New Standards

SAN DIEGO -- The relationship between academic standards and opportunities for college athletes will become more complex today. Continuing a debate that has lasted a dozen years, delegates at the 89th NCAA convention will consider proposals that could tighten, relax or merely delay new standards.A year after college basketball coaches threatened a boycott to protest what they consider a decrease in opportunities for prospects, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the membership will debate formulas that would determine eligibility for freshman athletes and define the length of an athlete's career and limitations on their participation.

The Baltimore Teacher's Union has called for the district hold off on attaching penalties to schools' performance on the the new  Common Core assessments, citing insufficient professional development and resources to implement the new high-stakes curriculum. In a news release, BTU's President Marietta English echoed the call of one of the nation's largest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, which called for a moratorium on penalties associated with the standardized testing that will measure a radically new curricula being rolled out across the nation, including Maryland, next year.

TOPEKA, KAN. -- The state board of education yesterday approved science standards that question evolution and allow for the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. "This is a great day for Kansas," board president Steve Abrams said. "This absolutely raises science standards." The board, in a 6-4 vote, directed schools to teach the "considerable scientific and public controversy" surrounding the origin of life - a controversy that most scientists contend exists only among creationists.

It was Dirty Finger Club Day at Linton Springs Elementary School, near Eldersburg. Out in the vegetable garden - one of a dozen "outdoor classrooms" in the meadows, wetlands and woodlands of school's spacious grounds - Anna Letaw, a volunteer who has been the dynamo behind Linton Springs' Environmental Education Program, was giving a kindergarten class a primer on gardening. "Oh, look what I found!" Letaw called out as she knelt. "An earthworm .... Can anybody tell me what earthworms do?"

It's crunch time for 17-year-old Becky Bieneman.She and thousands of other Maryland teen-agers are making a frantic dash to driving schools and Motor Vehicle Administration offices to get learner's permits before Thursday, when the state's tough new standards for teen drivers take effect. In recent days, MVA waiting lines have reached record lengths as teens scramble to avoid the new rules.The law is unquestionably a good idea, they agree. For somebody else."There's a lot of young, inexperienced drivers, and it's really dangerous out there," said Bieneman, fresh from her class at a North Baltimore driving school last week.

About a week after most area schools closed, teachers and administrators were back in the classroom, taking part in a summer course that will prepare educators for implementing new standards across the state for the 2013-2014 school year. The state's Educator Effectiveness Academies began this week as part of what school officials say is a continuation of the largest professional development program in state history. More than 6,000 educators are scheduled to take part in several regional academies, including the first academy at Marriotts Ridge High School in Marriottsville, which more than 1,000 from Howard, Prince George's, Montgomery, Frederick and Anne Arundel counties attended.

The Baltimore Teacher's Union has called for the district hold off on attaching penalties to schools' performance on the the new  Common Core assessments, citing insufficient professional development and resources to implement the new high-stakes curriculum. In a news release, BTU's President Marietta English echoed the call of one of the nation's largest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, which called for a moratorium on penalties associated with the standardized testing that will measure a radically new curricula being rolled out across the nation, including Maryland, next year.

Maryland's expectations for students may be too low and unclear to teachers who must write the lesson plans, according to a study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a research and education advocacy group. In the study released Wednesday, Maryland got a "D" for its math standards and a "C" for its English standards. Fordham called the math standards "some of the worst in the country." Standards give a detailed explanation of what a student should know in each grade in math and English.

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.

Environmental Elements Corp. said yesterday that it is preparing a plan to meet new standards for being listed on the New York Stock Exchange.The Baltimore provider of air-pollution-control systems is one of many companies that could be dropped from the Big Board unless they meet standards that became effective July 27.The NYSE would not disclose the number of companies affected by the new standards, which include:Market capitalization and stockholders equity...

Researchers commissioned by the Defense Department said Monday that decades-old limits on lead exposure are inadequate to protect the health of workers on military firing ranges. Moreover, the National Academy of Science reported, lead from ammunition fired on Army, Navy and Air Force ranges in the last five years has "frequently exceeded" those limits, "in some cases by several orders of magnitude. " Sen. Ben Cardin expressed concern about the report's implications for workers at Maryland installations with firing ranges, such as Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County.

With gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon this summer, everyone who drives can appreciate the beauty of vehicles designed to go twice as far on a tank of fuel than today's models - including the people who build cars. Some ideas simply make too much sense to stir much controversy. That's why even the U.S. auto industry has embraced the new fuel efficiency standards issued by the Environmental Protection Agency this week. The rules will require all new cars and trucks to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, nearly double the fuel efficiency of the U.S. fleet in 2008.

BWI has received a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help pay for the repaving of its longest runway, members of Maryland's congressional delegation announced Wednesday. Work on Runway 10-28, the 10,502-foot asphalt strip that extends east to west, will begin in late August and is set to be completed before the Thanksgiving travel rush. The runway repaving is expected to cost $40.3 million and support more than 500 jobs. "This is a big project and those federal dollars are really important.

About a week after most area schools closed, teachers and administrators were back in the classroom, taking part in a summer course that will prepare educators for implementing new standards across the state for the 2013-2014 school year. The state's Educator Effectiveness Academies began this week as part of what school officials say is a continuation of the largest professional development program in state history. More than 6,000 educators are scheduled to take part in several regional academies, including the first academy at Marriotts Ridge High School in Marriottsville, which more than 1,000 from Howard, Prince George's, Montgomery, Frederick and Anne Arundel counties attended.

Baltimore Gas and Electric's standard electricity price from June through May 2013 is expected to decrease customer bills by $54 on average for the year-long period, state energy regulators announced Monday. The Maryland Public Service Commission last week accepted bids from BGE and other utilities in the state to supply electricity to residential and commercial customers. On the residential side, utilities purchase electricity from wholesale suppliers under a twice-yearly competitive bidding process, which is overseen by the PSC. BGE residential customers can buy BGE's standard utility service or purchase electricity from third-party suppliers.

For years, anyone in Maryland could prepare tax returns for money, so it wasn't unheard of to find tax services offered at laundromats, car dealerships or palm-reader shops. The industry is no longer unregulated. Starting this year, individual tax preparers in Maryland must register with the state before they can fill out a return for a fee. They will have to undergo continuing education if they want to stay registered. And consumers now have a place to go to find out if there have been complaints or disciplinary action against a local tax preparer.

When you sum up the arguments being offered against Maryland's acceptance of a nine-state agreement to adopt California's new auto-emissions standard, it comes down to: try something else first. That's not surprising, when the opposition comes from automakers, car dealers and the oil industry. What is surprising, considering Maryland's plan, is that the chief complainers have already agreed to do most of what regulators seek.California is a big state. Its air-quality program already has forced automakers to install different anti-pollution technology on cars.

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.

As the school year finally gets under way, public school students across the state will be writing more often and learning to think differently in math class, as the state begins major education reforms that will change everything from the curriculum to the way teachers are evaluated. While some of the changes — which districts agreed to make in exchange for more federal funding — have faced resistance from teachers, others have already been embraced in classrooms. Baltimore City has tried a number of the most radical reforms as it attempted to turn around its perpetually poor-performing schools.