Dropout Rate

Too many students are dropping out of Anne Arundel County schools, and not enough are passing a fairly new test designed to measure thinking and problem-solving skills, according to state Department of Education figures released yesterday.The state "report card" examines all aspects of education in Maryland's 24 school districts, including attendance, dropout rates, the number of students who pass, and how well students do on four tests that measure their knowledge of reading, writing, math and citizenship.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Air Force Academy has lost 25 percent of the freshman women in two of its last three classes, an attrition rate at least double that of Annapolis and West Point.Academy officials are uncertain whether there is any link between the high dropout rate and the widespread complaints of sexual harassment that have recently swirled around the school in Colorado Springs, Colo.However, Gen. Bradley C. Hosmer, the academy's superintendent, told the school's Board of Visitors at the group's annual meeting in Washington last week that female cadets may be leaving the school at higher rates because of the "pressures ** and tensions" of integrating women into a traditionally male environment.

Harford's 47 public schools got a positive report card from the state last week, meeting 11 of the 13 criteria in the 1993 Maryland School Performance Program.The results were the county's best performance since the standards were set four years ago.The school system fell short in two areas -- attendance for students in seventh through 12th grades and the dropout rate.School Superintendent Ray R. Keech was not disappointed, though."The school system is moving in the right direction," he said, adding that he is "flat out encouraged by the results."

Annapolis High School has the worst dropout rate among Anne Arundel County's 12 high schools, according to a state report card issued this week. But Principal Laura Webb says the numbers don't reflect economics or recent progress."

Maryland public schools received higher marks in the state's fourth annual report card yesterday, but most still fall short of ambitious state standards.The results -- based on state tests, promotion and dropout rates, and attendance -- form the basis for the Maryland School Performance Program, designed to hold schools more accountable for classroom results.In the metropolitan area, only Howard County met all 13 state standards, while the city of Baltimore fell short in all but two areas.

Carroll Commissioner Julia W. Gouge will go to San Francisco next month to talk to county officials from throughout the country about Carroll programs that aim to keep students in school.Mrs. Gouge will speak at the National Association of Counties' annual conference on employment policy and human services Nov. 19-22.She is a member of NACo's employment committee and chairs a subcommittee on "school-to-work" programs.About 700 people are expected to attend the conference at the San Francisco Hilton and Towers, NACo Public Affairs Director Tom Goodman said.

Sparked by a 16.4 percent student dropout rate last year -- more than three times the 5.2 percent rate statewide -- the Baltimore school system is revamping its vocational education curriculum and making other reforms that might retain students, the city schools superintendent, Walter G. Amprey, said yesterday.Dr. Amprey said he shook up the school system's vocational education office earlier this week because it had failed to offer alternative programs to students, many of whom end up dropping out of school because they are bored with academics.

Maryland public schools received slightly better grades on their third annual report card yesterday. But most still don't meet state standards for performance on math and citizenship tests, high school attendance and the dropout rate."

Over the years, lots of problems in lots of communities have been blamed on "outside troublemakers," but the Baltimore City schools have come up with a bizarre new addition to the list: High school dropouts from outside the city have been moving in, a school department spokesman suggests, giving Baltimore an inflated dropout rate in a Census Bureau study.Hey, come on. You're telling us the city dropout rate is not really bad, it just seems bad because dropouts from the suburbs are streaming in?

Baltimore has been proclaimed tops in the nation recently -- for all the wrong reasons.* The National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA) reported that 56 percent of black men in the city between the ages of 18 and 35 were either in prison, on parole or probation, being sought on arrest warrants or awaiting trial on an average day in 1991. That was worse than the other city studied to date, Washington, D.C., where 42 percent of young black men were caught in the criminal justice web on a given day. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke expressed shock that Baltimore's problem outdid Washington's, but a survey by his own staff confirmed the study.