Academics

Seniors from all 25 Baltimore County Public Schools high schools were recognized on May 4 for achievements as Presidential Scholar candidates, National Merit Scholar semi-finalists, National Achievement Scholars, and Ethics Award winners. Following is a list of local students honored by Superintendent Joe Hairston, principals and others at the ceremony, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Timonium: National Achievement Scholars — Shannon Hubbard, Towson High School. National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalists — Dulaney High School students Elizabeth Demetrides, Kun Leng, Jiaqi Liu, Eric Olsen, Kathleen Schmitz, Brett Turlington and Alan Zhang; Elizabeth Pena of the George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology; Rohan Goswami of Loch Raven High School; and Towson High School students Johann Amberger, Annie Bishai, Laura Greenbaum and Zachary Nusbaum.

Coppin State University is a mess, and the problems go well beyond its abysmal six-year graduation rate of 15 percent. A report to the University System of Maryland Board of Regents by a committee assigned to study the school in the wake of former President Reginald Avery's departure found massive mismanagement, inefficiency and indifference. The state puts more resources per student into Coppin than any other institution in the university system, and it gets the least return. That's bad for the taxpayers, but it's worse for the students whose dreams of advancement go unfulfilled.

Despite spending a year away from football, Tyrice Rock of Century High School seemingly hasn't missed a beat, and is having a season that most players only dream about. The senior Knight leads Carroll County in rushing attempts and yardage, and his 20 touchdowns far outdistance the current runner-up, Westminster wide receiver Garrett Bean. He has exceeded the 100-yard rushing mark in six of Century's seven games, and has gone for more than 200 yards four times. Even with a tough performance Friday against Westminster, Rock still has a chance to break the all-time Carroll records for rushing yardage and touchdowns.

While the University of Maryland won't be able to reap most of the rewards of joining the Big Ten athletic conference until the move becomes official in July 2014, it will start benefiting from its academic counterpart — the Committee on Institutional Cooperation — this year. Officials from the university and the CIC met this week in College Park to start hammering out the details in preparation for this July, when Maryland and Rutgers University are set to join the 13-member cooperative, which includes the 12 Big Ten schools plus the University of Chicago.

EVERYONE LOVES a winner. And college football fans are less tolerant than anyone of a perennial loser. When a pigskin powerhouse becomes a cupcake scrounging for victories, alumni and other die-hards can be unrelenting in demanding that revival of the program come first. Few college presidents have the courage to stand up to those fans, to insist that no matter how many losses the team racks up, academics comes first. For displaying that kind of intestinal fortitude, as reported in a series of Sun articles by Christian Ewell this week, Morgan State University President Earl S. Richardson deserves a rousing cheer.

Some Howard County black high school students will gather at Hammond High School tomorrow for a leadership retreat that will mix academics with contemporary music and other elements of "hip-hop" culture."

One of the arguments we used to hear about the absence of a playoff system at the highest level of college football is the negative impact of extra games on the academics of student-athletes. Maybe that kind of talk is much quieter these days, with the ever-weakening argument focused more on preserving the bowl system for reasons that don't seem quite clear to Mr. Flip. (Corporations don't have enough sporting events to attach their names to?) In any case, the lead-up to bowl games inevitably includes reports of Fred "40 Yard" Dash being declared academically ineligible to play in the Spacely Sprockets Greater Bedrock Bowl.

Former Western High School basketball coach Breezy Bishop has resigned as an assistant coach at North Carolina State after one season for the opportunity to start a program here for girls that combines basketball with academics.The Breezy Bishop Academic Basketball Academy will concentrate on 10- to 14-year-old girls with a tentative starting date of October. Bishop declined to give specifics about the academy, saying only that she is looking for financing and housing."It's a dream that I've always had," said Bishop, 62. "I consider myself a trouble-shooter, and right now, the trouble is at the middle-school age. A lot of middle-school kids don't even make it to high school.

From their titles alone, it's clear that the books being offered this year by the Johns Hopkins University Press are not exactly bodice-rippers. Some examples: Reinforced Concrete and the Modernization of American Building, 1900-1930 and Becoming Criminal: Transversal Performance and Cultural Dissidence in Early Modern England. Surviving as a business with products that cater to such a narrow readership isn't easy. But it's a task that the Hopkins Press, now celebrating its 125th anniversary, is managing better than most of its peers.

In a long-awaited response to community criticisms of the emphasis on self-esteem over academics in Howard County's middle schools, top school system officials said yesterday they intend to refocus sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders on achievement.But in responding to separate evaluations of Howard's middle schools last fall by a citizens committee and outside consultants, the officials stopped short of endorsing such recommendations as grouping students in classes by abilities.Officials did announce that they will increase the time spent on basic instruction and establish tests and standards of performance for each middle school grade.

As President Fred Lazarus IV expanded the Maryland Institute College of Art over the past 35 years and helped turn it into one of the nation's leading arts colleges, supporters say, he has also focused on Baltimore - to the betterment of his college and his city. Lazarus, 71, announced Monday that he would retire in May 2014. Upon hearing the news, the city's cultural and civic leaders praised his foresight, saying he realized early on that improving life both in Baltimore and at the 187-year-old school went hand-in-hand.

Baltimore school officials unveiled a $1.174 billion budget plan Tuesday, which they said focuses on academics with a new science team to implement curriculum, programs for advanced students and a shifting of staff in the central office. Enrollment is projected to increase in traditional schools by about 2,500 students, causing per-pupil funding to decrease by $40 from last year to $5,190. The annual amount could change if the system doesn't see the projected increase in students.

By no means do we consider the imbroglio over the decision to cut the baseball and men's soccer teams to be Towson University President Maravene Loeschke's finest moment. The announcement was not handled well, and there are real questions about the basis for the decision to eliminate the teams. But Comptroller Peter Franchot's call for her to resign over the matter is simply absurd. Mr. Franchot raised the issue of the eliminated teams at a Board of Public Works meeting a month ago, and Gov. Martin O'Malley, who hadn't previously been familiar with the matter, joined him in expressing concern.

The across-the-board federal spending cuts known as the sequester come at a bad time for Maryland colleges. Many usually send out financial award letters this month, but they still don't have all the details on how much federal funding they will receive for certain aid programs. And even if the Department of Education gives them firm numbers before letters go out, school officials say, Congress and the White House could reach a later deal that would involve further aid changes. "For aid officers, it's extremely frustrating to have change at the last minute," said David Horne, director of financial aid at Towson University.

For years, patients in Maryland with intractable pain, chronic diseases or terminal diseases have lobbied lawmakers to legalize the medical use of marijuana to ease their symptoms. And for years the state has been torn between compassion and caution about whether the purported benefits of medical marijuana outweigh the potential dangers of a drug that has not been subjected to rigorous scientific testing to determine its safety and effectiveness. As a result, Maryland law on the issue has remained an inconsistent jumble.

Anyone hearing the ACLU's position on single-sex education would think something troubling is afoot in almost every town in America. The ACLU claims that single-sex education is an unlawful form of discrimination and that its supposed benefits are based on pseudoscience. In a supposed conspiracy to oppress children, the Catholic Church operates hundreds of single-sex schools across America. A handful of states have opened boys' and girls' schools themselves. The ACLU's lawyers allege that this practice amounts to gender apartheid, a misogynist attempt to hold women back.

This summer, 10-year-old Jared Cole-Lewis has a rare luxury: daily computer time at school. Jared and his classmates are editing an action movie they scripted and videotaped as part of the Black Student Achievement Program's Summer Bridge program. Despite the name, Summer Bridge seeks to do more than fill the gap between mid-June and late August for its students. "We're trying to accelerate them," said Ron Morris, assistant principal of Bellows Spring Elementary and one of two administrators on site at Wilde Lake High.

Stacks of classroom furniture line the darkened hallways of Patapsco High School in eastern Baltimore County. On an afternoon thick with haze, doors yawn open to catch the slightest gift of a summer breeze.Here in a school mostly shuttered for the summer, Edward Wiley Jr., 14, and fellow members of Summer Enrichment Camp -- a branch of America's summer jobs program -- are expanding their horizons through the program born in the tumultuous 1960s.Not long ago, the soft-spoken Wiley thought he was headed for the steel mill like his father and grandfather.

It's a Thursday afternoon - five days after the most surprising team in all of Division I men's college basketball completed its season - and these guys aren't obliged to be in an otherwise empty gym, firing jump shots. In fact, no one would blame the starters from this year's Towson basketball team if they wanted to get away from the game for a while. They just finished a remarkable resurrection, from 1-31 laughingstock to 18-13 and tied for second in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Lacrosse No. 17 Stony Brook women roll past Duquesne, 16-3 College women: Frankie Caridi made five saves and No. 17 Stony Brook (3-1) won, 16-3, against visiting Duquesne (2-3) on Thursday. The Seawolves, led by Janine Hillier and Demmianne Cook with five goals each, tied a program record for the fewest goals allowed in a single game for the second week in a row. Stony Brook beat Central Connecticut, 19-3, on Feb. 27. More colleges Terps ' Aronhalt named to ACC all-academic team Maryland guard Logan Aronhalt was named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball all-academic team.