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RATLIFFS~~~~THE GOOD GUYS~~~~~SERIOUSLY?

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Thomas, Bill and Bennett Ratliff are well known names when it comes to the money and policy within Texas Education.  These names have become so common taxpayers are questioning their activities and agenda.   Thomas is a Microsoft lobbyist and sits on the Texas State Board of Education and has been vocal against taxpayers who are exposing the controversial Cscope corruption. Bill Ratliff is the Texas former Lt. Governor and has his name on various education related entities like Raise Your Hand Texas and C-Learning. Bennett Ratliff  is Texas House Representative for HD 115.

Friday December 13th Texas Association of Mid Size Schools (TAMS) is having another conference on the Tax Payers dime. It is no surprise that the Ratliff’s are invited speakers but the fact that they would be labeled THE GOOD GUYS on the agenda brought many of us a dose of laughter. Seriously?

There is a movement to impeach Thomas Ratliff from the State Board of Education and if you have not signed the petition please do so HERE. 

ratliff family

Texas Association of Mid Size Schools (TAMS) is one of many liberal progressive groups within the State surviving off of tax money. This week’s conference will address the following topics. 

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CSCOPE BATTLE LEAVES TEXAS EDUCATION SERVICE CENTERS UNDETERRED

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WatchDog Wire

by LouAnn Anderson

One year ago the swell of parent, teacher and taxpayer concern over CSCOPE, the controversial public school curriculum management program once used in more than 70% of Texas school districts, was rising.  A tumultuous 83rd legislative session appeared to take Texas Education Service Centers (ESCs) to task for CSCOPE and a number of related questionable activitiesThough spring and summer political theatre promoted CSCOPE as dead and ESCs now planning to be more transparent and responsive, indications keep coming that nothing could be further from the truth.

CSCOPE was problematic on many fronts. Serious taxpayer advocates still legitimately question how this curriculum management system was developed using public funds yet organized to operate outside any normal taxpayer accountability and government oversight channels? The program featured anti-American as well as other impractical and poorly-crafted lessons while those who operate outside groupthink environments found concern with its campus-level implementation seemingly attempting to enforce a regimented, indoctrination-oriented approach to classroom instruction. CSCOPE as a backdoor approach to implementing Common Core was another credible criticism.

Watchdog Wire recently published an article on Common Core’s use in Texas public schools despite legislation specifically outlawing its use. In a post Texas Education Service Centers Welcome Common Core!Red Hot Conservative gives additional examples that Common Core is alive, even thriving in Texas schools.

Similarly troubling is how it seems ESCs have developed their own in-house program to produce new school administrators in response to the growing number of administration positions the education industry continues creating.

Texas CSCOPE Review recently posted this stunning ESC solicitation of candidates for a Superintendent Certification Program. Besides noting college coursework as no longer a requirement for superintendents seeking advanced “certification,” the site astutely reminds that ESCs now seem to do it all with creating not just taxpayer-financed products (like CSCOPE or its latest repackaged incarnation), but also the superintendents and school board members who then use additional tax dollars to buy these products.

Bill-Ratliff-Superintendent-Certificates1

Of the certification program’s major program characteristics promoted, this one was eye-catching as an education industry bonus offering the prospect of a second job or post-retirement income opportunities.

All instruction comes from practicing professionals who are current or recently retired superintendents, assistant superintendents, school attorneys, school finance consultants, school construction experts, school business managers, school facilities consultants, school bond issues consultants, school foundation directors, Certified Public Accounts, and Region 8 specialist. 

With the costs of these programs funded by taxpayers and unelected ESC officials having no substantive oversight of their activities, this is a business model of highly unique proportions and one that should deeply disturb Texas taxpayers.

Current numbers on public school finance always seem somewhat elusive. With that, the best data we have is often several years old. Nonetheless, it is telling.

This is an interesting statistic provided by Fortune Magazine in 2009. Note that if it were a private company, the Texas public education industry would be the fifth largest company in the world.

World'sLargestEmployers

So who are those employees? Information from the Texas Education Agency 2011 Statewide Snapshot shows that for every public school teacher in Texas, school districts have one non-teaching staff member. Many of those are school administrators either at campus levels or central administration staff positions.

Texas local government debt has been tracked to $322 billion although new bonds approved in the November election now put that number more aptly at $330 billion with the greatest portion being school district debt.

LocalGovt.Debtpiechart

And though some may claim enrollment is the cause for new debt and spending, school populations aren’t increasing in any sensible proportion to spending.

GrowthinPublicEducation

Last February during a Texas Senate Committee on Education hearing on CSCOPE,  former State Board of Education member Carlos (Charlie) Garza described the ESCs creation and administration of CSCOPE as “a shell game.”

“What you see today is not Enron, but ed-ron – where we are playing this game of hide-and-seek from the people,” he said.

Seems some things haven’t changed.

 

Lou Ann Anderson

Lou Ann Anderson is an information activist and the editor of Watchdog Wire – Texas. As a Policy Analyst with Americans for Prosperity – Texas, she writes and speaks about a variety of public policy topics. Lou Ann is the Creator and Online Producer at EstateofDenial.com, a web site that addresses the growing issue of probate abuse in which wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney are used to loot assets from intended beneficiaries or heirs. Contact Lou Ann at Texas@WatchdogWire.com with story ideas and for ways to get involved with citizen journalism in Texas.

More Posts – Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn

 
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Texas Education Service Centers Welcome Common Core!

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Texas supposedly did not adopt the national Common Core Standards, in fact it was made illegal during the 83rd Texas Legislature through Texas Education Code 39.023 which states the following.

(a-3)  The agency may not adopt or develop a criterion-referenced assessment instrument under this section based on common core state standards as defined by Section 28.002(b-1).  This subsection does not prohibit the use of college advanced placement tests or international baccalaureate examinations as those terms are defined by Section 28.051.

But that has not stopped school district across the state from implementing them in their schools. Parents continue to come forward with worksheets students are bringing home based on Common Core standards. It doesn’t stop  there though. With the implementation of the controversial Curriculum CSCOPE, common core is in full force across the state of Texas. Cscope like Common Core has much more to do with a teaching philosophy based on the collective (project based learning)  and student data collection with assessments. Who is working non-stop on implementing common core in the Texas? The Texas Education Service Centers (ESC’s). The directors of the ESC’s are the ones who formed the bogus non profit that owned CSCOPE. The ESC’s are have held and continue to hold conferences which focus  Common Core Standards.

 

Texas has 20 Education Service Center that have remained some obscure business entity until the CSCOPE discovery. Parents need to wake up. These ESC’s have created numerous business operating within the facilities and are still funded by the Texas tax payers.

 

 

The following is from ESC 11

 

common core 2

 

 

 

The following is from ESC 7

esc 7

12-6-2013 12-16-12 PM

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BUILDING THE MACHINE – A film about the Common Core

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December 5, 2013

Dear HSLDA members and friends of homeschooling,

President Barack Obama calls the Common Core State Standards “the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation.”

But they are also arguably the most controversial education reform in America’s history. In Building the Machine, Home School Legal Defense Association and Distant Moon Media Group team up to bring you a fast-paced behind-the-scenes tour of the Common Core: how it was developed, who’s paying for it, and how it’s rapidly turning into a set of national standards.

“The federal takeover involved no teacher or parent input,” reports the Huffington Post.

“I’m trying to think of something analogous to this—that slipped through so easily on a national basis—and I really can’t,” wonders Dr. Andrew Hacker, a political scientist at Queens College CUNY.

“The biggest misperception that Common Core proponents push on people is that there is any evidence that a system like Common Core will benefit children,” says Joy Pullmann, research fellow at the Heartland Institute.

“It takes power from the parent,” Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios says, “and de-incentivizes the parent from a deep and abiding interest in their child’s education.”

“People need to know about the Common Core,” states Dr. Michael McShane, research fellow at American Enterprise Institute, “because standards undergird everything in the education system.”

This documentary uncovers truths you won’t be told by the mainstream media.

Will the Common Core State Standards lead to higher achievement or they will dumb down the curriculum—and our students? Where is the research to show they will work? And what impact will they have on not only public schools, but private schools and homeschools as well?

This is a story about American’s future, reform, hidden agendas, and the battle for our children’s education. Don’t miss it!

Watch the trailer >>

 

 

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CSCOPE-The OBAMACARE of Public Education

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ObamaCare, CSCOPE both beyond fixing

bill-amesBy Bill Ames

Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – Americans increasingly realize that Obamacare is not about providing quality healthcare for all Americans.  Its creators could care less.  Rather, it is about a  progressive power grab,TX-Textbooksstructured to gain control over a large chunk of the U. S. economy. Likewise for CSCOPE, a thinly disguised Common Core methodology being used across  Texas, despite the fact the Texas Legislature has banned Common Core in Texas.

Obamacare is about a group of elitists who believe they know what is best for us, because we citizens are too dumb to know what is best for ourselves. For this reason, there is no hope to fix Obamacare.  Its  creators are so determined to reach their goal that the compromises to allow a reasonable health care program are impossible.

cscope7d  

Likewise for CSCOPE.  It is a thinly disguised implementation of common core methodology, in spite of the fact that the Texas legislature has banned common core in Texas.

And like Obamacare, the CSCOPE juggernaut is comprised of elitists who think they know what is best for our kids, and who much prefer to trashing their opposition than considering compromise.

Recently, chief common core (and its little brother CSCOPE) cheerleader Arne Duncan (below, left,) head of the U. S. Department of Education, trashed his critics, branding them as “angry white suburban moms.”   This top-down arrogant attitude permeates through Texas’ education establishment:

  • The Education Service Center personnel that created and defended their bizarre lesson plans
  • The liberal-leaning Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB)
  • A  couple of RINO members of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE,) and
  • Rogue School Boards, Superintendents and School District Curriculum writers who ignore parents while embracing Mr. Duncan’s arrogance with the attitude, “we’ll teach students whatever we choose, and the tax-paying community be damned”.

obama arne duncan education   Due to this deep-seated bias, both Obamacare and CSCOPE are both beyond fixing.

CSCOPE IS NOT IN COMPLIANCE WITH SBOE ADOPTED STANDARDS

CSCOPE critics have done admirable work in exposing lesson plans that reveal CSCOPE as anti-American, anti-Christian, and a rogue implementation of the legislatively-banned common core philosophy in Texas.

But CSCOPE proponents publicly claim its lesson plans are aligned with the SBOE-adopted TEKS.

The pro-CSCOPE folks are wrong.

Yes, the CSCOPE lesson plans that categorized Boston Tea Party patriots as terrorists, and Islamic 911 terrorists as freedom fighters, have been quietly removed from the CSCOPE arsenal. But those lessons have been replaced by more subtle and clever ways to indoctrinate Texas’ students.

As a CSCOPE volunteer lesson plan reviewer, I recently reviewed eleven CSCOPE U. S. history lessons.  My past experience gives me a wealth of knowledge regarding TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) content and curriculum evaluations.

For more CSCOPE AnalysisSBOE’s Tincy Miller Talks CSCOPE, Politics & Children’s Textbook Fund

The original TEKS standards document proposed by a leftist-biased review panel in the fall of 2009 was so far removed from mainstream Texans to be unacceptable. The balancing amendments adopted by the SBOE in 2010 reversed the bias and defeated the left’s war on history.

Beginning with the first lesson I reviewed, it became evident that the CSCOPE lesson plan authors focused on including the politically correct, biased portions of the TEKS, while omitting those that did not contribute to their leftist ideology.

Quin Hillyer Christmas WWII

A summary of examples follows.  In the interest of brevity, only a summary of the most egregious TEKS compliance violations are included.

  • WORLD WAR II

– Only one 50 minute period, out of a seven period module, was spent covering the key events of WWII:   Midway, the Pacific theatre, Normandy, the Bataan Death March, liberation of concentration camps, the development of atomic weapons.

– Nearly as much class time was devoted to the (multicultural) contribution of the Navajo code talkers.

– Japanese internment was well covered (implied American racism), while German and Italian internments (national security) were ignored.

– A referenced biography of President Roosevelt includes the phrase, “Today the Obama Administration continues to protect and ensure Social Security will be there for future generations.”

– The WWII lesson plans are taken to a laughable extreme in classroom time-wasting, by assigning students to write acrostic (look up that one) poems using the last names of WWII leaders and significant groups.

  • POST-WWII ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

– In a typical example of ignoring America’s positives, this lesson ignores a TEKS requirement to study the growth of agriculture and business, and how both contributed to the emergence of the United States as a world economic power.

– Also missing was the TEKS requirement to address America’s scientific discoveries, technological innovations, and the benefits of the free enterprise system.

– Rather, students were assigned to “create a song, poem, or mural, reflecting the late 1940s and 1950s”.  Really!

  • ronald reagan brandenburg gate speech
  • END OF THE COLD WAR

– There is ample study of divided countries (Germany and Korea), but no comparison of the economic outcomes of West/East Germany and South/North Korea.  I suggested adding the famous night satellite photo of North/South Korea be added to the lesson.

– The Venona papers, that revealed communist infiltration of the FDR/Truman administrations, were ignored.

  • SIGNIFICANT LEADERS, EVENTS, ISSUES AND POLICIES

– This module ignored the unintended consequences of the Great Society programs:  Paying welfare mothers to have additional out-of-wedlock babies, and preventing the father from living in the welfare-subsidized home, thus creating the inevitable inner city poverty and crime associated with single parent families.

– Also ignored was the reality that the Democrat Party (Southern Congressmen and state governors) made up the primary resistance to civil rights legislation.

  • FOREIGN POLICY AND IMPORTANT EVENTS

– The anarchy, violence, and anti-American extremism of Vietnam-era radical protestors is not addressed.

  • DOMESTIC POLICY AND IMPORTANT EVENTS

– A student handout of icons depicting the Bill of Rights characterizes the 2nd Amendment as protection for hunters’ rights.

  • SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE, ISSUES, AND EVENTS

– Ignores the “conservative resurgence” of the 1980s and 1990s.

– Ignores discussion of achieving the American Dream.

  • SBOE-American-ExceptionalismINTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

– Lesson ignores the TEKS requirement to “Evaluate efforts by Global Organizations to undermine U. S. sovereignty through us of treaties”.

  • POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL ISSUES

– No mention of the effects of 12-20 million illegal immigrants.

CONCLUSION – LESSON PLANS ANALYSIS

A significant question asked to each lesson plan reviewer reads,

“Does this lesson cover the TEKS indicated therein as being applicable to this lesson?”

My answer to each of the eleven lessons was “no”.

It is instructive to note that each of the other three reviewers who submitted responses for these lessons answered “yes” to this question for each of the eleven lessons.  Upon questioning the facilitator for my group, she acknowledged that each reviewer had a lesser knowledge than I of the TEKS involved, and also performed a less rigorous analysis of TEKS coverage of the lessons.

I fear that this defect may be true across all 400 lessons, and if so, casts serious suspicions regarding the validity of this whole CSCOPE review exercise.

IN ADDITION TO CONTENT, THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT FLAWS IN THE CSCOPE INSTRUCTION MODEL

When most of the folks who read this were in 11th Grade, the instruction model included the teacher as the classroom authority, teaching lessons from a textbook that had been thoroughly vetted and reviewed by hundreds of citizens during a textbook review and adoption process.  NOcscope This is no longer the case.

The Project Based Learning model, a key element of CSCOPE and common core methodology, has replaced the traditional instruction model.

THE TEACHER IS NO LONGER THE CLASSROOM AUTHORITY

The TASA-produced CSCOPE/Common Core visioning document states, “Students are not just consumers of knowledge, they are creators of knowledge as well.” And from my own district’s visioning document (Richardson ISD), “Students are given choices regarding what they learn”.

For more on CSCOPE’s Project-Based Learning, read Bill AmesA Series on CSCOPE, Part 3: Common Core, Project Based Learning Damages Texas Students

The Project based Learning model de-emphasizes the presentation of academic facts to the students.  The concept of  “whole class instruction”  no longer exists in the CSCOPE world.

Instead, students reach their own conclusions through the use of Project-Based Learning assignments.  The lesson plan includes little or no provision for the teacher to act as classroom authority, to correct any false student conclusions that may be based upon feelings and emotions rather than academic facts.

STUDENT RESEARCH MATERIALS ARE UN-VETTED AND UN-REVIEWED

Un-vetted, un-reviewed information sources are provided for student research.  Sources for student research are not defined in the CSCOPE lessons.

SBOE Social Studies Press Conf. 1-13-10For good and valid reasons, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOEhas traditionally conducted extensive textbook reviews.  Books that go through that process are thoroughly reviewed and vetted: By citizens, parents, teachers, and taxpayers, for errors and biased material.  The vetted textbooks then become source materials for student learning.

Conversely, the selection process for CSCOPE research materials appears to be at the discretion of the local school district’s administrators, and subject to the ideology of those individuals.  At any rate, the materials are not reviewed nor vetted by the local community.  This should be a concern for all.

TEACHER AS FACILITATOR, COMBINED WITH BIASED RESEARCH MATERIALS, LEADS TO STUDENT INDOCTRINATION

The combination of not presenting academic facts, along with providing un-vetted, un-researched, ideology-biased student research materials, is the perfect recipe for an education establishment committed to indoctrinating Texas’ students with its socialist ideology.

Read AlsoA Series on CSCOPE, Part 4: Common Core is Culmination of 100+ Years of Old Ideas

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION CSCOPE REVIEW COMMITTEE – NO POSITION ON CSCOPE

Unfortunately, the SBOE Ad Hoc CSCOPE Review Committee has elected to take no position regarding the CSCOPE lesson plans.  This position reflects a change from the past … from a mainstream, conservative SBOE institution, to one that provides a platform for leftist encroachment on our students’ curriculum.  It is wrong.

Given the absence of classroom academic authority, un-vetted research materials, added to the selective implementation of the TEKS as previously described, the only rational conclusion is that CSCOPE, like Obamacare, should be banned in Texas.

bill-amesBill Ames is an education activist who lives in Dallas. His book, “TEXAS TROUNCES THE LEFT’S WAR ON HISTORY” (WNAenterprises.com) tells the story of his experience in developing Texas’ U. S. history standard in 2009-2010. He recently reviewed CSCOPE lessons as part of the State Board of Education’s Ad Hoc Committee Project, and is available to deliver presentations to interested groups. He welcomes reader comments at billames@prodigy.net.

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Texas School Administrators Controlling and Manipulating Teachers! Students Suffer!

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Who is Leading Your School?

by Janice VanCleave

www.txcscopereview.com

Texas is known for having Independent School Districts. Independent school district is an oxymoron. In the past the community was involved in the schools their children attended. Parents assisted when there were special programs.

As a science teacher, I often asked for parent volunteers if I was going to make a science field trip. In the late 70s, I taught science in Hudson ISD. A small school district near Lufkin, Texas. I was one of two science teachers and we decided to take students on a Saturday field trip to mine for minerals nearby. The school had a free bus but no bus driver. No problem, I took the necessary training and became a licensed school bus driver. So one Saturday we loaded up the bus with interested kids and parents and off we went. The materials we found displayed and discussed in our classes the following week. Not every class was studying rocks and minerals but kids who went on the field trip were allowed to share their experiences with students in their science class.  I don’t remember what we found but the kids considered them valuable.

One day a student brought a very large tarantula spider to class. He had purchased it at a pet store. This was a shy student and was not very popular. But the spider may have changed his life. To the amazement of everyone, including me, he put his hand in the cage and allowed the spider to climb up his arm around his neck and down his other arm. The girls squealed. The guys just stood back, but did not offer to let the spider get on them. The boy moved up in the social pecking order that day. The students learned a great deal about Tarantula’s and the administration was supportive. Could this happen today in Hudson ISD ? I doubt it.

The administrators of the majority of Texas Public schools are spending money on programs that have little to do with the basics–reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, teachers are subjected to different programs designed to fix all education problems; CSCOPE: provide a one-size-fits all program so that every student is equally educated; Lead Your School: The Fundamental 5 provides a formula for quality instruction in every classroom; Capture Kid’s Hearts, claim that if you have a kid’s heart you have the kid’s head.

Each of these programs cost a lot of money –hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions over a short time period. Classrooms are papered, not with educational posters but with posters from each of the different programs, such as what a student should say instead of, “I don’t know that.” If a student is not behaving, the teacher is suppose to ask, “What are you doing?” Student is to stop hitting another student in the head and say, “I am smashing this kid in the face with my fist.” To this the teacher says, “What should you be doing?” In response the student says.”Writing the formulas for chemical compounds.” And so forth——–This is how discipline is handled.

Why are superintendents and school board members using education funds to bring in private consultant groups to train their teachers? Lead Your School is the name of a consulting group that administrators are paying with title funds. As previously mentioned, Marlin ISD has paid over $150 thousand dollars to Lead Your School for professional development. This is interesting since this same school district still purchases the remnants of the CSCOPE managing System, which also has professional development. Both CSCOPE and Lead Your School have specific things that teachers MUST do each school day. In fact, monitors come into classrooms to make sure the teacher is following the regimented plans of CSCOPE as well as the Fundamental Five Formula from Lead Your School. These are two separate organizations with separate dictated programs for teachers to follow. What the public is not being told is that teachers are resigning from public schools–some find positions in private schools, some just get out. The administration in Marlin ISD was not upset when 3/4 of its staff resigned at the end of the 2012-2013 school year. Teachers who were not willing to be submissive to the program were not wanted. Actually, quality teachers are not wanted. Veteran teachers are especially vilified throughout the schools using CSCOPE and Lead Your School program.

I have pondered on why administrators are so blatantly misusing the education money they have been trusted with. Are they supporting each other? By this I mean that administrators are starting consulting groups which hire retiring  administrators.   “I’ll scratch your back if you will scratch mine.”

The CSCOPE Instruction Material that was purchased by about 80% of Texas Public schools had never been evaluated. The program had no documented results that it was effective, yet Texas school superintendents chose to not purchase text books and payed a subscription fee to the Texas Education Service Centers for CSCOPE materials instead. CSCOPE monitors were hired to make walkthroughs of classrooms to make sure teachers were following the CSCOPE schedule.

Now in addition to CSCOPE monitoring, administrators are paying the Lead Your School group–another group without any accountability–that charges a lot of money to train teachers to use five steps in designing their lessons every day. More monitoring–now the walkthroughs are called POWERWALKS– Teachers are to be on the CSCOPE schedule, have the TEKS for the day written on the board, have the Fundamental 5 objective written in a specific place on the board, etc………….. With the fundamental 5 formula teachers are also to be in the PowerZone. Any teacher caught standing in front of the class giving directions to the entire class would be written up. Any teacher caught sitting at his/her desk without students surrounding the desk would be written up. Teachers are to be roaming around the room, helping individual students who are in groups. There are actual pictures in a book showing where teachers should be when the observer makes his/her powerwalk through the classroom. Some observers bring cameras and take photos to document errors.

The material used by the Lead Your School group is a book written by Sean Cain and Mike Laird calledThe Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction.  These authors present a formula containing  5 practices that must be used in every lesson every day. It is very possible that many superintendents and principals do not recognize these practices as something that any teacher worth his/her salt is already doing. This is because many superintendents and principals were coaches are athletic directors. In Cain’s book is  is a description of teachers sitting behind their desk sending emails or doing something that doesn’t include the students. The student assignment being to read the text book and answer the questions at the end of the chapter. This is the description given of teachers who are not properly supervised–who do not have powerwalkers checking to make sure they are following the five fundamental processes.

The Lead Your School Program as well as the CSCOPE Instructional Program promotes the ideas that:

  • teachers are lazy and slothful
  • teachers only do their job if they are constantly being monitored and evaluated
  • teachers don’t have the skills to provide quality instructions, thus they need CSCOPE scripted lessons as well as the fundamental 5 formula
  • no matter the success of a teacher, they must switch to the fundamental 5 formula process if they are to be rated as a good teacher

One would think the fundamental 5 formula would be some new revolution. The five steps are below. What is new is that school administrators are being allowed to force teachers to either shape up and follow the steps or ship out.

 

1. Frame the Lesson   –Write the objective of the lesson on the board.

2. Work in the Power Zone–Where teacher can be within the room—anywhere except in a position that denotes authority.

3. Students in Frequent, Small-Group, Purposeful Talk about the Learning— There is the assumption that students are well disciplined and spend each second of the class period absorbing and giving out information directly related to the objective of the day. That students can form groups and have meaningful exchange of information and then be alert and ready for the next drop of information that they are hungering to receive.

4. Recognize and Reinforce–In other words, sum up the lesson–teach and reteach. An exchange between the teacher and student or even better–a flip class would be that students provide a summary for the class.

5. Students are to Write Critically–Sum up the lesson. Students are to consolidate the information from group discussions and whatever the teacher presents and write up a summary in their own words.

Every teacher in every subject must use this same order to design lessons for every day. Powerwalkers will be around to determine if teachers are doing this. Powerwalkers have to be paid–thus more money spent on making sure that teachers follow the dictated program.

Another premise for the CSCOPE as well as Fundamental 5 formula is that students attend trade schools because they have not been trained by a quality teacher. All students have the ability to learn, it is the fault of teachers that they do not.  Lead Your School compares an average teacher with a good teacher. The good teacher uses the fundamental 5 formula consistently, with high-frequency and high-quality every day.

With instructional practices other than the fundamental 5 formula, students are forced to attend trade schools or community colleges or a state university. Following is an excerpt from The Fundamental Five by Cain.  Notice that anything less than going to an Ivy League school indicates an education by poor teachers, those not following the fundamental five formula. Also notice that the quality of a students education is decided by teachers and there no mention of student responsibility.

 

Is Sean Cain a graduate of an Ivy League School? While Cain considers those attending a trade school as being improperly educated, he will not be calling an Ivy League graduate when he needs a plumber.

The Sean Marcus Cain holding the Teaching Certification shown has a lot of managing certifications but his only teacher training is in generic special education. If this is the record for Sean Cain, the author of  The Fundamental Five, are we to assume that all of his special education students hold Ivy League degrees?

Sean Cain Certifications

I object to any program that degrades trade schools or community colleges.

I object to any program that is presented as being the only way a person can be a good teacher.

I object to administrators who purchase and subject their teachers to such programs. These administrators need to justify this expenditure. These administrators need to be accountable for the purchases they make. Is there a reason that school superintendents are moving from one school district to another? Are they purchases materials and moving on? If so, why?

It is time for communities to set up a few powerwalks through the offices of school superintendents and other school administrators offices. There is a new scam in education–technology supervisors. Who is the technology supervisor in your school district? What are their certifications? What is their job description?

 

 

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A Series on CSCOPE, Part 4: Common Core is Cumulative of 100+ Years of Old Ideas

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Digging Deeper For The Sake of Texas Children

NOcscope By Cathy Wells & Ms. Mac (Jeanine McGregor)

Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – Got a shovel? During the September SBOE meeting, a pro-CSCOPE lackey credited Dr. Jim Barufaldi, a UT professor, for the “invaluable” 5E  formula wrapped around CSCOPE lessons.  5E is defined as: Engage, cscope-arrow         Explore, Explain, Extend/Elaborate, Evaluate.  Sounds good, but 

Let’s Up the Ante.  Have you witnessed the best Texas teachers?  They:

  1. Capture their students’ attention;
  2. Connect for deeper understanding;
  3. Clarify words, items, steps when needed;
  4. Challenge students to reach higher;
  5. Communicate the need for common-sense;
  6. Champion individual merit;
  7. Commit to common courtesy for all;
  8. Collaborate, first, with the student and parent;
  9. Condemn ignorance;
  10. Confirm truth, sources and accuracy;
  11. Congeal ill-defined goals;
  12. Conquer red-tape;
  13. Contact experts;
  14. Captivate listeners;
  15. Counterbalance disrespect;
  16. Crave learning as an example for others;
  17. Crown each student’s improvement and drive;
  18. Coach the hesitant;
  19. Curb inefficiency;
  20. Cycle reinforcement;
  21. cscope7eContribute true American & Texas values;
  22. Cultivate the best opportunities;
  23. Correct when needed; and
  24. Continue digging!

That’s 24 C’s and counting!

Our digging reveals that behind Prof. Barufaldi, who is also known for his collectivistic classroom approach, stands the progressive behaviorist, John Dewey, the first “E” promoter.   The following article by Cathy Wells reveals how deep the CSCOPE roots go!

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Dewey Back from the Grave?

Cathy Wells, CSCOPE ArticleBy Cathy Wells

Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – Since the inception of our nation, there has been a push to use public education to indoctrinate our children with socialist ideals.  From Robert Owen, the father of socialism, to the current CSCOPE and Common Core standards, socialist philosophy is front and center in the pedagogical world.

John Dewey, a secular humanist and leftist who is rightly called “The Father of Modern Education,” was no different.  Dewey’s philosophies and ideas, like those before him, were grounded in behavioral psychology and a break from traditional values in education.  Dewey wrote the following in his 1898 essay, “The Primary Education Fetish:”

“There is… a false education god whose idolaters are legion, and whose cult influences the entire educational system. This is language study…it is almost an unquestioned assumption…that the first three years of a child’s school life shall be mainly taken up with learning to read and write his own language…the great importance attaching to literature seems to me a perversion.”

Clearly, Dewey took issue with the traditional “ 3 Rs” instruction model.  Similarly, Dewey had a disdain for the typical role of the teacher in a classroom.  Dewey saw the teacher not as an older and wiser person from whom a student could glean wisdom but as a facilitator and guide.

cscope7d

Sound familiar?  It should.  Because what we are now seeing in the educational realm, particularly in CSCOPE and Common Core, is merely a regurgitation of ideas that are over 100 years old.

It is also interesting to note Dewey’s ideas about the purpose of education.  Any of us who purport to educate a child ought to ask ourselves, after all, what it is we hope to achieve.  Here are Dewey’s thoughts, taken from “My Pedagogic Creed:”

“The school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends.” 

I personally cannot think of a better example of socialism finding a comfortable home in education.

In terms of economic philosophy, Dewey was extremely left-leaning.  He headed up several leftist, socialist organizations and clubs and had a definite focus on the child as a function of a larger social unit.  The focus that we see today in CSCOPE and Common Core on socialist philosophy and thought is no accident.  It has been quietly fomenting for a century.

As William Brooks notes in his article Was Dewey a Marxist?,

“Dewey asserted that in the school “individualism and socialism are at one” and it was “especially necessary to take the broader view” over the narrow and acquisitive course. Like Marx, Dewey informed his readers that inevitable changes were forthcoming in the school kids“modes of industry and commerce” and, again like Marx, Dewey was convinced that his predictions were based on scientific laws generated through the methods of dialectical materialism.

Indeed, in one of his later works, Dewey was very forthright in declaring that “we are in for some kind of socialism, call it whatever name we please, and no matter what it will be called when it is realized, economic determinism is now a fact not a theory.”

In the light of his convictions, Dewey sought to conceive a new philosophy of education. Dewey’s school would be intricately connected with the unfolding of materialist history or as Dewey put it “part and parcel of the whole social evolution.”

Another aspect of Dewey’s background that greatly influenced his educational strategies and, thus, ours today, was his close association with behavioral psychology.

Dewey had been mentored by G. Stanley Hall who in turn had studied the burgeoning new field of behavioral psychology in Leipzig, Germany, the birthplace and nucleus of behavioral psychological theory and research and home of Wilhelm Wundt, the father of behavioral psychology.

What is behavioral psychology and what has it to do with education?  Paolo Lionni notes the following in his book The Leipzig Connection, about Wundt’s views on “education:”

“…the individual will learn to respond to any given stimulus, with the “correct” response. The child is not, for example, thought capable of volitional control over his actions, or of deciding whether he will act or not act in a certain way; his actions are thought to be preconditioned and beyond his control, he is a stimulus- response mechanism.

School kids Children 2“According to this thinking, he is his reactions. Wundt’s thesis laid the philosophical basis for:

  • the principles of conditioning later developed by Pavlov (who studied physiology in Leipzig in 1884, five years after Wundt had inaugurated his laboratory there)
  • American behavioral psychologists such as Watson and Skinner;
  • for laboratories and electroconvulsive therapy;
  • for schools oriented more toward socialization of the child than toward the development of intellect;
  • and for the emergence of a society more and more blatantly devoted to the gratification of sensory desire at the expense of responsibility and achievement.”

Lionni notes that Dewey, as a true behavioral psychologist, “believed that learning occurred only through experience, that the stimulus-response mechanism was basic to learning, and that teachers were not instructors, but designers of learning experiences.”

Dewey adherence to the principles of behavioral psychology greatly influenced his views on the purpose of school.  As Charlotte Iserbyt notes in her excellent book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America,

Charlotte Iserbyt“Dewey’s recommendation was indeed radical: build the curriculum not around academic subjects but around occupational activities which provided maximum opportunities for peer interaction and socialization. Since the beginning of Western civilization, the school curriculum was centered around the development of academic skills, the intellectual faculties, and high literacy.

Dewey wanted to change all of that. Why? Because high literacy produced that abominable form of independent intelligence which was basically, as Dewey believed, anti-social.”

In short, Dewey’s behavioral psychology background not only influenced schools of his day but stretches forth to the present, causing students to be looked at not as autonomous human beings but as malleable cogs in a greater societal wheel.

Finally, we will examine Dewey’s views on faith, God and man.  In 1897 in My Pedagogic Creed, Dewey wrote,

“The teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usher of the true kingdom of God.”

Despite his strict religious upbringing, Dewey had, like many philosophers of his day, abandoned his belief in a deity.  In fact, Dewey co-authored the Humanist Manifesto I which stated, in part,

“The basis of humanist belief is that there is no Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of life. Humanists believe that man is his own god. They believe that moral values are relative, devised according to the needs of particular people, and that ethics are likewise situational.”

As we lament the lack of ethical instruction or emphasis in today’s schools, the moral relativism and secular humanism, we can look backward at the “father” of our educational system and give a nod to his influence.

Lest we think that Dewey is simply a dead philosopher whose ideas don’t matter, it is important to note that commentators confess that his ideas have figured most prominently in American education for the last century.  No other ideologue has had as much influence as Dewey.  And while the philosophies might be renamed or repackaged, they remain static.

There is now, and has been for a long time, a move to creating “global citizens,” “social thinkers,” and “teacher guides.”  Cathy Wells, CSCOPE ArticleCommon Core and CSCOPE are merely the culmination of a century of honing an idea that rejects traditionalism and faith and tries to implement instead a progressive notion of man as God and the state as a family.

Cathy Wells (right) is a NorthTexas wife, mother, educational historian, private tutor & school instructor, freelance writer and Constitutionalist.

Jeanine McGregor Ms. MacSMALL SERIES EDITOR Jeanine McGregor (left,) known to most in the Texas Education Debate as ”Ms. Mac”, is an Award-Winning Teacher, an educational researcher, and an author-publisher as CEO of Character of American Productions. She is also producer of Ms. Mac’s Schoolhouse, and the innovative “Ms. Mac TV” Program.

 

 

 

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Thomas Ratliff the Loser!

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loser

 

 

The Ethics Complaint by Thomas Ratliff against Alice Linahan

May very well have been prompted by this Women On the Wall.org conference call the night before the complaint was filed.

 

 

 

On this call it seems we were hitting the nail on the head.

 

From exposing what is happening to teachers and students because of the Common Core philosophy of education coming into every classroom in Texas- Public, Private and Charter schools to the financial corruption within the education bureaucracy led by the Ratliff family.

It is a Federal Take Over of Education marketed as 21st Century Learning/Common Core. Some like the Ratliff’s are raking in the money, while our schools are broke and wonderful teachers are leaving.  Reports are in Tyler ISD over 45 teachers have left due to CSCOPE.

 

Over the weekend I received notice that Thomas Ratliff’s ethics complaint against me was Rejected. 

While this is a great victory the question becomes what was the motive behind the complaint. Was it to silence a Texas Mom from working to organize other Moms and Dads against CSCOPE Texas’ version of Common Core.

An interesting tactic we have seen from folks like Ratliff is to file an ethics complaint to marginalize opposition in coordination with the mainstream media.

Let’s see if the Fort Worth Star Telegram covers the “Rejection” part of the story. They put this article out  on Saturday mentioning myself, Voices Empower and Women On the Wall. 

The Ethics Commission vs. Empower Texans: Who’s so nuts?

Here a a copy of the Thomas Ratliff Ethics complaint Rejection letter. 

I would like to suggest you join me in REJECTING Thomas Ratliff and the Common Core philosophy of Education that is coming in every corner of Education in America by giving our children back the ”Gift of American Exceptionalism” support Women On the Wall’s latest campaign. #CanISee. 

Now is the time to go into your child’s classroom and say……..

#CanISee Backpack and Boots on the Ground

 

 

Things you need to know-

 

School-board-300x163

 

 

 

 

Headline in Longview News-Journal Sunday Morning 11/17/2013

 

Longview News

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“Bias in School Lessons: Common Core’s Global Warming”

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GLOBAL WARMING HOAS

CSCOPE & Common Core are  riddled with Global Warming Propaganda. 

“Bias in School Lessons: Common Core’s Global Warming”

Countered by Henry W. Burke (with introductory comments from Donna Garner)

11.16.13

 

 Instructional materials such as the ones attached to this e-mail have been popping up in Texas elementary classrooms.  The content reflects the intent of Common Core Standards — to bias the way children think and to indoctrinate them at an early age to believe in such concepts as environmental extremism, global warming, and climate change.  

 

In a few schools, parents have found that teachers have cut off the bottom part of the worksheets in question so that parents will not see the words “Common Core Standards” printed at the bottom. 

 

When one mother went to her child’s school and said, “#Can I See… my child’s textbook and worksheets, she was told that the above attachments came from MentoringMinds.  [For documentation the mother then took a screenshot of the worksheets with her iPhone.]

 

When the parent contacted MentoringMinds, she was told that the worksheets in question are aligned with the Texas State Board of Education curriculum standards (TEKS) for science.  This is incorrect information as explained by Henry W. Burke further on down this page.

 

 

(FYI:  Here is the contact information for the employee at MentoringMinds:  Brittany Dickey, Inside Sales Support, [direct] 855.780.9892 * [p] 800.585.5258 * [f] 800.838.8186
[cid:image007.png@01CCF0B2.A14684E0]<http://www.mentoringminds.com/social> )

 

 

Below is Henry W. Burke’s response to the worksheets in question.  Please feel free to share this information widely so that people will be prepared to counter the bogus arguments from such publishing companies as MentoringMinds.

 

 

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

 

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Response to Mentoring Minds Worksheet on Global Warming

 

by Henry W. Burke

 

11.16.13

 

 

 

I will start with the TEKS requirements.  In Brittany Dickey’s 11.15.13 letter, she said the “Fuel Facts” page was written to address the following TEKS: 

 

                   5.7(A) explore the processes that led to the formation of sedimentary rocks and fossil fuels;

5.7(C) identify alternative energy resources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biofuels

4.7(C) identify and classify Earth’s renewable resources, including air, plants, water, and animals; and nonrenewable resources, including coal, oil, and natural gas; and the importance of conservation. (tested in 5th)

5.1 (B) make informed choices in the conservation, disposal, and recycling of materials.

 

 

 

The Texas TEKS for Science do not state that global warming exists and is caused by human activities.  Of course, students should have a good understanding of renewable and non-renewable resources.  Likewise, citizens need to appreciate how to conserve energy and protect our environment.

 

 

One of the Mentoring Minds cartoons says the following:

 

          Fossil fuels are not good for the environment.  They produce carbon dioxide when burned.  Many scientists believe this is causing the Earth to get warmer.

IMG_1623 IMG_1627

 

IMG_1628

 

 

Mentoring Minds has injected their mindset and bias toward global warming into the subject matter.  To address their statements, I need to explain some scientific facts.

 

 

I am a Civil Engineer who depends upon real, proven science not “junk science.”  I served as a Sanitary Engineer in the National Air Pollution Control Administration (NAPCA) from 1968 to 1970.

 

 

The global warming proponents needed to create a future catastrophe to gain people’s attention and support.  They had to convince enough people that the earth is getting warmer and that man is causing this warming.  This is their false reasoning.  When man-made global warming raises the earth’s temperature, the earth’s ice would melt and cause catastrophic flooding of the coastal cities. 

 

 

They started with a known scientific fact (the greenhouse effect) and coupled it with human-caused carbon dioxide to produce a false conclusion.  We know that fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide (and other products of combustion) when they are burned.  Air pollution control measures have drastically reduced the amount of harmful air pollutants emitted into the atmosphere.  America’s air is cleaner as a result of our air pollution control efforts.

 

 

The greenhouse effect is real and it helps to regulate the temperature of our planet.  The Earth’s greenhouse effect is good because it keeps the Earth warm and makes our planet habitable.  Without a natural greenhouse effect, the temperature of the Earth would be about zero degrees F (and look much like Mars) instead of its present 57 ºF.

 

 

 

The basic premise (first assumption) behind global warming is that increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing the Earth’s atmosphere to become warmer.  The National Center for Policy Analysis determined:

 

Over long periods of time, there is no close relationship between CO2 levels and temperature.  The Earth’s average temperature has risen a little less than 1oC over the past century.  Although almost half of this warming occurred before 1940, greenhouse gas emissions began to rise substantially only after the 1950s.

 

            http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/GlobalWarmingPrimer.pdf

 

The second assumption with global warming is that CO2 is a poison.  I have never seen a health effect study that showed CO2 was a poison and was harmful to humans.  When we were developing air quality criteria documents in NAPCA for the various air pollutants, we would have ridiculed anyone who suggested that carbon dioxide was an air pollutant!  CO2 is not an air pollutant and it is not a poison! 

 

 

We exhale CO2 and much of it is taken up by plants.  Actually, about 40 % of CO2 is reabsorbed by plants and trees.  The statistics on carbon dioxide emissions usually disregard the percentage that is reabsorbed by plants.

 

 

 

The key to the global warming alarmists’ work is to tie increasing atmospheric temperatures to higher levels of CO2, but not just any CO2; it must be CO­2   produced by human activities (anthropogenic). 

 

 

 

Temperatures are increasing somewhat as we recover from the “Little Ice Age” that occurred in the early 1800s.  It may become warmer without any human assistance. 

 

 

The (U.S.) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the National Climatic Data Center.  The recent report, “Global Climate Change Indicators,” stated:

 

          Global average temperature is one of the most-cited indicators of global climate change, and shows an increase of approximately 1.4°F since the early 20th Century. 

 

            http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/indicators/

 

The NOAA “State of the Climate-2012” report indicated:

           

            The global annual temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.06°C (0.11°F) per decade since 1880and at an average rate of 0.16°C (0.28°F) per decade since 1970.

          http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/na.html

 

 

NOAA determined that the Contiguous United States temperature trend is 0.09 ºF per decade, for the full period from 1895 to 2012.  For the much shorter recent period from 1997 to 2012, the temperature trend is (a declining) – 0.71 ºF per decade.  Instead of getting warmer (as the global warming advocates claim), the earth may actually be cooling.

 

 

 

Many environmentalists are using the term “global climate change” instead of “global warming.”  Apparently they haven’t decided whether the earth is getting warmer or cooler; with the new term, they are covered either way. 

 

 

 

When the textbook companies produce instructional materials (IM) for the Texas schools, they should stick with the TEKS and avoid introducing their Common Core-driven biases.  Global warming (a.k.a. “climate change”) is not proven science!

 

=========================================

 

 

Bio for Henry W. Burke

 

 

Henry Burke is a Civil Engineer  with a B.S.C.E. and M.S.C.E.  He has been a Registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) for 37 years and has worked as a Civil Engineer in construction for over 40 years. 

 

Henry Burke has experience in the air pollution control field through employment with the National Air Pollution Control Administration (NAPCA).  

 

Mr. Burke had a successful 27-year career with a large construction contractor. 

 

Henry Burke serves as a full-time volunteer to oversee various construction projects. He has written numerous articles on education, engineering, construction, environmental issues, politics, taxes, and the economy.

 

 

Henry W. Burke

E-mail:  hwburke@cox.net 

 

 

 

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Common Core in Texas @ Spring Hill ISD

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download

 

Texas is one of five states that did not adopt the Obama’s Progressive Common Core Education Standards. The 83rd legislature passed HB 462 prohibiting the adoption and use of Common Core in Texas. Despite the law numerous school districts across the state are ignoring the law. I wrote about Waco ISD and its use of common core and now we have been alerted to Spring Hill ISD using Common Core stands. Below are homework papers one 1st grade student brought home.

I have been begging parents across the state to please wake up and pay attention to what is going on not just in your child’s classroom but the ideology that administrators are trying to implement district wide across the state; which is a progressive one. It is called Type 2 in education establishment and it is built around the collective and not individual achievement, often referred to as Project Based Learning (PBL).  Parents and taxpayers need to pay close to the financials as well. Despite the millions of dollars running through your local school district the education establishment still lobby for more funds.

 

****The same progressive educators behind Common Core are the same behind Cscope. It is the same Marxist philosophy built around the collective to create diversity, equity and globalization. ****

common core

Who is behind Common Core and the progressive ideology across the Country? 

 

 

PBL COMPARISON

 

 

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Beaumont ISD Raided by FBI – Admins Stole Millions – Texas to Take Over School District?

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by David Bellow

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has raided the Beaumont Independent School District and homes of two top School Officials. The FBI is assisting the US Attorney’s Office investigate allegations that School Officials created bogus accounts to steal money from the school and from the taxpayers. There is no official figure but rumors are that the total stolen could be in the millions of dollars.

No one should really be surprised at this I suppose. We are talking about the notoriously corrupt Beaumont ISD. I have written several articles about Beaumont ISD corruption in the last few years and I never even scratched the surface. My most recent article about Beaumont ISD was only a couple of weeks ago and was about a Federal Judge ruling the Beaumont ISD/DOJ election was illegal and also about BISD paying a top Administrator, Jessie Haynes, to be a fugitive.

According to KBMT Channel 12 News in Beaumont, “Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the administration building early Thursday morning. They also raided the home of the district’s Director of Finance Devin McCraney and the home of District Comptroller Sharika Allison.”

The Texas Education Agency is currently investigating BISD. It is believed that the TEA discovered the mismanaged money trail and contacted the Federal Authorities which led to the raid. The State of Texas denies that they knew anything of the FBI raid and the TEA says their investigation is unrelated to what the FBI is investigating.

Will this latest incident be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and forces the State of Texas to take over Beaumont ISD? This would not be the first time. Beaumont ISD has a long history of corruption and the State of Texas has had to take over the School District at least once before.

BISD School Board Member Mike Neil has been fighting to correct problems in the school district ever since he was elected. Neil told KFDM Channel 6 Newsin Beaumont, “There’s no doubt in my mind there’s been corruption in the past,” said Neil. “Whether or not there’s currently corruption, I’m not going to say. But there’s no doubt in my mind this is not a correctly run district, especially from a business standpoint.”

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A TEXAS BULLY! State Board of Education Member Thomas Ratliff

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mean ratliff

 

What would our Commander in Chief Obama and Thomas Ratliff have in common? They are elected representatives that will stop at nothing to accomplish their agenda, for example using “ethics” in intimidating and silence voters from speaking out against their progressive policies or agenda.

Texas State Board of Education member Robert Thomas Ratliff is the son of former Texas Lt Governor Bill Ratliff and brother of Texas Rep. Bennett Ratliff. All three have involved themselves within the Texas education establishment in some shape or form. It appears their goal is that of implementing a progressive ideology within the Texas School System and a  financial one.

Activist across the State have been fighting the progressive/Marxist Texas curriculum CSCOPE for over a year. Who would have thought one of elected officials  would be more concerned with his Lobbying agenda than representing those that elected him. Yes you heard it right! Thomas Ratliff is a paid lobbyist for Microsoft and with the implementation of CSCOPE/Project Based Learning his lobbying job pays off. Despite the fact that is illegal for him to be a paid lobbyist and sit on the SBOE, Thomas has no respect for the rule of Law but seems obsessed in verifying that others abide by it, especially one Texas mom.

In my battle of fighting CSCOPE moms across the state joined in to help educate others. One of those moms was Alice Linahan. I met Alice at an online/blogging conference. Alice is also very politically active and after realizing what was transpiring in Texas school districts across the state  she became involved in exposing it so parents and taxpayers would be informed.

Ratliff obviously had his hand in the cookie jar when it came to CSCOPE. He has filed an ethic charge against Alice Linahan claiming she is a lobbyist that has not filed as such. Here is a copy of his ethics charge. ETHIC CHARGE AGAINST ALICE LINAHAN BY THOMAS RATLIFF. WHAT A  Texas BULLY!

 

Please Check out what Alice Linahan has to say about this HERE. 

 

 

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1st Amendment to Prevent Prayer in School?

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no prayer

 

It is so sad  what Texas ISD’s are teaching our children today. If parents do not get involved and active in your local school district this will not STOP and will only get worse. America cannot survive the indoctrination.

Chris Blystone a father in the Texas Winnsboro ISD contacted me today to inform me of a study guide his son brought home describing the 1st amendment is what “protects and prevents” prayer in school. The second amendment was so people could feed their families and now is outdated and no longer needed, etc..

 

Chris contacted superintendent, Dr. Mark Bosold requesting for his son to bring home his textbook. The superintendent responded with “our budget doesn’t permit textbooks to come home but he was welcomed to come and view the textbook at the school”.  Seriously? Come to the school and view a 500 page book? I would be surprised if they even have a textbook; after looking at the school website and finding they are still utilizing the controversial curriculum CSCOPE. CSCOPE is the curriculum that educators  tried hiding from parents for years. You would think the exposure and backlash from Texans would stop and embarrass these progressive radicals but no they want stop at indoctrinating your children. WAKE UP TEXAS!!!

 

winnsboro curriculum

Below is the father’s facebook post..

blystone

us constitution

1st amendment

2nd amendment photo

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Progressive Type 2 Philosophy in Texas Schools… Where is Gov Perry?

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With the implementation of the Texas Curriculum CSCOPE and the teaching philosophy of  Project Based Learning  a radical Transformation has taken place in your local Texas school district. Where is our Texas Governor on this issue? Perry is no where to found and has made zero comments on the issue. Our children and ultimately our country will suffer from this.

A traditional education (Type 1) has been eliminated by the progressive education establishment (TASA, TASB, Superintendents, RATLIFF’s, ESC’s, etc) and the progressive Type #2 philosophy has been implemented. Please view the comparison between the two philosophies below.

TRADITIONAL (TYPE #1) vs. CSCOPE AND COMMON CORE STANDARDS (TYPE #2)

Symptoms-Slide1

 

Chart produced by Carole H. Haynes, Ph.D. – chaynes777@gmail.com – 469–867-3086

 

 

 

 

Traditional Type #1Classical Learning CSCOPE Type #2Progressivism/Radical Common Core Standards   Type #2Social Justice Agenda
Instruction Direct instruction by teacher Self-directed learning, group-think Emphasis on subjectivity, feelings, emotions, beliefs,
Curriculum Academic, fact-based, skills, research Social concerns, project-based, constructivist, subjective, uses unproven fads and theories multiculturalism, political correctness, social engineering, globalism, evolution, sexual
Teacher’s role Authority figure, sets the plan for the class, academic instruction Facilitator freedom, contraceptives, environmental extremism,
Student’s role Learn from teacher, focus on factual learning, develop foundation skills for logical & analytical reasoning, independent thinking Students teach each other; focus on feelings, emotions, opinions; group-think global warming/climate change, victimization, diversity, acceptance of homosexuality as normal, & wealth redistribution.
English, Language Arts, Reading(ELAR) Phonics; classical literature; cursive handwriting; grammar; usage; correct spelling; expository, persuasive, research writing Whole language, balanced literacy, Guided Reading; no cursive writing instruction so can’t read primary documents of Founding Fathers  De-emphasis onDeclaration of Independence, Bill of RightsConstitution, Founding Fathers, national sovereignty, & American exceptionalism
Math “Drill and skill,” four math functions learned to automaticity Fuzzy math, rejects drill and memorization of math facts, dependent on calculators  
Social Studies Focus on American heritage/exceptionalism, national sovereignty, Founding Documents Diversity, multiculturalism, globalization, revisionist history, political correctness  
Character development Pro-faith, self control, personal responsibility, self-discipline, solid work ethic Secular, moral relativism, anti-faith, victimization  
Equality Equal opportunities Equal outcomes

 

Assessment Students evaluated by earned grades, objective tests Inflated grades, subjective assessments, evaluated based upon the value-system of the grader 

 

Outcomes Objective tests (right or wrong answers), emphasis on academic skills and knowledge Subjective assessments; emphasis on holistic, “feel-good” scoring
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Ratliff & Whiteker Share a “LOVE” for Education Transformation!

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Ratliffheart 1

State Board of Education Member Thomas Ratliff and Hudson ISD superintendent Mary Ann Whiteker seem to have a “love” in working together in   promoting a progressive ideology (Type 2 standards) within the Texas School System. Below you find find a press release authored by the two critiqued by Educator Donna Garner.

 

10-17-2013 A Critique by Donna Garner

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Can you say, “SUBJECTIVE SCORING?” Can you say, “PR GONE BERSERK”? Can you say, “RIGGED BY THE LOCAL ADMINISTRATORS TO MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK GOOD?” Can you say, “CLASSES WILL CONSTANTLY BE DISRUPTED FOR PHOTO-OP PROJECTS, FIELD TRIPS, COMMUNITY SERVICE ACTIVITIES, PARADES, CELEBRATIONS, GIGANTIC TECHIE-PRODUCED EVENTS — ALL OF WHICH WILL ROB THE SCHOOL DAY OF AN EMPHASIS ON ACADEMICS.”

 

October 14, 2013

PUBLIC SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

For several years we have advocated for a public school accountability system that looked at all 180 days of the school year, not just those days that involve a #2 pencil and a bubble sheet when our kids are taking the state’s standardized tests.

We’re proud to say the Texas Legislature, through the passage of House Bill 5, took public school accountability to the next level. Who benefits from this you ask? Parents, students, local communities, school boards, teachers, and taxpayers, just to name a few. How? Let us explain.

 

House Bill 5 added Section 39.0545 to the Education Code that will create a new LOCAL accountability system that will supplement the STATE accountability system. While the state’s system is still too focused on standardized test results that will grade schools with an over-simplified A-F rating, the local accountability system will look at fine arts, wellness and physical education, community and parental involvement, student participation in community service projects, workforce development, second language acquisition, dropout prevention, gifted and talented programs, and several others. Can you say transparency and accountability?

 

The results of these two accountability systems working together will better inform parents, local communities, interest groups, taxpayers and policymakers of what is really going on in Texas public schools. These two systems will show how school districts are preparing well-rounded students to have the tools to be good citizens, not just good test takers.

Here’s our unsolicited advice for school boards and school district leadership for the 1000+ public school districts. Don’t just tell us what you are doing well. Tell us where you feel you need improvement. Tell us about your shortcomings. Tell us about your successes. We all know public education, like life, can be messy and imperfect sometimes. If the public only sees the positives being reported, we’ll wonder what you’re not telling us. We have have seen countless examples of local communities rallying around their public schools in good times and bad. This will be no exception. Parents, local employers, school board members all stand ready to celebrate with you or roll up our sleeves and work with you, but it starts with open and robust communication.

We believe Texas owes a big THANK YOU to the 83rd Texas Legislature for giving our schools this new tool to inform local communities. We should mention the best part of this new law. It’s implemented and designed by LOCAL communities, without another unfunded mandate being passed by the legislature and implemented by the Texas Education Agency. God Bless Texas.

Here’s our request of the media. Please report the results of BOTH of these systems to our local communities. Please provide your readers/viewers with “The rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would say.

 

Thomas Ratliff Mary Ann Whiteker

Vice-Chair Superintendent

State Board of Education Hudson ISD, Lufkin

 

 

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ANOTHER PLAN ON THE WAY TO DESTROYING AN EMPHASIS ON ACADEMICS

 

Please read what another group of administrators is up to (excerpts from the 10.15.13 DMN article posted further on down the page).

 

The Texas High Performance Schools Consortium consortium is setting up its own accountability system and will try to “sell” the idea across the state. They are going to base their accountability system on the PSAT, SAT, and AP scores. Remember that all of these are products of The College Board which is now headed by David Coleman, the lead author of the Common Core Standards for English (i.e., ELA & Literacy in History, Social Studies, Science, and Technology). Coleman has already said he is going to align all of these products with the Common Core Standards.

 

Then, too, these administrators are also going to base scores on students’ portfolios. Do you know what this means? Portfolios are totally scored subjectively and will include techie-produced projects by students (constructivism gone wild). Portfolio assessments were tried in California 15 years ago, and they were a total failure because of their subjectivity. Kentucky also used subjective assessments some years ago. The grade inflation and lack of true accountability have been well documented in both states.

 Do you get it? The push by Ratliff, Whiteker, Texas High Performance Schools Consortium is to have subjective evaluations AND constructivist projects – Type #2 all the way! No “measuring stick” (STAAR/EOC’s) tied to Type #1 standards and tests…

 This is a huge coup for Microsoft, Gates, Pearson, TEKS Resource System, and all of the other big players who will make a fortune from Common Core Standards and techie-based, constructivist accountability systems.

 

These are the direct results of HB 5, HB 866, and the terrible damage that the 83rd Legislative Session did to our Texas public schools when they disrupted the roll out of the 4 x 4 and the Type #1 TEKS and Type #1 STAAR/EOC’s.

Now schools will take their eyes off the ball (academics) and will be double-minded as they attempt to implement a two-track system. This is the dumbing down of America and the indoctrination of our students.

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

 

 

=========

 

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20131014-texas-school-districts-plan-ratings-without-staar.ece

 

Texas school districts plan ratings without STAAR

 

By JEFFREY WEISS

STAFF WRITER

 

Published: October 14, 2013 10:56 PM

Updated: October 15, 2013 9:42 AM

Despite the governor’s veto, a coalition of Texas school districts is trying to create an accountability system that doesn’t depend on STAAR.

Members of the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium are set to meet in Dallas on Thursday to consider the framework of the new system. It would be voluntary and run parallel to the state ratings.

Current standards, mostly based on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, “focus on a shame and blame environment to drive school improvement,” said Dawson Orr, superintendent of Highland Park ISD, a consortium member.

 

The new idea uses other tests already employed by some school districts. It would tailor some ratings and standards locally. It isn’t designed to compare school districts or schools. There’s no set of rewards for success or penalties for failure.

 

…Northwest is a fast-growing district with about 17,000 students. About 20 percent are Hispanic and 6 percent are black. About a quarter are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

The system that Rue has been creating uses information the district is already gathering; no additional testing is needed.

“We’ve had all this data for years,” she said. “Now we’re going to share it.”

The consortium was created by state law in 2011, charged to develop “innovative, next-generation learning standards and assessment and accountability systems.”

 

The group’s leaders generally share a skepticism about the validity of the state’s tests and a preference for national tests such as the SAT and ACT. They oppose the use of “one-day, high-stakes” state tests as the most important tool of accountability. They want to use non-test techniques — portfolios, for instance — for aspects of education not easily captured on a multiple-choice exam. And they want much greater local control over how districts define success.

 

Their opponents, including some educators and business leaders, say the state tests are superior to national exams at determining whether students are learning the Texas-mandated curriculum. And that standards not based on tests given statewide are too easily manipulated.

 

A bill passed without opposition by state legislators this session would have granted the 23 districts in the consortium — with about 5 percent of the state’s students — the right to avoid some STAAR tests and the state’s ratings.

 

Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the bill.

 

“Flexibility and innovation are important, but we will not compromise academic rigor or student outcomes,” Perry wrote in his veto message.

 

What did that leave for the consortium? Several members have been working on developing an alternate accountability system for several years. So they’re going ahead with it even as they comply with state requirements.

 

“We hope to present information to those policymakers that this might be a better way to assess students,” Orr said.

Several North Texas districts are included in the consortium: Coppell, Duncanville, Highland Park, Irving, Lancaster, McKinney, Northwest, Richardson and Prosper.

The idea to be presented Thursday includes two components: one that might be roughly comparable across districts and one that would be intensely local.

The broad standards include checking reading, math and science for elementary and middle school students — but not every year for every grade. STAAR tests might be included. But other assessment tools that already test kids regularly through the school year could be employed.

 For high school students, measures of “postsecondary readiness” could include PSAT, SAT, AP and other national tests that some districts already provide for all students. A fourth category, “postsecondary success,” would use a tracking system that allows districts to follow the college record of graduates.

 

The local standards, created by each district, could include other ways to check on academic success, as well as assessing the effectiveness of career and technical training, measuring student engagement and determining how connected schools are to the community…

 

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COMMONCORE & CSCOPE WARNING!

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common Core flyer

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CSCOPE’S INDOCTRINATION

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CSCOPE has not been about teaching your children America Exceptionalism or love for our Country. There are no facts taught. Everything is up for debate working collaboratively!  There is no absolute truth with CSCOPE. Below is a question from a CSCOPE 5th grade assessment test. Why not teach was our Constitution and Bill of Rights actually say?

2nd amendment

The following is a question from a 5th grade SS Assessment as well. Surely 5th graders have more intelligence that this!

wind energy

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CSCOPE TEST ARE HURTING STUDENTS

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cscope FAILURE

 

I wished I could say the editorial statements below were surprising news but that would be far from the truth. We have been telling parents and the public going on a year now that CSCOPE (aka Teks Resource System) sets students up to fail. Students are not taking TEST as one would expect. They are taking assessments that are being data mined. The Assessments are not sent home for parents to review. A parent according to law can make an appointment and see the assessment once it has been administered. Parental involvement will be the ONLY thing that can change and fix the educational bureaucracy we now have in Texas. WAKE UP! GET INVOLVED AND ASK CAN I SEE!! #CANISEE

Victoria Advocate

 

CSCOPE TEST ARE HURTING STUDENTS IN VICTORIA

 

Editor, the Advocate:

Have you ever studied hard for a test and were confident that you knew the material, but when you read the test questions, they had little to do with what you studied? This is the feeling many students in Victoria I.S.D. are experiencing.

Teachers are trying their best to teach the students what is expected. Teachers use the textbook, outside materials, etc. But when test time comes, they have to use CSCOPE tests which are not coordinated with textbooks and other materials that have been taught. Vocabulary used on CSCOPE tests is much higher than the grade level in which it is given. Parents can find out their children’s test score, but they cannot look at the test. Why have a test that doesn’t coordinate with what is taught? Besides, the school district is paying big bucks for the CSCOPE tests.

Students used to take either the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or the California Achievement Test. During the year, teachers used textbooks and supplemental materials. They used tests created by the textbook or the teacher. At the end of the year, students took the ITBS or CAT.

Most states used these tests, so it was easy to rate the states according to achievement. Some states didn’t want their rating to be known, so each state began to make their own tests. It wasn’t long before “testing companies” began to create and sell tests to school districts, and they found out it was quite lucrative.

A “testing company” can’t suit their tests to what a teacher has taught in the classroom. It’s like a doctor examining Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith but giving Mr. Jones’ medicine to Mr. Smith and vice versa.

I know we have competent intelligent teachers in VISD. Aren’t we able to teach and test without all this “outside help?”

I saw a refreshing sight on the marquee at Our Lady of Victory Catholic School. It read, “ITBS tests Sept. 18-20.” They’re still using the tried and true after all these years. Jumping on band wagons has never been a good idea.

 

Virginia Turner, Victoria

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A SERIES on CSCOPE, PART 2 DIGGING STILL DEEPER, for TEXAS CHILDREN

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texas insider

By Janice VanCleave & Jeanine McGregor

NOcscope

Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – CSCOPE is not gone, it has just changed names. The 20 Texas Education Service Centers (ESC’s) are a true example of morphism. What was set up as 20 regional agencies to provide “affordable” and free quality educational services to school districts has morphed into a 20 headed monster. Sound  melodramatic? Sadly, it is true.

An Introduction: by Jeanine McGregor:

Texans by nature, design and heritage, are God-fearing, independent-minded, hard-working, individuals who stand for truth and justice.  When Texas turned down the highly-suspect federal program, Common Core, yielding to its  Jeanine McGregor Ms. MacSMALL own educational goals, parents and community leaders heralded our independent choice, little did we know that traitors amongst us, a.k.a. some liberal-minded Texas school administrators and superintendents, had joined forces to implement behind our backs a similar program, CSCOPE.

That, at the very least, was raw, untested, and poorly designed, and at the most was a highly-restrictive management framework, dipped in radical ideology, meant to control our children’s academic futures using fear and intimidation.

True Texans from across the state are waking up and speaking out.  The following is the first in a series of articles from individuals across Texas, meant to reveal the truth and empower the individual so that together we can stand up and say, “We’re from Texas.  We don’t like being lied to and we don’t ‘cotton to you messin’ with our children.”

____________________________________________________________

Is This Happening At Your School?

Janice VanCleave3eBy Janice VanCleave

CSCOPE is not gone, it has just changed names. The 20 Texas Education Service Centers are a true example of morphism.

What was set up as 20 regional agencies to provide “affordable” and free quality educational services to school districts has morphed into a 20 headed monster with appendages it can shed, much like a lizard can lose its tail and keep on going.

Severing the limb containing the CSCOPE Lessons was a minor setback. The lessons were not lost. Instead they are now snugly set in place in school districts with administrators dedicated to continuing this covert cause to remove parents from being a part of their children’s education; dedicated to continuing to set the educational bar so low that every student learns at an equally low level; dedicated to continue bullying teachers making them so fearful of losing their jobs that they must teach in secret–when the administrators, the CSCOPE Management CZARS, leave the school building.

Sounds very melodramatic doesn’t it? Sadly, it is true.

CSCOPEparentPortal1. Are CSCOPE Lessons, as well as assessments, a one-size-fits all?

The CSCOPE assessments are being given in some schools about every 3 weeks. This is in every subject, every grade, and at every ability-level. Some Advanced Placement students are required to take these tests!

You might ask how this could be, since the AP classes do not have to follow the same schedule as the “regular” classes. It doesn’t seem to matter. It’s the data that is being collected:

  • How many failed this?
  • Which race failed that?
  • Do white kids do better than black, Hispanic, or the “other” races?

If you have ever filled out a questionnaire for a political poll, you know that the results are (on average) going to be the way the politician wants them to be. Your kids are little more than political guinea pigs.

There is a point to what seems to be madness, and it has little to nothing to do with academics. It isn’t just that kids are being “brainwashed” into thinking that there has to be a big change in teaching methods, because after all we are in the 21st Century.  They need to learn how to Twitter and develop Facebook pages so they can get better jobs. Kids don’t cscope-arrowneed textbooks; they need ipads. Learn to read? Learn to write? No, they need to learn to TEXT (sic!) –  Thus they will be able to get better jobs – to become brain surgeons – those who know little about the brain, but are great with social media!

What about teachers? No problem here. The new CSCOPE teaching philosophy will in time displace certified teachers with “Guides on the SIDE.” Actually, certified teachers and school administrators are slowly being phased out.

At one time school board members represented the community. They hired certified personnel. Now, the 20 ESCs train and certify teachers, principals, supervisors, and superintendents. But, having the right certification is not required  by all school districts. Some superintendents hold the job position, but are not certified. The same is true with principals and other administrators.

Are your administrators certified for their jobs? You can find out at this State Websitehttps://secure.sbec.state.tx.us/SBECONLINE/virtcert.asp 

2. How many days of the school year are spent taking and preparing for tests?

The more tests students take, the fewer days teachers have to present information being assessed.

The more tests students take, the fewer days students have to prepare for the tests.

CSCOPE Tests are filled with errors. Teachers know this, but this year teachers do not have access to the CSCOPE tests cscope7duntil they are given to the students.

ALL TEACHERS DO NOT have the freedom to teach. If their administrators are following the CSCOPE Managing System, which gives administrators more controlling power and some love it, then teachers are to “goosestep” to the tune scripted by the ESC/CSCOPE directors. Sadly, these administrators are marching in step to the same tune but seem not to recognize the irony.

Parents, Don’t let the enchanted “song of the CSCOPE Sirens” lure you into believing your child is receiving the best 21st Century technology education with rigor necessary for the STAAR. Find out for yourself what is happening in your child’s classroom.

3. Is the teacher forced to give frequent CSCOPE assessments?

If so, she/he may be struggling to rush through topics in an effort to prepare kids for the next assessment and then the next and so on. Find out what teachers do during what is now facetiously called the teacher planning period. The CSCOPE teachers I correspond with have no time to plan their lessons, they are filling out data reports.

Find out if teachers in your school have to give CSCOPE assessments over material that hasn’t been introduced to your child. It is happening in some schools. It seems that these CSCOPE assessments are being given so data can be collected. What kind of data?

Also, since the STAAR/EOC Tests are given during the 5th 6-weeks of the school year, teachers are expected to teach 36 weeks worth of instruction material in less than 30 weeks. Think of all the days of instruction lost because of the extra cscope7cCSCOPE DATA-Collecting Assessments.

Now add to that the time scheduled before the STAAR/EOC TESTs for review of everything learned.

4. Are the grades on the CSCOPE Assessments being used to evaluate the progress of your child?

These assessments have so many errors. But if these grades are not used, teachers have to use another day to evaluate students. Another day of instruction lost.

Did you know that not all of the CSCOPE assessments are machine graded using the bubble in testing sheets. Some of the questions are subjective and teachers have to read these answers and determine if they are right or wrong. Then teachers have to bubble this information in on the data gathering forms.

5.  How much time do the teachers in your school spend collecting data, giving tests, instead of providing instructions?

Teachers are not to be “Sages on the Stage” providing information. Instead, they are to be “Guides on the Side” watching students discover information for themselves.

cscope7eThink About This!

A football coach demands and receives the attention of his players. Football coaches do not give the team an assignment and then have them form groups and discover on their own how to accomplish making touchdowns. Yet, parents are buying into the idea that in the classroom teachers need to present the class with a problem and then step back and let the kids share and research to discover the answers. WHY? Why would it work in the classroom and not on the football field?

I know that it doesn’t make sense that our entire country is embracing a progressive teaching philosophy that promotes “social learning,” which means students are expected to have experiences while sharing them with others.  They are also expected to conduct research via the web.   As a group, students will determine which information is relevant and important to them. This includes learning math processes necessary to solve problems.

I recommend that we all review the events that took place in Germany when Hitler took control. Are you aware that Hitler’s ideas about education very closely parallel with those of the current progressive teaching philosophy?  Hitler was more interested in directing the social and moral standards of children than emphasizing academics.

Sound familiar?

CSCOPE promotes leveling the playing field for all students. This eliminates challenging students who are at different levels. The argument that every student must be on the same page at the same time so that kids can move NOcscope3cfrom one location and not lose ground is a questionable motive.

Don’t be lured to the ‘rocks of destruction’ by the songs of the Social Education Progressive Sirens.

Parents, any school, using ESC/CSCOPE material, has administrators that are lying to you. I have read and evaluated every elementary CSCOPE lesson and assessment. This instruction material does not align with the state standards called TEKS because the content of the CSCOPE instruction material is not all correct.

There are many errors that are carried from one grade to the next. Last year teachers had to teach to the CSCOPE assessments, in doing this these teachers were teaching incorrect information.

Parents, the problems in Texas Education will be corrected when you demand it.

Janice VanCleave3e

Janice VanCleave (right) is an internationally-known author, as well as a Science Teacher from Riesel, Texas, who blogs on the Texas CSCOPE Review.

SERIES EDITOR Jeanine McGregor, known to most in the Texas Education Debate as ”Ms. Mac”, is an Award-Winning Teacher, an educational researcher, and an author-publisher as CEO of Character of American Productions. She is also producer of Ms. Mac’s Schoolhouse, and the innovative Ms. Mac TV” Program.

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A Series on CSCOPE, Part 1: Digger ‘ Deeper For The Sake of Texas Children

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texas insider

By Jeanine McGregor & Janice VanCleave

www.texasinsider.org

CSCOPE LogoTexas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – Texans by nature, design and heritage, are God-fearing, independent-minded, hard-working, individuals who stand for truth and justice.  When Texas turned down the highly-suspect federal program, Common Core,   yielding to its own educational goals, parents and community leaders heralded our independent choice, little did we know that traitors amongst us, a.k.a. some liberal-minded Texas school administrators and superintendents, had joined forces to implement behind our backs a similar program, CSCOPE.  CSCOPE Closed

That, at the very least, was raw, untested, and poorly designed, and at the most was a highly-restrictive management framework, dipped in radical ideology, meant to control our children’s academic futures using fear and intimidation.

True Texans from across the state are waking up and speaking out.  The following is the first in a series of articles from individuals across Texas, meant to reveal the truth and empower the individual so that together we can stand up and say, “We’re from Texas.  We don’t like being lied to and we don’t ‘cotton to you messin’ with our children.”

____________________________________________________________

Is This Happening At Your School?

Janice VanCleave3cBy Janice VanCleave

CSCOPE is not gone, it has just changed names. The 20 Texas Education Service Centers are a true example of morphism.

What was set up as 20 regional agencies to provide “affordable” and free quality educational services to school districts has morphed into a 20 headed monster with appendages it can shed, much like a lizard can lose its tail and keep on going.

Severing the limb containing the CSCOPE Lessons was a minor setback. The lessons were not lost. Instead they are now snugly set in place in school districts with administrators dedicated to continuing this covert cause to remove parents from being a part of their children’s education; dedicated to continuing to set the educational bar so low that every student learns at an equally low level; dedicated to continue bullying teachers making them so fearful of losing their jobs that they must teach in secret — when the administrators, the CSCOPE Management CZARS, leave the school building.

Sounds very melodramatic doesn’t it? Sadly, it is true.

But because it is so absolutely absurd for administrators to be working toward a goal that results in students failing the state tests, it is difficult to get people to believe that this is true. It is difficult for people to believe that Texas Education tea-logo3Agencies are purposely creating CSCOPE Instructional Materials with an ulterior goal of establishing a Controlling Management System.

But it has happened and has been very successful. The 20 ESCs are in control of most of the Texas Public Schools because they are in control of the administrators in these schools.

WATCH NOW: SBOE Ad Hoc CSCOPE Review Committee Hearing – September 13, 2013
[Archive Video Part 1]

Parents have bought into the sales pitch that the schools should provide RIGOR so that their children pass the STATE STAAR/EOC TESTS.

I doubt that parents have a clue as to what rigor is all about. Teachers seem equally uninformed. Who introduced the idea that the STAAR/EOCs TESTs would have more RIGOR and that the new TEKS have more RIGOR, thus curriculum with RIGOR is needed? The answer is from TEA! Yes, the Texas Education System–TEA. I asked TEA representatives about RIGOR-its definition and requirements. The answer was that TEA gave the ESCs approximately $200 MILLION dollars to provide materials, workshops, and website articles for Texas Educators.

YES. TEA GAVE THE 20 ESCS, WHO CREATED CSCOPE, MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS and thus far not one person, as far as I know, has demanded to know what they did with this money.

I know that they did not fulfill the specifications listed in the Rider 42 grant that provided the money. So why were they paid? Why does TEA continue to give the 20 ESCs money when these agencies are doing everything they can to TEA Exemplary 2010 Logotransform Texas Schools so that the students will not be taught facts needed for academic advancement?

Instead, The ESCs are transforming the instruction in Texas Schools so that students are learning social technology (Tweeting and developing Facebook pages), questioning the social, moral, patriotic, and religious values of parents.

Parents, if you are concerned about your child passing the state STAAR/EOC Tests, I suggest that you find out if collecting testing data is the focus of your school. Find out if the following describes how your children are being “educated.”

CSCOPE promotes that all children have an ‘equal education,’ thus the need for a one-size-fits-all instructional material and assessments. This is the definition of social learning — more appropriately called Socialism. 

CSCOPE promotes leveling the playing field for all students. This eliminates challenging students who are at different levels. The argument that every student must be on the same page at the same time so that kids can move from one location and not lose ground is a questionable motive. Don’t be lured to the ‘rocks of destruction’ by the songs of the Social Education Progressive Sirens.

Parents, any school, using ESC/CSCOPE material, has administrators that are lying to you. I have read and evaluated every elementary CSCOPE lesson and assessment. This instruction material does not align with the state standards called TEKS because the content of the CSCOPE instruction material is not all correct.

There are many errors that are carried from one grade to the next. Last year teachers had to teach to the CSCOPE assessments, in doing this these teachers were teaching incorrect information.

Parents, the problems in Texas Education will be corrected when you demand it.

Jeanine McGregor Ms. MacSMALL

Jeanine McGregor (right), known to most in the Texas Education Debate as ”Ms. Mac”, is an Award-Winning Teacher, an educational researcher, and an author-publisher as CEO of Character of American Productions. She is also producer of Ms. Mac’s Schoolhouse, and the innovative “Ms. Mac TV” Program.

Janice VanCleave3e

Janice VanCleave (left) is an internationally-known author, as well as a Science Teacher from Riesel, Texas, who blogs on the Texas CSCOPE Review.

 

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