State data shows wide disparity in north Idaho school test scores
Roughly half of students in North Idaho are proficient in English and math, at least according to standardized test scores released this week.
More than 95% of students at North Idaho STEM Charter Academy are proficient or advanced in English. About 27% of students in Plummer-Worley are.
Thanks to new data released by the Idaho Department of Education, Idaho Ed News created two lists of schools across Idaho – one ranked by recent standardized test scores for English, and another for math.
Two schools in North Idaho topped both those lists. Three ranked near the bottom.
Most hovered somewhere in the middle. The median for North Idaho in English was roughly 56%. For math, the median was about 45%.
The state’s goal is to have slightly more than 52% of students proficient in English and 41% proficient in math.
The state did reach its targets this year, barely —but those goals were each lowered by about 15 percentage points after 2023.
Nursing program in northeast Washington could address ongoing nursing shortage, hospital says
Zane Gibbons, chief nursing officer for Ferry County Hospital, syas he had been looking for solutions to nursing shortages, when the SCC idea was presented to him.
"We're trying to look, five and 10 years down the road, how do we generate more students for these smaller hospitals that will stay there and remain nurses in those communities? And I think that this is a good step," Gibbons said.
Jaclyn Jacot, the college’s vice president of instruction, says she has also been in contact with other hospitals, including Mount Carmel in Colville and St. Joseph’s in Chewelah.
The idea is that students will do clinical rotations in those hospitals to get first hand experience, she said.
“As an institution, we serve 10,000 square miles, and it's easy to get stuck. We're in Spokane, and we serve Spokane, but our mission and our directive from the state is to serve Stevens, Ferry and Pend Oreille County too and their healthcare shortage is an even bigger crisis than it is here in Spokane," Jacot said.
The Health Resources and Services Administration in 2022 projects the number of nurses in Washington will decrease by 26 percent by 2035.
The shortage comes because of burnout and high levels of emotional exhaustion during and after the pandemic.
Public allowed to comment on eliminating federal "roadless rule"
Anyone concerned about the federal government’s decision to rescind the “roadless rule” in national forests can send their comments to the Trump administration starting Friday.
Federal administrators propose to revoke a 2001 rule that protects 45 million acres of national forests from roads, and therefore activities like logging.
About two million of Washington’s nine million acres of national forests are prohibited from having roads.
The Colville, Okanogan, Wenatchee and Idaho Panhandle National Forests all have designated roadless areas.
Starting Friday, the public has three weeks to submit comments that might inform the government’s environmental impact statement—that’s a formal study that analyzes what would happen if the rule goes out of effect.
Idaho has more than 20 million acres of national forest, and more than nine million of those are protected from roads, too.
But a roadless rule rescission wouldn’t affect those acres, because Idaho has state rules that precede the 2001 decision.
Murray vows to block Serrano's confirmation
Senator Patty Murray says she’s determined to block the confirmation of Eastern Washington’s new interim U.S. Attorney, Pete Serrano.
As a senator from Washington, Murray can choose not to sign consent forms for the Trump administration’s candidates for U.S. attorneys and federal judgeships in the state.
Not signing means the Senate Judiciary Committee would not advance the nominee in question.
Murray said the former Pasco mayor and GOP candidate for state attorney general has “extreme right-wing views,” citing his work challenging Washington state’s high-capacity magazine ban and support for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Without confirmation, Serrano can only serve as interim U.S. attorney until December 9.
Spokane Tribe to sponsor convention center
The Spokane Convention Center is getting its first-ever sponsor—and a slight name change—at the start of next month.
On September 1, the downtown building will be called the “Spokane Convention Center Presented by the Spokane Tribe of Indians.”
Over the next decade, the Tribe will pay a total of $2.65 million to the Spokane Public Facilities District, which operates the building.
"This partnership is a powerful reflection of our enduring connection to this land since time immemorial and our commitment to supporting the cultural, economic, and communal vitality of the region," Tribal Business Council Chair Greg Abrahamson said in a statement. "We look forward to welcoming visitors from near and far to a space that celebrates collaboration, history, and the future we are building together."
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Reporting contributed by Ryan Suppe, Eliza Billingham, Monica Carrillo-Casas and Doug Nadvornick.