Technical Education

Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicted Wednesday that efforts to overhaul D.C. schools will continue full steam under presumptive mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray.

Duncan added that he hopes Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, appointed by the incumbent whom Gray defeated in this month’s Democratic primary, stays on for several years to come.

Rhee, who in her three-year term has become a polarizing figure in city politics, campaigned for the reelection of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and last week termed the primary outcome “devastating for the schoolchildren of Washington, D.C.” Her remarks, she later said, were not intended as a comment on Gray himself but as a lament that the results could be perceived as a blow against reform.

“If Vince Gray becomes the mayor, he’s going to be passionately committed to improving the quality of education,” Duncan told reporters at a breakfast convened by the Christian Science Monitor. “He knows what’s at stake here. D.C.

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Montgomery County stretches across a diverse terrain of more than 495 square miles. But if political wisdom in the heavily Democratic county holds, four of nine County Council members will live within three miles of one another by year’s end.

Three council members already do, right along the Takoma Park-Silver Spring border.

Hans Riemer, a Silver Spring political organizer, joined three neighborhood incumbents in winning Democratic nominations in Tuesday’s primary. If the four are victorious come November — as many assume they will be in a county where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2 to 1 — their tree-lined patch of Montgomery north of the District line will deepen its remarkable grip on local government power.

It would be as if 193 of the House of Representatives’ 435 members lived in an area smaller than Connecticut, prompting some in Montgomery to raise questions about fairness and the appearance of favoritism.

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A request for an extension of voting hours in District precincts that experienced glitches with new touch-screen voting machines will be made late in the afternoon by the campaign of D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, the leading challenger to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.

Campaign spokesman Traci Hughes said they have received complaints at “a rapid pace,” and attorneys have needed time to evaluate them. A letter requesting the Board of Elections and Ethics keep the polls open a little longer in some precincts should be sent “within the hour,” she said at about 3 p.m.

Reports of voting problems emerged shortly after polls opened at 7 a.m. Some precincts delayed opening until technicians could arrive to get the touch-screen machines functioning properly. Most of the problems appear to have been ironed out within an hour or less.

Rokey W. Suleman II, executive director of the elections board, said that the “hiccups” were “typical of what happens when jurisdictions put out new voting equipment.

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Two Potomac high school students who were implicated last winter in a scheme to change grades by hacking into school computers have started a student group devoted to combating the ill effects of peer pressure.

The two students, who are seniors at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, unveiled the group during the school’s morning announcements last week, according to several students and parents at the school. In the announcement, the two students expressed sorrow for their actions, although they did not go into specifics.

The school system discovered in January that at least eight Churchill students improperly accessed an online grading system and tampered with their own grades. Those of at least 46 others were also changed by some of the eight. Montgomery County police alarmed by the incident opened a criminal investigation, which is ongoing and nearing its end, police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said.

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Not so long ago, teenagers in trouble got grounded. They lost their evenings out, maybe the keys to the family car. But lately the art of family discipline has begun to reflect our digital age.

Now parents seize cellphones, shut down Facebook pages, pull the plug on PlayStation.

That’s how it went in Silver Spring last school year, when Iantha Carley’s high-schooler got a midterm grade report that contained letters of the alphabet that were not A, B or C.

Carley decreed there would be no more Facebook until he delivered a report card with better grades. The result: six weeks offline. “He lived,” Carley reports, “with no lasting damage.”

Her approach has become increasingly common as technology has changed so much about growing up, including what teenagers value most. For the digital generation, the priority isn’t always going out with friends. It’s being with them – in text, online.

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