Testing Program

If Tom Paolino were grading the state's new school performance testing program, he'd flunk it.Paolino, president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County, told state lawmakers Friday that the year-old testing program is diverting attention and scarce state dollars away from classroom instruction.Anne Arundel County schools spent $1.1 million last year trainingadministrators and teachers to administer the Maryland Schools Performance Program tests, coaching students and manipulating their scores, Paolino said.

From The Aegis dated Feb. 26, 1987: A month after Harford County recovered from a snowfall that dropped almost 20 inches of snow, Mother Nature struck again with a 15-inch snowstorm that led to one death and at least two injuries. The heavy, wet snow fell in just about seven hours. Raymond Colton, 53, of Edgewood, died from an apparent heart attack while shoveling snow at his home. In Aberdeen, a man lost two fingers in a snowblower accident and a Street man broke his leg when the bulldozer he was using toppled backward and pinned him to the ground.

Maryland school officials said yesterday that nearly nine out of 10 students in the current senior class have passed the High School Assessments and predicted that no student will fail to graduate because of the state's requirements. "There is no reason why any student will be denied a diploma because of the HSAs," said Leslie Wilson, who heads the state's testing program. Wilson said there are many programs in place to help students meet academic standards that have been set as graduation requirements for the first time next spring.

Maryland school officials said yesterday that nearly nine out of 10 students in the current senior class have passed the High School Assessments and predicted that no student will fail to graduate because of the state's requirements. "There is no reason why any student will be denied a diploma because of the HSAs," said Leslie Wilson, who heads the state's testing program. Wilson said there are many programs in place to help students meet academic standards that have been set as graduation requirements for the first time next spring.

WILL MSPAP be zapped? Not anytime soon. The Maryland School Performance Assessment Program has too much support in the right places to be easily discarded or seriously amended. It has a track record of more than a decade, a major accomplishment in the politicized world of public education. And it has the ardent backing of state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick and other top educators, numerous business leaders and Walter Sondheim Jr., who is such an institution that he has a personal listing in the yellow pages.

All 4,000 midshipmen could take LSD today and be clean in time for a routine drug test tomorrow because the powerful hallucinogenic drug disappears so quickly from the bloodstream, drug analysts say.That could explain why Midshipman Jason A. Harloff, who pleaded guilty to drug charges Thursday, and other midshipmen suspected of using LSD escaped detection by the Naval Academy's random testing program.In a court martial, Harloff of Fairport, N.Y. pleaded guilty to possession, conspiracy, use and transfer of LSD, as part of an agreement with Navy lawyers.

From the beginning, Maryland's new auto emission testing program has been plagued by public resentment, lack of advance information, faulty technical preparation and a rush-rush deadline mentality that allowed little room for correcting problems before it was imposed on state motorists.Gov. Parris N. Glendening has shown a commendable responsiveness to public concerns, and the admirable ability to compromise reasonably with legislative leadership, in crafting a new exhaust testing program that will alleviate many auto owner fears while still reducing air pollution in the Baltimore-Washington region.

Unless state officials expand the current auto emissions testing program to include six rural counties, Maryland could lose millions of dollars in federal highway funds. Increased population and motor vehicle use have rendered once-bucolic areas of the state as vulnerable to pollution as more populous cities and towns, where emission testing is already required.Governor Schaefer is expected to introduce legislation indefinitely extending the seven-year-old emissions testing program, which expires this year.

Teamwork is a concept that the District 31 General Assembly delegation doesn't seem to talk about much.With the beginning of the 1995 legislative session less than a week away, the members say they have a number of ideas they hope to work on individually but little they want to do together.They don't even agree on what to do about the one issue that concerns all of them: a more stringent auto emissions testing program that was to begin Jan. 1.Democratic Sen. Phillip C. Jimeno, who believes the program costs motorists too much money and time said he will submit legislation that would stop the new program to allow the General Assembly to study it further and possibly revise it. Meanwhile, he said, the state would continue use the simpler, cheaper system.

The Baltimore County Police Department became yesterday the latest law enforcement agency in the metropolitan area to announce random drug testing of its police officers.The program, scheduled to begin in about two months for the department's 1,581 officers and 35 civilian employees, is intended to provide accountability to the public, according to Sgt. Stephen R. Doarnberger, a department spokesman."People need to know that our officers are not a part" of the drug problem, he said.The testing program was put together after meetings of police officials, civilian employee representatives and officials of the Fraternal Order of Police.

About one-third of America's eighth-grade students, and about one in four high school seniors, are proficient writers, according to results of a nationwide test released yesterday. The test, administered last year, showed that there were modest increases in the writing skills of low-performing students since the last time a similar exam was given, in 2002. But the skills of high-performing eighth- and 12th-graders remained flat or declined. Girls far outperformed boys in the test, with 41 percent of eighth-grade girls scoring at or above the proficient level, compared with 20 percent of eighth-grade boys.

Wendy Nelson's two daughters, Carley and Molly, get A's and B's in school, but they do not do as well when they take tests. "When they get to taking tests, they do very poorly," Nelson said. "We just think they study the wrong things. I think they take the wrong kinds of notes." That's why the Nelson daughters are taking a series of classes called the Stressless Tests Program, designed to help them do just as well on tests as they do in the classroom. The program consists of four classes, held in the evenings at local schools.

WASHINGTON - Steroid use by players in the National Football League may be more widespread than tests have indicated, according to congressional staff members investigating the league's drug-testing program. The House Government Reform Committee has been conducting interviews with "credible insiders" as part of an investigation leading to tomorrow's hearing on the league's steroid policy. As a result of those interviews - along with the recent report that three Carolina Panthers purchased steroids before the Super Bowl in 2004 - committee staff members say they are concerned that steroid testing may understate the problem.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - In an effort to restore fans' confidence in the game, Major League Baseball announced yesterday a tougher policy on steroids and performance-enhancing drugs that calls for every player to be tested at least once a year and for punishment of first-time offenders. "I've been saying for some time that my goal for this industry is zero tolerance regarding steroids," said baseball commissioner Bud Selig. "The agreement [with the players union] ... is an important step toward achieving that goal.

EVEN THOUGH baseball's field of dreams has turned nightmarish, there's still a part of us tempted to play the small boy and desperately implore the game's giants, its home-run hitters, to "Say it ain't so, Joe." But the truth of Major League Baseball's drug disaster has been so evident for so long that even small boys likely were more saddened than actually stunned by the reports last week that two of the game's premier M-|ber-sluggers, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, admitted to a grand jury they had used steroids.

About 50 Marylanders sounded off on the state's proposed high school exit tests yesterday, and at the end of a long afternoon, schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick pronounced the exercise "affirming." Parents, students, public officials, teachers, principals and school board members took to a microphone at Education Department headquarters in Baltimore to comment -- in three minutes -- on the new tests, expected to be approved next month by the State Board of Education. The tests in English, algebra, biology and government were praised by about a third of the speakers and opposed by another third.

Within the next few weeks, state government workers with safety-related jobs could find themselves being summoned for a drug test under a new Maryland policy.Some agencies may begin randomly testing those employees for illegal drug use later this month or in early February, said Catherine Austin, assistant secretary of the state Personnel Department.The testing program, considered by some to be among the toughest in the nation, had been delayed for several months because of a lengthier-than-anticipated training program, changes in the proposed penalty for drug use, requests for public hearings and the time needed to determine how to best administer the testing.

BOWIE -- Critics of Maryland's elementary and middle school testing program said last night that the state needs to make major changes to the exams to improve teaching and learning. "There is something wrong with these tests," said Zalee Harris, a Prince George's County education activist. "This can't go on." About 40 parents and teachers gathered at Bowie State University for last night's meeting, dubbed a "Maryland Education Summit." It was sponsored by two Republican politicians, Del. Janet Greenip from Anne Arundel County and Audrey E. Scott, vice chairwoman of the Prince George's County Council.