Alison Sorkin started her first day as a Howard County teacher Friday at Manor Woods Elementary School.
With just one day to meet her co-workers, memorize the layout of the school, decorate her walls and prepare for her 23 fifth-graders, who will arrive today, Sorkin was awash in newness: new job an hour away from her new home in Littlestown, Pa. Newly back from teaching second grade in Mexico City for five years. New husband of three months carrying her boxes to her new classroom.
With so many new things to learn, Sorkin didn't know where to begin.
"It'll be overwhelming," said her fifth-grade team leader, Delma Kemmet. "As long as you roll with the punches, you'll be fine."
Kemmet's words to Sorkin could easily serve as a motto for the more than 44,000 Howard County students who are starting or returning to school this week.
Sixty-six schools will open their doors today, ringing in a new school year with new faces, initiatives, programs, policies and ideas.
In the 37 Howard elementary schools, classroom sizes in grades one and two have been reduced to an average of 19 pupils.
The school system began reducing class sizes two years ago.
"We're continuing to focus on student achievement with the lower class sizes in primary grades," said Tricia Tidgewell, director of elementary schools. "Research has shown that it does increase student achievement."
To accommodate the class-size reduction, many schools had to find unused or underused space.
"We added some relocatables, some schools already had the space and principals are doing some very creative moving around to create the necessary space," Tidgewell said.
But no one's complaining, she said.
"What comes along with the class-size reduction is the luxury of being able to hire so many new teachers," she said. "We love that."
This year, four elementary schools - Hollifield Station, Pointers Run, Bryant Woods and Forest Ridge - have full-time guidance counselors, bringing the total to 20 elementary schools. The remaining 17 have part-time guidance counselors.
"We're hopeful in the near future to complete that," Tidgewell said, adding that elementary school children need counseling "all day long, not just half the day."
Focusing more on individual students' needs is a theme that is widespread in the school system this year.
Elementary school teachers were trained over the summer in a reading program called "running records," which school system language arts coordinator Ann Mintz hopes to see used consistently in all elementary schools.
Individual focus stressed
The program is a constant review of a child's oral reading skills that helps teachers determine how to better target their pupils' weak areas. It is time-consuming because a teacher can review only one child at a time, but teachers say the results are worthwhile - especially because the county's goal is to have all children be fluent readers by the end of the second grade.
"We're getting pretty sophisticated at being able to focus on the student," Tidgewell said. "Our teachers have all been trained to do that. I think we're refining our training."
In the 17 county middle schools, teachers will concentrate their efforts more on pupils, too.
"We'll be paying more attention to how kids learn," said Alice Haskins, director of middle schools, "doing more tutorials and things like that. That's why we're going to have to depend on teachers to volunteer some time after school and to find some more time during the day to work with students.
"We're asking for parent volunteers, retired community people to come in and help us out with that," she said.
Help with reading
Eight middle schools will have an extra reading teacher to provide additional instruction in the seventh and eighth grades, Haskins said.
The schools are Wilde Lake, Patuxent Valley, Patapsco, Oakland Mills, Harpers Choice, Glenwood, Ellicott Mills and Mount View middle schools, bringing the total to 14. The others should be staffed next year.
The most significant change in middle schools is the system's tougher promotion and retention policy.
Students must pass all courses and cannot earn a final grade lower than "C" in the core subjects of language arts, social studies, reading, math and science; they must pass all Maryland functional tests to be promoted.
"That is the biggie for us," Haskins said. "We don't want kids retained, so what we're doing is working on ways all kids can be successful. I'm looking for increased academic achievement, greater MSPAP scores, especially in reading and math. And I'm looking forward to seeing more integration of reading across the curriculum areas."
Haskins said she also would like to see an increase this year in academic achievement for minority students.
More options available
On the high school level, students will be able to take any Advanced Placement course they'd like at any of the 10 schools. Previously, schools offered AP courses based on interest.
"That's the first time we've done that," said director of high schools Eugene Streagle. "It was part of the whole equity issue. Now we're going to offer [a course] whether you have one kid or 15 kids [in a class]."
High school students will also face a tougher drug-and-alcohol policy.
"It's especially critical for graduating seniors," Streagle said, noting that those who violate the policy could miss activities such as graduation or prom. Violators who participate in school activities - not just sports - could be banned from participation, as well.
"We're trying to eliminate as much of the foolishness as we can this year," Streagle said.
