White Students

By the start of classes in August 2011, white students in Howard County are expected to be a minority, joining those in Baltimore County. The two school systems are riding a demographic wave that carries broad implications for how students are taught. Baltimore County two years ago joined Baltimore City and Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles and Somerset counties as Maryland jurisdictions where minorities outnumber white students in public schools, although the development was little noticed at the time.

Baltimore County school board members say they're tired of talking about the wide achievement gap between black and white students. They want to do something to narrow it. "We've moved terribly slowly," said Sanford V. Teplitzky, the senior member of the board. "I'm really tired of reading the same reports we've been reading for years. "We need to set it as a priority and that means placing dollars toward it, placing resources toward it, meaning human and others." What will be done is unclear.

Many students are achieving greater academic success in Baltimore County public schools, but disparities persist between white and minority students, including the number of students taking challenging classes, according to a county school system report. The number of African-American students taking Advanced Placement courses in county schools doubled to 4 percent in 2005, while about 13 percent of white children took the classes, according to the Minority Achievement Report, published by the school system's Office of Equity and Assurance.

Just how effective is the squeaky wheel?White parents at Hillendale Elementary School found plenty of grease available when they complained that their children were denied admission to the new, high-tech Cromwell Valley Elementary School magnet program because of their race.Suddenly, Baltimore County school officials are promising to pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into Hillendale -- which is predominantly black -- and possibly make Hillendale a magnet school, too.Some Hillendale parents were surprised that they were able to extract the promises after only one meeting with Superintendent Stuart Berger.

Even before they open, two of Baltimore County's new magnet schools are drawing fire from families whose children were denied admission because of their race, their sex or the neighborhoods where they live.County school officials concede that race and sex played a part in their decisions.They say white students were denied admission to the programs to maintain the racial balance in their predominantly black neighborhood schools.But they say those choices were required by regulations governing a $2.26 million federal desegregation grant they are -- using to help staff and equip the magnet programs.

A recent article by staff writer Lan Nguyen reported on the preponderance of school suspensions given black students, particularly males. Nationally, black students were suspended in 1992 at three times the rate of whites. In Maryland, the gap was sometimes wider: In Harford and Howard counties, black students were suspended almost five times as often as non-blacks; in Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Carroll counties, blacks were punished at least twice as often.The good news: Educators have recognized a problem that needs to be addressed.

WASHINGTON -- The performance of most American elementary and high school students "is low and not improving" and most of them demonstrate an inability to think through problems on their own, according to a national "report card" issued yesterday by the Department of Education.The study, analyzing the achievement of children in the fourth, eighth and 12th grades, was termed "a compendium of disappointment" by Secretary of Education Lauro F. Cavazos, who said that parents must give more assistance to teachers to meet the "daunting challenge."

AN ATTENDANCE check from weeks 1 and 2 of the National Football League shows the lowest of the low -- fan-wise, that is -- would do far better if they moved to Baltimore.Week One, the Los Angeles Rams drew a little under 33,000 fans. Wow. That almost half-filled the Anaheim Stadium.Week Two, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers attracted fewer than 37,000 fans to a home game. Whoopee.Compare those numbers to the fan attraction of the no-name Baltimore CFL team. The game against Sacramento drew 42,000 at antiquated but beloved Memorial Stadium.

When the New York Stock Exchange opens today, it will be with the blessing of Anne Arundel County Superintendent Eric J. Smith, who is scheduled to be in town to receive a prestigious award for educators that includes a $25,000 cash prize. Smith and two other winners, selected by one of the nation's largest publishers of educational materials for their contributions in the field of education, will ring the bell that marks the start of the trading day. "I guess that's good news or bad news, depending on how well the market does tomorrow," Smith said yesterday before he left for the Big Apple, where he will receive the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education at a ceremony in the New York Public Library.

For the second time in two years, a group of African-American educators and community members has fired off an anxious letter to Baltimore County school officials asking them to enact bold classroom and curriculum reforms to help black students succeed academically. Schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston - the recipient of the most recent letter, sent almost a month ago - has yet to respond, said Ella White Campbell, a retired educator and Liberty Road community activist who is chairman of the Minority Achievement Advisory Group.