Published November 1962 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
From the Office of UNITED STATES SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD Room 342, Old Senate Office Building, Washington 25, D. C. Volume II -- Number 48 11-23-62 BYRD' EYE VIEW A Public Service Column by U. S. SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD STATE'S SCHOOL SYSTEMS CAN BE STRENGTHENED BY EDUCATIONAL TV Some West Virginia school systems are now using television as an educational aid for upgrading classroom instruction in certain vital subjects such as English, mathematics, and the sciences. They are also finding that the medium, when properly used, results in a big savings to taxpayers. Charles Town, in Jefferson County, and Berkeley Springs, in Morgan County, are already using television to maximize the teaching of essential subjects to their public school students. These two cities are receiving their programs through an arrangement with a non-profit ultra high frequency TV station in Washington, D. C. Elsewhere in West Virginia, educational channels, not yet activated, have been reserved for school systems in the areas of Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, and Wheeling. When in operation, these TV stations could materially benefit school systems in sparsely populated areas -- especially high schools, where small student numbers make it impossible to hire teachers for many desirable math, science, and language courses. At present, 301 ultra high frequency television channels have been reserved throughout the country for use by private non-profit organizations and by school systems. The U. S. Office of Education estimates that educational TV is helping to improve the quality of instruction in many subjects to some 3.5 million students in 7,500 public primary and secondary schools in the Nation. The Ford Foundation, which has been offering grants of money to school systems on an experimental basis to determine the effectiveness of television as an educational aid, reports that it is highly pleased with results thus far. U. S. Office of Education officials have stated that "TV classroom instruction is helping many young people to become better. educated and better prepared for intelligent living and for job opportunities in the space age." Generally, advocates of educational television contend that classroom instruction prepared for use through TV "is superior to what most students would otherwise receive because only superior teachers are used in the preparation of such lessons." In Washington County, Maryland, after a two-year experiment with educational TV, the superintendent of schools reported that the achievement testing of students receiving TV instruction indicated that they were obtaining grades above standard national norms. The success of the Washington County experiment has been responsible for the rapid growth of educational television. But, as a mountainous area with many spar3ely populated communities, the Washington County experiments also indicate that greater use of TV in West Virginia could be a boon to education in our State. -30-