CSCOPE was not officially on the Wichita Falls ISD School Board agenda, but it was addressed anyway at length outside and inside the boardroom at Monday night’s meeting.
WFISD parent Eileen Levy organized a news conference on the steps of the Education Center directly before the regularly scheduled board meeting. The gathering drew the media and about 25 protesters opposing the controversial curriculum management system, which teachers use in all WFISD schools.
Inside the boardroom, four educators told board members what they liked about CSCOPE in the meeting’s open forum.
Then Superintendent John Frossard addressed CSCOPE exclusively in his superintendent’s report. “We’re not as far apart as you think we are,” he said.
Protesters at the rally that preceded the board meeting criticized objectionable CSCOPE content, the secret operations by parent company TESCCC, and the online curriculum that operates without textbooks. One also flagged the state’s continuing low test scores and rising number of Unacceptable-rated districts throughout the state despite CSCOPE.
They urged the elimination of CSCOPE.
Parent Stacy Flood told of her fifth-grade son’s grades that have spiraled downward during his exposure to CSCOPE.
“Over the past four years, we haven’t seen a math textbook come home once,” Flood said. “For a district that says they want parental involvement, they’re sure doing a great job of slamming the doors in our face.”
WFISD’s juvenile detention teacher, Bill Lockwood, criticized CSCOPE for content that he called “heavily pro-Islamic and anti-Christian in its slant.” He asked why teachers were so afraid to talk about it. “It’s been almost entirely secret for so long,” he said.
He was particularly appalled by a lesson that ranked a free market below communism and taught students that “we need to progress upward to communism,” he said. “It’s difficult to believe Texas would have this kind of material.”
Local parent Kim McClellan urged school board members to do their official duty by representing the wishes of the community, not themselves.
“They are to speak for us,” she said. “But they cannot speak for us if they do not hear from us.” She urged community members to “let them hear from you.”
In the open forum part of the official school board meeting, four WFISD employees spoke in favor of CSCOPE.
Teacher Kathryn Seegler said the district divides CSCOPE lessons into “Must Do” lessons (the best ones) and “Can Do” lessons (the average ones). “Throwing out the curriculum because of a few angry parents would be irresponsible,” she said.
Seegler invited board members to visit her classroom and see her teach a CSCOPE lesson. “I don’t think you’ll be disappointed,” she said.
Washington/Jackson Principal Sandy Camp said she polled her teachers about CSCOPE. Of those who responded, 89 percent favored CSCOPE. She urged protesters to help in a positive way by tutoring.
Frossard’s Superintendent’s Report called CSCOPE’s critics “well-intentioned citizens with legitimate concerns about CSCOPE.”
He knows the district needs a quality curriculum because students must meet state standards to graduate.
“As a district, we now find ourselves in the position of defending a handful of poorly written CSCOPE lessons that we didn’t develop and we didn’t implement,” he said.
WFISD has not yet fully implemented CSCOPE’s most controversial social studies lessons.
“I can be impartial because I wasn’t involved in the initial CSCOPE decision,” he said.
The CSCOPE issue touches on powerful competing interests, such as the multimillion-dollar textbook industry, rival curriculums and private school voucher advocates, he said.
“Let’s not pretend this debate is really about an attack on Christianity. Don’t misunderstand me — for many well-meaning citizens, they’ve been led to believe it is,” he said. “To imply that they (teachers who wrote CSCOPE) are all anti-Christian, anti-American, Marxist, pro-Middle Eastern educators is wrong, and such rhetoric sets a poor example for our children.”
Frossard said he is examining other options.
Of 10 larger districts who use their own locally developed curriculums, only one was for sale — and only for secondary grades.
Any new curriculum would bring some of the same problems, he predicted.
Frossard advocated for a balanced approach that “utilizes all of the resources we have available.”
He will wait to implement CSCOPE’s social studies curriculum until the state’s ad hoc committee appointed by the State Board of Education approves it, he said.
Meanwhile, he wants teachers to drive the teaching and learning while the district maintains quality control.
“As long as we have an expedited process to report, review and revise or exclude any objectionable lessons, I believe CSCOPE should be one of many resources used in our local curriculum,” Frossard said.
He will push for modifying the use of CSCOPE, increasing the use of district-developed master lessons, monitoring CSCOPE’s licensing fees, keeping an eye on its ad hoc committee recommendations, and making sure CSCOPE fixes its questionable lessons.
Follow Ann Work on Twitter @AnnWork1.
