by Deb Aronson Teacher Advocacy What Happened in Texas T the importance of local elections The Texas Council of eachers typically do not enter the profession intent Teachers of English Language Arts TCTELA an affiliate on becoming political advocates Their focus is how of NCTE was a driving force in these advocacy efforts best to help individual students leaving others to The discord in Texas comes from philosophical differlook out for students and teachers interests in the wider ences between board members and teachers The majorworld However many teachers are recognizing that their ity of board members led by SBOE chair Don McLeroy classroom efforts are being hampered by forces outside feel strongly that it s useful to teach subjects like gramthe classroom In order to counteract those forces some mar and spelling in isolation from writing and also that teachers have become advocates for their profession and comprehension skills such as inference do not need to their students in the public arena be taught in more than one year saying that is repetitive For example in Texas English teachers have found Teachers and a minority of school board members feel that their efforts to teach English language arts are bethat grammar and spelling is more effectively learned ing compromised by some actions by the State Board in the context of reading and writing Doing otherwise of Education SBOE Last May the SBOE passed a set says Forth Worth teacher Betsy Oney makes about as of standards Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or much sense as teaching a child to ride a bicycle without a TEKS that one teacher Pat Jacoby described as flawed bicycle standards that will produce errors gaps and weaknesses In addition teachers note that comprehension skills in the curriculum might appear repetitive but that each year the texts The document say teachers who have seen it is become more difficult and that teaching comprehension cobbled together poorly written and unclear with many every year is key to students learning critical thinking holes in it Examples include the adopted reading stanVoicing an opposing view dard monitor accuracy of board member David Bradley decoding Teachers say The most important thing teachers can do is that reading is more than be informed about the positions of candidates who shares McLeroy s views told the Houston Chronicle decoding words it also uses running for the legislature and for local and This critical thinking stuff is syntax semantics and visual state boards that set educational policy gobbledygook information in order to com Cindy Tyroff NCTE SLATE representative for the The teachers efforts began prehend the text The teacher Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts three years ago when the version of this standard TEKS were first being rereads monitor accuracy of worked Although the process was confusing and unclear reading using decoding syntax semantics and visual with the goals and methods changing teachers worked information hard to have their voices heard For example Alana MorOver the past three years as the standards have been ris a literacy integration specialist and past president slowly reworked Texas English language arts teachers of both the TCTELA and of the Coalition of Reading and learned to form coalitions with other literacy organizaEnglish Supervisors of Texas CREST and others spoke tions and other professional teaching organizations to up to make sure professional organizations had a voice work with state legislators to use the media to publicize in how the TEKS were revised Originally those organizatheir efforts to create high quality standards and to tions were not included In addition regional meetings communicate with PTAs parents and school superinwere held allowing educators all over the state to review tendents In addition Texas teachers have begun to changes to the standards so that they also could have a recognize the importance of participating more fully in role in creating quality standards Attendance at these the political process by paying closer attention to local meetings ranged from between 15 and 47 participants elections by considering running for local office themrepresenting more than 40 school districts and several selves and by informing others about local politics and 20 The Council Chronicle March 2009 Copyright 2009 by the National Council of Teachers of English All rights reserved universities and an enormous depth of experience said Morris In addition TCTELA passed resolutions calling on the board to heed the recommendations of Texas educators as documented in the CREST meetings and to broaden its panel to include experts recognized by state and national education English and reading organizations National organizations like NCTE also became involved Kylene Beers then NCTE president elect and Kent Williamson executive director each wrote letters to the State Board of Education regarding the TEKS Up until one day before the school board voted on the new standards teachers were cautiously optimistic that despite their differences with the board their voices would be heard And then McLeroy decided to rewrite the document Those board members not involved in rewriting the document received the new version little more than one hour before they were set to vote on it Not only did teachers feel this was unfair after they had spent so much time and energy helping to create good standards but they say it broke the SBOE s own rules that say the standards must be on the Texas Register website for 30 days before being adopted This rule ensures that the public is able to review the standards The teachers were very discouraged especially since nine of the 16 board members voted to accept these standards According to state regulations the adoption of these flawed TEKS standards will affect Texas school children for a decade at which point the standards can be revisited The state s standardized tests are based on these TEKS as are textbooks As Texas is one of the largest textbook purchasers in the country these standards could well affect textbook content nationwide What happens in Texas does not stay in Texas Morris said One result of teacher advocacy in Texas was increased media coverage for the events In addition to covering the flawed process the media shone the spotlight on several SBOE members One such board member was Cynthia Dunbar whose book titled One Nation Under God How the Left is Trying to Erase What Made Us