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T H E MPPALIA N CE & T V S T O R E T T R ES S THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013
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BY EMILY THORNTON The World
By Alysha Beck, The World
Golfers play their shots on the fairway of the first hole at Watson Ranch on a sunny Wednesday morning during members’ day. The weather forecast calls for sun and temperatures in the 60s for the weekend and early next week.
Proficiency grading targets total mastery, puzzles parents The World
COOS BAY — A new grading system is geared toward ensuring Coos Bay students master every lesson, though the switch has proven confusing for parents. The Coos Bay School District is one of several Oregon school districts that moved to proficiency-based education last year, a model that focuses on a student’s ability to demonstrate knowledge of every skill, rather than receiving a passing grade in a subject but not grasping every concept. The change followed the Oregon Legislature’s passage of House Bill 2220 in 2011, which went into effect on July 1. It requires that schools report back to parents at least once a year showing the student’s progress and they must be graded “based solely on the student’s academic performance and cannot be influenced by student behavior.” District coordinator of school improvement Chad Putman said Coos Bay morphed these changes into its implementation of proficiency-
get up to par? We’ll have to see what happens this year when grades actually come out.” Her children do have learning disabilities, she said, which contributes to the lower grades since they’re now based on state standards rather than an average of a year’s work. “They went from being ‘satisfactory’ to having ‘1’s,” she said. “Teachers always graded them according to their disabilities, whereas now it’s straight across the line. Either you meet [the standard] or you don’t.” The proficiency-based grade is not meant to punish students who miss class due to illness, turn in homework late or have learning disabilities, Putman said. Where one student is “right now” will logically be different from the next student, no matter the circumstances. Since schools cannot include behavior in a student’s proficiency grade, Coos Bay pulled that aspect of education into a completely new category, “Skills For Success,” which can
based education, where stu- dents for careers rather than dents receive a 1, 2, 3 or 4 in just a classroom setting. Pennington is the mother of a each subject’s lesson. Students receive a grade in Marshfield high-schooler and individual categories. For Madison Elementary fifthexample, instead of a kinder- grader and kindergartner. “But it is very confusing,” gartner receiving an “A” or “B” Pennington in math, he or said. “I’ve she would Proficiencytalked to five receive a 3 in different “comparing based grades teachers and numbers,” a 4 in 4 (Exceeds): Goes above and two different “identifying and beyond the task at hand. principals and I describing 3 (Proficient): Has total understill don’t shapes,” a 2 in standing of the concept. totally under“counting to tell 2 (Nearly proficient): Doesn’t stand it.” the number of grasp the concept, performance is It was also objects,” etc. hit-and-miss. disconcerting Those numbers 1 (Not yet proficient): Should to see her two then show the the concept but doesn’t. understand youngest chilteacher, student drens’ grades and parents turn out much exactly where the student is struggling and lower than expected last year. “To me, maybe it showed what concepts he or she has how far behind we are and that mastered. “Proficiency is saying where was a little bit scary to have it the student is right now versus put out in those layman’s averaging a student’s entire terms,” she said. “I don’t think grades [over a semester],” he my kids are stupid and they got pretty low grades last year on said. In theory, Michelle Penning- this. Are we really that far ton said the new grading system behind? And if so, how do we sounds like a good idea since it’s fix our schools so we stop being geared toward preparing stu- so far behind? Will this help us
INSIDE
MILWAUKEE — The federal government shutdown could leave America’s craft brewers with a serious hangover. Stores will still offer plenty of suds. But the shutdown has closed an obscure agency that quietly approves new breweries, recipes and labels, which could create huge delays throughout the rapidly growing industry. Mike Brenner is trying to open a craft brewery in Milwaukee by December. His application to include a tasting room is now on hold, as are his plans to file paperwork for four labels over the next few weeks. He expects to lose about $8,000 for every month his opening is delayed. “My dream, this is six years in the making, is to open this brewery,” Brenner said.
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“I’ve been working so hard, and I find all these great investors. And now I can’t get started because people are fighting over this or that in Washington. ... This is something people don’t mess around with. Even in a bad economy, people drink beer.” The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, is a little-known arm of the Treasury Department. The agency will continue to process taxes from existing permit holders, but applications for anything new are in limbo. “One could think of this shutdown as basically stopping business indefinitely for anyone who didn’t have certain paperwork in place back in mid-August,” said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, which represents 1,900 U.S. breweries. A woman who answered the phone Oct. 2 at TTB’s headquarters in Washington
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Cold cases Man enters guilty pleas in three decades old homicides. The convicted sexual predator now faces life in prison without parole.
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abruptly hung up after explaining that the government was shut down. The closing isn’t expected to have much effect on industry giants such as MillerCoors or Anheuser-Busch. They can continue to produce existing products as usual. But the shutdown poses a huge problem for craft brewers, who build their businesses by producing quirky, offbeat flavors and introducing new seasonal beers, sometimes as often as every quarter. Craft brewers around the country say TTB was taking as long as 75 days to approve applications before the shutdown. Now they’re bracing for even longer waits. And tempers are flaring. Tony Magee, owner of Lagunitas Brewing Co. in Petaluma, Calif., posted
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The Associated Press
BY CHELSEA DAVIS NORTH BEND — Local school superintendents differ on the benefits and consequences of a shift to open enrollment. At September’s North Bend school board meeting, board chairwoman Megan Jacquot asked if and when the district would decide to become an open enrollment district next school year. House Bill 3681, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2012, gives school districts the option of open enrollment, though South Coast school districts haven’t yet taken the state up on the offer. Oregon school boards can opt for open enrollment, but North Bend schools superintendent BJ Hollensteiner said that as a group, South Coast superintendents have recommended to their school boards not to implement open enrollment. “The concern was maintaining the programs that each of the districts have,” she said. “You have to have a certain number of kids in order to run some programs. The discussion was if we had open enrollment and all of a sudden seven to eight kids left from a program ... if it’s one of the smaller programs, you could impact a district’s ability to offer programs.” Coos Bay schools superintendent Dawn Granger said she actually would recommend switching to open enrollment, though the school board would have the final say this spring. By March 1, school districts have to decide if they will open enroll and if so, how many students they would accept. “You have to set that (number) in March and how do you know what will happen next year?”
Shutdown means no new beer from craft brewers BY CARRIE ANTFINGER AND TODD RICHMOND
Schools have option for open enrollment
FORECAST
BY CHELSEA DAVIS
CHARLESTON — The woman who perished in a shipwreck Sunday off the north jetty of Coos Bay was 50-year-old Vera-Jeane Saltzman. Kris Karcher, Coos County medical examiner, identified cause of death as saltwater drowning. U.S. Coast Guard crews recovered Saltzman’s body at 6:45 p.m. Monday about 1.5 miles southwest of the entrance to Coos Bay, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nate Littlejohn. Coos County Sheriff’s deputies and medical examiner confirmed it was Saltzman, who had been missing since the fishing boat she was on — Ruth — crashed into the north jetty Sunday night, Littlejohn said. The Ruth was deemed unrecoverable by Coast Guard crews Wednesday, Littlejohn said. “The fishing vessel was smashed on the rocks and broke into pieces that floated away or sank,” Littlejohn said. Crews rescued two men, Dan Campbell, 53, of Roseburg and Bruce Geddie, 50, of Reedsport, and their dog off the north jetty of Coos Bay, according to Littlejohn. Saltzman’s hometown was unknown Wednesday. A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station North Bend transported Campbell and Geddie to Bay Area Hospital at 7:12 a.m. Monday, said Littlejohn. The woman wasn’t wearing a life jacket or survival suit and wasn’t able to climb onto the jetty, Littlejohn said. One of the men was injured and the condition of the other male was unknown, he said. Reporter Emily Thornton can be reached at 541-269-1222, ext. 249 or at emily.thornton@theworldlink.com or on Twitter: @EmilyK_Thornton.
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