educators

Acting U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. addressed a national conference in Baltimore on Saturday and promised to do more to give educators leadership opportunities.

Over the past year, the Baltimore County school system has dismantled the gifted program in elementary school, placing advanced children in classes with lower-achieving peers. Teachers are expected to teach at all levels by breaking students into groups according to ability.

Two faculty members at Mount St. Mary's University have their jobs back after an international uproar after their firings earlier this week.

The national political arm of Maryland's largest teachers union, one of the state's most politically active labor groups, endorsed state Sen. Jamie Raskin's bid for Maryland's 8th Congressional District on Thursday.

Some alumni are calling for the ouster of the president of Mount St. Mary's University after two faculty members were fired and the provost demoted amid a growing controversy at the small Catholic college in Western Maryland.

Carroll County residents will have plenty of candidates to choose from in this year's election for two seats on the county's Board of Education.

A bill introduced in the General Assembly Thursday would limit standardized testing for kindergarten students and prevent any future testing of prekindergarten students.

Two Hickory Elementary School teachers have been named Northeastern Maryland Technology Council (NMTC) 2016 award recipients and will be honored during an evening gala on February 25, 2016. The NMTC Visionary Awards program celebrates those whose volunteer efforts contribute to building a STEM-educated workforce and to advancing technology and innovation. The combination of the two provide significant and rewarding careers for today's youth.

The Baltimore County school board voted Tuesday night to give its superintendent another four year contract.

Baltimore County's school board is expected to take a vote Tuesday on whether its ambitious, young superintendent should get another contract to continue the wide-ranging and sometimes bitterly fought changes he has instituted in the past several years.

Joan Hammonds, a longtime Baltimore City teacher who served as executive assistant to the school district's interim CEO, died last week of unknown causes at Good Samaritan Hospital, her son said. She was 65.

After enrollment in Baltimore public schools unexpectedly dropped following years of growth, officials are bracing for nearly $30 million in funding cuts and investigating whether hundreds of students were mistakenly kept on the rolls.

The weather related postponement of Monday's Harford County Board of Education meeting means board members will have another week to mull over Superintendent Barbara Canavan's proposed operating budget for the 2016-17.

Elizabeth R. Evans, a former Baltimore County public school educator who later taught in the ESOL program, died Tuesday of colon cancer at her Ruxton home. She was 77.

Sister Marie Foley, 86, a retired Mercy High School faculty member who counseled students for four decades, died Friday of Alzheimer's disease complications at her order's retirement convent.

Few people showed up to previous Harford County Board of Education work sessions and public input meetings on the school system's proposed budget for fiscal 2017, but county residents were out in force Tuesday evening, as about 80 people attended the third and final public input session at the Epicenter in Edgewood.

Last April a first-grade teacher at Elmer Wolfe Elementary School was surprised on national television when she was given a $20,000 check from "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" for her school.

After years of bitter disagreements from all sides in the education arena, a new approach is evolving. This one calls for harmony among the many voices trying to improve things for children. And though it's impossible to paper over real differences, there is a set of common goals that's resonating for groups as diverse as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Teach for America (TFA).

Baltimore County school Superintendent Dallas Dance, who has asked that his contract be renewed, denied reports Tuesday that he has applied to be the next superintendent in Montgomery County.

The chief of Howard County schools has unveiled her most ambitious operating budget proposal since taking office in 2012. Superintendent Renee Foose's request of $838.7 million for fiscal year 2017 represents a $62.3 million and 8 percent increase over the current year's approved budget, and includes funding for 56 new positions to support enrollment growth.

Teachers across Howard County are getting creative when it comes to physical education. Though many schools still offer traditional units like basketball and soccer, more are incorporating activities like golf, bicycling and even obstacle courses into their classes.

Teacher pay will be an issue this year in at least three suburban school systems as superintendents and union leaders prepare to seek salary increases.

I question the ability of teachers focused on the negative to change and adapt given the mobile landscape of teaching, learning, curriculum, testing and teacher evaluation. I wonder if they have an open mind to change — a growth mindset, seeking to understand what is possible, rather than what is wrong; seeking to understand changes and being part of the solution rather than a victim of circumstance.

Carroll County public school teachers spent the days leading up to the school system's winter break walking out of school collectively after the official end of their work day to show support for the county teacher's union as they negotiate a new contract for their members with the school system.

Nancy Grasmick: Let our New Year's resolution be for every Maryland teacher to receive the information they need about how their students' brains develop and function, and the ability to incorporate this knowledge into everyday instruction.

Maryland lawmakers said Monday that they are planning stepped-up budget oversight and possibly new laws to respond to shortcomings in the state's system for providing education to juvenile offenders.

A state task force is looking at ways to improve the education of immigrant students. It is weighing several options, including expanding teacher training and creating a central repository of resources for teachers. Officials are also working to come up with less punitive ways to hold schools accountable for achievement of newly arrived students.

A week after a controversial vote to close schools to reduce ongoing operating expenses, members of Carroll County's Board of Education have said employee compensation is going to by the primary focus of upcoming budget talks in 2016.

When teacher Suzanne Eldridge saw children performing at Disney World during a family trip almost 10 years ago, she knew she had to find a way to give her students that same opportunity.

Baltimore is divided not by race or by class, but by the people who do not understand the communities, turning away the people who do. From policing to housing, from transportation to schools, the deep inequities in our systems can be undone only by our community members.

Commissioners promised this long-overdue teacher salary issue would be addressed if the school board took the dramatic steps to close those three schools. Now that the school board has done so, we think raises needs to be the first thing on the agenda.

On Tuesday night, the Howard County Educators Association announced that it is recommending Columbia resident Kirsten Coombs as a school board canddiate. Next year, the four-year terms of members Janet Siddiqui, Ann De Lacy and vice chairwoman Ellen Flynn Giles will expire, leaving three openings on the Howard County Board of Education that the county's citizens will vote on in 2016.

Johns Hopkins University will spend $25 million in the next five years to better recruit and maintain minority faculty, among other moves aimed at increasing campus diversity.

If we want to make our children competitive, the best advantage we can give them is the ability to concentrate and to become deep-thinking problem-solvers, not digital drones.

Understanding Sacrifice program teaches students about role of deceased WWII vets

After years of research and the help of legislators and the advocacy group CASA de Maryland, Prince George's County launched a model they think will work: two immigrant-only high schools. Across the nation, more than 20 of these schools have been created to give immigrants a better chance of getting through high school — and ultimately, making it to college and landing good jobs.

Oklahoma Road Middle physical education teacher Mike Golden motivated seventh-grader Haley Benson as she inched up a vertical rope hanging from the gym ceiling Wednesday morning.

After four years of wheel-spinning with school officials, it is time to consider a different course of action. Effective immediately, I am asking school officials to break away from the government salary administration mentality, and consider focusing the vast majority of the school system's limited salary increase dollars into a one-time permanent salary increase of perhaps twice the traditional amount for the majority of our teachers at the lower end of the teaching scale. This will have the

News from students and schools in Carroll County.

Robert Miller taught band in Howard County for 34 years until his retirement this spring. Now he is pursuing another role in the county's schools as a member of the Board of Education.

Dozens of teachers at Frederick Douglass High School are the latest affected by payroll pains in the Baltimore city school system.

Baltimore school students have it tough enough without being able to tell good teachers from bad

While the average score on last year's PARCC English and math exams was dismally low for secondary students in public schools across Maryland, Harford County Public Schools students scored well above the state average, according to test results released Thursday afternoon.

Call your Congress members and demand that they take teacher evaluation mandates out of ESEA. Tell them your stories about the value your child's teachers add to his life. We all want our kids to be seen as learners and as the fantastic young people they are, not as numbers in data sets, which is what kids and their teachers are reduced to as long as this system remains.

The Dawsons, who have been married for three years, are caught in the middle of one of Baltimore's most storied and unique battles. The football teams clash Saturday at McDonogh in the 100th rivalry game between the two. Chris Dawson will be on the visiting sidelines. Lucy Dawson will be in the McDonogh stands with the couple's 1-year-old daughter, Eleanor. Chris' parents are coming to the game and will be somewhere in between.