3.27.13 – This was sent to Sen. Dan Patrick from Texas Attorney Greg Abbott:
Statement from Attorney General Abbott:
“The Attorney General’s Office has been working with Sen. Dan Patrick to scrutinize the CSCOPE program for several months. We are deeply disturbed by the CSCOPE content and have significant legal concerns about the program’s operations. Inexplicably, CSCOPE’s officials still have not taken any real steps to address the very concerns that have been raised thus far. It is time for the veil of secrecy to be eliminated and we will continue working collaboratively with the Legislature until CSCOPE is held accountable for any potential improprieties.”
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3.24.13 – “Update / Correction — CSCOPE Curriculum Designer Employed by CCSSO Partner to Aid in Implementing Common Core” – by Danette Clark --
Excerpts from this article:
…in light of information evidencing Wiggins’ involvement in professional development training for Texas educators both before and after CSCOPE was implemented, coupled with the fact that Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design® framework for curriculum, assessment, and learning was directly incorporated into the design of CSCOPE, I think it would be safe to say that Wiggins had a hand in the design of CSCOPE, and further add that it appears he had a hand in its implementation as well.
With over 1,600 lesson plans at any given time (some conveniently disappearing) and rumors of plagiarism, who can say for certain whose lesson plans or content is being provided through CSCOPE?
If CSCOPE was created using Wiggins’ design framework and he provides professional development to Texas educators that use his design framework, why would it be out of the question for CSCOPE to contain lesson plans created by Wiggins?
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3.25.13 – “Was George Washington Any Different From Palestinian Terrorists…?” – by Danette Clark --
Excerpts from this article:
“Was George Washington any different from Palestinian terrorists trying to protect their country?”
“Was Jefferson a hypocrite? Did he really think of a slave as a sub-human while writing the Declaration of Independence?”
These questions were written for use in the classroom by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, curriculum designers behind the creation of CSCOPE.
Wiggins and McTighe have an extensive relationship with the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), the progressive reform movement behind both CSCOPE and Common Core.
The CES schools model relies heavily on the use of ’essential questions’ as a teaching strategy to encourage students to ‘think critically’…
Teaching strategies like backward design and essential questions are used by progressive educators because they can be used with any curriculum content and still be effective in imposing the political and moral bias of the educator onto the student.
Essential questions are used to pick ‘content’ (any curriculum content) apart until students are left with nothing but questions and uncertainty about what they originally thought or believed to be true about the content at hand. The teachers then deposit their own biases and opinions into the discussion in an attempt to alter the students’ perceptions of what they once thought to be true.
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ALL TIED TO COALITION OF ESSENTIAL SCHOOLS – TYPE #2*
Asia Society
Assessment Training Institute
Center for Educational Policy Research
Coalition of Essential Schools
Educators for Social Responsibility
EduChange
Facing History and Ourselves
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Harvard Project Zero
Northeast Foundation for Children
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Outward Bound USA
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Project Adventure
Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC)
Technical Education Research Center (TERC)
*3.3.13 – “Type #1 and Type #2 – Two Completely Different Philosophies of Education” by Donna Garner -- http://nocompromisepac.ning.com/profiles/blogs/type-1-and-type-2-two-completely-different-philosophies-of?xg_source=activity