Tx Bd of Ed: 11/20 L. Arts 2010 APPROVED, 2011 coming

All of the reading/literature programs were adopted so quickly and quietly that most observers missed it. After returning from break, Ken Mercer (R-The Faction, San Antonio) gave a grand "personal privilege" speech talking about how glorious it is that we've returned to phonics. "Our governor will be so proud," he said. "This is a historic moment in time."

Geraldine "Tincy" Miller (R-North Dallas) agreed and pointed out that nobody had signed up for public commentary on Reading. She says it's clear that hard work was done on committees to make sure these were solid curricula.

As for 2011, which is supposed to be spelling, handwriting, and language arts, the Board is upset that some language arts publishers appear to be poised to put spelling and handwriting materials into their language arts materials. (This happened with the reading in 2010.) The Board members are suspicious that districts will adopt only a language arts program with minimal spelling and handwriting support, and then file for a credit for not spending money on separate handwriting and spelling materials. Anita Givens of the Education Agency pointed out that they are hard to isolate--capitalization shows up in handwriting and in language arts.

The discussion of the 2011 "Questions and Answers" documents allows for the Board to emphasize how much they do not want TAKS to be used in the programs--a full description of how and what is and isn't permitted straight from the Agency's lawyers. But it is not enough for Cynthia Dunbar (R-The Faction, Richmond). "We don't want publishers telling the districts what aligns with the tests. The difference is between copyright/trademark law and what we as a Board want to instruct publishers about the materials we will be approving. We don't want them using that TAKS label, not because of copyright issues, but because we don't want it."