A petition signed by more than half of Baltimore County's teachers, who are opposed to a progress reporting system that the school district began implementing this fall, was presented to state legislators Thursday afternoon.
The petition, which says that AIM should not be required at any grade level or for any subject, bears 5,316 teacher signatures from union members and nonmembers, and more signatures are arriving daily, said Cheryl Bost, head of the Teachers Union of Baltimore County.
The county school system has 8,800 teachers.
The reporting system, called the Articulated Instruction Module, is designed to keep track of what each child has learned in class. Teachers say AIM is time-consuming and would require them to answer dozens of questions each quarter about each of their students.
Superintendent Joe A. Hairston has backed away from making AIM mandatory this quarter, saying that he would appoint a committee to study the issue. Hairston is expected to discuss the reporting system at the county school board meeting Tuesday.
The petition was presented to the school board on Tuesday and to Baltimore County lawmakers in Annapolis on Thursday. Bost said she promised teachers who signed the petition that their names would not be given to the administration, so the petition was shown to the legislators and board members but not turned over to them.
After the Baltimore County delegation's hearing on AIM, state Sen. James Brochin said he expects Hairston to listen to teachers.
"It certainly seemed that many of my colleagues felt AIM was overreaching," Brochin said. "Enough is enough."
While county teachers and parents testified, he said, Hairston was unable to attend because of a physical therapy appointment. He had knee surgery recently.
Brochin said some members of the delegation had wanted Hairston to send school board representatives or high-level administrators to the hearing. Hairston sent Edward Novak, the liaison between the district and other government agencies.
In addition, Baltimore County Council members have written to Hairston asking for a briefing on AIM.