Season Four of The Wire is focused on education. Although it touches all types and contexts of education, from that of the corner to that of the classroom, the ostensible focus of the season is on the Baltimore public schools. The narrative follows Roland Pryzbylewski from his job in the Baltimore City police to Edward Tilghman Middle School. Writer Ed Burns based much of this story on his own experience in City public schools, which he, like Mr. “Prezbo”, joined after retiring from the BPD. Compared to inner-city teaching, Burns has stated, policing was a walk in the park. He even likened his educational work to serving in the infantry in Vietnam.
Season Four gives us a grim picture of Baltimore City public schools. On the administrative side, schools are overcrowded, underfunded and shorthanded. The facilities are outdated and materials are sparse. Through the eyes of Namond, Duquan, Michael and Randy, we see the experiences of students in these establishments; violence, drug use and rape are commonplace. Home lives are erratic and often fraught with substance addiction and abuse. City schools have the seemingly insurmountable task of overcoming all of these detriments and difficulties to actually engage these students and teach them something. Burns concedes that formal learning is difficult to achieve; but “when they see the adult who’s consistent, who’s always there, who always comes through with what he said, then that’s a new world for them.” (www.hbo.com).
In this project, we will examine the current realities of the public school system in Baltimore. First, we will present a historical analysis discussing the development of City schools and how they came to be the way that they are today. Next we will discuss the institutional and socio-cultural issues plaguing the district, things both inside and outside the walls of the schools that complicate educational progress. Finally, we will look at the effects of legislative reform, focusing on the No Child Left Behind Act, but also bringing in other, more localized initiatives. In providing this information, we hope to present a solid base of knowledge to supplement the viewing of Season Four of The Wire.
History of Baltimore City Public Schools:

The history of the Baltimore City public schools has evolved through many different periods of hardship as well as growth.  The creation of the general school law of 1826 was the first move towards public education in that it gave the mayor and City Council of Baltimore to establish a system of public schools.  This really marked the beginning of the schooling system in Baltimore and two years later in 1828 the Board of Commissioners of Public Schools was created.  This board was meant to create and maintain the system of free public schools in Baltimore. The first Baltimore public school was opened in 1829 and there was an enrollment of 269 by the end of that year with three schools open.  For the next ten years, the attendance of schools was sporadic and the board was having difficulties in expanding the existing schooling system.  Then in 1839 there were two important steps in the growth of the public education system in Baltimore, which were the hiring of assistant teacher in order to reduce the class size and also the founding of the first secondary school in Baltimore.
Baltimore public schools then experienced a period of growth and development in what is known as the formative period, which is from 1839 to 1866.  The position of the Superintendent of Public Instruction was created on June 20, 1866 when the office of the treasurer was eliminated.  The secondary schools in Baltimore began to allow admission to girls and the class system was instituted in the schools.  Baltimore experienced a problem during this time that is still prevalent today, which is that the schools were very crowded.  While attendance continued to increase, the dropouts were increasing at the same time and were a cause for concern.  The growth of the public school system in Baltimore significantly slowed down following this formative period until 1900.  The public school system was affected by the politics present in Baltimore considering that the real authority over the schooling system was the City Council.  But in 1898, the New Charter of Baltimore City created a Department of Education in order to attempt to protect the schools from the control of politicians.  One of the few accomplishments following the formative period was the creation of the colored schools.  But this period from 1866 to 1900 was marked by growth of the school population, which was 64,720 by 1900 compared to 18,307 in 1866, while the facilities were deteriorating at the same time.  The overpopulation in the classrooms led to health concerns and became a focus for the advancement of the public school system.
At the turn of the century, the public school system in the city was marred by overpopulation in the classrooms and a need for more independence from the politicians.  At this point in time, the schools began the transition from traditional teachings to a modernization of the schools.  Superintendent James Van Sickle, who was in that position from 1900 to 1911, led this modernization of the schools.  Van Sickle created greater uniformity among the various public schools in the city and attempted to improve the administration and teachers.  Then in 1912, the concern of the amount of dropouts led to an attendance law that raised the compulsory school age to 14 years.  Another influential Superintendent was Henry West (1920-1925) and he instituted the 6-3-3 system to the public education in Baltimore.  Henry West also launched a new school building program considering the large population of students and also improved the salaries of teachers, which were still not great.  The student population by 1925 had grown to 96,630 while the number of schools was 150 at the same time.  This period also experienced a problem that is exhibited in The Wire and can be seen throughout urban education, which is that the system was short of properly trained personnel.  The public education system in the city then experienced progressive development from 1925 to 1956.  The curriculum was changed in order to fit the needs of the pupils and the whole school system became a unified system under the direction of Superintendent David Weglein.  But this period was also characterized by the growth of the system due to the construction of new facilities.  The major change in the schooling system in Baltimore occurred in 1954 when the desegregation of schools occurred.
Following the decision to integrate the schools based on the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, the Baltimore school student body became majority black in 1960.  This integration of the schools and the fact that the schools were majority black created a vast amount of white flight.  One example of this was Clifton Park Junior high school, which was 98% white just after desegregation and ten years later the school had only 12 white students out of a student body of 2,516.  This white flight not only affected the diversity of schools but also hurt the investments that suburban schools used to receive from these people.  During this time of white flight, the education of blacks was being hurt as well considering that from 1959 to 1965 the average IQ’s of blacks was decreasing while whites IQ’s were increasing.  By 1964, Baltimore city was one of the lower cities in terms of teacher’s salaries and was spending on average $68 per student less than Baltimore County was.  This is due to the fact that Baltimore was the seventh largest public school system in the country with 190,000 students.  With this large number of students, there were still unsatisfactory facilities considering that 30% of the schools were built in the 1880’s.  Also in 1967 there was an investigation into the Baltimore schools and the NEA said that the schools were “so extremely deficient that many children…are being denied the minimum level of educational opportunity,” while teachers’ salaries and working conditions “are so deficient that it is unreasonable to expect professional teachers to continue their struggle, against virtually impossible odds, to educate the children.” (http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/From_ the_Oldorder3.asp ) Then in 1968, Mayor D’Alesandro launched a $133 million school construction plan in response to the many issues in the system.  Following this school construction plan, the first black superintendent, Ronald Patterson, was hired in 1971.  Patterson was not widely popular but was able to decentralize the school system into nine administrative regions, but this would later be dismantled by John Crew.  But the worst year by far for the schooling system was in 1974 when there was a month long strike by the teachers.  During this time, 85% of the Baltimore parents kept their children away from the schools and at home.  The education system was able to be turned around due to the firing of Patterson and the hiring of John Crew as the new Superintendent in 1976.  Crew salvaged the system by creating his own proficiency tests on top of the required tests in order to generate what he called “instructional intensity”.  But eventually, the financial crisis returned to the system and Crew was forced to layoff 500 teachers by 1977 and this financial crisis plagued the system for the next decade.  There also continued to be a problem with drop-outs and in 1980 it was reported that there were 14,000 daily absences in the city schools.  By 1987, the city public schools had fallen much further behind the Baltimore County schools both on funding and achievement that the then Superintendent, Alice Pinderhughes, said that the city needed $157 million just to be even with the county.  Many issues such as inadequate budgets, bloated bureaucracies, poor teachers, unwilling students, inattentive parents, poor security, and shortages of books and supplies plagued the schools in Baltimore at this time.  Richard Hunter replaced Pinderhughes in 1988 and immediately starting cutting costs by laying off full-time positions.  But Hunter’s attempts to salvage the system as a whole were not that successful.  The first major step in the right direction was in 1997 when the state legislature passed Senate Bill 795.  This established a nine-member Board of School Commissioners appointed by the mayor and this reform effort was given a $700 million budget.  Robert Schiller was hired to run the reformation of the school system and while looking at the system he noticed that there was a lot of work to be done.  In 1997, only 13.5% of the 109,000 students were performing satisfactorily according to the MSPAP.  Schiller created a five-year plan in order to turn the schools around, which was aimed at student achievement and school system management.  Financial crises, student dropouts, under-trained teachers, violence, and poor student achievement for most of its history have plagued Baltimore city.

Links (all information taken from here):
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/Early_Schools.asp
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/Early_Public_Ed.asp
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/Develop_of_Public_Ed.asp
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/Develop_of_Public_Ed.asp
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/Meeting_the_Challenges.asp
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/From_the_Oldorder1.asp
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/NewEra1.asp

Institutional Issues

School Attendance:

Attendance is indicative of a number of scholastic and cultural issues. On one side, school attendance illustrates how engaging, welcoming and safe a school feels to students. If youths do not feel wanted, secure or that they are learning anything, they will have little motivation to attend class. This is exacerbated by a cultural sentiment that school is not important. At times, parents are absent and neglect to send their children to school, while at other times, the walk to school is be long and dangerous, discouraging youth from making it every day.

Frequent truancy complicates the teachers’ jobs in that students absent students are not learning the material and easily fall behind. This also slows the rate of learning for those who do attend regularly. Those who are out of school also often participating in illicit activities and many find themselves entrenched in the Juvenile justice system at a relatively young age.

Additionally, a 2008 study at Arizona State University found that, beginning in kindergarten, a student’s inconsistent school attendance denoted a higher likelihood that he or she will drop out of high school (http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/1185).

The Maryland statute (Section 7-301 of the Education Article) on school attendance reads: “Any person who has legal custody or care and control of a child five years old and under 16, who fails to see that the child attends school or receives instruction under this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and:
(i) a first conviction is subject to a fine not to exceed $50.00 per day of unlawful absence or imprisonment not to exceed ten days, or both;
(ii) a second or subsequent conviction is subject to a fine not to exceed $100 per day of unlawful absence or imprisonment not to exceed 30 days, or both.” Because most school-aged children are minors, all legal responsibility is placed on their guardians to ensure that they attend school regularly. But for students whose parents are neglectful or absent, there is simply no motivation to attend.

•    2007-2008 Baltimore city average attendance: 90%
•    2007-2007 Maryland state average attendance: 94%
(http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/md/district_profile/3/#finance)

Frequent use of disciplinary suspensions in city schools has many of the same ultimate effects as inattendance, in that students are out of class and falling behind. Additionally, these students are often the most at risk and they away from the schools and unable to be helped by services and resources.

High School Dropouts:

Due to superior resources, including better teachers and facilities, and increased community involvement, the graduation rate is notably higher and the dropout rate is notably lower in Baltimore County than at city schools.
•    Baltimore City 2007-2008 (http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/news/PDF/BCPSoOHSFINAL.pdf)
o    62.6% graduation rate, 7.9% dropout rate
•    Baltimore County 2007-2008 (http://www.bcps.org/board/exhibits/2009/012709ExhibitK.PDF)
o    81.9% graduation rate, 4.3% dropout rate

One study found that high school dropouts in Maryland cost the state about $ 42 million every year, the majority of whom originate in the Baltimore city area
(http://www.mdpolicy.org/research/pubID.207/pub_detail.asp)

Nutrition:

While nutrition has been a popular issue in all public school settings recently, the issue is especially prominent in urban centers. Inner-city schools tend to have more students eating free or reduced-price meals and this food has traditionally been unhealthy and of low quality. Growing awareness of child obesity, especially among poorer populations, has sparked a push for better food in American public schools.

The City School’s nutrition goals are as follows:
“We stand committed to our students’ health and well-being and not only offer healthy entrees, but also offer nutritious choices through our line of healthy snacks and a la carte items. In addition and as a result of the Local Wellness Policy, you can expect to see the following Nutrition Standards:
•    Our school meals and snacks meet and exceed federal and state nutrition standards
o    Snacks are served or sold in single serving portions and exceed federal and state regulation by meeting ≤ 7 grams of total fat, ≤ 2 grams of saturated fat, and ≤ 15 grams of sugar
o    The serving of foods with minimized trans and saturated fats, sodium and sugar
o    The serving of whole grain products, low and fat-free milk, and fresh fruits and vegetables
o    Limits on all foods sold in vending machines and school stores
o    The reinforcement of healthy eating habits when considering celebrations, rewards, or other school sanctioned events or fundraisers”
(http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/School_info/Lunch/menus.asp)

Free and Reduced-Price Meal Program:

Those eligible for free meals are “Children in households getting Food Stamps or TCA and foster children can get free meals regardless of your income. Also, your children can get free price meals if your household income is within the free limits on the Federal Income Guidelines.” Reduced price lunches are available to students who families fall within appropriate brackets on the Federal Income Chart (< $44,641 total income for a family of 5).

Below are the 2007 statistics on the number of students in Baltimore City schools that partake in free or reduced price meal programs.

Participation Data:    2007
Schools sites    196
Student Enrollment    85,072
Breakfasts    17,825 (20.95%)
Lunches    44,925 (52.81%)
After- School Snacks sites               219
After- School Snacks    2,688 (3.16%)
http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/School_Info/lunch/nutprogram.asp

Drinking Water:

Symptomatic of the financial troubles of Baltimore City schools, outdated facilities and plumbing have made lead content in drinking water a prevalent issue. In November 2007, Dr. Andres Alonso instituted a plan to discontinue use of current drinking fountains, instead providing drinking water to all students, faculty and staff. In the past, schools would test water fountains and shut off any with unsafe levels of lead, using bottled water dispensers only where necessary. But with inconsistent test results of various outlets, especially ones that had recently been replaced, the BCPSS CEO found it prudent to switch fully to bottled water. Alonso stated that, “It is more cost effective to provide bottled water than to continue to flush, test, and review hundreds of water fountains across the school system each year.”

Despite the plan’s ultimate cost-inefficiency, the dire situation of Baltimore schools coupled with the disrepair of the city educational facilities have made this plan a necessity to save money while also providing safe drinking water: “A financial review showed that the cost of bottled drinking water for the school system is expected to be approximately $675,000 per year.  By comparison, the school system is paying approximately $350,000 for bottled water in schools without adequate numbers of working fountains, $275,000 for staff and consultants to oversee the testing program, and $50,000 for laboratory analysis.  In addition, hundreds of custodians spend time flushing each water fountain every day, and many other school system and health department employees are involved in reviewing and approving results.”
(http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/News/PDF/Lead_in_Water110707.pdf)

Other Issues:

Teachers are an integral part of engaging students and maintaining their interest, motivation and attendance. Instructors with more experience and education are generally better able to attend to the needs of their students, therefore teacher credentialing is a notable issue within City schools. In its dire need for instructors, the district will hire any educated person willing to teach there. This had led to a plethora of inexperienced or uncertified teachers throughout the City school system. Advanced degrees have proven especially important in instructing higher-level high school classes, especially math and science. Many City teachers have only emergency credentials, giving them less education and classroom experience upon their entering into schools.

•    Advanced professional certificate
o    Baltimore City: 31%, State average 47 %
•    Standard professional certificate
o    Baltimore City: 20%, State average 33 %
(http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/md/district_profile/3/)

A factor that can hinder academic success from the beginning is school preparedness. According to the state results for 2008, 64.9 % of youths entered kindergarten with the necessary intellectual and behavioral skills for their level. This is a marked increase over last year’s 57.1 % and a monumental gain since 2003, with only 26.5 % preparedness. Improvements are thanks largely to the availability of pre-K programs for low-income families.
(http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/News/PDF/MMSRpressrelease32709.pdf).

Links

Education blog maintained by a variety of Baltimore Sun reporters http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/

Social Setbacks:

In an HBO interview, Edward Burns describes his experiences in the Baltimore City classroom and how he transfers these experiences onto Season four of The Wire.  The interview highlights the range of social issues interfering with the learning process in these areas:

HBO
Can you describe the classroom a bit? Why is it so challenging?

BURNS
Well, it’s how damaged these kids are. I mean, it’s profound. You get a class of 35 kids, of which five or six are thugs—what the DSM calls “oppositionally defiant children.” So they’re fighting and disruptive and cursing you like sailors.

Everybody’s in motion. The educational range in a classroom, if you’re teaching 8th grade, is probably from the first grade to the sixth grade. So you have students who can’t read a lick to kids who maybe can read on the sixth grade level.

Their needs are so phenomenal on the educational level. And then, as you get to know them, you realize that that is just the crust on the cake. Kids are seeing people killed in front of them. In the first year I was teaching, there were 120 kids in our group; thirteen had been shot. This was in seventh grade. Lots had been stabbed. All of them had been abused, one way or the other. So when you put them in a classroom with a curriculum that doesn’t compute with their world, everybody has a way of surviving, right?

You have the small boy who becomes a doll for the girls, they’re playing with his hair. Other kids are reading magazines, drawing on their desks. Kids are spitting sunflower seeds on the floor. Other kids are drinking vodka from what you thought was a water bottle. And the noise level makes it very difficult for anything to progress.

You’d have to keep them off-guard like a boxer, you know. And every once in a while you get a little sliver of a moment to teach. But what you’re actually doing is modeling a caring behavior. (http://www.hbo.com/thewire/interviews/ed_burns.shtml)

Here, Burns touches on several social issues that teachers and students face in the inner city school system: violence in and outside of the classroom, wide range of skills, conflicting cultural experiences, problems in the home and community, and drug and alcohol abuse, among others.  The question then arises: how do we navigate these social problems in order to provide a legitimate learning environment for inner city children?  The first step is to gain a better understanding of the social issues at hand.

Violence and Security:

One of the most prevalent setbacks in the urban educational environment is the frequent occurrence of violence in the school setting.  We see a small glimpse of this violent atmosphere when an angry middle school girl attacks Chiquan with a razor blade in Prez’s math class.  To the audience, Chiquan writhing on the floor as blood gushes from her face is a shockingly horrifying moment of dramatic violence.  However, in the Baltimore City School District and many other inner city schools throughout the country, such violent incidents have become a regular occurrence.
A Baltimore Sun article describes a violent incident in which a city art teacher was violently beaten by a female student while students cheered.  While tragic, the incident called attention to the widespread violence in inner city schools that often goes unnoticed.  After repeated complaints to school officials about assaults on teachers, Gen. Bennie E. Williams, chief of staff to schools chief Andres Alfonso, has agreed to form a task force on teacher assaults.  Why have these incidents been going largely unreported for so long?  “The teachers union has long asserted that city school administrators aren’t reporting violent incidents or doing enough to punish children who are violent, for fear their schools will be labeled “persistently dangerous” under the federal No Child Left Behind Act…meaning it must offer students the option to transfer elsewhere.”  (www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.md.ci.teacher10sapr10,0,601646.story).
The following day, Chief Executive Officer, Andres Alfonso, released a press statement regarding safe learning communities.  In the press release, he reiterated:
Our discipline codes call for immediate action to address any incident that interferes with the learning process.  Any allegation of an assault on staff or physical altercation results in an internal investigation and response, with consequences ranging from long-term suspension to expulsion, and/or legal action…We will continue to focus our efforts to make sure our students and teachers feel safe and are focused on learning. (http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/News/PDF/CEO_statement_safety08.pdf).
There are several possible solutions to the high rates of violence in inner city schools, but none of them offer the perfect solution.  In 2007, the Baltimore City Council approved a resolution to encourage the Baltimore City Public School system to install security cameras in all public schools.  However, a Faith in Action article opposes this resolution, arguing, “These cameras have not proved to be effective in deterring vandalism and anti-social behavior in the 53 schools in our city that already have security cameras…I question investing 8-10 million dollars in cameras when students in Baltimore’s public schools still don’t have the basic items that they need to achieve.” (http://faithinactiononline.com/2007/04/30/security-cameras-in-baltimore-schools-still-wont-work/).
A more popular initiate involves reducing school size.  “The long-term solution to the fights and fires of Baltimore’s schools, officials and experts say, is simply a matter of size,” report Liz Bowie and Laura Loh of The Baltimore Sun.

The article outlines benefits of smaller schools and cites positive early results.  However, there are some downsides.  First and foremost, the lack of financial and human resources to complete all of these changes at once.  Secondly, “small schools also need improved teaching and leadership, greater academic rigor and a system of support for struggling students.  Experts suggest that newly formed schools won’t do well without a sufficient adult presence and an alternative to the current practice of passing trouble-making students from one school to the next.”  Finally, an immediate increase in violence has called attention to the additional need for more immediate solutions.  This is partly in light of the No Child Left Behind Act and the threat that a school will be labeled as “persistently dangerous” if they meet certain criteria.  Critics assert that the label provides negative incentive for schools to refrain from reporting incidents, and the negative stigma that results from labeling schools could exacerbate violent behavior. (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-te.md.violence21nov21,0,4127924.story).

Links:
•    Safety/Security Procedures for Baltimore City Public Schools: (http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/About/Policies/Safety_Procedures.asp)
•    Press Release Linking School Attendance, Suspensions, and Youth Homicide: (http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/News/PDF/pr2008_impactonyouth.pdf)
•    The Baltimore Sun on School Safety: (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/school_safety/)
•    Baltimore City Public School System’s Comprehensive Safety Plan: (http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/News/PDF/safetyplan.pdf)

Home Issues – Family and Community Involvement:
Much of the difficulty teachers and students face in urban classrooms stems from the disconnect between school culture and black youth popular culture.  Inner city youth face a wide variety of outside influences from an early outset, most of which their suburban counterparts will never have to cope with, such as socioeconomic despair, pressure from gangs, a lack of faith in government, and society’s concentration on materialism and individualism.  Beachum and McCray argue that hip hop and television offer particularly compelling influences that shape the way that youth perceive and react to their surroundings.  Hip-hop culture takes on multiple media forms: radio, video, and peer reinforcement.  It is what young people constantly see and hear, and for this reason it becomes a powerful form of indoctrination, often emphasizing male chauvinism, open gunplay, and illegal drug usage.  Additionally, black youth watch an average of seven to eight hours a day, which means that the images portrayed on TV become a sort of role model for these children as they grow up.
On the other hand, the school culture has the ability to offer a different type of influence as it shapes student identity.  Therefore, “when the school’s culture is characterized by value disagreement, lack of communication, and little collegiality (among teachers and students), many students see themselves as incapable, incompetent, and worthless.  However, when an environment promotes a school-wide value system, good communication, collegiality, and the utilization of ceremonies, students’ attitudes are much more positive.”
Unfortunately, the differences in the outside social culture and school culture often come into conflict because “gangs and negative media promote immediate gratification and materialism, while parents and teachers promote long-term gratification and qualities such as moral integrity and honesty.”  After learning certain values from hip-hop culture and television, students often bring them to school, where they do not translate, and often cause problems with discipline and communication.
Beachum and McCray warn, “Black youth spend more time with peers, listening to music, and watching television than they do having meaningful conversations with teachers and parents.  The task for educators is to familiarize themselves with youth culture/value systems and realize the subsequent affect on youth identity…It is important for educators to help such students develop the kinds of value systems that encourage positive self-identities and give them the legitimate opportunity to become successful in school as well as in life.” (http://cie.asu.edu/volume7/number5/).
The responsibility for drawing ties between outside culture and school culture rests not only on the educators, but also on family and community involvement.  In light of this, the Baltimore City Board of Commissioners initiated a policy for family and community engagement: (http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/News/PDF/KCAFamilyCommunityEngagementFinal.pdf).  Additionally, Andres Alonso and Brian Morris issued a letter to Baltimore City Public Schools Families providing a range of activities with which to mark Obama’s Presidential Inauguration with their children: (http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/News/PDF/263976_Output.pdf).

After School/Summer Programs:

It becomes clear that children learn just as much, if not more, out of school as they do during school hours.  In the HBO interview, Burns states, “Everybody is going to get educated.  It’s just a question of where.  Some people get educated in the classroom, some people get educated in the boxing gym; some people get educated on a corner.”  The important thing, then, is to provide positive learning opportunities for young inner-city children.  This is the goal of increasing after-school and summer programs.  OSI-Baltimore is one program that seeks to provide these opportunities.  They argue, “In Baltimore, most adult parents need to work and that means that children need safe, supervised places to go and programs to attend if they are to avoid being on their own at home or in their communities.  City children and youth thrive if they have programs that are small, intimate educational settings with positive role models and supervision, targeted and engaging instruction, enriching activities, and a safe place to socialize.” (http://www.soros.org/initiative/baltimore/focus_areas/education).
The argument is even more compelling for summer programs.  Research shows that all children lose academic ground during the summer months.  However, what is significant is that these losses are far greater for children from poor families/neighborhoods.  For multiple reasons, summer learning loss contributes significantly to the achievement gap between poor and non-poor students.  For this reason, it is important for city children and youth to engage in enriching summer programming.  An April 2007 Press Release reported the extension of BCPSS summer programming to meet these goals: (http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/News/PDF/summer_learning_07advisory.pdf).

Links:
•    Urban After-School Programs: Evaluations and Recommendations: (http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-3/after.htm)

Educational Reform:

No Child Left Behind:
Most of the educational reforms in recent years are either a product of, or response to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which was George W. Bush’s plan to improve the public school system in America.  The main goal of NCLB is to implement standards based reform, through the use of standardized tests, adequate yearly progress (AYP), improving upon local standards.  All of these are closely tied to school funding.    If a school fails to show AYP it is placed on a list of “failing schools” and in turn parents can be given the choice to have their students attend alternate schools, and after two years of failure, schools are required to provide special tutoring to economically disadvantaged students.  The act is tied to Title I funding for disadvantaged children, which increased from $42.2 billion in 2001 to $55.7 billion in 2004.  In theory all of this adds up to schools and teachers being held more accountable for the performance of their students, and giving parents the opportunity to remove their students from failing schools.
Despite its admirable goals, there are many opponents to NCLB, who criticize it on a number of grounds.  The most notable points of opposition deal with funding, “gaming” the system, issues with English language learners, and intrinsic problems with standardized testing.  The problem that many see with funding is that the testing that is required by NCLB is not fully funded, and therefore seen by many as an unfunded federal mandate.  The issue of “gaming” the system has many facets, from the fact that many urban schools are forced to “teach the test” in order to make any significant progress, to other manipulations of the student body to make test scores look better.  Many opponents say that NCLB testing gives schools an incentive to encourage low performing students to drop out of school prematurely, as to improve the quality of the student body.  Under NCLB, English language learners are given three years to learn English before being required to take the test in English.  Especially in inner city schools, where many of the native English speaking population struggle with reading comprehension, this is often seen as not being nearly enough time to become proficient in English.  Lastly the problems with standardized testing has been a topic of great interest in the world of education for quite some time, and is only more contentious with the high stakes testing of NCLB.  There is generally agreed upon among scholars of education that standardized testing in its current incarnation is heavily biased against minority, and low socioeconomic status students.  There are many explanations for why this is the case, from a lack of cultural knowledge, to inadequate accommodations for disabled students.  All of these issues that have been raised by opponents of NCLB call into question whether or not the stated goals of the act are being achieved through its implementation.

All info taken from NCLB page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind

NCLB in Baltimore Public Schools:
As can be seen in The Wire there are many issues apparent from the use of standardized testing to determine school success, which Mr. Prezbo has issues with.  Beyond the day to day issues encountered by students and teachers, there have been wider reaching problems in the Baltimore Public Schools stemming from NCLB.  In late March of 2006 the Maryland state superintendent of schools Nancy S. Grasmick (Republican) ordered the state take over of operations of eleven Baltimore schools (4 high schools, 7 middle schools).  This action, which is allowed under NCLB was interpreted by many, including then Mayor Martin O’Malley (Democrat), as a political ploy on behalf of supporters of the sitting Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who would be facing O’Malley in that years gubernatorial race.  Due to this concern, as well as the fact that this action, although legal, would have been unprecedented under NCLB, Democratic Maryland State Legislators pushed a bill to block the takeover, which passed on March 31st 2006.  If the state had been allowed to take over the eleven schools, control would have been passed along to private charter organizations and universities.  While this situation was averted it brought to light how contentious of an issue education would be in the election.

NY Times Articles from March 2006: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/education/30child.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=No%20Child%20Left%20Behind%20Baltimore&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/us/01educ.html?scp=4&sq=No Child Left Behind Baltimore&st=cse

Changes in Reform under President Obama:
Since Obama was elected President there have been some changes in the way that school reform is being approached on a national level.  The economic stimulus package that has started to come into effect has $100 Billion allocated to education.  Some of the more specific education allocations are as follows, according to Edutopia.org:

* $2.1 billion for Early Head Start and Head Start, the early-childhood programs for low-income children ages 0-5. It’s estimated this funding will affect about 124,000 infants and preschool children.
* $13 billion for Title I, the program that aids schools with a high number of low-income students to help fund extra programs.
* $12.2 billion for IDEA, a program for special education grants.
* $200 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund, which supports programs for teacher-performance pay.

While educators around the country welcome these increases in federal funding of education, they are not as promising as they initially seem.  This is because much of this funding is being given in order to offset cutbacks that are happening in local and state budgets due to the economic downturn.  Along with this, Obama has publicly championed the expansion of charter schools, which typically take public funding, but are run at least somewhat independently of local control.

The Influence of Charter Schools:

Charter Schools are publicly funded schools that operate with greater independance from the rest of the public school system, in exchange for high levels of accountability to goals which are set out in each school’s charter.  These are often more presteigous schools, and sometimes specialize in a certain area of study (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school).  One of the most famous organization in the world of charter schools is KIPP, which operates charter schools around the country, with one currently in Baltimore, and another opening in the Summer of 2009 (http://www.kippbaltimore.org/content/faqs/index.cfm).  The KIPP schools around the country have been hailed for their ability to give underpriveleged students in urban areas a greater chance at academic success, and boast high rates of college enrollment.  Under the Obama administration there has been an even stronger emphasis on the importance of charter schools for the improvement of education in America.  As described in the school takeover controversy, charter schools have a large role in the implementation of NCLB as it was originally passed under the Bush administration, and Obama has called for the expansion of this role throughout his term as President.