6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015
Tested: Students scratch heads over new assessments
Across the
river, scores
tumble, but
administrators
mostly pleased
However, Naselle-Grays Riv-
er Valley School District and
the Long Beach Peninsula’s
Ocean Beach School District
FRQGXFWHG DQ HDUOLHU ³¿HOG
test” of the assessments to
familiarize students with the
types of questions, as well as
the technology they would
need to be comfortable using
By KATIE WILSON
in order to answer the ques-
EO Media Group
tions.
In general, most of
PACIFIC
COUNTY, OBSD’s students failed to
Wash. — The results of a meet the state standards for
new state test were released English and math. The sixth
0RQGD\ DQG VRXWK 3DFL¿F and 11th-grade students
County’s two school districts came in especially low. In
UHÀHFW QXPEHUV VHHQ DFURVV sixth grade, only 24 of the
Washington’s 295 school dis- VWXGHQWV HQUROOHG
tricts: take any two students percent) met the English
and probably only one of them standard, and had the lowest
met the state’s new standards. percentage of students who
Still, State Superin- met the math standard: only
tendent Randy Dorn was 11 students, or 15.9 percent,
pleased.
met that standard. In 11th
“Statewide results beat JUDGH VWXGHQWV RU
our predictions,” he said in percent of the 79 students
a press conference held Aug. enrolled, met the English
17. “That says to me that stu- standard and 28.9 percent
dents are capable of learning (20 students) met the math
our new standards, which standard.
are designed to make sure
Students in the smaller
students are ready for career Naselle-Grays River School
and college.”
District, which typically
Though the numbers look shows up very well on state
bad, he said that actual stu- assessments, also mostly
dent learning improved.
failed to meet state standards,
The tests are more de- and in 11th grade, only four
manding than previous students of 22 met state stan-
state assessments, requiring GDUGV IRU (QJOLVK RQO\ ¿YH
strong comprehension and met the math standards.
problem-solving skills, state
Other challenges
educators say. This was the
For Ocean Beach School
¿UVW\HDUVWXGHQWVLQJUDGHV
through 8 and grades 10 and District and others, the new
11 took the Smarter Balanced tests weren’t the only chal-
Assessments for English lenge.
“We were in the testing
Language Arts and math.
Amy Huntley/For EO Media Group
Eighth-grader Jessie Huntley got plenty of attention last
spring as she helped with a trial of new computer tablet
testing procedures and technology at Ilwaco (Wash.) Mid-
dle School. Karen Veeland looked on. Students have now
taken the tests for real and results were reported Monday.
window and they (the Of-
fice of the Superintendent
of Public Instruction) were
sending us updates and
changes,” said Amy Hunt-
ley, OBSD’s interventions,
assessment and curriculum
program coordinator. “There
was information that we
should have known in No-
vember that we found out in
February.”
One thing OBSD didn’t
have to worry about, though,
was the technology.
“Because of our tech levy
and our good tech depart-
ment, we have a lot of our
kids on the technology and,
for the most part, they’re at
Fall salmon seasons
set, with good forecasts
periods per week (Sunday, ing in the Columbia River.
Tuesday and Thursday)
Last year, the first pilot
LONG BEACH, Wash. through August in Zones 4 research seine fishery was
— Greater than average and 5. Remaining commer- on selected days Aug. 19
forecasts of fall chinook and cial fishing days are Aug. WR 6HSW ,W ZDV
coho salmon are opening DQGEHJLQQLQJ limited to 10 seine permits,
the way for more commer- at 9 p.m. each day and end- four purse seines (fished
cial fishing in the Columbia ing the following morning from boats) and six beach
River.
at 6 a.m.
seines. Some 45 commer-
The U.S. v Oregon Tech-
The late fall gillnet fish- cial gillnetters signed up
nical Advisory Committee ery is expected to begin for the permits. Each per-
preseason forecast for the Sept. 14, also in Zones 4 mit was given an individual
2015 fall chinook adult re- and 5. Coho gillnet fishing fish quota (IFQ) limited to
turn to the Columbia River is expected in October, like- hatchery chinook and coho
WRWDOV ILVK ZKLFK O\LQ=RQHVDQG
salmon. A total of 6,000 chi-
would be another strong run.
The compact also set the QRRN DQG FRKR ZHUH
The forecast is 80 per- select area gillnet fisheries allowed, although the actu-
cent of the 2014 actual re- (those commercial fisheries al catch was 2,400 chinook
turn (1,159,100) and 147 not in the main Columbia and 1,000 coho.
percent of the 2005-2014 River channel) at its July 29
The chinook quota this
DYHUDJHUHWXUQ
hearing. Gillnetters could year will be 5,000 fish and
Bonneville Dam passage fish the Deep River select 1,700 coho are allowed, all
is expected to total nearly area fishery in Washington hatchery fish. Again, 10
649,000 upriver fall chi- IRU QLJKWV VWDUWLQJ $XJ permits are allowed, but this
nook adults. Passage is typ- 17, and for 46 nights, also year the number of permits
ically 50 percent complete starting Aug. 17, in Ore- requested as of Tuesday
by Sept. 8.
gon’s Blind Slough and has been just eight, but just
The 2015 coho fore- Youngs Bay.
six permits have been pur-
cast to the Columbia Riv-
The compact also set chased (four beach and two
er is for a strong return of the recreational fall salmon seine permits). Oregon and
DGXOWV ZKLFK LQ- fisheries. The Buoy 10 fish- Washington are accepting
FOXGHV HDUO\ VWRFN ery began Aug. 1 and fish- applications to fill the last
DQGODWHVWRFN7KH ing will be allowed through four permits.
forecast is 117 percent of Labor Day. Two fish are
Each beach seine will
the 2005-2014 average of allowed, but only one can be allowed 400 hatchery
459,800 fish.
be a chinook. Retention of chinook salmon and 150
Bonneville Dam pas- FKLQRRN FORVHV 6HSW coho salmon. Handling of
sage is expected to total and will reopen Oct. 1 with 180 steelhead is allowed.
190,500 adult coho, which a two-fish, two chinook bag Purse seiners are allowed
represents 65 percent of the limit.
650 chinook, 200 coho and
total ocean abundance of
At its most recent meet- are allowed to handle up to
Columbia River coho des- ing, the compact set lim- 150 steelhead. Once a sein-
tined for areas upstream of its and timing on the 2015 er reaches these limits, they
Bonneville Dam.
beach and purse seine fish- must stop fishing.
Through Aug. 17, 20,744
DGXOW IDOO FKLQRRN
sockeye, and 125 coho had
passed Bonneville Dam.
The cumulative fall chinook
count is the second largest
since 1989 by that date.
Flows are low and tem-
peratures are slightly above
average at Bonneville Dam.
Flow Tuesday on Aug. 11
ZDV FXELF IHHW SHU
second while the 10-year
average is 169.7 kcfs. The
average water temperature
Aug. 11 is 70.6 degrees
Fahrenheit and the actual
temperature was 71 degrees.
In three meetings in re-
cent weeks, the two-state
Columbia River Compact
F or u p-to-d a te in form a tion
set fishing periods for both
plea se ca ll ou r
treaty Indian and non-Indi-
an commercial gillnetters,
select area fisheries, re-
search seine fisheries and
recreational fisheries.
At its July 29 hearing,
the
Oregon-Washington
Columbia River Boundary
Compact set openings for
the non-Indian early fall
salmon commercial gillnet
fishery, with three 9-hour
Columbia Basin Bulletin
least comfortable,” Huntley
said. “They know how to log
in.”
Smarter Balanced As-
sessments unfold entirely
on a screen, which means
students must have at least
basic computer skills to nav-
igate their way through the
tests.
After speaking to other
districts’ assessment coordi-
nators, Huntley knows the
technology side of things
was a big challenge else-
where.
Also, other districts dealt
with high numbers of stu-
dents refusing to take the
new tests this year. Some
students turned in parent
or guardian-signed refusal
forms; others simply skipped
test day. OBSD, however,
had very few refusals, Hunt-
ley said.
Going forward, Huntley
said the test results show
the district what it needs to
emphasize and help students
understand.
With the Smarter Bal-
anced Assessments, “part of
it’s an assessment issue and
part of it is a ‘life is com-
plicated’ issue,” she said.
The tests — with questions
that require longer, extend-
ed problem-solving work
— demand an amount of
perseverance that some stu-
dents may not currently have
or are struggling to develop,
she explained.
It’s good that the tests
ask this of students, Huntley
added, “because life is full
of that. We need to be teach-
ing our kids that.”
But, she said, “Certain-
ly it’s something that when
they hit it on an assessment,
if they don’t have that per-
severance, they answer it
incomplete, may not give it
as much effort or they get
frustrated and they give up.”
Ultimately, Huntley says,
the tests pointed out what the
district might need to “layer
on.”
Ocean Beach scores
In the other grades:
• Of the 81 students en-
rolled in third grade in the
2014-15 school year, 41.8
percent met the state’s stan-
dard in English language
arts; 46.6 percent met the
standard in math.
• In fourth grade, 52 per-
FHQWRURIWKHVWXGHQWV
enrolled, met the English
standard while 45.2 percent
met the math standard.
• In fifth grade, 58.9 per-
FHQWRURIWKHVWXGHQWV
enrolled, met the English
VWDQGDUG SHUFHQW PHW
the math standard.
,QVHYHQWKJUDGHVWX-
dents of 89 — about 40 per-
cent — met the English stan-
GDUG DQG PHW WKH PDWK
standard.
• In eighth grade, 54 per-
FHQW ² VWXGHQWV RI
— met the English standard
ZKLOH SHUFHQW PHW WKH
math standard.
Naselle-Grays River
Valley scores
In the other grades:
• Less than half of the
students enrolled in the third
and fourth grades met either
the English or math stan-
dards.
• In fifth grade, 60 percent
of the 25 students enrolled
met the English standard
WKRXJK RQO\ SHUFHQW
met the math standard.
• In sixth grade, more
than half met both standards
— 52.6 percent in English
and 57.8 in math.
• In seventh grade, 44.4
percent (12 students of the
28 enrolled) met both the
English and math standards.
• In eighth grade, more
than half of those enrolled
met both standards — 60
percent in English and 52.1
percent in math.
El Niño looking to be strongest since 1997;
more warm temps, less snow possible
had developed in March,
prompting an advisory to
Driven
by
high- be issued that remains in
HUWKDQQRUPDO
3DFL¿F effect. A July update predict-
Ocean water temperatures, ed the weather pattern had
an El Niño weather pattern strengthened and will likely
has been building in strength last into early next spring.
since March, but its impacts Strong El Niño events are
will vary from one region to characterized by Equatorial
another.
water temperatures that are
“What’s new this month at 1.5 degrees Celsius above
is that this could be one of normal for three months.
the strongest El Niños” since
Halpert said that tem-
1997, said Mike Halpert, perature benchmark could
deputy director of National reach or exceed 2 degrees
Oceanic and Atmospheric above normal, something
Administration’s Climate that has happened only three
Prediction Center in College times in recent decades.
Park, Md., during a monthly
Generally, it is expect-
update on the El Niño south- ed that this will lead to be-
ern oscillation weather pat- low-normal
precipitation
WHUQWKDWZDVKHOG$XJ
and
higher-than-normal
Halpert emphasized that temperatures across the Co-
predicting how El Niño lumbia Basin and Canadi-
could affect storm systems an border states to the east
along the West Coast and in through next spring. By con-
regions such as the Colum- trast, El Niño could produce
ELD 5LYHU %DVLQ LV GLI¿FXOW higher-than-average
rain
largely because it is not the and snow in California and
RQO\LQÀXHQFHRQZHDWKHU
in Southwestern states, but it
“If it was the only driver was noted that any increased
we could say a lot more than precipitation due to El Niño
we can,” Halpert said. “El is unlikely to make up for a
Niño is certainly different four-year drought in Califor-
things to different people in nia.
different places.”
The broad-brush El
NOAA forecasters de- Niño forecast for the Co-
clared that a weak El Niño lumbia Basin is not a good
Columbia Basin Bulletin
DailyAstorian.com
TIMBERLANDS CLOSED
DUE TO HIGH FIRE DANGER
Lew is & C la rk Tim b erla n d s
a re closed to a ll pu blic en try a n d w ill
rem a in in effect u n til fu rther n otice.
REC REATION AL
HOTLIN E
5 03 -73 8-63 5 1 Ex t. 2
TIMBERLANDS CLOSED
one, considering there
could be conditions that
might match or exceed this
year’s conditions — above
normal temperatures that
led to a “snow drought”
across the region. While
overall precipitation was
close to average, there was
a remarkably early snow-
pack melt and runoff, with
ULYHU ÀRZV DQG WHPSHUD-
tures that are normally seen
in August arriving in July.
“The real message is
that it’s likely to be a strong
event,” Halpert said of the El
Niño pattern that will persist
into next spring. And be-
cause it is expected to be a
strong pattern, predicted im-
pacts will “tend to be more
reliable.”
However, Halpert said
that even with a strong El
Niño, predicting impacts
from it still amounts to un-
certain long-range weather
forecasting.
“It’s important to remem-
ber that just because some-
thing is favored (by forecast-
ing models), doesn’t mean
it will necessarily happen,”
Halpert said, referring to the
varied effects that could re-
sult from one region to the
next.
Stu ffed C h ick en
B reast D in n er
w ith R oasted Potatoes & Veggies,
Salad & R oll
Friday A ug 21 st
$ .0 0
8
ea.
4 pm ‘til gone
6PM
“K araok e D ave”
2015 Scholarship Presentation
ic
Publ d !!!!!! Saturday pm
e A ugust 22nd 2
Invit
W elcom e H om e Party
Clats op Pos t 12’s Bike Crew 255
For their Successful Bike Trip
across the U nited States for
“Operation C om fort W arriors”
R aising $19,000.00 plus.
For more information go to:
Facebook (bike trip america)
or www.biketripamerica.com
ASTORIA AMERICAN LEGION
Clatsop Post 12
1132 Exchange Street 325-5771