Affidavit of Harry F. Garrett

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI 

JACKSON DIVISION 

ROY LEE HARRIS, ET ALS PLAINTIFFS 

VS. CIVIL ACTION NO, 1209 

THE YAZOO CITY MUNICIPAL SEPARATE 

SCHOOL DISTRICT, ET ALS 
THE YAZOO COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, 

ET ALS 
THE HOLLY BLUFF LINE CONSOLIDATED 

SCHOOL DISTRICT, ET ALS DEFENDANTS 

AFFIDAVIT OF HARLEY F. GARRETT 

FILED BY THE DEFENDANTS 
  

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI 

COUNTY OF SUNFLOWER 

Personally appeared before me, the undersigned authority 

in and for the County and State aforesaid, Harley F. Garrett, 

who first being duly sworn deposes and says: 

My name is Harley F. Garrett. 1 am professor of Education 

at the University of Mississippi and in charge of counselor 

education program at the University. I was born in Great Bend, 

Kansas in 1905. My education began in the rural school of Ford 

County, Kansas and continued in the junior and senior high 

schools of Dodge City, Kansas, where I graduated in 1924, I 

obtained my Bachelor of Science degree at Kansas State Teachers 

College of Emporia in 1930. I éceived my Masters in Education 

from Stanford University in 1934. I received my Doctorate of 

Education ta Administration at the University of Colorado in 1948. 

I have been a teacher and school administrator for Xx¥exXasIX 

20 years. I have been employed as principal of the high school 

of Hobbs, New Mexico for 1 year; Assistant Professor of Education 

at Kansas State College, Fort Hays, Kansas for 3 years and I have 

been at the University of Mississippi since 1949, and as I said 

 



  

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before am presently in charge of the Counselor Education program 

at the University. The Counselor Education program is a part 

of the graduate school at the University and consists of a sequence 

of 30 hours of graduate courses leading to a masters degree in 

guidance, I am professor of Education at the University of 

Mississippi. 

I have examined at length the proposed Order filed in this 

matter by the Yazoo City Municipal Separate School District 

together with the Affidavit of Harold C. Kelly, Superintendent 

of Schools of such district, and the proposed Order filed in this 

matter by the Yazoo County Board of Education and the Affidavit 

of W. C. Martin, County Superintendent of Education of Yazoo 

County, and the proposed Order filed in this matter by the Holly 

Bluff Line Consolidated School District and the Affidavit of Joel 

Hill, Superintendent of Schools of such district. In making this 

affidavit, I have considered the facts as set forth in the 

affidavits of such superintendents, but I have not considered 

the expressions of opinion given by them in such affidavits. 

The Yazoo County School District proposes that grades 5 through 8 

be given an achievement test and the Holly Bluff Line School 

District proposes that grades 1 through 4 be given an achievement 

test. Both of these districts propose that those students scoring 

in the top one-fourth be assigned to particular schools, and 

students in the lower three-fourths of scores be assigned to the 

remaining facilities of the Sistricte, The Yazoo City School 

District proposes that grades 1 through 4 be so tested and that 

those students scoring in the upper one-half be assigned to 

particular schools and the remaining one-half be assigned to 

the remaining schools. 

In reviewing these proposed plans, the first point which should 

be discussed, it seems to me, is this: Is an achievement test 

a valid instrument by which to assign students in a school system? 

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First let us define achievement test. An achievement test is 

a test which has been designed to measure the degree to which a 

student has mastered the knowledge or the skills ordinarily found 

being taught at a given grade level. It covers all the academic 

areas that are usually taught at any grade level and it is so con- 

structed that it reflects what is ordinarily taught at that level 

in the United States. You may be interested in knowing how a test 

is considered to be valid. In order to be valid a thing must have 

a criterion. We have come up with three that are ordinarily used 

in the validity of an achievement test. Give us an illustration. 

If I were to make up a standardized achievement test in fifth grade 

arithmetic in the United States, I would go to the textbooks and 

pull out all the things that were taught in fifth grade arithmetic 

tests. Then I would see that all those things are reflected in my 

test. If I could prove that everything that is covered in the tests 

is reflected, then I would have one valid criterion that my test is 

valid. Next I would ask the opinion of experts, those who write 

fifth grade arithmetic texts, for instance, what they think of my 

test, If they all said it was good, then I would have that as a 

criterion. Then I would take all the grades that the youngsters 

made in fifth grade arithmetic in the United States and I would 

rank the students on their grades that the teachers gave them in 

fifth grade arithmetic. Then I would give them my test and see how 

they ranked. Now if they ranked the same on achievement that you 

just gave them and on my test I would say then that I had a valid 

test because I was measuring the same thing that the teacher is 

measuring. Therefore I would have the three ways of arriving at the 

validity of the test. All the good tests on the market are 

validated this way or in similar ways. 

 



  

Now what is the standardization process? They are standardized 

by giving the test to youngsters all over America at every economic, 

geographic locality, big cities, rural, the poor, the rich, and the 

various ethnic groups, in proportion to the degree that that 

particular section represents in the total population of these 

youngsters in the United States. This 1s called an adequate 

sampling. This is done scientifically. They are carefully super- 

vised by what I am pleased to call the consumers guide for tests, 

which is Buros Mental Measurements Year Book, which is an impartial 

evaluation of new tests, standardized tests, that are brought 

out on the market each year and over the years. They go into 

whether or not it was an adequate sampling. In order to get on 

the market, just like a Chevrolet car nowadays, it has to be good. 

It has to muster the approval of this evaluating group in the 

Mental Measurements Year Book. Moving particularly to the 

plans proposed by the Yazoo City, Yazoo County and Holly Bluff 

districts, I find that the tests proposed to be used are among 

the best thus validated. These tests, of course, cover the entire 

curriculum of subjects taught at the grade level for which the 

standardized test is intended and do not cover just one subject 

such as the arithmetic for fifth grade which I previously mentioned. 

Now the point at issue 1s whether or not this test is valid 

for grouping students. Througout the testing movement, and 1 

have been identified with the testing movement since 1924, my 

first year in college, and more intimately so during my later 

years using them in the public schools and as 1 teach in 

counseling education, preparing counselors for the public schools. 

The achievement test has always been used for grouping purposes. 

The logic is this. You take a group of youngsters, let's say 

all the same age, and we don't know that grade level to put them 

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in or how to distribute them. Give them an achievement test. 

  

This will reveal to what extent he is able, or has been taught 

up to now, that is, at what level may he perform academically. 

This has nothing to do with his age in many instances. All we 

want to know is where does he perform, at what level. All 

right, we take him at that level and put him with people who 

perform at about that level. This enables him to compete against 

youngsters of his demonstrated achievement level and with them he will 

win and get the applause of the multitude once in a while, get the 

A, and will be able to perform in class and receive the approval 

of his peers and once in a while he will not make it, he will have 

to take a lesser grade and the other kid will make an A, but he will 

succeed enough = so that his personality will not be damaged. Now 

if he is thrown in with a heterogenous group in the same building 

or in the same room, and there is a cluster of very advanced 

achievers at the top and he is among the slow achievers at the 

bottom, he will get a steady diet of failure. He will be frust- 

rated, his frustration will manifest itself in certain undesirable 

personality reactions. We therefore logically conclude that it 

is better to put a youngster in with youngsters that he can compete 

with more or less on his level. This is not to isolate him in 

general in his lifetime or throughout his or the society's life. 

It is simply a matter in school work at what level is he operating. 

Therefore, put him with pupils who are operating at that level 

and then proceed from there, and give him all the help he needs 

to progress upward as fast as he can go, and give him extra help 

in the way of special education people, reading experts, enriched 

curriculum, etc., the various techniques we have nowadays, helping 

the youngster progress as fast as he can go. This plan is 

advantageous to all students since the teacher is teaching students 

who have comparable ranges or performance, Particularly a low 

performance, for whatever reason he is a low performer, is 

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advantaged in that he is placed with students within his own 

range of achievement, By such grouping, the school will be 

permitted to develop remedial measures for slower learners and 

to enrich the teaching content with additional materials and 

suggestions to stimulate and excite the fast learners, 

In the present instance, then, it is my opinion that 

assigning students as proposed in the plans is valid and desireable. 

Give them an achievement test, let those with the higher score be 

placed together, so that they can compete with one another, either 

Negro or white, and then let the students who have the lower 

scores be assembled in the other attendance centers where they 

will not be frustrated by having to compete with those who are 

accelerated and somewhat advanced in performance. It is my belief 

that when these tests are given over a period of years, there will 

be considerable fluctuation up and down, both ways. Some students 

will go into the superior group the next year and so be identified 

with them. Others will fall from the superior group down to the 

lower group because of certain personality qualities, lack of 

application, or what not. But it will be an incentive for them to 

work upward and they will be provided the opportunity to work 

upward. 

Although we are moving into somewhat of a new area because of 

the uniqueness of the situation in the mid-South, it is my opinion 

that there would be substantial integration both ways. A consider- 

able number of white students will be in the lower achievement 

groups and a considerable number of Negroes will be in the top 

scoring groups. This will be increasingly true in the successive 

years in the future because, as remedial teaching is provided 

and the academic environment is improved, the good ones who have 

it will simply gravitate towards the top, and this will give them 

the opportunity to be so placed. The result will rest entirely 

on them. It will not be forced by zoning or arbitrary assignment 

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by pairing. The students will be the ones who will have done 

it themselves by their demonstration of performance and achieve- 

ment. There will be others of both races, of course, who land 

among the slow achievers through faults of their own, i.e., 

lack of motivation, attitudes, unwillingness to apply themselves, 

etc., and therefore they are handicapping themselves because they 

are not applying themselves up to their level, 

There is another element that will affect the application 

of these tests: the Head Start Program will be reflected in 

the first four grades through the scores that will be made 

presently and in the future, Students who come from disadvantaged 

homes, because of Head Start are given a ''leg-up" that many 

children from advantaged homes do not have and to this extent, 

there is an advantage to the disadvantaged. The heard start 

that they have gained thereby should show some affect in succeeding 

years beyond the fourth grade level. 

Moving to the stigma that may be felt to result, the resent- 

ment that may be aroused in the child by being forced into an 

arbitrarily predetermined school regardless of his achievement 

level, it is my opinion that the proposed method removes that 

objection. The plan will be carried forward based on the demon- 

strated performance of a youngster regardless of color it is 

educationally sound and recommended, it is logical and reasonable 

to group them so that they can be taught at their level and the 

instruments and the processes that wo use in teaching them will 

be at their level, By providing a test each year, we will 

give the student the incentive to so perform, and in day-to-day 

performance he will be competing with those with whom he can win, 

from time to time. It is my prediction there will be increasing 

integration throughout all the grades in years to come by using 

this method. 

The psychological aspect is not necessarily my problem but 

if the youngster is associated with someone with whom he cannot 

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compete successfully, he suffers frustration, and will employ 

compensations that are not desireable. Conversely, he tends to 

enjoy competition when he can do so successfully, and respects 

and admires his peers. It is my firm conviction that this will 

be increasingly true among Negroes and whites under the plan 

being proposed. 

The plans I have reviewed for these districts all propose 

to extend assignment by achievement testing to all grades over 

a three year period. It is my opinion there are several reasons 

in support of this approach. First, to test all of the students 

initially would be an impossible administrative burden. Second, 

there would be similar difficulty in assigning students following 

the results of these tests to their proper facility and providing 

proper transportation where transportation is provided. Third, by 

gradual application of the assignment by achievement scores, 

integration will be accepted more readily. We say this simply 

because we have respect for and do not resent those who can 

compete with us successfully. This goes for all of us in our 

contact with other people. 

The youngster will not be left in the place where he lands 

through the first achievement test, He can move up next year 

when he takes it again. This is democratic. It is the old 

tradition of individual initative. Temporary grouping is not 

permanent, In the lower achievement levels it will be like 

placing a person in a hospital when he is sick where he receives 

special care along with the other sick people. He recovers and 

again joins the general public. The such child in the present 

proposal is simply being placed where he can get well the fastest. 

If children grouped in the higher achievement levels fall behind 

the others, they will be placed among those who are receiving 

remedial education, as a person who becomes ill is placed in a 

hospital to secure medical care. In the school of the present 

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and the future, the offering is so broad, in order to accommodate 

  

all children, each child can find his place, and progress with 

his group. Such grouping is always temporary, the child will 

move from group to group constantly in succeeding years by 

virtue of his performance on the achievement test. As he progresses 

through the twelve grades, eh will find his strength and weaknesses 

among the subjects offered and will tend to gravitate towards the 

offerings in the curriculum in which he has the most interest 

and the aptitude. 

There is no socio-economic bias in these tests for the 

reason that this problem simply has been neutralized scientifically. 

As I commented earlier the standardization process has taken 

into consideration children all over America at every economic 

level and in every locality in finding the norm for the tests. 

These tests ascertain the then achievement level of the child 

as compared to the norms established and his demonstrated progress 

at the time of the test. The composite score derived from these 

tests is the fairest way to ascertain such achievement level, 

As a result of the grouping proposed here, the pupils in the 

lower achievement group will have a better opinion of themselves 

as they are competing with individuals of comparable abilities. 

This prevents them from suffering fromlack of motivation, poor 

attitudes, unwillingness to apply themselves, etc. The higher 

groups are prevented from having an inflated opinion of abilities 

as they are also competing with students of comparable achievement 

levels. The youngsters not only have bettern opinions of 

themselves, but of each other, because we tend to admire and 

respect and get along well with people of comparable performance. 

Because we can compete with them, winning sometimes and losing 

sometimes, we not only have a fine time in the association with 

them, but also achieve our greatest development. 

Grouping according to the student, capacities of schools is 

desireable as the original step and may be refined as the tests 

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continues. Such grouping has permanent advantages in that it 

prevents undesireable comparisions by students in different 

achievement levels; it also permits the school staffs to con- 

centrate their interests upon teaching students of comparable 

levels. It enables the school by in-service training to teach 

the staff proper methods of training such groups and permits the 

assignment of such teachers with such abilities and experience. 

These districts propose that the achievement tests be 

administered and scored by capable, impartial outside testing 

agencies. In my opinion, this is necessary and proper in order 

that there be no variations in conducting and scoring the tests 

and that confidence in the results be instilled in the public. 

In conclusion, I find, based upon my training and experience 

in the field of education, that grouping by performance levels 

as proposed in the plans of these districts, by the use of the 

achievement test scores mentioned in the plans or other similar 

nationally recognized tests, will be helpful and desireable in 

the education of school children and will produce a more beneficial 

form of integration of the races by educational considerations than 

indiscriminant mixing would produce, and would improve education 

at all performance levels within the schools. 

Harley F. Garrett 
  

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SWORN to and subscribed before me this the XO Day of 

August, 1969. 

Lor ph 
Notary Public ¢ 
  

My Commission Expires: 

Nay 29, (722, 
  

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 
  

I hereby cetify that copies of the foregoing instrument 

were served on the plaintiffs on this 20th day of August, 1969, 

by mailing copies of same, postage prepaid. to their counsel 

of record at the last known address as follows: 

Melvyn R. Leventhal 
Reuben V. Anderson 

Fred 1... Banks, Jr. 
John A, Nichols 

538-1/2 North Farish Street 
Jackson, Mississippi 39202 

Jack Greenberg 
Jonathan Shapiro 
Norman Chachkin 

Suite 2030 
10 Columbus Circle 

New York, New York 

I further certify that I have also mailed a copy of 

said instrument to the Department of Health, Education and 

Welfare of the United States ire588d as follows: 

Mr. J. J. Jordan, Regional Director 
United States Office of Education 

Room 404 
30 Seventh Street, NE, 
Atlanta, Georgia 30323 

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