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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 2015)
Local News test Roosevelt Improvements teaching parents in depth about Common Core and the pros and cons of opting out. In Seattle, high schools like Roosevelt, Ingraham and Garfield — where testing hasn’t even begun yet — opt-out rates for juniors are near 50 percent and expected to grow. Garfield history teacher and prominent education reformist, Jesse Hagopian has been a leading voice in boy- cotting the Smarter Balanced Assessment which he says sets students up to fail. “The cut score for SBAC testing was deliberately set so as to fail around 60 percent of the students who take the test,” he said at a press conference with the King County ‘We find this political decision to artificially create mass failure reprehensible’ NAACP in April. “None of us teachers got into our profes- sion to demoralize students and we find this political decision to artificially create mass failure reprehensible, and pedagogically unsound.” King County NAACP President Gerald Hankerson also named the fight against the Common Core standards as an essential element to the ongoing #BlackLivesMatter move- ment calling for equality in Black living conditions worldwide. The new standards for math and reading are said by sup- porters to better prep students for college and career readiness and help the U.S. better compete on the world stage. Though not required, the Common Core standards have been adopted by every state in the nation over the last five years, excluding only Alaska, Virginia, and Oklahoma. America has been noted as falling behind in educational achievement in the last three decades. According to the Pro- PHOTO COURTESY OF PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS continued from page 1 the Roosevelt high School revitalization’s ceremonial groundbreaking on May 2 featured Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith and many of the school’s boosters. Funded by a bond measure, the renovation will bring new facilities and seismic upgrades. Saturday’s event included a free barbeque and tours of the campus. gramme for International Student Assessment, the U.S. ranked 37th in its most recent exam; countries like Singa- pore, Taiwan, and South Korea topped the lists. Though poverty has long been proven as a major factor in terms of outcomes in the classroom, the top three perform- ers on the list have higher rates of poverty than the U.S. Assessment supported claims that American students would “yield significant performance gains” under the criteria. Nonetheless, America’s pupils continue to rail against the standards. In New York state, home to the biggest school district in America, opt-outs have increased three fold from 66,000 in 2014 to an already unprecedented 184,000 — a number sure to climb in the coming weeks and months. An alignment study between the Common Core standards for math and the Programme for International Student Alzheimer’s continued from page 1 increase of African American people 85 years or older by 2050. In an effort to better understand Alzheimer’s in the African American com- munity, there have been efforts to get more African American people into clinical trials. The African American Network Against Alzheimer’s, the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institute for Health have all pushed for greater Black representation in medical research. To this end, OHSU is currently hiring a Community Ambassador who will help reach out to groups who have been left out of clinical trials. In addition to this ambas- sador, they hope to hold outreach events and brain lectures to get their message out. This landmark study is a radical departure from previous Alzheimer’s investigation because it focuses on thwarting the disease before it starts, according to Deniz Erten- Lyons MD, assistant professor of If successful, the study may prove a new way to treat the disease Neurology at OHSU. “It’s the first study that’s aimed at pre- venting Alzheimer’s disease. Not only preventing Alzheimer’s, but trying to target the mechanisms that lead to Alzheimer’s disease,” Erten-Lyons said. The study targets amyloid protein deposits in the brain. The brain produces these proteins that can build up in older peo- ple and form amyloid plaque deposits which play a role in development of Alzheimer’s disease-related memory loss. The study would use an antibody to reduce these deposits and test if that slows memory loss. If successful, the study may prove a new way to treat the disease, similar to the man- agement of heart disease by preventing the build-up of cholesterol. Erten-Lyons faces the challenge of find- ing people who are older than 65 who have amyloid build-up in their brains but don’t have any memory issues. “Finding individuals who are 65 and older with amyloid in their brains is a little bit challenging,” she said. “We need to screen a large number of individuals to really get to our target.” Interested participants will undergo a series of screening tests, medication reviews, and medical history tests. If they pass this screening, they will go through a positron emission tomography (PET) scan of their brain to see if they have the amyloid plaques. All participants who receive a PET scan will have access to their results, even if they are screened out of the A4 Study. For Erten-Lyons, those who have been touched by the disease are the ones who have volunteered their time to help find a cure. “People who really have shown interest and signed up for this study to be screened are individuals who are somehow affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Either their spouse has had it or their parents had it,” she said “It means a lot to them, not only to know their own status but also to contribute to the research to try to find a cure for it.” To get more information or to participate in the A4 Study, contact study coordinator Allison Bianchi at 503-494-7615, or email adresearch@ohsu.edu Lynch continued from page 1 Rights Division, and Ronald Davis, the director of Community Oriented Policing Services, to Baltimore for a series of meet- ings with faith and civic leaders and community stakeholders to discuss the best path forward to mend the fractured relation- ship between Baltimore’s police force and the majority Black communities that they serve in city’s poorest neighborhoods. On Friday, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby filed charges against six Baltimore police officers that ranged from second-degree assault to “depraved heart murder.” During a meeting with Maryland United States Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D) and Ben Cardin (D) and Reps. Elijah Cummings, John Sarbanes and Dutch Ruppersberger, Lynch said it was inspiring to see people Lynch then met with Police Commissioner Anthony Batts privately and then with a small group of police officers who she called ‘the hardest-working police officers in America’ come together to reclaim the city. “We’re here to hold your hands and pro- vide support,” said Lynch to the group that also included William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr., the Gray family’s attorney, and Rev. Donté L. Hickman, Sr., the pastor of South- ern Baptist Church, whose community resource center and senior housing complex were destroyed by fire while still under con- struction during the riots on April 27. She also vowed that the Justice Department was there to help the city move forward and work to improve the Baltimore Police Department. Lynch then met with Police Commission- er Anthony Batts privately and then with a small group of police officers who she called the “the hardest-working police offi- cers in America.” Lynch added: “To all of you on the front lines, I want to thank you. You really have become the face of law enforcement.” Last fall, the Justice Department part- nered with Baltimore officials to address concerns about abuse in the city’s police department. “I have worked on this issue for years,” said Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore. “We can’t afford to fail. The relationship between police and the com- munity is like a marriage.” Lynch also met with Baltimore United, a community group that advocates for police reform, and others who had lost loved ones to police violence. Read the rest of this story online at www.theskanner.com May 6, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3
