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MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2010


Imported World Cup rivalry Fans from England, Germany brought allegiances with them


by Michael Savage A


s the last few seconds of the match ticked away, James Cunliffe, a 35-year-old Eng- lishman living in Arlington Coun- ty, realized that the hopes for an- other World Cup for his national team were all but extinguished. “I just hate this feeling,” said the civil engineer, his England team jersey draped over the back of his chair. Superstition had led him not to wear the shirt for England’s clash with Germany in South Africa on Sunday, part of the round of 16. The team had won its last match after he chose not to put it on. This time, however, the jersey’s super- natural significance seemed to disappear. Various attempts to use it as a cape, a bandanna or a nap- kin across his lap did nothing to change his side’s fortunes. Cunliffe was one of dozens of


NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST How high can you go?


Jake Watts, left, of Exeter, England, and Ian Chapman of Anamosa, Iowa, demonstrate some moves on stilts at Meridian Hill Park. DC Power Stilts usually gives private lessons for $65 but offered free lessons to the public as part of this year’s Capital Bocking USA weekend of events.


Glitch snags first day of higher Metro fares by Lisa Rein A software glitch on the first


day of Metro’s higher fares al- lowed riders using paper fare cards at 34 stations to enter for the old fare Sunday. Metro technicians discovered the problem early in the morning, said Reggie Woodruff, a Metro spokesman. The last fare gate was


fixed by 2 p.m., when all stations were charging the higher fare. SmarTrip cards were charged the correct fare throughout the day. Woodruff said it was unclear


why the software, recently added to fare gates in the 34 stations to upgrade the transit agency’s fare collection system, failed to charge the higher amount. “We anticipated that there might be glitches,” he said. “With


all the programming we did for so many stations, it was bound to happen.” The changes that took effect


Sunday raised rail fares by about 18 percent and bus fares 20 per- cent. Implementing the increases was a challenge because Metro had only about 30 days to test and implement them across its bus and rail systems.


reinl@washpost.com Hite has a smooth year in Pr. George’s hite from B1


teacher, then working his way up the administrative chain. He was working as the deputy superin- tendent in Cobb County, Ga., when he got the call from Deasy.


Quick cuts


“We had to talk about it,” Hite said. “I was really looking to take on a district myself,” so he had to be persuaded to be second in com- mand again. He and Deasy found they had similar approaches to education. Deasy, who took office in May 2006, had the advantage of flush years to launch expensive initia- tives, including beefing up profes- sional development and hiring staff for parent outreach at every school. Hite has been forced to make painful cuts — including lay- ing off hundreds of staff members and contending with a major boundary realignment that shifted thousands of students. “I didn’t expect to have to cut so much so fast,” Hite said.


But he has presided over a mer-


it-pay project that rewards teach- ers based on student performance — something that Deasy initiated but Hite implemented. He is trying to put students on a path to college by setting specific goals as early as kindergarten. And he has pro- posed a comprehensive plan that sets systemwide targets for student achievement. By 2017, for example, three-quar- ters of high school seniors should be taking at least one AP exam, and he has set a graduation rate goal of 95 percent. He has also tried to revamp the


county’s secondary schools, mak- ing at least one specialized science and technology, academic and arts program available in each part of the county. Politicians and union leaders say


Hite has worked back rooms to maintain smooth relations with other parts of government, making


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Prince George’s strikingly serene this year compared with Mont- gomery County, where the schools engaged in a bitter budget battle with the County Council — at one point threatening to sue. Deasy’s predecessor, Andre J.


Hornsby, resigned in scandal and went to federal prison on corrup- tion charges; Hornsby’s predeces- sor, Iris T. Metts, had a contentious relationship with the school board, clashing over matters as trivial as where she would sit during meet- ings.


“By nature, [Hite] is not some- one who’s going to come in and try to steamroll people. He’s thought- ful, he’s careful and he’s very delib- erative,” said state Sen. Paul G. Pin- sky (D-Prince George’s), a former Prince George’s teacher who works for the Montgomery teachers union.


“I don’t want acrimony to be the order of the day,” Hite said.


Staying in contact


Hite has also worked to be acces- sible to students and parents. He carries a BlackBerry and tries to re- spond to every parent who e-mails him — usually about 50 a day, he said. Parents generally give him high


marks. “We’ve had contact with his of-


fice frequently this year because of the ongoing quest to have a new building for Oxon Hill,” said Mi- chelle Gaston, president of the Ox- on Hill High School Parent Teacher Student Association. She said he has responded quickly to requests and handled this year’s tough budget situation well. There have been missteps, the


biggest of which came in August, when 8,000 high school students arrived for the first day of school only to find that they didn’t have class schedules because of a com- puter malfunction. Hite’s staff didn’t tell him there were looming problems until it was too late — “a huge disappointment,” he called it.


School board members say they will follow scheduling closely this summer. And he has struggled to fill top vacancies in his administra- tion.


Student achievement has been mixed. Scores on the Maryland School Assessments, the statewide exams that track student progress, were largely flat last year but have been improving slowly over the decade.


And since Deasy took over in 2006, the number of Advanced Placement tests administered has more than doubled, a sign that more high school students are be- ing encouraged to take challenging courses, supporters say. But just a quarter of those tests received passing scores of 3 or above last year, compared with 59 percent nationally. Average SAT scores have largely been stagnant since 2006, well below Maryland and national averages. And the sys- tem is the only one of Maryland’s 24 school districts in corrective ac- tion for failing to meet bench- marks under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Hite agrees that more work needs to be done. He said setting student goals for each grade level is an attempt to boost achievement. “We want all of our students to be subject to high expectations,” he said. The biggest challenge for the school system will come in Novem- ber, when the full school board is up for election. Because of changes in districting, there will be turn- over. Newly elected board mem- bers might want to take the schools in another direction. That’s a real worry, say many parents and educators who think a major change in direction would be counterproductive. “You can’t keep cutting off the head and think that a school sys- tem this large will move forward. It won’t,” Mickens-Murray said. “All you do is start over.”


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expat fans who, for 90 minutes at least, created their own corner of England at Summers Restaurant in Arlington’s Court House neigh- borhood. For one of the fiercest ri- valries in international soccer, supporters from both countries gathered in the bar to re-create the anticipation felt in their home towns thousands of miles away. As the match ended with Germany running out 4-1 winners, most of England’s fans left immediately, leaving Cunliffe and his friends alone to reflect on the painful loss. Chris Jennions, 29, originally from Liverpool, was more deject- ed than most. He rested his head wearily on his hand as he ex- changed text messages with friends back home. His disap- pointment soon turned to anger when he explained how England had succumbed to the Germans once again. “Fifty-six million people in Eng- land will be calling for goal-line technology from now,” he said, re- flecting on a disallowed goal that would have pulled his team even at halftime. Although the ball crossed the goal line, the referee didn’t see it.


Rivalry still on fire Throughout the match, the


scene at Summers signaled that the historic rivalry had lost none of its potency. As fans from both sides began to select their booths around 8:45 a.m. for the 10 a.m. game, two camps quickly emerged. German fans headed to the back of the bar, and England supporters took tables in the neighboring room. Flags unfurled. The Virginia restaurant was be- ginning to feel a lot like Europe. Thomas Schnake, 22, from Hamburg, was one of the few Ger-


NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST


At an Arlington County restaurant, Charlie O’Brien, left, roots for England while his wife, Julia, center, roots for Germany.


mans to venture into English terri- tory, his safety aided by the strictly neutral colors of a red and black checked shirt.


“Both England and Germany


have the same philosophy when it comes to football,” he said. “When the World Cup is on, everything stops — even in the big cities. Usu- ally, I am not that into football, but I support Germany. Especially when they’re playing England.” Some of his countrymen were


stricter on where fans should be sitting.


“English at the front, Germany


at the back,” said Michael Fähle- Hedge, 30, a government worker originally from the Munich re- gion. He was the first German fan to arrive, and from the moment his burly frame stormed through the doors, his allegiances weren’t difficult to detect. His white Ger- man soccer training top, partially covering a replica jersey, was com- plemented by a Volkswagen base- ball cap. “I don’t think we are going to win the World Cup. I just want to beat the English today,” he said as he awaited the kickoff. “I love the English Premier League. I love the English people. I despise the Eng- lish national team.” When Germany took the lead in


the 20th minute, Fähle-Hedge ventured into English territory. He had come prepared for the mo- ment of glory: His German chant was accompanied by a backup track blaring from a stereo, gripped under his left arm. When Germany’s second goal went in, he reappeared on all fours, slapping the ground in excitement. Eng- land fans responded with high- fives with their first goal, but the cheers turned to shouts of anger as their team’s apparent equalizer was disallowed. For some, the incident put more than just bragging rights on the


line.


“We were married,” said Charlie O’Brien, a British energy firm worker, sitting opposite his Ger- man wife, Julia. They were each wearing their countries’ respec- tive national shirts. “You just can’t write the script for these games,” he added, pointing out that the disallowed goal brought back memories of the 1966 World Cup final: England won the game with the help of a goal that German fans still maintain never crossed the line.


‘A bit of sympathy’


When the Germans scored their third, gloom descended on the English fans. Germany’s fourth goal was all too much for Fähle- Hedge, who careered through his dejected rivals’ room, arms aloft, before disappearing out the door. Shell shock turned to resignation for the English fans filling the room. The vuvuzela fell silent. Some decided that enough was enough and left. Others hung around to the bitter end. As the match post-mortem be- gan, thoughts again turned to 1966. So did England’s disallowed goal make up for the 44 years of German hurt? “It goes a long way, but it does not make up for it in full,” Fähle- Hedge said. The 1996 game “was a final, but this was just the last six- teen.”


Despite his earlier excitement, he was magnanimous in victory. The English team was “too good


to go out at this stage,” he said. “In the spirit of fair play, I do feel a bit of sympathy. But we were clearly the better team on the day.” As for what the win means in terms of history, Fähle-Hedge had already worked that out: “This should be enough to give us brag- ging rights for the next 15 years.” savagem@washpost.com


Carolina Ave. SE, the D.C. public schools will hold a chancellor’s forum on how to add useful learning to your child’s summer. Several groups, such as the D.C. Public Library, the University of the District of Columbia Science and Engineering Center, and even Madame Tussaud’s, will have booths about their summer programs.


T


But the District, like other urban districts, will have a summer school that includes only about a fifth of its students. Many people laugh that off: Who in their right mind wants to go to summer school? Give the poor kids a break. That old-fashioned attitude turns out to be educationally bankrupt. Summer learning loss has been shown to be a likely cause of low achievement in cities such as Washington. Karl L. Alexander of Johns Hopkins University found that by ninth grade, accumulated learning loss for low-income children accounted for two-thirds of the achievement gap between them and higher-income children who had summer learning opportunities, such as trips to the library and museums. A significant but overlooked


factor is that one group of D.C. students — those who attend public charter schools — are far more likely to attend summer school than those in regular public schools. Nona Mitchell Richardson, spokeswoman for the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said an estimated 9,900 of 28,000


Summer school: A positive, not a punishment JAY MATHEWS


his Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Brent Elementary School at 301 North


charter students (35 percent) in the city are expected to be in summer school this year. Among students of regular D.C. public schools, 21 percent (9,429 of 45,000 students) are enrolling this summer. The gap is worse when you consider the way many charters use their summer sessions. Some of the most successful charters in the District require all students to attend summer school. It is not just a device to remediate slow kids or enrich fast ones: It is part of the learning plan for the entire year. Nationally, charter-school students on average do no better than regular-school students, but in the District they show more progress, despite being as disadvantaged as the regular-school kids. Charters can raise extra money for such programs, but so can regular schools. Ron Fairchild and Jeff Smink of the Baltimore-based National Summer Learning Association extolled making summer school part of the school year in a commentary in Education Week. That approach, they said, “challenges the value of a traditional, remedial model of summer school, and embraces instead a seamless blend of core academic learning and hands-on


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enrichment activities.” Washington area suburban schools also have summer learning opportunities. Loudoun County has a math instruction camp and a middle school technical camp. The Fairfax County elementary school offerings include Little Authors Workshop and We Do Robotics. Montgomery County has a four-week program for schools with many low-income students. Manassas City has an engineering camp. Falls Church has an array of drama and arts programs. Prince George’s County is paying students at some elementary schools $5 for every book they read, up to $25.


But in most communities, these


activities are just for a few. A new survey of 30,000 households by the Afterschool Alliance reveals that three out of four U.S. schoolchildren do not participate in summer learning programs, even though parents of 56 percent of those kids not participating would like them to. It might be time to shed our discomfort with the notion of summer school for all, and see whether it helps our kids, particularly those in districts such as D.C. The people running the Brent Elementary forum Wednesday would like to do much more with the summer than they are able. Check out what they offer. Would it be so bad if every child had a chance to learn in that way, and get a head start on the new school year? mathewsj@washpost.com


For more Jay, go to washingtonpost.com/class-struggle.


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