Posted on 07/05/2006 8:34:28 AM PDT by Clara Lou
Education board may take conservative turn on reading, writing standard
AUSTIN - The State Board of Education, an elected body with a history of fierce ideological debates about textbook content, now wants to put its stamp on the curriculum that guides the instruction of 4.4 million Texas schoolchildren.
At its meeting Thursday, the 15-member board is expected to scrap a curriculum revision process dominated by teachers and the Texas Education Agency and discuss a new timetable for revising the English reading and writing standards.
Many on the board want to replace a student-centered curriculum that calls on students to use their own attitudes and ethics to interpret texts with teacher-centered instruction that emphasizes the basics of spelling, grammar and punctuation.
It was a fight social conservatives on the board lost in 1997, when moderates and liberals adopted the curriculum for all subjects. Now, with social conservatives expected to have a majority on the board for the first time after the November elections, the plan to rewrite the English standards is viewed by some as the opening shot in an effort to put a conservative imprint on the state's curriculum.
'A big battle'
"This is really going to be the big battle in public education over the next few years — what is it our students are going to learn," said Dan Quinn, a spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, a group that monitors the state board for influence by the religious right. "We could see a lot of textbooks that are based on personal and political beliefs of a majority of the state board rather than on facts that students need to learn."
Quinn said that though it's unlikely that the English curriculum discussion will veer toward any political ideology, the effort could set the stage for 2008, when science standards are up for review.
The board defeated efforts to weaken the discussion of evolution in biology textbooks in 2003, but Quinn said that if the science curriculum is rewritten to include religious-based ideas such as intelligent design, the books will follow suit.
Texas' national impact
Because Texas is such a large market for publishers, textbook adoptions here have national repercussions.
Board member Don McLeroy, a Bryan Republican who is pushing the effort to change the reading and writing standards, denied any agenda to inject religion into the Texas curriculum.
"That's a false thing to worry about," said McLeroy. "You never heard me interject religion into anything, and I'm a very religious guy."
McLeroy said he had wanted the biology books to include more information about the "weaknesses of evolution." He said he doesn't envision including creationism or intelligent design — a theory that holds that a supernatural force played a hand in creation — in the state's science curriculum.
McLeroy said his only motive is to make the learning standards more understandable for teachers and parents. He wants to implement a back-to-basics curriculum that could drive achievement on reading and writing tests.
"Texas standards are not grade-level specific, most of them are noise. They can't be measured and are just a bunch of fuzzy words," McLeroy said.
Weakened authority
State law gives the board authority over curriculum content standards, called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS. It is one of the few duties left to the board, which has seen some of its authority over textbooks stripped by the Legislature.
Board member Mary Helen Berlanga, a Corpus Christi Democrat who often clashes with conservatives about textbook content, said she believes McLeroy is leading a "good-faith effort" to help students learn. But she also said as the process moves forward, "we're going to have to be very watchful."
The education agency is revising the standards subject by subject. The board accepted the math revisions proposed by the TEA last year.
The education agency already has convened a teacher study group to study the English TEKS, and the revisions were scheduled to be presented to the board for approval later this year. But the board stopped that process in April and set a June 14 work session to hear from reading experts about the curriculum.
That meeting changed the minds of some board members, including board chairman Geraldine "Tincy" Miller, who apologized to McLeroy at the end of the meeting.
"I really was convinced we had an incredible curriculum, and it just needed a little tweaking," said Miller, R-Dallas. "We need to stop this process right now."
One criticism voiced at the session is that the TEKS are too student-centered, often asking students to use their attitudes, behaviors and ethics to interpret texts. For example, students in fourth through eighth grades are expected to "describe mental images that text descriptions evoke" and "compare text events with his or her own or other readers' experiences."
McLeroy calls such standards "fuzzy English" and wants to expunge them from the state's curriculum. He said such standards can't be measured on state tests.
Board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, voted in 1997 in favor of an alternate set of standards that was heavier on the basics of spelling and grammar. Critics said the alternate standards would wind up micromanaging teachers by dictating what and how they must teach rather than giving them the flexibility to determine how to reach individual students.
Fierce fight in 1997
The 1997 struggle to revamp curriculum for all subjects was billed as the "education battle of the decade." Then-Gov. George W. Bush blasted a first draft as "mushy" and replete with "feel-good" philosophies, but supported later versions as "good documents."
The state spent more than $9 million preparing the 1,000-page document. More than 350 Texans served on committees that drafted the TEKS and more than 18,000 people wrote or called the education agency with comment.
Little debate on math
Last year, the board approved modifications to the math curriculum with little debate. Education agency spokesman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said English standards are more difficult to write than some other subjects because there are many alternate theories.
"Whether you like it or not, certain historical events happened on certain dates. With English you can just take off and go so many different directions," said Ratcliffe.
Barbara Foorman, director of the Center for Academics and Reading Skills at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, helped write the English TEKS in 1997. However, she has changed her mind and told the board last month that the standards need change.
Foorman said the standards aren't teacher friendly, and that many districts have had to spend money to translate them into classroom lesson plans.
Foorman would like to see the standards reduced in number and made more specific.
But she said there is a danger that the standards might become too prescriptive or too political if designed by the board.
"I'd hate to have politics mixing too much with it," Foorman said. "I'd much rather have a disinterested panel make some suggestions."
One issue that could prove contentious is whether to mandate specific reading lists for students. That now is considered a matter of local control, either by the district or individual teachers.
Board member Terri Leo, R-Spring, said at last month's work session that she's worried students aren't reading enough classic literature.
janet.elliott@chron.com
It's been working well for us. Now that they're older, it also gives me a chance to get my 2 cents in about more controversial areas like the evolution/creation debate.
They already know that I think that the school has no business teaching things like sex education.
Recently, there was an assembly having to do with just that. It required an opt out form I hadn't yet received in the mail. The girls told their respective teachers that they didn't think their mama would like them attending such a thing, so the teachers sent them to the library instead.
I was SO proud they stood up for themselves...not that I'm bragging or anything.
(grin)
Are there people who actually say "hehns" or "pehns" or "dehns"? I don't know any.
My dad always said that I talked about "daintzing" or going to a "daintz" with my date, with the "ai" pronounced like the word "eye" - a "long i." I couldn't hear that, lol. Oh, he also hated the way I say "coat hainger." I can hear that, but don't see anything wrong with it!
Maybe regular dogs aren't spelled that way, but "Deputy Dawg" is!
ping - let me agree with the statement that kids do not get classic literature exposure. rather, a lot of liberal / multicultural indoctrination in the book choices.
"ping - let me agree with the statement that kids do not get classic literature exposure. rather, a lot of liberal / multicultural indoctrination in the book choices."
Let me add ...
I know this because I have an 11 and an 8 yr old in the pulblic schools. No matter, they both are big readers, read a lot more than I ever did at their age, and much of it is classic literature (children's classics) - at home. Although my daughter is also this week reading an ALA-approved modern book that in my mind fits the 'liberal indoctrination' mold, the book "Hoot" (plotline: kids fights meanie developers to save an owl's nest). She got the book via the school (book sale).
I cannot think of a single classic literature book that they read via the school.
Most of their learning, as is ever the case, is outside the classroom.
Chahta imanumpa ish anumpola hinla ho?
"Yep Our twin girls are 2 and 3 levels above grade average because we have a home version of summer school where they learn basic Math, History and English."
Can you explain more?
Sounds like something we are trying to do. My wife got some Saxon math books because we felt the schools wasnt giving the kids enough homework, so we started them on that...
Halito. Chim achukma?
Well, take Math for example. Kids today get thrown from one type of math to another before the facts are firmly grasped. Multiplication is frustrating if your simpler addition isn't automatic. Frustration breeds resistance, so the fastest way to get them to not like Math is to dump it all on them at once.
At home, History is taught from an American standpoint, something the schools are woefully deficient in. Public school class time is spent more on the evils of slavery that the actual history of the Civil War, and teaching kids the words of the Declaration of Independence doesn't necessarily teach them the MEANING of it. The Founders went through Hell to establish this country, yet many of the hardships they endured aren't even noted in public schoolbooks.
We tend to stick more the Classical literature at home, too. Facts about Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Rome, and England are covered along with age appropriate literature. They haven't actually read the Iliad or the Odyssey, but the parts they know through short stories and films has interested them, so they will be reading them as they get older. Odysseus is a favorite character of theirs.
English and literature are my favorite subjects. Grammar, punctuation and proper sentence structure is important. Something as small as a semicolon can change the meaning of an entire sentence. Words DO have power. :-)
Sorry if this hasn't been too informative. There are ton's of websites out there with worksheets and such. A lot of our school tends to be a short amount of bookwork and a lot of discussion. If there's something that really peaks their interest, or if they ask something I can't answer, I look for more information on it.
It really isn't the amount of homework, either. I can't tell you the amount of busywork my girls have brought home
Teach them what you'd think they should know along with things you'd like to know more about. Science is always a good start around here. We all learned more about hummingbirds by checking out library books and doing Internet research. Then I had them write a paper on the subject. Then they had to write it again with clarified sentences and proper punctuation.
I hate the way schools have conglomerated so much of the necessary education in one course. 'Social Studies' could be more aptly called World Cultures, IMHO. It's like trying to eat a 4 course meal in 45 minutes. No wonder all the kids are so confused.
How old are your children, BTW?
my children are 11, 8 and 2. Are you home schooling then, or adding to the formal education?
btw, my kids also like greek mythology.
we have hins as well as a dowg.
the dowg isn't very effective at keeping the cayots
away though.
they don't bother the ponies.
Adding to. I don't feel competent enough to completely homeschool, so we use the summertime to catch up on whatever is needed and to get a jump on what will be covered next year.
Our public school curriculum is on-line. I check before the girls start school to see if there's anything that might be more indoctrination than education. That way I can notify the school of any objections and/or make sure the girls have both sides of the story before it's covered in class.
----
btw, my kids also like greek mythology.
Very interesting characters, that's for sure. Schools don't cover classical literature hardly at all anymore. Heaven forbid the kids read about someone with a ....(gasp) SWORD!
LOL!
"Adding to. I don't feel competent enough to completely homeschool, so we use the summertime to catch up on whatever is needed and to get a jump on what will be covered next year."
Ah, We are doing the same, more or less.
How old are your kids?
We have 12 year old twin girls.
It would be nice if students left school with basic spelling skills. That would be a start. At present it seems that graduating students feel free to express themselves in kreeatiff speellink.
Spelling requires memorization. Memorization has been the most maligned of the study skills because, you know, it's just so boring! It's the downfall of many students who enter first-year foreign language.
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