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Social studies will be next battle for State Board of Education
Ohanian Comment: Of course the obvious answer to Texas craziness over science and social standards is National Standards. Scary. But this is the Standardisto imperative: Save the nation from individual state weirdness.
Controversy looms in board's decisions about history, government and culture.
By Kate Alexander
Fresh off a contentious battle about science curriculum during the spring, the State Board of Education is girding for a fight over social studies that could make the last one look like a mild skirmish.
Potential controversies appear on virtually every page of history, government, culture and economics that Texas school children learn.
There could be tussles over the role of the Bible and Christian influence on the founding of the United States; debates on which historical figures warrant a spotlight role; and hand-wringing over students learning about the "republican process" — not the "democratic process" — because the U.S. is a republic as well as a democracy.
Politics and ideology will be front and center in each of those decisions by the 15-member elected State Board of Education over the next nine months. That is exactly how it should be, Board Member Don McLeroy said.
"Texans have decided that education is too important to be left to bureaucrats and unelected folks," McLeroy said.
But other observers say the political warfare over curriculum is getting in the way of crafting standards that prepare students for college and the workplace.
The system is no longer working in the best interest of the students when the political goals overshadow the educational goals, said Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo.
"This is important to the process of learning, and teaching, and it should be done by experts," Seliger said.
The standards serve as the foundation for textbooks, standardized tests and the classroom lessons developed at the school district level. The social studies standards will not be finalized until next spring.
The objective should be to create standards that are rigorous, coherent, clear and teachable, said Mike Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based education think tank that regularly reviews state curriculum standards.
States that have done that well have used a small group of subject-area experts who are focused on what students need to know to succeed and have protected that group from political pressure.
"This is an inherently political process. You can't take the politics out of it entirely," particularly in subjects such as social studies, said Petrilli, a former education official in the George W. Bush administration. "We should be honest that there is no perfect way to do this."
At this point, there seems to be little political will to change the process in Texas.
A Seliger bill to move the curriculum decisions out of the hands of the State Board of Education did not get a vote in the Senate Education Committee.
State Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, a former member of the State Board of Education, introduced a bill to review the curriculum adoption process; it also stalled in committee.
House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, said the process works when the State Board of Education gathers sufficient input and uses it. But controversy is inevitable because people from across the political spectrum have strong opinions about what students should learn, he said.
"Not everybody loves the result, but that's what the process is for ... and that's what elections are for," Eissler said.
The Fordham Institute's review of Texas' existing U.S. history standards, which are part of the social studies curriculum, found that they push a political agenda.
"American, and especially Texan, history is glorified," according to the 2006 study. "The documents avoid the less laudable parts of the nation's and states' histories — such as Jim Crow and the KKK — and instead point to, for example, oil and gas companies as manifestations of the wonders of laissez-faire capitalism."
The political agenda is not likely to go away. Three of the six reviewers appointed by the board to examine the current standards have urged a greater focus on the religious influences on the origin of the country and political system.
"In light of the overwhelming historical evidence of the influence of the Christian faith in the founding of America, it is simply not up to acceptable academic standards that throughout the social studies (standards) I could find only one reference to the role of religion in America's past," wrote Peter Marshall, a Presbyterian minister from Massachusetts whose mission, according to his Web site, is to "restore America to its Bible-based foundations."
The appointments of Marshall and David Barton, founder of the religious organization Wallbuilders, as expert reviewers have prompted calls to create minimum qualifications for experts. Neither of them has an academic background in the social studies disciplines.
Setting minimum qualifications would ensure that "real experts" are weighing in rather than ideologues, said Dan Quinn, spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy group that is often critical of the board's conservative bent.
"We end up having a culture war debate instead of debate on real scholarship because we don't have real scholars on the expert panel," Quinn said. "That is a waste of time, and it is also a disservice to students and their families."
McLeroy disagreed that parameters need to be set for who provides the board advice. And that suggestion landed with a thud when raised at a board meeting Wednesday.
"If two (board) members think they're qualified, they're qualified," McLeroy said.
kalexander@statesman.com; 445-3618
— Kate Alexander
Amerocam-States,am
2009-07-16
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/2009/07/16/0716socialstudies.html
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