Table Of ContentDOCTORAL DISSERTATION SERIES
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DEGREE PUBLICATION NO.
1
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y UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS
ANN A R B O R M I C H I G A N
The Pennsylvania State College
The Graduate School
Department of Education
ADMINISTERING PUPIL PERSONNEL SERVICES
IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
A dissertation
by
Clyde Raymond Scott
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the.
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education
August 1951
Approved:
8-/0 (jcud. tt).
- -sy
Chairman of Dissertation Committee
~£ad of Department/ of iS6.ucation
Professor of Educational Research
±i
AC KITOV,TLEDG1IEKTTS
The author xvishes to express his sincere appreciation
for the valuable assistance rendered bjr the many persons who
have cooperated in this study. Pie is especially indebted to
Paul Vf. Bixby whose encouragement and help have been a con
stant source of strength.
The services of the other members of his committee, Hugh
Davison, Margaret ATeuber , Florence Taylor , and George Murphy,
were also greatly appreciated because of their help and con
structive criticisms.
Special thanks are due to the many Ohio elementary school
principals who cooperated with the field investigation.
Most of all he is indebted to his beloved wife, Kathryn,,
who continually encouraged him to study, made many personal
sacrifices, and spent many hours at the typewriter as the
manuscript went through its several revisions.
Ill
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgment.................................... ii
chap "ter
I. INTRODUCTION ............................ 1
i-eed. for the Study ................... 2
Statement of Guiding Ideas ........... 6
Srief Review of the Literature ...... 8
Statement of Problem. ............... 10
definition of Terms .................. 11
Srief Statement of Procedures ....... 12
XI. STUDIES OP PUPIL PERSONNEL SERVICES IN
THE ELIL1ENTARY SCHOOL .................. 14
Introductory Statement ............... 14
Discussion of the Related Literature .. 15
A Pield Investigation in Ohio ....... 32
IXI. A PLAN POP THE ADMINISTRATION OP A PROGRAM
OF PUPIL PERSONNEL SERVICES IN THE ELE-
iviXNTAEY SCHOOL ....... .................. 75
PART I. INTRODUCTION ................ 7 5
PART II. A PRO GRAM FOR ADMINISTERING
PUPIL PERSONNEL SERVICES HT
THE ELENENTARY SCHOOL ...... 82
A.. Orienting Pre- School Children. 82
B. Developing Physical and mental
Health Services .................89
C. Building Individual and Group
Counseling Practices ..... 105
D. Learning about Children Through
Standardized Testing ..... 118
E. Keeping Records of Child
Growth .................... 131
F . Fostering Special Interests,
Talents, and Friendships .. 138
G. Identifying and Heeting Needs
of Exceptional Children ... 145
Ti. Utilizing School and Community
Personnel Porkers ........ 165
iv
Page
I. Articulating the Elementary
and Secondary School Programs.. 171
J. Helping the Staff and Community
Understand the Pupil Personnel
Service Program .............. 179
PART III. EVALUATING THE PROGRAM OE PUPIL
PERSONNEL SERVICES ............ 186
IV. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS .. 194
Introduction . . . 194
Purposes .................................. 194
Procedures ................................ 195
Guiding Ideas .......................... 196
Precis of the Plan for Administering Pupil
Personnel Services ...................... 197
General Conclusions ....................... 200
Implications ............................ 201
APPENDIX .............................. 205
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 214
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Pupil personnel services are an integral part of a
modern program of elementary education, directly related to
the individualization of instruction. The program aims to
learn everything possible about each boy and girl, and witn
this knowledge utilize every kind of service which will con
tribute to his optimum growth and development. Included are
school orientation, physical and mental health services,
individual and group counseling, objective testing, records
of child growth, identifying and meeting needs of exceptional
children, fostering special interests and talents, utilizing
school and community personnel service resources, articu
lation between elementary and secondary schools, in-service
education of teachers, interpretation to the community, and
evaluation. The program can be best developed by the co
operative efforts of teachers, parents, school and community
personnel workers, and school administrators. The size and
complexity of pupil personnel service programs make them
difficult for teachers or special service workers to handle
alone, because he is the coordinator of the school program,
the elementary school principal must provide unity and di
rection for pupil personnel services. This obligation is a
challenge to his effectiveness as the professional leader or
the element ary s chool•
2
Need for the Study
Tlie literature of elementary education does not include
a plan suggesting ways in which, elementary school principals
can administer the program of pupil personnel services in
the elementary schools* The n* for such a plan has been
felt by the writer since he first became an elementary
school principal. While there is a great deal of research
material available concerning the various phases of pupil
personnel services, it has never been pulled together so
that the greatest values may be obtained.
The 3 R's have been the traditional concern, of the
school. As the culture became more complex, one new thing
after another came into the school program. Unfortunately,
these additions to the educational systems were made in an
unplanned manner; seldom was there an efficient organization
of these services. The needs and problems of children are
greater and more varied today than ever before. Perhaps
there is something inherent in the way the world is
changing which makes the need for varied services greater.
Perhaps children are different. It is essential that ele
mentary school teachers and principals study the needs,
interests, capabilities, and aptitudes of each boy and girl
and use this knowledge in developing the school program. A
recent editorial in the Baltimore Bulletin of Education
strongly supports this view that elementary school programs
must study their children beginning with entrance to school
or earlier:
5
The elementary school is the foundation of
public education. In the first six years of their
educational life, most children form lasting habits,
develop useful abilities, and discover compelling
interests. In these early years definite person
ality patterns begin to emerge and character
traits are formed. No year of a child*s life is
too early for appropriate and adequate guidance.1
Many new techniques, skills, and ways of working with
children have resulted from research efforts. Influenced
by this research, schools have employed many specialists
who are concerned with different aspects of children*s
lives. Each is important and has a contribution to make,
however, their efforts need to be carefully coordinated if
maximum service to children is to be secured. It is the
point of view of this study that the elementary school
principal is the key person in organizing these services
in the interests of children. The Twenty-seventh Yearbook
of the Department of Elementary School Principals included
a study which supports this point of view:
As a group, the supervising principals be
lieve that their general participation in super
visory activities is primarily a matter of
working with the school system staff to meet
the needs of children. Ninety-five percent of
the replies fell upon this item.2
1. "Guidance in the Elementary Schools,*1 Baltimore Bulletin
of Education, 26:20-21, 1949.
2. National Education Association Department of Elementary
School Principals, Twenty-seventh Yearbook, The Ele
mentary School Principalship - Today and Tomorrow,
Washington, D. C.: the Association, 1948, p.117.
Jacobson, Reavis, and .Logsdon lend support to this
view by use of an historical approach to the role of the
principal:
from the time of the establishment of the
principalship in its earliest form, the school
principal has been expected to assume responsi
bility for the guidance of the pupils. If a
pupil became a problem to a teacher in manage
ment or control, it was the duty of the principal
to give assistance to the teacher in bringing
the pupil into line with the purposes of the
school; if a pupil encountered difficulties in
learning that hindered his progress and baffled
his teacher, it was also the duty of the princi
pal to do what he could to resolve the diffi
culties for both pupil and teacher. Thus from
the inception of the school principalship,
teachers, pupils and parents have looked to the
principal for guidance in solving problems of
management and learning in local schools.3
These same authors later point out the influence that
the changing culture has had in causing new demands to be
made upon the elementary school principal:
However, a new kind of demand for guidance
services even in nursery schools, kindergartens,
and elementary schools is now being made by psy
chologists who hold that many of the conflicts
and maladjustments of young people in high
school, college, and the pursuits of adult life
originate from the neglect of the child in the
earlier periods.
If the contention stated In the foregoing
paragraph is true, neglect of the personal
problems of children in elementary school periods
may result in.emotional disturbances which may
seriously affect the personality patterns of the
individuals concerned. Satisfactory solutions
3. Raul B. Jacobson, William C. Reavis, and James D.
Bogsdon, Duties of School Principals, Dew York:
Prentic e-nall, 1950, p.117.
to these problems can scarcely be expected from
disciplinary measures that merely compel modifi
cations in patterns of behavior. Such measures
not only fail to resolve the conflicts in
question but may create new conflicts that re
sult in new anomalies of behavior.
The logical implication of this situation
is that principals of elementary schools must
become, to a greater extent than in the past,
personnel workers with children and to a much
lesser extent general disciplinarians and
authoritarian administrators, however, benevo
lent they may be. ubviously, they must become
students of child development and of the motives
which dominate the mental and emotional
processes of children.4
In a summarizing paragraph in the new revised edition
of the Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Trabue empha
sizes the need for studies to be made of the role of school
administrators in the area of pupil personnel work when he
stated:
The studies most widely needed in pupil person
nel work at present are those which will lead ad
ministrative officers to recognize in their prac
tice that individual diagnosis and guidance of de
velopment are efficient procedures for promoting
desirable learning. It will never be possible
for teachers to use these procedures effectively
until their administrative officers approve
them wholeheartedly and provide constructive
leadership in their development. Studies of the
specific developmental needs of individual
pupils, and of the community resources available
for supplementing the experiences which the
school can provide for meeting these develop
mental needs, will contribute much to improved
understanding and practices in a local school.
The statements of these authorities give emphasis to
the need for the development of a plan for elementary school
principals to more effectively administer the program of
4. Ibid., p.126.
5. Walter Monroe (editor), Encyclopedia of Educational Re
search, i\iew York: The Macmillan company, 1950, p.932.
