Academic Standards

Much fuss is made over the NCAA toughening eligibility standards for freshmen and returning athletes. The National Junior College Athletic Association addressed that issue long ago, the result being that it's harder for a JUCO player to remain eligible than it is for someone under the NCAA umbrella.A JUCO freshman must pass 12 credits with a 1.75 grade-point average in the fall semester to continue playing basketball. To play as a sophomore, he must carry over 24 credits with a 2.0 GPA."The good player who's a decent student is going to end up at an NCAA institution," said Wheeler Brown, the coach at Howard Community College.

Recent legislation passed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at its annual convention should open more doors to Division I athletics than ever before for the county's high school student-athletes.But the question is, will Anne Arundel County change to see that county student-athletes are prepared to seek those additional opportunities?Will county administrators finally see the need to raise its required grade-point average for playing high school sports from its current D-plus status of 1.67 to the NCAA Division I requirement of 2.00,an average of C?

Parents and community members expressed concerns and confusion Thursday night over a plan to reorganize several Baltimore schools, closing failing ones and expanding those that are successful. More than 100 people came to the Polytechnic Institute/Western High School complex for the first of two hearings on school closure and merger proposals. The proposals are part of a reorganization plan unveiled last month by city schools chief Andr?s Alonso, who says his goal is to create more schools that students want to attend and where parents don't feel they have to settle.

Howard County middle school students should be held accountable for their work and be required to meet specific requirements to advance to high school, county school board members said last night."

Democratic Party activist Bill Woodcock yesterday launched his campaign for the House of Delegates, vowing to make a competitive bid for Howard County's most Republican district.Woodcock, 30, of Ellicott City, acknowledged his underdog status against a pair of powerful GOP legislators known as "the Bobs" -- Del. Robert H. Kittleman and Del. Robert L. Flanagan -- who have represented District 14B for a combined 28 years.But Woodcock tried to use the experience of his rivals against them, suggesting that they are more interested in "political posturing, gamesmanship and division" than in representing the district that includes Ellicott City, western Howard and Columbia's River Hill village.

Hunched over a small table at a West Los Angeles learning center, Sehajpal Singh is a study in concentration as he figures out that the dots on his worksheet add up to 10. Sehajpal is 3, but he has a good grasp of counting, simple words and sentences, and taking directions. After a half-hour of work, he stretches and yawns, then seems eager to jump back into his lesson. Sehajpal represents a growing trend of preschool-age children putting away the toys and picking up a pencil for private tutoring sessions.

Students' access to elective courses at Columbia's Wilde Lake High School will be sharply restricted next year under proposed new scheduling guidelines -- and some parents, teachers and students are mobilizing to protest the move.At a PTA meeting Monday attended by more than 200, many decried the changes which would bar all freshmen from taking extra elective courses, restricting access to sophomores, juniors and seniors enrolled in honors classes."You can have a student in a class labeled as 'gifted and talented' getting a C, but a student in a regular class getting an A is restricted [from taking some electives]

Before Lauren Preston opened the cover of the book "Spring" to read to her pre-kindergarten class at Mary Ann Winterling Elementary School, her students excitedly told her why, and showed her how, the season was underway. Daffodils - not just "yellow flowers" - were appearing from beneath the soil, they said. Hyacinths were blooming, they demonstrated with the slow unfolding of their tiny fists. And butterflies were emerging, the students showed by flapping their curled arms. In pre-K classrooms around Baltimore's school system, subtle changes like interactive reading are having a substantial effect in helping prepare 4-year-olds for elementary school - addressing an achievement gap that city schools have faced for years.

A longtime Towson University professor has resigned his post as the head of the city school system's ethics panel amid allegations that his published academic articles contain content from dozens of sources without proper - or in some cases any - attribution. University officials and journal publishers say they are reviewing several articles submitted by Benjamin A. Neil, a legal affairs professor, after a librarian at another university alerted them to the issue. A Baltimore Sun review of five papers published by Neil shows passages with identical language and others with close similarities to scholarly journals, news publications, congressional testimony, blogs and websites.

The state school board voted Tuesday to recommend that students maintain a C average to be able to play sports in public high schools over concerns raised by some educators and coaches that marginal students might drop out without the incentive of sports. The decision, passed with two dissenting votes on the 12-member board, will take effect next school year. While advocates say the minimum grade standard will motivate student athletes to do better in school, critics, including board member Kate Walsh, who voted against the standard, say schools should not discourage struggling students from staying in school.