National Education

In her first venture since losing last year's gubernatorial election, former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has sidestepped politics to become president of a not-for-profit organization that aims to create a bully-free environment in schools and summer camps. Operation Respect: "Don't Laugh at Me" is expected to announce today that Townsend, 51, is its new leader. In an interview yesterday, the former lieutenant governor said she had been on the job for nearly two months, helping the New York-based group construct a national network to distribute a curriculum of music and videos that focus on tolerance and respect.

Maryland took a giant step forward yesterday toward creating a statewide curriculum specifically spelling out what's to be taught in every public school classroom. That would represent a marked shift for education policy in Maryland, where teachers, parents, principals and superintendents have spent decades clinging to their local authority over classroom instruction. A state panel examining Maryland's decade of education changes and a national education reform group made preliminary recommendations to the state superintendent yesterday calling a statewide curriculum critical for schools to improve.

If you asked most television critics to name the most intelligent and culturally important television series of the last 10 years, they would probably pick HBO's "The Sopranos." But, as terrific as "The Sopranos" is, there's another series just as smart in its own right that's seen each week by a larger audience - a series with the potential to have an even greater effect on our national culture. This one, too, features a family living in an East Coast city. Instead of a crime family in New Jersey, though, this one has a family of lions living in a library full of books that come to life and colorful characters that zoom in and out of the books.

MARYLAND has a nationally acclaimed school accountability program. But it's a one-way street. The state board of education and department of education hold local school systems accountable through rigorous state performance tests (MSPAP). However, virtually no attention has been paid to holding state education officials responsible for their overall record in improving student achievement. That record has been far below satisfactory and warrants closer scrutiny than it has received. The statewide drop in MSPAP scores last year is only the tip of the iceberg of unfulfilled expectations.

Charles and Silvine Dett of Woodlawn are not civil rights activists or NAACP members, but first thing yesterday they went to NAACP national headquarters ready for action.They've repaired their credit rating and are ready to buy their first home.They were two of about 100 Baltimore-area residents who gathered yesterday at the NAACP's Economic Empowerment Summit to learn about strengthening their financial lives through homeownership, personal investing and business loans.The educational workshops, which are free, are part of a larger program organized by the civil rights organization and financial institutions to teach people the ins and outs of building personal wealth.

FORTY-ONE NATIONS participated in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in eighth-grade science and mathematics in 1995.If eighth-graders in Maryland had participated, how would they have stacked up, based on their performance on a similar test in the United States?As usual, Maryland students would be in the middle, along with most other eighth-graders in Sweden, Iceland, Cyprus, the United States and 13 other nations.We would be ahead of Iran, Portugal and Kuwait.

SAN CARLOS, Calif. -- Setting himself on a collision course with the Republican Congress, President Clinton vowed yesterday to veto a mammoth spending bill if it contains amendments blocking his national school standards and testing plan or channeling money away from his other cherished federal education programs.The House has passed an amendment to stop the school testing program, while the Senate has voted to take money away from many federal education programs, such as bilingual education, and give it instead to school boards in block grants.

Sylvan Learning Systems Inc. said yesterday that it has agreed to purchase National Education Corp. of California for stock worth roughly $638 million, a move that more than doubles Sylvan's size and creates one of the nation's largest education services companies.The new firm will retain Sylvan's name and Baltimore headquarters, and is expected to post almost $500 million in annual revenues.Wall Street flinched at the news yesterday as Sylvan stock fell 15 percent, or $5.25, to close at $29.875.

IN MARCH 1994 Congress enacted Goals 2000, the culmination of a bipartisan effort to raise academic standards in the nation's schools. The Bush administration began the ambitious process, awarding grants to national groups of teachers and scholars in science, history, English, and other fields to develop national voluntary standards.The Clinton administration carried it on. Goals 2000, which became the centerpiece of the administration's education agenda, featured a 19-member National Education Standards and Improvement Council (NESIC)

MANSFIELD TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- As he began first grade in 1991, a boy known in legal papers as E. J. was performing schoolwork at or above grade level. His reading ability placed him in the 99th percentile. But the boy's teacher said he was restless and disruptive, repeatedly touched classmates and sometimes fought with them, blurted out noises and soiled his pants.A few weeks later, E. J.'s mother asked school district officials to evaluate him to determine if he was disabled and eligible for special-education classes and services.