Testing Program

Angry about the players union's lack of cooperation, commissioner Bud Selig is strongly considering using his "best interests of baseball" powers to mandate a stronger testing program for illegal use of steroids. According to sources, Selig is seeking to have major leaguers tested randomly year-round, with much stronger sanctions for those who test positive. He would like players to be suspended for 15 days without pay for the first offense, 30 days for the second and one season for the third.

Major League Baseball is facing its greatest credibility crisis since the Pittsburgh Pirates drug scandal of the mid-1980s, which could leave the sport with little choice but to go to war with the players union over the game's tepid steroid policy. Three major stars - Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield - already have been tainted by the scandal, even as they insist they never used illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Baseball, which seemed poised for a public relations renaissance after one of the most exciting postseasons in history, now must find a way to convince skeptical fans that the game is still on the up and up. Commissioner Bud Selig has yet to weigh in on the subject publicly, but baseball sources said yesterday that the commissioner's office is working behind the scenes to persuade the Major League Baseball Players Association to join it in an effort to restore public confidence by beefing up the much-criticized steroid testing program that was instituted in the 2002 collective bargaining agreement.

Major league baseball players should be leaner and cleaner when spring training camps open in February, at least in theory. The specter of random steroid testing should discourage players from bulking up with performance-enhancing drugs and level the playing field for the athletes who have been pumping up their bodies - and their statistics - the old-fashioned way. At least in theory. The new testing and enforcement program was triggered when 5 to 7 percent of major league players tested positive for steroid use in anonymous testing conducted last spring.

High-stakes testing was among the chief topics of concern as the state Board of Education held a forum at Anne Arundel County's school administration headquarters. Several parents and teachers - some of whom said they were part of a group known as Marylanders Against High Stakes Testing - strongly opposed the tests, which could determine whether students receive high school diplomas, regardless of previous academic records. State officials plan to make the passing of several high school assessments a graduation requirement by 2007.

It took the startling revelations of two former stars and weeks of collective bargaining, but Major League Baseball finally has a testing program in place to deal with the sport's recent steroid controversy. Now, the only question is whether the plan is a real solution or just a public relations smokescreen. The sport was rocked by allegations from retired slugger Jose Canseco and former National League Most Valuable Player Ken Caminiti this spring that major-league clubhouses were rife with performance-enhancing drugs.

It is the time of year when residents of Anne Arundel County's waterfront communities begin to think about heading to their neighborhood beaches for a dip - and the urge to hit the water means another warm-weather ritual is under way. For the 28th year, the Severn River Association has begun Operation Clearwater, a program to provide areas on the Severn River with regular testing of the water quality in their swimming and water recreation spots....

MSPAP, the Maryland school testing program that has vexed students, teachers and principals, angered critics and reshaped curriculum in classrooms across the state for 10 years, will end with this spring's round of tests that begin Monday, state officials said yesterday. The centerpiece of school reform in Maryland since it was officially launched in 1993, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program fell victim to requirements of the landmark No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in January by President Bush.

Joining a growing chorus of voices concerned about the reliability of Maryland's signature exams, the Baltimore County teachers union has asked the state to call off this year's elementary and middle school testing program. Instead of spending time and money administering and grading the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program, union President Mark Beytin said, state officials could better spend their resources developing the next generation of tests. State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick has said significant changes to MSPAP are coming, including a shift to more individual accountability for pupils.

The board president and vice president of Maryland's largest school system called for a halt to the state's elementary and middle school testing program yesterday because of concerns about its reliability. "Growing concerns across Maryland -- not just in Montgomery County -- suggest that mandating the current test even one more year is not in the best interest of our state or our students," wrote Montgomery County school board President Reginald M. Felton and Vice President Patricia B. O'Neill in a letter to state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.

SILVER SPRING - Some Montgomery County teachers who graded recent MSPAP exams liken the experience to working in an academic sweatshop - one in which accuracy and fairness are far less important than racing through large numbers of tests at a pace too fast for much more than skimming. They say the assembly-line attitude and rampant inconsistencies are a distressing disconnect from the serious consequences for Maryland schools and schoolchildren on the annual high-stakes state tests. "I thought it would be scored in a fair way," said Shelly Turi, who teaches language arts at Oak View Elementary School in Silver Spring and scored tests in the summer of 2000, "but that was a wrong impression."