School Year

If you believe the  U.S. News and World Report rankings , no Maryland high school is good enough to be in the top 50 in the nation. The first 25 high schools are those where 100 percent of students take Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes and 100 pass the exams. The news magazine also ranks Maryland high schools and the top seven schools are in Montgomery County. Severna Park is the top high school in the Baltimore region and comes in 211 in the nation, followed by Eastern Tech, a magnet high school in Baltimore County, and River Hill in Howard. The next three high schools in the area are the Carver Center for the Arts at 11, Dulaney High at 13 and Towson High at 14. Western High School in Baltimore City is the top ranked school in the city and the 31st best in Maryland.

After the school year concludes, the Baltimore Sun's high school sports staff writes a story featuring student-athletes and high school coaches that have interesting jobs or unique plans during the summer.  If you have something fun lined up for the summer months, we want to hear about, it and you may be profiled.  We're looking for varsity players who will still be in high school the following school year. To pass along ideas, please e-mail Glenn Graham at glenn.graham@baltsun.com

It's the middle of summer and hundreds of Howard County students are still in school. Elementary and middle school pupils arrive at Dasher Green Elementary and Owen Brown Middle each weekday morning ready for their next lesson. Think these children are having fun? The eight pupils taking Troy Todd's early morning "Living Science: Living in the Water" look as if they are. This month, they made wave bottles - containers filled with oil, water and blue dye - to show how the ocean works. That elementary-level class is one of more than a dozen enrichment classes offered during summer school, which runs in two class periods from 8:30 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. The number of Howard County children voluntarily attending summer school is on the rise.

Baltimore County school officials told middle and high school principals last week that they must limit the number of leadership positions next year to save $814,000, a move teachers say means schools have again been targeted for cuts. The decision will strip the title and pay from some teachers who act as department chairs and perform certain roles, including helping principals evaluate teachers, making sure books and supplies are evenly distributed, and deciding how curriculum will be taught.

As schools opened Tuesday in Anne Arundel County with a record 76,600 students, Bates Middle School sixth-grader Londell Owens said he's looking forward to learning much in his classes "and having fun doing it. " Among those who were in attendance at Bates on Tuesday morning were Superintendent Kevin Maxwell, several board of education members and interim state Superintendent Bernard Sadusky, who took over when long-time superintendent Nancy S....

A crowd of about 800 Baltimore County school administrators gathered at Perry Hall High School on Friday to face a question from their boss. Superintendent Joe A. Hairston asked how they can continue "making the right things happen" for nearly 104,000 students. As he delivered the 11th opening address of his tenure as superintendent of the 173-school system, which has about 17,000 employees, he did not expect an answer. "The complete answer to that question is revealed only as our former students become adults — as we see who they become and what they achieve," said Hairston, who took over leadership of Maryland's third-largest school system in 2000, when this year's senior class began first grade.

The school year for Baltimore County's public school students will end on Friday, June 8 -- four days earlier than originally scheduled, county schools announced today. The 2011-2012 school year had been scheduled to end Thursday, June 14. County schools were in a position to end school early this year because of the mild winter, which meant schools were not closed due to snow, and because the school system has effectively managed built-in emergency closing time. The schedule for the final days are as follows: • Wednesday, June 6: Assessment Day: High schools will close three hours early; teachers will remain on duty.

Despite gray skies that prompted a move indoors, school children from around Westminster were smiling on Aug. 3 as they got ready for the upcoming school year during the fourth annual Shop with a Cop Back to School Day program. As members of the Westminster Police Force escorted them through a line set up in West Middle School, about 100 children were able to select pencils, glue sticks, notebook paper and more, and then stuff it all into a new backpack. "We basically got everything here," said Kaylee Jenkins, 6, who will be attending first grade at Westminster Elementary School, of school supplies.

Unlike states where budget tightening has increased class sizes or shortened school days, Maryland is starting the school year largely protected from such drastic changes — and looking forward to a $400 million infusion of new federal money over the next several years. Most of that money is the state's winnings from the Race to the Top competition, which will fund innovation and school improvements. Another $179 million comes from federal legislation passed this summer to preserve education jobs.

Officials from Maryland, Baltimore city and Howard County greeted area students as children, faculty and staff headed back to the classroom Monday morning. Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso, state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake started their day in the city at Mount Washington Elementary. Rawlings-Blake's daughter Sophie will enter the second grade at the school next year. "It means something that the mayor sends her child here," Alonso said.

Parents of the only charter school in Baltimore County are criticizing the system for not having a process for the school to renew its contract, which is set to expire in two months. However, Imagine Discovery Public Charter School, near Woodlawn, has been offered a one-year extension, according to Charles Herndon, a Baltimore County school system spokesman. "We have agreed to extend the charter contract one year. During that time, there would be an evaluation done as to whether we would extend that to four years," he said.

If you believe the  U.S. News and World Report rankings , no Maryland high school is good enough to be in the top 50 in the nation. The first 25 high schools are those where 100 percent of students take Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes and 100 pass the exams. The news magazine also ranks Maryland high schools and the top seven schools are in Montgomery County. Severna Park is the top high school in the Baltimore region and comes in 211 in the nation, followed by Eastern Tech, a magnet high school in Baltimore County, and River Hill in Howard. The next three high schools in the area are the Carver Center for the Arts at 11, Dulaney High at 13 and Towson High at 14. Western High School in Baltimore City is the top ranked school in the city and the 31st best in Maryland.

My child's school bus driver is a pleasure to greet every school-day morning. She always has a big smile and a kind word and wave. So, being curious about the world of school bus drivers, I asked a friend's school bus-driving daughter what kind of holiday and end-of-year gifts she likes to get the most. Her reply was that she gets no gifts from her students' or their families. She said that anything she could use to bridge the gap over the summer such as gift cards, coffee, cards, would be greatly appreciated.

Emmanuel Methodist Preschool, located near Route 29 and I-95 in Howard County, is registering for the 2012-13 school year that begins in the fall. The North Laurel school offers an MSDE-accredited program for children ages 2-1/2 to 5 years old. Limited space is available in the three-day program for ages 2 1/2; the two-day afternoon program for 3-year-olds; and the five-day extended (9 a.m.-1 p.m.) and full-day (9 a.m.-3 p.m.) programs for 4-year-olds. For information, call 301-725-5178 or go to emmanuelpreschool.com .

So little snow fell this year that Baltimore County public schools are shortening the school year by four days. Instead of ending on June 14, the last school day in the county will be June 8. The school system builds in extra days each year for snow and bad weather and then reduces the number of days if they are not used. This school year, the system only closed for two days at the beginning of the year when a hurricane knocked power out. liz.bowie@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

After two years, the federal program providing billions of dollars to help states and districts close or remake some of their worst-performing schools remains an ambitious work in progress, with roughly 1,200 turnaround efforts under way but still no verdict on its effectiveness. The School Improvement Grant (SIG) program, supercharged by a $3 billion windfall under the federal economic-stimulus program in 2009, has jump-started aggressive moves by states and districts. To get their share of the money, they had to quickly identify some of their most academically troubled schools, craft new teacher-evaluation systems, and carve out more time for instruction, among other steps.

Aquille Carr's days at Patterson are over for now, but maybe not forever. Recently named the All-Metro Boys Basketball Player of the Year for the second straight season, the 5-foot-7 junior guard left the East Baltimore school and is now enrolled at St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, N.J. His first day was Monday. St. Patrick is a national boys basketball powerhouse and is one of the oldest parochial schools in New Jersey, but it is reportedly closing its doors at the end of the school year due to dwindling enrollment and financial struggles.