There is a very clear example that illustrates the fallacy of both school choice and local control in education. That focal point is the education standards used in our public school classrooms the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS.)
In 2013 with HB 462 the Texas Legislature put forth showcase legislation prohibiting school districts from the use of Common Core Standards in Texas education. Immediately following Governor Perrys signing of the Common Core prohibition he signed into law HB 5 which adopted College & Career Readiness Standards (CCRS.)
As we have since learned through the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) the College & Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) are in fact aligned with Common Core Standards.
The federal government mandated through No Child Left Behind (NCLB) that all states must achieve a level of 100 student proficiency on their respective state tests knowing full well the impossibility of such an expectation. Of course no state achieved 100 proficiency and therefore a reprieve" was granted" in the form of a waiver to each state.
In exchange for this reprieve" states were required to adopt new standardization. In Texas case it adopted the College & Career Readiness Standards.
The CCRS was immersed into the traditional teaching TEKS that had already been set forth by Texas. The two types of teaching were like oil and water and the merger of the two created quite a mess or corruption in implementation.
Stanford professor and mathematician Dr. James Milgram (right) advised the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) that the merger of the two different styles was far worse than if they had simply adopted the Common Core Standards which were bad enough on their own. That was only the tip of the iceberg as three years later we are now seeing that Texas students are missing fundamental building blocks in their skillsets.
Some district administrators have indicated that average Texas students are now 18 to 24 months behind in their math skills. That problem is compounded daily as this issue continues to get kicked down the road by the Texas SBOE.
Dr. Milgram has concluded through his own studies that these standards are corruptive to sound academics and impede the ability of a student to be remediated with traditional fundamentals of math after three years exposure.
Local control is impeded in this case as well due to the now-corrupted TEKS standards imposing language on teachers in violation of the Texas Education Code (TEC). The intent of the TEC is to provide parameters for what standards a teacher should use to instruct to achieve a desired end result not to dictate how the teacher would teach. The present TEKS violate this premise.
The teacher methodology is dictated at the federal level core standards bypassing numerous levels of opportunity for a semblance of any local" control.
Texas Education Code: Title 2 Public Education Subtitle F Curriculum Programs and Services Chapter 28 Courses of Study; Advancement Subchapter A Essential Knowledge & Skills; Curriculum Section .002
(i) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules for the implementation of this subchapter. Except as provided by Subsection (j) the board may not adopt rules that designate the methodology used by a teacher or the time spent by a teacher or a student on a particular task or subject.
(j) The State Board of Education by rule may require laboratory instruction in secondary science courses and may require a specific amount or percentage of time in a secondary science course that must be laboratory instruction.
A dedicated group of Texas parents have continued to encourage SBOE Chairman Donna Bahorich and her colleagues in an effort to repeal and replace these standards that violate our State law. Some members like Pat Hardy are growing tired of having the math standards discussion. In recent months she has saidParents should just trust that someone smarter than them came up with the math standards."
In September Hardy was adamant about not wanting to open a can of worms" by revising or repealing the TEKS because it meant the SBOE would have to admit they made mistakes and it could be costly.
- The full version of her comments can be found HERE.
- Follow up correspondence to this display of public service can be found in a taxpayer blog HERE.
look different the shingle out front may have a private entity name or the governing board may be appointed rather than elected but at the end of the day there is no choice in the academics if all options are forced to use these guidelines for teaching.
It is time for parents educators and taxpayers to end the lie. We do not have local" control at the district or state level.
Our Texas elected members of the State Board of Education the Texas Legislature and the executive branch of our State government have abandoned the principles that they say are the backbone of Texas. The education of our children has been sold out to fed ed."
Local control will only be achieved when parents say they have had enough and stop waiting for the state and federal governments to give them permission to save their local schools. Communities must come together and elect people to their boards that will quit looking to the State to provide more dollars for mandates and instead tell the State to keep their unfunded mandates out of our local school districts.
We highly encourage parents and educators to step forward and let their voices be heard on how this math is undermining the education of their children. This may be our last opportunity to have it addressed as some board members do not see it as a serious enough issue to continue its review.
Now is the time and we need everyone in this battle.
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Note: Gutierrez is asking Texas parents to contact the State Board of Education Chairman Donna Bahorich at donna.bahorich@tea.texas.gov to encourage the SBOE to include engineer and the parent of Texas schoolchildren Randy Houchins as a panelist in the math agenda item of the SBOEs upcoming November 15 16 17 and 18 2016 meeting.
Houchins has expended an inordinate amount of time and resources dissecting the TEKS and the STAAR Exams to understand the source of the problems. Meeting after SBOE meeting he endures long waits listening to Common Core promoters invited as panelists by the SBOE as they drone on about how wonderful this harmful math is. Many of these expert witnesses have spent little to no time in the classroom and have not seen first-hand the damage that is being done to Texas schoolchildren. The SBOE has marginalized the work that Houchins and others have done and only allow him to speak during public testimony which is limited to three minute segments. He has provided two comprehensive reports to the State Board on his findings while Chairperson Bahorich told a large Houston publication that she did not have in depth knowledge of the TEKS and relies upon experts for advice.
