“The club decided to work on a project dealing with domestic water quality because it is oriented around our local Bend community,” said junior Chase Hayden, a student who contributed to the project.

According to Hayden, Journal Club found that “through EDTA titration, which tests for magnesium, barium, and zinc in water, our conclusion determined that among a city-wide average, there were no significant findings; this means Bend’s water quality is safe in all areas.” 

Central Oregon Foundation, an organization dedicated to the improvement of Oregonian’s lives, published a report concerning the East and West divides within Bend, Oregon. They said that despite a lot of growth, more than 14,000 households (37%) do not make enough money to cover basic needs like housing, transportation, food and child care. 

This was exacerbated by the “cascading crises in Oregon in 2020 have compounded existing inequities, resulting in disproportionate impacts on Black, Indigenous, people of color, low-income Oregonians and rural communities… grappling with the need for systems change: education, arts and culture, housing, business infrastructure, health care and more.”

How did Bend, Oregon water providers, such as the City of Bend and Avion Water System, prevent these disparities from entering the water system?

According to Julie Price, Utility Education and Campaign Coordinator for the City of Bend, the creation of plans concerning water infrastructure is reviewed and contributed to by public advisory groups. Price says these groups “consist of area leaders, businesses and individuals who want to be involved in the planning and development of key components surrounding our water services.”

Jason Wick with Avion Water further explains that “all the water for [Avion’s] customers comes from three reservoirs and those reservoirs are all connected together.” Wick says that “the way all our systems are designed to have redundancies so everything is connected to everything.” This way, there is no difference in the water delivered to anyone.

For both these providers, the multiple water sources and rigorous testing as mandated by the State of Oregon ensures that there are no distinctions between the quality of water distributed throughout the City. 

How can Central Oregon learn from themselves in how they handle the areas of inequality listed by the Oregon Community Foundation, such as housing, education and health care?

There is more to learn from the questions that Journal Club students asked in the first place. Hayden says that this kind of investigation is important because “any relationships found will be able to determine equality differences within our local system and allow for more research and possible action to be taken to create an equal society for all citizens of Bend.” 

This acts as a lesson for those who care about their community. Take any opportunity you can to ensure that your community lives up to what you believe it should be.

The post Bend High Students investigate local water quality and income level correlations appeared first on Obsidian News | Oregon Youth Voices.

The Bend-La Pine school district has taken steps to implement a new 4-point grading system. This standards-based grading system is designed to emphasize conceptual learning over simple memorization. Reporter Jackson Hogan from The Bulletin explained that according to Cascade Middle School and Pilot Butte Middle School—where the system has been implemented for years—the grading style has three main benefits. First, to remove inconsistencies between teacher grading. Second, to remove confusion over why a student earned a specific grade. And third, to not penalize students who struggle in the beginning of the semester or school year. 

In general, there appears to be a lot of confusion regarding the new grading policies for students. There’s nowhere for students to turn to find the information that they need. Some students like the policy theoretically, but have yet to see it effectively implemented. Students don’t know how to get the grade they want, and don’t understand the reasons behind the grades they did get. This is the opposite of the intention behind standards-based grading, so the school district must find a way to get everyone on the same page if this transition is to be effective.

All Bend-La Pine schools will be moved to this system by the 2024-25 school year. This year, the switch was optional for teachers at Bend Senior High, Summit High School and Mountain View High School. It is fully implemented in Caldera High School, La Pine High School, and Bend Tech Academy.. The Jefferson County school district has also fully implemented this grading system at the high school level for the past few years. 

So, what do students think as this new grading system is introduced into their classrooms?

What is your understanding of the new 4-point grading system being implemented?

“I feel like it wasn’t really explained… You have to get 100%, or it’s really hard to get an A?”

• Ella Moss, Bend High junior

“It goes with IB somehow, but not all the teachers do it.”

• MJ Pettit, Bend High junior

For context, IB (International Baccalaureate) is Bend Senior High’s advanced curriculum, similar to AP (Advanced Placement) at other schools.

“I’ve heard that the point of it is to help students that are struggling with their grades be able to achieve a passing grade easier. Because of the way the 4-point system is set up, an F is now a 4 instead of a 50%.”

• Marley Foster-Wexler, Bend High junior

“It’s a 4-point scale, 4 being an A and 4 being an F. I’m a little confused by it, but getting mostly 4s or 3s is passing, so it ends up working out okay.”

• Eli Spampinato, Mountain View junior

What is your opinion on it? Pros? Cons?

“I think that it’s a good idea because it’s more proportional to the work, and I like it a lot more than the 50% fail because I think that was kind of stupid and this is a much better solution.”

• Marley Foster-Wexler, Bend High junior

“I think it’s a bit confusing, but I think we will all get used to it soon. The pros are it’s easier to pass, but the cons are it’s a bit more confusing and teachers don’t like it much.”

• Eli Spampinato, Mountain View junior

“It’s more difficult for students to gauge their grades… I think it also makes it harder to get good grades in school, because if you get a three out of 4 for missing one little thing, it impacts your grade a lot.”

• Roux Jaques, Summit High sophomore

“I think it is an easy way of grading considering it’s only 1 to 4 points instead of out of 100 points. The lowest score a student can get is 1 instead of a 0, so it’s better knowing you will score at least 1 point.”

• Olivia Hought, Summit High freshman

How would you improve or change the system or how it’s being implemented?

“I feel like the teachers, when they’re explaining it, they say, ‘yeah, they just kinda told us about it but we don’t really get it.’ They’re all just trying to figure it out by themselves.”

• Ella Moss, Bend High junior

“I feel like for little assignments, it’s fine. But for big writing projects and tests, I don’t want to get a 4 out of 4 or a 3.5 because it’s too small of a scale to grade something so big and show the percentage of what you got correctly… It would be a lot better if everybody does it and everybody’s on the same page, instead of everyone getting half an idea of what it’s about and trying to figure out the rest on their own.”

• MJ Pettit, Bend High junior

“I’d make it a slightly bigger scale and possibly explain it more so everyone understands a bit better.”

• Eli Spampinato, Mountain View junior

“I would turn it back to how it used to be. Teachers can put however many points they think an assignment is worth, like 10 for assignments, and 100 for tests, and it would be a lot more helpful for students and teachers.”

• Roux Jaques, Summit High sophomore

“I know many teachers don’t exactly like the 4-point grading system at all. I think making sure that the teachers and students both like the grading system is the most important considering that’s who it mainly affects.”

• Olivia Hought, Summit High freshman

The post What Do Students Think about the Standards-Based Grading System? appeared first on Obsidian News | Oregon Youth Voices.