Focus Schools

The latest round of MSPAP results shows some of the county's focus schools so improved that Superintendent Michael E. Hickey plans to tell the school board Thursday that at least one might not need the extra resources it once did to succeed.The progress of some focus schools is the bright spot of this year's Maryland School Performance Assessment Program results, which showed an overall decline. The results were released Wednesday.After six years of gradual increases in Howard County, scores of nearly two-thirds of elementary schools and half the middle schools fell, bringing the county's composite score down eight-tenths of a point, to 59.3.

As authorities continued to investigate the shooting at Perry Hall High School, about two dozen students gathered at a church Monday night, recounting their fears during the incident - and a reluctance to go back to school. "You just think, if it happens once, it can happen again," said senior Kyle Ritter. He said he would welcome more security on campus: "If it's going to stop all this craziness, I think it'd be a good idea. " School safety experts say that while it's understandable for some to want metal detectors and other visible signs of beefed-up security, less invasive measures usually offer the best way to keep out guns and other dangerous weapons.

A program to restructure some of the county's focus schools, in the works eight months, could get its start at Phelps Luck Elementary School next year.The school system has deemed 14 Howard County schools worthy of extra resources because of low scores on statewide tests.To bring about improvement in these schools, Superintendent Michael E. Hickey told the school board last week that he wants to implement radical changes, beginning with a pilot program at Phelps Luck. The program would cost about $250,000, Hickey said.

Breaking from the tradition of beginning the school year with the city's Blue Ribbon recipients and highest performers, Baltimore schools CEO Andrés Alonso personally welcomed back students and staff who will take part in radical transformations at schools that have struggled with academics. Alonso said he decided to visit schools this year that have "all of the ingredients to be a great school, but their outcomes haven't shown it. " It was a decision in line with the unusual start to the school year, with 77,000 students returning from summer vacation two days late — the first time in recent memory that opening day has been delayed — because of power outages caused by Hurricane Irene.

Howard County educators identified 14 schools last night that are performing below the county's academic standards, saying those schools will get extra resources to help them improve.Also last night, the Howard school board was told of the progress made by school officials to try to relieve the "curriculum overload" that has frustrated the county's elementary school teachers.In discussing which of the county's 60 schools will be designated as "focus schools" for 1997-1998, Howard schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey said those schools face greater challenges than the rest of the system.

Recent discussion among school, community and political leaders about inequities between older and newer county schools calls attention to the struggles of so-called focus schools and their advocates' demands for more attention from the Howard County Board of Education.Some parents and students at the schools, which are mainly in Columbia, say the board needs to do more to help principals not only bring up standardized test scores but also shake a stigma."I think we've been identified as a certain way and [School Superintendent Michael E.]

Howard County focus schools have too many inexperienced teachers, raising questions about the quality of instruction, members of a school reform panel said yesterday. Focus schools receive extra resources -- more teachers and programs -- because of low test scores. But because of a high rate of turnover, many teachers are green, said Joanne Mead. Mead heads a subgroup of the Leadership Committee on School Equity, a 23-member panel investigating real and perceived differences in quality among Howard schools, particularly older ones in Columbia.

Equity, a hot-button issue in Howard County schools, can take several forms. Many Howard parents tend to cast the debate in terms of older vs. newer schools, complaining that older schools in older neighborhoods fare worse than newer schools in younger ones.But the inequities in reading scores and other measures of academic achievement within one of the state's most affluent counties track more readily with traditional demographic differences such as household income. And it is the schools with low academic scores that county officials are targeting for extra resources to improve reading skills.

Howard County Council members expressed early support yesterday for a plan that would reduce class sizes for first- and second-graders at 17 elementary schools next year.They made no formal commitments to the proposal -- highlighted yesterday at a meeting between school and county officials -- but the four council members present said it sounded like a promising idea. During the 90-minute meeting, which also touched on test scores, redistricting and next year's capital budget, Superintendent Michael E. Hickey reiterated the school system's plan to cut class sizes for these pupils to a student-teacher ratio of 19-to-1.

Disappointed that many new positions and programs won't be funded next year, the Howard County school board nevertheless approved the 2001 operating and capital budgets yesterday. . Board Chairwoman Sandra H. French also signed yesterday employee contracts for the school years 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 , the first multiyear contract that school district employees have been granted in at least 10 years. The final budget contains about $6 million less than the $340 million the board requested from the County Council.

Baltimore lands in the middle of the pack among other large cities undergoing education reform, according to a study released Tuesday. A resistant teachers union and lack of a quality control are among the obstacles the district has to overcome to continue making progress, the study says. In a report published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, "America's Best (and Worst) Cities for School Reform," Baltimore ranked 17th out of 26 of large cities that have the supports in place for education reform.

The Baltimore school system would more than quadruple the amount of money it spends on gifted students and funnel more money into high schools under a proposed funding formula that schools chief Andres Alonso unveiled yesterday. The proposal earmarks about $22 million for gifted students, $58 million for struggling students and $11 million for low-income high school students in the school system's budget for next academic year. The Board of Education is expected to adopt the budget Tuesday.

As a teenager at St. Timothy's School, Kimberly Dozier developed an appreciation for history and a talent for writing. She hammered nails and painted sets for school plays, and sang opera. And when she took a stick to the face during a lacrosse game, she kept on playing -- with, her former coach recalled, what turned out to be a broken nose. "She's very, very diligent," said Louise Wharton Pistell, Dozier's coach and teacher in ninth grade. "Very serious. Very focused." Dozier, a CBS News correspondent who has chronicled conflicts in Afghanistan, the Balkans and other trouble spots, was being treated yesterday in a U.S. Army hospital for injuries suffered in a car bomb attack in Iraq that killed two of her co-workers.

The Anne Arundel County school board is scheduled to again discuss whether to expand the district's International Baccalaureate program at its meeting today. At its Sept. 21 meeting, the board debated for more than an hour whether to approve Superintendent Eric J. Smith's proposal to expand the IB program to Meade High School. The program, a rigorous curriculum that is recognized around the world, is offered at Annapolis and Old Mill high schools. School system officials have said that, because of the demand for the program, failure to expand to Meade would mean the district would have to hold a lottery.

Every Wednesday, a group of fifth-grade girls at Dallas F. Nicholas Sr. Elementary School get together for an afternoon session with My Sister's Circle, a mentoring program run by women for girls. They play math games, do arts and crafts - and sometimes discuss boys and sex. "We talk about stuff that we can't talk about with other people," said Jasmine Peterson, 11, a short-haired girl who dots her i's with circles. "Like how some boys carry diseases. That you should use protection. And wait till a certain age" to have sex. Surprising talk for someone so young, perhaps.

State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick's suggestion that a trustee take charge of the Baltimore school system garnered little support yesterday, and it appears that her idea will get little consideration unless she formally petitions the court to act. The state's top education official said she raised the issue because she remains deeply troubled about the future of the Baltimore system and wants to ensure that the public does not think its financial and...

Two months after receiving a 47-page report about inequities in the Howard County school system and how to make the schools better, the school board met with the document's authors last night to try to better understand it. The report, titled "No Child Left Behind," was researched and written by the Leadership Committee on School Equity, a 23-member group that studied county schools from November to March. Superintendent Michael E. Hickey and County Executive James N. Robey created the panel in October in response to perceived inequities in the school system.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, an ad hoc committee of parents and residents from east and west Columbia came to a consensus on school system problems that need to be addressed.The committee made its report to the Howard County Council last night at the council's third and final school equity meeting.The council is seeking to determine why the public perceives inequities between older and newer county schools.The committee, which also includes parents with children in focus schools, identified four areas that need urgent attention -- redistricting and open enrollment, equity, leadership and accountability.

Mayor Martin O'Malley focused on the school system's classroom successes and administrative failures yesterday in his fifth State of the City address, in which he also invoked the memory of several recently deceased local leaders, highlighted declining violent crime and warned that another tough budget year lies ahead. O'Malley announced that the city will commit $1 million to Reason to Believe, an outgrowth of the mayor's anti-drug Believe campaign that offers assistance to a range of people in need, from expectant mothers to preschoolers.