National Standards

Maryland's teachers will be giving lessons that require students to dig deeper into their subjects and be more analytical if the state adopts new national standards as expected this spring. A sampling of veteran teachers in the region concludes that the standards, which specify what should be taught from kindergarten to 12th grade, would be an improvement. Never before has the state attempted such a quick and large-scale overhaul of what is taught in every public school classroom.

For generations, music students have been getting gold stars, certificates and other pats on the back from their teachers. But a budding musician with high marks in one state is not necessarily on the same level, judged by the same criteria, as a budding musician in another. Such positive reinforcement may soon carry a lot more weight countrywide. Launched by Carnegie Hall in New York and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Achievement Program seeks to establish the first national standard in the United States for measuring musical aptitude in students of all ages.

WASHINGTON -- Marking an important shift in U.S. education, a high-level advisory panel is calling for creation of voluntary national standards for what schoolchildren ought to know and a system of tests to determine what they have mastered.The recommendations, which appear in a report to be released later this month, represent a rare consensus among Bush administration officials, education-minded governors, congressional leaders, teacher unions and other education groups. And they suggest that in its drive to improve the schools, education may be moving away from the decentralization of policy and curriculum that has always been its hallmark.

Baltimore County school leaders disregarded advice from state officials and forged ahead to overhaul the teaching of English, spending more than $5 million over the past few years to buy textbooks that mostly sit unused and to rewrite a curriculum that has been shelved. The system spent about $2.2 million on a 27-year-old grammar textbook with outdated references to encyclopedias and almanacs, both barely used by today's students, according to school system documents. The textbook and accompanying workbooks remained in a warehouse for nearly a year, and school officials acknowledged they are just now being delivered.

PRESIDENT CLINTON kicked off his education crusade yesterday in the Annapolis State House, mounting the bully pulpit to preach a gospel of national standards in reading and mathematics as a way to improve student achievement. Without such measuring sticks, the president said, children and their parents have no way of knowing if they have mastered the basic skills needed to compete for jobs in an increasingly high-tech and highly competitive world.The president put it in stark terms. "Sooner or later," he told the Maryland General Assembly, "your children are going to have to face the fact that either they can read or they can't; they either can do math or they can't; they know algebra or they don't."

WASHINGTON -- In its first major initiative on education, the Clinton administration intends to establish the first national academic standards for American schoolchildren, so that the performance of students from all social levels and regions of the country can be gauged against the same uniform goals.The standards would attempt to merge what is now a patchwork of vastly different, subjective -- and in some cases, non-existent -- standards in school districts and states across the country.

BOB SOMERBY, a Baltimore comedian, is one of the few people on the planet who makes a living telling jokes.But Somerby is deadly serious about education. He taught fifth grade in Baltimore for a dozen years and knows something about the multiple problems facing city schools. One of them is not a lack of standards, Somerby believes. President Clinton's call for "national" standards is a joke, he says. And Somerby knows from jokes.He also makes a good point. There is no shortage of education standards in Maryland, or in Baltimore.

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)

In response to the Sun article "Raise your schools' game, Obama urges governors," (Feb. 22), high performance standards for American students must begin with politicians, school administrators, parents and teachers sharing the same vision and sense of urgency for our country and students. Too often power struggles cloud the true mission of public education, a responsibility to educate all children who enter the public school doors. This includes an increasingly diverse public school population ("Diversity flourishing across region's schools," Feb. 22)

IN HIS campaign document "Putting People First," Bill Clinton promised to create "a set of national standards for what students should know" and an examination system "to measure our students' and schools' progress in meeting the national standards."Unfortunately, the administration's school reform bill is not likely to fulfill that promise but would expand dramatically the scope and cost of federal regulation of local schools.Instead of emphasizing standards for students, the bill focuses on standards for schools.

Here's a quiz. Where does the U.S. rank for vehicle emission and mileage standards: A) The most advanced B) Above average C) The most lenient? The shocking answer is C. We could be reducing our dependence on foreign oil by billions of barrels, global warming emissions by millions of tons, and we could be saving American families billions of dollars in fuel costs just by increasing national standards to a level equivalent with China, Europe and...

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama channeled the spirits of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Henry Ford all rolled into one in his call for America to innovate its way into future economic competitiveness. Among his bold ideas for how the U.S. can meet its upcoming challenges was the diversification of our energy portfolio, and in particular the development of our renewable energy capacity. The onus now falls on Congress to develop an equally bold plan to see that challenge through.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last week released the latest statistics on highway deaths and injuries with no small measure of pride. In 2009, the U.S. had its safest year on the roads with the fewest deaths since 1950 and the lowest death rate per miles traveled recorded since motor vehicles were mass produced in this country. Mr. LaHood and others in Washington were quick to credit their own safety initiatives. But they might also have expressed gratitude for the recession: Historically, traffic fatalities decline in period of economic decline (fewer jobs mean less commuting, fewer deliveries, etc.)

Brad Herling received a surprisingly warm reaction several years ago when he banned cupcakes and candy during holiday parties in the name of health at Clarksville Elementary School in Howard County. He's being welcomed with equally open arms this school year as he prepares to lead Centennial Lane Elementary School in the same direction. Parents at his new school have been waging their own war on childhood obesity with a campaign to limit the number of sweet and high-fat snacks served during lunch.

Maryland's teachers will be giving lessons that require students to dig deeper into their subjects and be more analytical if the state adopts new national standards as expected this spring. A sampling of veteran teachers in the region concludes that the standards, which specify what should be taught from kindergarten to 12th grade, would be an improvement. Never before has the state attempted such a quick and large-scale overhaul of what is taught in every public school classroom.

In response to the Sun article "Raise your schools' game, Obama urges governors," (Feb. 22), high performance standards for American students must begin with politicians, school administrators, parents and teachers sharing the same vision and sense of urgency for our country and students. Too often power struggles cloud the true mission of public education, a responsibility to educate all children who enter the public school doors. This includes an increasingly diverse public school population ("Diversity flourishing across region's schools," Feb. 22)

Here's a quiz. Where does the U.S. rank for vehicle emission and mileage standards: A) The most advanced B) Above average C) The most lenient? The shocking answer is C. We could be reducing our dependence on foreign oil by billions of barrels, global warming emissions by millions of tons, and we could be saving American families billions of dollars in fuel costs just by increasing national standards to a level equivalent with China, Europe and...

The first comprehensive study of the nation's charter schools was published recently by the Center for Research and Educational Outcomes at Stanford University. The findings make it clear that students in traditional public schools do as well academically or surpass their charter school counterparts. According to the study of charter school students, 37 percent scored significantly lower in reading and math than similar students in traditional public schools; 46 percent were comparable to the local public schools; and 17 percent showed better results than students in the traditional schools.