Amir directs education overhaul

Texas’s proposed social studies curriculum teaching ‘brutal’ Islam sparks political battle

A proposed change to Texas‘s high school social studies standards is sparking outrage by requiring teaching about “the Prophet Mohammed’s brutal military campaigns.” Texas’s Republican-controlled Board of Education passed an amendment that included the Islam-related history guidance on Thursday while postponing a further vote on high school standards until September, according to multiple reports. Activists []

Texas weighs teaching about ‘Mohammed’s brutal military campaigns’

A proposed change to Texas‘s high school social studies standards is sparking outrage by requiring teaching about “the Prophet Mohammed’s brutal military campaigns.” Texas’s Republican-controlled Board of Education passed an amendment that included the Islam-related history guidance on Thursday while postponing a further vote on high school standards until September, according to multiple reports. Activists []...Click to read more

Arkansas LEARNS Act a model of education reform for Kansas

As Kansas student outcomes continue to plummet in real terms, Arkansas’ three-year-old LEARNS Act has shown remarkable improvement with proficiency gains in reading, math, science and English language arts. LEARNS is an acronym: LITERACY, EMPOWERMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY, READINESS, NETWORKING, and SCHOOL SAFETY. How did Arkansas do it? Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News: “We did a comprehensive approach to [] The post Arkansas LEARNS Act a model of education reform for Kansas appeared first on The Sentinel.

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Dale Chu’s recent critique of through-year assessment revisits a familiar concern: that state assessments cannot serve both accountability and instruction without compromising one purpose or the other. It is a concern worth taking seriously. Accountability requires comparable, defensible claims about student performance; instruction requires timely, actionable evidence that helps teachers respond to student learning. If poorly designed, through-year assessment can blur those purposes and Read More

Raising the Standards

Texas is on the verge of a major education victory. The State Board of Education (SBOE) is expected to vote tomorrow on adopting improved Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards for social studies and the state’s first required literary works list. These proposals address two subjects that Texas students have largely struggled with in... The post Raising the Standards first appeared on Texas Public Policy Foundation.