Education: Report Card

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¶ In reversing the suspension of five ex-Communists in the New York City school system and the dismissal of one municipal college professor, New York State Education Commissioner James E. Allen Jr. ruled that though a public-school teacher must tell all about his own past activities, his superiors have no right to force him to inform on others. "A school system," said Allen, "which sets one teacher against another in this manner is not conducive toward the strength and cohesion which need to exist in order to instill character into the student body."

¶ After giving a battery of tests to 60,000 Oklahoma high-school students in the first state talent survey of its kind, Chicago's Science Research Associates shed some additional light on the nation's shortage of scientists. Of the 60,000, the S.R.A. found 7,121 to be so scientifically gifted as to be "among the very elite in America's high schools." Unfortunately, a good fourth of the talented never bothered to get good grades, and only half of the scientifically gifted are expected to go on to college.

¶ Along with the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges announced that they are finally going to take full advantage of their propinquity. Among the ideas for the new intercollege cooperative program they are working on: establishing a common educational FM radio station, sharing outside lectures and planning concerts together, preparing a program of remedial reading. If all goes well, the four campuses might even extend their share-the-wealth idea to regular graduate and undergraduate work.