School Reform

Last summer, more than a dozen Baltimore principals were demoted or forced into retirement as part of the first effort in years to eliminate weak leadership at low-performing schools.This year, poorly performing principals might escape the same fate -- at least temporarily -- because of a change the school board made last month to its evaluation schedule.School officials insist their decision to postpone this year's principal evaluations until January 2000 will not spare deserving schoolhouse leaders from dismissal.

Pupils arriving each morning at Gilmor Elementary School are greeted by a poster on the front door encouraging them to "Achieve More!"A bright green and yellow banner draped across the main hall at Sarah M. Roach Elementary School proclaims the school motto: "Where Students' Minds Reach for the Stars!"The messages are similar, but with last week's release of school-by-school report cards, they no longer serve the same purpose.At Sarah M. Roach in Southwest Baltimore, where test scores soared, the banner is cause for celebration.

SCHOOL REFORM generally boasts all the stability of a human pyramid built on an ice rink. Sudden movement in any direction can bring the whole thing tumbling down.In Detroit and Cleveland, they're learning that lesson the hard way this week, as both cities suffer through unexpected decisions that threaten to topple their school reform efforts.But those cities' misfortunes make the relatively normal re-opening of Baltimore's public schools this week that much more delightful. For now, at least, Baltimore appears to be holding its tenuous school reform together.

At a critical point in Maryland's school reform effort, the state's political leaders expressed strong support yesterday for its performance-based testing program, despite this year's disappointing results.Seeking to avoid the fate of reform in some states -- where politicians have reacted to poor test scores by throwing out or changing the exams -- Maryland's leaders said they hope this year's decline in the state's test scores will prompt educators to rededicate themselves to improving instruction.

For the 14,000 students attending Baltimore's neighborhood high schools, getting a diploma means dodging gang fights and overcoming big odds to stay in classrooms with students who may be unable to read their textbooks.With the state proposing to add one more hurdle -- a tough state graduation test -- school administrators say they must change the way the city's nine neighborhood high schools operate.In the next year, the school system seems likely to adopt major reforms. The measures, being written and reviewed by the school staff, are far from radical.

SOME very interesting things are happening in terms of education policy here and nationwide. In Maryland, the State Board of Education's recent move to toughen standards for new teachers is indicative of those changes.In conjunction with such reforms, many parents are less wed to the concept of local control of schools. Instead, they are intensely interested in how the quality of education in their children's schools compares with schools in other states and even other nations.They realize that, in our mobile society, their children are likely to move several times in their careers, putting them in competition with people from various states and countries.

Just three years ago, Baltimore's Northwood Elementary School was threatened with a state takeover for its low pupil achievement. Yesterday, state educators decided the school had improved so much that they awarded it more than $40,000."

BALTIMORE teachers leap at every chance to say they favor reform and have students' best interests at heart. Well, they can back up those claims now by backing off their current stare-down with school officials over a new contract.The issues that have snagged negotiations since June have nothing to do with student, instructional or classroom interests.They're about control. And in the context of the money school officials have heaped upon city teachers in the past few years -- including $21 million last year and another across-the-board 4-percent raise approved Tuesday night -- a squabble over who runs the system makes teachers look especially petty, perhaps even greedy.

SIX YEARS ago, in El Paso, Texas, local educators and community leaders, worried about a high dropout rate and low-performing students, instituted system-wide school reform.The results are stunning. They went from having 15 schools identified as "low performers" to none. Initially, two schools were "high performers"; now there are 60.Reading and math scores for students at all levels are up, and the academic performance gap between minority students and their white counterparts has been cut in half.

FOR ANY of the year 2000 presidential contenders searching for a school reform proposal guaranteed to improve test scores and educational achievement of America's children, I have just one word: Fathers. An involved father in every home is the best school reform initiative there is.Granted, delivering on this campaign promise won't be easy. Our society is still paying the price for 30 years of cultural denial about the importance of fathers and marriage, fooling ourselves into believing that children don't need fathers for anything but a child-support check and that any family structure is as good as any other.

Maryland seems to have arrived late to the race for the largest pot of federal money ever dedicated to education reform - a race that has state governments lining up like shoppers the day after Thanksgiving. As they jockey for position to get a piece of the $4 billion prize, states like Illinois, Tennessee, Louisiana, Massachusetts and California have begun changing laws or revising policies to remove what federal leaders view as impediments to serious school reform. By comparison, Maryland has done little, at least in public.

Half the battle for school reform in Baltimore is making sure there's a good teacher in every classroom. That's why schools chief Andres Alonso wants to nearly double the number of Teach for America teachers in city schools. The nonprofit group places thousands of bright recent college graduates in classrooms around the country after intensive training that prepares them to be effective educators. Many go on to assume leadership roles in their schools and communities. Mr. Alonso's plan would increase the number of first-year teachers from the group to about 150 next fall.

Give teachers input on school reform Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr.'s column on mayoral control of city schools lists several key points with which no one can disagree. Our schools do indeed require safety, integrity and fortitude ("Principles for a mayoral-controlled school system," Commentary, Sept. 8). Mr. Mitchell omits, however, two key factors necessary to make the Baltimore school system function effectively: financial resources and the input and involvement of educators. As the only Maryland subdivision whose schools function under a partnership with the state, Baltimore schools receive an extra state subsidy of some $254 million and the mayor and City Council are required to maintain the school system under a specified master plan.

Patrick L. Hess, a lifelong Fallston resident, has assumed leadership of the Harford County Board of Education after the resignation of Vice President Salina M. Williams. Hess graduated from North Harford High School and is the sixth generation of his family to live in Harford County. His wife, Lynn, is a kindergarten teacher at Jarrettsville Elementary School, and his three children have graduated from Harford County public schools. Hess was named to the board in 2004, after board member Karen L. Wolf resigned.

An independent study has shown that students, parents and teachers back the theories behind the countywide high school reform, but they have little faith in the program's execution. Teachers, parents and students panned the overhaul of Harford County public high schools, called the Comprehensive Secondary School Reform Plan, which introduced longer class periods, required students to take more credits for graduation and called for freshmen to select career pathways, starting in 2006. While some school officials called the widespread discontent a communication issue, others, according to the report, said the reform plan was hastily approved as a "done deal preordained by the central administration," despite objections raised by the affected groups and the lack of research.

The Village of Lakeview will be hosting a kickoff Guardian Angels meeting at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at its Neighborhood Network Center, 833 Fisherman Lane, Edgewood. Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa is expected to attend the meeting. Sliwa began the organization in the 1970s as a way to deter crime on the New York City subway. The Guardian Angels is a volunteer foot-patrol organization. High school reform presentation set Council member Richard C. Slutzky will make a presentation regarding high school reform at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Board of Education meeting at the Harford County Public Schools A. A. Roberty Building at 102 S. Hickory Ave., Bel Air. Slutzky said that he and County Council members have been receiving comments about the Comprehensive Secondary School Reform Plan from parents, students, teachers, guidance counselors and PTAs and wanted to present them to the Board of Education.

The Annapolis High School senior was at risk of not graduating. She had been doing well in her classes but suddenly, during final exams, stopped going to school. There was a time when she might not have been noticed in a school with 1,700 students. But this year, the school employed community ambassadors to make sure no student was lost. One of the ambassadors tracked the student down and coaxed her back to school in time for the English exam that she needed to pass to earn a diploma.

I'm excited about the new school year in Baltimore, which starts today. And I'm not alone. The appointment of Andres Alonso as CEO has generated hopeful anticipation. One thing's for sure: Under his leadership, city school bells will be chiming a different tune. National as well as local eyes will be on us. He represents a new breed of urban school superintendent, one with potential to bridge traditional and nontraditional schools of thought about what it takes to be a successful superintendent.

Baltimore school officials are struggling to fix middle schools, where students throughout the state and, indeed, the nation often stumble. A comprehensive reform plan is promised soon, but in the interim, officials have announced a credible start, focusing not only on children's academic progress but also on their social and emotional needs. Despite reform efforts that are making a difference in elementary and high schools, middle schools have been like neglected stepchildren - underscored by poor academic results.

Wesley Baker is executed Thirteen years after he was convicted of murdering a woman who was on a shopping trip to a Baltimore County mall with two of her grandchildren, Wesley Eugene Baker was executed by lethal injection. Baker, 47, was the fifth person put to death in Maryland since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. O'Malley picks Brown as running mate Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley has enlisted Prince George's County Del. Anthony G. Brown as his running mate in his campaign for governor.