Some observers have commented that nothing new or noteworthy emerged from the November 19, 2008 session of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE).
Well, maybe this isn’t new, but I think it deserves notice:
Despite the overwhelming imbalance of testimony favoring standards that would support the teaching of real science in Texas, newspaper stories have managed [...]
Category Archives: Standards & Testing
fair, or “balanced”?
November 23, 2008 – 2:54 pm
“strengths & weaknesses” — harmless in Texas?
November 22, 2008 – 2:26 pm
On the website of the Texas Freedom Network, “africangenesis” comments:
Ed Darrell, I doubt you can trace the failure of Texas schools to the “strengths and weaknesses” language which has been around a couple of decades.
Jonathan Saenz (identified by TFN as “director of legislative affairs for Plano-based Free Market Foundation, the Texas affiliate of James Dobson’s [...]
Obama team’s support for portfolio assessment
October 23, 2008 – 5:56 pm
Thanks to Checker Finn’s shop (where they’re not wild about this), we have this news:
Tuesday morning on the Diane Rehm Show … Obama staffer Melody Barnes expressed her candidate’s openness to using portfolios to assess student achievement under No Child Left Behind .
I don’t have time to blog more now ( I’m turning around my pre-service [...]
new Texas ELAR standards available
September 23, 2008 – 3:09 pm
The hotly contested new Texas standards for English Language Arts & Reading are now available from the Texas Education Agency.
Texas science standards drafts posted
September 23, 2008 – 2:54 pm
Drafts for revised science standards in Texas are now available at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/teks/scienceTEKS.html .
A press release by the Texas Freedom Network notes that the work groups that prepared the drafts for the various science disciplines “removed unscientific language about `strengths and weaknesses’ of scientific theories for biology and other high school science courses.” That language is still [...]
Teaching evolutionary life science in Florida (NYTimes)
August 24, 2008 – 9:53 am
Amy Harom has a great piece in the August 23, 2008 New York Times on a Florida teacher engaged in teaching evolutionary life science to a high school class that includes religiously committed skeptical students. The article is unusual in looking at the issues as matters of curriculum, requiring knowledgeable responses by educators, and not [...]
principal apologizes for school’s Excellent test results
July 24, 2008 – 2:33 pm
from The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer:
Students pass state test, but at what cost to their education?
by Regina Brett
Tuesday July 22, 2008, 3:10 PM
The school report cards came out in June.
Rocky River Middle School passed the 2008 Ohio Achievement Tests, earned an Excellent rating from the state and met the requirements for Annual Yearly Progress.
For all of [...]
Momentous TX education hearing
July 16, 2008 – 3:59 pm
A truly momentous and impressive public hearing by the Texas House Public Education Committee has just wrapped up in Austin (July 16, 2008).
I did not hear all of it. I heard State Board chairman McLeroy’s presentation and some of the questioning. Hours later I heard the witness before Steven Schafersman (Texas Citizens for Science) through [...]
TX GOP 2008 platform on Education
June 22, 2008 – 11:51 am
The Republican Party of Texas has now posted its State Party Platform for 2008.
I have also excerpted and posted here the four pages of that platform with the Preamble, Principles, and positions on Education.
As usual the Texas GOP takes interesting positions on many things, but in this post I’ll just quote their statement on “theories [...]
¿ against teaching the controversies (or “strengths and weaknesses”) ?
June 10, 2008 – 2:16 pm
While the ridicule is well deserved, I want to take exception to something possibly implied in Curmudgeon’s response, where he says that “High school students don’t know how to reach ‘their own conclusions’ about science. That’s why they’re in school! That’s why we call them students! “
Bradley: Teachers “got spanked” by Texas Bd. of Ed.
June 3, 2008 – 1:05 pm
Added June 6, 2008:
NY Times: Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy
Steven Schafersman, President, Texas Citizens for Science: Critical Review that covers developments reported in the NY Times article and the article (linked below) by Gary Scharer, as well as reaction by Intelligent Design proponents.
=============
A story by Gary Scharrer for the San Antonio Express-News reports [...]
TX School Bd member seeks replacement of Bd chair
May 26, 2008 – 5:29 pm
The previous post on the “Texas English / Language Arts standards debacle” has raised questions about intentionality — whether this just shows incompetence, or whether the right-wing board leadership and majority are acting with nefarious intent.
A May 21 article by Gary Scharrer for the Houston Chronicle is suggestive, I think. It reports that in a [...]
Texas ELAR standards debacle (evolution next?)
May 24, 2008 – 11:39 pm
The Texas State Board of Education’s shocking action Friday (May 23, 2008) in adopting new standards for K-12 English/Language Arts is being viewed by some as a harbinger of things to come for the new science standards, which are the next to be revised.
anti-science in Texas
May 4, 2008 – 7:41 pm
The following morning, I received a call from the principal. She confirmed that there is no retesting for the Science TAKS. But she also informed me that my son would not be retained in the fifth grade because Science TAKS is not required for promotion! Fifth grade students must pass the Reading and Math TAKS tests in order to be promoted, but they don’t even have to show up for the Science TAKS.
Tom Chapin: “IT’S NOT ON THE TEST”
April 18, 2008 – 10:56 pm
Extra (Oct. 21, 2008): Breaking news on NCLB & assessment under President Obama
=====================
You can play this video here, but be sure to visit Tom Chapin’s site for “It’s not on the test.”
Includes Lyrics, Statement, Fact Sheet, Press Info, Advocacy …
Negative Implications Of No Child Left Behind: As Graduation Rates Go Down, School Ratings Go Up
February 18, 2008 – 8:10 pm
ScienceDaily (2008-02-16) — Texas’ public school accountability system, the model for the national No Child Left Behind Act, directly contributes to lower graduation rates, according to new research. Each year Texas public high schools lose at least 135,000 youth prior to graduation — a disproportionate number of whom are African-American, Latino and English-as-a-second-language students.
The study [...]
resources on evolution & Florida science standards
January 10, 2008 – 8:24 pm
Developments in Florida have been fast and furious lately. Here are some sites for keeping up:
Florida Science Education Standards Committee (unofficial)
Florida Citizens for Science
the FCS blog (best for continuous updates)
