Research


Scope and Content Note

This series consists of subject files maintained by Ewald B. Nyquist during his tenure as Interim Commissioner of Education from February to November of 1969. In addition to files created by his office, there are also subject files created by Commissioner James E. Allen's office, mostly during his last few years as Commissioner. These files were likely kept by Nyquist as a reference.

Much of the series documents department efforts to desegregate school districts and to reform school district governance in favor of greater diversity and community involvement. In particular, there is a large amount of correspondence with school superintendents, school district officials, teachers' union representatives, and community leaders concerning the creation of demonstration school districts in New York City. These school districts (Ocean Hill/Brownsville in Brooklyn, Independent School 201 in Harlem, and Two Bridges in the Lower East Side of Manhattan). These school districts, funded in part by the State Education Department and a grant from the Ford Foundation, were administered largely by local boards of education, decreasing the influence of the New York City Board of Education over these districts. Included are correspondence and press releases that detail the controversy surrounding these districts, including the May 1968 dismissal of nineteen teachers by the Ocean Hill/Brownsville school district administration, the multiple city-wide strikes by the United Federation of Teachers as a result of the dismissed teachers, the student boycott resulting from the return of the dismissed teachers, and the November 1968 settlement that involved the formation of a temporary trusteeship for the Ocean Hill/Brownsville district headed by NYSED staff. Also included are reports from NYSED staff observers on the daily conditions within the demonstration school districts, including sit-ins, boycotts and other instances of civil disobedience by students and the surrounding communities. In addition, the series contains documentation of desegregation efforts in Buffalo, Malverne, and Mount Vernon, all of which were ordered by Commissioner Allen in 1965. Included are correspondence with school district personnel and citizens' groups, progress reports, memoranda, copies of Commissioner's decisions, and proposals for desegregation plans. These records document both the initial orders to desegregate, as well as the controversy surrounding the perceived lack of progress in attaining satisfactory levels of desegregation.

Also well-documented in the series is the increasing interaction between the New York State Education Department and the United States government, caused mainly by the passage in 1965 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA. Included are correspondence with legislators, chief state school officers of other states, and U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) officials, including Secretaries John Gardner and Norman Kurland. Topics reference include amendments to ESEA, participation of state education agencies in programs funded by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, HEW guidelines for compliance with the Civil Rights Act, projects in New York school districts funded by ESEA Title III, proposals for NYSED projects funded by Title V, and documentation concerning the Higher Education Act and the Vocational Rehabilitation Act.

Other areas documented by the series include state budget requests, judicial decisions made by the Commissioner of Education, international education programs, higher education, the licensing of professions, cooperative research projects undertaken with the United States Office of Education, and student assessment, particularly the development of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).