Reading And Math

A free, two-week tutoring program at Freetown Elementary School is giving some Anne Arundel County schoolchildren a place to learn and have fun this summer.The program, run by three black women's groups in Glen Burnie, started Monday and will be held each weekday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. through July 29."What we're trying to do in two weeks is give them a sense of self-esteem and self-confidence that they could not achieve in a large classroom," said Dorothy Weddington, chapter president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

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.

Area schools, libraries and literacy programs use volunteers to help children and adults improve reading skills. Among them are:GBMC Family Support Center, 1200 E. Fayette St., Baltimore, for a General Educational Development program for young adults, most of whom read between fourth-grade and sixth-grade level and have below-average math skills. Hours are 9: 30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3: 30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Volunteers also are needed for a computer class from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Mondays.

News from the U.S. Department of Education that high school seniors in 2005 scored significantly lower in reading than their counterparts in 1992 has produced a fresh round of hand-wringing about the nation's 14,900 public high schools. There's a lot to worry about: By some calculations, barely more than half of black and Latino students earn regular high school diplomas, and the new federal study reports that only 35 percent of all students who stay in school into their senior year read well enough to make inferences from a passage.

The 14 low-performing elementary schools in Anne Arundel County that were chosen last fall to pilot a back-to-basics curriculum in reading and math appear to have the first evidence that they are moving in the right direction, officials say -- along with signs of where they need to improve. As a group, the schools made gains in reading and math on the Terra Nova national standardized test, which was given to pupils in grades two, four, six and seven in March. Individually, however, some of the schools' scores dropped from last year.

LESS THAN a year after the Edison Schools took over three Baltimore City schools, the State Board of Education had awarded it the right to expand each school from K-5 to K-6. The state board also permitted Edison to recruit out-of-zone students to its schools. After examining Edison's Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) data, a state board member was quoted in The Sun as saying, "I think we have to reward success" and "I hope Baltimore City will watch this very carefully." Let's examine each Edison school's CTBS scores.

The majority of Baltimore's first-graders scored above the national median for the second straight year on reading and math tests, while children in the city's troubled middle schools made solid gains this spring in both subjects. Even with flat reading scores in several grades, school officials said the overall results of national standardized exams for first- through eighth-graders show the system is continuing to make steady progress in its effort to raise pupil achievement. Scores on the TerraNova, formerly known as the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, went up in every grade in math.

County school officials say they may revise the reading and math curriculum and teacher training after first-year results of the Maryland School Assessment showed that minorities, special education students and students with poor English language skills failed to make sufficient educational gains in the 2002-2003 academic year. The results, released Friday, also showed that students at 89 of 117 schools posted proficient- or advanced-level results in reading and math on the standardized exam that succeeds the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program, or MSPAP.

At a recent gathering of about 7,000 middle and high school students at Montgomery College celebrating Maryland History Day, young historians competed for the right to advance to the national high school history finals next month in College Park. But many of the teachers and officials presiding over the event were in a somber mood. History and the other social studies, they fear, are on the public school chopping block -- just when students urgently need to understand American and world history, government, civics, economics and geography.