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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 19, 2013)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM J UNE 19, 2013 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXV, N O . 37 25 CENTS For The Skanner news alerts Text "NEWS" to 503-715-0890 or scan this QR code C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW ‘Disaster Cars’ Arrive ART FEST Hurricane Sandy- damaged vehicles showing up for sale Of The Skanner News T PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED Fysah was one of many talented musicians who performed at the 33rd Annual Festival Sundiata’s Black Arts Fest, June 15-16 at Seattle Center. This year’s event included music and dance performances; Delbert Richardson’s American History exhibit of the black experience; a classic car show, representatives from the United Negro College Fund, the Tuskegee Airmen and a variety of other vendors and non-profits. More photos on page 6. New Family Literacy Program Read and Rise to wrap around parents of pre-schoolers through 3rd graders M ayor McGinn is tout- ing a new program, Read and Rise, to push students toward literacy by third grade. The twist with this education- al initiative is that it reaches out to parents – with training work- shops, reading materials and training outlines for parents to take home. The program is set to start this fall. Officials say the results ill be “closely monitored to deter- mine whether this investment is having an impact on the success of local students “We know from research that students who are not reading at grade level by the third grade are much more likely to drop out of school,” McGinn said in a statement. “This new program will help give parents the skills they need to support their kids as they reach this critical mile- stone.” Read and Rise, a program cre- ated by the children’s book pub- lishers Scholastic, in Houston saw the Urban League partner- ing with the Houston Independ- INDEX News ...............2,3,5,6,8 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................4 Bids/Classifieds.........6,7 ent School District over more than a decade to train parents on how to raise their families’ liter- acy levels. According to an assessment conducted by Scholastic, twelve elementary schools identified and served by the Urban League were able to improve their test scores and state rankings through the program. In Houston, Read and Rise was specifically designed to improve education achievement for low-income families and chronically underperforming schools. IN its success, Scholastic specifically calls out the work of Dr. Suzanne Carothers, a New York University professor who helped develop it. McGinn says the Read and Rise workshops will roll out in partnership with schools and community-based organizations that will be named in July. The program will focus on communities and schools with a high proportion of children who are low-income and who may See LITERACY on page 3 he Attorney General’s Office and the Better Business Bureau warns that flood damaged cars from Hurricane Sandy are showing up for sale in the Pacific Northwest – and it’s up to you to make sure the vehicle you buy does not have flood damage. “Once the waters recede, scam artists often descend into a flood area,” said Wash- ington State Attorney General Bob Fergu- son. “Buyer beware, protect yourself from buying a rebuilt, water-logged wreck. Make sure you check the history of the vehicle and take a close look at the physical condition.” “Don’t be fooled by shiny paint and a ‘new car’ smell,” says Robert W.G. Andrew, CEO of BBB serving Alaska, Oregon and Western Washington. “Unscrupulous sellers will use every trick in the book to clean up and sell totaled vehicles. If buyers aren’t careful, the cars they end up with could be loaded with hidden and serious problems.” “This is what we’ve found in the past – once we see one, we start to see more and more complaints so we try to get ahead of the issue,” said spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie. She said the most recent complaint the office has received came from an eastern Washington man who’d had the car for two months and started having electrical prob- lems. “Then he opened things up and saw rust and things that shouldn’t be there,” Guthrie said. “When he looked more closely at the history he saw it was from New Jersey.” Flood damaged cars may look normal, but almost always have serious problems including chronic mildew and corroded wires that lead to electrical failure. Research the title and the vehicle identifi- cation number at the National Motor Vehi- cle Title Information System, www.vehiclehistory.gov and/or CARFAX, www.flood.carfax.com. ‘Totaled’ cars get a See CARS on page 3 Toughing Out New School Standards Controversial ‘Common Core’ curriculum harder for kids, teachers By Ann Dornfeld KUOW SEATTLE (AP) Language arts teacher Christy Bowman-White leads a class at Sylvester Middle School in Burien in a les- son based on the Common Core State Stan- dards. This fall, some classes may get harder for public school students — and teachers — across Washington. That’s when many dis- tricts will roll out new, more rigorous lan- guage arts and math standards, known as the Common Core. Washington is one of 45 states that have adopted the same set of K- 12 standards. Some Washington teachers have already started using them. At Sylvester Middle School in Burien, teacher Christy Bowman- White read a poem about a nail-biter bas- ketball shot to her honors language arts class on a recent school day. “The ball slides up and out, lands, leans, wobbles, wavers, hesitates, plays it coy,’’ Bowman-White read the poem slowly so her students could savor each word. Bowman-White had a very specific goal for her class that day. See SCHOOLS on page 3
