Education: Report Card

¶ Worried that their alma mater’s name suffered by comparison with those of other privately endowed Ivy League colleges (e.g., Yale, Harvard, Princeton), the University of Pennsylvania’s Gazette began polling alumni to find out whether it was time for a change. Biggest complaint: people in other states believe Pennsylvania is a state institution, do not consider attending it, “consequently any prestige that might accrue to our alumni as graduates of a private institution is lost.”

¶ The Ford Foundation’s Fund for the Republic announced the appointment of a new consultant: Elmer Davis, 64, best-selling author (But We Were Born Free), veteran radio newscaster, wartime chief of the Office of War Information.

¶ In Washington, the Internal Revenue Service awarded Teacher Anna Steen, 42, a rare commendation for her “outstanding contribution toward the successful admin istration of the federal tax laws.” At local Banneker Junior High School, Teacher Steen, showing her ninth-grade pupils how to deal with tax forms, went after Internal Revenue teaching aids, soon sold the tax collectors on a large-scale program of teaching tax know-how to schoolchildren across the nation. Result: more than 23,000 schools used the service’s materials in tax lessons last year; this year, 7,000 more schools will follow suit, save the Treasury millions in future errors. Cost (last year) to the U.S.: $30,000.

¶ The nation’s first commercially sponsored educational TV series starts over Washington’s station WNBW this week. Some 35,000 pupils in 121 schools will watch daily 15-minute programs, e.g., on science, languages, world news. The two-days-a-week sponsor: Perpetual Building Association. The weekly bill: $425.