Tag Archive for 'Texas'

An Unhelpful Development

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 15, 2009 in Curriculum, Education News and Opinion. 6 Comments

The persistent battles over school curriculum in Texas have turned into a debate over how much faith belongs in American history classrooms.  It’s an unhelpful development for anyone who wants to see kids get more history in school.

The Texas Board of Education is revising the state’s social studies curriculum, the Wall Street Journal reports.  “Three reviewers, appointed by social conservatives, have recommended revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history”  reporter Stephanie Simon notes.  

The conservative reviewers say they believe that children must learn that America’s founding principles are biblical. For instance, they say the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution stems from a scriptural understanding of man’s fall and inherent sinfulness, or “radical depravity,” which means he can be governed only by an intricate system of checks and balances. The curriculum, they say, should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good — and a key reason for American exceptionalism, the notion that the country stands above and apart.

Simon has more to say on the WSJ blog The Juggle, describing history class as “a new front [that] has opened in the curriculum culture wars.”  If so, it’s a most unwelcome and unhelpful one.  Core curriculum is already starved for oxygen in too many schools.  Fear that history is a stalking horse for religious instruction offers one more reason to downplay its importance, eliminate it from the school day, or reduce it to mere pabulum, as one commenter observes:

At this point, I don’t even care about the culture wars any more. I just wish the schools would teach a lot more history. My kids get so little history, and what they do get is mainly in the form of little nuggets of usually incorrect information. They do Columbus in October, Thanksgiving in November (and yes, they do mention God, and the kids color some pictures of Indians, usually in completely wrong attire, and that is about it). In January they learn that “Martin Luther King was a great man who got everybody together.” No mention of Jim Crow, no mention of civil disobediance, no mention of slavery. It is horrifying. My son just finished third grade and doesn’t know about slavery or the Civil War. What sense does Martin Luther King make if you don’t know about slavery? My sense is that the schools here are so scared they might offend someone, both conservatives and liberals, that they just don’t teach anything at all.”

Hard to disagree with that common sense perspective.  And even harder to see how emphasizing the “Christian character” of the U.S. is going to make secular teachers–or parents–more enthusiastic about teaching history.  It’s just what the effort to beef up core curriculum doesn’t need–turning history into the next “intelligent design” debate.

Failure: It’s Not Just a Good Idea, It’s The Law

Published by Robert Pondiscio on April 21, 2009 in Assessment and Testing, Education News and accountability. 4 Comments

Texas school districts would no longer be allowed to mandate minimum grades for failing students under a “truth-in-grading ” law unanimously passed by the State Senate Monday.  Controversies over such policies have flared up here and there in the last few years, but I’m not aware of any states banning the practice to-date.

“Teacher groups, who have called such policies the ‘ultimate grade inflation,’ are strongly supporting the Senate bill,” the Dallas Morning News reports.  The Texas School Alliance, made up of large, urban districts is crying foul saying it usurps local control of schools.

I get the arguments that minimum passing grades provide a “safety net” for potential dropouts.  Still, it’s hard to preach high expectations out of one side of your mouth and no failures out the other.

Taking the Bat Out of The BOE’s Hands in Texas

Published by Robert Pondiscio on April 14, 2009 in Curriculum and Education News. 0 Comments

Texas state legislators have apparently had enough of the endless arguments over evolution and other charged topics that regularly put the state’s Board of Education in the national spotlight.  The Wall Street Journal reports they are considering stripping the Board of its authority to set curricula and approve textbooks. 

While the science standards have drawn the most attention, the 15-member elected board has been embroiled in other controversies as well. Last year, it rejected a reading curriculum that teachers had spent nearly three years drafting. In its place, the board approved a document that a few members hastily assembled just hours before the vote.

Various proposals being drawn up in Texas would transfer curriculum oversight and textbook adoptions to the state education agency, a legislative board or the commissioner of education. “Other bills would transform the board to an appointed rather than elected body, require Webcasting of meetings, and take away the board’s control of a vast pot of school funding,” the Journal reports.

Evolution “Strengths and Weaknesses” Voted Down in Texas

Published by Robert Pondiscio on January 23, 2009 in Education News. 7 Comments

The Texas Board of Education voted Thursday to drop a 20-year old state requirement that high school science teachers cover “strengths and weaknesses” in the theory of evolution. The vote is being characterized as a major defeat for social conservatives and sharply divided the Board.

“Under the science curriculum standards recommended by a panel of science educators and tentatively adopted by the board, biology teachers and biology textbooks would no longer have to cover the ’strengths and weaknesses’ of Charles Darwin’s theory that man evolved from lower forms of life,” the Dallas Morning News reports.

A panel of science teachers had recommended that the “strengths and weaknesses” language be dropped.  Critics had argued that the word weaknesses “has become a code word in the culture wars to attack evolution and promote creationism.”  The Texas science standards have ripple effects from coast-to-cost, influencing how textbook publishers publishers handle the topic, since the Lone Star state is the largest statewide textbook adoption state. 

A Texas-Sized Waste of Money?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 19, 2008 in Research and Reports. 0 Comments

Texas has spent nearly $300 million since 2003 on expensive anti-psychotic medications for poor children, according to a new federal study.  The drugs cost more, have worse side effects in kids and are no more effective than older generics.

“The drugs, known as atypical anti-psychotics, are designed to treat schizophrenia but are also used for everything from autism to attention deficit disorder. Pharmaceutical firms have aggressively marketed the drugs to child psychiatrists and state health officials,” says the Dallas Morning News, which notes prescriptions for kids have increased fivefold in the last 15 years.

“States have spent a tremendous amount of money unnecessarily for drugs that are no safer than the older drugs that are a fraction of the cost,” said Allen Jones, a Pennsylvania whistleblower who investigates drug company influence tells the paper. “It appears, based on what the science is telling us, that an enormous amount of money was spent for no real benefit.”

Teaching to the Tex

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 21, 2008 in Assessment and Testing. 1 Comment

A section of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) is coming under scrutiny.  Even Texas’ best students struggle with a section of the test that asks students to express themselves and back up their claims with evidence, revealing either faulty tests or preparation.

Three short-response questions require students to stretch their brains by generating clear, reasonable ideas from a reading selection, the Dallas Morning News reports.  Then they must support those ideas with evidence from the text in a well-written response.  ”Students are passing the ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade language arts TAKS at higher rates than ever, the paper notes. “Some even post near-perfect passing rates. But on the short-response portion, fewer than half of North Texas students pass.”

Texas Education Agency officials say the short-response questions provide a better window into how well students can think, communicate and write.  ”This paints a much different picture for teachers and parents than the multiple-choice test,” Victoria Young, a testing official with TEA tells the paper. “You’re finding out two very different things about kids.”  Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association said curriculum doesn’t have the depth it used to because teachers are pulled in so many different directions by the TAKS demands.

Here’s the scoring rubric for the short-answer reading section of the test.  Seems a reasonable set of tasks for high school students.