Testing Program

In a move toward greater accountability, the state school board ordered all Maryland second-, fourth- and sixth-graders yesterday to take an annual national test of basic skills.The decision marks the state's first effort to ensure that all pupils receive individual standardized test scores. State officials plan to develop a new testing report card that would inform parents of their children's marks on the national test and scores from other tests.Maryland's current testing program for third-, fifth- and eighth-graders -- known as the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP)

WASHINGTON -- Lockheed Martin Corp.'s troubled THAAD Army missile program missed its target yesterday for the sixth straight test despite a year of preparation and enormous pressure to succeed.The Bethesda-based defense company stands to forfeit $15 million in expenses for the failure. The Pentagon so far has spent about $3.8 billion on the $14 billion program.The stakes could hardly have been higher for what is intended to be the premier defense against ballistic missiles for U.S. troops in the field.

SHOULD AMERICAN schoolchildren be given standardized national educational tests? I believe they should, and I will tell you exactly why: Because I am not a schoolchild. I am strongly in favor of things that I, personally, do not have to do. Childbirth is another example.The testing program was proposed by President Clinton, who has been proposing new programs as fast as he can think them up, because he desperately wants to be remembered by posterity for some achievement other than being investigated and jogging around in shorts the size of a wedding tent.

Digene Corp. said yesterday that it is in discussions with the Mexican Ministry of Health for a contract to supply its new test for monitoring HIV patients to a public health program.The possibility of the deal is the result of recent 90-day clinical evaluations by Mexican health officials in which a number of companies' HIV tests were reviewed. Digene's test was rated the most reliable and easiest to use, the company said.The announcement drove Digene shares up 37.5 cents yesterday to close at $12.375.

A state Senate committee is expected to approve a bill that would keep Maryland's treadmill-like emissions test voluntary, despite the Glendening administration's push to make it mandatory.At a Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee hearing yesterday, members voiced concern about the dynamometer emissions test damaging cars because the engines would be run at high speeds. The lawmakers complained that they haven't seen sufficient evidence that the dynamometer is more accurate than the tailpipe test that is required now."

Moving to meet federal air-quality standards, the state will push ahead with plans to require most Maryland motorists to have their cars tested on treadmill-like devices beginning in June, Gov. Parris N. Glendening announced yesterday.Despite some opposition from legislators and critics who say the dynamometer test is an unnecessary intrusion, the governor said that "it's time to proceed.""We've got to do something to be more effective with the air quality in Maryland," the governor said.

Signs of trouble in Maryland's school testing program arrived with the 1995 scores.Six months after the students had hunkered down for the problem-solving exercises, the test results for a few schools soared while most others improved modestly or not at all.Officials who had praised the dramatic scores now acknowledge they were too good to be true.An investigation of the 1995 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) test has revealed cheating incidents, lapses in monitoring and misunderstood directions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed yesterday to force smog reductions in the mid-Atlantic region, putting renewed pressure on Maryland to require controversial motor vehicle emissions tests in the Baltimore and Washington areas.In papers filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, the EPA reached a tentative settlement of a lawsuit filed in June by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, which accused federal officials of failing to enforce the federal Clean Air Act.The suit, brought on behalf of several environmental groups and local residents, charged that the EPA had let Maryland and neighboring states miss legally required deadlines for reducing ozone, the chief component in summertime smog, in the Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia metropolitan areas.

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.

THERE IS MORE than meets the eye to many jobs. Often, what the public sees is very different from what the job actually requires. Just ask Phyllis Coffman, deli manager at Martin's Food Store in Eldersburg.Late last spring, Ms. Coffman participated in a nationwide testing program for deli managers. The test is in booklet form and covers all aspects of a deli manager's job, from sanitation regulations and employee management to questions about the products sold in the deli.The results of the test were published in the September issue of Progressive Grocer magazine.