In Dezma George's green and yellow math classroom on the third floor of Arnett J. Brown Middle School, the forces of hardship clash with those of good intentions.
In this classroom, the battered, coverless algebra textbooks are commodities too precious to let children take them home. Flanking the rear of the room are five Tandy computers and a laser printer, bought with funds from a half-million-dollar state grant.
The ragged books are in use; the new computers are rarely used. Ms. George, the acting chairwoman of the math department, feels she hasn't had enough training or time to put them to work for her children. Besides, the printer has never worked.
They are riches whose promise is only partly fulfilled. This is a recurring theme and an irony at Arnett Brown. Despite two years of reform efforts monitored by the state, despite half a million dollars spent, Arnett Brown is designated for reforms again.
To be sure, learning takes place here, but not enough to lift test scores and attendance to satisfactory levels. This year, Arnett Brown ranked third from the bottom among Maryland's 198 middle schools, according to a state formula.
So, Feb. 1, the state ordered Baltimore to prepare a reform plan for the school -- or risk losing control of it.
The barriers to school success are well documented: low budgets, red tape, crime, poverty, community apathy. Some of these frustrations are in evidence at Arnett Brown, which sits on a knoll overlooking the placid Middle Branch in proud, working-class Cherry Hill.
It is a neighborhood with a median household income of $14,200, according to the 1990 census; where the home-ownership rate is 18 percent; where 81 percent of households with children have a single parent.
Community issues follow children to school. Some students are distracted by problems at home, by enormous peer pressures, by budding hormones, by troublemakers. Teachers try to help: One stocks health-food bars for students who are hungry. Another whispers warnings to teens who are discovering the opposite sex.
The teachers aren't alone in trying to improve the learning environment. Arnett Brown has a small PTA. It has an active school improvement team made up of parents, teachers and community members. Most say the school-reform program already under way may achieve its full potential if it is given time.
That program is the state's "Challenge Schools" effort, the source of the school's computers. Launched in 1992, it has earmarked millions of dollars for improvements in low-performing schools in the state.
Arnett Brown's plans sought a state-of-the-art computer lab and stations in several classrooms. The first phase was approved in August 1993. The equipment was not installed until last year. Teachers did not receive beginner training until May, putting the school behind schedule on meeting its planned objectives.
"There are things that you put in your plans and then real life intervenes," said Karen Casanova, chairwoman of the school's language arts department and co-chairwoman of the planning team.
Although classroom computers are not in full use, the school's computer lab is up and running. To get the lab going, Darlene Parran, a parent, joined the staff as manager. She had previously worked for the telephone company, and had some experience working with computers.
She is not, however, a technician. Several teachers said the school missed an opportunity to hire a technician when, for unexplained reasons, the funds were briefly held up at the city level.
Teacher training needed
Last week, as English teacher James Poney asked the computer to print out homework tailored for each student in the lab, the printer failed. A second class started and ended before the printer resumed working.
"The parent does well, and we appreciate what she does," he said as his hopes for a quick solution faded, "but a technician would have been on target."
Although most students seem comfortable with the technology, some teachers are not. Training continues with coaches from the computer vendor, but some teachers say they need more.
Others, including Ms. Casanova, have put tools to work. She brought in computer software from home for fun vocabulary exercises, such as crosswords. She rewards students with computer game time when they successfully finish classwork.
And she uses the computer for class projects: Last week, for example, she printed out a list of more than 200 essay topics proposed by her writing students. Arnett Brown's improvement plan covers more than computers, she says. It is comprehensive, specifying tactics and target dates into 1997 for improving reading, writing and math scores as well as attendance. Team members devoted dozens of hours at night and on weekends to developing the plan.
"Why did they put us through all that?" asked PTA President Tracy McQuay, referring to milestones already met and to the Feb. 1 announcement by the state slating Arnett Brown for more. Students and teachers vented their frustration in the days after the announcement.
"It's like they are saying we're failures, but this is a good school," said Lynnika Branch, 13, an eighth-grader.
Karen Ganjon, the state's administrator for the voluntary Challenge program, said Arnett Brown would not be asked to start over. The team could expand on its current plan.
"They have a foundation on which to build," said Ms. Ganjon. That framework is in many ways more valuable than the grant money, she said. "What we were able to give will last for a lifetime."
The reform plan ordered this month is an order that city officials have resisted, primarily because it does not guarantee funding, as did the Challenge program.
"It should be clear to people who have been to these schools that the primary problem is a lack of resources," said Phillip H. Farfel, Baltimore school board president. He points to the Challenge program as a state reform that was welcome.
The Challenge grant reform program set the school academic goals that have not yet been achieved. It provided needed tools and a plan for making good use of them, but did not address equally significant challenges presented by the children's needs.
At Arnett Brown "we do our best with the limited resources we have," said school principal Reginald Turner.
The school has about 35 teachers and one counselor for its 511 students, including two classes of emotionally troubled students. Classrooms with up to 35 students do not have assistants. The art and industrial arts teachers were not replaced when they left. In music, only vocal instruction is offered; the cost of renting instruments is too high.
Low expectations hurt
Idame McCormick, an alumna, reluctantly moved her daughter from Arnett Brown to a private school this year.
"My daughter was not as challenged educationally as she should have been," Ms. McCormick said. She wanted the girl to have access to better resources, from books to art, music, counseling and health programs, she said.
"Part of the problem is low expectations" held by some in the school system, which thwart students' ability to reach their full academic potential, she said.
She does not lay the blame on teachers, many of whom are overworked, she said.
She and Ms. McQuay, an alumna who is the school's volunteer attendance monitor as well as PTA president, try to recruit parents to help.
She also praised Arnett Brown's programs, especially Project Success, a homework-help program in which students may earn tuition to attend Baltimore City Community College.
Reforms must tap the underused potential of parental involvement, she added. But first, fences must be mended. The battle between Baltimore and the state over funding for restructuring troubled schools has left many in Cherry Hill angered.
Last Thursday, parents had planned to meet to discuss the lTC state's reform order. On the afternoon of the meeting, Baltimore school officials ordered it canceled.
About 12 parents and community members gathered anyway in the basement of nearby Hemingway Temple African Methodist Church. They demanded an apology from absent Baltimore school officials for locking them out of their school.
"We wanted the parents to wait until we can reach an agreement with the state," Mr. Farfel said during an interview late last week. "At this point, we want them to know: We support you, we're challenging this for you; we want the improvements to be done with you getting additional dollars."