In May of 2008 education liberals attacked me for my decisive vote to move Texas public schools into the teaching of explicit and systematic phonics back-to-basics grammar and usage expository and persuasive writing spelling penmanship and quality literature.
The powerful whole-language opposition was led by a group called the Coalition composed of education lobbyists vendors and bureaucrats.
These were not our fine classroom educators but were a group of deeply entrenched educrats with a vested interest in supporting the status quo.
In the debates that occurred during 2007 and 2008 over the adoption of new standards for English / Language Arts / Reading classes (ELAR -- Grades K-12) by the State Board of Education I argued that studies done on Texas students had reported that 50 of our Texas college freshmen were unprepared for college courses (28 -- national average).
On the ACT students in 44 states scored higher in English and Reading than our Texas students did.
Even knowing this data the Coalition strongly opposed those of us on the
SBOE who voted to adopt back-to-the-basics ELAR standards.
In a landmark vote for students parents and teachers my conservative position won.
Ending more than thirty years of control by the Coalition Texas this fall is in the midst of teaching our students the new ELAR standards.
Beginning in the Fall of 2010 new instructional materials containing explicit and systematic phonics will be in all Texas elementary classrooms with new grammar/usage/spelling textbooks coming (K-12) in 2011.
With these exciting changes our Texas students are sure to improve their reading writing and speaking skills.
These new SBOE-adopted ELAR standards could not have come too soon! On the SAT test (Graduating Class of 2009) 44 states had higher grammar/usage scores; and 45 states had higher essay scores. Texas composite Writing scores and Critical Reading scores have gone steadily down since 2006.
I cannot change the past but I promised you that once I was elected to the Texas State Board of Education I would do my best to make sure that education reform was implemented into our public schools.
I have kept my promise.
