Update: After Muslim Burqa Lesson, Student Pulled From Lumberton School - not CSCOPE, or was it? - Senator Dan Patrick Investigating
Original Story:
Update: I just got back from the Lumberton ISD meeting. I was very pleased with the response from Superintendent Valastro and the School Board. Lumberton uses CSCOPE minimally so they have not encountered any of the bad lessons, they are aware of some of the issues and address the issues when they come up, they are following the hearings in the Legislature, and they allow parents to come see CSCOPE lessons.
I highly encourage all other Texans to go to their local School Board Meetings and use the public forum section at the beginning of the meeting to let them know how you feel about CSCOPE and ask the board to address the issues.
previous story:
Please contact the Lumberton Independent School District and ask them to stop using the liberal, flawed, anti-American curriculum called CSCOPE.
This Texas curriculum is not vetted by the State Board of Education, it is full of errors, it teaches outrageous things such as calling the Boston Tea Party a terrorist attack like 9/11, it teaches students that Allah is the true God without any comparable lessons on Christianity, and it even has students draw their own communist flag.
I found out about this bad curriculum about 6 months ago but I had no idea that my hometown school district, LISD, was using CSCOPE. Well, I just found out that they are using CSCOPE. It is very disappointing that my tax dollars are going to pay for this.
Let me be clear, I do not believe that the Lumberton school board members or the superintendent would have approved of CSCOPE if they knew all of the problems with it when it was approved. I am not here today to attack any board members. I like the job Mr. Valastro has done and I know some of the Board members personally and I do not believe they would have approved of CSCOPE knowing the problems with it. Most people in the entire state did not even know of the problems with CSCOPE. All these problems with CSCOPE have recently been revealed in the last 6 months. I do believe though that, now that these issues have come to light, CSCOPE should be suspended pending further review by the School Board via a hearing and also until after the Texas Legislature has finished their investigation into CSCOPE.
Many school districts do not use CSCOPE and there is no need for CSCOPE because the curriculum standards (TEKS) are on the Texas Education Agency website along with many other excellent helps that teachers can use to prepare their students for the new STAAR/EOC tests.
The Texas Legislature is even currently conducting investigation hearings into CSCOPE and the CSCOPE controversy has reached national headlines.
SO WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS WITH CSCOPE?
The following information about CSCOPE is from what was revealed in the Texas Senate Hearing on CSCOPE and from http://www.txcscopereview.com/
There is a growing demand in school district all over Texas to remove CSCOPE from local public schools due to evidence of substandard instructional material, illegally plagiarized lessons, anti-American sentiments, lack of transparency, financial impropriety, anti Christian bias, and even mistakes in the lessons such as math lessons that do not add up to the correct answer.
CSCOPE was originally produced in 2005-2006 by outside consultants, one of whom was Linda Darling-Hammond who is tied to Obama and the Common Core Standards which is a takeover of the public schools by the federal government.
Problems with Transparency and Oversight:
CSCOPE did not seek legal counsel from the Texas Attorney General’s office nor from the Commissioner of Education at the Texas Education Agency, in 2009 when CSCOPE was incorporated as a 501(3)(c) non-charitable organization under the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC). When a governmental body seeks to form a 501 (3)(c) it should have seek legislative authority. None was sought for CSCOPE.
The Texas Attorney General's office has said that the TESCCC is a governmental body yet it is using public funds to develop its product; uses public dollars to pay its ESC employees; has no TESCCC business office; does not post its agenda; does not allow the public into its meetings; and will not allow public access to its minutes. Even worse, the TESCCC attempted to silence teachers by imposing a contract threatening legal action against teachers who allowed parents to view lesson content, which is in direct violation of Texas Education Code Chapter 26 E, Section 26.006.
Why would CSCOPE not want parents to see their children's lesson plans?
There has been no outside, independent review of CSCOPE to make sure that its lessons align with the SBOE-adopted curriculum standards (TEKS) upon which the new STAAR/End-of-Course tests are based.
It even took the chair of the Texas State Board of Education six months to get a password to CSCOPE, and other State Board Members were denied access completely.
The Elected Officials on the Texas State Board of Education are supposed to approve all curriculum standards in Texas. CSCOPE is a curriculum and has not been reviewed or approved by the State Board of Education.
Problems with Content of Lessons - Anti-American, Anti-Christian
One CSCOPE lesson teaches that the Boston Tea Party was a terrorist attack comparable to 9/11. One lesson alleges that police officers found drugs in Paul Revere's home. One lesson teaches the 5 Pillars of Islam, a lesson in which students role play a trek to Mecca, a lesson that teaches Allah is the same as Almighty God. It is important to point out that there are no lessons in CSCOPE that teach students about Christianity. There is a lesson on Christopher Columbus that cherry-picks his diary to take out any of his references to his belief in God. There is even a lesson in which students are instructed to design their own Communist/Socialist flag.
Conclusion
Many School Districts in Texas have already held public hearings to determine whether or not to halt the use of CSCOPE, at least until the Texas Legislature finishes their investigation and gives CSCOPE oversight and transparency.
Some of these outrageous CSCOPE lesson plans have been removed recently because of the national attention it has received, but with no oversight there is no way to know what other bad lessons are still in CSCOPE and they could return at any time.
I do not believe that the school board members or the superintendent at Lumberton ISD were aware of the problems with CSCOPE. I know a couple of y'all and I am sure you would not have approved a lesson plan that promotes communism. Now that the Lumberton School Board DOES know, I do believe action should be taken to address and correct the issue.
also read these related articles from the last couple of years:
Cscope was being pushed by our Superintendent as our school's curriculum. He was part of the decision to overrode the teacher's vote a few years back that required the teachers to use CScope. This was touted to the teachers as the direction we are going. We do not even have textbooks anymore. I am an educator and Cscope is not optional in any of our area schools.
ReplyDeleteCSCOPE was originally produced in 2005-2006 by outside consultants, one of whom was Linda Darling-Hammond who is tied to Obama and the Common Core Standards which is a takeover of the public schools by the federal government.
ReplyDeleteFEDS,CSCOPE,HAMMOND, LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE ,STAY THE HELL AWAY , BUZZ OFF and RETRIEVE TO YOUR SATANIC CAVE and STAY THERE : KEEP YOUR MUSLIM GARBAGE TO YOURSELVES.
I agree completely......we are in a spirtual war for our children's hearts. Christians must be vigilantin these attacks!!!!!
DeleteWake up America. Progressives and liberals are the weak point in our armor. Knowingly or unknowingly, they are opening the door to this islamic infiltration.
ReplyDeleteWe must continue to call these school boards that are allowing this to be taught to our children! This is absolute madness......
ReplyDelete"no big deal attitude"
ReplyDeleteJust spoke with principle Gretchen Scoggins the after leaving message for superintendent John Valastro
I guess he is just to busy spending money on the field house. News flash they can't force people to attend football games if they don’t want to go
Gretchen Scoggins 409-923-7814
John Valastro 409-923-7814
I was very surprised and greatly disappointed in the "no big deal attitude" of the school district shoving this CSCOPE bull …. down our throats.
Lumberton is a great place.
I guess they think that won't change!
LISTEN to the voice of the people……have a vote NOW!
I am astounded when I read this article and your other article about the burkas. I doubt any of you have ever studied the Islamic religion or talked to a Muslim before about the religion. NEWSFLASH: They believe that Allah is the same as the Christian God. I know (as a Christian) that the gods are different, but Muslims truly believe that they are the same. They hold all books; the Torah, the Bible. and the Quran; to be truthful and historical accounts. So please, do not criticize the lesson plans for teaching the true beliefs of a religion.
ReplyDeleteI can also say that women are totally able to choose their dress (this is a response to the burka article) and many do not even wear burkas, but rather hijabs. (in the photo, some of the children aren't even wearing burkas, so I assume that means the general public has not done research on the clothing in the Arab world.)
Another thing I have a problem with is the way you said the children were 'forced' to wear the 'burkas'. That is absolutely preposterous, and even though I was not there, I SERIOUSLY doubt that a teacher physically forced a child to put on a scarf or sheet in the Arab style.
About the British thing - allowing children to see both sides of a war and looking at an incident from the side of the perpetrator as well as the victim is crucial to the development of compassion, or even to the understanding of Christianity in it's true form.
I would like to point out that I am a die-hard conservative and 100% a patriot, so don't think that only liberals are defending this liberal curriculum.
As for the fundamental errors in the CSCOPE program, I believe that teachers should be able to weed out the bad lessons or correct the answers, because a teacher who cannot see upon minimal inspection that a math problem does not add up in a elementary curriculum should not even be teaching because they obviously lack critical thinking. After all, aren't they in charge of teaching the children just that?
try telling a woman from Iran that they do not have to wear a Burqa.... they will be punished if they do not! You must have gone to public school where you got brainwashed into thinking that Burqas are only just a fashion and not required in some countries
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