Grades

MY SON looked up from his Cheerios one morning last week as I made his lunch at the kitchen counter. "We get grades this year," he said.His tone was unnaturally even, the way it gets when he's trying to cover a rising panic. I understood his worry. Sometimes the classwork is a challenge, but he is heartbreakingly tenacious and, against all odds, loves school.I thought about him as I read that the Denver teachers' union recently approved a pilot program that ties merit raises to students' test scores.

Matthew Sweet only needed two seconds to add, subtract, divide and multiply four numbers to get to 24.In yesterday's 24 Challenge Math Tournament in Baltimore, two seconds was enough to earn Sweet a win in the competition."

NINE MYTHS ABOUT education:The nation's schools are making steady progress in hiring black teachers.Wrong. Between 1971 (the first year racial data were available) and 1996, the percentage of African-American teachers nationally declined from 8.1 to 7.3, while the proportion of white women teachers increased from 66 percent to 74 percent. During the same period, the median age of teachers increased from 35 to 44.Like it or not, the teaching force in America is dominated by middle-age, white females.

The Baltimore school board voted unanimously last night to set new passing standards for children in grades one through eight, saying it hoped the policy would raise expectations and achievement."

Dawn Mitchum earned a new pair of gym shoes this month -- not for any athletic achievement, but for improving her grade point average from a 0.5 to a 2.25."

I HAVEN'T SEEN MY final grades yet, but I think I'm going to be on academic probation. I sure as heck am not on the principal's list or the honor roll. I think I'm not eligible to play sports, either, because my GPA is almost zero. Something like 0.2.I am afraid to open my report card. I don't want to know how bad it is.And most of my fellow parents feel the same way.Researcher Ellen Galinsky, in a new book titled "Ask the Children," recently excerpted in Newsweek, says grown-ups are afraid to do just that -- to ask the children -- because we don't want to know what they think of the job we are doing as their parents.

AMERICAN children who aren't exactly 8 o'clock scholars often rate themselves as better students than they really are. They don't know enough to know what they don't know.It now turns out that many parents do that, too. In a study of several hundred mothers from the United States, Japan and China about the school performance of their children in the fifth grade, more than half of the American mothers announced that they were "very satisfied" with their children's schoolwork.But not true in Asia.

In Baltimore CountyRestaurant's roof, kitchen destroyed in two-alarm fireRANDALLSTOWN -- Employees and patrons escaped injury yesterday afternoon when a two-alarm fire at a restaurant destroyed the kitchen and roof.Employees reported that the fire began about 1: 35 p.m. in an oven at Hunan Taste in the 8500 block of Liberty Road, and spread when the sprinkler system didn't work, said county Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard. Flames went to the roof, forcing evacuation of the kitchen and dining room, he said.

Sisters will be sisters: competing, fighting, wearing each others' clothes without permission. And even vying for the same scholarship.The latter led to a small measure of tension around the Khatib family's Charles Village household recently when sisters Alwafaa, 16, Asmaa, 11, and her twin, Bushraa, each applied for a $1,000 scholarship from the Carson Scholars Fund, a program started in 1996 by Dr. Ben Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns...

Reading has been getting more attention than ever before in classrooms across the state, but this year's reading scores in the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program were as stagnant as a swamp.This was the MSPAP irony of 1999 and it was not lost on state officials, who were clearly disappointed that more emphasis on reading instruction and downsized classes resulted in virtually no change in reading scores over the last year in grades three, five and eight.State schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick put her spin on the poor results for the two elementary grades.

A letter Tuesday by recent Loyola College graduate Richard M. Fogal objecting to the school's plans to make the SAT optional generated a significant response from readers. The systematic effort by college administrators to lower the ceiling to attain diversity is disgusting. This bending over backward to accommodate students who don't test well bodes poorly for institutions like Loyola. It also insults the intelligence of students who come from poorer neighborhoods. If coached by interested volunteers in their communities, they can study hard for the SAT and score as high as their compatriots from more affluent neighborhoods.

An internal audit found that Baltimore public schools do not have sufficient security for records of current students and graduates, risking the possibility that grades could be changed or that graduates could wait weeks to get a copy of their transcripts. A draft of the report, obtained by The Baltimore Sun, says that there are too few controls on academic records stored in the school system's computer system, making it too easy for someone to change a student's grades. The report, dated June 20, suggested several changes to the system, some of which school officials say have been completed.

Long slate of road games doesn't bother Harbaugh Ravens coach John Harbaugh said his team is ready to tackle one of the NFL's toughest roads ahead. Because of the rescheduling caused by Hurricane Ike, the Ravens' Week 10 bye was taken away and they will have to play five road games in a span of 35 days. "To be honest, we're looking forward to it," Harbaugh said. "It's going to be an opportunity, and it's going to be a challenge. That'll be something we take on with relish and attack it with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind."

With its pleasant tree-lined streets and historic architecture, Centreville has genuine curb appeal. A classic example of "Small Town America," this community of 2,900 in Queen Anne's County has never enjoyed the cachet of trendier spots on the Eastern Shore -- but that could be changing. Between 2000 and 2004, according to state figures, Centreville's population grew by 28.6 percent, outpacing the county, at 11.1 percent. The prevailing reason: Centreville is just 15 miles from the Bay Bridge, making it attractive to people who work in Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington.

Because it's harder to talk about what's really happening, allow us the path of least emotional resistance. My son left home for college. Moving on. It's easier to remember college orientation at the University of Maryland last month. During that weekend in College Park, he went one way, I went the other. The college insisted on the split. On my own, I heard many interesting speakers and received important information in many, many college pamphlets. At one point, parents rubbed a bronze turtle's head for luck.

More Maryland public school students passed their annual reading and math tests this year in nearly every grade, but the news was especially good for black students, who made greater progress than whites. Across the state, 70 percent of African-Americans are now passing the Maryland School Assessments in grades three through five. That figure is still well below the 89 percent pass rate for white students, but the gap is getting smaller. "That is something to celebrate," said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, who said Maryland has done far better than many states in shrinking the gap. This year in Maryland, 372,000 students in grades three through eight took the tests as part of the requirement of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The percentage of students passing the MSA increased in most grades, although scores were flat in third-grade math and fourth-grade reading.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --Have you ever made a profit from a catering business or dog walking? Do you prefer to work alone or in groups? Have you ever set a world record in anything? The right answers could help get you a job at Google Inc. The company has always wanted to hire people with straight-A report cards and double 800s on their SATs. Now, like an Ivy League school, it is starting to look for more well-rounded candidates, such as those who have published books or started their own clubs.

Nina Ahuja has a winning smile, three screen names and 300 buddies on her AOL Instant Messenger list. On a typical school night, she does her homework with the Style Network playing on TV and Missy Elliott rapping from her iPod mini. A barrage of instant messages and mobile phone calls punctuates the cacophony. The only thing that jars her is the thought of unplugging anything - even for a day. "I'd probably go crazy. I'd be mentally unstable," says Nina, 16. An AIM user since the second grade, she has been glued to a cell phone for four years and barely scrapes by on 1,000 minutes of talk time per month.

Carroll County has a number of private, special and Christian schools, in addition to the public school system. Here is a list of nonpublic schools as provided from the Maryland State Board of Education's Web site at www.msde.state.md.us/nonpublic: Private schools Aleem Academy -- 7543 Main St., Sykesville 21784 Phone: 410-795-5375 Grades: Nursery school (ages 3 and 4), kindergarten and grades 1-5 Carroll Lutheran School -- 700 Krider's Cemetery Road, Westminster 21158 Phone: 410-848-1050 Grades: Kindergarten and grades 1-7 Christian Preschool and Kindergarten Program -- 65 Washington Road, Westminster 21157 Phone: 410-857-4389 Grades: Nursery school (ages 2, 3 and 4)

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