The Homework Question

It’s the first day of school Wednesday for many of the kids in OPB’s long-term project the “Class of 2025.” They started kindergarten together, but they’re in fourth grade now at a few different schools.

Some things are the same across Oregon schools. Some are different.

Like homework.

As third-graders, some kids in OPB’s Class of 2025 had written homework. But not Austin or his classmates at Earl Boyles Elementary School.

&ldquldquo;I don’t actually get homework,” Austin acknowledged. “I just get reading homework but no papers at all.”

Research was behind the decision, said Austin’s teacher, Michelle Moran.

“What have students gained from homework? And how do their scores in school go up,when they do work at home?” Moran asked rhetorically. “There wasn’t a lot of conclusive evidence. And we thought, well, they’re 8. Maybe they should be doing creative things, social things, time with their family — and reading,” said Moran.

Students are expected to read at home and have their parents sign off on a reading log, said fellow third-grade teacher Linda Long.

The focus on reading is supported by research. Educators often emphasize that third-graders who are good readers do better later on than kids who aren’t.  

But at another David Douglas school, Cherry Park Elementary, students get math assignments as well.

Cherry Park third-grade teacher Anne O’Brien would sometimes field questions about the homework, like one time a student wanted to know what kinds of math will be assigned.

“It’s been pretty mixed every single week, right?” O’Brien responded. “It’ll continue to just review things we’ve covered. Little bit of everything.”

O’Brien supports written homework for her third-graders, in part because of the work habits it teaches.

“I think it’s kind of an important practice for them — to get used to it,” O’Brien said. “The kids who don’t get it done, they don’t have a punishment, or anything like that. But I do keep track of it, and I do talk to them if they don’t have it in, one-on-one.”

One of O’Brien’s students is a boy named Raiden. Like Austin at Earl Boyles and about 25 other children, OPB has been following Raiden since kindergarten as part of the “Class of 2025” project.

Raiden does his written homework reluctantly.

“I kind of like doing it at home,” Raiden said at first, before admitting, “but not that much because I like playing outside, a lot.” 

O’Brien says homework has a value for parents, too.

“It’s nice for them to see what it is we’re working on, what we’ve covered,” O’Brien said. “So it’s just this nice little communication with them, like ‘Oh, this is what you’re doing in math now’.”

Sometimes parents discover their children may be falling behind or not fully understanding what’s going on in class. Raiden’s mother, Angela Williams, said she noticed difficulties Raiden was having in checking his homework.

“I don’t think he has enough time to comprehend what he needs to do, and so he’s always rushing, and it’s not right, and he has to re-do it or no one ever tells him it’s wrong, so he thinks he’s doing it right, but then he comes home with homework, and I say ‘No, that’s wrong, you have to re-do it.’ ‘What do you mean Mom, why?’” Williams said.

Williams said she can help Raiden with some of his work, and she enjoys reading with him and his younger brother. But she said sometimes the math is beyond her ability to help her son.
 
“Maybe 15, 20 math problems — they could vary from times to finding the area of a triangle or a square, something,” Williams said. “And those ones currently, he has no idea, and neither do I. I didn’t learn that when I went to school.”

Williams said teachers have offered additional help for Raiden. But Cherry Park Elementary School principal Kate Barker said homework should build on what kids are learning in class.

“The most important thing that we do need to consider is that the assignments we are sending home are meaningful and are enriching, instead of just, the busy work,” Barker said. She said that’s a departure from the packets she would assign as a teacher, 25 years ago. 

Barker argued educators should remember the “home” in homework, too.

“Because the setting is very different from child to child,” Barker said.

Raiden’s housing situation has been in flux. His mother has struggled to find permanent housing for the family, moving between her mom’s and her boyfriend’s homes, recently.

Home situations vary, child to child, but when it comes to homework, there are different approaches depending on the school and grade level. Sometimes the differences show up in the same family, with younger kids receiving written homework when their older siblings might not.

Oregon Lawmakers Join Parents In Confronting Dyslexia

For as many as one in five of us, learning to read can seem almost impossible. Researchers say that’s about how many Americans have dyslexia. For decades, schools have often failed to recognize and support dyslexic students who look at letters and words in very different ways.

But in the last few years, dozens of states have mandated new approaches to dyslexia. Oregon joined that effort last year.

Many students go through Oregon schools not realizing they’re dyslexic, or not getting help to understand letters and words, which may not piece together the way they do for typical kids.

One of the children OPB is following over the next several years as part of the Class of 2025 project, was evaluated as dyslexic.

When Shelby was in first grade at Earl Boyles Elementary in Southeast Portland, she loved feeding her family’s chickens and playing with her older brothers and sisters. But she was also happy to flip through her favorite book, “The Little Mermaid.”

“Her daddy’s doing a party and she needs to get decorations,” Shelby said, turning a page in the picture book. “They all have a job.”

Shelby wasn’t reading there. She was describing the pictures.

Shelby is one of 27 kids in OPB’s “Class of 2025” project. They’re now in fourth grade.

Last spring, Shelby laughed when asked what her favorite part of school was.

“Well, I don’t really like school,” Shelby answered. “Just kidding.”

Shelby likes to kid around, draw and tell stories. But Shelby’s mom, Julie Anderson said reading is still a struggle.

“There’s the picture, and then just a few words — but for some reason, there’s not a connection,” Anderson said. “So, it was a constant push-push-push with her.”

Shelby was evaluated last year and found to qualify for help, due to a learning disability. Dyslexia was slowing her down.

“When they said to me at the school there was going to be testing, we’re going to see what’s going on and then it came down to what the truth is, there was relief in it — that ‘thank you, now we know what’s going on,’” Anderson said, with Shelby on the couch next to her. “But there was a sadness in it.”

“Why?” her daughter asked.

“Just because, I, you know just said that there was something …” Anderson’s voice trails off. “It’s hard to choose your words with that. I’m still trying to find those words.”

In Spring 2015, as Shelby’s mom was confronting dyslexia at home, Oregon lawmakers were tackling it at the state-level. It was a personal mission for House Majority leader, Val Hoyle, D-Eugene. She told the Senate Education Committee that she was dyslexic herself, but didn’t know as a child.

“What I felt was I just wasn’t as smart as everybody else,” Hoyle said, her voice cracking. “In second grade, my teacher — I remember — Sister Marie Louise put a turtle up on the wall with my name on it, because I couldn’t write and finish the assignments as fast as the other kids.

“I am 51, and I remember that,” Hoyle said.

Legislators easily passed two laws (SB 216 and HB 2412) to improve Oregon’s support for students who are struggling in school due to dyslexia.

Oregon schools are supposed to start screening kids for dyslexia risk in kindergarten or first grade, beginning next school year. Each elementary school should have a teacher trained in dyslexia by the beginning of 2018.

When it comes to teaching, an advisory committee recommends that the same good reading principles for most kids applies to dyslexia.

Shelby’s been getting intensive reading help for years. She would get drilled on letter sounds in the special education room.

“Th. Ah. Ss,” Shelby said, as her teacher Jennifer Mazalook observed, occasionally correcting her.

Shelby also worked in a small reading group with her teacher. Last year in third grade, that was with Nicole Rauch. On one spring day, she worked through a passage about dolphins.

“They need to come to the … fff … fff … fah …” Shelby read aloud, until she got stuck on a word.

“Surface,” Rauch corrected.

“Surface to … breathe?” Shelby read&nbnbsp;tentatively.

“Mm, hmm,” Rauch murmured, encouraging Shelby to keep going. 

Shelby easily read some words in that passage, but got stuck on others, like “surface,” which she tried to start with the second syllable. That’s one way that Shelby’s dyslexic reading can trip her up.

Dyslexia isn’t the same for everyone and Rauch says she didn’t learn about any of it when she was getting her teaching degree. That’s supposed to change under Oregon’s new dyslexia laws. Rauch taught herself what she knows. Rauch said she has also noticed over the years that children with dyslexia often have significant strengths, too.

“[Shelby] is very creative in how she talks and plays and just interacts with people and that’s definitely something that maybe dyslexia has kind of helped cultivate in her,” Rauch said. 

Some dyslexic kids use their other strengths to compensate for reading difficulty. But that can be its own problem, the way special education interventions tend to work. If students are not falling behind, they may not get special help. Teachers familiar with Oregon’s new laws say that situation won’t necessarily change.

The prescribed approach — intensive reading help — doesn’t work miracles for kids like Shelby, either.

“She’s made a lot of progress; there’s a lot more to be made,” Rauch said. “She’s got a long road.” 

Shelby’s new fourth grade teacher agrees the 9-year-old is working hard, doing all the right things, but is still significantly behind her classmates in reading.

Portland Women's March Wrestles With Issues Of Race, Feminism And Leadership

If Saturday’s Women’s March on Portland draws the expected 30,000 or more participants, it could be the biggest demonstration the city has ever seen.

And it almost didn’t happen.

The real story behind the march isn’t completely known even to its lead organizer, but in many ways, it is a familiar one.

The march is a reaction to the election of Donald Trump, and nearly all of the forces at work to upset politics in the 2016 presidential race were also in play in organizing the Portland march: social media, race, gender, the urban-rural divide, generational concepts of feminism and, most of all, lots of people feeling like they weren’t being heard.

Read more atThe Portland Tribune

Citizen Advisory Groups React To Trump Administration Suspension

President Donald Trump’s administration has signaled it wants local residents to have more say in decisions about public lands in their backyard.

But earlier this month the Interior Department canceled upcoming meetings of local citizen groups that give input to the Bureau of Land Management on how to manage public lands.

Most people have never heard of these groups because much of their work is done behind the scenes. They’re called Regional Advisory Councils — or RACS.

The volunteer groups meet a few times a year to discuss how the BLM manages public lands, and they then make recommendations to the agency about best practices. They provide input on everything from how to deal with invasive weeds on rangeland to how to manage overpopulated wild horses to how much the BLM should charge rafters to float Hell’s Canyon.

The RACS are made up of people who are invested in public lands, including ranchers, environmentalists, tribal leaders and county administrators.

“The RACS probably are the best thing that the government has ever done,” said Terry Drever-Gee, who represents mining interests on the John Day-Snake River RAC.

Drever-Gee has been on the RAC since its inception in 1996 and says it’s a vital opportunity for diverse interests to discuss land management.

“I was pretty staunch conservative and ‘everybody is against us,’” said Drever-Gee, who lives in Baker City. “I would sit and listen, and as I would listen, I would go, ‘They want exactly the same thing that we want.’”

For many in rural Oregon, the move is puzzling from an administration that has signaled it wants local residents to have greater say in how public lands are managed.

“It’s definitely a move that’s pretty contrary to this whole rhetoric of increasing accountability and transparency and minimizing government regulation for the benefit of the people,” said Erica Maltz, who represents the Burns Paiute Tribe on the John Day-Snake River RAC. “This is one of few forums where the people get to say —in a formal way — what the people think.”

Dozens of RAC members sent a letter to Zinke last week criticizing the suspension and saying that this is preventing important work from happening over summer.

But other RAC members were less concerned. They said Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has a right to shake things up.

“It’s not a big deal if there’s a two-month delay. Right now people are waiting to see what’s going to come from Zinke,” said David Schott, president of Forestglen Lumber Co. in Medford and chair of the Southwest Oregon RAC. “I think BLM really strongly supportive of the committee. I think they like the feedback.”

Schott said that he appreciates the cross-section of community members represented in the group. But he also said that his RAC doesn’t have a solid direction: The group has been reactive to concerns brought forth by the BLM rather than proactive about suggesting management direction.

The suspension of these groups means that the upcoming summer meetings are canceled — that’s one of typically four meetings of these groups each year.

“I think the public ought to know that one of their key mechanisms for having relatively direct communication with federal land managers is at risk here. Or at least a question,” said Randy Jones, who works for Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality and serves as the chair for the John Day-Snake River RAC.

The John-Day Snake River RAC was in the process of making recommendations for boater fee structures on the lower Deschutes and Snake rivers in Hell’s Canyon. Members were also planning to review a recent Forest Service management plan at their May meeting, which had been scheduled for this week. Consequently, the agencies may move forward without the input of the citizen group.

“We’re not going to have the opportunity to engage in the review of those issues,” Jones said. “Effectively the suspension does eliminate representation.”

The six Oregon and three Washington RACs are among 38 similar groups nationwide. Each group has a formal charter, and members are appointed locally and then approved by the Interior Department in Washington D.C.

In a statement, the Interior Department said that the suspension would allow it to review the charters and missions of the groups, “to maximize feedback from these boards and ensure their compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the President’s recent executive orders.” The department gave no indication whether the RACs might proceed as usual in the fall.

Oregon’s two U.S. senators, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, issued a joint statement Friday lambasting the suspension of the RACs.

“We are very concerned about this news and would like an answer as to why the RAC meetings were postponed during the BLM’s review of all advisory boards and committees,” the two Democrats wrote. “It is critical that local voices, including RACs, have the opportunity to provide input and take part in the process at all times, not just when those local voices align with the Administration or a large special interest.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., was asked about the future of RACs at recent town hall meetings in eastern Oregon. A spokesman for Walden said the congressman understands the important role resource advisory councils play in Oregon’s rural communities, Walden spokesman Justin Discigil said in an email to OPB.

“The Interior Department’s review is set to be complete by September after a one meeting hiatus for the councils,” Discigil wrote. “Greg looks forward to working with Secretary Zinke and his team at the Interior Department to improve the councils, and strengthen local input in federal land management decisions.”

Jim Bishop, who serves on the Southeast Oregon RAC, told OPB his group was disturbed by the suspension.

“We got really mad really fast,” said Bishop, who is a retired hospital administrator in Burns and an at-large member of the RAC. “There really are a wide number of people representing a wide number of interests on that RAC. Even though we may disagree with someone’s ideas, we have a tremendous amount of respect for each other, and the process.”

Jes Burns of EarthFix contributed to this report.

Oregon Fight Over LNG Project Latest NW Action On Fossil Fuels

Residents of a coastal community in Oregon are considering whether to try to derail a fossil fuel export project in their rural county, a decision that could put them at odds with the Trump administration.

The ballot measure before Coos County voters Tuesday would block the $7.5 billion Jordan Cove Energy Project, a proposed liquefied natural gas port that would be the first of its kind on the U.S. West Coast.

The vote comes weeks after an adviser to President Donald Trump said the administration would approve the project. Federal regulators denied a permit for the export terminal and pipeline under President Barack Obama.

In recent years, American Indian tribes and environmentalists have successfully fought a number of fossil fuel export projects in the Pacific Northwest, and pushed for local regulations to prevent new projects.

As President Trump aggressively pushes fossil fuel exploration, opponents say they’re more focused than ever on actions at the state and local level to stop the Northwest from becoming a gateway for exporting the nation’s fossil fuels.

“We’ve all been waiting nervously for the Trump administration to dial up the intensity,” said Eric de Place with Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based environmental research group.

Since 2010, at least 20 projects have been proposed in Oregon and Washington to handle and move coal, crude oil, methanol, propane or liquefied natural gas, but only a few have come to fruition.

“Almost all the victories happened at the state or local level,” de Place said.

Other examples of local pushback include:

— The city of Portland, Oregon, in December banned new bulk fossil fuel storage terminals within city limits. The ban was considered the first of its kind for the range of products it sought to prohibit. A coalition of business, labor and oil industry groups is appealing it before a state board.

— Whatcom County in northwest Washington this year extended a moratorium on new shipments of refined fossil fuel as it considers other possible land-use code changes.

— Two other cities in Washington — where major crude oil terminals have been proposed — banned new crude oil storage facilities. The Vancouver ban doesn’t apply to a massive proposed oil terminal there that would be the largest in the United States.

Mary Geddry, who helped petition to put the latest ballot measure before Coos County’s 41,000 voters, said opponents needed to try something new.

“We just don’t want to see Coos Bay turned into the toxic armpit of Oregon,” she said. “By creating a bill of rights, then we can defend it by saying that project, that activity violates our fundamental rights.”

The measure would allow the transportation of fossil fuels within the county only if they’re intended for local use. It also would set up a bill of rights outlining the community’s right to a “sustainable energy future.”

Critics say the measure is unconstitutional and taxpayers will be forced to needlessly defend it.

It’s unclear if the measure would hold up in court. Local and state regulations are subject to legal challenge because the federal government’s authority to regulate interstate commerce can supersede rules enacted at a lower level.

The Jordan Cove Energy Project has donated nearly all of the $573,000 raised so far to oppose the measure, campaign records show. Supporters have raised nearly $13,000.

Project spokesman Michael Hinrichs said he’s hopeful the ballot measure will be struck down. Proponents say the project will create jobs and generate millions in tax revenues in rural Oregon.

In March 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied the Jordan Cove LNG project and a 232-mile (373-kilometer) pipeline that would carry natural gas to the Oregon coast.

FERC said demand was lacking, and negative impacts on landowners outweighed the public benefits. The agency also denied the project’s request for a rehearing in December.

But the company refiled, and FERC in February cleared the way for developers to resubmit their application.

Gary Cohn, who directs the White House National Economic Council, said last month that the United States could be and should be the largest exporter of LNG in the world. “The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to permit an LNG export facility in the Northwest,” he said.

Hinrichs said support from the White House for credible energy projects like Jordan Cove is refreshing and reinforces the owners’ confidence in its project. Earlier this month, Pembina Pipeline Corp. announced it would buy owner Veresen Inc. and said the company “will continue to build upon the momentum” of the Jordan Cove project.

But Brett VandenHeuvel, whose Columbia Riverkeeper group has challenged several fossil fuel projects, said it’s disappointing that a project “that has been rejected multiple times keeps getting new life.”

Across the Northwest, those opposing fossil fuel export projects have staged elaborate protests, packed meeting rooms and successfully sued to block efforts before city administrators and in state courts.

“The fact that none of these large projects have been constructed is really a testament to people standing up to protect what they love,” VandenHeuvel added. “These are very local issues that have huge national and international implications.”

Aftershock: The Impact On Your Neighborhood

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the Pacific Northwest coast could hit at any time.
Enter your Oregon address for a custom report on your seismic risks and how to prepare.

Portland Maps The Most Dangerous Places To Be During An Earthquake

The City of Portland has released a new map showing the most dangerous places to be during an earthquake.

Unreinforced masonry buildings constructed before the 1960s are likely to collapse during a large earthquake.

Portland has 1,800 of them.

Dan Douthit with the Bureau of Emergency Management said many west coast cities — especially in California — already have policies to make them safe or tear them down.

“So Portland is looking at a policy where we would require that all building owners either retrofit or demolish them,” he said. “But we also want to come up with some incentives to make it easier for building owners to do the work.”

A committee is expected to propose that new policy later this year.

Since Portland first collected data on the buildings in the 1990s, 13 percent have been upgraded. And another 8 percent have been demolished.

How Oregon Schools Are Preparing For A Megaquake

At Corbett Middle School, just outside the office, there’s a locked door marked “Authorized Personnel Only.” Corbett School District Superintendent Randi Trani recently unlocked it and walked down a staircase to a basement full of empty classrooms, toilets and showers.

He stopped at a row of a wooden beams that have been crudely bolted to the wall. They were installed 35 years ago to stop the foundation from slumping.

“When the structural engineers came through and looked at that, they laughed,” he said.

That’s because the beams aren’t connected to the ceiling above or to the floor below, so they’ll only ensure the wall falls down in a single piece.  And, Trani said, the walls of the school were built of unreinforced masonry tile, without steel rebar or any kind of support.

City Slickers: Oregonians From Contrasting Areas Find Common Ground

In 2005, just as it seemed Oregon’s urban-rural divide had grown into an unbridgeable chasm, a handful of ranchers from rural Grant county did the unexpected. They invited kids from Portland’s Sunnyside Environmental school to live and work along side them and see their side of life. The Urban-Rural exchange has continued every year since. Follow a group of students as they share in both the joy and the misery that comes with real rural life.

Rent Control / Rural Organizing Project Threats / Soul’d Out / Regional Roundup

Listen to "Should Oregon Implement Limits On How Much Rent Can Be Raised?" on Spreaker.

Rising rental prices in Oregon have some people demanding rent control, which is currently banned by state law. We ask Justin Buri, Executive director of the Community Alliance of Tenants, and Joe Cortright, Economist at Impresa Inc., whether it would actually help keep rents down.

Listen to "Rural Organizing Project Receives Death Threats" on Spreaker.

Jessica Campbell, Co-Director of the Rural Organizing Project, tells us about recent threats and intimidation against members involved in facilitating conversations about race in rural areas of Oregon. You can find information about the upcoming conversations here.

Listen to "Regional Roundup: Prineville And Crook County" on Spreaker.

We talk to Jason Chaney, news editor at the Central Oregonian in Prineville, about explosive growth, staunch local opposition to Oregon Wild’s Ochoco plan, and lack of space in the local jail leading to the release of hundreds of inmates each year.

Listen to "Soul'd Out Music Festival" on Spreaker.

KMHD’s program director Matt Fleeger tells us about the best bets for this week’s Soul’d Out music festival