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.
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Fish Portions
449
48
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