Schools In Maryland

River Hill High and Burleigh Manor Middle were honored by the U.S. Department of Education as two of seven No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools in Maryland and two of 287 in the country. The National Blue Ribbon award recognizes academic excellence or major gains in achievement. Clarksville Middle School was a winner of the award last year. River Hill and Burleigh Manor will be recognized next month at a ceremony in Washington. "Their selection is very exciting," said Patti Caplan, county schools spokeswoman.

American youths are so out of shape and childhood obesity has reached such alarming proportions that almost anything schools can do to encourage more physical fitness is welcome. So an effort by Maryland's General Assembly to require more school time for physical education deserves consideration - though it's too bad it takes a state law to get schoolchildren hopping, jumping and running around. In fact, good physical health, which is a product of exercise, contributes to academic performance.

Lawmakers will hear testimony today on legislation that would govern the founding of charter schools in Maryland and that could open the door for federal aid for them.Maryland is among about 15 states without the regulations required by the federal government for this aid.Charter schools are public schools operated by a group or institution with a contract, or charter, and with varying degrees of independence from school bureaucracies. They have become a rallying cry for reformers who see them as key to improving public schools by increasing competition for students and providing models of better ways to teach children.

Students and teachers across Maryland will gain access to hundreds of dollars worth of Microsoft software for the price of a single textbook, thanks to an agreement between the software giant and a consortium of Maryland schools.Under the three-year contract, schools will pay $42 for a suite of Microsoft's most popular word processing, spreadsheet, database, and development software -- programs normally sold to educators for $150 each and to the general public for $500 or more.Microsoft has forged similar deals in other states, but this is the first to include such a diverse collection of institutions, officials said.

With the Maryland treasury flush with cash, Gov. Parris N. Glendening is considering sending state aid for the first time to private and religious schools for computers and books, a spokesman said yesterday.Although the governor has not made a final decision, he has sent signals to people interested in the issue that he is leaning toward what would be a significant change in state policy.Such a move would likely ignite a debate on state government's proper role in assisting private and religious schools.

Inadequate funding drives parents to raise funds for schoolsThe Sun's article "PTAs may contribute to school disparities" (Sept. 20) explained a great deal about fund-raising efforts by local PTAs. But it never answered the key question: Why do local PTAs try to raise so much money?Sure, individuals quoted in the article said they wanted to improve their children's schools, but why is this necessary? Because the schools in Maryland (and Harford County in particular) are grossly underfunded.

Hundreds of private school pupils, parents and teachers gathered at the State House last night to continue a 3-year-old quest to get state aid for Roman Catholic, Jewish and other nonpublic schools.The schools are seeking $14 million to pay for expenses such as textbooks and technology improvements.Last night, children held up signs saying, "It's about time!" and "We want our fair share," but the lobbying effort might fail this year.Gov. Parris N. Glendening did not fund the request in his proposed budget unveiled last week, and a spokeswoman says he does not plan to include such funding in a supplemental budget.

It's 5 p.m., and Malissa Ruffner sets aside files at GreenMount School and darts out to collect her children from soccer practice.The director -- one of six mothers who founded the private school in Wyman Park -- takes pride in being a soccer mom. After all, parents' involvement with children is the keystone of the cooperative that developed the school, she said.When GreenMount opens Sept. 2 to its largest enrollment -- 65 pupils -- Ruffner will work to maintain the parent cooperative and provide the quality education she fought for as an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.

As part of a nationwide effort to curb media violence, Maryland's attorney general is asking elementary school students rather than their parents to turn off violent television shows and videos today.Students across the state are being urged to write letters expressing their views about violence in the media and how it affects them, as Maryland's contribution to the nation's second Tune Out the Violence Day.The effort is sponsored by the National Association of Attorneys General."I believe it is time our kids make their voices heard on the barrage of violence piped into their homes each day," said Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. "Last year my message was to parents.

In the hands of a traveling troupe from the Maryland Science Center, chemical equations become oozing foam and billowing clouds, gurgling liquids and gooey substances -- very good stuff to elementary schoolchildren.The experiments produce wide eyes, squeals of delight and a zeal for science not always evident among youngsters."Wow, this stuff is so cool. Big time," said Jessica Schroyer, 9, a fourth-grader at Howard County's Lisbon Elementary School, where two members of the Traveling Science Program put on their show for about 250 fourth- and fifth-graders last week.

A minor revolution, in the form of cheese lasagna, had come to the cafeteria at Hampstead Hill Academy, but the struggle had only just begun. Kitchen staff accustomed to heating pre-made meals had to wrestle with sticky pasta noodles, then brace for balky eaters on this, the first "Meatless Monday" for Hampstead Hill and other Baltimore public schools. On Mondays throughout the year, cafeteria menus will be all vegetarian - a first for city schools and, it's believed, any large school system nationwide.

Abuse investigation should target Bush officials As someone who has protested outside the Department of Justice calling for an investigation of the Bush administration's use of torture, I was glad to hear that the attorney general has appointed a special prosecutor to probe CIA abuses. Thus I read with interest the editorial "Torture is un-American" (Aug. 25). However, we must be skeptical of the reach of the special prosecutor in this investigation. When the Abu Ghraib scandal exploded, there was an investigation.

When Gov. Martin O'Malley shuttered five schools in Maryland last week after the discovery of several suspected cases of the swine flu, the closures seemed prudent given how little was known about the virulence of the disease and its ability to spread. Most of what we did know was ominous: It was a strain that had never appeared before in humans, it struck healthy, young adults, it appeared nearly simultaneously in countries around the world, and it was already responsible for more than 20 deaths in Mexico and one in the United States.

At least 14 of the 20 officers and crew aboard the U.S. container ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean Wednesday attended union-run maritime schools in Maryland, and many received classroom training on how to handle a pirate or terrorist attack, school and union officials said Thursday. Nine of the twelve members of the Seafarers International Union who were aboard the Maersk Alabama attended the union's maritime school in the St. Mary's County town of Piney Point, the school's education director said.

Hammond Middle School was one of six in the state to be selected as a 2008 Maryland Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. "This is such an honor and wonderful affirmation for the Hammond staff, students and parents," Principal Kerry McGowan said in a statement. "Everyone has worked so hard to make sure our students are achieving. We feel like we just got the very best holiday gift possible, tied up with blue ribbon." Hammond was able to distinguish itself after 95 percent of the school scored at proficient or advanced levels in reading on the 2008 Maryland School Assessments, a 6-point increase from 2007.

The number of failing schools in Maryland is rising, and more than 60 percent of them are in Baltimore, where nearly a third of the schools are in dire need of improvement. A report by the Washington-based Center on Education Policy found that 63 schools in Baltimore were undergoing some form of restructuring because they failed to show adequate progress for two years in a row under the federal No Child Left Behind law. That's a wake-up call for citizens that despite the progress Baltimore has made, including this year's dramatic rise in test scores, much remains to be done.

Off-color language sends wrong signal During my 40 years in education as a teacher, principal and director of elementary schools, I have had the pleasure of working with students, teachers and other school personnel. And I know that in addition to teaching academic subjects, we educators work hard to instill values of civility and respect as we teach young people about how to converse with each other in a clear and appropriate manner. Given this background, I was shocked and dismayed when I saw the first edition of The Baltimore Sun's "Findit!"

Baltimore County has some of the best schools in Maryland. Newsweek recently recognized 10 county high schools as among the top 5 percent in the United States. Unfortunately, there are challenges on the horizon that undermine the strength of our schools and the vitality of our communities. School overcrowding is the most serious of these challenges. The debate over whether to build an addition at Loch Raven High School is the culmination of nearly a decade of frustration with the way Baltimore County plans and builds its schools.

Would you put the least-experienced principals and lowest-paid teachers in Maryland's most troubled schools and expect the students there to succeed? Of course not. And yet, as Maryland State Board of Education President Dunbar Brooks recently pointed out, Maryland has many "high-cost" and "low-cost" schools that largely reflect the race and socioeconomics of the student population. In fact, these disparities have existed for a long time and remain severe, based on several studies completed by Advocates for Children and Youth.

A team from Maryland has not reached the Division I women's lacrosse final four since 2003. That would hardly seem a lengthy drought by most standards, but lacrosse standards are pretty high around here. After all, the University of Maryland has won nine NCAA championships and gone to the final four 16 times in the 26-year history of the tournament. Loyola has been in six final fours. Now that the final four is back in Maryland this spring - at Towson's Johnny Unitas Stadium on Memorial Day weekend - can a Maryland team get back into the semifinals?