Live play-by-play: TX Bd of Ed V: High School Teacher Panelists speak

[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.

Don McLeroy (R-The Faction, Bryan): wants re-wording to spell out reading Federalist papers. Wants to make clear that there is only ONE way to amend Constitution, rather than "processes." Terri Leo (R-The Faction, Spring): Wants Bible and William Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Law" as foundations for Declaration, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution. Expert recommended that on judicial branch instead of this place. Is social studies aligned with TAKS tests? That will be eliminated with the end-of-course tests. Bob Craig (R-Lubbock) not sure Bible has principles and ideas that underly that document, based on wording of TEKS. McElroy agrees that we are a secular state, but it is founded on Biblical principles--the Enlightenment sprung up in Christendom. Principles "truth, self-evident truth, created, and Creator". Atheist secularists say there is no God, we just evolved. That is clearly in contradiction to the Declaration. How did Montesquieu came up with 3 branches? Biblical view that man is fallen, a sinner, and can't be trusted, so you need checks and balances, McElroy says. Pat Hardy (R-Weatherford) wants to point out that NASA is in government TEKS as an example of executive agency. (This was question earlier of David Bradley.)

5:49 World Geography: Dave Hewlett--did an upgrade on old TEKS to clarify and make more student-friendly. Can we put that on the board and have students understand it? Added idea of newly-industrialized economies. Added ideas of genocide and pandemic. Pat Hardy (R-Weatherford) Dr Kracht (expert) mentioned some geographic terms that needed to be cleaned up. She will bring them back to panel to be certain. Gail Lowe (R-The Faction, Lampasas) is glad they were focusing on making standards easy to understand.

5:54 High School U.S. History: Debbie Pennington--many viewpoints can be included. Tried to balance both positive and negative in first draft, but understand that many points may need review. Did have discussion about how U.S. History should be divided amongst 5th, 8th, and 11th. Wanted curriculum to be rigorous and reflect end-of-course exam for course that begins in 1877, and focuses on application of founding documents. We put it in introduction to be sure all receive instruction, but not adding to assessment. Founding Fathers addressed as application in 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. So many wonderful historical figures--we couldn't include them all-we set criteria, and we are sharing them. We also had challenge of dealing with 21st century. This is a survey course--it takes time to really understand at depth.

Bob Craig (R-Lubbock): U.S. civil rights movement--evaluate change in U.S.--does that also include educational opportunities? And is this where Thurgood Marshall belongs? Pennington listed 15-18 names of civil rights leaders that were critical? It's also in history and in economics and in government. So we decided to put major organizations in, without having to spell out LULAC and NAACP. There are so many places to put Thurgood Marshall, we think they'll be able to do it. Don't want to limit him to just one place.  Even if his name is not there, but he'll come up if we talk about Brown vs. Board of Education. Pat Hardy (R-Weatherford) to change "significant advocacy organizations" (not just "conservative") to be more inclusive. Gail Lowe (R-The Faction, Lampasas) notes that MoveOn.org is in 10D. Pat Hardy says take it out there, and put it back in next to other advocacy organizations. Rise of domestic terrorism--what are the effects? Panel wasn't sure what they effects will be 10 years from now. Pat Hardy says growth of Homeland Security agency is one example. Mavis Knight (D-Dallas) suggests leaving which advocacy organizations to cover should be left to the teacher--only creates problems to list specific ones.

Don McLeroy (R-The Faction, Bryan) wants Civil Rights Bill's passage by mostly Republicans to be highlighted. Check and see who you can put in there. Also, why is "imperialism" added twice. America did not go around being imperialistic. See what David Barton had to say about imperialism--think about it some more. Minority members of team felt strongly that views of Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans and Filipinos concerning American acquisition of territory would not be taken into account if there is no such word. Barbara Cargill (R-The Faction, The Woodlands) says "expansionism" may help. Barbara is very concerned about word in 3C: "propaganda"--want another word that's not so negative. Cargill wants Admiral Nimitz left out--and was supposed to be added, but he wasn't. Omar Bradley and George Patton need to be included, said Cargill. Panel felt that discussing wars on two fronts will require coverage of them. Cargill says include them anyway--if students can memorize all the people on their iPods, they can memorize these wonderful historical figures. Cargill wants Verona papers added. Wants a woman or two added from earlier periods--panel tried to hit women from every decade from 1880 on, but will re-check. Ken Mercer (R-The Faction, San Antonio) do we talk about effects of nation of Israel's founding being part of World War II's conclusion? She says it could be covered in a few spots. Wants details on Civil Rights Act vote in 1964 and 1965--which Republicans and which Democrats voted for it. Also wants first Hispanic U.S. Senator and U.S. Congressman.

McLeroy has a problem with picking and choosing organizations--not sure how you pick them; less is more. Terri Leo (R-The Faction, Spring) spell out Omar Bradley, etc. so they wind up in the book--these were true patriots, and by law, we must teach patriotism. They must be specifically written in the TEKS so they make it into textbooks. Everything that has been done in U.S. has been accomplished by a majority vote. Minorities couldn't do it by themselves. Women's right to vote was decided by men.

6:21 Economics: Brenda Hudnill--proud that Texas requires this course. Reduced strands to three, in recognition of this being a single-semester course. We added capitalism in parentheses after "free-enterprise system" because this is the way the terminology is used today, and that both terms mean the same thing. We could not duplicate information from other courses, because we only have one semester. Satellite map of North Korea--faint glow of Pyongyang, but bright glow of South Korea--they have a better economic policy than North Korea. Will students understand this after course? Answer: profit motive and incentives for competition creates more wealth and growth. We cover how dictatorships and communist regimes do not do a good job of creating growth. McElroy wants the word "wealth" in particular.

6:29 Psychology: Courtney Donovan--TEKS should be a road-map that could be handed to a colleague without a background in psychology, they could get through it. TEKS before revision did not reflect subject of psychology.

Pat Hardy (R-Weatherford) feels strongly about strands, and agree that it is contrived to have strands in psychology. Mavis Knight (D-Dallas) was a psychology major, and thinks they've done an excellent job.

6:35 Sociology: Reginald Robinson--needed to re-work existing strands. No questions.

Mavis Knight (D-Dallas) passed out a list of individuals and events that should be included as appropriate to reflect the African-American experience in the history of the U.S.

6:37 Special Topics and Research Methods: Melinda Williams--elective courses to experience social science research and original investigation. Original TEKS were very brief. Panel took college readiness recommendations and put into TEKS. Expert reviewers made no recommendations in 1st round, and only one in 2nd round (was a misunderstanding anyway).

6:41 World History panelist was sick, but McElroy has comments for them anyway. Abraham and Israel left out of World History, and monotheistic religions' origin should be included there.
Christianity not mentioned as significant event or development either, only as a subset of Roman times. Needs more coverage of Israel. When we did social studies textbook adoption back then, we had no testifiers on World History books. Israel and Judaism didn't make it into Table of Contents of one book--just the middle of a paragraph. Moses isn't in there at all. Ancient Israel is mentioned 500BCE to 600CE, but it started much earlier than that. Christianity only mentioned in 600-1450 period, but started in previous period. Sorry that comparison of American Revolution vs. French Revolution was taken out. Glad to see "terrorism" used as a term. Not sure why taking out Churchill, Lenin, Mao, Gandhi, Pope Paul VI, Desmond Tutu, etc. Taking out "worldwide influence of Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian" principles of law. Keep famous inventors--why are they taking it out? Geraldine "Tincy" Miller (R-North Dallas) concerned that arts are left out of World History. Ken Mercer (R-The Faction, San Antonio) major political revolutions and new constitutions--choose some major countries and compare it to U.S. and our exceptionalism. Barbara Cargill (R-The Faction, The Woodlands) wants Puritan reformation teachings' influence on representative government to be emphasized. Wants role of women, children and families to be strengthened (instead of words being deleted).