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Open Letter to the Argyle ISD School Board- TRANSDISCIPLINARY (Updated)

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By Alice Linahan

Voices Empower

 

As a Mom with a student in Argyle ISD, I am very concerned about the direction our school district is heading.  As our schools embrace 21st Century Learning and the College and Career ready standards, we must ask ourselves as parents and adults; are our children being harmed by this?

As Moms and Dads, we need to step back and start asking “ourselves”…….

1. If our children graduate from high school or college with the attitudes, values, beliefs, behaviors and a worldview that we oppose and we know it is because their teachers have been trained to believe it is their responsibility to be the devil’s advocate and teach our children ‘Critical Thinking’ and to question and even oppose the foundational beliefs of our family; is that really a solid academic education that will serve our children and their future well?

2. Is our child getting college credits in high school more important than protecting our child’s mind and their soul?

3. If your child graduates from college, gets a great high paying job but no longer respects, much less believes, they are worthy of a strong marriage, a free and prosperous country, and that by the grace of God anything is possible; have we done our best to give our child a strong foundation for a happy joy filled life?

Let me give you a personal story from right here in Argyle ISD. This is what “21st Century Learning” also known as getting students “College and Career Ready” looks like in the classroom.

For a little background, my daughter is the only student in her class whose parents have refused to allow her to use a district issued chrome book or google student account.

One day she texted me screen shots of a quiz her AP/Dual Credit English 3 teacher asked the class to take. Because my daughter did not have a chromebook her teacher told her to take the quiz from her cell phone. The lesson plan for the class shows that they were working on group presentations on philosophy (in an English Class) and these quizzes were a part of the research each group was to do. Each group was assigned a Philosophy and after their research, each group gave a presentation to the class. The Philosophy’s the groups were assigned were….

1. Utilitarianism

2. Objectivism

3. Civil DisobedienceIMG_8005

4. Existentialism

5. Categorical Imperative

6. Hierarchy of Human Needs

7. Social Contract

Parents!! Would you want your child taking a quiz called ‘Philosophy Experiments,’ in high school, much less on their district issued Chromebook, that grades their answers, compatibility, and then gives the student a “tension score” on a bar graph. Whatever two answers contradict, it plays devils advocate and makes the student question their beliefs.

Here are just some of the questions asked:

 

* There are no objective moral standards; moral judgements are merely an expression of the values of particular cultures. Agree or Disagree 

* So long as they do not harm others, individuals should be free to pursue their own ends. Agree or Disagree

* It is always wrong to take another persons life. Agree or Disagree 

* The right to life is so fundamental that financial considerations are irrelevant in any effort to save lives. Agree or Disagree 

* Homosexuality is wrong because it is unnatural. Agree or Disagree 

* It is quite reasonable to believe in the existence of a thing without even the possibility of evidence for its existence. Agree or Disagree 

* There exists an all-powerful, loving and good God. Agree or Disagree

* The second world war was a just war. Agree or Disagree 

* There are no objective truths about matters of fact; “truth” is always relative to particular cultures and individuals. Agree or Disagree 

* Atheism is a faith just like any other, because it is not possible to prove the non-existence of God. Agree or Disagree 

* To allow an innocent child to suffer needlessly when one could easily prevent it is morally reprehensible.  Agree or Disagree 

* The holocaust is an historical reality, taking place more or less as the history books report. Agree or Disagree

 

As I said, where there is a conflict with two answers, it analyzes the two and scores the student.

Here is an example……

 Statements 5 and 29: Can you put a price on a human life?

28% of the people who have completed this activity have this tension in their beliefs.

You agreed that:
The right to life is so fundamental that financial considerations are irrelevant in any effort to save lives
But disagreed that:
Governments should be allowed to increase taxes sharply to save lives in the developing world

If the right to life is so fundamental that financial considerations are irrelevant when it comes to making decisions about saving human lives, then that must mean that we should always spend as much money as possible to save lives. If it costs £4 million to save a cancer patient’s life, that money should be spent, period. But if this is true, then surely the West should spend as much money as possible saving lives in the developing world. You may already give $100 dollars a month to save lives in the developing world. But if financial considerations are irrelevant when it comes to saving lives, why not $200, or $1000, or just as much as you can afford? If you do not do so, you are implicitly endorsing the principle that individuals and governments are not obliged to save lives at all financial cost – that one can spend ‘enough’ on saving lives even though spending more, which one could afford to do, would save more lives. This suggests that financial considerations are relevant when it comes to making decisions about saving lives – there is a limit to how much one should spend to save a life.

______________________________________________

28% of the people who have completed this activity have this tension in their beliefs.

You agreed that:
There exists an all-powerful, loving and good God
And also that:
TransdisiplinaryTo allow an innocent child to suffer needlessly when one could easily prevent it is morally reprehensible

These two beliefs together generate what is known as ‘The Problem of Evil’. The problem is simple: if God is all-powerful, loving and good, that means he can do what he wants and will do what is morally right. But surely this means that he would not allow an innocent child to suffer needlessly, as he could easily prevent it. Yet he does. Much infant suffering is the result of human action, but much is also due to natural causes, such as disease, flood or famine. In both cases, God could stop it, yet he does not.

Attempts to explain this apparent contradiction are known as ‘theodicies’ and many have been produced. Most conclude that God allows suffering to help us grow spiritually and/or to allow the greater good of human freedom. Whether these theodicies are adequate is the subject of continuing debate.

 

Do you realize these responses and their data can legally be tracked for research purposes by 3rd party contractors? President Obama changed the regulation on the FERPA law? A student’s private data can be collected without parental consent in the name of “Education Research”. Here is a link you can take the quiz yourself.  http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/health/Default.aspx

After taking this quiz herself, Clinical Mental Health Counselor Joan Landes stated….

“It’s a classic psychological deconstruction technique to put a person in a double bind and collapse his cognitive framework. Then the “leader” picks up the pieces and reassembles them to order. This is an inappropriate use of psychological force on impressionable minds and unformed identities.”-

Now, you might say, what public high school teacher would think this is a good quiz to give and blame it all on the teacher, but…..

That local superintendent is ultimately  in charge of curriculum, and you the locally elected school board are ultimately in charge of approving funding for the professional development of both the teacher and the superintendent. In addition, you are in charge of funding technology used in the classroom that allows for our student’s data to be collected. It has been stated to me that this is an AP/Dual Credit class, therefore it is a college level course and okay. To that I have to ask. Why is this okay in college? It is certainly not appropriate for high school age students.

The challenge with 21st Century Learning/Common Core/College and Career Ready Standards transformation of education, is how teachers are being re- trained to teach. It is their professional development. In addition, administrators are being trained, through their professional development, how to deal with parents who complain. It is actually the teacher who is in danger, because they are many times used as the fall guy. Education is no longer about reading, and writing in a 21st Century English classroom.  It is about the 4 C’s Creativity, Communication, Critical Thinking and Collaboration.

In Texas we said NO to the Common Core National Standards, but we’ve said yes to our teachers being re-trained for 21st Century Learning using the InTASC Model CoreTeaching Standards; Learning Progressions for Teachers.  The Copyright for these standards is owned by the Council of Chief State School Officers, who as you will remember own the copyright to the Common Core National Standards. They are all aligned to a collectivist philosophy of education. Check out standard #5. When you begin to research what is happening, you will see, this is NOT 21st Century Learning it is simply another push for OBE (Outcome Based Education). 

“The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.” 

Clearly worded in the InTASC paper is states; “these standards differ from the original standards in one key respect: These standards are no longer intended only for “beginning” teachers but as professional practice standards.”  

Have you heard the term Transdisiplinary ?

The College Board’s SAT and AP (Advanced Placement) assessments and conceptual frameworks can be described as “Transdisiplinary” in their purpose.

Transdisiplinary is when the function of the subject matter, concept themes in the syllabus, and course frameworks are all used to guide how a student views the world. The technical term most commonly used is lenses. Effectively these lenses become the values, attitudes, and beliefs the students are to be taking away from the curriculum.

Therefore my question is, are you okay with this? As parents are you okay with your child in Argyle ISD being taught using these learning theories and teaching strategies?

Argyle ISD is not an isolated incident. Nor is it isolated to AP/Dual Credit classes.  This is happening in school districts across Texas. (RISD) Richardson ISD held a meeting for angry parents speaking out against (PBL) Project-based learning. In the audio clip below you will hear Tabitha Branum, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education (formerly Coppell ISD) describe how teachers are no longer teaching as they did in the past and are being re-trained. She goes on to explain that the STAAR exams no longer ask questions about facts, such as “can you identify this organ” and or “what is the function of this organ?” Then the biology lead teacher explains why they are shifting away from learning facts in exchange for building “social skills”.

I would also like to let you know that my children are NOT allowed to take any surveys online or for the school district, state or federal government. If their grades suffer because of this I would like to let you know about this federal law.

Limits on Survey, Analysis, Evaluations, or Data Collection (United States Code, Title 20 1232h)

(b) Limits on survey, analysis, or evaluations

No student shall be required, as part of any applicable program, to submit to a survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals information concerning—

(1) political affiliations or beliefs of the student or the student’s parent;

(2) mental or psychological problems of the student or the student’s family;

(3) sex behavior or attitudes;

(4) illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior;

(5) critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close family relationships;

(6) legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers;

(7) religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or student’s parent; or

(8) income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program), without the prior consent of the student (if the student is an adult or emancipated minor), or in the case of an unemancipated minor, without the prior written consent of the parent.

 

 

UPDATE

In preparation for the Argyle ISD school board meeting on Tuesday Jan. 19th, 2016. Here is a link to my public testimony at the Jan. 19th meeting.

 

 

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Texas STAAR Testing is a JOKE!!

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STAAR JOKE

STAAR TESTING

1. Pearson Publishing provides the STAAR/EOC questions, grades tests, decides on scoring (who passes and who fails), and prepares and scores 5th and 8th STAAR retests.
2. Pearson Publishing has not been shown to be a reputable company-recent information shows Pearson Publishing shareholders as being terrorists.
3. STAAR tests cover TEKS for the entire school year. Students are not prepared to take STAAR tests in March and April.
Let me be very clear about this: TEKS for the entire school year cannot be properly taught before the STAAR tests.
The STAAR tests are given early so that time remains for review and retesting for students who fail the first STAAR tests.
4. Once STAAR tests are taken, the remaining days of school are spent retesting students who failed.
After the STAAR tests are given, school is basically childcare for students who pass the STAAR tests.
5. Michael Williams, the Commissioner of Education, changed the testing code requiring that all students 3-8 go to summer school if they failed STAAR reading and math. The Federal Government provides money for summer school, thus schools make money if your child fails the STAAR and is required to attend summer school.
6. There is NO STATE retest given to all 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th graders attending summer school. Individual schools are responsible for this. Teachers who taught and prepared tests during the school year may be the same teachers teaching and preparing tests for summer school.
7. TEA is aware that there are errors on past STAAR/EOC tests. These errors have been reported. TEA has responded with answers including that while there may be more than one correct answer, it is the best answer that is counted correct. In other words, TEA chooses not to acknowledge that they make mistakes. This would result in grade changes, which would be expensive.
8. The STAAR/EOC tests have no positive educational value for your child. The results of the STAAR/EOC test are used to determine whether a child is promoted or not.
9. The STAAR/EOC scores do not provide data that is used to benefit your child. While it is said that students are given additional assistance in areas they scored poorly in, because of open enrollment (inclusion) students are not placed in classes based on STAAR/EOC scores.
10. The focus of Texas education is the STAAR/EOC tests. Thus, your child is being taught bits and pieces of information that is most likely to be on the tests.

There is so much more that will not fit on one sheet of paper. For more information, please contact directly at: ASKJVC@aol.com
Sincerely,
Janice VanCleave
www.TxCscopeReview.com

Texas Education has taken on a very liberal turn that will not benefit students in the long run. The terminology is often changed in order to confuse parents and the community. Today you will hear the term 21 Century Learning. What is the world does this mean?

21st Century

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Childhood Criminalized: Suspended in Elementary School

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kids arrested

A nine-year-old Texas schoolboy was suspended from his elementary school for posession of a “magic ring.” Remember the poptart gun? The Nerf gun? The Lego gun? The pointed finger gun? In another time, these typical childrens’ toys would have gotten as little notice as the old fashioned cap gun but in a world where the list of childhood offenses also includes possession of a novelty pen or a Hello Kitty bubble gun, it comes as little surprise that a Lord of the Rings “magic ring” would land Aiden Steward in suspension from his elementary school in Kermit, Texas.

The story spread like wildfire from Yahoo News! to FOX News, originating with the Odessa American’s original report on the budding fourth grade magician who was  accused of “terrorizing” his classmates because he said that he would make them “disappear” with his Hobbit prop.  Unfortunately, in the 21st Century classroom, displays of “make-believe” are not taken with a grain of salt. Instead, they are perceived through a wary eye, often warranting the kind of macabre school sanctioned remediation that transforms kiddies into criminals.

Two years before Aiden’s run-in with campus zero tolerance policies, seven year-old Alex Evans, a Colorado second grader suspended for throwing an imaginary hand grenade while pretending to “rescue the world” from “pretend evil forces,” and, as the New American reported, “Little Alex, it turns out, violated his school’s ‘absolutes’ against fighting and weapons, ‘real or imaginary.’” There was also seven-year-old Christopher Marshall from Virginia, who was suspended for using a pencil to “pretend shoot” a bad guy — his friend, who, in turn, was also suspended for “pretend shooting” Christopher back.

Welcome to public school, a place where the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights March 2014 snapshot of the 2011-12 school year showed that boys, as a demographic group regardless of race and/or socioeconomic strata, represented 79% of preschool children suspended once and 82% of preschool children suspended multiple times, although boys only represented 54% of preschool enrollment.

Even a Yale University study revealed that boys are nearly five times more likely to be expelled from preschool than girls.

According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS), which is the longitudinal database that tracks student population, 5,289,752 students were enrolled in Texas public schools in 2013-14. Of those, 2,572,354 were girls and 2,717,398, boys — In-School-Suspension (ISS) was handed out to boys 921,120 times, that’s 43% higher than girls who only had 390,781 ISS actions filed against them, also according to PEIMS. The TEA reported that the number of all students who served in ISS K-12 statewide in 2013-14 was 524,268, of which 352,868 were boys, 171,400 were girls.

The Texas Education Code 37.005 defines suspension: (a) The principal or other appropriate administrator may suspend a student who engages in conduct identified in the student code of conduct adopted under Section 37.001 as conduct for which a student may be suspended. (b)A suspension under this section may not exceed three school days.

ISS is a newer phenomenon that allows schools to receive their Average Daily Attendance (ADA) dollars, which is the combination of federal and state funds that school districts nationwide receive per student per day just because the child shows up.  With ISS the “suspended” child is sequestered yet housed on the campus and is technically “in school,” rather than an Out-of-School Suspension (OSS), which is treated as an absence.

However, ISS is particularly troubling to Texas Appleseed because,  unlike OSS, there are no limits on the number of days a student may spend in ISS, according to the non-profit organization’s School to Prison Pipeline project. In their backgrounder Texas School Discipline Policies: A Statistical Overview it states, “ISS programs generally do not consist of any instructional time – most ISS programs are run like a study hall, and are not staffed by a certified teacher.”

The report also points out that school districts are required to refer students to ISS for certain types of violations, usually those involving drugs, weapons, or violent behavior. However, the Texas Education Code gives school districts the authority to refer students for “discretionary” offenses that generally include behavior like use of profanity, failure to turn in work, or behavior that teachers label “disruptive.”

Problem is, “disruptive” can be a broadly used term and in the all-encompassing-compliant-or-else environment being fostered and dictated by zero tolerance policies and safe schools plans, the one demographic feeling the self-esteem squeeze in all this are boys.

Jason Steward, the nine-year old’s father told Breitbart Texas that Kermit Elementary School Assistant Principal Danny Camp accused Aiden of being a “racist” in September 2014.  Aiden was a newly enrolled student. The administrator did not even know his son when when he was playing a “hold your breath the longest” game to see whose face would turn reddest. An innocent comment Aiden made about another child’s dark-skin became a socially-charged rally cry for equity. According to Steward, Aiden was scolded by Camp, not for calling another boy black but for mistaking the boy was African-American when he was Hispanic.

Steward tried to explain to Camp that Aiden did not mean anything derogatory and was just pointing out skin color differences.  “How is a nine-year-old boy supposed to know what is PC?,” Steward told Breitbart Texas.

It did not matter. Aiden got his first ISS. The second came in mid-October over allegedly “sexually graphic” material the boy brought into school. It was from the Big Book of Knowledge and was an illustrated science class cut-away belly-only diagram of a pregnancy. Not exactly Playboy.

With the third incident, the Stewards turned to the media. They felt there was nowhere else to turn. The TEA cannot intervene.  Suspensions are considered a local matter, spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson told Breitbart Texas.

The underlying issues behind the suspensions are not new. In 2001, Christina Hoff Sommers identified a war on boys that grew out of what she termed a misguided feminism. It is one that has emasculated the classroom. By 2013, Sommers worried that the public schools had become too hostile for boys. She wrote, “In grades K-12, boys account for nearly 70% of suspensions, often for minor acts of insubordination and defiance.”

Regardless of racial, ethnic or socioeconomic strata, Sommers pointed out cases of 7-8-9 year-old boys charged with suspensions, yet there was “no insubordination or defiance.” All these youngsters may have been guilty of was was being a boy. Sommers emphasized that in “today’s school environment, that can be a punishable offense.”

This rigidity continues into the middle and high school years. Zero tolerance is the backbone of “safe schools” and “threat assessment” plans that rolled out in public schools long before Columbine (1999) or Sandy Hook (2012). The Safe School Initiative was a joint project of the US Department of Education and the US Secret Service to prevent school shootings.

USA Today reported that these harsh public school zero-tolerance policies took hold in 1994 when “Congress required states to adopt laws that guaranteed one-year expulsions for any student who brought a firearm to school. All 50 states adopted such laws, which were required to receive federal funding. Many legislatures went further, expanding the definition of a weapon and further limiting the discretion of school administrators.”

Today, Texas public education budgets heavily for security systems, in-house campus police and zero tolerance programs; yet, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that only approximately 1% of students ages 12 to 18 reported a violent victimization at school. Sommers highlighted that this figure is one-tenth of 1%.  Bottom line, as Sommers suggests, the overwhelming majority of boys are not sociopathic.

Yet, in today’s dystopian classroom, the male student finds himself struggling in a “climate” that generally favors more compliant and less kinetically wired girls.

“Across the country, schools are policing and punishing the distinctive, assertive sociability of boys. Many much-loved games have vanished from school playgrounds,” Sommers wrote, spotlighting that “tug or war” has been replaced by “tug of peace” and dodge ball and tag are considered “bullying” or “human target” games. They are banned in many states.

The Huffington Post reported that in Massachusetts, one Superintendent of Schools said that their district spent a lot of time making sure their kids were “violence free”. In California, pee-wee basketball is “score-free” so as not to hurt the other team’s feelings.

The American Psychological Association (APA) Zero Tolerance Task Force questioned, in 2008, if after 20 years all these zero tolerance policies have only negatively affected the relationship of education “with juvenile justice and appear to conflict to some degree with current best knowledge concerning adolescent development.”

The APA also noted that “Rather than reducing the likelihood of disruption, however, school suspension in general appears to predict higher future rates of misbehavior and suspension among those students who are suspended.”

Sommers, too, wondered about the on-going mad science experiment in public schools. It is designed “to re-engineer the young-male imagination.” She noted that this attempt is only succeeding in one way in the public schools — in sending a clear and unmistakable message to millions of schoolboys: You are not welcome in school.”

Meanwhile, elementary school-aged boys just like Aiden Steward walk away with quite a “ding” on their school permanent records.

Breitbart Texas attempted to contact Assistant Principal Camp and Kermit Elementary principal Roxane Greer for comment but was redirected to Bill Boyd, Superintendent of Schools office. The superintendent’s secretary said they were issuing a press release only on the matter. Breitbart Texas requested it several times. It was not sent to us before press time.

Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.

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Texas Drops “Anti-American” CSCOPE Lessons; Battle Continues

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Written by Alex Newman

The New American

 

A highly controversial school curriculum used in much of Texas known as “CSCOPE,” which came under relentless assault from activists and parents who said it was promoting “progressive” anti-American and anti-Christian propaganda, was dealt a major blow by policymakers this week. However, despite media reports and legislators heralding the death of the divisive educational program, major elements remain in place. Still, the news was lauded as a victory for common-sense education as the national battle over Obama-backed “Common Core” standards heats up.texas flag

The CSCOPE program was touted online by its developers as a “customizable, online curriculum management system” for Texas schools. Despite being used in more than two thirds of state school districts, the scheme largely flew under the radar — at least for a while — until a broad coalition of concerned parents, teachers, political activists, Tea Party groups, and others eventually cried foul.

The system surged into the national spotlight earlier this year when conservative media outlets began exposing the curriculum contents, which critics lambasted as everything from “Marxist” indoctrination to “pro-Islam” attacks on Christianity. Others complained that parents were not allowed to access the material due to “licensing” restrictions.

Produced by the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC), the lesson plans included, for example, an assignment to design a new communist flag based on symbols used by socialist regimes. A controversial handout for “social studies,” meanwhile, portrayed humanity as evolving upward from a purportedly selfish free-market economic system toward socialism. The final step was communism, where, supposedly, “all people work together for everyone.” Another lesson suggested the famous Boston Tea Party could be considered an act of terrorism.

Among the most controversial elements of the entire scandal were school materials that critics viewed as hostile toward Christianity. One lesson plan, for instance, introduced the Christian religion as a “cult,” even suggesting that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ described in the Bible represented repackaged versions of Egyptian and Persian mythology — an absurd notion that has been debunked by countless scholars and theologians. Opponents also blasted what they said was a “pro-Islam” bias in the lesson plans.

After the state-wide outcry turned into a national scandal, Texas lawmakers, under heavy pressure from constituents, eventually got involved in the issue. On Monday, months after the furor first erupted, legislators and TESCCC board members announced during a press conference that CSCOPE was essentially dead. The entity responsible for producing the material, meanwhile, will no longer be producing lesson plans or curriculums. Policymakers seemed delighted to put the controversy behind them.

“I’m pleased that the CSCOPE Board has made the decision to get out of the lesson plan business,” said Republican State Senator Dan Patrick, the chairman of the Senate Education Committee who led much of the effort to stop the scheme. “This is a positive development for students, parents, teachers, and for the Regional Service Centers. I want to thank the members of the Senate Education Committee for their months of work on this issue. I also want to thank Attorney General Abbott and his staff in providing valuable assistance in our review of CSCOPE.”

Sen. Patrick of Houston noted that once the TESCCC board officially approves the measure later this week, he would notify the state Board of Education that they no longer needed to review the 1,600 CSCOPE lesson plans. “The CSCOPE era is over,” the senator continued. “However, what the last several months has proven is that the state will have to create a plan to monitor all online material in the future so that our schools and classroom remain completely transparent to parents and the legislature knows what is being taught in our classrooms across Texas.”

TESCCC Chair Anne Poplin and other board members thanked Sen. Patrick and his fellow lawmakers on the state House and Senate education committees, saying their leadership had been “invaluable” and that they look forward to having a “positive relationship” in the future. “We believe that this is the best decision moving forward, and allows us to continue to provide high-quality services to the more than 1,000 school districts and charter schools in Texas,” Poplin and another board member said in a statement.

While spokesmen for the entity responsible for CSCOPE originally defended the material, it appears that the support softened as critics’ outcry grew louder. More recently, officials across the state rushed to distance themselves from the program as well. Conservative activists, meanwhile, celebrated the latest developments, with some arguing that more work was needed to rein in out-of-control educational bureaucrats and prevent similar occurrences.

“Never underestimate the power of blogs and grassroots pressure from conservatives in Texas!” wrote longtime CSCOPE critic David Bellow, a Texas Republican Executive Committeeman who has been blasting the program for months in online articles. “We must not let our guard down though and the Texas Legislature needs to continue to take action to prevent bad curriculum and an online backdoor curriculum from being introduced into Texas schools with no oversight.”

Not everyone was celebrating, however. State Board of Education Vice Chairman Thomas Ratliff of Northeast Texas was among those expressing concerns. “I’m already getting emails from superintendents and teachers at my districts saying, ‘Now, what?’” Ratliff said in a statement. “There were 1,600 lessons in that thing. That’s not easily replaceable…. For some districts, they are a small, optional part. For other districts, it was a lifeline. It’s a sad day for small school districts and the state, and it’s all because of politics.”

As CSCOPE critics celebrated the small victory and its backers complained, some media reports and officials suggested that the death of the program might not have arrived yet. Indeed, even though the controversial lesson plans will be taken down, the federally funded “Regional Education Centers” will continue to operate, and “management portions” of CSCOPE will remain available to school districts, according to media reports.

Even SBOE Vice Chair Ratliff noted that the “heftier” elements of the scheme, which outline the K-12 government-mandated requirements and the timelines for learning them, remain intact. “So, yes, the rumors of their death have been exaggerated,” Ratliff was quoted as saying in the Longview News-Journal. “It is not CSCOPE that’s going away; it’s just that one component.” The element that has been banished: the controversial but optional lesson plans. Everything else essentially remains in place.

To prevent a similar situation — Texas children being taught anti-American or anti-Christian propaganda — lawmakers are working on a bill, Senate Bill 1406, to provide more oversight of CSCOPE. The bill passed a third reading in the state House, and opponents of the controversial lesson plans are urging activists to back the legislation. Because CSCOPE still exists and will continue to be offered at Texas schools, Republican state Rep. Steve Toth also said he planned to continue pushing the legislation.

The 20-member governing board in charge of CSCOPE, meanwhile, is asking lawmakers to pass House Bill 1675, which would keep the federally funded “Regional Education Centers” open until 2019. Even anti-CSCOPE lawmakers indicated that they did not see a problem with the program, local media outlets reported. Why Texas or any other state would need or want unconstitutional federal funding for its education programs remains unclear — especially considering the “strings” that are almost always attached.

As the education battle over CSCOPE was heating up in Texas, a much larger fight was brewing nationwide — the effort to stop the Obama administration-backed “Common Core” standards. The controversial effort, which has relied mostly on federal bribes and bullying, aims to track students and standardize education across America by getting state governments to adopt the widely criticized standards. Some 45 states — not including Texas — have already signed up for the plan, but over a dozen so far are considering withdrawal. Activists and experts say that battle is just getting started.
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached at anewman@thenewamerican.com.

 

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