtained at the start.
Sweiringen said her investigation into the behavior analysis program had been very mysterious.
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