U.S. Education System Will Need External Influences, Keppel Says

"The structure of American educational policy and management could, and in part has, become rigid and not easily adaptable to necessary internal changes," Francis Keppel '38 said last night.

Speaking at Leverett House, the former United States Commissioner of Education stated that the 1950's show that the structure can expand adequately enough, but that quality changes, will depend on pressure from external influences.

"Outside instruments are essential to assure regular federal, state, and local review of their own internal methods," he said. "They won't do it alone."

These instruments include assessments, research investment, and industrial services.

Keppel said that the basic questions to be reviewed are matters of purpose, equal treatment, equal opportunity, and the results of past programs in affecting educational quality.

"First, methods of reporting to assess educational quality at different levels must be developed," he declared. He said that several foundations have begun new techniques of testing, but that there remains the problem of who controls the sample questions.

"Testing should not be done for individual measurement or comparisons, because it will be misunderstood if reported locally." he argued.

Keppel cited national investment in research and development as another pressure for change. "In the past, educational research and experimentation has not been intense, though federal funds for research have increased from five million dollars in 1962 to 100 million this year," he said.

"We need constant changes in curriculum to reflect new knowledge," Keppel said. Instead, he said, education as an institution has remained "remarkably unchanged in the last 50 years." Universities will play an essential role in this area, the former dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education predicted.

Keppel envisioned the development of new services and materials from industry, including systems of computers and multi-media, which could force changed in the role of teachers.