Four out of ten of public high school graduates in Washington state who enter in-state two- or four-year public colleges or universities take non-credit remedial courses in math or English. This is according to a recent report released by a state government research agency. The November 2011 research brief from the state’s Education Research Data Center (ERDC) is titled “Enrollment in Pre-College-Level Coursework.” It looks at high school grads of 2009. That’s the most recent year for which data is available. Of the 30,966 students tracked 39 percent or 12,077 had to take either or both a math or English non-credit class at their two-year or four-year Washington state public colleges just to be ready for for-credit classes.

The Mercer Island High School marching band delivered a high-energy performance at the 123rd annual Rose Parade 952 miles from home Monday in Pasadena, capping a highly anticipated five-day trip of music and sightseeing. Several band members share their impressions of the big day on the band’s Rose Parade trip blog here. Their performance earned a warm reaction along the parade route. Video is below. Note the shot from the Goodyear Blimp at the end of the clip, as the band rounds the famous parade route corner of Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards.

Highlights of the trip before Parade Day included performances at the Rose Parade Band Fest and at Disneyland, and trips to the Getty Museum, Universal Studios and the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood – after which band members created a spectacle moshing and singing in the street. From the “Trip – Day Three” post on the band’s blog:

Hyped on adrenaline, the band was treated to Universal Studios and the city walk where we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. By far the highlight of the entire trip so far was the impromptu dance party the band had. They had a DJ in the square and we moshed like there was no tomorrow. The band tore up the dance floor and while waiting for the buses, sang all the songs in our repertoire and chanted all our favorite MIHS cheers. Even the security guards couldn’t help but smile and get caught up in the moment. I can guarantee that no other band in the Rose Parade had the spirit to come together like we did tonight. Describing today’s events is impossible to do justice and like the bus driver for bus #1 said, ”coming to the Rose Parade isn’t just an experience, it’s an adventure.” There’s no place like band!

The MIHS band played at a new year’s celebration in London last year – reported here by the Seattle Times – and also marched in the Rose Parade in 2006. The band is directed by Parker Bixby with assistance from Ryan Lane and other band directors in the district’s highly-regarded music program. Numerous parent chaperones and volunteers also assisted during and before this year’s trip.

(Full Disclosure: my son is a member of the band).

Our Public Data Ferret news knowledge base is a project of the 501c3 public charity Public Eye Northwest.

You might also enjoy: “Auburn’s new poet laureate strips away the varnish“.

Dec. 30th KUOW-FM Seattle 94.9 public radio aired at 4:30 p.m. PST an interview segment with me discussing a recent story written for Public Eye Northwest’s Public Data Ferret news knowledge base. The topic was a new comprehensive report by government researchers on some very serious troubles faced by adult coho salmon returning to spawn in the restored urban streams of the Seattle area.

Here’s the segment (mp3). My thanks to KUOW’s News Director Guy Nelson, who conducted and edited the interview.

Here’s the original story at Public Data Ferret.

The city of Auburn, Wash. sits 28 miles south of Seattle astride major highways, riven with burger joints, casinos, and the exhaust fumes of sixteen-wheel rigs. Yet here too in the long shadow of Tahoma are rushing rivers, broad pastures of livestock and horses, caring neighbors, a highly-regarded local symphony, and a community of artists and writers such as Richard Brugger who next Tuesday will be appointed Auburn’s first Poet Laureate by the Mayor Pete Lewis at a meeting of the city council.

For the second time since November, the MS Ryndam luxury cruise ship operated out of Tampa by Seattle-based Holland America Line has suffered an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness marked by vomiting and diarrhea, according to a report published by the U.S. Centers For Disease Control Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP). On a December 11 to 18 cruise to ports in Mexico, Belize and Honduras, 69 passengers and six crew members became ill with the symptoms. Holland in response increased cleaning and disinfecting on board, collected stool samples from ill passengers and crew to submit to the CDC’s lab, provided regular reports to passengers and the CDC and prepared to implement a standard procedure to prevent debarking passengers from spreading illness. A CDC VSP environmental health officer and epidemiologist boarded the Ryndam on its return to port in Tampa to begin an assessment of the outbreak and its cause. UPDATE, January 3, 2011: The CDC reports, “Stool specimens were sent to the CDC lab for testing, which revealed that this outbreak was caused by Norovirus.”

A final report published this month by a team of 17 Seattle, King County and U.S. government researchers in an open-access peer-reviewed science journal adds to evidence that metal filings from brake pads mixed into storm water run-off, and hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust are what is responsible for the deaths under acute distress of anywhere from six to ten out of ten pre-spawning adult coho salmon returning each autumn to Seattle area urban streams where the salmon habitat has been restored. More research will be needed to definitively make the connection, but a host of other possible causes can safely be ruled out, the study says. The pre=spawning fatality syndrome has recurred over ten straight years and if it persists it is likely to mean the end of “sustainable natural production” of coho in Seattle area urban streams, the study says.

You can easily compare state achievement test score results between school districts and between schools within a district, using the University of Washington-Bothell’s Washington Achievement Data Explorer (WADE) tool online. It was developed and is sponsored by UW-Bothell’s Center For Education Data and Research. You can also survey a broad range of student, district and school data, and see whether districts or schools are exceeding projected performance levels on achievement tests, based on percentage of low-income students. Let’s explore the Explorer. First, go to the WADE site. You’ll see a panel showing three ways to dig in.

A state appeals court last week threw out the conviction of Akbar Mhea in Seattle Municipal Court and King County Superior Court for stalking 87-year-old Vera Galbreath of Seattle on an Aurora Avenue bus late at night and after both debarked at 80th Street. The court said although Mhea’s conduct was both “abnormal and threatening,” stalking didn’t occur because his actions comprised only one continuous episode of following and unwanted verbal contact, not repeated instances. However, an interview with the victim raises some questions.