Idaho Statesman$2 OCTOBER 18, 2015

SUNDAY EDITIONRAIN,

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DDEPTH RobertEhlertD5 |OpinionsD4-9 | Letters to theEditorD7 |GuestopinionD9 | EditorialCartoonD7 |CharlesKrauthammerD9EEXPLORETV E2 |CarolynHax E3 |Horoscopes E3 | Puzzles E3 | Books E4 |Religion E5 |Obituaries E10-11 |Calendars E6 |Recipe E6

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BIKING BOISE

Nature thrivesin scenic

Northeast EndEXPLORE, E1

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

METS AND ROYALSTAKE EDGE IN SERIESKansas City rallies for 6-3 winwhile New York holds off Cubs

SPORTS, S1, 7

HEALTH CARE

Tool gaugesvalue oftreatments

NATION, A9

RookiePhillippeDesrosiers,above,and26-year-oldEricHart-zelldisplaydifferentstyles infrontof thenet,buthowtheirrelationshipdevelopsthisseasonmaygoalongwayindetermin-ingtheteam’ssuccess.SPORTS,S1

IDAHO STEELHEADS

PAIR OF GOALIESAIM TO BE NETWIN

Stategovernmentsarebecomingincreasinglyaggressiveabouttakingcontrolof funds languish-ing inresidents’oldbankac-counts,uncashedpaychecksandunredeemedlife insurancepol-icies.Criticssaytherightfulown-ers toooftengetshortshrift—andsomeof themarenowsuingformillions.DEPTH,D1

DEPTH: LOST & FOUND

STATES SCOOP UPUNCLAIMED CASH

ChrisMintz,whotriedtoblockthegunmanatUmpquaCommu-nityCollege,writesonFacebookabout thatday.NEWS,A4

OREGON SHOOTING

Hero shot five timesdescribes the scene

Thethreehopefuls—MayorDaveBieterandchallengers JudyPeavey-DerrandSethHolden—

answered22questionsabout theirvisions for thecityandweregradedonascaleof 1 to5bythe10

membersof theBoiseMayoralElectionPanel.Readtheanswers, seewhocameoutontopand

get insight frompanelmembersabout thecandidates.OPINIONS,D4-5 • IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM

BOISE MAYOR’S RACE

STATESMAN PANEL GRADES CANDIDATES

Mountingconcernover thestatewideachievement test isbringingtheStateBoardofEdu-

cationtothetable.Questionsabout theexam’s length, itsuseasahigh-stakes testaffecting

graduationandhowschooldistrictscanbetteruseresults to improve instructioncouldall

bescrutinizedoverthenextseveralmonths.TheoutcomescouldaffecthowAlysonPin-

cock,above,aBorahHighSchoolalgebrateacher, instructsstudentssuchas10th-graders

CorbinPoole, right, andTessCoe.BillRobertsexaminestheconcernswiththetest.DEPTH,D1

DEPTH: COMMON CORE EDUCATION

IDAHO’S GRADUATIONEXAM PUT TO THE TESTTop state officials are reconsidering the notion of a high-stakes requirement fora high school diploma over fears that it will keep qualified students out of college

KATHERINE JONES / kjones@idahostatesman.com

Thismountaingetawaynestledbetween

LosAngelesandSanDiegoallowsits

four-leggedresidents tohavepretty

muchfreerein.Gotaproblemwiththat?

Take itupwiththetown’smayor—

MaxII, right. EXPLORE,E1

IDYLLWILD, CALIFORNIA

CITY GOES TO THE DOGS

IDAHO HISTORY

Boise’s Oregon Trail trafficstill heavy in 1890 NEWS, A6

BOISE STATE

BSU cross country runnera star as freshman SPORTS, S1

Thecase, inwhichanArmysol-dier talkedofkillingPresidentBarackObama,couldhavefar-reaching implications.NEWS,A10

FREE SPEECH CASE

Military court weighsperceived threats

D LETTERS TO THE EDITOR D7 • CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER D9 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2015

Depth

Bigchangescouldbecoming to Idaho’s statewide

achievement test forpublic school students.

Thisweek, theStateBoardofEducationwill consider

whether topostpone forayear thegraduationrequire-

ment forpassing the test in languagearts andmath.That

requirement takeseffectwith thisyear’s 10th-graders,

who take theexaminspring.Theywouldhaveuntil 12th

grade topass theexam.

TheStateBoardwill delve into the tests at itsApril

meeting, trying tosortoutquestions still hangingover the

examassociatedwith thenewCommonCorecurriculum

anddeterminehowit fits inwith thestate’soverall educa-

tionstrategy.

COMMON CORE EDUCATIONVIDEOS AT IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM: A BOISE TEACHER AND THE SUPERINTENDENT TALK ABOUT TESTING

Idaho will rethinkhigh-stakes test

KATHERINE JONES / kjones@idahostatesman.com

Mykala Weremecki, 16, right, and Lauren Withers, 15, from Borah High School, go over the results of a math test and help each other correctanswers. Many 10th-graders haven’t focused on an exam they will take in spring that they might have to pass as a graduation requirement.

A number of students are falling short on the statewide exam required to graduate.That has educators and policymakers reconsidering how to use the test.

VIEWS FROMTWOBORAHHIGH

STUDENTSANDTEST-TAKERS

ONMATHDIFFICULTY:

Spencer: “I wouldn’t say it’s hard, but it’s noteasy forme. I have towork at it pretty hard.”

Tyler: “Forme, I really lovemath and it comesreally easy forme.”

ONTHEGRADUATIONREQUIREMENTTO

PASSTHEMATHTEST:

Spencer: “I’m not ready for that. It kind ofmakesmenervous for the test. Just the pressureof not graduating if you don’t pass it.”

Tyler: “Forme, I don’t really think aboutmathas being a struggle or that I amgoing to fail it. Iinstantly think it is going to be easy forme.”

BY BILL ROBERTS

broberts@idahostatesman.com© 2015 Idaho Statesman

See TEST, D2

Spencer Schwehr, 15Tyler Bird, 16

Sinceearlyvoting isalreadyunderwayinCanyonCountyandbeginsMondayinAdaCounty,there’snotimelikethepresent togetuptospeedonthe issues.

Throughout themonthwe’vebeensharingwhatwehavelearnedabout thecandidatesandinitiatives intheNov.3municipalelectionsaroundtheTreasureValley,andwe’regoingtoaddtothat todaybypresentingratingsandfindingsgeneratedbyour10-memberBoiseMayoralElec-tionPanelabout thethreepeopleinthatrace: incumbentDaveBieterandchallengers JudyPea-vey-DerrandSethHolden.

Ourgroupismadeupof thethreecommunitymembersontheIdahoStatesmanEditorialBoardandsevenBoiseresidentswhohadnoconflictsof interestwithanyof thecandidatesbeforetheyjoined.

Thepanelhasratedthecandi-datesbasedontheiranswerstomorethan20questionsweaskedthemindividuallyduring in-terviews.Portionsof those in-terviewsarealreadyavailable invideoandaudiofilesonline.

Todaywepresent theques-tionsandsummariesof thean-swers,alongwithfeedbackfromthepanel in theformoftheirrankings.OPINIONS,D4-5

➤ TheTreasureValleyMem-bersatLargeof theLeagueofWomenVotersof Idahoarespon-soringcandidate forumsfor themayoralandCityCouncilcandi-dates intheupcomingBoisecityelections.Bieter,Peavey-DerrandHoldenwillgatherat7p.m.Thursdayat theBoisePublicLibraryauditoriumonSouth8thStreet.BoiseCityCouncilcandi-dateswillmeetat7p..m.Oct.29attheBoisePublicLibraryaudi-torium.

➤ TheCityClubwillhostalunchforumwiththeBoisemay-oralcandidatesat 11:45a.m.Oct.26atTheGroveHotel.Registeratcityclubofboise.org.

➤ Avoid linesbyvotingearlyorbymail.AdaCountyearlyvoting is8a.m. to5p.m.weekdaysand10a.m. to4p.m.SaturdayattheAdaCountyElectionsOffice,400N.BenjaminLaneinBoise.CanyonCountyearlyvoting is8a.m. to5p.m.weekdaysat theCanyonCountyElectionsOffice,1102E.ChicagoSt. inCaldwell.

Forothercounties,contact thatcounty’selectionsoffice.

➤ Votebymail/absentee:Registeredvotersmayrequestanabsenteeballotuntil 5p.m.Oct.28.Request formsareavailableatwww.idahovotes.gov.Youalsomayrequestanabsenteeballot inpersonor inwritingfromyourcountyclerk’soffice.Writtenrequestsmust listyourcompletenameandaddressandtheaddressyouwant theballotmailedto,anditmustbesignedbyyou.

➤ Formore informationaboutotherTreasureValleymunicipalraces,andbondandlevydrives,consult theStatesman’sonlineVotersGuide.

Electioninformationfor you

STATESMAN STAFF

Colorado offers a $3 search-and-rescue card forrecreationists (it’s not insurance). Should Idaho?JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT FACEBOOK.COM/IDAHOSTATESMAN

When Americans lose track ofmoney — in neglected bank ac-counts, paychecks they forgot tocash and elsewhere — state gov-ernments are increasingly aggres-sive intakingcontrolof thecash.

Now,withthoseeffortsbringingin more than $40 billion and statelawmakersusingsomeofittopatchbudgetholes,skirmishesarebreak-ingoutbetweenstates andcompa-nieswiththeirowninterestinhold-ingontotheunclaimedproperty.

Companies accuse states ofoverreaching. State officials coun-ter the businesses are more con-cerned with keeping the assetsthemselves. But critics say rightful

owners toooftengetshortshrift.“Theanalogyis tofindingsome-

body’s lost wallet. In Minnesota,anyway, we give people their wal-lets back. It’s justwhatwe do here.But it’snotwhat thestate isdoing,”said JoeAtkins, a state representa-tive from outside St. Paul who lastyear introducedabillcallingfor in-creased funding to track downpropertyowners.

While other states, too, have in-creased efforts to reunite ownerswith their property, many havechanged laws to let them take con-trol of more unclaimed propertymorequickly.

State lost-and-found programshave been growing rapidly formore than a decade. Californiaalone has 28.5 million on its un-claimedproperty list.

States stepped up pursuit of un-claimed property in the late 1990s,after restructuring by insurancecompaniesexposedthosefirms’in-

ability to locate many policy hol-ders.Many states have hired audi-tingfirmstoscrutinizethebooksofinsurers, retailers and others, pay-ing them multimillion-dollar feesfor unclaimed property theybrought in.

The experience of two medicalresearcherswhorecentlysuedDe-laware officials highlights thestakes.

Gilles Gosselin and Jean LouisImbach, French chemists who de-veloped a drug for treating hepati-tis B, became shareholders of acompany incorporated in Dela-waretodevelopit.In2009,withoutcontacting them, Delaware tookcontrol of their stock, deemedabandoned, and sold it for $1.7mil-lion.

AsGosselinandImbachworkedto track down their shares, thecompany was acquired by Merck

LOST AND FOUND

States go after unclaimed property, use it to fill coffersMinnesota is one that’smaking an effort to locatepeople owedmoney.

BY ADAM GELLER

AND DAVID CRARY

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RICH PEDRONCELLI / The Associated Press

Mary Ann Steele, of Carmichael, Calif., holds a copy of a will which ispart of a lawsuit against the state of California in her efforts to reclaiman inheritance from her adoptive father. Steele received checks totalinga little over $68 from the state. She believes she is entitled to far more.See PROPERTY, D3

D2 ● SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2015 IDAHO STATESMAN ● IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM

The test has faced a litanyof criticism from educators,suchasitslength, itspurposeand the wisdom of imperil-ingastudent’s graduationbymaking passage a necessityforadiploma.

School officials point tothe first round of tests givenlast spring toprovideabase-line on students’ abilities,from which to measure fu-turegrowth.

Thousands of Idaho10th-graders fell short, rais-ing fears among school offi-cialsthatdistrictscouldhaveto retool themselves into re-mediation factories to makecertain that students canpasstheexambygraduation,especially inmath.

Moreover, some districtsquestion whether the testcan do what it’s designed todo: measure college readin-ess. School officials say thateven students who pass ad-vanced-placement exams inhighschoolforcollegecreditare faltering on the gradua-tion test. And many profes-sional-technical studentsnot on a college track alsostruggled—raisingthepros-pect that a college-readinesstest could trip up studentstrying to start professional-technicalcareers.

The bottom line: Idaho’shigh-stakestestcankeepstu-dents who have demon-stratedtheirabilitytodocol-lege work from graduating,says Don Coberly, BoiseSchoolDistrict superintend-ent.

“You’llhavestudentswhowill pass professional-tech-nical courses such as weld-ing and heavy-duty diesel,some who will pass ad-vanced-placement tests,some who will pass dual-credit courses that are off-ered throughout districtsacross state but will fail the(achievement test) mea-sure,” he said. “The mixedmessage isyou’vegot 15dualcredits and you are ready togo on to Boise State, for ex-ample, but you haven’tpassed a high-stakes test soyou are at risk for not grad-uatingfromhighschool.”

Coberly, the IdahoEduca-tion Association, the IdahoSchool Boards Association,lawmakers and others metwith some board membersearlier this month to reviewtheproblems.

“The state board hasheard and is listening anddiscussing how to addressthoseconcerns,”saidDebbieCritchfield, a boardmemberand former school boardtrustee in Cassia County. “Idon’t see the board shyingawayfromthediscussion.”

As officials prepare to ex-amine theexam,here’s somebackground on how we gothere.

Whatarethetests?In 2011, Idaho lawmakers

signed on to a growingmovement called CommonCore,whichcreateduniformgoals for what studentsshould know before theygraduate.

States also came togetherin twogroups todevelopex-amsmeasuringhowwellstu-dentsmeet thosegoals.

Behind Common Corewas the notion that states

would have the opportunitytocompareeducationalpro-gress against each other,since everyone would beworking froma common setof standards and similar as-sessments. Idaho called itsprogram Idaho CoreStandards and is part of theSmarter Balanced Assess-mentConsortium,agroupofabout 20 states that jointlycreatedtheexam.

Idaho gave the test — theIdaho Standards Achieve-ment Test by Smarter Bal-anced—acoupleofpracticeruns; then last spring, stu-dents took it not as agradua-tionrequirement,but togiveIdaho a baseline fromwhichto measure academicgrowth.

The new Idaho CommonCore assessment is signifi-cantly different from the ex-amsstudentstookforseveralyears beginning in the early2000s, which were basicskills exams. The CommonCore exam takes problem-solving and requires test-takers to show evaluatorstheirwork.

Where does the graduationrequirement fit in?

Since the days of GeorgeW. Bush’s No Child Left Be-hind, a federal program thatwas supposed to ensure allkidsgotasolideducation,thegovernment has requiredthat school districts test stu-dents in grades threethrough eight and once inhighschool.

Idaho’s State Board ofEducation went No ChildLeftBehindonebetter. It de-cided that passage of the ex-am would be a requirementfor high school graduation.Many students who don’tpass thetests,however,haveused other criteria, such asgrades and other testsscores, to prove that theymeet thestandards togradu-ate.

What’swrongwith thetest?Educators listanumberof

concerns:➤ The exam takes up to

eight hours in some cases,given over multiple days.Thelongtestsclogcomputerlabs in schools and take timeawayfrominstruction.

➤ Idaho’s achievementtest is a point-in-time exam,notalong-rangelookatastu-dent’s performance, andshouldn’t be used to decidethe fate of a student’s entireeducation career. SherriYbarra,statesuperintendentof public instruction, saysthestateshouldusemultiplemeasures over multipleyears to get amore accurateassessment of a student’sknowledge.

➤ Districtsget little feed-back from the exam to guideteachers on where studentslag inknowledge.

➤ Thetestputs toomanygood students at risk of notgraduating. Schools and dis-tricts should be held ac-countable for student per-formance on exams, but astudent shouldn’t face suchdrasticconsequences.

How important is test feed-back in instruction?

At Borah High School inBoise, just 23 percent of10th-graderswereproficientin math based on prelimi-nary results from the examlastspring.Borahalsohasthehighest number of limited-English-proficient studentsin the state — nearly 11 per-cent of the school’s popula-tion,Coberlysaid.Morethanhalf of its students are low-income. Both factors are in-dicators of the potential forstudents tostrugglemoreonexams.

Alyson Pincock, a10th-grade Algebra 2 in-structoratBorah,pushesherstudents to do moreproblem-solving in herclasses because she knows

those skills are a big part oftheachievement test. But it’shard for her to adjust her in-struction to specific studentweaknesses. “Wegetnouse-fuldataback,”shesaid.

Feedback might indicateto a math teacher, for in-stance, that students aren’tunderstanding differentkinds of triangles, allowingthe teacher to focus addi-tional instruction.

Tim Standlee, BorahHigh’s principal, says that itis difficult to help studentssucceed without more re-fined data from the test. “It’shardtotellthem,‘Justdobet-ter,’ ”hesaid.

That may be a fixableproblem, Critchfield said.Idaho has control over howmuch information is madeavailable to educators fromthe exams, and that will beone of the topics the stateboard will evaluate over thenextseveralmonths.

How will schools deal withremediating students whoaren’t proficient on theachievement test?

Nampa School District isworkingon teacher training,and its high schools are de-veloping programs that willtargetstudentswhoneedad-ditionalwork to pass the ex-am.

“ Each (school) is taking adifferent approach,” saidNi-cole MacTavish, assistantsuperintendent.

At Borah High, Standleecould have to provide addi-tional instruction to hun-dredsofstudents.

“Howare yougoing to re-mediate that many kids?” heasked. “It’sgoing to takenewresources.”

In spring, out of 1,920Boise School District10th-graders, 1,190 weren’tproficient on math and 565fell below standards in lan-guage arts. If the graduationrequirement had been in

place last spring, the districtwould need 71 sections ofclasses andadozen teacherstoprovide theneeded reme-dial instruction, Coberlysaid. Studentswouldhave toburn music and other elec-tives to make time for addi-tional math or English in-struction, he said. Coberlyanticipates more studentswilldobetterontheachieve-menttestthisspring,butthatcould still leave the districtwith large numbers of stu-dents inneedofextrahelp.

OK, but don’t the resultsspotlight a big failing in educa-tion? Shouldn’t the schoolshavetodowhatittakestomakecertain students know mathand language arts before theygraduate?

Coberlysaidheisn’tdodg-ing accountability. Schoolsand districts should be heldaccountable for the studentsthey produce. But the stu-dents themselves shouldnotbepenalizedwiththeirgrad-uationatrisk,heandotherof-ficials say. Accountabilitycouldcomeinseveral forms:requiring districts to createplans for improving studentachievement, or workingwith schools to make surethey have enough resourcesfor instruction, said CobyDennis,deputysuperintend-ent.

High schools are supposedto get kids ready for college. Iftheygraduatewithoutknowingenoughtopassthetests,aren’thigh schools just passing thebuckto Idahocolleges?

Colleges do see the effectof students who don’t getproperly prepared in highschool. At College of West-ern Idaho, for example,70 percent of recent highschool graduates who en-rolled this fall requiredmathremediation before movingtocollege-levelmath.

Of 579 recent high school

graduates, more than 400were inwhatCWI calls Col-legePrepMath.Studentscanearn CWI credit for thework, but those credits typ-ically don’t transfer to a uni-versity. Some studentsspend only a short time be-fore themath comes back tothemand they canmoveoutofCollegePrepMath;othersstay awhile, said Carol J.Crothers, coordinator at theNampacampus’sMathSolu-tion Center. Without thehelp, however, students facea difficult time in collegemathclasses.

Still, there is no stigma at-tachedtobeing inaremedialclass, Crothers said: “It is ...ournorm.”

Thetesthasbeenaroundforat least three years. Whyweren’t these issues workedoutbeforenow?

Coberly has raised con-cernsabouttheachievementtest for at least two years.Questions about using theexam as a high-stakes testand a measure of collegereadiness should have beenaddressed before the statewent looking for a test thatpromised such a sweepingchange to assessing stu-dents,hesaid.

Critchfield said shedoesn’tknowwhythesecon-cernsweren’taddressedear-lier. “Why now? Why notnow?Let’stakecareofitnow.Let’s tackle itnow.It is time.Ithink some of the issues re-garding Smarter Balancedarefixable.”

BillRoberts: 377-6408;

Twitter:@IDS_BillRoberts

KATHERINE JONES / kjones@idahostatesman.com

Educators worry about the effects of a high-stakes exam of Common Core. Derek Opland-Evers, 16, left, and Spencer Schwehr, 15, from Borah, will betaking the exam in the spring.

TESTCONTINUED FROM D1

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