Summer School

Some Howard County students are donning their director's caps and exploring the world of filmmaking over the next few weeks, proving that summer school isn't just for students who are failing classes anymore. In fact, beginning Monday, more than a thousand students will be going to summer school in Howard County to try to get a jump on their classmates or to participate in enrichment activities at the school system's summer camps. For example, nearly 300 students are expected to participate in the Gifted and Talented Summer Institute for Talent Development at the Homewood School and Oakland Mills High School.

School officials expected - and received - a sizable reaction from parents as the school board considered a proposal to shorten spring break. The school system was inundated with some 200 e-mails concerning the proposal, and opinions ran the gamut, spokeswoman Patti Caplan said. "The good thing is that people are responding electronically," she said. "It's great to have the option of people responding electronically." Now, the break is six days - Monday through Friday and the following Monday.

Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin got a firsthand look at the use of capital funds during a five-school construction tour last week. Cousin was joined by school board members and top-ranking central office personnel. On Wednesday, the group visited Longfellow, Centennial Lane, Clemens Crossings and Worthington elementary schools, and Glenelg High School. Worthington and Clemens Crossing are undergoing systemic renovations. Longfellow, Centennial Lane and Glenelg are amid major addition projects.

Come the end of August, thousands of city youngsters will be returning to school. But for many of them, it will feel as if they hardly left. This year, about 22,000 students attended the city's monthlong, half-day summer learning programs. Only a fraction of them came to make up courses they failed. Most were there to take advantage of enrichment courses in reading, math and the arts designed to help them retain skills learned the previous year and give them a leg up on the next. The purpose of summer school has changed since 2003, when the city adopted a policy of social promotion that allowed students to pass no matter how poorly they performed in the classroom.

Hadriel Ferrera directed a blindfolded classmate through a maze of items scattered across the floor of the library at Running Brook Elementary School. "Keep going," said Hadriel, 9, who will be a fifth-grader in the fall. "Go straight. Go left. A little bit more. Stop! Left a little bit." A few feet away in the computer lab, students were reviewing Internet safety tips. Farther down the hall in the teacher's lounge, another group of students was preparing a dessert called Dirt in a Cup. This is not your father's summer school.

Summer has arrived in Baltimore, and so has summer school - bringing with it a chance for students who improve on their High School Assessment exams to pocket something more than academic success. A few months ago, Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso unveiled a controversial proposal to improve city schools: Pay students to perform. It's a simple idea that has generated quite a bit of controversy from purists who cringe at the thought of paying students to learn and from realists who believe there simply must be a more effective way to spend $1 million in a failing school system.

Principals and teachers across the state are preparing for a yearlong push so thousands of students - some of whom have failed mandatory state graduation tests multiple times - will reach the stage in a cap and gown by June 2009. For the first time next spring, high school seniors will have to pass four end-of-course tests in biology, algebra, English II and American government to earn a diploma. Students who have all required graduation credits yet have failed a subject test twice will have the option of doing a project instead, but educators say the state is demanding such complex, time-consuming projects that students and schools may find completing them more difficult than passing the exams.

Parents may soon be paying more for high school summer courses because the Harford County Board of Education is considering a fee increase. Harford County Superintendent Jacqueline C. Haas recommended a $60 increase, which would raise the full credit course fee to $510, citing a shortfall from the last summer session. Students who are trying to recover a course credit would pay a reduced fee of $335 -- or a $30 increase. About 400 of nearly 12,000 high school students attend summer school, held at the Center for Educational Opportunity in Aberdeen.

After four weeks of summer school at Running Brook Elementary, nearby residents were used to the steady flow of students at the newly renovated facility. But the sight of two fully grown cattle outside the school's front entrance Friday was a surprise. The two steers - Michael and Angelo - were at the school as part of a challenge issued by Assistant Principals Troy Todd and Brian Vanisko. Todd, who oversaw the 46 students from Running Brook Elementary, and Vanisko, who oversaw the 71 students from nearby Stevens Forest Elementary, joined forces to encourage their students to keep up their attendance at the Running Brook summer school program.

Engineering course for high-schoolers The Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering will offer a four-week summer course, "What is Engineering?" from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays July 9 through Aug. 3 at the university's new Dorsey Campus, 6810 Deerpath Road, Elkridge. The course, which is open to rising juniors and seniors in high school, includes engineering concepts and participation in lab experiments, simulations and field trips. Transportation will be provided. Students will have opportunities to meet professional engineers and complete team projects such as building weight-bearing spaghetti bridges and mousetraps that catch pingpong balls.