January 27, 2010

Dear Constituents,

I wanted to keep you updated on some of the topics as well as House/Senate Bills that were discussed this week.  I value your input and please continue to express your opinions on issues that are important to you.  Below are some of the “hot” issues for this week.

The Articulated Instruction Module Program (AIM)

On January 21^st the Baltimore County Delegation held a joint hearing regarding the AIM program.  It was the first time in sixteen years that both the House and Senate members met to discuss pressing issues affecting Baltimore County. The Aim program has been controversial. Teachers, PTA representatives and the Teachers Union have expressed their concerns about the amount of collected data required each quarter per student on top of what is currently required by the No Child Left Behind Act, Middle School Assessment (MSA) and High School Assessments (HSA).  It was stated that the data collection under this program would be an added layered on top of the time to satisfy the State’s requirements.  Superintendent Dr. Hairston of the Baltimore County School System scheduled an appearance before the Joint Delegation to discuss the program; unfortunately, Dr. Hairston could not attend the meeting because of physical therapy. The Baltimore County Delegation noted that the Superintendent could have rescheduled his appointment and been available to appear before this Delegation.   Mr. Ed Novak, Manager, Government & External Relations represented Dr. Hairston.  The program details were not known by Mr. Novak who was questioned vigorously by the Delegation.

Some points highlighted during the meeting are as follows:

The Teachers Union indicated that meetings were closed to its representative, in light of the open meetings law.

The PTA’s were highly concerned that classroom instruction would be limited due to the data collected and reported in a 12 page report card with 100 objectives per course. For a teacher with 100 students, the input per student is approximately 1.5 hours; it would take an additional 150 hours a year.

Teachers mentioned the potential of an ethic violation.  Dr. Dezmon, Assistant to the Superintendent, copyrighted this plan while working for Dr. Hairston on Baltimore County time.

Dr. Dezmon’s AIM program could benefit her directly with the profits of selling this program. The Dezmon Educational Strategies, LLC, has been copyrighted 6 times.

The AIM Program’s original purpose was to evaluate low performing students as a pilot program, but an emergency superintendent’s bulletin mandating the new program was issued December 18, 2009 for all Baltimore County Students.

The hearing was well attended but very disappointing because Dr. Hairston was not there to answer questions. It has been a very controversial issue in our school system because of the cumbersome, time consuming and redundant nature of the per student data collection contained in this AIM program.  By the end of the week Dr. Hairston said that he would discontinue the mandatory use of AIM.  A committee continues to work on issues raised by parents, teachers, and lawmakers who have been highly critical of the program.

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