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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022
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APPEAL TRIBUNE
Answering questions
about curriculum
Address: P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309
Phone: 503-399-6773
Fax: 503-399-6706
Eddy Binford-Ross
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
What kids are learning in schools
has been a discussion point for dec-
ades. But the topic has been brought to
the forefront of national conversations
in recent years and become increasing-
ly politicized.
In Oregon, House Republicans intro-
duced a bill in the 2022 short session
that would have required all course cur-
ricula to be made public.
House Bill 4022 would have directed
school boards to ensure the curriculum
for each course offered was posted on
the district website. Democratic legis-
lative leaders never gave the bill a hear-
ing or vote, essentially killing in the
House Education Committee at the end
of the session.
With the bill’s death there are no
laws to make curricula public. Howev-
er, information is still available about
what kids are learning in Oregon public
schools. We reached out to local and
state education officials to answer
common questions about curricula and
what students are learning.
What is curriculum
and who sets it?
Curriculum refers to a series of
“planned experiences” that students
participate in so they can achieve profi-
ciency in content and meet state stan-
dards for that topic. Lesson plans, dis-
cussion
questions,
assessments,
homework assignments and more are
all considered part of a course’s curri-
culum, the Oregon Department of Edu-
cation said.
ODE does not have or require specif-
ic curriculum — with one exception,
tribal history. Decisions on everything
else are left to individual districts, Marc
Siegel, communications director for
ODE, said.
And each district has a slightly dif-
ferent policy.
For example, in Central School Dis-
trict, board policy guides the district’s
selection of core program materials.
Students, staff, parents and communi-
ty members have the opportunity to re-
view and provide feedback on any rec-
ommended instructional material be-
fore the school board votes to approve
it, Emily Mentzer, district communica-
tions director, said.
Central is currently in the process of
adopting a new Elementary Language
Arts curriculum. A committee of dis-
trict staff and community members
choose resources and material. After it is
chosen, the materials will be shared at a
school board meeting and community
members will be able to provide feed-
back. Then, the school board will vote,
Mentzer said.
What textbooks and books
are used in classrooms?
The textbooks, books and digital ma-
terials allowed to be used in classrooms
is decided by districts, in partnership
with ODE.
ODE reviews and approves instruc-
tional material first. Then districts
choose from that list or they can use a
state-approved evaluation rubric to use
non-approved materials, Siegel said.
In Central School District, supple-
mentary materials and library resources
are chosen by staff and principals, with
assistance from students and families
sometimes, Mentzer said.
What are my kids in Salem-Keizer
learning?
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Salem-Keizer school district posts the
foundation of its elementary school
curricula online. Links direct parents to
information about language arts, math,
health, science and SEL curricula.
For middle and high schoolers, Sa-
lem-Keizer does not post curriculum in-
formation online due to copyright laws,
its website says. However, Salem-Keizer
officials encourage families to contact
teachers to discuss what is being taught
in classes.
Some teachers at the middle and high
school levels also have websites and syl-
labi outlining what they are covering.
What is the state’s tribal history
curriculum?
Oregon does require that public
school students be taught lessons
around tribal history, Siegel said.
In 2017, Senate Bill 13 was signed into
law requiring educators to teach Tribal
History/Shared History. Fourth, eighth
and 10th-grade teachers are required to
provide instruction based on “tribal ap-
proved essential understanding” in five
subjects, including English, math and
social sciences.
Lessons that teachers use have been
created by ODE and local tribes, and vary
in content by grade. For example, in 10th-
grade history, there are lesson plans
available on Indigenous People’s Day
and tribal sovereignty.
The state requires teachers to use
these lessons, which are accessible
online, Siegel said.
to state standards?
What are state education
standards?
The general standards are updated
every seven years. However, more spe-
cialized changes can and do come from
the Oregon Legislature.
In 2019, Senate Bill 664 was signed
into law, requiring districts to teach stu-
dents about the Holocaust and other in-
stances of genocide. This law requires
teachers to create and teach lessons that
“prepare students to confront the immo-
rality of the Holocaust, genocide and
other acts of mass violence and to reflect
on the causes,” among other things.
Schools have freedom around how
they teach these concepts, but they are
required to address them and make sure
that student knowledge meets the state
standards.
Other requirements will be going into
place over the next several years.
Starting in 2025, high schoolers will
be required to take half a credit of civics
education. The year after, Ethnic Studies
and Inclusive Education will be imple-
mented in Oregon social studies classes
to “address the contributions” of differ-
ent social and ethnic minorities across
Oregon.
Just like Senate Bill 664, these re-
quirements don’t have to be taught one
specific way, but students will work to
meet a blanket set of standards.
State standards help determine
schools’ curricula, as they break down
what students should know how to do at
each grade level and for each content
area. Teacher panels review these stan-
dards every seven years and then they
are adopted by the State Board, Siegel
said.
Every content area from the social sci-
ences and mathematics to the arts and
physical education have standards bro-
ken down by grade level. As students
progress through the grade levels, these
standards become more complex.
For example in sixth-grade language
arts, students learn to “read closely to
determine what the text says explicit-
ly” and to “cite specific textual evidence
when writing or speaking.” By ninth
grade, these students learn to analyze
texts “explicitly as well as inferentially”
and to cite “strong and thorough textual
evidence” to support the analysis.
Schools have freedom around how
they teach to these standards, but each
educator works towards ensuring that
their students meet them.
Have there been recent changes
What are ‘ghost guns’? Here’s what you should know
Virginia Barreda
Salem Statesman Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK
Last month, federal agents stumbled
upon what they called Oregon’s largest
privately-made firearm — “ghost gun” —
manufacturing workshop in the base-
ment of a South Salem home while serv-
ing a search warrant. Salem police said
they have seen an increase in appear-
ances of these self-made guns in their in-
vestigations over the past several
months.
While the phenomenon may be rela-
tively recent in Salem, Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
officials say the number of ghost guns ap-
pearing across the nation has risen
steadily over the past several years.
Gun violence prevention advocates
and law enforcement officials have
sounded the alarm on ghost guns. Their
untraceable nature, they say, makes
them easily acquired by criminals who
otherwise would not be permitted to pos-
sess a firearm and nearly impossible for
law enforcement to track.
Here are some things to know about
these untraceable guns:
What is a ghost gun?
A ghost gun, also called a privately-
made firearm by law enforcement or “kit
gun,” is an unserialized, homemade fire-
arm built from parts that are widely
available for purchase without a back-
ground check.
ATF-licensed gunmakers or importers
are required to engrave identification in-
formation, including a serial number,
make and model, to a traditionally-man-
ufactured firearm. Serial numbers are the
best way for law enforcement to trace
these guns to their first retail purchaser
when investigating a crime, according to
ATF public information officer Jason
Chudy.
But since ghost guns are made using
kits and incomplete parts of a firearm
they are not required to have a serial
number under federal law.
Similarly, those buying and selling the
components for ghost guns are not re-
quired to undergo a background check.
U.S. Department of Justice officials, as
well as gun violence prevention advo-
cates, say this makes them easily ac-
quired by criminals who otherwise would
not be permitted to possess a firearm and
nearly impossible for law enforcement to
track.
“And that’s the main reason they’re re-
ferred to as ‘ghost guns’ — because you
can’t tell where they came from,” Chudy
said.
Are ghost guns legal?
Federal law allows a person to make a
firearm for personal use, Chudy said, un-
less that individual is otherwise prohib-
ited from possessing a firearm. If some-
one is a convicted felon, they are not al-
lowed to possess a firearm.
Chudy said he was unaware of any
federal law that limits the number of fire-
arms an individual can manufacture for
personal use.
Any person who is in the business of
making guns to sell them must obtain a
federal firearm license to do so, he said.
The seller is required to serialize the fire-
arms, as well as follow other require-
ments that make the weapon traceable.
These laws were determined by the
Gun Control Act of 1968. The act, which
came after the assassinations of Presi-
dent John Kennedy, Attorney General
Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., imposes licensing and regula-
tion on the firearms industry, established
new categories of firearms offenses, and
prohibits the sale of firearms and ammu-
nition to felons and certain other prohib-
ited persons, according to the ATF.
How are ghost guns made?
Ghost guns are most frequently pur-
chased and assembled from kits. They
can also be 3D-printed.
A key component to a firearm is called
a frame or “receiver,” which houses the
firing mechanism. Under federal law,
only a frame or receiver of a firearm must
carry a serial number. And anyone pur-
chasing a receiver is subject to a back-
ground check, according to Giffords Law
Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
“Unfinished frames and receivers are
often marketed as “80%” complete,
meaning a buyer needs to do only 20% of
the work for the frame or receiver to be
assembled into an operable firearm,” ac-
cording to a report by Everytown for Gun
Safety, a national gun violence preven-
tion organization.
Chudy says it’s perfectly legal and
easy to buy firearm components, includ-
ing a frame and receiver, from a legiti-
mate retailer.
“Anybody can go online and just type
up 80% receiver and you’ll find stores le-
gally able to sell them,” he said.
Privately-made firearms can also be
created using new manufacturing tech-
nologies such as 3D printing, which al-
lows a person to produce a three-dimen-
sional object much in the way that a tra-
ditional printer can produce a printed
document, according to Giffords. “A high-
quality, easy-to-use model is available for
about $2,500, roughly the cost of a high-
end AR-15–style rifle. Entry-level 3D
printers are available for under $200.”
Why is a serial number on a gun
important and what happens when
there isn’t one?
Firearms’ serial numbers are key in-
vestigative tools for police. When law en-
forcement officials recover a firearm at a
crime scene, they use serial numbers to
trace the weapon back to the owner and
retailer.
The ATF’s National Tracing Center
(NTC) traces firearms associated with
crimes and provides investigative leads
for local, state, federal and foreign law
enforcement agencies. Officials say
490,800 trace requests were processed
in the fiscal year 2020.
In Oregon, 5,288 firearms were recov-
ered during investigations and traced in
2020, according to the ATF. Salem was
ranked third among Oregon cities for fire-
arm recovery in 2020, with 335. Portland
holds the number one spot with 1,121 fire-
arms recovered; Eugene holds the second
with 353.
Without a serial number, guns are
harder for police to trace.
“What we have to do is figure out if it
was recovered from someone, where
they got that firearm from and basically
work the process backward,” Chudy said.
Salem police officials said they’re not
immune to this problem. Detectives add-
ed because they’re harder to trace, there
are additional “complications” in training
investigators and evidence techs to prop-
erly document PMFs for entry into data-
bases.
How often are ghost
guns used in crimes?
In recent years, the number of ghost
guns recovered from crime scenes across
the country has increased.
Nearly 24,000 suspected ghost guns
were recovered by law enforcement from
potential crime scenes from Jan.1, 2016,
through Dec. 31, 2020 and reported to the
ATF, according to a report written by At-
torney General Merrick B. Garland on be-
half of the Department of Justice. This
includes ghost guns recovered from 325
homicides or attempted homicides.
The numbers are rising in some
municipalities. In 2019, 6% of the fire-
arms recovered by the San Francisco Po-
lice Department in connection with
homicides were ghost guns. Last year it
topped 44%, according to the lawsuit
filed by the city district attorney’s office.
New York County hasn’t had as many
ghost gun cases as San Francisco, but
they have doubled in the last two to three
years, said Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhat-
tan chief prosecutor. In 2020, the New
York City Police Department recovered
225 ghost guns through Dec. 3, surpass-
ing the 145 recovered in 2020. In 2019, of-
ficers recovered just 48.
Ghost guns have also been used in at
least three mass shootings in recent
years: A 2013 shooting in Santa Monica,
California, that left five people dead, a
2017 shooting in Tehama County, Califor-
nia, that left four people dead and a 2019
shooting in Santa Clarita, California, that
left two students at Saugus High School
dead.
Have efforts been made
to regulate ghost guns?
Gun control advocates and some law
enforcement officials alike have sounded
the alarm over ghost guns, which they
say is a growing threat to public safety.
According to Giffords, 10 states (Cali-
fornia, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii,
Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Is-
land, Virginia, and Washington) and the
District of Columbia have enacted laws to
at least partially address the undetect-
able or untraceable guns.
USA Today’s Kevin McCoy and Ryan
W. Miller contributed to this report.
Virginia Barreda is the Statesman
Journal’s public safety and courts report-
er.
She
can
be
reached
at
vbarreda@statesmanjournal.com
or
503-399-6657.