Back to School

Hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to school we go.....

Monday marks the start of school for millions of Texas students. Ours are particularly lucky - we now have a district-wide curriculum, purchased at some exorbitant price with taxpayer dollars. The new Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum decided that the teachers in the district couldn't be trusted to know the TEKS and the best ways to teach them, so she bought pre-packaged curriculum for the entire district. The geography curriculum is horrible, it does not cover the TEKS in a way that will prepare students to take the new End-of-Course exam. Our school has been selected to participate in the "field test" next May. Although we will never get the scores, it would be nice to think our students will pass it. With C-SCOPE, the high-dollar curriculum, many won't. I have been in contact with a person on the EOC test review committee, and although the person can't say much, they did say C-SCOPE won't get the job done. The TEKS on physical/population/culture/urbanization are not covered in-depth in the new curriculum. I am hoping I can talk to the C&I folks and they will pay attention, but probably not. Dr. P has already made it clear she knows more than the teachers, who know nothing at all. We are all too Dopey.