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GED gets much-needed facelift BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
A redesign could help remove the stigma from the GED, education leaders say. The General Educational Development exam has been updated for the first time in 12 years and became available Thursday. David Moore, Oregon’s state director of adult basic education, thinks misconceptions about the GED will eventually disappear. “To be honest, I think it will be (there) until the new test can really demonstrate that the performance
on that test puts a student on par with somebody coming out of high school in terms of his or her ability to get a job and compete with their peers to get into credit post-secondary programs,” he said. “To give GED Testing Service credit, they ... said the GED is not a significant credential any longer and needs to be redesigned.” During the 2011-2012 school year, 82 South Coast high-schoolers received their GED, according to the Oregon Department of Education. In 2012, more than 700,000 Americans took the GED. The
average test-taker is 26 years old, and many are poor. Around 40 million American adults don’t have a high school education. There’s a clear difference in the new GED. Now it’s entirely computerized. The content is also now aligned with Common Core State Standards. “The math test will be more advanced with more algebra in it than the old test,” he said. “GED Testing Service’s intent is to better ensure that a student, if he or she completed the new test, is more college- and career-ready than they would be if they had not
aligned the test with Common Core State Standards.” Oregon is one of 45 states adopting Common Core for the 2014-2015 school year. The GED still includes math, reading and science, but now it combines writing mechanics and a writing prompt into one test. Its reading and writing passages are also longer and more complex. The number of Oregonians who passed the test spiked 34 percent in 2013, an increase Moore attributes to the fact that any incomplete GEDs from before Dec. 31 won’t apply to the new test.
Around two-thirds of GED testtakers in Oregon are adults over 18, Moore said. Coos Bay schools superintendent Dawn Granger said it’s important to note that highschoolers who take the GED are doing so instead of dropping out, not instead of getting a diploma. “A lot want to rush to start working, they have children of their own or they’re behind on so many credits that they don’t want to wait until they’re 20 to graduate,” she said. SEE GED | A8
Congress has piles of unfinished business BY DONNA CASSATA The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Back to work Monday, Congress faces a hefty list of unfinished business and a politically driven agenda in an election year that will determine control of the House and Senate. President Barack Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve and a threemonth extension of benefits for the long-term unemployed are first up in Senate, with votes scheduled Monday night. The rare burst of bipartisanship last month produced a budget agreement, but lawmakers were unable to agree on extending federal benefits for an estimated 1.3 million Americans. The payments stopped Dec. 28 and Democrats, led by Obama, are pushing hard to revive them. The issue is vital to the party’s core voters who are crucial in low-turnout, midterm elections, and Democrats left no doubt that they will use any Republican opposition as a political cudgel. “Dealing with declining middle-class incomes and not enough job growth will be the No. 1 issue,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “And if on the first day of the new session, the Republican Party says they won’t even support
Photos By Lou Sennick, The World
Another Christmas tree is tossed on the pile by Brian Waddington Saturday morning behind the North Bend fire station. Teams from the department fanned out and gathered up used Christmas trees put at the curb by residents.
Out with the old ... Tree collection alleviates fire hazard ■
SEE CONGRESS | A8
BY EMILY THORNTON The World
BY KEVIN FREKING The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Oskar Zepeda has had pretty much one mission in his life: kill or capture. After serving nine tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, he now has a new target — child predators. Zepeda, 29, is part of a 17-member class of veterans trained in computer forensics and sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement field offices. They aren’t paid, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll have a full-time job when their one-year stint ends. But the interns are finding the purpose of their new mission outweighs financial considerations.
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Brendon Gibbens of the North Bend Fire Department carries another Christmas tree to the trailer Saturday morning in the Airport Heights area. “It’s for safety,” Griggs said. “To get rid of fire hazards.” They’ve done this service for the past 12-15 years, said North Bend’s Assistant Capt. Jim Brown. “Initially we started it to alleviate a hazard,” Brown said. He said dry trees left in peoples’ homes could catch fire relatively easy. That initiative grew to collecting donations to provide food and toys for needy families during the following holiday season.
Coos Bay fire crews asked folks to donate canned food items to the Salvation Army. Crews from North Bend left envelopes in folks’ mailboxes asking for monetary donations. The funds will go toward providing food and toys to needy families in the Kids for Christmas program. They also use funds collected from other projects throughout the year to supplement the program, which usually costs about $2,000. Last year, Brown said they
Price is wrong The cost of purchasing an automobile in Cuba rises quickly after government lifts special auto ownership permit.
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Group is training to help put away child predators ■
Folks getting rid of their old Christmas trees had some help again this year from area fire departments. In return, crews asked residents to donate canned food items or money. Firefighters from North Bend and Coos Bay picked up peoSee video online at ples’ old theworldlink.com t r e e s from curbsides around the cities Saturday. North Bend folks will have a chance to get rid of their trees again Jan. 11. North Bend’s crew of eight volunteers, interns and firefighters worked from 8 a.m. to early afternoon, gathering about 450 trees and loading them into the back of their pickup trucks. They usually get 500 to 600 per year, said volunteer Deputy Chief Leroy Griggs with North Bend. Coos Bay crews collected about 290 trees.
WORLD
New mission for wounded vets
raised about $1,000 and provided food for about 20 families for the 2013 season. The children at each household received several gifts apiece, he said. “We can take care of them at around 20 (families),” he said. Any more, and resources would be spread too thin, he said. Trees collected from North Bend will go to the Coos Watershed Association, which will use them on its restoration projects. “It’s to increase bank stabilization on small creeks so live plants can start growing,” said project manager Alexis Brickner. She said they’d use about 100 to 150 trees and later would plant willows or other live trees. The watershed has used old trees for Wilson Creek on a culvert upgrade and planned to do two or three more projects with them this year, she said. “It helps improve the salmon habitats,” she said. Reporter Emily Thornton can be reached at 541-2691222, ext. 249 or at emily.thornton@theworldlink.com or on Twitter: @EmilyK_Thornton.
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