8.23.22 – PM -- BREAKING: The Texas State Board of Education has decided not to take its First Reading vote (set for 8.30 – 9.2.22) of the proposed, new Social Studies curriculum standards (TEKS). Neither has the Texas Education Agency posted any new updated draft standards from the Work Groups. This means that the process of adoption of new Social Studies TEKS has been slowed down because of the wide concerns statewide over the Work Groups’ products.
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A friend asked me to respond to this information coming from Jaco Booyens Ministries about the adoption of Social Studies curriculum standards (TEKS) in Texas. https://jacobooyensministries.org/urgent-teks-action
I share similar concerns with him and many other Texans over the adoption of the new Social Studies TEKS, but there are a few things that I need to clarify for Jaco Booyens and for others who are struggling to understand the SBOE/TEA adoption process.
The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) did the right thing at their 8.1.22 Special Meeting by stopping Work Group E’s efforts. Work Group E had put very objectionable CRT (Critical Race Theory) in their draft. I am thankful that the SBOE members aggressively stopped that draft, and it needs to stay stopped!
Here is a link to the video of the 8.1.22 SBOE meeting: https://www.adminmonitor.com/tx/tea/sboe_special_meeting/20220801/
The important thing is that every single word in the new Social Studies TEKS will have to pass through the scrutiny of the elected SBOE members. The Work Group documents are basically meaningless so long as the SBOE members do not vote them in.
There will be opportunities in the TEKS-adoption process for many public hearings, and this is where we must get the conservatives educated and ready to voice their explicit praise and their explicit criticisms of the Social Studies TEKS. Being a generalist will not work when testifying before the SBOE. It is the specific passages in the Social Studies TEKS highlighted by our conservatives’ testimonies that will carry weight with the SBOE, and this means that those who testify must have spent hours and hours reading the lengthy TEKS Social Studies Work Group drafts. The testifiers need to make the SBOE members aware of specific wording that must be changed or eliminated.
We who care about our Texas public schools must work as hard as possible to get strong conservatives to run for the SBOE and then work like everything to get them elected. Thank God we have elected SBOE members in Texas. In many other states, the SBOE members are appointed. “We the People” do have a voice by voting for the right kind of SBOE members.
We also need to thank God that we have a wonderful Education Commissioner -- the best Commissioner I have ever known in my lifetime. Comm. Morath is a Type #1 supporter and does everything that lies in his power to influence the direction of the TEKS, the STAAR tests, the reading academies, the type of curriculum and library books adopted, etc. What he cannot do, however, is to tell local school districts which curriculum to select. Those decisions are made at the local level, and the local parents must get heavily involved.
Comm. Morth also has to abide by whatever the Texas Legislature passes.
(1) Remember that it is the Texas Legislature which determined some years ago that the instructional materials for a subject only have to have 50% of the content tied to the TEKS. That means the other 50% is up to the left-leaning, greedy publishers!
(2) It was also the Texas Legislature that passed SB 6 which allows local supes to purchase instructional materials (IM’s) NOT on the SBOE-approved adoption list. Those IM’s not on the SBOE-approved list may be purchased with Permanent School Funds. SB 6 ended up being a work-around to allow publishers (from anywhere in the world) to put IM’s into our Texas public schools that are not aligned with the TEKS adopted by the elected members of the SBOE.
If Jaco and other citizens want to do some very substantive things to protect our public school children, I would encourage them and everyone else to work very hard to pressure the Texas Legislature to rectify the two mistakes they made, mentioned in the above paragraphs.
8.24.22
“My Comments About Jaco Booyens Ministries – TX Social Studies Standards”
By Donna Garner
8.23.22 – PM -- BREAKING: The Texas State Board of Education has decided not to take its First Reading vote (set for 8.30 – 9.2.22) of the proposed, new Social Studies curriculum standards (TEKS). Neither has the Texas Education Agency posted any new updated draft standards from the Work Groups. This means that the process of adoption of new Social Studies TEKS has been slowed down because of the wide concerns statewide over the Work Groups’ products.
=====================================
A friend asked me to respond to this information coming from Jaco Booyens Ministries about the adoption of Social Studies curriculum standards (TEKS) in Texas. https://jacobooyensministries.org/urgent-teks-action
I share similar concerns with him and many other Texans over the adoption of the new Social Studies TEKS, but there are a few things that I need to clarify for Jaco Booyens and for others who are struggling to understand the SBOE/TEA adoption process.
The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) did the right thing at their 8.1.22 Special Meeting by stopping Work Group E’s efforts. Work Group E had put very objectionable CRT (Critical Race Theory) in their draft. I am thankful that the SBOE members aggressively stopped that draft, and it needs to stay stopped!
Here is a link to the video of the 8.1.22 SBOE meeting: https://www.adminmonitor.com/tx/tea/sboe_special_meeting/20220801/
The important thing is that every single word in the new Social Studies TEKS will have to pass through the scrutiny of the elected SBOE members. The Work Group documents are basically meaningless so long as the SBOE members do not vote them in.
There will be opportunities in the TEKS-adoption process for many public hearings, and this is where we must get the conservatives educated and ready to voice their explicit praise and their explicit criticisms of the Social Studies TEKS. Being a generalist will not work when testifying before the SBOE. It is the specific passages in the Social Studies TEKS highlighted by our conservatives’ testimonies that will carry weight with the SBOE, and this means that those who testify must have spent hours and hours reading the lengthy TEKS Social Studies Work Group drafts. The testifiers need to make the SBOE members aware of specific wording that must be changed or eliminated.
We who care about our Texas public schools must work as hard as possible to get strong conservatives to run for the SBOE and then work like everything to get them elected. Thank God we have elected SBOE members in Texas. In many other states, the SBOE members are appointed. “We the People” do have a voice by voting for the right kind of SBOE members.
We also need to thank God that we have a wonderful Education Commissioner -- the best Commissioner I have ever known in my lifetime. Comm. Morath is a Type #1 supporter and does everything that lies in his power to influence the direction of the TEKS, the STAAR tests, the reading academies, the type of curriculum and library books adopted, etc. What he cannot do, however, is to tell local school districts which curriculum to select. Those decisions are made at the local level, and the local parents must get heavily involved.
Comm. Morth also has to abide by whatever the Texas Legislature passes.
(1) Remember that it is the Texas Legislature which determined some years ago that the instructional materials for a subject only have to have 50% of the content tied to the TEKS. That means the other 50% is up to the left-leaning, greedy publishers!
(2) It was also the Texas Legislature that passed SB 6 which allows local supes to purchase instructional materials (IM’s) NOT on the SBOE-approved adoption list. Those IM’s not on the SBOE-approved list may be purchased with Permanent School Funds. SB 6 ended up being a work-around to allow publishers (from anywhere in the world) to put IM’s into our Texas public schools that are not aligned with the TEKS adopted by the elected members of the SBOE.
If Jaco and other citizens want to do some very substantive things to protect our public school children, I would encourage them and everyone else to work very hard to pressure the Texas Legislature to rectify the two mistakes they made, mentioned in the above paragraphs.