Texas CSCOPE Liberal Curriculum is DEAD and SB 1406 PASSED!

by David Bellow on May 21, 2013 at 11:24 AM

Never underestimate the power of blogs and grassroots pressure from conservatives in Texas!

The TESCCC Board has announced that they will be ENDING all CSCOPE lessons.

CSCOPE is dead, but as a way to prevent it from coming back with no SBOE oversight, SB 1406 still needed to pass the Texas House.

Great News, SB 1406 PASSED THE HOUSE last night after it was announced that CSCOPE lessons were being pulled!

We must NOT let our guard down though and the Texas Legislature needs to continue to take action to prevent bad curriculum and an online backdoor curriculum from being introduced into Texas schools with no oversight. SB 1406 was still important, and I am glad it passed because TESCCC announcing they are pulling CSCOPE does not mean they cannot try to start it back up in the future. SB 1406 will help prevent this from happening without SBOE oversight.

State Senator Dan Patrick announced this news earlier this morning (See Dan Patrick's Press Release below.)

CSCOPE was a controversial curriculum in Texas. There was widespread outrage over the past year because of the outrageous Liberal, anti-American lessons. What made things worse is that this curriculum was created WITHOUT the oversight of the State Board of Education as required by law for all Texas Curriculum. On top of that there were financial inconsitincies and coverups.

After CSCOPE was exposed, school districts all across Texas started dropping CSCOPE from being used in their school districts. My hometown of Lumberton, TX was even in the committee process of ditching CSCOPE and researching what will replace it for Lumberton ISD.

It is believed that TESCCC was facing investigations into the financing of CSCOPE and that is what finally compelled them to finally pull all CSCOPE lessons before they could be investigated further.

Press Release from State Senator Dan Patrick:

SENATOR PATRICK ANNOUNCES THE END OF CSCOPE In sudden turn of events the TESCCC Board decides to end CSCOPE lesson plans.

AUSTIN-- A letter signed by all 20 members of the Board released this morning stated they will notify their 875 school district clients that all lesson plans will be removed from their website on August 31st, 2013 and that districts cannot use any lessons they currently have beyond that date. The August 31st date corresponds to the notice clause in their contracts with their districts. The letter goes on to say that the Regional Service Centers will not produce lesson plans in the future. The 20 Service Centers will return to their original business plan of providing a management tool for teachers to stay on schedule regarding the teaching of the required TEKS. The official vote will take place at an already scheduled Board meeting on Friday, May 24th.

"I'm pleased that the CSCOPE Board has made the decision to get out of the lesson plan business. This is a positive development for students, parents, teachers, and for the Regional Service Centers,' said Senator Patrick. "I want to thank the members of the Senate Education Committee for their months of work on this issue. I also want to thank Attorney General Abbott and his staff in providing valuable assistance in our review of CSCOPE," added Patrick.

"We would like to thank Senator Patrick, Senator Duncan, and members of the Senate and House Education Committees. Their leadership has been invaluable and we look forward to a positive relationship in the future. We believe that this is the best decision moving forward; and allows us to continue to provide high quality services to the more than 1,000, school districts and charter schools in Texas, said Kyle Wargo, Board Member Region 17 Board of Directors and Anne Poplin, Chair, TESCCC.

"We accept the concerns expressed by the leadership of our state regarding segments of the lessons that were perceived as contradictory to the values of our great state. We will therefore eliminate the model lessons offered as examples of what was interpreted as the intent of the standards and focus on moving forward in a positive manner," said Mary Ann Whiteker, Superintendent, Hudson ISD.

"Once the TESCCC officially approves this measure Friday I will notify the SBOE that they do not need to review the 1600 CSCOPE lesson plans," said Patrick. "The CSCOPE era is over. However, what the last several months has proven is that the state will have to create a plan to monitor all on line material in the future so that our schools and classroom remain completely transparent to parents and the legislature knows what is being taught in our classrooms across Texas," added Patrick.

Issues:

Education