Teachers

Four years ago, award-winning math teacher Linda Eberhart began gathering her colleagues in Baltimore schools to talk about what was working in their classrooms and what wasn't. Now a new study shows that city students whose teachers participate in Eberhart's program - called MathWorks - post significantly higher test scores than their peers. Among sixth-graders whose teachers attended monthly Thursday night sessions last academic year, 70 percent passed the state's standardized math test.

Teachers frustrated by the length of the investigation process Frustrated by assault allegations that can take months to investigate, union leaders and teachers at a western Baltimore County elementary school are demanding that schools officials speed up the process to return innocent educators more quickly to their classrooms. Teachers also are increasingly troubled that some students are making false accusations because they have learned that the school system's policy is to immediately remove accused teachers from the schools while an investigation is conducted, Teachers Association of Baltimore County President Cheryl Bost said yesterday.

For Marie Atalla, the small white-paneled house and green yard on quiet College Road in Sykesville represents the fulfillment of a dream. After searching for the right location, renovating and planning, Atalla, who grew up in Egypt, is set to open Ava Wanas Montessori School, for children 2 to 5 years old, this fall. Hers follows the decades-old Montessori School of Westminster and Mount Airy's Misty Mountain Montessori, a program going into its fifth year, said Marliese Roth, its director.

HOLLYWOOD, MD.-- --Zhijun Peng, the new teacher from China, spins a large world globe to show two first-graders just how far her country is from the United States. Halfway around, Ashley and Ethan find it. Only two weeks ago Peng was in China, but today she is standing in front of a rapt class of 6-year-olds in a St. Mary's County elementary school, earnestly trying to bridge the miles and make the Chinese culture seem fun. "You see we are so far away on the Earth," she says. Peng has been brought here by the Chinese government, which is paying her a stipend to teach in an American school for 18 months.

Black educators A news clipping from the Nov. 2, 1888, Harford Democrat serves to bring to life a portion of the history of schools for African Americans in Harford County. The newspaper that day stated: "Colored Teachers Appointed. - As the result of the examination of colored teachers, held on the 4th and 5th inst., certificates and schools were awarded as follows: Abingdon, M.E. Draper; McComas Institute, Samuel A. Jones; Gunpowder Neck, Rachel Morris; Michaelsville, R.E. Sadler; Sidney Park, E.D. Thomas; Gravelly Hill, Alice S. Beason; Bel Air, E.D. Bassett; Asbury, W.T. Freeman; Clark's Chapel, A.E. Brown; Fairview, Annie Goodwin; Federal Hill, Mamie V. Hubert; Hosanna, A.L. Presbury; Colara, H.R. Nelson; Havre de Grace, Samantha Green and E.V. Frazier."

Amanda Walker rolled a strike and three spares at bowling. Shawna Tragesar rolled two strikes. Andrew Sweeney made a backward throw into a floor basketball net. The three youths were participating in the first Inclusion Field Day, hosted by Westminster High School for special education students from the county's high schools. The 40-plus teenagers, with a range of disabilities, participated in 10 physical education activities that had been set up around Westminster's main gym. Teachers and student-helpers assisted the youths with volleyball, a hockey shoot, a target throw, scooter handball, golf, a parachute wave, keep it up, and scoop and shoot.

It's great that high school kids can explain the effect of import tariffs on consumer prices. But how about teaching them what happens when your subprime mortgage resets and the payment turns out to be bigger than your paycheck? Last week the federal Education Department published its first national progress report on high-school economics knowledge. The results were OK -- for what they measured. Seventy-nine percent of high-school seniors showed at least a basic level of learning. They could explain the risks and benefits of quitting a full-time job to finish college, for example.

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 fight to save Annapolis High School was hatched in a chat room. Over two weeks, the after-school movement grew in the din of Annapolis coffee shops and pizza parlors. What started with three students swelled to 20, then 50. In their first public act, more than 40 students launched a campaign yesterday to stop Superintendent Kevin Maxwell from forcing all 193 staff members to reapply for their jobs. Wearing neon green armbands and waving signs, they told the Anne Arundel County school board that Maxwell's Jan. 24 proposal would crush a demoralized school.

On its face, the dispute between the Baltimore Teachers Union and the city school system seems almost trivial. But below the surface, the fight is about much more than 45 minutes a week of planning time. It's a power struggle between the school system's old guard and a new, reform-minded chief executive officer. It's reflective of the deep mistrust many teachers hold for any directives from the central office. At the same time, it shows a division within the city's teaching ranks, some of whom support the union leadership while others are embarrassed by the display.

Most school districts find something that works for one particular teacher for one particular group of kids and then try to force everyone to apply it, as if teachers were robots and kids were interchangeable. It doesn't often result in high-quality education, but it sure makes life easier for central office bureaucrats. Education is supposed to involve professionals building relationships with kids. Good teachers in good schools get to know their students and then figure out what works for those kids.

The eighth-graders in Tina Kidd's English class at Catonsville Middle School were discussing the role of the traditional paper book - and its future in the age of Kindle. But instead of the usual raised hands, their conversation was taking place online, amid keyboard strokes and mouse clicks in a school computer lab. "I think that books will become obsolete within a few years," Natalie Bockmiller wrote. "I think the Kindle is better than a regular book because of the trees," her classmate Robert Sanders said, adding, "The books kill trees."

Neighborhoods thrive when they're home to a mix of residents who reflect a broad range of occupations found in a great city. That's the role of the so-called "creative class" - arts, design and media workers, computer programmers, educators, engineers and scientists - who have been so instrumental in creating lively new communities and driving economic development in post-industrial America. The new apartment building at 26th and Howard streets is therefore just the kind of project Baltimore needs to turn around a once-vibrant pocket of the city.

City and state officials on Monday praised a development team who renovated a former tin factory into affordable housing aimed at teachers and inexpensive office space for nonprofits. "It is an extraordinary building that will house extraordinary individuals," said Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, a former teacher, during a dedication ceremony for Miller's Court. The 77,000-square-foot brick building was constructed in 1874 but had become a hangout for drug dealers and squatters. The project qualified for funds dedicated to developing former industrial sites, known as brownfields.

Baltimore County parents should receive progress reports this school year that go beyond the typical As, Bs and Cs. An online program that has been in the works for several years will allow teachers to detail students' specific skills, such as whether they can describe what running water does to the Earth's surface in science or know how to work with variables in math. "You can't sum up a child in a letter grade - you need more," said Barbara Dezmon, assistant to the superintendent for equity and assurance, who developed the program as a teacher in 1989.

Hiring new teachers and buying classroom technology are among the ways that Anne Arundel County school officials are planning to spend their chunk of approximately $33 million in federal stimulus funding earmarked for the school system. The largest portion of the windfall - about $18 million - will fund special education students in the form of technology for classrooms and the hiring of teachers and aides. The school system will receive about $9 million this year and next year. "We're just trying to use it as quickly and efficiently as we can and get it out in the economy," said Susan Bowen, director of budgets and finance for the county schools.

Brandi Scheiner believes she is a political prisoner. Held against her will in what is euphemistically dubbed a "rubber room," Ms. Scheiner, 56, likens her two-year captivity to being imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Alas, it's unlikely the Red Cross will hear her case. She's a New York City public school teacher who, like about 600 fellow NYC teachers, has been removed from the classroom; allegations against those removed range from incompetence to charges that include being drunk in the classroom or molesting students.

Benfield Elementary School in Severna Park took on the air of a football stadium Wednesday. The hallway floors were lined with green construction paper painted with white yard lines. Students entered school in the morning to the sounds of "We Are the Champions." The festivities, which also included a giant scoreboard and football players made of cardboard on the school's front lawn, were to celebrate a grand achievement at Benfield: On the most recent Maryland State Assessments, Benfield students did the equivalent of winning the Super Bowl.

Howard County schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin and other top-ranking school system officials stood behind the steaming-hot glass partition in Reservoir High School's cafeteria for the annual duty of serving up lunch to new teachers. But this year there were noticeably fewer teachers to serve - 200 in fact. "This is the smallest number of new teachers we've hired in recent memory," Cousin said as he heaped a large spoonful of broccoli onto a plate. "Not too long ago we had 400 new teachers.

It was a classic case of what not to wear. Mary Schiller, a Howard County school system employee, walked down the aisle in a gray T-shirt that read "Yankees Suck." To accent the outfit, she wore ripped jeans and flip-flops. "Is this school attire?" Mamie Perkins asked the crowd gathered in Reservoir High's cafeteria. "No!" the crowd of teachers yelled back. "Mary calls that her grunge look," Perkins, the system's chief of staff, said with a laugh. "It's perfect for Saturday." In Howard County, teachers are being told to ditch their inappropriate duds at the workplace.