September 2009

The answer to "are they dropped or not?" is yes and yes, meaning the real answer is too complicated for a one-word answer. I've heard so much misinformation about this topic, that I'm going to try to set the record straight. It's a complex and twisted tale of unintended consequences and having too many cooks (Legislature + State Board of Education + local districts and their boards) with fingers in the broth. So bear with me, because to understand this properly, you have to start with a seemingly unrelated topic: Texas' three-tier system of high school graduation requirements...

Proclamation 2011 is for Language Arts, Spelling and Handwriting. In this case, the bids have not YET been submitted, so the Board has some more leeway. Once more, the 15% cut needs to be met, and all other approaches (checking ordering patterns and reforecasting; ordering 103%; etc.) is not enough.

The Board of Education postponed most of its agenda until today, after painstakingly working over every single grade level of social studies TEKS for about 10 hours yesterday (Thursday, 17 September--see previous posts). But first, the mariachi band from C.C. Winn High School  in Eagle Pass performed a brief concert of traditional border music, in black suits with silver trim, big black sombreros, and wide blue ties (and bows for the women).

[For those of you keeping score, the Board Agenda for today's meeting has 9 items on the agenda--we're still working on item 3 at 5:30 pm. It may be another late night...]

5:34 U.S. Government: Jody Casper--trying to consolidate student expectations in the way course is taught. Tie geography to congressional districts, for example. We do have seniors look at Federalist and anti-Federalist papers. Referenced more court cases, as teachers have asked. This is the only course addressing in-depth how government operates.