What Fresh Hell Is This? - SBOE Version

Recently, a major dust-up has erupted in the contentious world of state education policy. Responding to a recent legislative mandate, a conservative faction on the State Board of Education has advanced a plan for a complete overhaul of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards, and in the process have stirred the wrath of teachers and educational researchers around the state.

The gist of the proposed new standards is to resurrect the phonics-based language curriculum which I treasure as one of my childhood memories, along with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Adlai Stevenson and the Studebaker. Unfortunately, absent from my memories are any recollections of reading classes, probably because the old phonics-based basal readers were so boring that I often zoned out, daydreaming about the books that I read at home before coming to school.

If you are interested in educating yourself about this issue, here are some sources:

a) Read the proposed regulations themselves, at the following link: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/curriculum/032808ELA_R_TEKS.pdf

You can marvel at how detailed the prescriptions are, specifying at what grade level children should be taught that nouns ending in “y” form the plural by changing the “Y” to “I” and adding “-es.”

b) Read a recent Houston Chronicle story about this controversy: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5716392.html

c) Read polemics on both sides of this issue at the following blog: http://www.susanohanian.org/show_outrages.html?id=6296

One thing to note is that the State Board of Education is soliciting public comment for 30 days, ending on May 18. If you wish to submit your views to the Texas Education Agency, you can do so by the following means:

• Mail: Cristina De La Fuente-Valadez, Policy Coordination Division, Texas Education Agency, 1701 N. Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701, 512-475-1497.
• Online: rules@tea.state.tx.us
• Fax: 512-463-0028.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: What has all this to do with ESL teaching? Well, at the outset maybe not much. However, may English teachers are fearful that the new proposed TEKS standards for English are actually a frontal assault on research-based instructional policy, and this trend directly threatens our profession. After all, who has not heard the notion that ESL instruction of non-native-speaking kids is unnecessary: “Just put the kids in a mainstream classroom, and they will learn English just as my sainted great-grandparents did.”

The State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on these standards on May 21. I urge you to take an interest in this issue, and I will be following it on the TexTESOL-IV Advocacy Blog, which you can access at