Hi Ginger,
My name is Christy Zamora. We have talked briefly on Facebook. I am currently working to convince our local school board at Flour Bluff ISD to vote against renewing our contract for CSCOPE. I attempted this last year as well, but sat in the board room and watched as it passed 3-4. I would like to give you some of my background with this curriculum.
I started teaching at FBISD in August 2007. At the time our district already had CSCOPE, but it was not being utilized by the majority of teachers in the district. In kindergarten we used balanced literacy to teach all reading and writing components. Our day was structured around the balanced literacy components so that each lesson flowed together smoothly. Everything was taught with intent and purpose. You must know A before you can learn B. We scaffolded our students learning. There were times when we asked the students to take what we had taught and do something new with it, but we were delivering the instruction. For math, science, and social studies we were able to take the TEKS and form our own lessons around them. I chose to do these things through hands on methods. My class always hatched chickens, grew gardens, observed caterpillars transforming into butterflies, constructed 3D shapes using toothpicks and marshmallows, measured the length of blue whales in the hallway or out on the playground, made homemade butter and ice cream, had trash clean ups at various campuses, collected clothing for the needy and sorted it by size, and many other activities. For my first three years of teaching we used this approach and our students were successful and loved learning new things through hands on experiences.
However, in 2010-2011 our district began to realize that we were paying all of this money for a curriculum that teachers were not utilizing. Rather than ask the teachers why, they demanded that we begin using the lessons in the curriculum in place of what we had been doing. At the time I was a Balanced Literacy Lead Teacher. My campus principal came to me and asked me, along with two other lead teachers, to sit down and try to mesh our current balanced literacy program with CSCOPE. At first glance we knew it was going to be difficult, but the more we got into it the more we realized that it was not just difficult, it was impossible. Every component taught in balanced literacy is done so with purpose. Each lesson is taught in sequence because it is being built upon. CSCOPE on the other hand jumps from one concept to the next in a matter of days. It skips around in the concepts being taught and students NEVER get enough time to truly learn and master a skill before something new is taught. Generally each skill gets between 1-5 consecutive days in the curriculum before they move on to something else that may or may not build upon the skill just taught. Sometimes a skill is taught briefly in the first six weeks and revisited again in the sixth six weeks as if the students will remember that. We struggled through this process for the entire school year trying to make it work. Meanwhile, in my own classroom, it was business as usual. I was not going to teach this garbage to my students. I knew that if it had confused me this much just reading it that it would be harmful to my students to teach any part of it. At this time I had already won teacher of the year once and had been an HEB Excellence in Education Finalist once. Therefore, administrators left me alone. However, in the following school year, 2011-2012, the district realized that many teachers still weren’t teaching these lessons. Therefore, the brought in individuals from our ESC to monitor us. They would come to your classroom along with the superintendent and campus principal to make sure that you were teaching the correct lesson for that day and subject area. They also listened to see if you were using the correct language and asking the guiding questions. They would then give you “feedback” on what they thought. Some teachers were written up for not teaching what the lesson they were supposed to be on. Some were put on growth plans to get them back on track with the districts goals and visions for itself. I was never observed by these individuals, but I made the decision that year to resign from my teaching position. When I told them why I would be leaving they did not ask what they could do to get me to stay. They did not apologize for their hand in this. They sent me packing. As heartbroken as I was I knew I had made the right decision. I refused to stand in front of my students and read a scripted lesson that may or may not be giving accurate information. One administrator said, “It’s so easy to cover a class now because you can get any person off of the street and they can teach the lessons.” Excuse me?! I thought I was a professional! I also made the decision to fight for the other teachers in my district who did not want to use CSCOPE, but did not have the freedom to speak up for themselves. I spoke out to my campus administrators, our curriculum supervisors, our superintendent, my campus SBDM, and the school board. I told them how harmful this curriculum was and why teachers weren’t using it. I gave very specific examples from the curriculum and still they voted to keep this curriculum.
It has been such a relief to be out of that mess this year, but my two children are still attending this school. My parents were graduates of Flour Bluff. My brother and sister and I were all graduates of Flour Bluff, and I want my children to carry on the tradition and be graduates of this school as well. However, that is not what is in their best interest. This next board meeting at our school is going to be crucial in my decision as to whether my children will attend this school anymore. I need everyone to see just how corrupt this curriculum is and what it does to truly talented teachers. Our district used to have a hiring rule for teachers. You had to have either student taught in the district or had three years teaching experience or you wouldn’t be hired. Now, we rarely hire our student teachers and prefer teachers with no teaching experience. My theory behind this is because they want someone who they can mold. Someone who has never known what it is to really teach or write your own curriculum. They don’t want student teachers who have potentially been exposed to teachers who may have told them what CSCOPE really is. So here we sit, a district that was once highly sought after by teachers and parents alike, but now has a much higher teacher turnover rate every year (my campus of 21 teachers had 5 teachers quit, not retire, last year) and is scrutinized by knowledgeable parents and other area school districts. I am desperate to find a solution. I know that they are working on it at the state level, but we can’t wait that long. We have to act now or we will be stuck with it for another year. What can we do?
Sincerely,
Christy Zamora
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