The Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative, (TESCCC) who owns CSCOPE were asked months ago to turn over their financials and have failed to do so until yesterday, May 10th. And I personally question what was turned over after taking this long and dragging their feet in being transparent. They have hidden the whole CSCOPE fiasco from the public by having teachers sign non disclosure statements, not disclosing the lesson content or financials when requested. Transparency is not this group’s forte. What are they hiding? Is is shocking to say the TESCCC board of directors, which are the directors of the Texas Education Service Centers are the men and women who have a great influence over our Texas School system, either directly or indirectly? Senator Dan Patrick had enough of their lollygagging and threatened them with a subpoena. Read the following ……
Senator Patrick posted the following post on his Face Book page
Friday May 10th.
Monday May 6th Senator Patrick addressed the following letter to TESCCC’s chairman of the board, Anne Poplin. (Note: there is an error in the following on the date. It should of stated May 10, 2013. ) I think they got the HINT though!
Senator Patrick’s Press Release as of Friday, May 10th. Please contact Sen. Patrick and tell him thank you for staying on top of this. Our children deserve better.
Reasons Superintendents and School Board Members Give for Purchasing CSCOPE
by Janice VanCleave
Rockwall Superintendent Bailey says that the CSCOPE tool provided many benefits to the district that were lacking. For example:
X 1. CSCOPE was developed by Texas teachers for Texas teachers that brought the pacing needed to cover all the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum content required by the state.
An X is placed by this reason because it cannot be true. Common sense confirms that it is not possible for the authors of the CSCOPE TEKS schedules called YAGs to have any information about the pacing of the TEKS.
BECAUSE:
The state standards called TAKS ended May 2010 and the new state standards called TEKS were introduced in Aug. 2010. Thus, the CSCOPE product used in May, 2010 had to be totally rewritten to be aligned with the new TEKS and ready for school in August, 2010.
X 2. CSCOPE also provided additional lesson resources that our teachers could utilize if they were to choose to do so. I would also note that when the administration was proposing CSCOPE there was no controversy surrounding its use by the more than 875 school districts across the state of Texas since 2006. In addition to public schools CSCOPE has been adopted by private schools, charter schools as well as private Christian schools.
This reason also gets an X for lack of originality. “Mom, All the kids are doing it.”
The Rockwall school board president said that Superintendent Bailey reported to the school board that his (Baily’s) leadership team had reviewed the CSCOPE tool along with the region 10 center and the CSCOPE developers.
This means the company selling CSCOPE told the leadership team that their product was great! Did the Rockwall leadership team expect them to say that their product filled with errors or that the science lessons do not correctly represent the science process skills? DUH!
Ed Vara with ESC XIII admits that there is no outside oversight of the CSCOPE Curriculum.
Superintendent Bailey said, “The CSCOPE representative attended our board workshop and participated in the presentations to the board. The board was comfortable that the district had done it due diligence before recommending the tool to the board.”
It is hard to comment on this statement. OF COURSE the CSCOPE representative attended and participated. DUH!!! Again, what did the superintendent think the CSCOPE representative was going to do. Tell the truth?
I have not met any CSCOPE representative that had a clue of the lesson content. In fact, I was told that others review the lessons. The CSCOPE representatives promote and sell. They have a really good sales pitch.
X3.CSCOPE is inexpensive.
This is absolutely not true. There hidden fees. But this lie comes from the ESCs.
Did ESC- 10 tell Mr. Bailey’s research team that $100 million dollars were provided in 2009 via Rider 42 grant for the purpose of developing TEKS instruction materials for Texas educators K-12.
That’s right. All 20 of the ESCs were given money not only to develop TEKS training but to provide this training at no expense to teachers. In the summer of 2010, teachers were paid a stipend to attend these science, math, and ELAR TEKS professional development academies. How many Rockwall teachers attended?
Following is the amount of money that ESC Region-10 received for the purpose of preparing Rockwall teachers to understand the TEKS they would be using in 2010-2011 for the first time. Yes! Your Region 10 Education Service Center was given $5,664,515 to develop TEKS materials so that Rockwall teachers would have the scope for the courses they taught as well as enough knowledge about the TEKS to develop their own TEKS schedule that would be aligned with the schools’s calendar.
Let me repeat this: In all, the 20 ESCs received $100 million dollars to develop and present TEKS professional development academies. The objective of these academies was for Texas Educators to have specificities for the TEKS K-12.
2009 REG X EDUCATION SERVICE CENTER —- 2,618,985
2010 REG X EDUCATION SERVICE CENTER — 3,045,533
Instead of making arrangements for Rockwall teacher to attend the FREE TEKS PD academies, CSCOPE was rented at a fee of $100 thousand dollars per year. This doesn’t include other fees charged.
According to Superintendent Bailey, “The cost to the district to create our own curriculum management tool would be approximately $300K+ per year (this is to create and maintain its own curriculum management tool).”
Does anyone have a clue what a curriculum management tool is? All I have discovered about CSCOPE is that its original goal was to give superintendents and school administrators the tools to micromanage teachers. In fact, CSCOPE’s administration workshops are focused on how to monitor teachers.
According to Superintendent Bailey, due to the state cutting $5B from public school funding two years ago it put school districts across the state in the position to make some very tough decisions. As a direct result of the cuts made by the state legislature the RISD has lost $15.7M dollars of funding over the last two years ($9.3M in year one and $6.4M in year two).
While Rockwall teachers may have been cut and classroom money for classroom supplies decreased, it did not stop Superintendent Bailey and the School Board members from spending school taxes to pay their personal fees and expenses to private organizations called “Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA)” and “Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).” These fees for 2011-2012 and 2012 – through Dec. 2012 is a total of $62,094.25. Which is more important, “Having teachers or for the school administrators and school board members to attend conferences at the expense of tax payers?”
X The Rockwall school board and the administration communicated that:
1. The lessons provided by the CSCOPE tool were optional.
2. Rockwall teachers are free to use their own lessons to present the content required by the TEKS.
3. The Rockwall school board and administration have full confidence in Rockwall classroom teachers and their ability to present the content required and to do so in a manner consistent with the values or our community. RISD has the best teachers in the state of Texas!
These statements get an X because if they were true, Rockwall would not have rented the CSCOPE micromanaging system. If they were true there would be no need to pay for the TEKS scheduling when the Rockwall teachers are more than competent to group the TEKS for their lessons into time frames. If the Rockwall teachers were really respected the administration would have provided the opportunity for them receive the FREE Rider 42 TEKS PD academy materials. The administration can still make these materials available by contacting Region 10 and requesting them.
Also, if CSCOPE was created by teachers for teachers, and the Rockwall administration and school board consider the Rockwall teachers the best in the state of Texas, why buy something that inferior teachers have produced?
FYI: *Rockwall Superintendent Jeff Bailey is listed as being part of the TASA Mission to Transform your schools. What exactly is Bailey trying to change? What are the goals of this transformation? In Feburary the goal of TASA was for Texas administrators to attend a conference in California where Linda Darling-Hammond was speaking on Common Core. TASA specifically said that Texas Superintendents needed to attend to learn how to implement common core into the Texas Schools. Is Superintendent Bailey transforming the Rockwall ISD into a school that will be controlled by the Federal Government. Yes! Texas Schools are independent and yes your superintendent can give this away by implementing common core standards. With these standards come federal money along with federal rules and regulations. Why would any superintendent support this? Superintendents who have pledged to be part of the TASA mission of transforming Texas schools are no longer as concerned about community input. Instead, they are marching to a different drummer called TASA/TASB.
The Texas 81st legislative session gave TEA & Texas Education Service Centers (ESC’S) millions through Rider 42 to development Professional Development Academies (PDA’S) at no cost for teachers, to prepare them for the new Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). At the same time the ESC directors developed their non profit, Texas Education Service Centers Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC), who then developed CSCOPE. Why? TESCCC has been leasing CSCOPE to school districts on a yearly basis. They then turned around and started charging teachers or districts for additional training in using CSCOPE. The ESC did not stop there…. oh no…… they then began holding huge Conferences in the summer on the taxpayers dime as well, for educators. Talk about sucking as much as you can out of taxpayers… this is so Ridiculous.
While we are uncovering this the ESC directors are testifying in front of the Senate Education Committee and to any audience who cares to hear their lies that “teachers were begging for CSCOPE. It was developed by teachers for teachers”. If they would have used the millions given to them and advertised the “Professional Development Academies” for teachers to utilize, teachers would have had all they needed to prepare them for the new TEKS. Instead they were busy creating their new business TESCCC. For what?
I have emailed most of the directors of the ESC’s asking them why CSCOPE was needed when they were given money for the “Professional Development Academies” they have yet to respond.
Interested parties assert that student data collected by the Texas Education Agency should be made more accessible to researchers so that it can be used to improve the state’s education system. C.S.H.B. 2103 aims to provide for this increased accessibility and also seeks to establish an education research center advisory board and set limits on who can request research, which would allow the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to sift through fewer requests and approve researchers in a more timely manner.
I called Cathy Adams President of Texas Eagle Forum and she said quote:
“This would deepen the impact of “school-to-work” which is the German / Prussian education system.”. Ok Moms and Dads are you really ok with this?
What is a P20 Workforce Council ~
The P20 Council is to create a State DATA Base for Education Researchers.
The P20 will among other things – collect data P = Pre-kindergarten through 20 = 20 years of age
P20 database is tasked with collecting information (data points) on Texas students from early childhood to workforce-aged youngsters.
FERPA (Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act) laws changed in January of 2012, allowing PII to be used in more than 11 different ways WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM PARENTS OR STUDENTS
Call your Representative Today and Say NO to HB 2103. Why would we trust a P20 Board with our children and their Teacher’s private data when things like this are happening in Texas.
State Cscope Director Wade Laby and Texas Education Service Center Directors will continue to LIE and tell legislators, parents and communities that Cscope is not Pro Islamic but the mounting evidence proves otherwise. Below is a History Cscope Assessment question testing students on Sharia Law. SERIOUSLY!! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!
Cscope aligns with the TEKS? Where in the Texas Teks is Sharia Law listed? It isn’t! If you have questions as to why Cscope is testing your child or grandchildren on Islamic Sharia Law email the State Cscope Director Wade Labay at Wade.Labay@esc13.txed.net and ask him why?
I have research Cscope for over a year. My first findings was this Islamic Powerpoint. Notice on the Power point is dated 2008 on the bottom left of the front page. The powerpoint accompanies this lesson titled The Islamic World which calls for the teacher to hand out verses of the Quran to the students.
Please get involved and contact your superintendents and those in your communities and inform them about Cscope. Hold town hall meetings to inform your community. Our children deserve better.
There has been a concerted attempt lately to try to downplay the negative aspects of sharia law in order to mainstream its acceptance into Western legal systems. I think it’s important to show the reality of what sharia law entails in order for a wider audience to fully grasp its ramifications. Reading words on paper about how incompatible it is with Western law is wholly different from seeing innocent women being murdered for the slightest triviality. Video link here. (hat tip Golem)
CSCOPE Curriculum Designer Employed by CCSSO Partner to Aid in Implementing
Common Core
Posted on March 19, 2013 By Danette Clark
Grant Wiggins, one of eight designers of curriculum, standards and instruction of the pro-communist Texas CSCOPE curriculum, also provides professional development to aid educators in implementing the national Common Core State Standards. Pearson, the education service company widely known for publishing textbooks, has partnered with the Council of Chief State School Officers in providing training and other resources to states implementing Common Core.
Pearson is the company who helps create, prints, and scores the Texas State STAAR tests. This company also publishes booklets to help students study for the STAAR tests. These should be good booklets since Pearson knows exactly what is on the STAAR tests. UUM! Do you think this might be a conflict of interest? No more than Pat Hardy, State Board of Education member who reviews the STAAR tests and promotes CSCOPE, stating that the CSCOPE assessments and STAAR tests are similar in type. Comment by Janice
Through the ‘Pearson Common Core Institute’, Wiggins provides instruction via several Pearson Common Core webinar videos. In one such webinar, Wiggins discusses “how issues of backward transfer relate to the Common Core”.
Why does the Texas SBOE give Pearson contracts to print GED material, all the STAARs, and then Texas allowed Pearson to purchase Texas online virtual education?
Pearson also supports TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators) who are working to implement common core into Texas schools.
‘Backward transfer’ (also commonly referred to as ‘backward design’ or ‘planning backwards’) is part of the Understanding by Design® framework for curriculum, assessment, and learning created by Wiggins and co-author, Jay McTighe, also a designer of CSCOPE.
As explained hereand here, the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) is the progressive education reform movement behind both CSCOPE and Common Core. Grant Wiggins has worked with the Coalition of Essential Schools for many years, studying CES method and pedagogy, and incorporating them into the creation of his own curriculum and instruction design for use in CES schools. A staple of the CES reform model has long been the use of ’essential questions’ in identifying desired results of teacher instruction.
Stage one of Wiggins and McTighe’s backward design process is identifying essential questions.
In 2011 and 2012, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) partnered with ASCD (the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) to hold statewide summits in several states on the implementation of Common Core. Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design® was originally published by ASCD. Read about Texas ASCD’s involvement with the Coalition of Essential Schools and CSCOPE here and here. Also, read more about Wiggins and others behind the Coalition of Essential Schools at Name Names — The People Behind the Largest Progressive Indoctrination Movement in the U.S.
The men and women on the Board of Directors of Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC), who own Cscope, the progressive/Marxist curriculum in Texas Schools in my opinion need to be in jail. What a nefarious act to implement a Marxist philosophy of education in our Texas schools for the last 6–7 years where parents could not see the lessons and teachers had to sign a non-disclosure statement that they would not release the contents or say anything negative about it. Then we have the question of where is all this money. Is this another ENRON situation a ponzi scheme. For our Texas Education Service Center Directors to form a non-profit using tax payers money to create their “Cscope” product and sell it out of our of our State Agencies using State employees? There are many questions that have not been answered. This is ESC Director XIII Terry Smith’s response being questioned as the money trail.
Communist Vladimir Lenin once quoted “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted”. Unfortunately for millions of Texas school children and unbeknownest to their parents Texas students have sat under the Marxist philosophy of the Cscope Curriculum.
I have spent the last year trying to notify community leaders, parents through every social media sight I could find. I have met with Cscope reps and spoke at Willis ISD school Board Meeting only to be lambasted by a Cscope Coordinator from ESC Region VI. You can read the whole story HERE.
I emailed teachers and school staff about my concerns and Superintendent Dan Powell from Crowley ISD in his most professional manner sent me the following response.
This is absolute non-sense! You are either crazy or ridiculously mistaken. As a Christian and patriotic American, I am most offended by your lies! Take me off your mailing list immediately, and find a shrink. Dan Powell
If you feel like contacting Mr. Powell about your concerns in regard to Cscope his email is dan.powell@crowley.k12.tx.us
Action Item….Texans we have to contact our State Reps and have them sign onto Steve Toth’s HB 760 or this will happen again.
Additional Information on Cscope can be found @ TXCSCOPEREVIEW
The students are also asked to read the quotes below from the socialist reformer Robert Owen who was known thinking that all religions were “based on the same absurd imagination” which he said made mankind “a weak, imbecile animal; a furious bigot and fanatic; or a miserable hypocrite.”
American Exceptionalism will no longer exist in the minds of our children. Texas has joined ranks with the leftist agenda in indoctrinating our children with a progressive ideology. Over 70% of Texas public schools, some private and charter have purchased and implemented the progressive curriculum, Cscope. Cscope is based on Obama’s Common Core. Common Core advocate Linda Darling Hammond is a top education adviser to Obama and is also associated with communist revolutionary Bill Ayers. Linda Darling Hammond has been a guest speaker at Cscope Conferences and is the quest speaker this February in California for the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Conference. Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) is gearing up to attend the National Conference and hear Linda Darling Hammond speak and promote Common Core which, Texas rejected. There fees and travel plans will be paid for with your tax dollars.
Cscope is owned by Texas Education Service Center’s Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC). The men and women behind Cscope are the Board of Directors of TESCCC which are the directors of the Texas Education Service Centers excluding ESC 4.
Our children are not being taught about the great men and women who sacrificed their lives for this country nor or they taught that these sacrifices attribute to the FREEDOM we have been so fortunate to enjoy.Instead our children are being indoctrinated with a pro Islamic, anti christian view. Texas students could benefit greatly from studying the lives of great men such as Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abe Lincoln or better yet the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. Unfortunately for our children Cscope writers felt it more important that 6 grade students chronicle Islamic Scholar Ibn Battuta’s pilgrimage to Mecca and Mohammad’s tomb in Medina. The fact that Cscope is pushing a pro Islamic view is indisputable. Time after time their agenda is exposed, and as soon as it is, the Cscope Reps run to pull the exposed material with a flip of a switch (due to it being an online curriculum). Fortunately there are many concerned about this indoctrination of our children that have already captured the original Cscope documents in order to verify Cscope’s intentions. Here is another captured portion of a 6 grade lesson indicating Cscope reps true intentions to indoctrinate your children with a pro Islamic view.
Cscope Pro Islam View
For additional information on Cscope and it’s indoctrination go to WWW.TXCSCOPEREVIEW.COM
Texas Teachers are being intimidated into not speaking out against Cscope, a Texas progressive curriculum.. Teachers had to sign a non dislosure statement that they will not speak negative against Cscope or disclose the content.
Teachers if you need to send information anonymously by email or snail mail…
1. Lindy McCulloch (ESC Cscope Director ESC Region VI) trying to intimidate me for speaking against Cscope at a Willis ISD Board Meeting. (I am not a teacher but I am giving teachers a voice).
In an attempt to alert the community of Crowley Texas about Cscope I sent the following email to varies email address I could find, pastors, govt officials, school administration, etc..
WARNINGTEXAS Parents, Grandparents, Pastors and Community Leaders
If you would like to have a Progressive, Anti Christian, Pro Islamic education for your child, look no further than your Texas Public Schools, charters and some christian private schools. Thanks to Texas Educations Service Centers and their creation of Cscope Curriculum we are now looking at the dumbing down of the Texas Education System. Sadly as the ESC directors and their reps profit financially the ones that will suffer are our children. Read more HERE;
The following is the response from Crowley ISD Superintendent Dan Powell in my attempt to alert the community in Crowley, Texas about Cscope. is what I emailed to school employees, teachers, community leaders and pastors.
This is absolute non-sense! You are either crazy or ridiculously mistaken. As a Christian and patriotic American, I am most offended by your lies! Take me off your mailing list immediately, and find a shrink. Dan Powell
What shocked me most about his response was his attempt to defend his faith and patriotism. Why?
SBOE Member THOMAS RATLIFF refers to those of concerned and
speaking out against the progressive indoctrination of our children
with Cscope as promoting a conspiracy theory and having part
