REGION
Friday, September 15, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
School district
narrows graduation
venue choices to high
school, Kennewick
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Hermiston Senior Center comes down
Contractors use heavy machinery to remove the rubble of the former Hermiston Senior Center Thursday morning.
The building was demolished this week as part of the Hermiston School District’s larger efforts to prepare the old
fairgrounds for new projects as money becomes available. A portion of the property behind Hermiston High School is
currently being converted to additional parking for the school.
Mixed results in state testing data,
with overall downward trend
By JADE MCDOWELL
and ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Test score data released
by the Oregon Department of
Education is painting a picture
for school districts about where
their students are struggling
and succeeding.
The state publicly released
hundreds of pages of assess-
ment data on Thursday
morning, showing how many
students in each school passed
the Smarter Balanced assess-
ment in the spring.
Statewide, test scores in
most grade levels and subjects
ticked downward a percentage
point or two. The department
did not offer an explanation
in its news release, beyond
noting that participation levels
are down. But Deputy Super-
intendent of Public Instruction
Salam Noor said under the
banner of the “Oregon Plan,”
the state is implementing
a number of programs to
increase student performance
and teacher effectiveness.
“We are confi dent that
as we work with school and
district leaders to implement
the Oregon Plan, we will
see more students attending
school regularly, more students
graduating and more scoring in
the profi cient category on these
assessments,” he wrote in a
statement.
Umatilla School District
Superintendent Heidi Sipe
said while people tend to jump
straight to comparing a school
or district’s data with the state
average, it is important to look
at how much growth those
schools have experienced
and how they are performing
compared to “like schools”
with similar demographics.
Umatilla’s elementary and high
school students, for example,
are performing well below the
state average on assessments,
but are much closer to the
performance level of their
peers in similar categories.
Nineteen percent of Umatilla
High School juniors who are
considered
“economically
disadvantaged” passed the
math test, compared to 22
percent of economically disad-
vantaged students statewide.
The overall state average for
all 11th graders was 34 percent.
“There are several areas
where we are outperforming
the state,” Sipe said.
The numbers can be
confusing for parents to sort
through, but the story they tell
helps inform schools’ decisions
about curriculum and where
to offer extra assistance. Sipe
said one telling piece of data
this year was that there was
growth among high school and
elementary school students, but
not at the middle school level.
“At Clara Brownell Middle
School, we are not seeing the
growth we expect and have
STATE TEST SCORE DATA
Percentage of students passing test in each school district
ENGLISH
Statewide
Hermiston
Pendleton
Morrow
Milton-Freewater
Umatilla
Stanfi eld
Pilot Rock
Athena-Weston
Echo
Helix
Ione
Ukiah
MATH
Statewide
Hermiston
Pendleton
Morrow
Milton-Freewater
Umatilla
Stanfi eld
Pilot Rock
Athena-Weston
Echo
Helix
Ione
Ukiah
SCIENCE
Statewide
Hermiston
Pendleton
Morrow
Milton-Freewater
Umatilla
Stanfi eld
Pilot Rock
Athena-Weston
Echo
Helix
Ione
Ukiah
e
5th grad
e
8th grad
de
11th gra
53
55
69
56
52
73
50
43
61
32
36
68
51
36
68
26
33
52
36
41
71
32
43
78
39
63
73
54
56
50
41
57
94
56
50
83
64% all grades combined
e
5th grad
e
8th grad
de
11th gra
39
41
34
52
32
28
42
39
28
19
15
20
33
11
14
24
11
22
22
38
28
13
15
52
41
35
41
31
56
13
24
43
56
33
29
42
37% all grades combined
e
5th grad
65
63
60
34
74
29
52
36
71
54
77
78
added intervention classes
for students in both math and
English language arts to better
support students,” she said.
Sipe said it’s hard to get
a true picture of a district’s
progress over the years based
solely on state assessment
scores, because the state is
constantly changing things. It
changed from the OAKS test to
Smarter Balanced a few years
ago, and is already discussing
another change in assessment.
Even during the OAKS years,
the bar was raised on what
was considered “passing,” and
the state is planning to make
the Language Arts portion of
Smarter Balanced shorter next
year.
“We’re not interested in
chasing a (Smarter Balanced)
score for our district, we’re
interested in chasing student
learning,” Sipe said.
Bryn Browning, assistant
superintendent for Hermiston
School District, agreed that it
e
8th grad
de
11th gra
62
56
79
60
65
51
29
47
51
52
43
43
59
72
52
65
56
68
75
31
71
>95
39
50
No data available
is hard to get a real picture of
progress when the measuring
stick is always changing.
“We never really get to
compare apples to apples,” she
said.
She called the Smarter
Balanced data just “one piece
of the puzzle” combined
with students’ performance
on in-class quizzes, tests and
assignments throughout the
year.
The data does tell a story
that the district listens to.
Browning noted that Herm-
iston’s math scores went up
in every grade but 8th. The
district has changed to a new
math curriculum this year, so
a test of its effectiveness will
be if scores continue to rise,
particularly at the seventh and
eighth grade level, where test
scores are still below the state
average.
“This is where we’re opti-
mistic we’re making a differ-
ence,” Browning said.
On the Language Arts
side, however, only 5th and
11th grades saw growth from
last year. Browning said that
signals to the district it’s time
to do some more professional
development there.
Although the Milton-Free-
water Unifi ed School District
saw its overall math scores
improve by 3.1 percent to 23.6
percent profi ciency, Superin-
tendent Rob Clark saw cause
for concern.
While grades 3-6 saw
improvement, seventh, eighth
and 11th grade all saw drops
from the year before, with
eighth grade passing the
Smarter Balanced math assess-
ment at only a 10.9 percent
rate.
Clark said the district has
already hired a math tutor that
will work with both teachers
and students at the secondary
level.
Although Clark pointed to
an improvement in English at
the fi fth grade level as a bright
spot, the 40.9 percent overall
passage rate represented a
similar percentage where they
were before.
“We’re running in place
when we need to be acceler-
ating,” he said.
According to Matt Yoshioka,
the Pendleton School District’s
director of curriculum, instruc-
tion and assessment, local
administrators aren’t the only
group confounded by the dip in
assessment performance.
Yoshioka said the Oregon
Department of Education
recently called Pendleton as a
part of a series of interviews
with districts across the state
trying to fi gure out the state’s
downward trend in test scores.
Pendleton saw slight growth
in overall math (38.2 percent
passing in 2015-2016 to 39.6
percent in 2016-2017) but
a more signifi cant slide in
English (54.1 percent to 47.2
percent).
Yoshioka said it would take
more data analysis before they
could fi gure out what measures
they want to take to improve,
but pointed out that Pendleton
High School graduated 91
percent of its students in 2015-
2016 (the district as a whole
had an 84 percent graduation
rate), a statistic that measured
the ultimate goal of every
school district.
Spreadsheets of test score
data, which will be compiled
into more user-friendly “report
cards” for each school later in
the year, can be found online at
www.oregon.gov/ode/educa-
tor-resources/assessment/
Pages/Assessment-Group-Re-
ports.aspx.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4536.
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
The Hermiston School District has narrowed
its options for a high school graduation venue
down to two, and will decide between leaving
the 2018 ceremony in its current location, the
high school gymnasium, or moving it to the
Toyota Center in Kennewick.
It has removed the two outdoor options,
Kennison Field and the rodeo arena at the
Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center.
The district has made a survey available to
the public, asking for their input on the two
venues. The survey is available at https://
www.surveymonkey.com/r/YDGVRC8.
The district sent out a press release
Thursday afternoon, detailing the two options.
The high school gym has a capacity for 1,800
guests, will allow students to give four tickets
to their families, and the district claims it will
cost about $11,000. If the ceremony remains
at Hermiston High School, it will take place
Saturday, June 9 at 10 a.m.
The Toyota Center can hold 5,000 guests,
will eliminate the need for tickets, and will
cost about $6,500, including transportation
of students and staff to Kennewick. The
ceremony would take place Thursday, June 7
around 7 p.m.
In addition to the basics of each venue, the
press release also detailed some of the issues
with leaving the ceremony in Hermiston. They
noted the limited handicap accessibility and
the safety concerns with the overcrowded
gym. The press release stated that if the
ceremony were held at the Toyota Center,
transportation would be available to families
going to graduation.
The board has been discussing this issue
since August, when Hermiston High School
Principal Tom Spoo and Athletic Director
Larry Usher fi rst brought a presentation to
the board, detailing the benefi ts of holding the
event at the Toyota Center. They were sched-
uled to make a decision at Monday’s board
meeting, and Interim Superintendent Tricia
Mooney had recommended that the board
move graduation to the Toyota Center for one
year, and then revisit local options.
The board decided instead to wait and
gather further input from the community.
Mooney said EOTEC and Kennison Field
were eliminated from the choices because of
fi nancial and personnel restrictions.
“Due to the restrictions of the facilities
at EOTEC (not currently equipped for an
event like graduation) and Kennison (limited
additional seating as is), these two were the
most cost-prohibitive (fi nancially and with
personnel) options based on the estimates we
had,” Mooney said in an email Monday.
In previous presentations, district staff had
said Kennison Field would add about 200
available seats. EOTEC would have been
able to seat about 5,000. But the board said
that after meeting with the facility’s interim
director, Nate Rivera, they determined the
arena didn’t currently have the infrastructure
or staff to host the event.
The survey expires Sept. 22. The board
is scheduled to make a fi nal decision on the
venue at their October meeting.
———
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan
at
jramakrishnan@eastoregonian.com
or
541-564-4534
BRIEFLY
Free household waste collection
coming to Milton-Freewater
MILTON-FREEWATER — Oregon
residents have an upcoming opportunity
to dispose of a wide variety of household
hazardous waste items for free.
The Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality, the city of Milton-Freewater and
Humbert Refuse & Recycling are sponsoring
the waste collection Saturday, Sept. 23, from
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Humbert’s site, 54841
Highway 332, Milton-Freewater.
The DEQ announced the event for locals
to dispose of materials and items ranging
from aerosol cans to batteries to devices
containing mercury, such as thermostats or
thermometers. The state regulation agency
stated items, whenever possible, should stay
in their original containers.
The event will not take explosives,
ammunition, sharps or products contain
radioactive elements, such as smoke
detectors.
Small businesses and farms in the Milton-
Freewater area also can dispose of hazardous
items for a fee, although getting rid of
mercury is free. That collection takes place
Friday, Sept. 22, but requires registration by
Friday. To register and for more information,
call 971-401-0367.
Class of ’57 celebrates 60 years
HERMISTON — The Hermiston
High School class of 1957 is gathering in
celebration of 60 years since turning the
tassel.
The reunion activities include an informal
get together Friday, Sept. 22 at 5:30 p.m. and
a no-host dinner Saturday, Sept. 23 at 5:30
p.m., with a class photo taken at 5:45 p.m.
Both events will be held at The Gathering
Place at Bellinger’s, 1823 S. Highway 395,
Hermiston.
For more information, call Rick Rebman
at 541-567-8560.
———
Briefs are compiled from staff and wire
reports, and press releases. Email press
releases to news@eastoregonian.com