Here is an educational dozen, 12 proposals to candidates for office in Anne Arundel:
Fund an effort to get [low-income] parents to read stories to their preschool children.
Traditionalize open space schools. Put floor-to-ceiling walls around each classroom.
Air-condition the 47 schools that don't have it. When students in a non-AC school must take a high-stakes test, bus them to a school with AC.
Convert excess school buildings into "academies" for chronically disruptive students.
Put a lab of 35 computers in each elementary school that has many [low-income] students.
Reserve space in each elementary and middle school for "holdbacks," students who are retained in grades 5 and 8 until they test at grade level in literacy and [math].
Add a remedial math teacher to the remedial reading teacher in each elementary.
Reduce class sizes at middle schools, such as in math at Old Mill and Severna Park and in language arts at Severn River.
Let teachers use the Xerox as much as they need to compensate for poor textbooks.
Expand AVID, Ms. Parham's effort to build skills of able but under-motivated students so they can take Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate in high school.
Pay student fees for AP and IB. Pay teachers' way to AP and IB conference.
Install IB at Severna Park High School for north county and at South River High School for south county.
Admirably, Ms. Owens has greatly raised Anne Arundel's per pupil expenditure and has considerably lowered class sizes in the early grades. But there's much more to be done.
J.A. Hoage
Severna Park
