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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 1978)
Paœ 10 Portland Observa Thuiadey, N ovonba 9. ,978 EEOC reorganization ai W A S H IN G T O N — Consolidation o f ihe fcdaa.’ contract compliance program will enhance the abthty of the government to enforce equal em ployment oppor unity (EEO) and af firm ative action requirements on federal contract work, a key U.S. Department of Labor official said. In prepared remarks before the A ir Conference on Equal Em ployment Opportunity here, OFCCP Director Weldon J. Rougeau noted that the contract compliance func tion, once scattered among eleven other federal agencies, now rests solely with the Labor Department's O ffice o f Federal Contract Com pliance Programs (OFCCP). which he heads A ll programs, regulations and policies associated w ith contract compliance were integrated into OFCCP on October 8th “ Consolidation o f the contract compliance program means an en hanced ability to enforce equal em ployment opportunity and a ff ir mative action requirements on federal contract work,** Rougeau said. He added that fo r protected groups and contractors, contract compliance will be streamlined and made less confusing. He said enforce ment of EEO and affirmative action contract compliance, opportunity enforcement requirements on federal contract work w ill be stronger than ever before. W ith 71 offices opening in 63 cities, both protected groups and contractors will have easier access to O F C C P offices, and enforcement will improve as this office brings its services closer to its constituents. Rougeau said. Rougeau said that O FCCP's re cord o f protecting the job rights o f women, minorities, religious and ethnic groups, handicapped persons and veterans "is at the highest point in its thirteen-year history.'* In 1978, he said, eleven firms received administrative complaints from O F C C P , almost double the total for all o f 1977; several others are awaiting debarment decisions Over 100 cases are under in vestigation for possible enforcement action, and eighteen companies were dropped from the list of eligible con tractors — five of them within an eightecn-month period in 1977-78, Rougeau said. He added that his agency prefers conciliation efforts to debarment for violators o f federal EEO and affir mative requirements. Conciliation efforts enable employers to maintain their contracts while increasing job opportunities for protected groups and this awards monetary or other compensation to victims of discrimination, Rougeau added Rougeau also noted that: • In the past thirteen years. OFCCP has entered into more than 900 conciliation agreements with con tractors, back pay awarded to em ployees who suffered jo b discrimination has increased. In the first three quarters of 1978, nearly S6 million was paid to more t.ian 3,000 minorities and women; and • substantial gains have been made for handicapped workers and veterans. Back pay awards in 1977- 78 for 183 members o f these protect ed groups totaled more than half a million dollars. Rougeau stated that "O F C C P ex pects not just to continue, but also to improve this track record. Strong^ enforcement means increased job opportunities, and that is OFCCP's ultimate goal." In concluding remarks, Rougeau noted that women, the handicapped, Hispanics, Blacks and other groups depend on O F C C P for the ex peditious administration o f justice in the job market. "Consolidation offers us a hope for the restitution o f a dream which has been to many a dream deferred," Rougeau said. Sickle diagnosis made easier A new and safer method for prenatal diagnosis o f sickle cell anemia, a common, severe birth defect among Black children, has been reported by scientists of the University of California. San Fran cisco. in the October 28th issue of The Lancet, a British medical jour nal. Developed by Dr. Yet W ai Kan and Andree' M . Dozy of UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital, the method involves direct analysis o f the region of the gene affected by the sickle cell mutation using fetal cells from the am niotic flu id . This eliminates hazards o f the older method, which requires taking blood from the fetus. Dr. Kan's research has been supported by The National Foundation-March of Dunes and the National Institutes of Health. Kan and Dozy applied the technique in prenatal diagnosis of a Black fetus at risk for sickle cell anemia, and found it to have one normal and one sickle ceil gene. Thus, like the parents, the infant will be a earner of the sickle cell trait and will not be affected by sickle cell anemia, which is due to the presence of two sickle cell genes. The parents had two previous children, one a carrier and the other with severe sickle cell disease that has already caused blockage o f several blood vessels in the brain. The work. Dr Kan explained, is an example of clinical application of the latest dev eiopments in molecular biology: identification o f a specific gene by a laboratory-made radioac tive gene duplicate called com plementary D N A , and use of a bac- tenal enzyme that cuts a cell's genetic material (D N A ) at particular points along the gene sequences in the chromosome. The 1979 Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded to one Swiss and two American scientists who pioneered in research related to those enzymes. “ It is gratifying to note the ad vance made this year in molecular médiane, in which grantees o f The N atio n al F o u n d a tio n -M arc h o f Dimes' research program have led the way.” says Dr. Samuel J. A jl, vice president for research o f the voluntary health agency. "Th ro u g h D r. K an ’ s work, we may soon have a w hole new class of genetic markers for clinical diagnosis and gene mapping. Another group of grantees at the Boston Children's Hospital has succeeded in prenatal diagnosis o f a rare blood disease called delta-beta thalassemia. Still another grantee team at Columbia University has described the nature of gene deletion in a benign disorder known as hereditary persistance of fetal hemoglobin. " B irth defects research o f the 1980's may be in a whole new ball park because o f these and other in vestigators supported by the March of Dimes,” Dr. A jl concluded. Dr. Kan is professor of medicine and director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Laboratory at UCSF. Text books inhibit learning .An answer to the “ middle grade slu m p " m reading achievement across the U .S . is “ accurate readability labeling," two Oregon State University education profes sors report from textbook research. Reading books for grades 1, 2 and 3 are "on target" as far as reading ease-difficulty is concerned, say Gwyneth E. Britton and Margaret C. Lumpkin. But it ’ s a different story with reading books for grades 4, 5 and 6, they have found. "Seventy percent or more of the middle grade stories were written above the publisher's designated reading grade levels and considerably above the reading abilities o f the students who were assigned to read them," the two have discovered. " I t is inconceivable that hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and state dollars are bang spent on reading instruction and reading materials without adequate verifica tion o f reading level,” they say in the fa ll issue o f “ Reading Im provement.” It is a national journal devoted to the teaching of reading. B ritton and Lum p kin have developed a "computerized read ab ility analysis’ ’ program They used it to evaluate 722 stones in two middle grade reading series — the 1976 and 1977 H arper and Row books and the 1977 Holt books. The reading books are among the most widely used in American schools, it was noted. The “ middle grade slump” in reading achievement long has been a con can for parents and educators, Britton and Lum pkin point out. “ Many children who have demon strated average and above average ability in reading during the primary grades ( 1 , 2 and 3) encounter great difficulty with the reading materials in grades 4, 5 and 6 .” Diverse factors ranging from teachers to T V have been blamed for this change in reading performance, they point out in their papa. "Y e t few critics have examined or questioned whet h a the accuracy of the grade level labeling could be con trib u ting to this p ro b le m ," the educators continue. ans Britton and Lumpkin pose several questions in the papa as a result of their findings: 1. W hat percent o f the stories should be written at the published grade level raring of a ton? If seventy percent o f the stories in a fourth grade text are written at the sixth, seventh and eighth grade reading levels, should it be labeled and sold as a fourth grade text? - — 2. Why can’t teachas be provided with precisely labeled reading text books independently verified by text book commissions? Or a National Textbook Standards Agency? 3. How can we expea teachers to individualize and prescribe for students when the texts are mislabeled in terms of reading grade level? 4. How can children be gradually challenged by increasingly more dif ficult stories in a text when the “ easy-then more difficult" sequenc ing does not exist, a t h a within a book, or within a series? 5. Why aren’t teachas or text book committees provided read ab ility docum entation p rio r to textbook selection so that the best senes can be purchased which meas the needs o f their student populations? Researchers and educators have developed re ad ab ility formulas which predict the d iffic u lty o f material for the reader, the two education professors stressed. "The tools for accurate readability labeling are available but are not being used accurately or effectively. Most publishas who submit text book briefs stating that they have calculated reading levels are using hand calculations on too few samples with only one or two readability formulas.” The B ritto n -L u m p k in com puterized analysis includes the use of the “ five best researched and most com m only-used" readability fo r mulas: Spache, Harris-Jacobson, Fry, Daie-Chalic and Flesch. The five are brought togetha in com- p u ta programs that provide a quick readability readout for the particular piece of narrative writing unda test. Shrimp Filets Fish Portions 449 48 M l 24- m . H , . ’ IN FLA TIO N L FIG H TER S Fresh Oysters ä ä 10-ei. 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