Talented Program

It's coming to you live, from Ellicott City, Maryland! It's produced by people who are probably much younger than you are, but perhaps more savvy in the ways of technology.It's (applause please!) "Dunloggin This Morning!"The brainchild of last year's eighth-graders Dan Schneider, Matt Holmwood, Dan Buchner and Dan Pick, Dunloggin Middle School's daily TV broadcast began late last spring with a crew of seventh- and eighth-graders.Now, the experienced crew of eighth-grade producers continues working in the studio, which occupies most of Gifted and Talented Program resource teacher Penny Zimring's classroom.

Baltimore County's 'Civil War'So now your editorial staff feels compelled to take on the role of "peace-maker" in the ongoing "war" between the Baltimore County school system and the community ("Healing Baltimore County Schools," Jan. 22).I wish you the best of luck, and if what you've written so far is any indication of your proposed "peace plan," you're going to need it. As a veteran teacher in this system, I would like to give you a view from the trenches.To begin with, you need to look beyond "General" Stuart Berger's image problem and focus on the real issues in this unfortunate "civil war."

The Prince George's County Public Schools Talented and Gifted Office is accepting applications from private school students for testing for PGCPS Talented and Gifted program eligibility. The testing is for students who are county residents and currently in grades 1-7 in private schools. To request the private school testing application, contact the TAG Office at 301-808-3790; TAG Program Specialist Scott Brenner at sbrenner@pgcps.org ; or TAG Supervisor Theresa Jackson at tjackson@pgcps.org . The applications and supporting documentation are due in the TAG Office no later than Jan. 12. Late applications will not be accepted.

New rules on school gifted and talented programs approved today by the state board of education have drawn fire from a coalition of groups that say such programs harm poor and minority students. The critics, which include Casa de Maryland and the Montgomery County NAACP, argue that the very act of labeling some students and not others as gifted creates winners and losers, and that the principal victims of such inequality are African-Americans, Hispanics and students from low-income families.

When Dwight L. Lassiter tries to persuade a company to take on a minority student for a summer internship, he doesn't make a big appeal to the company's social conscience. Instead, he appeals to its wallet."I don't think we can continue to lean on this whole social-conscience theme," Mr. Lassiter said. "We need to show the business community what these young people bring to the table to improve the bottom line."Mr. Lassiter is director of Baltimore Inroads Inc., the local affiliate of the Inroads Inc., a non-profit group based in St. Louis that recruits talented black, Hispanic and American Indian high school and college students and then links them with major corporations for summer internships.

For many children, the weekend is a time to take a break from school and socialize with friends. But each Saturday, some Howard County teens sit in a River Hill High School classroom for two hours, studying math. It isn't a typical math class. Although the logarithmic equations on the board look complicated, these kids don't even pick up a pencil. Almost as soon as a problem is on the board, they are calling out answers. "They're thinking through things very quickly in their heads," said Lynn Collins, who teaches the class.

Dressed in their hospital scrubs, students on an academic panel talked about viewing their first cadavers. They described how their fascination with seeing human organs helped them overcome "the gross-out factor." It was an unusual term to hear at an academic conference, but this panel was composed of high school students who were participants in Howard County's Intern Mentor program. They shadowed doctors at area hospitals throughout the school year. Other students in the gifted-and-talented (GT)

The news hit Stephen Joseph Schap's family and friends like a bomb: Stephen, the fresh-faced, kind and considerate kid they'd watched grow up in Gardenville was in a military prison in Germany, charged with commiting a murder.Longtime family friend Mike Cozzubo heard the news from Stephen's mother, Marianne.Stephen, a 26-year-old Army sergeant stationed in Germany, allegedly decapitated a man he suspected of sleeping with his wife."The alleged deed that occurred, I just cannot think that Stephen is a part of it," said Mr. Cozzubo of Towson.

Many elementary students participating in Howard County's gifted-and-talented program are seeing substantial changes in the way they're receiving the enrichment activities this fall. For second-graders throughout the couch methods -- as under the previous version of the gifted-and-talented program.Instead, each school will identify students with different academic talents and design ways to teach to those pupils' particular strengths -- ways that are more closely linked to their regular classroom work.

Baltimore County school administrators last night cited an increase in African-Americans in the gifted and talented program as one of the improvements in minority student achievement of the last school year.But administrators, presenting their annual report on minority participation at a school board meeting, said more needs to be done. "I would like to think that we have built an infrastructure," said Stephen C. Jones, coordinator of the county's Office of Minority Education.School system goals include improving achievement and xTC curtailing the disproportionate number of minorities being suspended.