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THE RANCH’S BEST SOURCE FOR LOCAL NEWS
JAN. 25, 2013
Report: San Diegans drive more than counterparts in Los Angeles By Jared Whitlock
COAST CITIES — Los Angeles might have more traffic, but San Diego takes the cake for most miles driven. That’s according to a new report measuring San Diego’s quality of life. On average, San Diegans traveled 12.8 miles per day by car in 2011. It’s a slight decline from 2010’s total, but it’s still higher than L.A.’s average of 10.7 and San Francisco’s 7.7. “San Diego’s limited public transportation is a major factor in us being higher,” said Sarah Benson, communications director with Equinox Center, the nonprofit and nonpartisan group that produced the report. Benson said that San Diegans use less public transportation than most cities, largely because we have fewer options. L.A. is better connected by subways, lightrail and shuttles, which data reflects. More than 6 percent of residents in L.A. take public transit to work, compared with only 3 percent in San Diego, according to the
Students in the Rancho Santa Fe School District will begin preparations for taking the new Common Core Standards tests, which will replace the STAR testing. File photo
District preps for new standards By Patty McCormac
Cars travel on Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas. On average, San Diegans drove 12.8 miles per day in 2011, even higher than those in Los Angeles. An Equinox Center study recommends more public transportation and bicycle ridership to bring this number down. Photo by Jared Whitlock
report. Also, when stacked up against other major cities, San Diego’s public transit is concentrated in select spots. “Our public transit does-
n’t reach most parts of the county,” Benson said. “Residents that live far from work have to drive.” The drawbacks from a greater number of hours on
the road? More traffic congestion and eventually an increase in fuel costs, the report states. And then there TURN TO DRIVING ON A14
Roundabouts being met with opposition By Patty McCormac
RANCHO SANTA FE — Jack Queen, former Rancho Santa Fe Association president, came to the Jan. 17 meeting to beseech the current board to think twice before approving the three proposed roundabouts slated for three intersections in the Covenant. “This is the most important decision you will make in your term,” Queen said. “This will forever change the entrance of Rancho Santa Fe.” Queen said he wants to make sure the board knows the full impact of the project. “This is industrial size, nothing like the little ones in Encinitas and Solana Beach.” He urged the board to go in person to the sites and do further research before mak-
BREAKING THE MOLD San Diego artist Michael Carini overcomes adversity, and makes giving back to the community one of his top priorities. A11
Plateada; and Paseo Delicias ing up their minds. “See the full impact this and Via de la Valle. Years in the planning, mother is going to have,” the final environmental Queen said. impact reports will be available for view at the Association’s next meeting Feb. 7. Directors anticipating a large turn out have scheduled the regular 9 a.m. meeting at the Garden Club, which can accommodate more people. “To this point, the board has not made a decision and none have weighed in with Jack Queen support or lack of support,” Former RSF Association said Chris Livoni, associate planner. President They will probably wait until the meeting on February The traffic circles are 7 to hear what the community planned for the intersections has to say. At the meeting the of Del Dios and El Camino board will consider whether Del Norte; Paseo Delicias and to certify the findings of the El Montevideo-La Valle EIR or not. No final decision
This will forever change the entrance of Rancho Santa Fe.”
Two Sections, 28 pages Arts & Entertainment . A11 Marketplace News . . . . A13 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
to proceed on the project will be made. Queen said considering what the Art Jury goes through to keep Rancho Santa Fe looking rural, the same standards should be applied to the roundabouts. “This is the anti-thesis of rural. These will be big, permanent and ugly,” he said Queen referred to the old adage of putting lipstick on a pig. “It will still be a pig when we get done,” he said. He urged to board to seek a more simple solution that could be instantly removed if it failed. Resident Rory Kendall suggested that since the membership pays for public safety anyway, why not have TURN TO ROUNDABOUTS ON A14
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RANCHO SANTA FE — When the new Common Core Standards are implemented in the Rancho Santa Fe School District next year, it will signal a shift in education techniques throughout the country as well. Students will no longer be able to guess the right answer on a multiple choice test. There will be few 50/50 chances of choosing correctly on a “true or false” test. Students will have to put into practice the critical thinking skills they will have been taught. And in California, STAR testing will be a thing of the past. “Assessment measures in the state of California will also change to reflect the new standards and include performance tasks where students are asked to write and solve complex problems,” said Lindy Delaney, superintendent of schools. “The standards themselves are rigorous and challenge students by testing them on higher level thinking skills.” Under the new standards, state testing results will be available in about two weeks, instead of several months, but Cindy Schaub, assistant superintendent, said she has no idea by what criteria schools will be ranked in the future. It is hoped by the National Governors Association, which initiated the standards, that students will be more equipped to compete in college and careers and will be well-prepared to step onto the world stage. “I can remember the roots of this 20 years ago. Global competition is pushing us,” Schaub said. “This has been a long time coming.” Perhaps the most significant change will be in mathematic learning and instruc-
tion, Schaub said. “There will be more focus on thinking and applying, not just following rules and procedures.” Students will have to make sense of math problems and persevere in solving them, which will teach them how to reason abstractly and quantitatively, she said. Rather than teaching “how to get the answer,” teachers will instead help students access concepts from a number of perspectives, she said. An example of a test question for sixth-graders is: “Jamal is filling bags with sand. All of the bags are the same size. Each bag must weigh less than 50 pounds. One bag weighs 57 pounds and another sad bag weighs 41 pounds. Explain whether Jamal can pour sand from one bag into the other so that the weight of each bag is less than 50 pounds.” In language classes, students will switch from nontext dependent answers to text-dependent. For example, after reading “Casey at the Bat,” a nontext-dependent question asks students to describe a time when they failed at something similar to when Casey struck out at bat. In a textdependent question, students are asked, “What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous?” What does all this mean to students at R. Roger Rowe? Local students are already doing this type of work in language and math. “In Rancho Santa Fe, students continue to think more deeply about content, interactions regarding complex text, and how they apply mathematical reason and problem-solving to reallife situations,” Delaney TURN TO TESTS ON A14