Page 8
The INDEPENDENT, May 16, ZUU2
Community
State “School Reports Cards” say little
Health Notes
ByAudeen Wagner
Allergies:
It’s that time of year again,
when hay fever sufferers are getting hit by
the spring pollens in the air. It is often hard to
tell the difference between a bad cold and an
allergy, especially at this time of year; the
symptoms are often very similar.
Provi
dence Family Medicine-Vernonia is seeing
quite a few people with allergy problems
and, this year especially, it seems that pa
tients are experiencing more eye discomfort—watery, runny eyes,
sometimes even with a thick discharge reminiscent of an eye dis
ease. If you have any of these symptoms, you should check it out
with your health care provider.
Immunizations:
a great deal of information about vac
cinations is available to parents. This is good, because parents
should have access to information to help them make informed
decisions about vaccinations for their families. However, informa
tion is sometimes published that is inaccurate or can be mislead
ing when taken out of context. Sometimes it’s hard to know how
to schedule immunizations for infants and children. If you have
questions about immunizations for your child, be sure to check
with the clinic. Jeanette Doherty and Dawn Carr, Medical Assis
tants for the clinic, have the latest, up-to-date information on this
subject. They will be happy to help with this important part of child
care.
MammOVan:
The next Mammovan visit to Vernonia is
Wednesday, May 22. Call the clinic for an appointment.
Grant will aid Columbia County
Child A buse Assessm ent Center
The Columbia County Child
Abuse Assessment Center has
received a $2,000 grant from
the PGE Foundation (formerly
the PGE-Enron Foundation).
The center was one of 29 Ore
gon nonprofits to receive a por
tion of more than $640,000 in
2002 first quarter PGE Founda
tion grants.
The grant will help provide
an AmeriCorps volunteer to as
sist the center in increasing
awareness about child abuse
and family violence issues, as
well as expand services to chil
dren and families throughout
Nehalem
Valley
Pioneer meeting
The Nehalem Valley Pioneer
Meeting will be held Sunday,
June 9, at 11:00 a.m., at Jewell
School, in beautiful downtown
Jewell.
It’s a potluck with lots of free
parking. There will be fiddlin’
music by the nationally ac
claimed Katie Keller and her
Bodacious Bluegrass Band.
Meet old friends, eat lunch
and have fun. Y’all come!
Columbia County. In addition to
multidisciplinary assessments,
the Child Abuse Assessment
Center provides education,
training, support and counsel
ing services to non-offending
caretakers and children who
have been abused or involved
in domestic violence situations.
School report cards repre
sent a very limited, statistical
snapshot of school perform
ance. Designed by the legisla
ture to provide a way of com
paring school across the state
only narrowly defined data,
available from every school, is
included. Students are evalu
ated at four ‘benchmark’ levels,
usually in grades 3,5,8 and 10.
Showing improvement over
time as well as actual numbers
Free
workshop
slated on how to
get published
“How to Get Published”, a
free workshop by Poulsbo,
Washington author June Cot-
ner, will be held at the St. He
lens Book Shop, 1550 Colum
bia Blvd. in St. Helens, on June
1, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.
Cotner, who has gained na
tional acclaim for her spiritual
books, will be introducing her
newest releases, Teen Sun
shine Reflections: Words for
the Heart and Soul and Baby
Blessings: Inspiring Prayers
and Poems for Every Stage of
Babyhood. Her earlier work,
Graces: Prayers & Poems for
Everyday Meals and Special
Occasions is in its 28th printing.
For more information, call
Gena Pugh at the St. Helens
Book Shop, at 503-397-4917 or
visit
www.sthelensbookshop.
com
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of students meeting or exceed
ing benchmarks heavily influ
ences a school, or districts,
overall rating. Last year report
card contained three areas
(Student Performance, Student
Behavior and School Charac
teristics), this year the legisla
ture added a fourth area Im
provement.
Banks High School (BHS)
and Junior High (BJHS) each
received an overall rating of
strong. Vernonia High School
(VHS), Washington Elementary
(WGS) and Banks Elementary
(BES) all received overall rat
ings of satisfactory for 2002.
Student Performance is
based on the results of bench
mark testing in reading, writing,
math multiple choice and math
problem solving. The overall
data for the school is reported
for each subject area and com
pared to both schools with sim
ilar demographics and the state
average.
Testing of tenth
graders in Banks and Vernonia
resulted in a strong rating at
both high schools. BJHS also
received a strong rating for
tests at the eighth grade level.
Eighth graders in Vernonia are
included in the results for WGS.
Both WGS and BES received
satisfactory ratings for student
performance on statewide as
sessments.
The student behavior rat
ing is compiled only from statis
tical data for attendance, and in
high schools, drop-out rate for
the 2000 - 2001 school year.
BHS & BJHS earned an excep
tional rating, VHS continues to
have a low rating and WGS has
dropped to an unacceptable at
tendance rating.
The third area of evaluation,
school characteristics, is the
percentage of students partici
pating in statewide assess
ments. Any school with less
that 85% of students participat
ing in statewide test automati
cally receives an unacceptable
rating. All Banks and Vernonia
schools receive expectional rat
ings in this area.
The final, new, area of eval
uation on the state school re
port cards is improvement.
Data are evaluated for the last
four years (1998 - 2001) in two
areas: student performance
and behavior. All area schools
(BHS, VHS, BJHS, WGS)
showed improvement over the
four years in performance on
statewide tests in reading and
math except BES which stayed
about the same. Attendance
and Drop-out Rate (Student
Behavior) showed improve
ment at BHS and BJHS, stayed
about the same at VHS and de
clined at WGS and BES.
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