NEWS
By Sara Neufeld | September 3, 2007
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.
NEWS
June 13, 2007
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.
NEWS
By Arin Gencer | August 12, 2007
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.
NEWS
By Liz Bowie | February 9, 2007
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.
NEWS
November 4, 2007
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."
NEWS
By Ellie Baublitz | May 20, 2007
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.
BUSINESS
By JAY HANCOCK | August 12, 2007
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
By Thomas Toch and Nettie Legters | March 14, 2007
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.
NEWS
By Ruma Kumar | February 8, 2007
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.
NEWS
By Sara Neufeld | October 18, 2007
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.