Date sent: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 16:15:43 -0600 (CST)
From: LindaP (Texas)
Subject: TX-Debate between the 'right' and the 'educrats'

loop members [on bcc]:

I've got to say this- this problem in education is not a 'liberal' or 'conservative' issue- in fact, I see very few 'party' affiliations at all in the heart of the matter. Take a look back at the history of Goals 2000- take a look at the STW issues- these are not coming from the 'liberals' only- not by a long shot. I am tired of standing up to the issues and being labeled 'right wing' when I am far from that- as are most of the folks I know in the trenches.

I haven't voted by 'party' ever- I vote by the person- and what they stand for.

LP

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7:10 PM 10/4/1996

State board designing education for new millennium

Debate widened schism between `religious right' and `liberal educrats'

By KATHY WALT

Copyright 1996 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN -- Forget the debate over condoms being distributed in school health clinics.

Move beyond the traditional brouhaha over creationism vs. evolution.

And don't sweat whether Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is on school library shelves.

The fiercest battle today in Texas education is over the little-known Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills -- the blueprint that will determine what Texas schoolchildren must learn well into the next millennium.

It also is the State Board of Education's back door into controlling textbook content because coverage of essential elements is one of only three criteria board members are allowed to use to reject a textbook --an issue the attorney general has been asked to rule on.

"It's pretty important," said board member Donna Ballard of The Woodlands. In fact, she said, the entire nation could be affected by the essential skills knowledge Texas requires in its schoolbooks, "because most of the nation buys books that Texas approves."

The task of rewriting what every child from kindergarten through grade 12 must master in 15 subject areas for perhaps the next two decades is so massive that nearly 400 teachers, parents, business leaders and experts have spent the past year and a half drafting the 2,000-page document. Already, more than 25,000 Texans have offered critiques.

It is the first wholesale rewrite of essential elements since Texas first wrote them in the early 1980s.

So far, the debate has widened a rift between state board members battling over control of Texas schools: those identified with the so-called "religious right" vs. the so-called "liberal educrats."

With accusations of politics, elitism, racism and revisionism bubbling just below the surface, upcoming board meetings are likely to erupt into emotional and rhetorical battles -- and they won't be limited to whether health textbooks delve into the subject of birth control.

Turf skirmishes have occurred in every subject area from arithmetic (whether kids "be familiar with" or "memorize" multiplication tables) to reading (whole language vs. phonetic approaches) and social studies (Euro-centrism vs. multiculturalism).

Board member Rosie Sorrells of Dallas, a retired schoolteacher and administrator, said the embittered discussions merely reflect the various interest groups involved -- from parents who want to ride herd over what their children are learning to teachers and other education experts whose jobs are affected.

"People have different ideas about what ought to be taught and how it ought to be taught to children," she said. "They all have different preferences as to what should be a part of that curriculum, even if you talk about mathematics."

The greatest controversy, however, lies in social studies and history -- subjects that touch on more subjective issues like community, family and values.

"In history and social studies, its whose history (gets taught) and what should be included and what should be excluded," Sorrells said. "Any content area that you take ... whose values is what you're coming down to, and whose history. You can't put everything in the world into a curriculum, so (the issue becomes) what do you leave out."

Ballard cites last summer's discussions of content in history books as an example of the major conflict, where some people thought the traditional Eurocentric emphasis of American history was being rewritten in favor of a multicultural emphasis.

"There was a lot of complaint from people that the white male was blamed for everything," Ballard said. "And maybe for some of the people who sit on the board who have ethnic backgrounds, that may offend them. They may think it's important to continue to emphasize the cruelty -- which I believe it was -- to African-Americans, and how the Hispanics maybe have not had as much opportunity or something like that."

She acknowledges that it is not easy to balance the interests of African-Americans, Hispanics, Anglos and other ethnic groups that expect the contributions of their cultures to be reflected in the history and social studies courses.

"I think what you have to do is look at the overall tone of a book,"Ballard said. "And you have to figure out ... does a child come out of this clearly placing blame on a certain group of people or are they able to recognize that mistakes have been made, but here are some things we're doing about it, all the while appreciating our western civilization.

"It's the difference between children who are taught that life has been unfair to them but they better work twice as hard (and) a child who is taught to be militant because it was. That's the difference. And I don't want my babies -- and by that I mean American children, no matter what background they're from --coming out of this angry, militant people. But I would like for them to be upset enough ... to go out and do something about it, to make sure it doesn't prevail."

Board chairman Jack Christie of Houston agrees that social studies will be "the main battleground." He cites public comments at the board's July meeting -- in which a Tyler woman quoted textbook excerpts out of context and claimed the publishers described George Washington as "the first fascist" --as indicative of the type of sabre-rattling in which "extremist groups"will engage.

"You're going to see stuff utilized like that," Christie said. "This is the next crusade."

He noted that comments on history and social studies have bogged down at times in tabulating, for example, how many times George Washington and George Washington Carver are mentioned, and whether that reflects an ethnic imbalance.

"We've just got to sift out what is the political agenda," Christie said. "You've just got to watch which (comments) are racial, which ones are anti-multicultural. (For some), it's like God ordained the United States of America only. You've just got to watch the extreme of pulling it the other way."

Ballard also sees battles looming over how explicit the state will be in stating its expectations for schoolchildren. It is an issue that others fear could lead to rigid rules that leave little flexibility for teachers and school districts to develop creative ways of working with children with different learning styles.

"I think parents are asking for specifics," Ballard said. "They have to recognize a vowel, a noun, an adjective" and children should be able to add, subtract, multiply and perform other mathematical functions and get the right answer.

Many of the critical comments received so far center on just that issue.

Proposed goals that kindergartners, for example, be able to identify characteristics of friendships and participate in friendship activities are neither academic goals nor specific enough to tell teachers what is expected of them, according to groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a San Antonio-based think-tank.

Regardless of what skills and essentials the board eventually establishes, one thing remains certain: The document will not resolve all the ideological differences that make TEKS-writing a multimillion-dollar and multiyear undertaking.

To date, the Texas Education Agency has spent most of the $5.6 million it set aside for preparing two drafts, conducting 117 public hearings and town meetings and putting together review teams to critique the proposals. In Region IV, which includes Houston, 1,192 people attended 37 public hearings -- an average of only 32 people per meeting.

But the task is far from over, and the State Board of Education --primarily at the behest of its more conservative members -- recently extended until Oct. 31 the deadline for public comment on the second draft of the proposal. Copies of the draft are available for public review at the state's 20 regional education service centers; the Houston area service center is at 7145 W. Tidwell.

TEA also delayed until July the likely date for final adoption of the guidelines and time will be allowed for public testimony on the topic at every State Board of Education meeting from January to July.

"Education has always been the cultural battleground," said Charlotte H. Coffelt, president of the Houston chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, among the more than 13,000 people and groups that have reviewed TEKS proposals to date.

"This is really (about) what your kid is going to learn by the time he leaves high school," adds Ann Smisko, TEA's associate commissioner for curriculum. "What kids learn in school creates the culture we live in."

Copies of the TEKS draft also are posted on TEA's home page on the World Wide Web at http/www.tea.state.tx.us.

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P.S. Be sure to see the alternative to the TEKS- much more meat there ;)