Black Students

More African-American students in Maryland's Class of 2012 successfully passed a rigorous Advanced Placement exam than ever before, as the state continued to lead the nation in the percentage of students deemed college- and career-ready, according to data released Wednesday by the national College Board. The 11.4 percent of black students who earned a score of 3 or better on an exam still comprises a small fraction of the 29.6 percent of all Maryland seniors who passed a test. But it is among the highest percentages in the nation, reflecting the increased access and success for black students on the exams.

I was a bit confused by the letter Jeff Nelson wrote regarding the need for a White Student Union at Towson University. For the record, "white" is how most people would describe me. That's no more a part of my heritage than the fact that my eyes are blue. Now I claim no particular expertise in racial matters, but it seems to me that being black comes with a heritage, much more so than being white. White people in the U.S. were spared slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and having to struggle for equal rights.

Suspensions and other disciplinary actions for African-American students fell at Anne Arundel County schools last year because of new practices, said a school system team examining purported racial disparities in punishments. The audit, design and planning team was created by schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell as part of efforts to address concerns about school discipline, particularly among African-American students, who school officials say make up 22 percent of the school district's enrollment but account for a higher percentage of suspensions.

The College Board reports that Maryland high school students again led the country last year in their pass rate on Advanced Placement tests. Even better, the board reported that more African-American students earned passing scores than ever before. That Maryland has been able to increase the number and diversity of students taking AP classes while continuing to see rising test scores is a hopeful sign as the state stands poised to adopt a more challenging curriculum. Last year, 29.6 percent of Maryland high seniors passed at least one of the AP exams, which are offered in 34 subjects including chemistry, calculus, English literature, history and foreign languages.

Under pressure to reduce the suspension rate of black students, Anne Arundel County is making progress by training staff in how to work with people of different backgrounds and giving troublesome students more support. Experts say such training is a key to keeping African-American students throughout Maryland in school. Last year, 13.9 percent of black children were suspended statewide, compared with 5.8 percent of white kids. Studies have linked suspensions and expulsions to lower academic achievement and higher dropout rates.

A nurturing atmosphere and dedicated instructors are needed to overcome society's hurdles and boost the academic performance of black students, a teaching expert told more than 200 educators yesterday.Asa Hilliard III, an award-winning educator who spoke to a standing-room-only audience at a conference on educating black students at the Johns Hopkins University, said educators must change goals, structures and attitudes to boost morale of black students."Change these three things and we will see achievement improve," Mr. Hilliard said.

This summer, while other youngsters are splashing in the pool, 40 Howard County students will be trying to find the value of "X" and learn the composition of the iron atom.The new, five-week Summer Bridge Program, sponsored by the school system's Black Student Achievement Program (BSAP), lets black middle and high school students take mathematics and science lessons to help prepare for the academic challenges of the next school year.The enrichment program begins June 27 and ends July 29 at Howard Community College.

LOS ANGELES -- This fall 4,852 freshmen are expected to enroll at the University of California, Los Angeles, but only 96, or 2 percent, are black - the lowest figure in decades and a growing concern on the campus. For several years, students, professors and administrators at UCLA have watched with discouragement as the numbers of black students declined. But the new figures, released last week, have shocked many on campus and prompted school leaders to declare the situation a crisis. UCLA - which has such storied black alumni as baseball legend Jackie Robinson, Nobel laureate Ralph Bunche and former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, and is in a county that is 9.8 percent black - now has a lower percentage of black freshmen than either its cross-town rival, the University of Southern California, or UC-Berkeley, the school often considered its top competitor within the UC system.

Parents of students in the county schools' Black Student Achievement Program took educators to task Monday, saying their children feel alienated in the school system and suggesting dozens of ideas for strengthening support for minority students.During the three-hour meeting at the Board of Education building in Ellicott City, parents listed about 50 recommendations for the school system to improve test scores of black students and increase awareness of black history.the recommendations are passed, teachers would view "Eyes on the Prize," principals would hire more black coaches, and administrators would have to track hiring practices of black teachers.

Finally, the Howard County school system has come up with a program that could improve the achievement level of African-American students.For nearly seven years, the Black Student Achievement Program has been the only game in town when it came to addressing the gnawing problem of black students' low test scores. Unfortunately, the BSAP has concentrated most of its efforts on esteem-building programs, giving short shrift to what goes on within Howard classrooms.But a new program, developed by the school system's Human Relations Office, proposes that teachers rethink the way they teach African-American children and use new techniques to boost their academic progress.

More African-American students in Maryland's Class of 2012 successfully passed a rigorous Advanced Placement exam than ever before, as the state continued to lead the nation in the percentage of students deemed college- and career-ready, according to data released Wednesday by the national College Board. The 11.4 percent of black students who earned a score of 3 or better on an exam still comprises a small fraction of the 29.6 percent of all Maryland seniors who passed a test. But it is among the highest percentages in the nation, reflecting the increased access and success for black students on the exams.

I have had long-standing empathetic connections to the issues raised by your recent article on the civil rights protests in Baltimore ("Former student protesters remember civil rights battle over the Northwood Theatre," Feb. 16). The experience of Baltimore college students in 1963 closely followed my own experiences in Greensboro, N.C., when students at the black colleges there began protesting racial segregation at the local Woolworth's lunch counter. As a Southern white woman, I had always been confounded by the restrictions in my hometown of Wilmington, N.C., where as a child I observed the signs over water fountains, outside restrooms and on public buses restricting blacks from using facilities designated for whites.

After the Anne Arundel County school board received its annual update on the system's five-year strategic plan for student achievement, board member Solon Webb directed one question to school officials: "Are we winning or losing?" Webb's query prompted a discussion Wednesday almost as lengthy as the presentation of the 2012 Strategic Plan, which tracks students' five-year progress in Maryland School Assessments and High School Assessments, as well as International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement and honors participation and testing.

Suspensions and other disciplinary actions for African-American students fell at Anne Arundel County schools last year because of new practices, said a school system team examining purported racial disparities in punishments. The audit, design and planning team was created by schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell as part of efforts to address concerns about school discipline, particularly among African-American students, who school officials say make up 22 percent of the school district's enrollment but account for a higher percentage of suspensions.

Strides made in the 90s to reduce risky sexual behavior among teens has largely plateaued, federal health data released today has found. The data from the Centers for Disease Control National Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that many teenagers are using condoms and practicing other safe sex practices, but that more needs to be done to increase those numbers, health officials said. The findings were released at the International AIDS conference. People under the age of 30 represent  four of every 10 new HIV infections.

Students at a Baltimore County high school drew a racially offensive picture on a classroom board last week and then sent it out on Twitter, prompting the principal to call police and suspend several students. The picture, drawn during class at Eastern Technical High School, shows three nooses hanging from the rafters of a building, according to Baltimore County police spokesman Cathy Batton. Beside the ropes are a burning cross with three stick figures in pointed hats, suggesting the Ku Klux Klan.

ONE OF THE BEST big bands in the country, the Baltimore Jazz Orchestra, gave a concert Wednesday night at the Peabody Institute featuring legendary songstress Ethel Ennis.As striking to me as the superb renditions of numbers written by Gershwin, Ellington and Basie was the composition of the audience -- almost entirely white.Perhaps the setting had a lot to do with that. The Peabody Conservatory isn't generally regarded as a venue for hot music. But African Americans invented jazz, and it was a bit disconcerting to see so few present for a performance by one of the true vocal masters of the musical idiom, Ms. Ennis.

After years of dismal suspension rates for Howard County's black students, school officials will conduct a formal study of why black students are disciplined more often than white students.The analysis is prompted by the school system's annual suspension report, to be presented at today's school board meeting, which found that black students and males in general continue to be disproportionately suspended from schools."We need to ask some very pointed questions about that," said Associate Superintendent James McGowan.

Back in the 1990s, when I was still a high school teacher, our faculty spent a day at Shepherd Pratt - an appropriate venue as it turned out - listening to two educators from theWashington, D.C., public schools telling us how to teach black students. The irony of being lectured on how to educate black students by people from the nation's worst school system was not lost on most of us. Now it's 2012 and the circle is completed. The state of Maryland has a black state school superintendent, Lillian Lowery, and a 12-member state Department of Education that includes not a single white male.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights said that it will investigate allegations by the Anne Arundel branch of the NAACP that the county's school system discriminates against African-American students when meting out discipline. The office's March 29 decision came in response to a formal complaint filed last year by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that accused the school system of subjecting African-American students to different treatment than other students regarding discipline referrals, suspensions and expulsions.