Special rebate offer:
Enroll now
and get
*100 back!
Receive $100 back through Kaplan’s Rebate** when you
enroll in an LSAT, MCAT. GMAT, GRE, DAT or TOEFL*
classroom course between March 1st - March 31st
GRE classes starting soon
Tuesday, April 1
Call or visit us online for more information or to enroll.
1-800-KAP-TEST
kaptest.com/100back
•Test names are the registered trademarks of their respective owners. **To be eligible, you must enroll between March 1-31, 2003.
Other restrictions apply. Call 1-800-KAP-TEST or visit kapteet.com/100lMck for details.
BOTHELL SEATTLE TACOMA
Summer
Quarter
2003
WASHINGTON
The University of
Washington offers
nearly 2,000 courses in
a range of subjects,
from archaeology to
architecture, genetics
to geology, Swedish to
Swahili, and everything
in between to captivate
your mind.
Summer Quarter courses are
open to working adults as well
as high school and college
students. There is no summer
enrollment limit, so admission
is open to all qualified
applicants.
For more information visit
www. summer. Washington, edu,
or call 206-543-2320,
206-543-0898 (tty)
www.summer. Washington.edu
Save $100 with the New
Apple PowerBook 12.1"
Purchase a PowerBook 12.1” and get up
to $100 off the cost of additional items.
Examples:
Reg, price After Discount
Sony Playstation 2 $199.99 $99.99
Hewlett Packard Printer 3820 $99.99 $0
(also eligible for $99.00 rebate
from Hewlett Packard)
M8760LL/A $ 1 /699
Discounted from retail price $1,799
12.1 -inch TFT Display • 867MHz PowerPC G4 • 40GB
Ultra ATA/100 • Combo Drive (CD-RW/DVD-ROM)
Some conditions apply. See store for details or call 346-4331. Offer ends March 31,2003.
Benchmark tests face
new program changes
Two proposed bills in the
Legislature would either alter
or eliminate parts of required
state benchmark tests
Jan Montry
City/State Politics Reporter
State benchmark testing is facing
potential transformations in the
Oregon Legislature as lawmakers
move to either decrease the scope of
or completely eliminate the Certifi
cate of Initial Mastery and Certifi
cate of Advanced Mastery program.
House Bill 2744, a bi-partisan effort
by members of the House Education
Committee, would modify the CIM
implementation so it only applies to
math, science and English. Public
schools would have the option to ex
pand the program if they chose.
House Bill 2415, on the other
hand, would abolish the CIM/CAM
program completely and replace it
with a testing system graded inde
pendently from the Oregon Educa
tion Department.
Rep. Pat Farr, R-Eugene, said he
wanted to limit the scope of CIM to
simplify the benchmark and make it
easier for schools to maintain the
program. The narrower scope would
also comply with the federal No
Child Left Behind Act, which singles
out English, math and science as pri
orities for education.
“It’s not to, in any way, degrade
the quality of education in the
state,” he said.
Rep. Vic Backlund, R-Keizer, said
the bill is a compromise between
abolishing the program and keeping
it intact.
“My goal was to keep Oregon’s
high standards and also reduce bur
den on schools,” he said.
But the Salem lawmakers who are
making a push beyond the compro
mise to annihilate the program say it
is expensive, ineffective and a waste
of time.
Rep. Randy Miller, R-West Linn,
who introduced the bill to abolish
the test, said many teachers and stu
dents express frustration that
CIM/CAM can’t be used for admis
sion purposes after high school.
“We need to invest the money we
have for education in a way that will
do students some good,” he said. “I
don’t think there is any evidence of
the effectiveness of CIM/CAM.
“What (higher education schools)
care about is what they’ve always
cared about — SAT, ACT and GPA.”
In an Oregon Department of Edu
cation study released last week, offi
cials concluded that abolishing
CIM/CAM would not save the state a
significant amount of money be
cause much of the cost lies in small
increments of teacher time during
school days.
Furthermore, the study concluded
CIM/CAM only costs the state $21.6
million — #17 million that is devoted
to activities required under the federal
No Child Left Behind Act — and the
CAM would cost #4.9 million.
CIM and CAM use multiple choice
tests, class work samples and career
experience to benchmark the profi
ciency of high school students; how
ever, the Oregon University System
does not require the benchmarks for
admission.
The CIM will be completely imple
mented for the 2004-2005 sopho
more class with benchmarks in Eng
lish, math, science, social sciences,
art, second languages and physical
education. Currently, benchmarks
exist for English, math and science.
University Admissions Director
Martha Pitts said the University only
looks at CIM/CAM assessments as
part of an applicant’s comprehensive
review. Potential students who fail to
meet the requirements for automat
ic admission undergo the review,
which consists of an analysis of
grade trends, SAT scores and other
factors.
“There are not a lot of circum
stances where we use (CIM/CAM),”
she said. “It’s not a requirement for
admission.”
Members of the public will testify
before the House Education Com
mittee this week about both bills.
Contact the senior news reporter
atjanmontry@dailyemerald.com.
Iraq
continued from page 1
infantry keeps a wary 24-hour watch
on the well-armed Kurdish militia sta
tioned in the village.
The standoff has left everyone
frightened and nervous. Hair-triggered
Iraqi sentries shoot at anyone who
ventures too close to their bunkers or
trenches, and the broad sloping pas
tures below their positions are heavily
mined. Kalak villagers still jump when
they hear that odd and sickening
sound—a short, muffled explosion—
that tells them another wayward
sheep has stepped on a land mine.
Sometimes, heavy rains unearth a
patch of Iraqi mines, which tumble
downhill into the village. The latest
victim was a boy who kicked at a loose
mine that ended up on a soccer field.
So many Kalak men have fled the
frontier or been killed in battles that
women now outnumber men by 8 to
1. Everybody in Kalak, of course,
blames Hussein.
Aisha Malood was washing some
turnips the other day, and the water in
her bowl had turned a dark crimson.
“I wish this was Hussein’s blood on
my hands, Insha’allah,” she said, ap
pealing to Allah to make it so. “I’d love
to have his blood up to my elbows. I’d
slay him myself, and then I’d bury him
directly under my outhouse. Only
then would the Iraqi people finally be
free of him.”
Just down the lane, under a pome
granate tree in her backyard, Amina
Ahmed was stoking an outdoor oven
and turning out thin, crisp wheels of
nan, the flat Kurdish bread. She had
heard, yes, that Iraqi troopers are
now begging local shepherds to bring
them bread.
“But those soldiers will get no bread
from me,” said the 65-year-old widow.
“They terrorize us every day, just by
being up there on our hills.”
“If Hussein came to Kalak, I would
n’t give him bread. I’d give him rat poi
son. I’d slaughter him.”
She squinted, smiled, and then
slowly drew a finger across her throat.
The Kurds of Kalak have been bat
tling Baghdad for nearly 35 years. Af
ter the 1991 Gulf War and a failed Kur
dish uprising, the terrified villagers
fled to Iran. When they returned, their
Arab neighbors had looted their
homes.
“They even took my baby’s cradle,”
said Aisha Malood.
“In the last war, I fled,” said the
widow Ahmed. “This time, I’m stay
ing put.”
The Kurds have driven all the
Arabs out of Kalak, which sits just
above the 36th parallel, a few miles
inside the United Nations no-fly
zone. As a village, it’s not much to
look at — stray dogs, the bleating
sheep, some vegetable patches, a few
shops and schools, a scattering of
low-slung houses.
Look closer, though, and nearly
every one of Kalak’s houses is pock
marked with a bullet hole, or five, or
20. Look at the arms or the chests of
the Kalak men, and there’s sure to be a
purpled scar or two from an Iraqi bul
let or bayonet. The hard history of
Kalak is right there, shot right into
their bodies.
Their children know the history,
too. They learn it in Patriotism class.
“The main theme of the Patriotism
class is an independent Kurdistan,”
said Ali Zorab Ali, headmaster at the
Avesta Primary School for Girls. “We
teach them about homeland, nation
ality, democracy and dictators.
“Our children also know about fear
and tension. They learn this at an ear
ly age. They’re used to soldiers in the
streets, the low-flying American
planes and regular evacuations of the
town. Sadly, these things have be
come normal for them. ”
Kalak’s crumbling police station
serves as the headquarters of the pro
tective Kurdish forces, an odd mix of
regular soldiers and security brigades
from the Kurdistan Democratic Par
ty, furtive intelligence men driving
battered Peugeot sedans, and squads
of volunteer peshmerga, the Kurdish
guerrilla fighters.
Most days, the KDP security com
mander prowls the roof of the station
house, fingering his string of worry
beads, smoking ferociously and peer
ing through his field glasses at the
Iraqis up on the ridge. He also looks
downstream to a new bridge spanning
the Zab, a bridge that’s capable, he
said, of handling tank columns.
One side of the half-mile bridge is
controlled by his men, the other side
by Hussein’s. If a war breaks out, the
first order of battle is to seize and
hold that bridge. After that, the im
portant oil center of Mosul is just a
day’s march.
“We can’t wait. We want a war as
soon as possible so we can be rid of
Hussein and his damned soldiers,”
said Gapt. Hajar Mullah Omar, the
Kurdish commander. “Whenever the
people in the village hear the news
that the war has been delayed again,
they feel sick.
“That’s our land up there,” he said,
pointing to the Iraqi positions, “and
very soon we’re going to reclaim it.”
He smiled and nodded confidently,
then told about an Iraqi trooper who
recently crept down near the village.
The soldier told a local man to spread
the word among the townspeople.
“Please don’t shoot us if a war
breaks out at night,” the Iraqi said.
“I promise you we’ll be gone by
morning.”
© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.