Texas Ed Spectator

Sports Briefing – Football – Woman Hired as Coach – NYTimes.com

Calvin Coolidge High School in Washington made the rare move of hiring a woman, Natalie Randolph, to coach its football team.

Given that it’s perfectly acceptable for men to coach women’s volleyball and softball, we should be seeing a lot more female coaches in charge of men’s teams.

Star-Telegram.com: | 01/19/2008 | Evolution’s status may be debated by state board

The state’s public school curriculum, called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, says students must learn “the theory of biological evolution.” Section 3A of the biology curriculum states that students must use critical thinking to make informed decisions, including analyzing a theory’s “strengths and weaknesses.”

“They do not cover the weaknesses of evolution,” said Don McLeroy, chairman of the state board, of the state’s science textbooks. “They present evolution as an absolute fact.”

McLeroy, an outspoken creationist, said he doesn’t want changes in the state’s biology standards. But some say that doesn’t mean that creationism or intelligent design, both held by the U.S. Supreme Court to be religious theories that are barred from the classroom, won’t seep into Texas’ curriculum.

Just think, with the decision of the majority of the Texas SBOE to reject a textbook for reasons other than failing to meet basic state curriculum requirements, McLeroy now doesn’t even have to bother with the analyzing the “strengths and weaknesses” rule to reject textbooks that teach evolution. Before, the Board would have to go through the motions of documenting that the textbook didn’t demonstrate the weaknesses of evolution in order to reject the book. The Board could have demanded the publishers to include so many “weaknesses” in the textbook so as to make the evolution section appear a travesty of unscientific reasoning.

But now, McLeroy and friends won’t even have to bother. They believe they can just decide to reject a book for any reason. Their decision to reject the math textbook sets the precedent for the upcoming selection of biology textbooks. Unless Attorney General Greg Abbott steps in now to stop the board, he will find it very difficult to do so in the future. He avoided having to explicitly define the Board’s authority in 2006. It seems to me, that the Board is calling him out to make him actually block Board action in rejecting a textbook. Will he do it? I guess it all depends who is funding his next run for higher office.

Technorati Tags: Texas State Board of Education, Texas SBOE, Don McLeroy, textbook approval, evolution, Terri Leo , Greg Abbott

More on the Texas SBOE’s rejection of a third grade math book. Now the majority has voted to strike the minority reports from the official record of the board’s minutes. It seems that while our San Antonio representative couldn’t bring himself to vote on the original matter, he has joined the majority in censoring the minority.

Texas Board of Education quashes dissenting report on rejected math book | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas News on Yahoo! | The Dallas Morning News

“This is about the credibility of this board, and I will challenge anyone here who tries to challenge my credibility,” said Rick Agosto, a Democrat from San Antonio who had abstained in the November vote over whether to reject the math book.

If he didn’t vote, how could this be about his “credibility?” If he had bothered to vote for approving the textbook to begin with (which meets all state requirements) this wouldn’t be an issue at all, now would it? What’s the deal, he’s afraid the board wouldn’t elect him as an officer again? Does he really believe that the board has the right to reject textbooks based on personal beliefs even if they meet all state requirements? No wonder he’s worried about his credibility.

Rejection of math textbook sparks debate on state board’s authority | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News

The state Board of Education’s unusual decision to reject a math textbook used by Dallas and 70 other Texas school districts has evolved into a power struggle over the approval of classroom materials used across the state.

At issue is whether the 15-member state board can reject any book it wants for any reason it wants. That’s what some conservative board members, led by board president Don McLeroy, say they are allowed to do.

So much for local control.

Rejection of math textbook sparks debate on state board’s authority | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News

In Dallas, officials rolled out Everyday Mathematics books in kindergarten through sixth grade at 19 schools with low math scores during the 2000-01 school year. By the end of the year, only two of those schools still had low scores; a year later, none of them did, said Camille Malone, DISD’s director of mathematics.

The district now uses the book to teach the nearly 79,000 students in kindergarten through fifth grade at all elementary schools. Ms. Malone said games and hands-on examples help the students develop computation skills.

“The TAKS test is a test of concepts as well as skills,” she said. “Had we not had a conceptually based program, I’m not sure we would have had the achievement we have had on TAKS.”

So because some board members are more interested in establishing the authority of their beliefs, Dallas can not use a textbook that it believes has been instrumental in improving it’s math scores.

Terri Leo’s comments have to be among the most pathetic.

Rejection of math textbook sparks debate on state board’s authority | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News

Ms. Leo said. “I object very much being taken to task for rejecting a book that I actually read.”

Apparently it doesn’t matter to her that the textbook was recommended by a review committee, the TEA commissioner, and probably several textbook committees at various districts not to mention the teachers who have been using the textbook in the classroom for a couple years. Shouldn’t they be the ones “objecting” rather than Leo?

I’m pretty sure this is just a continuation of Leo’s attempt for the SBOE to regain absolute control of textbook selection which suffered a major setback in the fall of 2006. Why now? Because biology textbooks are coming up for approval soon. And if the board “establishes” it’s right to reject textbooks for any reason, then the board can easily reject books that fail to “teach the controversy” regarding evolution.

BTW, Terri Leo is up for re-election this year. Unfortunately, the Democrats don’t have a candidate in the race. However, the Libertarian candidate is Brian Kuzma. Why should seven board members get to decide on textbooks for every district in Texas based solely on their personal preferences?

Technorati Tags: Texas State Board of Education, Don McLeroy, Teri Leo, textbook selection

This past week was San Antonio’s Little League District 19 city tournament.

Texas District Tournament Schedules

2007 City Championship Tournaments

The results so far are:

• 10 and Under: McAllister Park National
• 12 and Under: McAllister Park National
• Little League: McAllister Park National
• Juniors: McAllister Park National
• Seniors: Alamo Heights
• Softball Minors: McAllister Park American
• Little League Softball: Northside Suburban
• Softball Juniors: McAllister Park

Notice a pattern here? McAllister Park is so big, even split into American and Nationals, it still dominates everyone else. And just to make sure that McAllister has every chance possible to make it into the tournament, teams from their two leagues do not play each other at the bottom of the brackets. This courtesy certainly didn’t extend to other districts last year with two teams in the tournament.

Now this situation, McAllister being at least twice the size of a good many other leagues in the district, has been going on for some time. Even if officials higher up in the Little League organization actually believe the population numbers coming out District 19*, surely they might suspect something is not quite right?

Apparently, it’s more important to some people that McAllister shows up in the state tournaments than providing the optimal playing experience for as many Little Leaguers in San Antonio as possible. Never mind that McAllister has been known to turn away people because they reached their “limit” and deny them the chance to play in another league. What seems to guide the district policy is to ensure that McAllister Park has the best all-star team possible.

This seems to be at odds with the Little League policy of encouraging leagues to have as many players as possible making the all-stars. According to what we have been told, Little League will allow an all-star team to have three coaches in the dugout only if there are 13 or more players on the team. Otherwise, they can only have two which would require a player as one of the base coaches. This is supposedly to encourage leagues to put more kids on the teams. If McAllister park was split up, it would at least double the number of all-star positions available.

But then they might not be assured of dominating tournaments in the district. This is causing problems beyond their league since other leagues are considering merging so that they’re better able to compete with McAllister Park. So instead of having three all-star teams, they will be consolidated into one all-star team that can compete against McAllister.

Ultimately, this focus on having a “quality” all-star team from San Antonio is hurting the district as whole. Yet nothing is being done. I guess we know what’s important in District 19.

*Once an area reaches a certain population level, leagues are supposed to be broken up. Despite the fact that McAllister covers the fastestgrowing area of San Antonio, it somehow reports that it remains under this limit. However, in order to make it believable, the district hasto make sure the population being reported for other leagues “correlates”with McAllister’s. That means smaller leagues are reporting smaller populations than what actually exists. It would be interesting to see the reported base populations by the various leagues and see just how closely they reflect the city’s actual population.

Technorati Tags: Little League, San Antonio, Texas District 19, Baseball, McAllister Park, McAllister Park Little League

Wow, long time no blog. We just finished our baseball league’s tournament and I’m glad to see it gone. Our team actually won the best two out of three in two games. Of course, there were only two teams in the league but it was still an accomplishment. Our manager actually tries to get everyone about equal playing time and rotates kids through the infield and outfield. Let’s just say that’s not the case for the other team. I think you’ll find that’s not the case for a lot of the Junior Little League Teams (13-14 year olds.)

Our manager kept stats on playing time and made it available to the parents. Even though the difference between the player with the lowest percentage of playing time, 69%, and the highest 78% (excluding pitchers and catchers) would be only ten innings over 100 innings played, parents were still not happy. One parent, whose son was at the low end complained about how playing time was allocated at the end of the season and during the tournament. Our last three games ended up being only four innings. With substitution rules, that means kids who sat the bench had to sit the “half” the game which wouldn’t be the case if they had played six or seven innings. Never mind the fact that their kids would have had even less playing time on the other team, the parents were still not happy.

These are the same parents that don’t bother to help out with the required team concession stand duties. On the day of the last game, they needed help from 6:00 to 8:00 in the concession stand and our game started at 8:15. I was the only person from our team in the concession stand and at 7:00 our parents started showing up. Of course, after the first one bought something from the concession stand, for some reason no one else seemed interested in buying until after I left.

I really don’t expect a lot of help from the parents but this was pathetic. I understand that when both parents work and are trying to manage the various activities for two or three kids, they don’t have a lot of time. But I’m talking about parents that only have one at home and just can’t seem to find the time to make it out to the ball park. I would probably feel differently if I knew they were Girl Scout leaders or working with the PTA or something. But I’ve sat with these parents all season and I’ll I’ve heard them talk about are what tv shows they’re missing.

I really do think coaches need to spread out the playing time among all the players and that too many coaches are focused only on winning. However, when only eight people (all league board members) show up to help maintain the fields out of a league of over 400 kids and when parents hide in the stand rather than spend 30 minutes helping in the concession stand, it starts getting hard to feel sorry for the parents.

High School Students Upset Over Holocaust Assignment | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News:

Students and teachers said the students tagged as Jews were forced to stand against the wall as those portraying Germans passed by in the hallway. The Jewish students were also the last to eat lunch and had to pick up everyone’s garbage, the station reported.Some students said the exercise got out of hand when the German students spat on or hit the Jewish students. “They would spit on them.

They would push them down the stairs. They would be really rude,” student Tiffany Zimmerman said. “I think it was too rough and over the edge.”

Aune said this was the fifth year the school has run the Holocaust exercise. He said he had not received any reports of students spitting, pushing or tripping one another.

“I think that some of the kids were kind of harsh, but it taught us a little bit about how it was back then,” student Trevor Smith said.

I think that this exercise was more revealing than most realize. The lesson isn’t about how Jewish students were treated, the real lesson is how easy it is for people to start treating people badly on the slightest premise. You wonder how the Holocaust happened, look at how easy it was for students to start spitting on others given the excuse.

Baseball season has started (which has cut into my blogging time) and once again I get to see up close and personal what coaches and parents will do to win. My biggest gripe is the minimum play rules. In Little League, you only have to play a kid for six consecutive outs or one at bat. That’s not a lot and if you’re not one of the better players you’re going to spend your playing time in right field. And the board members wonder why more and more kids drop out each year?

But the interesting part is that most parents aren’t aware of the rules. Usually, they just associate the poor playing experience with a specific coach and drop out without realizing the coach was following the rules. I’ve often suggested that the parents should be informed about the rules at registration time. How many of them would be willing to fork over $95 knowing their children may only go up to bat once a game?

Not suprisingly, no one has rushed out to implement my suggestion. Even though this is supposed to be about kids learning to play baseball and learning to love the sport so that one day they will sign up their kids to play baseball, no one wants to give up the competitive edge of being able to relagate the less developed players to right field. Coaches don’t have to worry about teaching all the kids how to play and can spend more time polishing their own kids’ skills so that they can make the all-stars. As the kids grow older, they justify not playing certain kids in the infield because it would be “dangerous” for them since they aren’t likely to field the ball which is because no one has ever bother to teach them in the first place. So every year, the worst players drop out which makes the players who were slightly better than them the worst players for the next year who will drop out and so on and so on until you go from eight t-ball teams to two juniors teams.

Nonetheless, the coaches and board members would much rather bemoan the lack of “talent” than face the fact that they themselves have created the situation. And year after year, they take the parents money without explaining that just because everyone pays the same amount doesn’t mean the kids get to play the same amount.

I didn’t watch any Christmas shows this year. But on Christmas Eve, we somehow got on the topic of the show on Rudolph, the elf that wanted to be a dentist, the island of misfits, and the abominable snowman. We all agreed that the other reindeer were mean and somehow that’s overlooked in the story. After all, the other reindeer only let Rudolph play after he has shown that his “differentness” is actually useful to the community. If Santa hadn’t needed some extra light, I don’t think the reindeer would have ever let Rudolph join them.

The reason I find this interesting is that I think this show is so representative of our cultural mythology and reality. We like to believe that we are free to be whatever we want to be but the reality is that there’s incredible pressure to fit in. Being different is not acceptable unless the majority finds some value in being different and makes it acceptable.

We’re good with nerds that way, just look at any show that focuses on teenagers. How many story lines are based on nerdy kid doesn’t fit in, gets picked on, saves the day for a popular kid, and is redeemed in the eyes of the rest of the crowd? And people wonder why we have a “bully” problem in this country? If you don’t fit in, you’re considered fair game until somehow you do.

The bullies are never really punished. Okay, the over the edge ones do but never the popular individual who legitimizes the outsider. You can usually get a “sorry” out of them but that’s about it. The group continues to function as before, just the outsider is now included.

Think about how much our society actually reflects this myth. Teenagers who feel like outsiders are encouraged to make friends, join activities, get involved so that they fit in. We blame the outsider for not fitting in rather than the group that ostracizes him. And we assume that everyone really wants to fit in so once they are part of the group, the group doesn’t have to change.

I’m sure many think it’s perfectly natural and would never consider why did Santa allow Rudolph to be treated in such a way. After all, he didn’t even know about Rudolph and even Rudolph’s father was embarrassed by him. This isn’t Santa’s fault, he was the one who actually recognized him, right?

But then I think about another very popular Christmas story, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim never has to prove himself to Scrooge by discovering a way to make coal burn more efficiently or reuniting him with his lost love. (It’s been a while since I’ve seen it so I’m probably getting some of the details wrong.) Instead, Scrooge is essentially punished by the three ghosts of Christmas for his actions. He suffers torment and realizes the error of his ways. The outsiders don’t have to do a thing to be accepted by Scrooge, there was nothing wrong with them to begin with.

Unfortunately, this message isn’t as strong as it might be since Scrooge is such an unlikable character. We all know that there is something wrong with him (greed) so of course he will have to change. In his own way, he’s deviated from society’s expectations and reforms to join the group.

Ultimately, we as a society don’t know what to do with people who don’t fit in or don’t want to fit in. For someone to go her own way suggests that the way the group is going might not be the best way. It’s kind of like hazing or some other rite of passage. You’re finally accepted by the group and you expect everyone else to have to suffer the same as you to join the group. But then you see this person who’s not even interested in your group. What’s worst is that even if you drop the hazing, the person still doesn’t want to join.

So what does that mean? Absolutely nothing if you joined the group because it was what you wanted to do rather than what was expected. But how many of us have joined groups without really considering the reasons why? No one likes to be taken for a fool and if you actually examined your reasons for following the crowd, you might end up feeling foolish. So it’s much easier to find something wrong with the individuals who don’t join the group than confront your own reasons for joining the group. After all, these individuals are, by definition, different.

Why do I care about any of this? Because I’m a homeschooler and there is nothing wrong with me. I’m really not interested in playing the reindeer games and if Santa needed me, I would help but I still wouldn’t join the games. If you like playing reindeer games, great, most reindeer do. Just remember, you don’t have to play reindeer games to contribute to the community.

This is from last October:

McKinney ISD Issues Response To Cheerleader Sponsor – Sports:

The McKinney ISD Board of Trustees, administration, campus administration, and staff will continue to deal with student discipline in a consistent manner in an effort to create a safe and positive learning environment. The District and campus have met with parents of the McKinney North High School cheerleaders and developed a transition plan and expectations for how the program will operate in the future.

At the time it looked like everything was going to be pinned on Ward. Seems like they have since decided to move up higher the food chain.