School Reform

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.

DURING ITS 1995 session, the General Assembly turned down an attempt by the Maryland State Teachers Association to undermine a comprehensive approach to school reform. Now, it appears the legislature may have to grapple with the issue again. Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who initially supported the MSTA in last year's effort, has suggested the teachers union and state education officials should work out a compromise on who should control teacher training and certification.Just one problem: There's no room for compromise.

AT THE ANNUAL meeting of the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education this week, high-powered speakers lauded the progress of Maryland's school reform effort. As Gov. Parris N. Glendening noted, this state is so far ahead on the crucial issue of setting performance standards that it has no other states to turn to for advice on the most difficult step of real education reform -- enforcing consequences for not meeting standards.That is all too evident in the latest crisis to beset the reform effort -- an unfortunate stand-off between Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and Mr. Glendening.

IF GOV. Parris N. Glendening is serious about supporting school reforms and improving the dismal situation in Baltimore City classrooms, he should sign a bill now opposed by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke that imposes a financial penalty on city educators for resisting management changes recommended by consultants four years ago.This bill sends a strong message that city leaders will be held accountable for failure to improve school operations. The mayor agreed to provisions of this bill at a meeting with the governor and legislative leaders.

ANY SCHOOL reform effort worth its salt is bound to cause controversy. The remarkable thing about Maryland's effort to shore up its public schools is that the forces supporting reform have consistently been stronger than any dissatisfaction or outright opposition. Let's keep it that way.In the next two weeks, third- , fifth- and eighth-graders are embarking on the annual ritual of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. Unlike traditional achievement tests, MSPAP does not measure individual performance.

Baltimore got a midterm report card on education reform yesterday -- a cautiously optimistic assessment of its ambitious attempt to revitalize a school system beset by decades of decline. An independent evaluation found the city school district has "made meaningful progress" in improving elementary classroom instruction, hiring better teachers and tracking students whose records used to be lost when they transferred from school to school. But the city needs considerably greater resources -- and has to devote more attention to its older schoolchildren -- to turn around schools that consistently rank near the bottom of the state on most performance standards.

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.

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.

The problems of Baltimore's schools have long provoked concern, but rarely large-scale public demonstrations -- until now. Two large protests have been held in the past three months, bringing together hundreds of parents in the freezing rain and cold to express their frustration with the schools. Some hope that the new grass-roots activism will change the politics of education in the city. "Hundreds of people showed up and took time out of their schedules and said `we believe in public education.

Rejecting a piecemeal approach to school reform, Superintendent Walter G. Amprey said last night that he favored giving every school in the Baltimore system broad authority over its own operations by the 1994-1995 school year."