All vehicle-related fatalities have seen a decline, and from 2008 to 2009, the total reached its lowest amount since 1950.  The Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) program, which is implemented in some way in 49 states, stretches out the process of obtaining a license, and places restrictions on newly acquired ones, and is a large factor in the decline, according to both AAA communications director Dan Bleier and Tom Pecoraro, who owns I Drive Smart, a local drivers’ education company.

“The AAA Foundation released a study in 2007 that found that 16-year old drivers were involved in 38 [percent] fewer crashes if their state had a GDL program,” Bleier said.  “The most effective programs are in states with more restrictive programs which results in lower death rates for teen drivers.”

Maryland’s GDL program consists of a minimum age of 15 years and nine months to obtain a learner’s permit and a minimum nine-month holding period in which the driver must accumulate 60 hours of supervised driving before getting a provisional driver’s license.  The program then extends to the provisional license, placing restrictions on car passengers and driving hours.  Only when the driver reaches 18-years old is he or she restriction-free.

“Driving is a life skill, and stretching the process out, adding more educational features and taking more time is going to make people better and more aware drivers,” Pecoraro said.

In addition to states’ GDL programs, many states have passed laws that either ban texting while driving or using a phone in any capacity.  However, according to Pecoraro, these laws have yet to yield many positive results.

“Texting laws are not having an impact now,” Pecoraro said.  “Maybe it is because it hasn’t been long enough, but states with texting and hands-free laws haven’t seen a decrease, [but some] have seen increase in distracted-driver accidents [since the laws were passed].”

Many students do not see the positive effects of the banned phone-use laws.  In fact, some feel the laws, at least in Maryland, are virtually unenforceable because they are secondary offenses, meaning a driver cannot be pulled over solely for using his or her phone, but can be cited if already stopped.

“The law [in Maryland] says you can read a text, but not write one,” sophomore Charlie Morris said.  “It’s a loophole, and kids can lie.  For it to be effective, [the law] should be a primary offense.”

According to Pecoraro, the texting ban will likely become more stringent.

“Texting will probably follow the seatbelt law, which started out as a secondary offense, but is now a primary offense,” Pecoraro said.

Even with the many preventive and safety measures in place, teen driving accidents are still the number-one cause of death for 16- to 29-year olds, according to Pecoraro.

“It doesn’t matter how many laws are implemented,” Pecoraro said.  “The most important things teens can do are change the culture, get the right information and know statistics and facts [about teen driving accidents].  It’s all about spreading the message.”

Though the decline in fatal teen driving accidents is a positive sign, reckless teen driving still affects many people.

“While [the decline] in teen fatalities is certainly a positive sign, it’s important to note more than 11,000 people died in crashes that were examined,” Bleier said.  “Not [all of] these deaths were teenagers, so it’s important for teens to recognize that they are not just putting themselves at risk when a poor decision is made behind the wheel, but it impacts their passengers and everyone else on the road.”

Many CHS students look to pre-college enrichment programs or community service trips to give them a step above the large pool of fellow applicants. Yet, even though many families spend thousands of dollars hoping to ensure admittance into high selective colleges, it is unclear if these programs are advantageous during the grueling admission process.

Summer Discovery is a company that offers both community service-oriented and pre-college enrichment programs anywhere from UCLA to University of Pennsylvania to Cambridge University in England to a university in Florence, Italy. With over 300 courses offered on ten campuses, Summer Discovery says their programs may be the extracurricular that secures a positive admission decision.

“[Participants] generally are admitted to many of the schools they apply to,” Summer Discovery executive president Bob Musiker said.

Though having one of these programs on a student’s resume does not guarantee admission into any university, according to Musiker, “it doesn’t hurt.”

According to Nina Marks, though, who is a private college counselor and president of Marks Counseling Associates in Bethesda, it is uncertain if colleges view the programs as anything more than summer camp.

“There is little evidence that colleges gravitate towards applicants that have participated in [the programs], unless they had a compelling reason for doing so,” Marks said.

According to Marks, universities want to see a more focused approach when it comes to summer activities. Colleges question whether or not the summer activity fits the applicant’s established interests, values and goals.

“The key criterion is authenticity,” Marks said. “A serious athlete would attend selective camps, which might preclude other activities.”

There are several other options—albeit ones that might not make as large a dent in parents’ pockets—which admissions officers view similarly to pre-college enrichment programs.

“Colleges also respect students who pursue rigorous internships and selective leadership programs and get summer jobs,” Marks said. “But again, these rarely change an admission decision.”

Though the pre-college enrichment programs might not give students as big of a leg up as they might have hoped for, they can certainly be valuable experiences while preparing to go off to college.

“I think it helps mostly because students come home from a Summer Discovery program confident that they can do well in college level courses, and understand the process and time management skills required to succeed in college,” Musiker said.

Also, according to Musiker, most students who participate in Summer Discovery programs receive college credit that can be transferred to the school to which they will attend.

“These credits become part of the students’ high school record and may make them stand out during the admissions process,” Musiker said.

As far as paid community service trips go, according to Marks, there is little to no advantage for paying for a costly service program, unless the work ties into another interest or goal.

“Community service is always appreciated, but there is plenty of need in most applicants’ home communities,” Marks said.

However, according to Musiker, the community service trips offered by Summer Discovery are geared towards an all around experience on college campuses. During the trips, participants perform between 20 and 80 hours of community service. The cost of the trip pays for room, meals, recreation access and college-living and learning.

“Summer enrichment and community service programs are rarely admissions game-changers,” Marks said. “That said, colleges—especially highly selective ones—asses summer activities on a case-by-case basis.”

For the most part, MCPS has “local school programs,” meaning that only students attending the school through their locality have the opportunity to participate. In other words, students who do not attend the schools offering these programs are not allowed to apply.<BR>
A select few schools, namely Montgomery Blair, Poolesville and Richard Montgomery, allow students from outside of their school zones to apply to their program by taking a notoriously difficult exam. For the most part, it is the luck of the draw: either your designated school has the program you want, or it does not. For instance, numerous high schools (Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Albert Einstein, Rockville, Springbrook and Watkins Mill) offer the IB program for local students only. CHS does not happen to be one of them.

There are also two clusters of high schools known as the Downcounty Consortium, consisting of Montgomery Blair, Einstein, John F. Kennedy, Northwood and Wheaton High Schools, and Northeast Consortium, which is made up of Blake, Paint Branch and Springbrook High Schools. Students who attend a school in one of the consortiums can choose to attend any school within that consortia based on their interests. Each school has different program options specializing in different topics, ranging from Biosciences and Health Professions to Fine Arts and Humanities.

To be fair, not all special programs are so restricted. The Foreign Language Immersion Programs use a lottery system to choose students since students apply in kindergarten and it is difficult to measure ability at such a young age. Unfortunately, this is the only program that uses a lottery to pick its students.

The schools with an application process are at least giving all MCPS students a chance; the same cannot be said for the schools that only take local students. Why bother having such a distinguished program if some of the most suitable participants are excluded?

It would be in the county’s best interests to use a voucher system in which students can choose to attend any school in the county. This would allow students to nurture their passion and be part of an environment that supports their individual interests while students who do not want to participate in a specialized program can still attend their neighborhood school and receive a more traditional education. Hopefully, this would encourage lower-performing schools to boost their academic integrity in order to draw more students. As an added bonus, it would also promote diversity since students would not be going to schools based on neighborhood boundaries.