Tesseract

When Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke decides the fate of Baltimore's school privatization venture this summer, he's likely to be looking as much at political polls as at test scores at the "Tesseract" schools.The mayor, who has threatened to pull the plug on the experiment unless student achievement improves, says he doesn't regret having hired Education Alternatives Inc. three years ago to manage nine city schools."It is going to be an election issue, but I'm really comfortable talking about it as an election matter because I think what it shows is our intolerance with the status quo, that we're willing to take risks as long as they're not detrimental to the children," Mr. Schmoke said recently.

Baltimore's "Tesseract" school privatization has laid the groundwork for resuscitating ailing schools, but it's too early to tell whether the experiment is improving classroom performance, the city school system said yesterday.A 48-page evaluation released by the school system concludes Education Alternatives Inc. has dramatically improved the physical appearance of schools and grounds, increased parental involvement and tailored computerized instruction for each student.The report also credited the for-profit Minneapolis firm with increasing parental involvement, operating the nine Tesseract schools more efficiently, eliminating bureaucratic red tape and getting supplies to schools faster.

The private Minneapolis firm that took over operation of nine Baltimore schools last year has won the support of Superintendent Walter G. Amprey in its bid to privatize some functions at 24 other city schools.Education Alternatives Inc., which has sunk nearly $8 million into its "Tesseract" experiment here, has delivered its sales pitch to all 24 schools and received non-binding letters of intent to contract for services at City College and Robert W. Coleman Elementary.News of the city's plans to consider expanding EAI's role surfaced in late August, when school and company officials confirmed discussions centering on City, Coleman and William H. Lemmell Middle School.

Education Alternatives Inc.'s first venture working in a public school will end June 30 when the for-profit company's five-year contract with the Dade County, Fla., school system expires.Saying "their mission has been accomplished," the Dade school system and EAI announced yesterday that the Minnesota company's role would end after this school year. But both called EAI's work in South Pointe Elementary on Miami Beach a success.In the nation's first such public-private partnership, the system hired EAI in 1990 to bring its Tesseract program to South Pointe, a school that opened in 1991.

Education Alternatives Inc. will receive about $8.5 million more in city money to manage a dozen schools in 1995-1996 than the city ordinarily would have spent, school budget officials said yesterday.The revelation, at a City Council hearing on the for-profit company's work here, drew criticism from some council members, who complained that the privatization venture diverts millions from other poor schools but has yet to produce academic gains."Everything I've seen says this has cost us millions of dollars more than we were spending on these schools," said Carl Stokes, chairman of the Education and Human Resources Committee.

Little more than two years after enthusiastically embracing Baltimore's school-privatization venture, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke last night told Education Alternatives Inc. that its future here depends on improving student achievement."

Beverly Harmon's desk was clean, her in-box empty and the last trappings of a 3 1/2 -year educational experiment packed into fewer than a dozen cardboard boxes destined for Minnesota.With reluctance and a few tears, Mrs. Harmon locked the doors of the Tesseract Offices at Harlem Park Middle School, hugged her colleagues and ended another chapter in Baltimore education reform."I'm the last one. Turn out the lights and that's it," she said.For 18 months, Mrs. Harmon, a retired Montgomery County principal, has been the receptionist for Educational Alternatives Inc., the Minneapolis-based educational management firm that has been operating nine city schools since September 1992.

On Jan. 21, Other Voices published excerpts from a critical report on Baltimore's Tesseract schools written by a consultant engaged by the Maryland State Teachers Association. Four days later, Walter G. Amprey, Baltimore superintendent of schools, testified before a U.S. Senate committee on "The Role of Private Management Companies in School Reform." These are excerpts from his testimony.URBAN schools are in serious trouble. We need only look at the crime statistics of the inner cities to see that we, as educators, and we, as a society, have failed a generation of children.

Martin O'Malley, a Baltimore city councilman, was complaining about lack of improvement in student achievement in the first year for the nine ''Tesseract'' schools -- schools run by a private firm under contract to the city.''I only have a four-year term,'' he said, ''so my time for patience is growing thin.''He's not alone. Patience is quite thin all around.The Tesseract experiment (the name comes from a children's science fiction book) is now nearing the end of its second year. Achievement-test results are available only from the first year.

Nine Baltimore schools sail into uncharted waters today as they start the school year under the operation of a private contractor from Minnesota.But aside from some freshly scrubbed buildings and some extra hands in the classroom, students will see few immediate changes at the nine schools taking part in the "Tesseract" project.Named for a term from a children's science fiction novel, Tesseract is the most dramatic initiative planned for the 1992-1993 school year, which begins today with some 113,000 Baltimore public school students returning to classes.