by Janice VanCleave
www.txcscopereview.com
TEXAS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER THOMAS RATLIFF APPEARS TO HAVE LOST IT. Thomas Ratliff is a RINO and could care less what students are taught or that Great teachers have quit their jobs over CSCOPE. No, Ratliff cares about his progressive liberal agenda and his pocket-book. Ratliff is a paid lobbyist for Microsoft and should not be on the State Board of Education. It is illegal! Does he care? No! He has not respect for the rule of law.
I have never seen such outrage over a controversial textbook or any curriculum as I have with CSCOPE. Below are remarks by Ratliff in regard to Sen. Patrick as well as parents and taxpayers who are standing up against the progressive takeover of Texas Public Education.
Ratliff is the “book burner” here. He and his educational cronies have been and are working on removing Text Books and replacing online learning. Would that not benefit a “Microsoft lobbyist”? Link to original article.
With CSCOPE good veteran teachers are no longer needed or wanted. CSCOPE “pushers” view good veteran teachers as a threat when it comes to implementing their progressive teaching philosophy . The following photo is a snapshot from a CSCOPE powerpoint presentation for administrators.
CSCOPE was about implementing a progressive teaching philosophy called Project Based Learning (PBL). Students will now work in groups where direct teaching will become a thing of the past. They want teachers to be “facilitators” and to “learn along side” their students. The philosophy is built around a “constructivist” philosophy. It is built around the “collective” opposed to individual achievement. American Exceptionalism is no longer valued or taught replaced with Globalization and Diversity. Marxist Phychologist, Lev Vygotsky encouraged an education built on “constructivism” CSCOPE acknowledged “progressive” educators as their research base along with Lev Vygotsky.
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I posted an article yesterday revealing a situation I perceive to be a “Conflict of Interest” taking place in the Huntsville Independent School District. Read it HERE.
Shortly after posting the article I received the following comments from Huntsville ISD school
board member,Sam Moak.
I am Sam Moak. I am a Christian, a husband, a father and a son. Yes my wife works at Education Service Center Region VI. So did my mother, for 37 years. I do not follow anyone and I think for myself. Am I perfect, no, but I am honest and have done nothing wrong. Yes, our children did attend Alpha Omega Academy, a wonderful Christian school. It was a choice as Christians we made and I am not afraid of. However, due to situations related to my wife’s illness, we choose to move to HISD. I am a graduate of HISD and proud of both AOA and HISD. CSCOPE is a political issue. Unfortunately, all the children of Texas are victims of this political battle. I only want what is the best for all the children of Huntsville. HISD cannot afford, nor can the vast majority of school districts in Texas, to hire a curriculum writer. Therefore, long before I was on the HISD School Board, the decision was made to use CSCOPE as a resource. It’s use was and never has been mandated at HISD. I am tired of hearing Mrs. Russell and her mother, Janice Van Cleave, repeat over and over the problems with CSCOPE. They point to 3 or 4 lessons in the social studies segment and brand the entire 1600 lessons as bad. Mrs. Russell you choose to homeschool your child(ren) and your mother, Janice Van Cleave, has made quite a nice living selling over 89 education products to homeschoolers, some of which is written (oh Horror), in other languages. I find nothing wrong with families that choose to homeschool, however, I suspect your motives are not true. You use the Tea Party and Senator Dan Patrick and any means you can to attack public school districts and the wonderful money saving Education Service Centers throughout our state. It would cost our school districts, and thus the taxpayers, millions of dollars to replace the Education Service Centers. But is your real purpose to support a voucher system in Texas? A system that allows folks who can afford to segregate their children from other children? Or is it to help promote your choice of homeschooling and to sell education material written by your mother? Or do you Mrs. Russell support purchasing our children’s curriculum from a foreign based entity (Pearson) that sells curriculum to 70 other countries including Islamic ones? What is your educational background? Training? What makes you such a self proclaimed expert on education?
Whistleblower responses….
Ginger Russell
Mr. Moak,
I did not wake up one day and decide to fight the public school system in Texas. Not by a long shot. I have always been politically active and my mother has not. Unfortunately the cause fell in my lap when mom asked me to look into a situation she found her self in.
My mother is in her 70’s and retired. She spends time serving her community by visiting widows in nursing homes and tutoring. This all started over a year ago when she tried to tutor some children in her local school district. When she asked them where their textbooks were they said they had none. (RED FLAG) The teacher knew mom’s reputation and gave her a copy of a CSCOPE science lesson. Finding it riddled with errors she asked for additional lessons and was refused. (RED FLAG) She had even taught in this particular school district years earlier prior to her writing. Needless to say she ended up in her local ESC in Waco where they refused to let her see the CSCOPE lessons as well. The actions and behavior by all involved raised some serious (RED FLAGS). I put mom in contact with SBOE chairman Barbara Cargill who had not heard of CSCOPE either and she also requested the ESC to give her a password and they refused (RED FLAG). Barbara was not able to get a password to CSCOPE for six months until Gov Perry got involved (RED FLAG).
When the CSCOPE reps in Austin found out who mom was they drove to her local town of Marlin to meet with her. SERIOUSLY! I along with another gentlemen attended the meeting to their surprise. They had hoped they could team up on her 5 to 1 and were not happy with our presence. I have the whole meeting recorded HERE. It is long and boring. But at one point in the conversation I handed the CSCOPE State Coordinator, the Islamic Powerpoint and he tries to deny it (RED FLAG).
I then filed a Public Information Request and TESCCC asked the attorney General to deem them a “non governmental entity” which he denied. They also stated that mom was a CSCOPE competitor in hopes he would rule on their behalf. The lie has made it’s round through the education system.
We then started going public and teachers would contact us anonymously asking for help. They informed us that their administrators were having them to sign non disclosure statements that they would not release the contents or say anything negative about it. (RED FLAG).
I spoke at the Willis ISD Board meeting in October in regard to CSCOPE. I had no idea at the time who Lindy McCullogh (ESC CSCOPE COORDINATOR) was or that she was there. She spoke after me and was obviously outraged that I had spoke out against CSCOPE. (RED FLAG)
I later called ESC director Brent Hawkins and in our conversation he said “you will not tear apart something we implemented”. (RED FLAG)
Now, with all the flags and strange behavior by some many educators in regard to CSCOPE we knew something had to be done. By this time a couple of veteran educators had contacted us and started talking.
Needless to say when you have an educational program that is riddled with the controversial material, parents can’t see it, teachers silenced and threatened with prosecution for releasing content, etc, that was enough RED FLAGS for us.
Being politically active I had a personal meeting with the LT Governor in January. Dewhurst said he would have the chairman of the Senate Education Committee which was Dan Patrick hold an education hearing on it. And he did. The rest is history.
I have not even got into the financials in regard to CSCOPE or their lack of transparency.
It has taken me over a year to finally find out what CSCOPE is all about and it was to implement “project based learning”(PBL) in the schools. PBL is based on the collective not individual achievement. PBL is quite the opposite of a Classical Education that your children received at Alpha Omega.
Huntsville ISD has spent thousands attended TASA’s Transformation Academies which is all about PBL. Why? Why do you support this radical change?
Now this week I get an article about Huntsville ISD’s waiver request. I saw your last name and it rang a bell with due to the fact that your wife had sent me twitter feeds months back and I put the pieces together. The more I research the more of this I find. It is one big spider web and the tax payers are paying out the butt for it.
How christian conservatives can set back and ignore what is going on is beyond me, I can’t do it. My children and grandchildren deserve better.
As for as mom and her books she has been accused of doing this for money. We got where we just laugh. If anything this has cost us both.
I am by no way a self proclaimed expert on education. Yes, I did home school both of my children who are now college graduates and married. But I do know it is wrong to pass out verses of the Quran to students, I know it is wrong to have students draw new Communist Flags,I know it is wrong to have students learn about the sex life of Islamic Women, etc, etc.. enough on the lessons. I know it was unacceptable and wrong to not allow parents to view what their children were taught. I know it is wrong to have teachers threatened with a lawsuit for disclosing content or speaking negatively about a curriculum. How you can ignore this? How can you vote to purchase this crap again and petition the state for a waiver is beyond me.
I want you to know yes mom and I have a following of conservative christian activist… but there are 100’s across the state that supply us information as to what is going on in their local area. We are not in this alone, not by a long shot. The days of our local school districts hiding and spending money with no oversight is over.
I am sure your and your wife are wonderful loving christian parents.
But I do wonder why and how you and other proclaimed christian people can set back and ignore this progressive ideology that is taking over our school system.
If you have any further questions I will be happy to answer them.
Ginger Russell
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD”
~Psalms 33:12~
Janice VanCleave
This email is being sent to Sam Moak, a Huntsville ISD School Board Member, whose wife works at Region 6 and sells CSCOPE to the Huntsville ISD. Mr.Moak left a comment on www.redhotconservative.com stating that he is tired of me and my daughter, Ginger Russell, attacking CSCOPE. I don’t want to misquote Mr. Moak, so I’ll paste his comments here:” I am tired of hearing Mrs. Russell and her mother, Janice Van Cleave, repeat over and over the problems with CSCOPE. They point to 3 or 4 lessons in the social studies segment and brand the entire 1600 lessons as bad. Mrs. Russell you choose to homeschool your child(ren) and your mother, Janice Van Cleave, has made quite a nice living selling over 89 education products to homeschoolers, some of which is written (oh Horror), in other languages. I find nothing wrong with families that choose to homeschool, however, I suspect your motives are not true. You use the Tea Party and Senator Dan Patrick and any means you can to attack public school districts and the wonderful money saving Education Service Centers throughout our state. It would cost our school districts, and thus the taxpayers, millions of dollars to replace the Education Service Centers. But is your real purpose to support a voucher system in Texas? A system that allows folks who can afford to segregate their children from other children? Or is it to help promote your choice of homeschooling and to sell education material written by your mother? Or do you Mrs. Russell support purchasing our children’s curriculum from a foreign based entity (Pearson) that sells curriculum to 70 other countries including Islamic ones? What is your educational background? Training? What makes you such a self proclaimed expert on education?”Hi Sam,
I am Ginger Russell’s mother, Janice VanCleave and want to address some of the points you have made.First, concerned citizens do not have to have an education background to question what is being taught in the public school. But, I do have an education background and continue to study up todate educational teaching method that are applicable for classroom as well as home study. My background includes 27 years in public schools, mostly in Texas. My second career was writing science experiment books for kids and educators. My third career or I might say project is creating a science website with the primary focus on science fair projects, thus I feel very qualified to evaluate the CSCOPE Performance Indicators as well as other progressive Project Based Learning lessons (PBL). Those creating PBL lessons do not truly understand how to prepare students to use critical thinking to solve problems. They fail to provide kids with the tools for critical thinking.this is because they are using the constructivist/progressive teaching method, which assumes students come to class with the foundation knowledge and using this can discover for themselves. Parents can best understand this method by remember their child’s first science fair project or maybe every science fair project. The teacher announces that everyone is to do a science fair project–gives a list of all the necessary parts and sends them off. This is when I receive panic emails from kids and parents –How does one do a science fair project? Same method is being used with all PBL. No critical thinking–just anxiety and frustration. Now that the CSCOPE lessons are public domain, I can provide you with more information.About using 2 to 3 social studies lessons to condemn an entire curriculum. If you had listened to the Senate Education Committee hearing on CSCOPE, you would have heard evidence of many lessons. Barbara Cargill, chair of the state board of education had in her hands a folder full of examples that were pointed out to the committee. These were CSCOPE science, math, ELAR and social studies lessons all with errors and/or biases. How many of the CSCOPE lessons have you personally evaluated? Do the school board members at Huntsville ISD have passwords to the CSCOPE website?FYI: After being refused a password to CSCOPE for six months, Governor Perry had to request that Barbara Cargill, the chair of the State Board of Education, be given a password to the CSCOPE website. This tells you how secretive the content of the CSCOPE lessons were prior to the Senate Education Committee hearing on CSCOPE. Again, how many CSCOPE lessons have you evaluated?I have asked and received all science lessons K-8 from teachers who must remain anonymous. This is a sad statement. The CSCOPE lessons should have been public domain from the start. The ESCs are not suppose to support any one vendor and they become a vendor themselves. The ESCs are suppose to provide service to a specific region and they grouped together creating a one-size-fits-all curriculum with the goal of educating students across Texas EQUALLY. This can only be done by scripting lessons and school administrators monitor educators to force them to follow the script. Some give teachers more flexibility but still provide them with CSCOPE lessons that have never been evaluated for correctness. You sir, refuse to believe me when I tell you that all the the science lessons incorrectly present the scientific method which is 40% of the Science STAAR Tests. Not one CSCOPE administrator or School Board Member wants proof. I’ll start posting examples onWWW.TXCSCOPEREVIEW.comAs to Pearson Publishing, this company basically controls Texas Education now. Pearson helps write the STAAR/EOCs. Pearson publishes and grades the STAAR/EOCs. Pearson decides the evaluation of STAAR/EOC grades, thus this foreign based company controls what students are taught and whether they have mastered the concepts. Pearson also publishes study books for the STAAR/EOC tests. If schools purchased any materials it should be these study guides. Who knows more about the STAAR/EOCs than the company that writes and prints these tests? Does Pearson Publishing have an unfair advantage in the education market in Texas, you bet! Do the ESCs have an unfair market advantage over education materials sold in Texas? No doubt about it. Of course the ESCs have better prices for their vendor products, the state of Texas pays their employess, pays for offices, in fact pays all overhead. What the ESCs sell is pure non-taxed profit. Do the ESCs fairly compete with other vendors–No. I think you call this a monopoly. Now the CSCOPE money trail would be interesting. Where is all this money? I would like the ESCs to stop being vendors and start being independent service centers again. There is nothing fun and personnal about the ESCs now. It was fun to have the teacher workroom where educators and even parents could go to make cutouts for their class. This is gone and it was important. Some ESCs loaned out science critters. This should be part of every ESC. The ESCs could be providing wonderful services to schools in their district, instead the atmosphere at the ESCs is cloaked in secrecy. You have the STAFFERs who are kept in the dark and the CSCOPE group whispering and making new plans (documented statement from an observer).Pearson Publishing also sponsors TASA/TASB the private organization that school board members and superintendents pay membership and conference fees using the school taxes. This is no small amount— $100 Million has been estimated from the information collected from school districts. Yes, some of this money is for things like school insurance. But, why not buy from some local group? Citizens pay school taxes, superintendents and school board members give some of it to a private organization that is sabatoging STATE Education with their Vision Learning program to transform Texas Education. Were school taxes used to pay for the anyone from your school district to attend the TASA transition training?Sam, I am not sure I understand this statement you made:Janice Van Cleave, has made quite a nice living selling over 89 education products to homeschoolers, some of which is written (oh Horror), in other languages.How I make my living has nothing to do with my questions of what is being taught in the Texas public schools. I do not write textbooks, nor do I write K-12 curriculum for every subject. I write science experiment books for kids and resource science/math books for educators. In no way is my work competitive with CSCOPE. In fact, prior to the development of CSCOPE in 2006, I was hired by many of the Texas Education Service Centers to present science workshops for Texas Educators. Region 12 is near my home and I have been involved with this group since 1975 as a teacher in the region as well as an author. As a science author, I was an honorary member of the Region 12 Science Consortium. I payed my own way to event and provided supplies and science books to the teachers in this group. Becca Bell, the CSCOPE director at Region 12 recently informed me that she never heard of an honorary member. I was welcomed at Region 12 prior to my asking to view the CSCOPE lessons. I dropped in with supplies and was welcomed. CSCOPE has taken the fun out everything it touches.
As to your comment “OH Horror” in reference to the foreign translations. It is strange that school board members and superintendents responsible for purchasing CSCOPE for their schools feel the need to attack me and my work. I have met with Wade Labay, STATE CSCOPE director, and we have respect for each other though we disagree about CSCOPE. Mr. Lebay doesn’t share your view of me or my work. During a meeting with Mr. Lebay and Ed Vega, supervisor of CSCOPE curriculum, Ed brought a copy of one of my books and asked me to authograph it. I will contact these men today and ask them to give me a reference to post.As to only 2 to 3 social studies lessons being incorrect. These lessons caught the eye of the news media and continued to be discussed. But it was the lack of transparency that first alarmed me and got the news media interested. It was hard to get people to believe that in Texas Public Schools lessons were being taught that parents were not allowed to view. It was hard to get people to believe that teachers were being so micromanaged. Parents are aware of the truth now and it will be difficult for superintendents and school boards to continue purchasing unapproved education materials. Parents and concerned citizens will start demanding to be part of the decision making of the school. School board members are suppose to represent the community, but education materials have become a very profitable business for the 20 ESCs.Is there any conflict of interest in you being on a region 6 school board where you approve the CSCOPE product that your wife who works at Region 6 sells? Of course there is.
As to my supporting the voucher system. I know very little about this. As to people that can afford to use voucher so they can segregate their children from public schools. What’s the difference in putting children in private schools instead of sending them to public schools? I cannot say that I support the voucher system, but do support parents that choose the best education for their children and if they think the public schools are not providing this, then they should have some way to do so without having to move. I live near Marlin Texas. The Marlin ISD schools have failed the state tests for so many years that it is not even news worthy. Seven consecutive years of failure makes it difficult for families that have no choice but care about their children’s education. Families have taken new jobs so that they can move out of Marlin.Yes, Marlin ISD uses CSCOPE and that is where I was first introduced to this curriculum. A friend with an afterschool program asked me to tutor elementary children in science and math. The children in Marlin ISD are not issued text books. Does Huntsville ISD provide textbooks to students? I hope so because without textbooks parents have no clue what is being taught to their children. Without textbooks, kids have no resources to do any homestudy. Without textbooks, the education of our kids is limited to what teachers present in class and how much students remember. Yes, class notebooks are required in every class at all grade levels. Thus, the class notebook and what students write in it is all students have to review at home for class tests as well as the STAAR Test.One elementary teacher that taught in a CSCOPE school last year was forced to follow the CSCOPE lessons. She insisted on providing science books to her students. The administration did not want teachers using books because as promoted by the CSCOPE vendor (including region 6), even books aligned with the revised TEKS cannot update changes in the TEKs as often as the CSCOPE online curriculum can. This is a false statement in that the TEKS for a subject are not changed often. The science TEKS were introduced in the fall of 2010 and the next science TEKS revision will be introduced in 2016. The same is true for TEKS in other subjects. Another false statement promoted by Region 6 and the other 19 ESCs (the CSCOPE Vendor) is that books that are not aligned with the revised TEKS do not have information needed to teach these new TEKS. Not True.Science books with the TEKS for TAKS Tests have the same information with very few changes as the revised science books aligned with the new TEKS for STAAR Tests.Did you know that the 20 ESCs were paid $100 million dollars to prepare transition materials for Texas Eductors. YES I said $100 Million. Did they do it? Ask your local Region 6 for copies of this material. It was the transition material teachers needed. But 800 school districts were sold CSCOPE. Why? The ESCs had FREE material for the Texas Teachers. I have copies of this material. Do your teachers?Did you know that Region 6 received $1,041,156, just to present workshops for teachers in Region 6 during the summer of 2010 through the spring of 2011. Did your teachers attend? Were they invited?In 2011 Region 6 received $2,914,384 Million, yes almost $3 MILLION dollars just to present workshops to Texas Teachers so that they would be prepared to present the new social studies and math TEKs.There was never a reason for CSCOPE—the 20 ESCs received a total of another $100 Million dollars to prepare Texas Educators to adapt their teaching materials to the new TEKS. Were the Huntsville teachers at these workshops or did Region 6 sell Huntsville CSCOPE materials instead of providing the FREE materials they were paid millions of dollars to prepare, present and post on the Project Share?Are these the same ESCs that you have such concern about?At the bottom of this note I have a copy of the millions paid to Region 6. I will send this letter to region 6 and request an account of what they did with more than $4 million dollars. They didn’t give $4 million dollars of service to the educators in region 6. Instead they sold CSCOPE to school districts and some such as Huntsville are still standing behind the CSCOPE product. Maybe you should be asking Region 6 why they sold CSCOPE instead of giving it to your free– $4 million dollars is a lot of money and it should have provided your school with something free.Note: The attached files show how much each of the 20 ESCs received in two years to provide materials that Texas teachers still don’t know anything about. Let me suggest that you ask Region 6 to pull out that Rider 42 TEKS materials they were paid millions to present and start giving those workshops now. This solves the problem of not having the CSCOPE lessons.About these Free Rider 42 TEKS Workshops.The 81 Texas Legislature gave TEA via Rider 42 grant over $150 MILLION— I emphasize that this is MILLIONS of dollars. The objective being for the 20 ESCs to prepare materials so that teachers could easily transition from the TEKS for TAKS tests to the revised TEKS for STAAR TESTs. Science and ELAR Rider 42 academies were to be presented during the summer of 2010. All the 20 ESCs were given $50 MILLION dollars to create science and ELAR Rider 42 PD materials, post it on the Project Share website and give face-to-face hands-on Science and ELAR workshops.Did all the teachers from Huntsville ISD attend these special multi-million dollar workshops that were FREE. These workshops were to provide information so that teachers could easily transition from the Science and ELAR TEKS/TAKS to the TEKS/STAAR. Again, the 20 ESCs were paid $50 MILLION dollars to write materials so that all Texas teachers would start the 2010-2011 school year prepared.The Rider 42 materials were to show a side-by-side comparison of the two sets of TEKS, old with the new. Teachers were to be shown any old TEKS that included in the new TEKS. Teachers were to be shown new TEKS not used the previous year. In other words, the two sets of TEKS were to be totally compared. This was to be done so that teachers could modify their TEKS/TAKS scope and sequence. To modify their curriculum. To modify the lessons used with the TEKS/TAKS so that the new TEKS/STAAR would be emphasized.The main differences between the two sets of TEKS for a specific subject mainly referenced an increase in content. It is not that the revised TEKS were so much more rigorous, it is the STAAR tests that are more rigorous. This means that the TEKS need to be considered the minimum framework and lessons need to do much more than be aligned with the TEKS. This is one reason CSCOPE does not properly prepare students for the state tests Another reason is that the CSCOPE lessons have so many factual errors.Administrators and school board members who have purchased CSCOPE seem not to be aware that this free material was prepared and that the 20 ESCs admited that they did nothing special to notify Texas Schools about it. Yes a few teachers saw the workshops listed in the catalog of each ESC, but it should have been the most attended workshops ever given. This was the transition material that allowed teachers to revise their lessons so that new curriculum and lessons were not needed. Veteran teachers didn’t have to attend workshops to know this, but they were vilified any time they tried to provide information. The 20 ESCs had a product(CSCOPE) they wanted to sell. The big selling point for CSCOPE was that it provided all the materials teachers needed for the new TEKS. The ESCs instructed administrators that lessons for TEKS/TAKS could not be used for the new TEKS/STAAR–this was a lie.Veteran teachers knew this but were said to be lazy and only wanted to use their old lessons because they were used to them. Veteran teachers were said to be out of date and didn’t want to spend the time learning the new modern 21st Century Education Technology that the online CSCOPE curriculum could provide. The ESCs went so far as to train administrators that Veteran teachers were trouble makers. The slide shown is from an ESC training power point for Administrators.
One administrator said that CSCOPE fills the gap between the textbooks aligned with TEKS/TAKS until textbooks for TEKS/STAAR are published. This identifies this administrators lack of knowledge of the content of textbooks. Other than add the new TEKS with comments, the science content of the old and revised textbook changes so very little. New pictures and graphs, a face lift so to speak. So for the ESCs to claim textbooks are not useful for our modern technology world are in it for the money because they are only trying to sell their online CSCOPE product.Parents need to demand that the school provide as well as use textbooks in every class. Yes, there are things in textbooks that parents are not going to approve of, but at least they are aware of this. Unlike the CSCOPE lessons that remained hidden from parents for six years. Parents are now aware and will be more questioning of what is being taught in 2012-2013. The terms used to confuse parents in the past won’t work because they now know what all the education double talk given by CSCOPE schools mean.Janice VanCleave
In a victory for those concerned about government intrusion into the private lives of citizens, a Texas school has decided to cancel its student electronic surveillance program.
Would you favor an electronic ‘Student Locator Program’ in your local public schools? (Poll Closed)
John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute says his firm filed suit in November 2012 against Northside Independent School District on behalf of 13-year-old Andrea Hernandez, who objected to the surveillance badges because of her religious beliefs. Whitehead says the San Antonio-based district has finally decided to drop the program “because of problems getting it moving.”
“What they found was that a lot of the students were still objecting to it, so they decided to scrap it – and the lawsuit was obviously part of it,” he tells OneNewsNow. “What it shows, I think, is that if you stand for freedom, sometimes – even when it’s tough – you can make changes.”
School officials cited as reasons for their decision factors such as low participation rates, negative publicity, and the lawsuit.
Whitehead, John (Rutherford Institute)
The attorney says Hernandez, who was expelled from the school in January for her refusal to wear the device, is now seeking to be reinstated to John Jay High School’s Science and Engineering Academy.
“We’re negotiating now with the school district and their lawyers, hoping to get her back into this school,” he explains. “It’s one of the best academies in the area, and she’s a very bright kid. Hopefully they’ll be reasonable and let her back in.”
According to Whitehead, students who refused to cooperate with the “Student Locator Program” were punished by being denied access to the school cafeteria and library and the privilege of purchasing tickets for extracurricular events.
– See more at: http://onenewsnow.com/education/2013/07/24/tx-district-nixes-student-tracking-program#.UfdWoY2sh8E
As a former home school mom I still support the efforts of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) knowing that the freedom to home school will always be under threat. I find the article below between President of the HSLDA and the Leader of Common Core of interest.
‘Transforming’ Texas education again? Didn’t we do that
a few times already?
By Dave Mundy/manager@gonalescannon.com
Posted July 29, 2013 – 12:46pm 
It sounds really good, doesn’t it? We need a transformation in Texas schools, “one that fosters innovation, creativity and a thirst for learning with new, more meaningful, assessment and accountability measures, rather than a system built around narrowly focused standardized tests that end up as the ‘be-all, end-all’ yardstick for a school’s success.”
We’re all in favor of improving our public education system, after all. We want students who are smart, engaged, thirsty to attack knowledge. We want to be able to look at what is going on in our schools and be able to say, “We’re doing this right.”
The above phrase comes from transformtexas.org, an organization run by the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA). Interestingly enough, it’s almost the same language I saw used back in the mid-1990s, when the Texas Education Agency, TASA and other leaders of the education bureaucracy were promoting the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.
For those who can’t read education-ese very well, it translates into four simple English words: “Send us more money.”
You’ll be happy to note that this idea of transforming Texas education was crafted by a select group of superintendents from across the state, gathered in “facilitated meetings” (meaning the Delphi Technique was employed). Not a single non-educator parent was involved in making this decision, no school board was consulted, the State Board of Education took no vote on it.
Kind of like how CSCOPE was developed, and we’ve seen how well that works, right?
(By the way, remember the big hullabaloo about “getting rid of CSCOPE” this spring? More than 70 percent of Texas school districts are still using it.)
Texas education has been getting “transformed” since at least the mid-1970s. Looking back, I recognize the elements of Transformational Outcomes-Based Education being implemented in my junior year in high school … and mine was a rather conservative school district. I can only imagine it started much earlier in others.
The problem is, since the beginning of the era of “transforming education,” it’s never been transformed. A few new educational fads sneak in with each “transformation,” but the basic methodology — and, more importantly, the results of that transformation — never changes. We jack up spending on public education and get two new layers of administraors, and our kids get dumber.
Here’s a trick for you parents out there with kids in junior high or high school: ask them how to spell the word “there.” There’s a 90-percent likelihood they’ll rattle out a quick answer, and it will be correct — but they’ll never ask you whether you’re asking them to spell the word “there” (that place), “they’re” (they are) or “their” (belonging to them). The word “two,” also spelled three different ways, can generate a similar response.
That’s because spelling isn’t important in an outcomes-based system. It’s irrelevant “because we have computers to correct that now.” People know what you mean, anyway.
Therein lies the problem with an outcomes-based education: it doesn’t really educate. It’s not designed to. It’s designed to ensure perpetual high-paying employment for the education establishment.
Consider the radical changes made in American public education between the 1950s — when the U.S. education system was the best in the world, hands-down — and now, when we’re in the second echelon.
Prior to the late 1960s, most American kids left the first grade able to read almost anything in the English language; they might not understand it all, but they could pronounce the words. That’s because they were taught using old-fashioned phonics — they were taught the correlation between letters and combinations of letters and the sounds those letters made.
Phonics was taught systematically: a lot of drills and skills and memorization. It was, at times, boring — but it worked.
Once a student learned how to read, then you could focus on developing comprehension. I recall doing exactly that in the second, third and fourth grades — becoming a voracious reader and sometimes tackling material way over my head (Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” anyone?).
When American schools began “transforming” starting in 1968 with the creation of a federal Department of Education, all that stopped. Literacy moved into the affective (values and feelings) realm through a false methodology called Whole Language.
The idea of Whole Language is that humans learn to read the same way they learn to speak — by watching others. Instead of looking at letters and combinations of letters and reasoning what the sounds of those letters should be, students have to learn to memorize entire words — “sight words,” the idea is called — which become increasingly familiar to read as they see the same words more often.
That is why so many of today’s kids struggle to read “at grade level”— it’s hard to comprehend a word you haven’t committed to memory when you have no idea how it’s pronounced. Being able to read a passage was never a problem for those of us brought up in that old system.
The education bureaucracy has learned, and we now have “balanced literacy” — an attempt to inject a little phonics in \to what is still essentially a Whole Language environment. The upshot of that is it is now easier for schools to identify kids with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, get those kids labeled — and get the extra money for them.
When you hear the word “transform” used in conjunction with public education, you can bet a very expensive process is about to begin. And you can bet you won’t get a say in that process.
HUNTSVILLE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT just voted to seek a waiver from the Texas Education Agency from the 2013-2014 State Accountability Assessment, in hopes their students would not have to meet graduation and testing requirements set by the State. More than likely this request will fail. HISD along with other Texas school districts have filed the same waiver in protest to the Texas Education Service Centers saying they would remove the lessons from the controversial curriculum, CSCOPE by Aug. 31st. Their removal has been in response to when parents and taxpayers were made aware what was in CSCOPE and have petitioned the State Legislature to remove it. CSCOPE has lessons that ask the students to read verses of the Quran, calling Allah the Almighty God and having students drawing a new Communist Flag, etc. You can view additional lessons HERE
Huntsville ISD school board member Sam Moak voted in support of the waiver. Not surprising since his wife Cathy Moak works at the Texas Education Service Center 6 in which sells CSCOPE. Is this not a CONFLICT OF INTEREST? SAM is voting for the school district to buy/renew contracts with the ESC that his wife Cathy works at? Do they still send their own children to private school? If so why, if Huntsville ISD is so great?
Cathy has written math lessons for CSCOPE and thinks it is a wonderful product. Below is her article in support of CSCOPE.
You will notice in that Cathy works with the School Transformation which Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) is working to implement. Huntsville spent thousands attending conferences and training in implementing a progressive transformation of education. Find out more about TASA’s New Vison: School Transformation.
There are all kind of people involved in the battle to turn Texas Education into a Progressive/Marxist System. I don’t think all that are involved in promoting the system of Project Based Learning/CSCOPE are bad or evil people. Cathy just may be at the wrong job at the wrong time. But I personally could not sit back and just let it happen with children and our country at stake.
Below are description of the “green” “yellow” and “red” people. Where is CATHY and SAM?
The Texas Tribune posted an article titled “Dewhurst, Patrick Continue Push to End CSCOPE”. The article is riddled with passionate comments. To no surprise Thomas Ratliff who serves on the Texas State Board of Education chimed in with his rants.
THE FOLLOWING IS MY EXCHANGE WITH TEXAS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER THOMAS RATLIFF.
I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THIS MAN IS A PUBLIC SERVANT.
No one can say that grassroots activist can’t make a difference. The discovery of CSCOPE and it’s framework to control teachers and indoctrinate students with a Marxist learning philosophy is about all Texas Parents & Taxpayers could stand. The outrage has set Texas Legislature into action. Read the press releases from Lt. Gov David Dewhurst and Senator Donna Campbell as well as Senator Dan Patrick’s Facebook post.
CSCOPE has led to grassroots activist peeling back the layers of the “onion” and finding a mount of corruption and the infiltration of liberal ideology in the Texas Education System.
Brandon Core
A local school district utilizing CSCOPE was Anderson-Shiro CISD. Superintendent Brandon Core was more than willing to talk to me and convince me of the benefits of CSCOPE until the Texas Senate held CSCOPE hearings. After the hearings I called and emailed Mr. Core to set up a meeting with him to no avail. Why? What did he have to hide? I have since found out that BrandTeon Core has left his superintendent position at Anderson-Shiro CISD and went to work for ESC 18’s Texas Center for Education Effectiveness, TxCEE. This discovery led to more layers of the onion being exposed.
October 2012 Texas Education Service Center 18 applied and received a Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) federal grant for 40.7 million known as the Texas TIF Project. The federal TIF agenda is associated with the Liberal Progressive organization Center for American Progress funded by George Soros.
The TIF The money is being managed within ESC 18 under the name Texas Center for Education Effectiveness, TxCEE.
Here is ESC’s 18 Grant Application
After peeling the layers of the onion back you will find all this money is tied to various organizations involved in reforming our Texas Education System with a liberal progressive ideology. TxCEE works with the TAP System that works to implement Project Based Learning. The TAP System was created by Lowell Milken which also created the NEIT Institute.
Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) and Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) are funded with tax money through local school districts and are behind implementing a progressive TRANSFORMATION of the Texas School System.
You will read in the following News Release from TASB stating their agenda to pursue their liberal agenda despite Gov Perry’s Veto of HB 2824 which was sponsored “Bennet Ratliff”, whose brother Thomas Ratliff serves on the State Board of Education illegally.
Why are tax payers funding TASA and TASB who are lobbying groups for progressive ideology? Wake up Texas Tax Payers!
Despite the outrage state wide over the progressive curriculum CSCOPE, the majority of school systems will continue to purchase and use it despite parents concern. Though CSCOPE was filled with controversial lessons the system is controversial as well. CSCOPE was the stepping stone for implementing Project Based Learning (PBL). Please inform your friends and family and taxpayers in your district as to what your local school district is doing. Ask your school board members why they are spending your tax dollars to fund TASA and TASB.
For additional info on CSCOPE go to WWW.TXCSCOPEREVIEW.COM
I traveled to Austin on January 8th 2013 the first day of the Texas 2013 Legislative Session. I had the privilege of sitting down with Lt. Gov Dewhurst regarding CSCOPE I was accompanied by my husband Calvin and President of Montgomery County Tea Party Pat Tibbs and her husband Dennis. The Lt Gov was shocked at what I had to present in regards to this progressive takeover of Texas Education. The Lt. Gov said he would speak with Sen. Dan Patrick and hold a hearing on CSCOPE. I would like to say every time I have met with the Lt. Gov Dewhurst this year he has been a “man of his word”.
The Lt. Gov. and is quite aware of what our public school system is up to in regard to CSCOPE and Project Based Learning. You will hear more about this in the weeks ahead.
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LISTEN TO PODCAST WHILE YOU WAIT, WALK, EXERCISE, TRAVEL
7.22.13 – Alice Linahan and Women on the Wall – host Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to talk about CSCOPE
Listen to podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/alice-linahan/lt-governor-david-dewhurst-on
WBTM’s WomenOntheWall Radio show with guest Lt. Governor David Dewhurst.
Tagline: #StopCommonCore in #Txed #StopCSCOPE.
Both Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and Senator Dan Patrick attended the Backpack and Boots on the Ground Education Summit in Conroe, Texas, Saturday, July 20. By all accounts they were shocked by the information they heard.
The question is “Are these leaders willing to actually lead and get to the bottom of the political corruption involved in the TESCCC’s CommonCore/CSCOPE illegal invasion of Texas schools?”
Those of us who were at the Backpack and Boots on the Ground understand the political game and that these two men are running for Lt. Governor. They were both there seeking support from grassroots leaders and their organizations who were attending. What the Lt. Governor and Senator may not understand is that the people who were there could care less about these men’s political careers. The people are going to do what it takes to protect their children and grandchildren.
Therefore, just talking the good talk and getting photo opportunities will not work. There must be action; and it must be taken immediately before Texas children are harmed anymore in the 2013 and 2014 school year by the Common Core philosophy that is coming in the back door through CSCOPE and the corrupt education non-government organizations such as TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators), TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) and the ESCs (Education Service Centers) who have direct access to our tax dollars.
If these political leaders want support from the grassroots, action is needed; and it is needed Now!!!
We are calling for a full audit by the Texas State Auditor (John Keel) to look into direct conflicts of interest and illegal actions by the TESCCC. In addition, an audit must be done of TASA and TASB. From what public information requests revealed, there may be grounds for legal action to be taken by taxpayers of Texas.
Lastly we are demanding that Texas Leadership find a remedy to remove Thomas Ratliff as a Texas State Board of Education elected official. Texas Attorney Greg Abbott has already ruled that Ratliff is not eligible to be on the SBOE because he is a paid lobbyist for Microsoft and has a direct conflict of interest since Microsoft does business with the Texas Education Agency and the Texas State Board of Education.
Texas Government Code (http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/GV/htm/GV.665.htm), says that the impeachment of Thomas Ratliff, Texas State Board of Education member, must start in the Texas House. It will be up to the public to get the House members’ attention.
Impeach Thomas Ratliff?
JULY 22, 2013 BY JANICE LEAVE A COMMENT
Do you know that Thomas Ratliff is a lobbyist for Microscoft?
Do you know that according to Sec. 7.103. ELIGIBILITY FOR MEMBERSHIP of the SBOE
(c) A person who is required to register as a lobbyist under Chapter 305, Government Code, by virtue of the person’s activities for compensation in or on behalf of a profession, business, or association related to the operation of the board, may not serve as a member of the board or act as the general counsel to the board.
Do you know that the Texas Attorney General has ruled on this and confirmed that Thomas Ratliff is illegally serving as a member of the State Board of Education?
So why is Ratliff still serving as a member of the SBOE?
Because Ratliff knows he has to be impeached to remove him from the SBOE.
Because Ratliff best serves Microsoft, the company he works for and is a lobbyists for by being on the SBOE.
Because the Texas legislatures have to be pushed, prodded, shoved and called and called before they will take a chance on doing their job.
The same reason that CSCOPE has not been removed from Texas Schools as announced by Senator Patrick–because too many legislatures want to be heroes. They want to be the knight riding in to save the day. With the CSCOPE agreement, the illegal company who designed and sold CSCOPE under the protective umbrella of the Texas Education Service Center flag, had no qualms about misleading Senator Patrick during private meetings so that the Senator announced to the world that he cleansed Texas schools of CSCOPE. Sadly the illegal company is still alive and is still producing materials that our Texas children will be taught.
FYI: The illegal CSCOPE company was called TESCCC, but this name has been dropped. Does it matter what the company name is? What matters is that the same group of people in charge of TESCCC is still in charge of the twenty largest Texas Education Agencies. Why?
I digress. But Thomas Ratliff has done everything possible to keep CSCOPE instruction materials in our public schools. Ratliff has stated that he will post the CSCOPE lessons on his on website and make sure that schools in his district have access to them. Why? Has Ratliff reviewed the CSCOPE lessons? I have reviewed many of the CSCOPE lessons. I did testify before the Senate Ed. Committee as well as the SBOE that the CSCOPE lessons need to be removed from our Texas schools. Too many errors, the constructivist (progressive) project based learning has not and will not prepare our children with an education foundation.
Following is valuable information from Donna Garner—
7.22.13
FROM DONNA GARNER — THE LAWS ON IMPEACHMENT IN TEXAS
*I have sent this information out in a number of different e-mails to all Texas Legislators, to many elected officials, and to my extensive e-mail list before the 83rd Legislative Session started. Today I have combined these e-mails into one e-mail.
According to the Texas Government Code (http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/GV/htm/GV.665.htm), the impeachment of Thomas Ratliff, Texas State Board of Education member, must come from the House. If we could get enough people to pressure their legislators, then perhaps the House members would step out and circulate a petition among their members. The TGC is not exactly clear what the House should do if it is still in session. It says how to proceed with impeachment when not in session. However, I feel sure the Governor has lawyers who could help to interpret the TGC to satisfy that piece.
As someone has already suggested, the petition might need to come from the grassroots citizens first in order to prove to the House that we are serious. If you have access to some legal counsel, why don’t you see what you can find out?
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Here is the section that says Thomas Ratliff is ineligible to be on the SBOE because of his being a registered lobbyist who works for Microsoft.
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THOMAS RATLIFF INELIGIBLE TO SERVE:
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/?link=ED
Texas Education Code EDUCATION CODE
TITLE 2. PUBLIC EDUCATION
SUBTITLE B. STATE AND REGIONAL ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNANCE
CHAPTER 7. STATE ORGANIZATION
(Page 38) — Sec. 7.103. ELIGIBILITY FOR MEMBERSHIP.
(c) A person who is required to register as a lobbyist under Chapter 305, Government Code, by virtue of the person’s activities for compensation in or on behalf of a profession, business, or association related to the operation of the board, may not serve as a member of the board or act as the general counsel to the board.
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 260, Sec. 1, eff. May 30, 1995.
======================
I also went back to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s original ruling on the matter on 8.12.11:
Opinion No. GA-0876
Go to: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/50abbott/op/2011/htm/ga-0876.htm
Re: Construction of section 7.103(c), Education Code, regarding the eligibility of a registered lobbyist for membership on the State Board of Education (RQ-0948-GA)
Summary: Subsection 7.103(c), Texas Education Code, precludes certain registered lobbyists from serving on the State Board of Education (“Board”). A person who has been retained to communicate directly with the legislative or executive branch to influence legislation or administrative action in or on behalf of a profession, business, or association on a matter that pertains to or is associated or connected with any of the statutorily enumerated powers or duties of the Board is not eligible to serve on the Board. Thus, a registered lobbyist who has been paid to lobby the legislative or executive branch on a matter relating to Board business is ineligible to serve on the Board. The question of whether any person engaged in lobbying activity is ineligible under subsection 7.103(c) is a fact question that is inappropriate to an attorney general opinion.
Absent a mechanism to cure a violation in subsection 7.103(c), we cannot advise that a member of the Board may cure his or her ineligibility under the subsection.
[As soon as the TAG issued this ruling, I had two well-known lawyers who immediately called me and explained that the “cure” statement meant that there was nothing Ratliff can do to fix his situation. He is what he is – a registered lobbyist who lobbies the legislature and also whose client(s) do business with the SBOE (e.g., Microsoft).
When Ratliff testified glowingly before the Senate Education Committee on 3.29.11 about SB 6 – HB 6, which he said he just “loves,” he did not bother to mention the fact that he had been a registered lobbyist for Microsoft for 12 years. He introduced himself as a member of the Texas State Board of Education which gave the legislators the distinct impression that he was representing the SBOE at the hearing which he certainly was not. SB 6/HB 6 contained language that transformed the payout of the Permanent School Fund, and Microsoft has derived millions of dollars from these changes. – Donna Garner]
[I find it hard to believe that the Texas Legislatures are so uninformed. How is that I know that Ratliff is a lobbyist for Microsoft and no one on the Senate Education Committee was aware of this? Another interesting question is that no one on the Senate Education Committee knew anything about CSCOPE, which had been in our public schools for six + years and was sold to the schools by state agencies– the 20 Education Service Centers? Janice VanCleave]
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In my research, I then found the section in the Texas Government Code (Section 665.001, Impeachment Proceeding, and Section 665.004) that tells how a person who is a member of a “state institution” can be impeached: http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/GV/htm/GV.665.htm
Donna Garner
Wgarner1@hot.rr.com
WARNING PARENTS AND TAXPAYERS IN CROSBY ISD.
CROSBY ISD assistant superintendent of Instruction, Patricia Kay was selected as the ESC 6 CSCOPE Outstanding Assistant Superintendent for the 12-13 school year. What did Ms. Kay achieve for this wonderful accomplishment? Use your tax money to purchase the progressive CSCOPE curriculum. Congrats Ms. Kay on this accomplishment.
Ms. Kay posted the following tweet on Twitter in regard to my fight against the progressive/Marxist curriculum CSCOPE. I find it unbelievable how many Texas administrators who are responsible for educating our children have no problem with a Curriculum System that promotes a positive view of Islam and Communism, negative view of Christianity, not to mention demonizes parents and calls the Boston Tea Party a Terrorist Act.
Though Ms. Kay’s tweet was meant as ridicule I am honored to be called an “EXTREMIST” when it comes to protecting Texas School Children from these radical progressive views. These radical views are supported by Texas organizations TASA, TASB, National Education Agency and the United Nations.
Crosby ISD is in the process of working with Texas Association of School Administrators in TRANSFORMING the districts education system. On Crosby ISD website you will find documents supporting their agenda of this transformation.
One document under Planning Committee Documents is titled 21st Century Curriculum Skills and Instruction outlines they goal of changing the education 3 R’s from reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic to Rigor, Relevance and Respect all for the common good.
Crosby ISD Superintendent Dr. Keith Moore
follow https://twitter.com/DrKMoore
The saying goes “Follow the Money” to find the corruption as goes with Texas Education. Texas taxpayers are funding their own DEMISE through their local school districts. How you might ask? School superintendents are paying membership dues for themselves as well as other administrators to join the progressive liberal non-governmental entities, Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) . These two groups lobby the Texas legislature to write and pass policy in hopes of promoting their progressive agenda. TASA & TASB are just a few blocks away from the Texas Capitol making the job of lobbying convenient during the legislative session.
Why would school districts be funding lobbying groups? Texas school administrators not only vote and pay the funds to TASA and TASB but they also make up the governing board of these two organizations. SERIOUSLY? It appears to be to be a conflict of interest and unethical for school officials to fund and govern the same organization with Tax Payer funds.
Not only do Texas taxpayers fund ISD membership fees but they also pay for administrators to attend TASA & TASB conferences and pay their hotel and food bills as well. TASA is an off shoot of the national group American Association of School Administrators (AASA). This past February AASA held a conference in California where Humanist Linda Darling Hammond was the key speaker. Hammond is associated with Communist Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground Bomber. Texas Taxpayers paid for various ISD administrators to attend this conference as well.
Please contact your state reps and ask them to look into this mismanagement of taxpayer money.
Senator Patrick posted the following on his Facebook Page today July 19, 2013.
CSCOPE UPDATE:
Over the past few months I told several groups that I was working with the Attorney General’s office and planned to ask the State Auditor to perform an audit of the CSCOPE program.
My concern is that millions of dollars may have been spent by the program without the proper bidding process, contracts, and full transparency, required by government entities when using taxpayer money.
On Friday of last week the Attorney General’s office sent a letter to our state auditor, John Keel, sharing their concerns about CSCOPE.
Yesterday, as Chairman of Education, I sent a letter to Mr Keel requesting an official state audit of the program. After months of research, once again with the tireless help of the grassroots, it appears that CSCOPE may have spent millions of dollars outside of normal government rules and regulations.
I am not suggesting any wrong doing at this time. However, we need a full state audit to examine exactly what taxpayer money was spent and how it was spent since the inception of this program.
Another CSCOPE issue was raised this week by a TEA attorney who said that schools could possibly use any CSCOPE material still in the public domain. We disagree with his analysis, but are checking further into this matter.
The CSCOPE lesson plans are no longer available after August 31. I urge parents to monitor closely the decision of their districts who attempt to use any public domain material whether it is CSCOPE or another program and to make sure their voice is heard. According to the Texas Tribune districts that used CSCOPE saw lower scores on the STAAR tests than districts who did not use the program. This is in addition to the mistake ridden and objectionable lesson plans we uncovered in our hearings this year.
It is clear that the majority of teachers, parents, and legislators want CSCOPE lesson plans gone from the classroom. I will continue do everything possible to ensure that no one tries to slip these flawed and failed lesson plans under the classroom door.
I will update you on what is happening in your classrooms and alert you to those who try to circumvent the will of the people and the legislature.
[7.19.13 — From Donna Garner – I will try to give the public some background on Sen. Dan Patrick’s press release issued a few minutes ago. To read what I sent out yesterday about Thomas Ratliff and the SBOE, please go to: http://educationviews.org/contact-tea-sboe-cscope/
Here goes: On 6.6.13, Alice Linahan invited Sen. Dan Patrick to come on her community conversation show. During that show, Alice read a letter from a parent in a Texas school district who was questioning the fact that her local school district was downloading the CSCOPE lessons off the CSCOPE website and putting them onto their own computers so that they could continue to teach the CSCOPE lessons in the future.
Furthermore, Alice played a voice recording of Thomas Ratliff, Texas State Board of Education member, verifying that he was the very one who had been telling teachers to download and keep using the CSCOPE lessons. Here is the link to that part of the podcast: https://soundcloud.com/alice-linahan/sboe-elected-official-thomas-1
Thomas Ratliff has been advising teachers to defy the will of the Texas legislature as stated in Sen. Dan Patrick’s press release on 5.20.13 in which CSCOPE lessons were not to be utilized after the Aug. 31, 2013 contract runs out. If teachers follow Ratliff’s advice and continue to use the CSCOPE lessons, this could leave their school districts open to lawsuits or worse.
Why would Thomas Ratliff do such a thing? We must remember that Ratliff is serving on the SBOE illegally. He has been a registered lobbyist for Gates/Microsoft for at least 13 years, and the TEA/SBOE purchases products from Gates/Microsoft. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has ruled that Ratliff is in violation of the law because of this obvious conflict of interest and that there is nothing short of resigning from the SBOE that Ratliff could do to “cure” his situation. Defiantly, Ratliff has still continued to remain on the SBOE; and even though Texas citizens begged the House to begin impeachment proceedings (which by law is where such proceedings must begin), they chose not to do so, probably because Ratliff’s brother is now in the Legislature.
Gates/Microsoft has been pushing Type #2 Common Core Standards (CCS) from the very beginning of Obama’s Presidency. Gates is a leftist progressive and believes personally in Type #2, and he also stands to make billions off the technology used to implement the Common Core Standards. (Please go to this link to see a chart explaining Type #1 and Type #2 — http://educationviews.org/2-types-of-education-philosophies-chart/ )
CSCOPE follows the same Type #2 philosophy and is closely linked to Common Core Standards. Thomas Ratliff knows that if he can keep the Type #2 CSCOPE lessons going, he can continue to indoctrinate Texas children into the Type #2 philosophy used in the Common Core Standards; and anything Ratliff can do to increase online lessons/software/systems/databases will benefit his pocketbook and that of his boss, Bill Gates/Microsoft.
Because Thomas Ratliff has no limits to the brazen gall he will demonstrate, he conned The Texas Tribune into writing an article on 7.17.13 that appears to make it look as if he is coming alongside the education establishment and is blaming Sen. Patrick and the chair of the SBOE for the demise of the CSCOPE lessons. Ratliff is trying to act shocked that teachers are downloading the CSCOPE lessons even though it was he who has been encouraging them to do just this which, in essence, defies the will of the legislature. Alice Linahan has Ratliff on tape saying this! Now Sen. Dan Patrick has answered back today with the following press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Logan Spence (512) 463-0107
July 18, 2013
Senator Patrick Seeks Audit of CSCOPE
AUSTIN— Today, Senator Dan Patrick sent a letter to State Auditor John Keel asking for his review of the operations of the TESCCC, governing board of the CSCOPE program. This letter follows a similar letter submitted to the State Auditor by the Office of the Attorney General last week.
“While my initial concerns with CSCOPE focused on the content of their lesson plans,” said Patrick, “further review revealed that CSCOPE had potential underlying legal issues that need to be addressed.”
Among the concerns outlined in his letter to State Auditor John Keel are the facts that the Education Service Centers failed to comply with state law requiring a bidding process and the adoption of formal contracts with state government vendors.
In part, the letter reads:
“In light of these issues, I am writing to ask you to exercise your authority as State Auditor and determine if the Education Services Centers acted appropriately under state law when they paid NER to produce the CSCOPE materials without a bidding process and without the protections of a legally binding contract.”
“Texans deserve an open and transparent state government and that is particularly true of our public education system,” said Patrick. “The curriculum in our classrooms must be open to public scrutiny as well as the contracts to publish them.”
In response to TEA’s suggestion to the SBOE that CSCOPE lesson plans could be used because they are in the public domain, Senator Patrick said, “I disagree with that analysis but I am looking into the issue further. Until I started asking questions, and holding hearings, parents weren’t even allowed to view these materials.”
“Until this question is resolved, parents need to continue to make their voices heard at the local school district level that they want CSCOPE out of their schools.”
“The vast majority of parents, teachers, and ldegislators have made it clear they want CSCOPE out of their schools. I stand with them and intend to make sure no one tries to slide CSCOPE lesson plans under the classroom door, ” said Senator Patrick.
How your children are taught can be just as detrimental as what they are taught. Progressive Texas Administrators and Educators across the state have been working on implementing Project Based Learning (PBL) in the Texas School Systems. CSCOPE was wall about PBL and operated under the radar until parents got involved. PBL is based on the collective and not individual achievement. Administrators want to do away with desk and put in tables to accommodate group learning.
Ha
Tra Hall is lead learner and chief innovation officer(what ever that means) at JH Hines Elementary in Waco ISD. Hall is a big pusher/advocate of project based learning.
Texas Parents and Taxpayers need to get involved in your local districts and find out HOW and What they are teaching your children and grandchildren.
Below is a chart that compares a Traditional Education verses a progressive Project Based Learning Education.
Please make copies of the chart and hand out to other concerned parents and community members. This has to be stopped!!
