+OK 8139 octets Received: from smtp03.nwnexus.com (smtp03.nwnexus.com [206.63.63.41]) by mail1.halcyon.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id EAA00924 for ; Sat, 20 Mar 1999 04:42:03 -0800 (PST) Received: from ripple.dundee.net (ripple.dundee.net [206.249.104.12]) by smtp03.nwnexus.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id EAA11920 for ; Sat, 20 Mar 1999 04:41:59 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: From: "Donna Garner" To: "ClearingHouse" Subject: [education-consumers] Texas Diploma Plan - Further Discussion Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 21:40:21 -0600 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Priority: 3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: "Donna Garner" Precedence: bulk Status: ===================================================================== I posted an article recently in which I discussed my concerns about a proposal before the Texas State Board of Education to change the Recommended Diploma plan to Texas Scholars Program and the Distinguished Achievement Plan to Distinguished Texas Scholars Program (see attached article). Several people responded back with praise for the Texas Scholars Program (TSP). They said that the Texas Scholars Program is valuable because it encourages students to take so many good courses. I then responded back that the Texas Scholars Program would force schools into block scheduling because of all the many credits that are required. I also said that the TSP would take the curriculum right out of the hands of the elected school board members and their teachers and would put it in the hands of unknown entities in the workplace. I now have in my possession a document which describes exactly what the TSP requires in McLennan County, Texas. Here are some of the questionable requirements: 1. Completion of a TSP portfolio containing "Results of a successful 'mock' employment interview to be administered by representatives of the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM)" 2. Successful mastery of a 'mock' employment test to be administered by representatives of SHRM 3. Two letters of recommendation which include notation of the student's ability to work collaboratively, problem solve, and act and behave responsibly (may be written by teachers, employers, mentors, or other adults who can fairly represent a student's performance in the identified areas). 4. Rewards for participation and completion of the TSP include "preferential treatment upon application for employment with participating McLennan County businesses." I am all for strong vocational programs, and mock employment interviews offer excellent preparation for students. However, to insist that every college-bound student (Recommended Diploma Plan) pass through the TSP requirements (which are granted by people who are not school employees and who do not have to follow school board policies) seems questionable to me. Under TSP, students would find themselves spending a large part of the school day out in the workforce, trying to complete the TSP requirements. This might be fine for those who choose to take work study programs during their upper high school years; but to require all college-bound students to participate in a school-to-work program would take the emphasis off the core curriculum courses. Also, a whole new level of bureaucracy would be created in order to monitor the TSP requirements. What school has enough excess employees who have the time to keep track of all the elaborate requirements of the TSP? Then, too, many of the TSP requirements would require subjective assessments; this would mean that a Texas high school diploma would be based, in part, on the opinions, feelings, and emotions of evaluators in the workforce. Students should focus their attention on gaining core academic knowledge. If along with the core subjects they want to take vocational electives, then that should be their choice. To say, however, that every student who gets a Recommended or Distinguished Achievement Diploma must now come under the TSP guidelines would drive the schools into School-to-Work partnerships with the business community. Many parents want their children to put their emphasis on college-bound courses while other parents want their children to take elective vocational courses. Families should have the freedom to make such choices, and the state of Texas should not usurp those rights. Donna Garner dggarner@swbell.net ========================================================== According to Texas Education News, March 15, 1999, John Stevens of Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC) is pushing the Texas State Board of Education to change the name of the high school diploma plan from "Recommended High School Program" to the term "Texas Scholars Program." He wants to change the name "Distinguished Achievement Program" to "Distinguished Texas Scholars Program." As stated in the article, "John Stevens said in a letter to the SBOE that the TBEC is currently developing a collaborative effort with the Texas Workforce Commission, the governor's school-to-careers staff, Tech Prep Consortium, local school-to-career partnerships, and others to encourage Texas students to complete Recommended program requirements." John Stevens has been one of the driving forces to bring school-to-careers (school-to-work) into Texas. He served on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) writing team for English / Language Arts / Reading and is very much to blame for the generic, vague, meaningless, performance-based language of the TEKS. The SBOE Committee on Instruction, the article said, agreed to move the proposal to the full board for a first reading (two required) at the next SBOE meeting in May. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that this name change is an effort on the part of Stevens and TBEC to align the high school diploma plans with school-to-work mechanisms. Could this lead to the Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) -- performance-based, subjectively assessed objectives -- which would replace the present Carnegie credit diploma plans? Besides the obvious fact that this is a direct effort to institutionalize school-to-work, we do not need to add confusion with yet another change in diploma plans. The three terms that are now used (required, recommended, and distinguished achievement) have only been in force for several years. All of us (parents, students, counselors, and educators) are just now getting used to these three terms. Changing the terminology would only add confusion to an already complicated process of degree planning. (If you have recently sat down with a student to help him plan out his four years of high school course work, you know what I mean.) Please contact your SBOE member and request that the present diploma plan not be changed. Donna Garner High School Classroom Teacher dggarner@swbell.net ===================================================================== EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE networking and information for parents and taxpayers on the internet Subscriptions & Archives: http://education-consumers.com or You are currently subscribed to education-consumers as: arthurhu@halcyon.com TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send a blank email to leave-education-consumers-989462S@lists.dundee.net ===================================================================== For less mail, click on the following link and choose 1) a daily digest, 2) a daily list of subjects, or 3) no mail (read postings on Web) http://lists.dundee.net/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=education-consumers For more help & info: http://www.lyris.com/help or .