Reading And Math

The locked double doors inside Cranberry Station Elementary held back a growing and increasingly anxious crowd of would-be tourists who milled through the Westminster school's lobby. The estimated 150 students and their parents who attended "Around the World with Reading and Math" already had some hint of their potential destinations: adventures in Africa and Antarctica, a journey to Japan, a run through the rain forest. "This is a way for them to see what their children are doing," said Wendy Eaves, a health teacher who organized the family math and reading night.

A report this week that Maryland students made greater gains on national reading and math tests than their peers in nearly every other state is the clearest sign yet that the decade-long effort to increase school funding and make teachers and principals more accountable is working. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, informally known as the Nation's Report Card, is the only standardized exam that allows student performance to be compared across states, and the results clearly show that Maryland's concerted school reform efforts have pushed its students toward the head of the class.

A DEBATE OVER President Clinton's proposed voluntary national testing in reading and math is holding up an $80 million appropriations bill in Congress.What's behind it is this: Conservatives in Congress and academia are worried that national testing, even if it is voluntary, would lead eventually to a federal school board that could impose a national curriculum on 15,000 school districts.Clinton and his Education Department are well along in planning for the tests of reading in the fourth grade and of math in the eighth.

Vernon H. Wolst Jr., founder of Project Survival, an education and mentoring program that used basketball and other sports to help improve reading and math skills, died Aug. 22 of a massive heart attack at Northwest Hospital. The Catonsville resident was 75. Vernon Hoskins Wolst Jr., the son of a laborer and a factory worker, was born and raised in Raleigh, N.C., and was a 1953 graduate of Washington High School. After graduating in 1957 from Morgan State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in music, Mr. Wolst served in the Army, attaining the rank of lieutenant.

If some Howard County schools are stuck in the MSPAP mud -- as evidenced by their falling or stagnant scores on the state's annual achievement exams -- Superintendent John R. O'Rourke thinks he might have the answer: expanding a groundbreaking accountability program he launched last year with third-graders to include all struggling elementary children. The program, which requires teachers to prepare individual improvement plans, might also be broadened to include elementary children who are not below grade level, the superintendent said in a recent interview.

Howard County's African-American and Hispanic pupils have made strong gains in closing the gap in math and reading performance compared with their elementary and middle school peers over the last three years, according to test results released by state and county officials yesterday. Overall, Howard pupils once again exceeded statewide averages - and met the school system's more rigorous benchmark - on the Maryland School Assessments given this spring in grades three through eight. Reading scores were particularly strong at each grade level - the percentage of pupils passing ranged from 85 percent to 92 percent.

Schools, libraries and literacy programs seek volunteers to help children and adults improve reading skills and assist in related projects.Among them are:The Children's Guild, a school serving children with emotional difficulties. Tutors are needed between 8: 30 a.m. and 2: 30 p.m. weekdays to work with pupils in elementary reading and math at the school's Annapolis location, 1339 Forest Drive. Contact: Earl Hines, 410-636-7255.Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, for after-school centers at Fells Point, the Johns Hopkins medical complex and Southwest Baltimore.

Area schools and literacy programs seek volunteers to help children and adults improve reading skills. Among them: Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, for after-school centers at Fells Point, the Johns Hopkins medical complex and the Westside After-School Center in Southwest Baltimore. Tutors are needed Monday through Thursday for afternoon and evening hours to work with pupils ages 7 to 14 in reading and math. Contact: Outreach Department, 410-358-9711, Ext. 276.

TO WIN an election, a candidate often makes promises that prove difficult to keep. Parris N. Glendening has put himself squarely in that uncomfortable position.During last year's gubernatorial election, Mr. Glendening pledged to put 1,110 more teachers into local classrooms to tutor kids in reading and math. That commitment neatly neutralized a somewhat similar pledge by his opponent, Ellen R. Sauerbrey, to hire an extra 1,000 reading teachers.But after he was re-elected, Mr. Glendening decided not to include any money in his budget for these educators.

A new report confirms complaints that a lot of teachers and school districts have voiced about the federal No Child Left Behind law - that the focus on reading and math doesn't leave enough time for other subjects, such as social studies, art and music. It's a dilemma that didn't originate with NCLB but has been exacerbated by it. The best solution is to recognize, as Maryland does, that exposure to a variety of subjects is what constitutes a well-rounded education. According to the Center on Education Policy, more than 60 percent of school districts have increased instruction time in elementary schools for either or both English language arts and math since 2001-2002, just before NCLB was enacted - and 44 percent have done so at the expense of other subjects.

Maryland seniors performed slightly better on both the math and critical reading sections of the SAT in 2010, according to results released Monday by the College Board. Graduating seniors increased their average math scores over last year from 502 to 506 and their average reading scores from 500 to 501. Average writing scores remained the same at 495. The highest possible score on each section is 800. "Our state's students continue to improve across the board, with some of the biggest gains coming from minority students often underrepresented on national tests," said state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.

Baltimore City's first- and second-graders improved for the sixth year in a row on a standardized test of math and reading, with students scoring better than 50 percent of their peers around the country, school officials said Tuesday. Scores on the Stanford 10 have increased from the 38th percentile in first-grade reading in 2004 to the 55th percentile this year. Math scores rose during the same period from the 44th percentile to the 67th percentile in first grade. In second grade, scores rose from the 36th percentile to the 51st percentile in reading and from the 40th to the 61st percentile in math.

Researchers have found one more clue in their search for the reason that girls don't do as well as boys in math: a nation's culture. Scientists compared math and reading scores on tests given to thousands of 15-year-old students in 40 countries and then examined how each country ranked in terms of gender equality. While girls generally scored lower in math than boys, girls did better in countries with greater gender equality than in less progressive countries. Girls performed best in countries such as Norway and Iceland, which have progressive gender policies, and worst in countries such as Turkey, which scored relatively low on standard measures of gender equality.

A new report confirms complaints that a lot of teachers and school districts have voiced about the federal No Child Left Behind law - that the focus on reading and math doesn't leave enough time for other subjects, such as social studies, art and music. It's a dilemma that didn't originate with NCLB but has been exacerbated by it. The best solution is to recognize, as Maryland does, that exposure to a variety of subjects is what constitutes a well-rounded education. According to the Center on Education Policy, more than 60 percent of school districts have increased instruction time in elementary schools for either or both English language arts and math since 2001-2002, just before NCLB was enacted - and 44 percent have done so at the expense of other subjects.

The pressure for elementary schools to show progress under No Child Left Behind has come at a cost - less time is being devoted to social studies, science, art and music. But time for reading and math has received a substantial boost, according to a study that examined 349 of the nation's school systems. The report released yesterday by the Center on Education Policy shows that some school districts increased math and reading time by as much as 150 minutes a week, while cutting time for social studies, science, music and art by one-third.

Maryland students made gains in reading and math on the most recent national tests, in some cases outpacing strides made in other states. In three of the four tests given in the spring, Maryland ranked slightly above the national average. Still, that means that - as in many other states - fewer than half of Maryland students are passing the national tests. The National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in reading and math were given to 700,000 students in the fourth and eighth grades in Maryland and across the nation in March.

MARYLAND STUDENTS generally did better this year than last on standardized state reading and math tests, a sign of good preparation for stiffer high school graduation requirements and annual assessments mandated under the federal No Child Left Behind law. But though students in all 24 school districts were more proficient in reading and math, and black and Latino students showed impressive improvements, there are still achievement gaps to be addressed, particularly...

With a domestic agenda that is practically stalled, President Bush is trying to salvage one of his earliest and most visible accomplishments - the No Child Left Behind law. The ambitious attempt to make schools and school districts more accountable for achievement among all students is up for reauthorization and facing some justifiable criticism. A recent study notes that student scores in reading and math have improved in many states, but NCLB's measurements and funding need major adjustments.