Teachers And Principals

Anne C. Fuller, a retired educator and principal whose career in the city's public schools spanned more than 40 years, died in her sleep Thursday at her West Baltimore home. She was 82. Born Anne Calhoun in Dalton, Ga., she was raised by an aunt and uncle after the death of her mother. She moved to Baltimore in 1937 when her uncle, the Rev. Henri R. Tomlin, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, was named pastor of St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was a 1939 graduate of Douglass High School and earned a bachelor's degree in education from what is now Coppin State University in 1943 and a master's from Howard University in 1946.

Dr. Evelyn P. Valentine, a veteran Baltimore public school educator who was founder of the Pasteur Center for Strategic Management Ltd., died Thursday of heart disease at her Northeast Baltimore home. She was 77. The daughter of a furniture maker and a homemaker, Evelyn Pasteur was born and raised in Beaufort, N.C., where she graduated from Queen Street High School. She was the eldest of 15 children. She started attending school when she was 4, and entered college at 15. She was 19 when she landed her first teaching job. "I had to hurry and get out of the way because there were so many behind me," she told the old Sunday Sun Magazine in a 1975 interview, explaining that her brothers and sisters who were out of college helped those who were still studying for their degrees.

Milton Vance Murray, who during his four-decade career as a teacher and later as an elementary school principal remained a steadfast champion of academic excellence, died from complications of Alzheimer's disease Oct. 5 at FutureCare Lochearn. He was 87. Mr. Murray was born in Baltimore and raised in Pigtown. As a child, he showed an early interest in books. "He was reading by the time he was 3," said his niece, Gloria Murray White of Northwest Baltimore, a retired Social Security Administration supervisor.

The Maryland State Board of Education sent a clear message yesterday to the approximately 9,000 high school seniors who haven't yet passed the standardized tests in algebra, English, American government and biology that are now mandatory for graduation: This train is leaving the station, so get on board if you want a diploma in June. That may be tough love, but seniors who get their act together and meet the requirement probably will look back one day and be glad educators made them toe the line.

MSPAP's debut in 1991 left many parents wary. They couldn't see the tests' questions, visit classes when pupils were taking the tests or find out their children's results.With the program in its sixth year, skepticism persists -- even as the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program more and more becomes the state's yardstick for good instruction.State and local educators now are trying to involve parents more by taking them through sample exercises at "MSPAP nights" at local schools.

Howard "Bud" Ritter Jr., a retired Towson High School principal who had a second career as an antique toy and train dealer, died of dementia Monday at the Presbyterian Home of Maryland. The longtime Towson resident was 83. Born in Baltimore and raised in Rodgers Forge and in Stoneleigh, he was a 1946 graduate of Towson High School, where he played basketball and tennis. As a young man, he worked at the Bethlehem Steel Co. and as a Senator Theatre usher. Mr. Ritter enrolled at Towson State Teachers College.

Sister Mary Elaine Costello, a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy and a retired educator and administrator, died Wednesday of heart disease at The Villa, her order's retirement home in the Woodbrook neighborhood of Baltimore County. She was 96. Mary Elizabeth Costello was born in Washington, and after the death of her mother, was sent by her father to Mount St. Agnes in Mount Washington, where she attended elementary and high school. "There, her widowed father could count on her aunt, Sister Loretta Costello, author of "The Sisters of Mercy of Maryland 1855-1930," to keep an eye on his daughter," said Sister Augusta Reilly, a member of the Sisters of Mercy and a retired educator.

Barbara Ann Tarver, who worked in Baltimore schools as a teacher and assistant principal for more than three decades, died Aug. 22 from injuries sustained in a two-car crash early that morning on Interstate 70. She was 61. Ms. Tarver was born, raised and educated in Baltimore. She graduated from Western High School in 1966 and earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from what is now Coppin State University, where she joined the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. in 1970. A few years later, she received a master's degree from the same school, remembers friend Ann Ezell.

Catholic schools are hooked on phonics.Over the decades -- as fads in reading instruction have come and gone -- Baltimore-area Catholic schools, like many other parochial schools across the nation, have held to teaching children to read by first focusing on the sounds that make up words and sound-letter relationships.In stark contrast to most public schools, which in the 1980s tended to forsake teaching sounds for an early focus on reading stories, virtually all of the 70 elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore teach phonics as a separate subject in the early grades.

Todd Hrico raised his arms in a wide embrace, opened his mouth and filled the classroom with full, rich sound.Joining his voice were the voices of the Howard County Public School System Employees' Chorus, a group of teachers, administrators, custodians, secretaries, principals and aides -- and some of their spouses."