Starting at 1:00 p.m. Central today, the Texas State Board of Education will be in session. You can listen to a live webcast of the meeting here.
According to the note I got from Steve Schafersman at Texas Citizens for Science, this is the agenda today:
Important agenda items include 3. Ethics Training, 4. Legislative Update, 6. Discussion of Expert Reviewers, and 7. Discussion of Texas High School Graduation Requirements.
More meetings tomorrow and Friday — they should all be webcasts.
Leave a Comment » | 
Education, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science | Tagged: Education, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas, War on Education | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas Gov. Rick Perry named Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas, to chair the State Board of Education.
Texas senators rejected Perry’s earlier nomination of Don McLeroy, R-Beaumont, due to McLeroy’s divisive tactics on board issues. The chair must come from one of the board’s 15 elected members.
Perry was thought to favor a radical conservative to push the anti-education wishes of hard-core Republicans in Texas, whose vote Perry hopes to have in a tough fight for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2010. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will try to oust Perry for the party’s nomination. Some feared Perry would nominate Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, who is even more radical than McLeroy.
In contrast, Lowe has been a relatively reliable vote against Texas teachers and science curricula, but she is not known to be as polarizing as McLeroy. She has compromised on some issues, voting with educators and students.
Perry’s turning to Lowe indicates his disregard of education as an issue, and his writing off of the vote of Texas teachers and parents of students. Perry could have named an experienced administrator and peace maker who could push the board to do its legally-mandated work on time, by nominating Bob Craig, R-Lubbock. Perry’s turning to Lowe instead indicates that a working board is not among his priorities.
Lowe’s appointment to the chair probably is not so bad as a Dunbar appointment would have been. But unless Ms. Lowe makes serious efforts to push for journeyman policy-making from board members, avoiding intentional controversies and simply resolving controversial issues that cannot be avoided, the SBOE will contined to be little more than political theatre in Austin, except when it actually rules on curricula and textbook issues.
Few expect the board to be a fountain of wisdom, or an example of education excellence over the next two years.
Perry’s action becomes not so bad as the potential slap in the face to Texas education that he might have delivered. It’s the slap without a windup. Texas students deserved a kiss instead.
Lowe will serve at least until the State Senate can act to approve or disapprove the nomination; the legislature will meet next in January 2011. Lowe can serve for 17 months before the legislature meets.
Information:
Pre-nomination information:
Also at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
3 Comments | Education, Education quality, Education reform, Politics, State school boards, Texas, Textbook Selection, Textbooks, War on Education | Tagged: Don McLeroy, Education, Gail Lowe, Gov. Rick Perry, Politics, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I’m reviewing the reviews of Texas social studies curricula offered by the six people appointed by the Texas State Board of Education. David Barton, a harsh partisan politician, religious bigot, pseudo-historian and questionable pedagogue, offers up this whopper, about fifth grade standards.:
In Grade 5 (b)(24)(A), there are certainly many more notable scientists than Carl Sagan – such as Wernher von Braun, Matthew Maury, Joseph Henry, Maria Mitchell, David Rittenhouse, etc.
Say what? “More notable scientists than Carl Sagan . . . ?” What is this about?
It’s about David Barton’s unholy bias against science, and in particular, good and great scientists like Carl Sagan who professed atheism, or any faith other than David Barton’s anti-science brand of fundamentalism.
David Barton doesn’t want any Texas child to grow up to be a great astronomer like Carl Sagan, if there is any chance that child will also be atheist, like Carl Sagan. Given a choice between great science from an atheist, or mediocre science from a fundamentalist Christian, Barton chooses mediocrity.
Currently the fifth grade standards for social studies require students to appreciate the contributions of scientists. Here is the standard Barton complains about:
(24) Science, technology, and society. The student understands the impact of science and technology on life in the United States. The student is expected to:
(A) describe the contributions of famous inventors and scientists such as Neil Armstrong, John J. Audubon, Benjamin Banneker, Clarence Birdseye, George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, and Carl Sagan;
(B) identify how scientific discoveries and technological innovations such as the transcontinental railroad, the discovery of oil, and the rapid growth of technology industries have advanced the economic development of the United States;
(C) explain how scientific discoveries and technological innovations in the fields of medicine, communication, and transportation have benefited individuals and society in the United States;
(D) analyze environmental changes brought about by scientific discoveries and technological innovations such as air conditioning and fertilizers; and
(E) predict how future scientific discoveries and technological innovations could affect life in the United States.
Why doesn’t Barton like Carl Sagan? In addition to Sagan’s being a great astronomer, he was a grand populizer of science, especially with his series for PBS, Cosmos.
But offensive to Barton was Sagain’s atheism. Sagan wasn’t militant about it, but he did honestly answer people who asked that he found no evidence for the efficacy or truth of religion, nor for the existence of supernatural gods.
More than that, Sagan defended evolution theory. Plus, he was Jewish.
Any one of those items might earn the David Barton Stamp of Snooty-nosed Disapproval, but together, they are about fatal.
Do the scientists Barton suggests in Sagan’s stead measure up? Barton named four:
Wernher von Braun, Matthew Maury, Joseph Henry, Maria Mitchell, David Rittenhouse
In the category of “Sagan Caliber,” only von Braun might stake a claim. Wernher von Braun, you may recall, was the guy who ran the Nazi’s rocketry program. After the war, it was considered a coup that the U.S. snagged him to work, first for the Air Force, and then for NASA. Excuse me for worrying, but I wonder whether Barton likes von Braun for his rocketry, for his accommodation of anti-evolution views, or for his Nazi-supporting roots. (No, I don’t trust Barton as far as I can hurl the Texas Republican Party Platform, which bore Barton’s fould stamp while he was vice chair of the group.)
So, apart from the fact that von Braun was largely an engineer, and Sagan was a brilliant astronomer with major contributions to our understanding of the cosmos, what about the chops of the other four people? Why would Barton suggest lesser knowns and unknowns?
Matthew Maury once headed the U.S. Naval Observatory, in the 19th century. He was famous for studying ocean currents, piggy-backing on the work of Ben Franklin and others. Do a Google search, though, and you’ll begin to undrstand: Maury is a favorite of creationists, a scientist who claimed to subjugate his science to the Bible. Maury claimed his work on ocean currents was inspired at least in part by a verse in Psalms 8 which referred to “paths in the sea.” Maury is not of the stature or achievement of Sagan, but Maury is politically correct to Barton.
Joseph Henry is too ignored, the first head of the Smithsonian Institution. Henry made his mark in research on magnetism and electricity. But it’s not Henry’s science Barton recognizes. Henry, as a largely unknown scientist today, is a mainstay of creationists’ list of scientists who made contributions to science despite their being creationists. What? Oh, this is inside baseball in the war to keep evolution in science texts. In response to the (accurate) claim that creationists have not contributed anything of scientific value to biology since about William Paley in 1802, Barton and his fellow creationists will trot out a lengthy list of scientists who were at least nominally Christian, and claim that they were creationists, and that they made contributions to science. The list misses the point that Henry, to pick one example, didn’t work in biology nor make a contribution to biology, nor is there much evidence that Henry was a creationist in the modern sense of denying science. Henry is obscure enough that Barton can claim he was politically correct, to Barton’s taste, to be studied by school children without challenging Barton’s creationist ideas.
Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, the second woman to discover a comet. While she was a Unitarian and a campaigner for women’s rights, or more accurately, because of that, I can’t figure how she passes muster as politically correct to David Barton. Surely she deserves to be studied more in American history than she is — perhaps with field trips to the Maria Mitchell House National Historic Landmark. It may be that Barton has mistaken Mitchell for another creationist scientist. While Mitchell’s life deseves more attention — her name would be an excellent addition to the list of woman scientists Texas children should study — she is not of the stature of Sagan.
David Rittenhouse, a surveyor and astronomer, and the first head of the U.S. Mint, is similarly confusing as part of Barton’s list. Rittenhouse deserves more study, for his role in extending the Mason-Dixon line, if nothing else, but it is difficult to make a case that his contributions to science approach those of Carl Sagan. Why is Rittenhouse listed by Barton? If nothing else, it shows the level of contempt Barton holds for Sagan as “just another scientist.” Barton urges the study of other scientists, any other scientists, rather than study of Sagan.
Barton just doesn’t like Sagan. Why? Other religionists give us the common dominionist or radical religionist view of Sagan:
Just what is the Secular Humanist worldview? First and foremost Secular Humanists are naturalists. A naturalist believes that nature is all that exists. “The Cosmos is all there is, or was, or ever will be.” This was the late Carl Sagan’s opening line on the television series “Cosmos.” Sagan was a noted astronomer and a proud secular humanist. Sagan maintained that the God of the Bible was nonexistent. (Imagine Sagan’s astonishment when he came face to face with his Maker.)
Sagan’s science, in Barton’s view, doesn’t leave enough room for Barton’s religion. Sagan was outspoken about his opposition to superstition. Sagan urged reason and the active use of his “Baloney-Detection Kit.” One of Sagan’s later popular books was titled Demon-haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark. Sagan argued for the use of reason and science to learn about our world, to use to build a framework for solving the world’s problems.
Barton prefers the dark to any light shed by Sagan, it appears.
More resources on the State Board of Education review of social studies curricula
5 Comments | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Capitalism, Citizenship, Education, Education quality, History, Politics, Public education, Religion, Science, Science and faith, Separation of church and state, Social Studies, Texas, Textbook Selection, Textbooks, Voodoo history, Voodoo science, War on Education | Tagged: Bogus history, Carl Sagan, David Barton, Politics, Science, science education, Separation of Chruch and State, Social Studies, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Just when you thought it was safe to take a serious summer vacation, finish the latest Doris Kearns Goodwin, and catch up on a couple of novels . . .
The sharks of education policy are back.
Or the long knives are about to come out (vicious historical reference, of course, but I’m wagering the anti-education folks didn’t catch it). Pick your metaphor.
Our friend Steve Schafersman sent out an e-mail alert this morning:
The Expert Reviews of the proposed Texas Social Studies curriculum are now available at
http://ritter. tea.state. tx.us/teks/ social/experts. html
Social Studies Expert Reviewers
- David Barton, President, WallBuilders
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Jesus Francisco de la Teja, Professor and Chair, Department of History, Texas State University
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Daniel L. Dreisbach, Professor, American University
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Lybeth Hodges, Professor, History, Texas Woman’s University
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Jim Kracht, Associate Dean and Professor, College of Education and Human Development, Texas A&M University
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Peter Marshall, President, Peter Marshall Ministries
Review of Current Social Studies TEKSYou can download their review as a pdf file.
Three of these reviewers are legitimate, knowledgeable, and respected academics who undoubtedly did a fair, competent, and professional job. The other three are anti-church- state separation, anti-secular public government, and pseudoscholars and pseudohistorians. I expect their contributions to be biased, unprofessional, and pseudoscholarly. Here are the bad ones:
- Peter Marshall is a religious right minister who says America must return to its Christian roots. He is opposed to C-S separation and wants to intermingle religion and government.
http://petermarshal lministries. com/
http://petermarshal lministries. com/about/ heritage. cfm
http://petermarshal lministries. com/about/ rev_peter_ marshall. cfm
- Daniel Dreisbach is a professor at American University in Washington. He is opposed to C-S separation and wants to intermingle religion and government.
http://www.hillsdal e.edu/news/ imprimis/ archive/issue. asp?year= 2006&month= 10
http://www.orthodox ytoday.org/ articles7/ DreisbachChurch. php
- David Barton is a very well-known radical religious right pseudohistorian. He is opposed to C-S separation and wants to intermingle religion and government.
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ David_Barton
http://www.wallbuil ders.com/ ABTOverview. aspBarton may be the worst of the three. He founded Wallbuilders to deliberately destroy C-S separation and promote Fundamentalist Christianity in US government. Just about everything he has written is unhistorical and inaccurate. For example, Barton has published numerous “quotes” about C-S separation made by the Founding Fathers that upon investigation turned out to be hoaxes. Here’s what Senator Arlen Specter had to say about Barton:
Probably the best refutation of Barton’s argument simply is to quote his own exegesis of the First Amendment: “Today,” Barton says, “we would best understand the actual context of the First Amendment by saying, ‘Congress shall make no law establishing one Christian denomination as the national denomination. ‘ ” In keeping with Barton’s restated First Amendment, Congress could presumably make a law establishing all Christian denominations as the national religion, and each state could pass a law establishing a particular Christian church as its official religion.
All of this pseudoscholarship would hardly be worth discussing, let alone disproving, were it not for the fact that it is taken so very seriously by so many people.
I am sure these six will participate in a Great Texas History Smackdown before our crazy SBOE. Perhaps this will finally sicken enough citizens that they will finally vote to get rid of the SBOE, either directly or indirectly. Be sure to listen to this hearing on the web audio. Even better, the web video might be working so you can watch the SBOE Carnival Sideshow.
Steven Schafersman, Ph.D.
President, Texas Citizens for Science
The non-expert experts were appointed by Don McLeroy before the Texas Senate refused to confirm his temporary chairmanship of the State Board of Education. The good McLeroy may have done as chairman is interred with his dead chairmanship; the evil he did lives on. (Under McLeroy and Barton’s reading of history and literature, most students won’t catch the reference for the previous sentence.)
Tony Whitson at Curricublog posted information you need to read. Texas Freedom Network’s Insider has a first pass analysis of the crank experts’ analyses — they want to make Texas’s social studies curriculum more sexist, more racist, more anti-Semitic, more anti-working man, and closer to Sunday school pseudo-history. While Dallas prepares to name a major street in honor of Cesar Chavez, Barton and Marshall say he’s too Mexican and too close to Jews, and so should be de-emphasized in history books (a small picture of Chavez appears on one of the main U.S. history texts now).
That’s the stuff that jumps out at first. What else will we find when we dig?
More to come; watch those spaces, and this one, too.
5 Comments | Bogus history, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Religion, Separation of church and state, Social Studies, State school boards, TEKS, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, Texas history, Textbook Selection, Textbooks, Voodoo history, War on Education, War on the Constitution | Tagged: Bogus history, David Barton, Don McLeroy, Education, education standards, Separation of church and state, Social Studies, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, Voodoo history, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The exhibit left the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library in March 2007 — but the good folks who run the library left an on-line version. It’s a gallery of 100 photographic portraits of important Texans. Click on the photo, you get a short biography of each person.
Red Adair, pioneer in putting out oil field fires - Image from George H. W. Bush Presidential Library
Red Adair holds the first spot on the list, and ZZ Top occupies the last (the list is alphabetical). The list is eclectic, and useful. The list focuses on the 20th century, leaving out the usual Texas luminaries Austin, Houston and de Zavala, and that’s good. This is a great list for junior high Texas history students to use, for learning Texas history, or for selecting the “famous Texan” who will be the subject of their biography project.
A handful of these people are commonly reported on in classrooms. Most are not, however. You’ll learn more about Texas folklore and Texas’s Mexican heritage in music from these short biographies than you can learn in many Texas history courses. Adair to ZZ Top, including John Henry Faulk, John Nance Garner, Walter Cronkite, Bobby Layne, Janis Joplin, Scott Joplin, Michael DeBakey, George Foreman, Lydia Mendoza, Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins, Hector Garcia, and Bessie Coleman, and 86 others. All the major Texas industries are represented, and all parts of Texas. If a student knew all of these people, the student would have a heck of a bunch of Texas knowledge.
Bessie Coleman, world's first licensed black pilot - image from the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library
Use this exhibit to broaden your knowledge of Texas history, or to invent new teaching points. A savvy teacher could use these to create 100 bell ringers, I suspect — and do a lot more.
It would be great if the library were to publish a poster featuring the 100 portraits. Anybody in College Station listening?
How do you use this exhibit in your classroom?
1 Comment | Biography, History, History images, Libraries, Museums, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: 100 Tall Texans, Bessie Coleman, Biography, George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, History, History images, Red Adair, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Betsy Oney teaches in Arlington, Texas. She’s a frontline soldier in the fight to educate our kids.
She also reads the newspapers and pays attention to what is going on at the highest levels in Texas government. From her view, she describes better than anyone else I’ve seen, the problem facing Texas Gov. Rick Perry right now, after the Texas State Senate rejected Perry’s nominee to head the State Board of Education, Don McLeroy.
Texas governor in a dilemma over education board pick
By BETSY ONEYSpecial to the Star-TelegramGov. Rick Perry is in something of a Catch-22.
It started two years ago when he appointed dentist Don McLeroy to chair the State Board of Education. McLeroy is described by his many supporters as a “good and decent man,” and of that we can be sure.
McLeroy’s appointment came after the 80th Legislature adjourned, so he had to be confirmed during this year’s session. The confirmation failed in the Senate.
McLeroy’s supporters blame that on the fact that he’s a Christian. Records show that this Senate, and the House Public Education Committee in a July 16 hearing, were concerned not that he’s Christian but that McLeroy politicized Texas children’s education and led the board and the Texas education system into the spotlight. And what Texans and Americans saw in that light was a fairly grotesque parade of a few people — a majority faction of the board led by McLeroy — who listened to ideology instead of experts and were intent on imposing an antiquated education system on Texas children.
From that same elected board, Perry now must decide on a new chairman who, like McLeroy, will serve without scrutiny until the next legislative session, in 2011.
Perry’s decision is his Catch-22.
He probably won’t consider a Democrat. That leaves nine Republican possibilities. Seven are the radical members responsible for politicizing children’s education. They voted in lock step on a range of issues that individually and collectively have been widely seen by educators and lawyers as anything from illegal to unconstitutional to damaging children. Nominating from that pool might yield a different management style than McLeroy offered, but the ideology, intent and backward direction would remain the same.
The two remaining Republicans are conservative, but not extremists. Both District 11’s Pat Hardy of Fort Worth and District 15’s Bob Craig of Lubbock are well-qualified and would lead Texas public education in the right direction. In contrast to the radical members, they would be responsive to the changing educational needs that the future demands as well as to the rich diversity of children in our population.
Although Hardy has been mentioned as a nominee by senators, she’s recommending Craig.
Craig, an attorney, is a logical choice. He’s served on the board since 2002 and before that served on the Lubbock school board for 14 years. Craig is a “good and decent man,” but in contrast to McLeroy, his voting record and conciliatory demeanor show him to be a rational, uniting public education supporter. He listens to educators and experts. He respects the opinions of others. He votes in the interest of all children.
It’s clear that Perry could not make a better choice than Bob Craig. The Catch-22 is that by appointing a nonextremist, Perry risks losing support from his biggest donors, the religious right.
These donors see benefit in turning public education into religious education at taxpayer expense. They see benefit in keeping critical thinking out of the classroom. Their money is essential in his campaign against Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison in the next gubernatorial primary election.
If Perry appoints from the pool of radical rights, the voting public will be alerted that he’s sacrificing our children’s education and Texas’ future for his own political interests. So he’ll lose votes.
Money and ideology vs. public’s interest and, ultimately, its confidence. What a dilemma! Stay tuned.
Betsy Oney of Fort Worth holds a master of education degree and is a master reading teacher (and English-as-a-second-language teacher) in the Arlington school district.
3 Comments | Education, Education quality, Politics, State school boards, Texas, War on Education | Tagged: Betsy Oney, Education, education standards, Gov. Rick Perry, Politcs, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Eternal Hope at Daily Kos wonders what happens if the conservative estimates of sea level rise — the ones you usually see cited in the press — turn out to be way too conservative. What happens if sea levels rise about double what some are estimating now?
If the severity and frequency of storms does not increase much, we may be able to accommodate the changes over time (though remember, some say we can do it easily).
How willing are the skeptics and denialists to tell cities and insurance actuaries that the fears of ocean-level increases are piffles?
Speaking of insurance: Texas has been hammered over the past 20 years by unseasonal and much more-severe-than-usual thunderstorms, ice storms, straightline winds, tornadoes and hurricanes. Home insurance rates skyrocketed. State regulators argue with insurance companies about whether rate increases are justified. Insurance companies cite claims for problems that did not exist earlier, and which may be blamed on climate change. (How much excess mold will occur due to warming?)
Sometimes the arguments erupt into lawsuits and regulatory action. One such argument drags on now, with up to a $1 billion in overcharges at stake. How much of the fight from the insurance companies comes from their fears of the effects of global warming?
4 Comments | Climate change, Disasters, Economics, Global warming, History, Politics, Texas | Tagged: Climate change, Global warming, Insurance, Politics, Sea Level Rise, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
[This is mostly an encore post, from 2008 — fyi.]
Oldest known photograph of a Juneteenth celebration, in Austin, Texas, in 1900 - Austin Public Library image
The Texas State Archives offers a succinct history:
Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, is the name given to emancipation day by African-Americans in Texas. On that day in 1865 Union Major General Gordon Granger read General Order #3 to the people of Galveston. General Order #3 stated “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
Large celebrations on June 19 began in 1866 and continued regularly into the early 20th century. The African-Americans treated this day like the Fourth of July and the celebrations contained similar events. In the early days, the celebration included a prayer service, speakers with inspirational messages, reading of the emancipation proclamation, stories from former slaves, food, red soda water, games, rodeos and dances.
The celebration of June 19 as emancipation day spread from Texas to the neighboring states of Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. It has also appeared in Alabama, Florida, and California as African-American Texans migrated.
In many parts of Texas, ex-slaves purchased land, or “emancipation grounds,” for the Juneteenth gathering. Examples include: Emancipation Park in Houston, purchased in 1872; what is now Booker T. Washington Park in Mexia; and Emancipation park in East Austin.
Celebration of Juneteenth declined during World War II but revived in 1950 at the Texas State Fair Grounds in Dallas. Interest and participation fell away during the late 1950’s and 1960’s as attention focused on expansion of freedom for African-Americans. In the 1970’s Juneteenth revived in some communities. For example, in Austin the Juneteenth celebration returned in 1976 after a 25 year hiatus. House Bill no.1016 passed in the 66th legislature, regular session, declared June 19, “Emancipation Day in Texas,” a legal state holiday effective January 1, 1980. Since that time, the celebration of Juneteenth continues across the state of Texas with parades, picnics and dancing.
Texas State Library Reference Services 3/95
Celebrations across Texas started last Saturday, and will continue for another three or four days, I gather. Thought it’s an official State of Texas holiday, few people take it off. So celebrations are scheduled when they can be.
The great mystery to me is why the holiday seems to have spread so far outside Texas. Juneteenth is based on a uniquely Texas event — it involved notifying only the slaves in Texas that they had been freed. Celebrations go much farther today, even to places the Civil War didn’t touch.
Resources:
1 Comment | 1861-1865, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, History, History images, Holidays, Slavery | Tagged: Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, History, Juneteenth, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
(This issue has moved a bit since I first drafted this post — watch for updates.)
Ain’t it the way?
46 of the 50 states agreed to work for common education standards through a project of the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Texas is one of four states not agreeing. News comes from a report in the venerable Education Week (and to me directly via e-mail from Steve Schafersman at Texas Citizens for Science).
National standards for education are prohibited in the U.S. by law and tradition. Education standards traditionally have been set by each of the more than 15,000 local school districts. After the 1957 Sputnik education cleanup, and after the 1983 report of the Excellence in Education Commission, the nation has seen a drive to get at least state-wide standards, though a jealous regard for federalism still prevents national standards.
Almost all other industrialized nations have a set of national standards set by the national government, against which progress may be measured. All the industrialized nations who score higher than U.S. students in international education comparisons, have standards mandated by a national group.
So if it’s an internationally recognized way of improving education, as part of their continuing war on education, and their war on science and evolution theory, the Texas State Board of Education takes the Neanderthal stance, avoiding cooperation with the 92% of the states working to improve American education.
You couldn’t make up villains like this.
Article below the fold.
1 Comment | Education, Education assessment, Education reform, TAKS, TEKS, Testing, Texas Citizens for Science | Tagged: Education, Education assessment, Education reform, National Standards, TAKS, TEKS, Testing, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas Parlor notes that the Texas Historical Commission has gotten into the blog business, with a blog called See the Sites.
New logo and slogan for the Texas Historical Commission
A lot of photos from the sites the Historical Commission operates, news of special events, and links to the Commission’s sites’ websites. As yet there are not any substantive historical analyses.
The new blog accompanies a redesign of the Texas Historical Commission’s website, and the creation of a new logo for the agency, with a new slogan.
The new website makes navigation a good bit easier, to get to information about cemeteries, or the LaSalle Projects, Texas’s remarkable collection of county courthouses, Civil War monuments, or any of a number of other categories.
Historians begin to make the internet a real tool for education and learning, and the practice of history recording.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Will’s Texas Parlor, a site every Texas history teacher should have bookmarked, and should visit often.
Leave a Comment » | History, History and art, History images, History museums, Internet, Technology, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: blogs, History, Museums, Texas, Texas Historical Commission | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
John Mashey occasionally graces these pages with his comments — a cool, reasoned head on hot issues like global warming/global climate change, despite his history in computers or maybe because of it (which would put the lie to the idea that computer programming explains why so many computer programmers are wacky intelligent design advocates).
Mashey offered a comment over at RealClimate on a post about hoaxer and science parodist Christopher Monckton — a comment you ought to read if you think about Texas ever, and especially if you like the place. It’s comment #413 on that Gigantor blog.
Monckton wrote a letter to the New York Times and attached to it a graph. The graph, it turns out, probably would need to be classified in the fiction section of a library or book store, were it a book. Much discussion occurs, absent any appearance by Monckton himself who does not defend his graphs by pointing to sources that might back what his graphs say, usually.
In short, the post and the extensive comments shed light on the problems of veracity which plague so many who deny either that warming is occurring, or that air pollution from humans might have anything to do with it, or that humans might actually be able to do anything to mitigate the changes or the damage, or that humans ought to act on the topic at all.
So I’ve stolen Mashey’s comment lock, stock and barrel, to give it a little more needed highlight.
If you follow environmental issues much, you probably know Count Christopher Monckton as a man full of braggadocio and bad information on climate. He is known to have worked hard to hoodwink the U.S. Congress with his claims of expertise and policy legitimacy, claiming to be a member of the House of Lords though he is not (some climate change deniers in Congress appear to have fallen for the tale). He pops up at denialist conferences, accuses scientists of peddling false information, and he is a shameless self-promoter.
After much discussion, Mashey turned his attention to claims that Texans don’t know better than Monckton, and other things; Mashey notes that denialists cite Monckton’s performance at a conservative political show in Texas, instead having paid attention to real climate scientists who were meeting just up the road, for free:
AGW’s impact depends on where you live
OR
Texas is Not Scotland, even when a Scottish peer visits1) SCOTLAND
Viscount Monckton lives in the highlands of Scotland (Carie, Rannoch, 57degN, about the same as Juneau, AK, but warmer from Gulf Stream.)a) SEA LEVEL, STORMS
Most of Scotland (esp the highlands) is well above sea level, and in any case, from Post-Glacial Rebound, it’s going up. [Not true of Southern England.]b) PRECIPITATION
Scotland gets lots of regular precipitation. From that, he likely gets ~1690mm or more rainfall/year, noticeably more than Seattle or Vancouver.Scotland has complex, variable weather systems, with more rain in West than in East, but has frequent precipitation all year.
c) TEMPERATURE
Scotland’s climate would likely be better with substantial warming. See UK Met Office on Scotland, which one might compare with NASA GISS Global Annual Mean Surface Air Temperature Change. Scotland average maximum temperatures are 18-19C in the summer, i.e., in most places it might occasionally get up to 70F, although of course it varies by geography. +3C is no big deal. The record maximum was 32.9C (91F), set in 2003. Maybe there is yet a good future for air-conditioning/cooling vendors.If one does a simple linear regression on both sets of annual data, one finds that SLOPE(Scotland) = .0071C/year, SLOPE(world) = .0057C/year, i.e., Scotland is warming slightly faster than the world as a whole.
d) AGRICULTURE
The combination of b) and c) is, most likely *good* for agriculture in Scotland. There is plenty of rain, and higher temperatures mean less snow and a longer growing season. Great!In addition, the British geoscientist/vineyard archaeologist Richard Selley thinks that while it may be too hot for good vineyards in Southern England by 2080, it will be fine for some areas of Scotland.
Future Loch Ness Vineyard: great!e) OIL+GAS, ENERGY
Fossil fuel production (North Sea oil&gas) is very important to the Scotland economy. Wikipedia claims oil-related employment is 100,000 (out of total population of about 5M).Scotland has not always been ecstatic to be part of the UK.
2) TEXAS
The Viscount Monckton spoke for Young Conservatives of Texas, April 28 @ Texas A&M, which of course has a credible Atmospheric Sciences Department. Of course, many of them were unable to hear the Viscount because they were in Austin at CLIMATE CHANGE Impacts on TEXAS WATER, whose proceedings are online. See especially Gerald North on Global Warming and TX Water.Monckton delivered his message: “no worries, no problems” which might well fit Scotland just fine, at least through his normal life expectancy.
The message was delivered to Texans typically in their 20s, many of whom would expect to see 2060 or 2070, and whose future children, and certainly grandchildren, might well see 2100.
Texas is rather different from Scotland, although with one similarity (oil+gas).
a) SEA LEVEL, STORMS
Texas has a long, low coastline in major hurricane territory.
Brownsville, TX to Port Arthur is a 450-mile drive, with coastal towns like Corpus Christi, Galveston, and Port Arthur listed at 7 feet elevations. The center of Houston is higher, but some the TX coast has subsidence issues, not PGR helping it rise. The Houston Ship Canal and massive amounts of infrastructure are very near sea level. More people live in the Houston metropolitan area + rest of the TX coast than in all of Scotland.Of course, while North Sea storms can be serious, they are not hurricanes. IF it turns out that the intensity distribution of hurricanes shifts higher, it’s not good, since in the short term (but likely not the long term), storm surge is worse than sea level rise.
Hurricane Rita (2005) and Hurricane Ike (2008) both did serious damage, but in some sense, both “missed” Houston. (Rita turned North, and hit as a Category 3; Ike was down to Category 2 before hitting Galveston).
Scotland: no problem
TX: problems alreadyb) RAINFALL
Texas is very complex meteorologically, and of course, it’s big, but as seen in the conference mentioned above (start with North’s presentation), one might say:– The Western and Southern parts may well share in the Hadley-Expansion-induced loss of rain, i.e., longer and stronger droughts, in common with NM, AZ, and Southern CA. Many towns are dependent on water in rivers that come from the center of the state, like the Brazos.
– The NorthEast part will likely get more rain. [North’s comment about I35 versus I45 indicates uncertainty in the models.]
– Rain is likely to be more intense when it happens, but droughts will be more difficult.
Extreme weather in TX already causes high insurance costs, here, or here.
Scotland: no problem
Texas: problems.c) TEMPERATURE
Texas A&M is ~31degN, rather nearer the Equator than 57degN.
Wikipedia has a temperature chart. It is rather warmer in TX, but is also more given to extremes.Scotland: +3C would be dandy,
Texas: +3C not so dandy.d) AGRICULTURE
Between b) and c), less water in dry places, more water in wet places, more variations in water, and higher temperatures (hence worse evaporation/precipitation difference) are not good news for TX agriculture, or so says Bruce McCarl, Professor of Agricultural Economics at TAMU.For audiences unfamiliar with Texas A&M, the “A” originally stood for Agriculture, and people are called Aggies. One might assume that agricultural research is valued.
Politically, “Aggie-land” would not be considered a hotspot of hyper-liberal folks prone to becoming climate “alarmists”.Scotland: warmer, great! Wine!
Texas: serious stress.d) OIL+GAS, ENERGY
Here, there is more similarity: fossil fuels are economically important.On the other hand, Scotland was settled long before the use of petroleum, and while places like the highlands are very sparse, cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow are relatively dense, and many villages are quite walkable. Warmer temperatures mean *lower* heating costs.
Texas has naturally developed in a very different style, and with forthcoming Peak Oil, this may be relevant. In 2006, according to EIA, Texas was #1 in energy consumption, 5th per-capita (after AK, WY, LA, ND) and uses 2X/capita of states like NY or CA. Some of that is inherent in different climate and industry.
Sprawling development in a state with water problems, subject to dangerous weather extremes, and already seriously-dependent on air-conditioning, may end being expensive for the residents.
Scotland: makes money from fossil energy, but it was mostly built without it. Warmer temperatures reduce energy use.
Texas: already uses ~2.5-3X higher energy/capita, compared to Scotland. Warmer temperatures likely raise energy use.3. SUMMARY
Gerald North’s talk ended by asking:
“Is Texas the most vulnerable state?”That sounds like an expert on trains, hearing one coming in the distance, standing on the tracks amidst a bunch of kids, trying to get them off the tracks before there’s blood everywhere.
On the other side, someone safely away from tracks keeps telling the kids that experts are wrong, there is no danger, so they can play there as long as they like.
You will be well informed if you also read Mashey’s comments at #120 and #132.
13 Comments | Accuracy, Climate change, denialism, Economics, Environmental protection, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Global warming, Government, Hoaxes, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Reason, Research, Science, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: Christopher Monckton, Climate change, Economics, Environmental protection, geography, Global warming, Hoaxes, John Mashey, Reason, Research, Science, Scotland, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
We’re closing out the year at Molina High School, and it’s busier than a blogger wants it to be. I’m way behind on blogging. Among notable things I’ve not written about:
Perhaps fortunately, the State Lege died yesterday, at least in regular session. Alas, they didn’t get all the state programs funded. Special session is likely. No man’s life, liberty or property, etc.
You couldn’t make this up if you were trying to write a humor column.
More soon, I hope.
3 Comments | Administrivia, Education, Education assessment, Personal, Testing, Texas | Tagged: Dallas ISD, Education, Education assessment, Magnet Schools, Molina High School, Testing, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Leave a Comment » | Humor, Texas | Tagged: Humor, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A victory in a war that should not be.
Texas Freedom Network carries the news (4:43 p.m. Central) that the Texas State Senate voted 19-11 in favor of Gov. Rick Perry’s nominee to head the State Board of Education, Don McLeroy, a wedge politician who represents the Beaumont area on the board of 15 commissioners. Fortunately for Texas, the nomination needed 20 votes for approval.
Difficulty arises because there is not a candidate on the horizon from among the board’s members who probably has Perry’s favor and who is not a creationist, wedge politician. Technically, Perry could reappoint McLeroy, some observers think, and he could occupy the seat until the next regular session of the Senate in two years.
It’s a story about a road that goes on forever and the bad politics never end.
Press release from TFN below the fold.
5 Comments | Education, Evolution, Government, Politics, Science, State school boards, Texas, Texas Lege, Textbook Selection | Tagged: Don McLeroy, Education, Texas, Texas Lege, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texans, the information on finding your state representative and state senator are below — call them, today.
In a surprise move, the Senate has moved the nomination of Don McLeroy to the floor for an up-and-down vote.
McLeroy has ushered in a new era of bitter, partisan and divisive politics to the State Board of Education. In the past year he has insulted English teachers, citizens of Hispanic descent, unnecessarily gutted a good mathematics text from the approved list (just to show he can do it), and done his best to butcher science education standards for Texas. He suspended work on new social studies curricula because, in part, he doesn’t like the term “capitalism,” insisting on “free enterprise” instead, contrary to almost all scholarly writing on the topic.
The man is a menace to education. He uses wedge political issues to divide educators from parents, parents from schools, schools from the community, students from teachers, and education from propaganda.
I quote the entirety of the post from Texas Freedom Network’s Insider blog, below, to explain:
UPDATE: Click here to see video of the committee vote.
In a surprise meeting on the Senate floor, the Senate Nominations Committee in Austin has just approved the appointment of Don McLeroy as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education. It appears that McLeroy’s supporters plan to bring his confirmation to the full Senate early next week. Confirmation will require a two-thirds vote.
Committee Chairman Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, had said he would not bring up McLeroy’s confirmation for a vote in committee unless he thought there were enough votes to get it in the full Senate. We don’t know at this point whether opposition from nearly all Democrats and some Republicans has softened, but the signs are alarming.
If you haven’t done so already, it’s critical that you contact your senator and tell him or her that you oppose McLeroy’s confirmation. You can find the name and contact information for your senator here.
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller has released the following statement:
“If the Texas Senate genuinely cares about quality public education, they will reject as state board chairman a man who apparently agrees that parents who want to teach their kids about evolution are monsters. And we’ll see whether senators really want a chairman who presides over a board that is so focused on ‘culture war’ battles that it has made Texas look like an educational backwater to the rest of the country.”
Gov. Perry appointed McLeroy board chairman in July 2007. Since then, the board has turned debates over language arts and science curriculum standards in “culture war” battlegrounds. Chairman McLeroy has also endorsed a book that says parents who want to teach children about evolution are “monsters” and calls clergy who see no conflict between faith and science “morons.” This spring McLeroy led other creationists on the state board in adopting new science curriculum standards that call the scientific consensus on evolution into question and no longer include references to scientific estimates of the age of the universe.
1 Comment | Creationism, Education, Evolution, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, Texas Lege, Textbooks | Tagged: Creationism, Don McLeroy, Education, Education reform, Evolution, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, Texas Legislature, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
