Failing Schools

Six Baltimore schools -- and three in Prince George's County -- were added to the state's list of failing schools yesterday, despite overall gains by both systems on statewide tests last year.The city has 83 of its elementary and middle schools on the low-performing list; this year's additions -- all elementaries -- are far fewer than the 29 in the city and nine in Prince George's designated last year. All of this year's schools showed significant drops in performance on the 1998 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program tests, after making progress the year before.

Candidate Barack Obama promised education would be a priority of his administration, and since taking office he has funneled $1.8 billion in federal stimulus money to Maryland schools to help avoid layoffs and program cuts. But now he faces a thornier problem: How to fix the federal No Child Left Behind law, which critics say focuses too much on punishing failing schools instead of providing the support they need to succeed. Last week, the outlines of Mr. Obama's plan began to emerge.

Maryland education officials are pushing failing schools to replace their principals and teaching staffs, according to a report released today by a Washington-based nonprofit research group. Such drastic steps are not as widely applied elsewhere in the country for schools that have not met the federal standards under the No Child Left Behind Act, according to the Center on Education Policy. "I think in Maryland it has grown out of a frustration at the pace of change," said Jack Jennings, the center's president.

In Baltimore City State school board discusses takeover of failing schools The State Board of Education held a closed meeting yesterday to begin discussing which low-performing schools in the city and elsewhere in Maryland should be taken over and whether more schools should be added to its list of failing schools. Since 1994, the board has identified 83 failing schools in Baltimore, 12 in Prince George's County and one each in Anne Arundel and Somerset counties, based on their low state test scores and attendance rates.

NEW YORK -- Frustrated with the pace of change at two New York City junior high schools, state and city school officials said yesterday that they would clean house at the troubled schools later this month, restocking the buildings with new students, administrators and teachers.The moves at the schools, announced in Albany by state Education Commissioner Richard Mills, represent the most radical attempt to shore up failing schools in the city since the state began keeping a ledger of poor schools in 1989.

A Carroll County legislator wants Maryland to give tax credits and deductions to families of school-age children for educational expenses, such as tutoring and music lessons, that are not part of their regular school curriculum.At a hearing yesterday on House Bill 564, the sponsor, Del. Nancy R. Stocksdale, said the measure would help poor families most of all, but would not exclude any families, even those that school their children at home.The bill appears to carry two liabilities -- its high price and the perception it is designed to help families of children in private and parochial schools, who have unsuccessfully lobbied Gov. Parris N. Glendening for aid for textbooks, transportation and technology.

In choosing Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan for secretary of education this week, President-elect Barack Obama tapped a leader with demonstrated hands-on experience navigating the pitfalls of urban public policy debates and the conflicting demands of rival political constituencies. Mr. Duncan, a Harvard graduate and longtime ally of Mr. Obama's, has headed Chicago's public school system since 2001, where he earned a reputation for moving forcefully to improve troubled schools without alienating teachers and their unions.

WITH MORE failing schools than any other jurisdiction in the state, Baltimore school officials should have no illusions about the difficult task ahead of them. They have put forth an ambitious plan, approved by the Maryland State Board of Education last week, that aims to put most of the city's 22 persistently low-performing schools back on the path to progress. But some of these schools have gone through leadership, personnel and other changes before - and they are still doing poorly.

Staff and parents at failing schools slated for closure said at a hearing Saturday that they wished their schools had been given the resources to succeed before being shut down. About 50 people, a few dozen of them school system administrators required to attend, turned out for the second and final hearing on a major school reorganization plan that is subject to an April 28 vote by the board of education. Some speakers complained that the hearings were held at inconvenient locations for residents of the west side, where many of the changes would occur.

A plan to give parents of children in some failing Baltimore public schools a choice of transferring to better ones was outlined last night to members of the city school board - along with a catch: Only a small fraction of the district's more than 95,000 pupils will reap the benefit. Patricia E. Abernethy, the system's curriculum and instruction director, told the board that 269 children will be able to transfer out of failing schools to ones the state deems "high-performing." Children at 65 struggling elementary and middle schools are eligible to take advantage of the new "parent choice" transfer option, which is provided under a one-year federal grant.