EDUCATION UPDATE: Texas Educators Ideology & Visions Penalize Students says Ames

They do not read well.  So they do not pass. By Bill Ames Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas  Review panels refused to include Christmas Thomas Edison Albert Einstein religious heritage language Independence Day Veterans Day and Christopher Columbus from several grade levels. Study of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution was rejected as was the concept of American exceptionalism.    Forty-six years ago on July 20 1969 astronaut Neil Armstrong descended down the ladder of his lunar module stepped on the surface of the moon and uttered the famous words Thats one small step for man one giant leap for mankind." The accomplishment of the United States space program was an epic event in our history. Fast forward to 2009.  A panel of Texas educators" charged with proposing the content of social studies courses for Texas public schools rejects the inclusion of Neil Armstrongs moonwalk in the history standards. Neil Armstrong was not the only victim of the leftist educator-dominated panels. The social studies review panels and history experts" made additional revisions that were unsupportable. The review panel for the 11^th grade U. S. history course characterized the 1898 U. S. acquisitions of Cuba the Philippines Hawaii and Guam as U. S. imperialism" but in almost the same breath called the USSRs invasion of the Iron Curtain-to-be countries as only expansionism". Overall the review panels attempted to transmit their negative contempt-for-America tone to the Texas social studies standards. Thankfully the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) refused the proposed changes rather adopting an overall positive but balanced set of social studies standards. Texas education establishment is overwhelmingly controlled by liberals.  There exists a thinly disguised arrogance towards both the S tate Board of Education and the Texas Senate and Legislature.  The prevailing attitude is that course content is no ones business but theirs. Parents and citizens are excluded as well.  Leading educators believe course content should be left up to the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) district superintendents and their staffs and complicit capitulating school boards. THE TEXAS EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT IS IDEOLOGICALLY THE POLAR OPPOSITE OF RED STATE MAINSTREAM TEXANS AND OUR ELECTED LEADERS. One can trace the beginnings of educators defiance to the TASA organization. In 2008 TASA released its document Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas". The document includes many controversial statements too many to include here.  Here are a couple.

Attention of leaders is focused on the dominant social systems that govern behavior beginning with those that clarify beliefs and direction develop and transmit knowledge and that provide for recruitment and induction of all employees and students into the values and vision."

Note that the teaching and mastery of core academic subjects is not mentioned.  Rather the statement is an unabashed indoctrination of Texas students with leftist ideology. What dominant social systems" and behaviors?  Whose beliefs values and vision?  Recruitment and induction? Further

The state cannot have great schools and strong communities as long as it insists on the real power and authority residing in Austin..."    

But the State Board of Education and the legislature are responsible to enforce the State Education Code that education establishment activists would like to ignore. Texas Education Code 28.002(h):

The State Board of Education and each school district shall foster the continuation of the tradition of teaching United States and Texas history and the free enterprise system in regular subject matter and in reading courses and in the adoption of instructional materials.

A primary purpose of the public school curriculum is to prepare thoughtful active citizens who understand the importance of patriotism and can function productively in a free enterprise society with appreciation for the basic democratic values of our state and national heritage."

The 2008 TASA vision gave rise to an organization of district superintendents called the High Performance Schools Consortium.  This organization was to be a laboratory for implementing and testing the TASA vision in real school district situations. In its December 2014 report to Texas education commissioner Michael Williams the Consortium attacked the SBOE standards:

The sheer number of standards in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) creates a significant impediment to profound learning. 

(Rather high priority standards should be) ... reflective of national and international standards..."

Senator Kel Seligers incredibly bad bill SB 313 picked up on this liberal tirade.  Seligers bill was a frontal attack on SBOE state standards that had been developed over the years. The senator caved in to educator activists who since social studies standards were adopted by the SBOE in 2010 have been salivating to reopen the standards and incorporate their leftist agenda.  Due to a lack of focus on education curriculum issues SB 313 easily passed both houses of the legislature.  Only a last-minute effort by conservative grassroots activists persuaded Governor Abbott to veto the bill and prevent it from becoming law. Further the Consortiums reference to national standards along with the education establishments reluctance to teach a positive view of U. S. history helps us understand why there was no resistance to the College Boards anti-American Advanced Placement U. S. history course (APUSH) implemented in Texas school districts during the 2014-2015 school year. I live in the Richardson (TX) school district (RISD).  In January 2010 the RISD board adopted the TASA vision as its direction. To provide guidance for implementation RISD hired a consultant to provide engaged learning" and recommend the 10 Critical Qualities of Student Work".   One only needs to know a part of item 10 to understand the emphasis on so-called higher level critical thinking skills at the expense of core academics.

Learning to read and write complete sentences for example is not the same as learning to write persuasively and to read critically thoughtfully and well."

The local attempt to replace core academics with social engineering became more apparent in an early 2010 scandal at Richardsons TEA Region 10.  Teacher certification candidates were required to study material that:

Teachers must not define education as basic skills.....rather as educators we must help people become committed to social change."

It is not difficult to determine the negative impact of de-emphasizing core academics in a school district. The initial STAAR reading tests for six grade levels 3rd through 8th were introduced in 2012. In 2012 RISD students tested above the Texas state reading average at all six grade levels. But by 2015 STAAR reading scores have fallen below the 2012 scores for all six grade levels. In addition RISD students now read below Texas average for four of the six grade levels measured.

Richardson ISD 2012-2015 STAAR Test

Reading Scores

Grade             2012             2015           Change

  3                    79                  74                -5

   4                    79                  69                -10

   5                    80                  74                 -6

   6                    81                  80                 -1

   7                    77                  76                 -1

   8                    81                  78                 -3

While this ought to be an embarrassment to a district that promotes itself as one of the best in the state if not the country there has been little or no outrage from parents or policy revision from board members. District administrators incorrectly blame the tests for RISDs poor performance.  But a veteran RISD teacher has confided in me....

My students have demonstrated mastery of the TEKS-mandated course material in class but their reading comprehension isnt good enough to handle the vocabulary used in the STAAR test.

They do not read well.  So they do not pass.  And it is not just the ESL (English as a Second Language) students."

The problem at TASA and many Texas school districts is the arrogant My way or the highway" attitude towards both core academics and the mandate to teach Texas students to be proud Americans. The legislature can turn this bad situation around with a number of actions:

1. Understand that the Texas education establishment is overwhelmingly liberal and thus is out of touch with mainstream Texans and the legislature. Recognize the requirement for increased legislator focus on public education curriculum issues through legislator self-education focus and dedicated staff members.
2. Require that all instruction materials (hard copy and online) be subject to SBOE vetting and adoption (including the traditional public input and hearing process). Place special emphasis on exclusion of Common Core compliant materials.
3. Require that all curriculum (including the CSCOPE follow on Advanced Placement courses and the International Baccalaureate curriculum) be compliant with Texas state standards.
4. Utilize loss of state funding lower accreditation and use of the new A through F rating system to penalize districts that refuse compliance with legislative mandates.

Such actions to put liberal education establishment leaders and school districts on a very short leash are the only hope to reform Texas misguided public schools. Read more by Bill Ames:

• AMES: Texas Trounces the Lefts War on History
• Education UPDATE: Texas ISDs Should Comply with Texas Social Studies Standards
• A Conservatives Guide to Education in Texas 84th Legislative Session
• APUSH Provides Contempt for America in Texas High Schools
• CSCOPE The Obamacare of Texas Public Education
• Happy Birthday America … We hate you!
• A Series on CSCOPE Part 3: Common Core Project Based Learning Damages Texas Students

Bill Ames is an education activist who lives in Dallas. His book TEXAS TROUNCES THE  LEFTS WAR ON HISTORY"  (WNAenterprises.com) tells the story of his experience in developing Texas U. S. history standard in 2009-2010.  Ames reviewed CSCOPE lessons as part of the State Board of Educations Ad Hoc Committee Project. His work in his local school district resulted in Board reviews of both its social studies curriculum and project based learning implementation as well as securing a superintendent commitment to modify the AP history course to be Texas standards (TEKS) compliant. He welcomes reader comments at billames@prodigy.net