Education in Texas under Bush

Here is a letter explaining what is really happening in Texas schools. It was written by one old teaching acquaintance of mine in Dallas, Texas and ran in a suburban Texas newspaper. A second teacher friend forward it on to me and I felt you should see it as well. I myself am a certified teacher from Texas. My certification came from the University of North Texas, which is rated top in the state in Teacher education. I have seen the effects that the Texas academic assessment test has taken on our teachers and our students. The teachers are forced to teach for the test, not for real life. So Texas students are learning only how to do well on the TAAS test. This is what GW Bush is pushing, and this is another reason why we must no let him win on November 7. The TAAS Test is not looked upon favorably by educators at the University of North Texas, ....or myself.

a senior RAND researcher who helped lead the study, "What Do Test Scores in
Texas Tell Us," suggests "the Texas miracle is a myth."
    Beyond the gnashing of teeth in the Bush camp over the RAND Corporation's
stunning new findings, Texas teachers must be shaking their heads over the
researchers' claim that "teachers may be specifically preparing students for
the state exam." My, what is the world coming to? Teach TAAS reading and
vocabulary worksheets all day? Write TAAS math drills on the board? Announce
pizza parties for classes with the highest TAAS scores? Offer after-school
tutorials for "bubble kids" who are just tow points shy of the almighty
minimum score? Shave the principal's head and park him on the roof all day if
the school's scores are rated "exemplary." Be still, my heart.
    Let us be refreshingly honest, even as the Bush camp grinds out
doublespeak on their candidates' claim to be the "education president." From
the gitgo, teachers are reminded why they are in the classroom: Make those
little munchkins pass the TAAS! By October, teachers are knee-deep in TAAS
drills and the worksheet factories are chugging out TEA and Region-whatever
lesson plans and guide books. In many schools, they announce the TAAS "power
words" over the loudspeakers while stirring music fills the rooms. And, of
course, the TAAS-related testing industry proliferates like aroused gerbils.
    A little lesson in the political history of TAAS tests: The RAND
Corporation's July study that favored Texas test scores was based on the
years 1991-1996. George W Bush didn't become governor until 1995. Democratic
governors Mark White and Ann Richards have received scant praise for these
modest gains. If one were to ask for one of Mr. Bush's achievements as
Texas' education governor, consider that his handpicked choice to run the
Texas Education Agency is a former litigation attorney without one day's
classroom experience. But he did donate to Mr. Bush's presidential campaign.
    Acknowledging that -surprise!- Texas teachers do teach to the TAAS tests
ad infinitum may rankle RAND Corporation researchers, but it's a fact of life
like Friday night football games in Texas public schools. Remember the
charming tale of "The Emperor with No Clothes"? Everyone knows the emperor
is nekkid as the old fool parades down the street; no one wants to admit he
looks like a plucked chicken. It's the same with the state's educational
system: Everyone struggles mightily throughout the school year doing two
things. One is to review the hell out of the TAAS workbooks preparing the
restless students to score 70's on their little scan-trons. The second is to
isolate the growing number of students who, for one academically expedient or
politically correct reason or another, will not take the TAAS tests because
their scores would blow a hole in the school district's performance rating.
    The truth shall set us free: Ask any veteran teacher if all this
concentrated effort in motivating students to pass the state-mandated exams
has anything to do with acquiring insight into the future, which is the
starting point of knowledge and wisdom. Ask if memorizing essays, formulas or
test-taking skills has anything to do with becoming an informed citizen who,
in a hotly contested political campaign, can reason out his or her choice of
candidates? Ask if it matters that the school's student population attains
blue-ribbon status if Texas kids can't compete with their peers on the
National Assessment of Education Progress test, which Rand researchers called
the "gold standard" of student achievement.
    Or, as Mr. Klein observed about Texas public education on George Bush's
watch,
    "When you look at what's going on in Texas, where you bring in private
contractors to teach students and teachers how to do well on a particular
test, what they learn doesn't carry over to another test which has been
endorsed by a national expert, you start raising questions about what's going
on in this particular test. They've learned how to answer the questions on
the state test, but that's not really what we mean by reading or mean by

math."
    It doesn't take a Dan Quayle to recognize the future of public education
under Bush's compassionate, conservative" leadership. Tie accountability of
TAAS test scores to teacher compensation nd you can forget teaching anything
else but the almighty TAAS review sheets. The exodus of teachers streaming
from the schoolhouse because their professional talents are abused or ignored
will decimate public education. How can this ugly scenario redeem Bush's
pledge to "leave no child behind?" THen again, Reagan's advice to improvised
school children enrolled in head Start programs was to eat ketchup because it
was deemed cafeteria food.
    In a wry, perceptive essay, "Is America Falling Apart," Anthony Burgess
reflected on America in the 1970's and judged that "America has always
despised its teachers and, as a consequence, it has been granted the teachers
it deserves." Well said, Tony. As a nation we will not prepare the nex
generation of leaders who must compete with their clever European and Asian
peers if they spend the livelong day filling in ovals with a number two
pencil or memorizing the next five TAAS vocabulary words. This kind of
educational system rewards the politicians and punishes the teachers and
students, both of whom wanted more out of an education.
    Will Texas teachers be Bushwhacked by the usual political doublespeak? If
one's purpose lies in the classroom, what counts is the child's mind and the
intellectual resources to make a difference.