Derek Dixon learned algebra last school year by filling out worksheets. This year, he must figure out his chemistry homework by surfing the Internet.
A 10th-grader at Randallstown High School, Dixon said his education is marked these days by a lack of textbooks for homework, teachers who can't quiet noisy classmates, classwork that is uninteresting and crowded hallways where fights are common.
Dixon was among a group of students from Randallstown High School and Milford Mill Academy who sat down recently to discuss the factors that they believe conspire against their academic achievement. The two schools were among the worst performers in Baltimore County on recent assessment tests, finishing in the bottom third statewide.
In interviews, the students described schools where fights take place weekly in crowded hallways and where teachers get so frustrated with disruptive students that teaching stops. When there is instruction, they said, the material may be too easy or too difficult. And if teachers give homework, students often don't have textbooks to help them complete it.
"You go to class," Dixon said, "the teacher doesn't teach, the kids are talking the whole time, there aren't any requirements. All you have to do is show up."
Principals at the two schools said the students highlighted issues that are being - or soon will be - addressed. They emphasized, however, that most of the problems are caused by a few students, and that their schools have a number of high achievers.
Both Milford Mill and Randallstown High - west-side schools with predominantly African-American enrollments - have programs to help teachers manage classrooms, tutor students and prepare the teen-agers for high-stakes tests. The principals also said they have used strong discipline to quell outbursts and fights.
Norman S. Smith, principal at Milford Mill, said the school has textbooks for every student, but some teachers may choose not to send them home to make sure there are enough books available for classroom use.
Randallstown High just received $150,000 in new textbooks to eliminate a shortage there.
"There's hope, a great deal of hope," said Malcolm E. Cain, new principal at Randallstown High. "We just need to keep working hard, make it happen and get good people around us."
The five students who were interviewed were of different ages and attended a range of standard and advanced classes. All belong to a Randallstown youth group headed by Ella White Campbell, a community activist alarmed by the schools' results on the new Maryland High School Assessments, which measure school and student performance.
The HSA results, released this month, showed a wide gap between the county's best- and worst-performing high schools.
The students said it was no surprise that their high schools scored among the worst in Maryland.
Danielle Roane, a ninth-grader at Milford Mill, said one of her teachers calls students "buffoons" and "dummies," and her government class is often interrupted by students who talk on cell phones. She said the government teacher lectures on topics that she studied in seventh grade, such as the U.S. Constitution.
Roane said the only class where the work is interesting and the teacher takes time to explain hard-to-understand concepts is math: "Other classes, you're just sitting down and, based on stuff they'll give you, they say: 'Copy this down. We're having a test on this tomorrow.' And then the next day, we start a new subject. You have no time to grasp anything."
What Roane and others said they wanted were teachers who explain subject matter well, in appealing ways, and then take time to help them grasp the material if they don't understand it right away. The students emphasized that they have teachers who do this and many classmates who want to learn.
Leonette Jean-Baptiste, a junior at Milford Mill, loves her physiology and anatomy class because the teacher uses model skeletons, has students work in groups and gives a detailed lesson plan every week so students know what to expect.
Jean-Baptiste, who is in a magnet health program, was the least critical of the students interviewed.
Three of her six classes have fewer than 15 students. But her honors English and U.S. history classes have 30 students, which she said are "way too many," increasing the likelihood that someone will misbehave. "When it comes to the teacher teaching, there's always someone disrupting," she said. "By the time the class has ended, we don't have enough time and information to understand the test."
Mark Beytin, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, said he did not know specifics about the two schools and was not aware of the problems raised by the students.
While acknowledging there are steps that could address the issues, the principals at the two high schools said some of the problems had systemic causes, such as school crowding, high mobility of students and heavy teacher turnover.
Cheryl Pasteur, an assistant principal at Randallstown High, said administrators are trying to find extra time for staff development without forcing teachers to come in Saturdays. "I don't want anyone to think Randallstown is a horrid place. These are good children, and there are good teachers, and everyone is trying their best. But without the support of the community and the system - the total support - there won't be any hope."
In the interviews, students stressed that they often fear for their safety.
At Randallstown High and Milford Mill, students said there are frequent fights in the cafeteria and hallways, sometimes started by nothing more than an innocent bump.
"I walk down the hallways with fear and trembling, thinking I'm going to bump into somebody or somebody is going to bump into me," said Roane, the Milford Mill junior. "I don't want to fight."
Students at Randallstown High, which has nearly 1,700 students, said some hallways are so crowded that the principal or assistant principal must regulate use of a central stairway to clear up congestion. Students at Milford Mill, with an enrollment of almost 1,600, said hallways get so clogged there is barely room to walk.
The crowding makes it difficult, the students said, to be on time to classes that are on the other side of the building.
Classmates who linger in the halls show up late, delaying the start of instruction. Teaching is also interrupted by students who speak out during class, sometimes to curse at teachers.
The students said it takes some teachers as long as 15 minutes of a 45-minute class to get students settled and start teaching. But even after order is restored, outbursts occur.
That happens toward the end of Michael Turner's ninth-grade English class, frustrating his Randallstown High teacher. "Sometimes, he'll just stop teaching and go to his desk, so if we want to know how to do something, we have to go up to him," Turner said.
Students also complained about a lack of school resources.
Brandon Anderson, a junior at Randallstown High, said he can't refer to textbooks for his honors world history, honors English II and chemistry classes because there aren't enough books to take home.
"It means that for homework, you have to rely on the notes you took in class," said Anderson, who added that classroom computers often don't work.
Dixon, the Randallstown High 10th-grader, said he has textbooks in math and history, but not chemistry and English. So he has to look on the World Wide Web for answers to homework - when he gets homework. Dixon said he often does not get Algebra II homework. In his four other required classes, the teachers rarely collect the work they assign.
When disruptions don't take away from instruction, Dixon frequently finds what he's learning boring. In his algebra class last year, he said, the teacher would drill students for five minutes at the start and then have them fill out worksheets for the remaining time.
Dixon said he got A's and B's at Old Court Middle School but now struggles to get C's. In his mind, the reasons are clear: "The school in general is bad. Most of the teachers don't teach. They give you work and expect you to learn from it."
But to learn, Dixon said, he needs help.