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Page 10A NATION/WORLD East Oregonian Saturday, August 29, 2015 Common Core: 21 Ore. districts miss mark for test taking “We have made no deci- sions, and as we have said many times, continue to look PORTLAND — Twen- to states to ensure districts ty-one Oregon districts and schools are meeting the ranging from small to the law,” she said. Oregon districts that state’s largest failed to meet federal testing targets for missed participation targets Smarter Balanced assess- in at least one subject range ments, according to state from small, rural areas to Portland. For example, in data. The launch of new Gaston, near Forest Grove, Common Core aligned 340 students were scheduled assessments last school year to take exams and about sparked opt-out movements 92 percent did. And out of across the country. States are the approximately 25,100 required to test at least 95 students set to test in Portland percent of students overall Public Schools, roughly 87 and in every group, such as percent took assessments. More than a quarter of low-income students and English Language Learners students at some schools ² WR ¿W WKH 1R &KLOG /HW refused to test, according Behind law and receive to Portland Public Schools ¿JXUHV 3RUWODQG FRPPXQLW\ federal education dollars. In Oregon, which has members had at times visibly nearly 200 school districts, advocated against the test — the Smarter Balanced the district’s union passed tests replaced the Oregon a resolution this winter and Assessment of Knowledge a local opt out committee and Skills starting during the formed last year. “I think we see this kind 2014-2015 school year, in grades three to eight and 11 of concern anytime there in English language arts and is a new test that is being rolled out,” said Joe Suggs, math. Rates fell below 95 the district’s assessment percent in at least one subject lead. “It’s possible that the area for 21 Oregon districts, opt-out numbers will decline. according to the Oregon Obviously we won’t that Department of Education. In know until we are into testing 2013-2014, only two districts again.” The state plans to work missed the mark in a subject area and none fell below with districts to communicate subject targets the year prior. why test data is valuable, said Oregon’s schools chief spokeswoman Crystal Greene. Salam Noor told superin- Test scores allow districts and tendents and principals in the state to accurately evaluate an email that $344 million which schools and student in funding could be at risk. groups are doing well and This year about 95 percent who needs more help. Opt-out advocates in the of Oregon students took the tests but rates for African Portland area have shared American students and concerns with the amount of students with special needs time each test requires and the initial predication that dropped to 93 percent. The U.S. Department of many students would fail, Education said in a statement DPRQJRWKHUUHGÀDJV In some cases, students that the department has not yet had to withhold funding took the lead. A student union due to participation require- founded at Lake Oswego PHQWVEHFDXVHVWDWHVHLWKHU¿W High led to 234 exemptions, the law or addressed low rates which made up 88 percent of DWVSHFL¿FVFKRROVRUGLVWULFWV the total number of district The department has opt-outs, said spokeswoman not made any decisions in Nancy Duin. Overall 92 relation to Oregon’s latest percent of Lake Oswego participation rates, said Press School District students took Secretary Dorie Turner Nolt. tests. By LAURA FRAZIER The Oregonian BRIEFLY Experts: GOP candidates’ tough talk doesn’t always square with facts taken our jobs ... but now they are pulling us down with them,” he said Monday amid a worldwide swoon in stock prices. CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — If there was ever a week for the Republican presidential candidates to talk tough on China, this was it: Spurred by the stock market’s wild ride, they lashed out at the world’s most populous nation. Wisconsin’s Scott Walker demanded President Barack Obama cancel an upcoming state visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Mike Huckabee said the next president should “build America’s economy, not China’s or Mexico’s.” Donald Trump said the U.S. economy needs to “do a big uncoupling pretty soon, before it’s too late.” It’s rhetoric that doesn’t always square with the realities of the relationship between the world’s two largest economies, said experts on America’s ties with China, even if it does make for nifty campaign sound bites. “When you’re in the early phases of the primary season, and you don’t have a lot in the way of foreign SROLF\ERQD¿GHVDVXUH¿UH applause line is to go to the extreme — and in the case of China that’s always a very easy thing to do,” said Jon Huntsman, a former Republican governor of Utah and U.S. ambassador to China under Obama. No candidate went further than Trump, whose pledge to bring back to the U.S. the roughly 2 million jobs lost to China since 1999 is a centerpiece of his campaign. “Not only now have they Clerk asks Supreme Court to intervene in gay marriage case FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Two months after it legalized gay marriage nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked by a Kentucky county clerk for permission to keep denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who objects to gay marriage for religious reasons, asked the nation’s highest court Friday to grant her “asylum for her conscience.” The Supreme Court ruled in June that the Constitution guarantees gay people the right to marry. But Davis contends the First Amendment guarantees her the right of religious freedom. She stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision. Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her, arguing WKDWVKHPXVWIXO¿OOKHUGXWLHV DVDQHOHFWHGRI¿FLDOGHVSLWH her personal Christian conviction. A federal judge ordered Davis to issue the licenses and an appeals court upheld that decision. Davis’ lawyers said they ¿OHGDQHPHUJHQF\DSSHDO with the Supreme Court Friday, asking that they delay the mandate to issue licenses XQWLOKHUDSSHDOLV¿QLVKHGD process that could stretch for months. AP Photo/Mohamed Ben Khalifa Bodies of migrants who drowned off the coast when their boat sank are collected in Zuwara, Libya. It was not clear how many migrants had drowned. Dozens of boats are launched from lawless Libya each week, with Italy and Greece bearing the brunt of the surge. Europe’s migrant crisis brings new death by land and sea Associated Press VIENNA — Death and desperation mounted in Europe’s migrant crisis Friday as Austrian police said 71 people appeared to have suffocated in the back of an abandoned truck, while an estimated 200 people were feared drowned off Libya when two overloaded boats capsized. More than 300,000 people have sought to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far in 2015, up from 219,000 in all of last year, as European authorities grapple with the ODUJHVW LQÀX[ VLQFH :RUOG War II. The death of 71 people locked in the truck on a highway south of Vienna shows “the desperation of people seeking protection or a new life in Europe,” said Melissa Fleming, spokes- woman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva. 7KH ,QWHUQDWLRQDO 2I¿FH of Migration has recorded 2,636 deaths linked to Medi- terranean crossings this year, and more may have vanished beneath the waves out of sight of rescuers. Each day, thousands are ERDUGLQJ ÀLPV\ ERDWV IRU Italy or Greece, and many more are placing themselves and their families at the PHUF\ RI KXPDQ WUDI¿FNHUV by slogging for days or weeks through the western Balkans toward what they hope will be a brighter future. 0RVWDUHÀHHLQJZDUFRQÀLFW or persecution in countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. Several factors are driving the surge of Syrian refugees, including worsening condi- tions in that country’s refugee centers partly due to budget AP Photo/Mohamed Ben Khalifa A Syrian man tends to his daughter recovering in a hospital after the boat they were sharing with hun- dreds of other migrants capsized off the coast of Zu- wara, Libya. cuts and the reluctance of neighboring countries to take in more people, the U.N. said. In a rare statement issued under his name and not a spokesman, U.N. Secre- tary-General Ban Ki-moon VDLG KH ZDV ³KRUUL¿HG DQG heartbroken” by the latest deaths and stressed that a “large majority” of people undertaking such dangerous journeys are refugees who have the right to protection and asylum. He called on all govern- ments to act with compassion and said he plans a “special meeting devoted to these global concerns” on Sept. 30, during the annual General Assembly of world leaders at U.N. headquarters. Two ships went down Thursday off the western Libyan city of Zuwara, where Hussein Asheini of the Red Crescent said at least 105 bodies had been recovered. About 100 people were rescued, according to WKH 2I¿FH RI WKH 81 +LJK Commissioner for Refugees, with at least 100 more believed to be missing. “A coast guard team is still diving in and checking inside to see if there’s anyone else,” Asheini added. Workers pulled the dead from the water and placed them in orange-and-black body bags that were laid out on the waterfront in Zuwara, about 105 kilometers (65 miles) west of Tripoli. 6HYHUDOYLFWLPVÀRDWHGIDFH GRZQLQDÀRRGHGERDWWRZHG into the harbor. At least one of the dead wore a life vest. Most of the people rescued came from Syria and sub-Saharan African countries, said Mohamed al-Misrati, the spokesman for the Red Crescent in Libya. “You can imagine what they are going through. Some of them are still looking for their friends. We’re trying to speak to them but many of them are too traumatized to even talk about the incident,” he said. Lawless Libya, which doesn’t have the resources WR GHDO ZLWK WKH ÀRZ RI migrants, is a prime starting point for many, with human WUDI¿FNHUV ¿OOLQJ ERDWV WKH\ know cannot reach European VKRUHV EXW ¿JXULQJ WKDW rescuers will pick up the passengers and take them to Italy. Often, the smugglers force migrants below deck where their chances of survival are even dimmer. Rescuers who boarded one boat Wednesday counted 52 people who suffocated in the hold, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Survivors said the smugglers beat them with sticks to keep them below deck, and one said they demanded money to let the migrants come up for fresh air. While the U.N. agency said more than 300,000 refugees crossed the Medi- terranean so far this year, WKH ,QWHUQDWLRQDO 2I¿FH RI Migration, an intergov- ernmental agency, put the number at 332,000 on Friday. Hungarian police arrested four people overnight after the decomposing bodies of 71 migrants, including eight women and four children, were found in the truck on Austria’s main highway. The suspects, allegedly part of a larger Bulgari- an-Hungarian smuggling ring, include an Afghan and three Bulgarians, one of whom owns the truck, Hungarian national police spokeswoman Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs said. Police raided houses and questioned almost 20 others in the case. Hans Peter Doskozil, chief of police in eastern Burgenland province, said the migrants probably suffocated. At least some of the dead were Syrian, travel documents indicated, though most of the partially decomposed bodies UHPDLQHGXQLGHQWL¿HG Place a Yard Sale Ad 25 words, 3 days, private party only $20.00 East Oregonian & Hermiston Herald Yard Sale Kits - $5.00 Includes 2 signs, stakes & price stickers. Call Paula 541-278-2678