Stay In School

Even after Washington Bullets forward Don MacLean threw in the winning jumper from the top of the key, Old Mill North sixth-grader Tim Smith was unimpressed."

Students who drop out before completing high school will have a harder time finding and keeping a job, and they will earn less money when they do. They will be more likely to spend time in prison, will be sicker and will die sooner than those with diplomas. And they will cost local, state and federal governments billions in increased social service costs. There was a time when it was possible to live a productive, middle class life without graduating from high school, but in the 21st Century, not even that will be sufficient.

The third-graders watched intently as Roy Alonso, 72, opened the "mystery box" and lifted out what looked like a battered leather football."How many of you saw 'Jurassic Park'?" asked Alonso, an eclectic collector, who visited Moravia Park Primary School on a recent Friday afternoon for a show-and-tell session called "History Alive."The students' eyes widened when he said, "This is the real Jurassic Park. This is a dinosaur egg, 97 million years old. It was found in China. Earthquakes and mudslides buried it, and now it's hard -- petrified -- like a stone."

Students who are disruptive, rude or violent are every teacher's worst nightmare and every kid's worst example of how to behave. Just a few bad actors can derail an entire classroom. No wonder school officials' natural impulse is to kick them out. But that rarely solves the problem, and in the long term it may even make things worse when the offenders return to school. That's why news that the Baltimore County school system now leads the region in the percentage of students it suspends ought to worry school board members, administrators, reform advocates and parents.

These are terrible times, Dr. Hoke Smith reminded the TowsonState University class of 1992. Between the impending AIDS epidemic, the malignant health of the earth, the congressional check-bounding charade, the race riots in Los Angeles, and, of course, the recession, the future looks bleak.His remedy for these ills was, simply, for graduates to ''stay in school.''When he smiled after this comment, and then paused as if waiting for the expected laughter, I knew this remark was made in half-jest, intended to lighten the mood with its touch of irony.

IN THE SPIRIT of the season and of the day, Education Beat offers brief profiles of three Baltimoreans who give of themselves as volunteers in public schools.One of them can be described as a secular evangelist. The second is a longtime -- and we mean longtime -- volunteer. The third is a mentor and role model in the inner city. The three are soldiers in an army of people who believe unfashionably that you don't have to be paid to bring goodwill to humankind.Gail Cuffie calls herself the "coordinator" of a program called Aiming for Success.

Karlton Dunn clearly imagines his video: first a panoramic shot of Mount Royal Middle School, then dancers -- actually fellow classmates -- doing unusual steps. Then he'll appear, microphone in hand, and lay down a rap something like this:"Indicate it, duplicate it.When you go to school, don't be late.With this rhyme, be on time.Buy a gold, make it shine.Go to school, don't be a fool.You'll just walk around think you're cool."The video Karlton plans to make is one of perhaps scores of music videos that will be produced by and star youngsters from the city's 26 public middle schools as part of a national effort by Foot Locker, an athletic-supply chain, to encourage students to stay in school.

THE ISSUE: -- The Howard County school system is looking into creating a truancy court that places stiffer penalties on students, including the possible loss of driving privileges. What do you think? Let us not confuse education, driving The Sun notes that Howard County school officials are considering punishing truant students with loss of driving privileges. We have seen some horrible traffic accidents in the county recently and there is a lesson to be taught to young drivers. The lesson is: Drive safely.

WASHINGTON -- Saying he hoped to "help teen mothers break free from the cycle of dependency for good," President Clinton announced several actions yesterday intended to prod states to encourage teen-age mothers on welfare to stay in school.Devoting his weekly radio address to welfare, Clinton said that the Department of Health and Human Services would require all states to submit annual plans showing how they will fashion welfare programs that keep young mothers in school. He said the plans would then be judged for their effectiveness.

BaseballDiamondbacks: Acquired P Jason Hart from Independent Schaumburg.Indians: Agreed to terms with P Dave Telgheder, P Mike Walker, former Orioles IF Jeff Manto, IF Orlando Miller and C Chris Turner on minor-league contracts.Pirates: Agreed to terms on minor-league contract with 1B Domingo Martinez.Reds: Signed P Giovanni Carrara, P Todd Etler, P Denny Harriger, P Marty Janzen, P Tom Kramer, P John Riedling, P Scott Ruffcorn, P Rod Steph, P Scott Williamson, P Joey Eischen, P Eddie Priest, P Kevin Tolar, IF Jeff Branson, IF Steve Eddie, IF Jerry Salzano, IF Jason Williams and OF Wonderful Monds to Triple-A contracts.

Nobody asked me, but ... I have no problem with speed cameras in school zones, or anywhere for that matter. It wouldn't be the first time technology augmented law enforcement. In fact, I'd like to see a few speed cameras installed on highway overpasses to catch people doing 85-and-up on the interstates. Speaking of driving and roads, have you done the new Route 30 bypass between upper Hampstead and lower Hampstead in Carroll County? It's kind of amazing - three traffic circles and six miles of pavement through picturesque farm country.

I believe that if the NCAA wanted to, it could -- in conjunction with the NBA and with the blessing of the fans -- give players reason to attend school, stay for a while and get some real educational benefit from it, including a degree. I also believe that the NCAA isn't even remotely interested in accomplishing any of that, except where it gets the organization more money and a better reputation. Same for the NBA. As for the fans, they care deeply about graduation rates and the annual Academic Progress Rate right up until the time their favorite team makes a Final Four run. If the powers-that-be in college sports really cared about the players' "academic progress," they would seek to function less as moneymakers for the NCAA itself and for its member schools and less as the NBA's minor league.

Recent studies show that too many Maryland students are missing from schools because of suspensions, prolonged absences or truancy. A lot of these students won't stay the course until graduation. That shouldn't be tolerated when a high school diploma is considered essential for employment as well as for higher education. An analysis released last month by Advocates for Children and Youth, a Maryland-based group, found that the state's overall suspension rate in 2006-2007 was 9 percent, the second-highest rate on record.

It doesn't take much of a leap to predict that a student who is frequently suspended for short periods of time becomes a likely candidate to drop out. That's why school districts need to intervene more quickly and aggressively when a child acts out in ways that result in being excluded from class. The General Assembly is considering legislation that would set up a limited number of pilot programs. But more pilot programs are not the answer. School districts already have effective tools to help more students, even those who are disruptive, stay in school.

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 ISSUE: -- The Howard County school system is looking into creating a truancy court that places stiffer penalties on students, including the possible loss of driving privileges. What do you think? Let us not confuse education, driving The Sun notes that Howard County school officials are considering punishing truant students with loss of driving privileges. We have seen some horrible traffic accidents in the county recently and there is a lesson to be taught to young drivers. The lesson is: Drive safely.

The NAACP went back to school yesterday with a pep rally at Dunbar High School in East Baltimore for its revitalized dropout prevention program.The Back to School/Stay in School program, which fell victim to budget cuts two years ago while the organization struggled to overcome a $3.2 million debt, is set to resume in September under Adrienne Watson, its 27-year-old national director.Watson said the program would link National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branches, schools, churches, businesses and community groups to develop activities to encourage young people to continue their educations.

* Name: Chris Wess, 15, of Columbia.* School: Sophomore at Atholton High School.* Why Chris was honored: He participated in the 1992 Summer at the Mall Internship, a six-week program that exposes students in the Maryland's Tomorrow Program to different jobs, such as engineering, construction, marketing and accounting. Although Chris is still working to improve his grade-point average, he has earned B's in science and math. Last year, he earned many failing grades, he said. His attitude about school has brightened, said Susan Alderson, Atholton's co-coordinator of Maryland's Tomorrow Program, which encourages students to stay in school.

Baltimore school officials announced yesterday that students will be required to stay in school for a full day on three days that were previously scheduled as half-days. Students were scheduled to go home early Feb. 17, April 28 and May 26 while their teachers stayed at school for professional development. However, on the other half-days this school year, student attendance has been extremely low, system officials said. The state requires schools to have an attendance rate of 94 percent.

School chaos puts kids on wrong path It is clear that many inner-city black children start their school careers several steps behind their suburban counterparts, either white or black. And most of our big-city governments tolerate and run school programs which are clearly inferior to those in schools in the suburbs ("Black `leaders' on wrong path," Opinion * Commentary, Oct. 19). These schools are filled with the neediest students, and their needs are often not effectively met by these schools.