Issue Position: Teacher-Friendly Curriculum

Issue Position

As an elected State Board member, I will also work to make the TEKS more teacher-friendly and clear. Teachers must use the TEKS guidelines to develop classroom lessons but the guidelines are very confusing! Teachers tell me they want specifics and they want to know what the children must master by the end of each school year.

*I have looked over some of the TEKS for English I. I wonder why many of them are confusing and open to different interpretations! For example, listen to this guideline: "Students will examine the effect of media on constructing his/her own perception of reality." What does that mean? How do you measure it? Such confusion leads to fuzzy curriculum--no wonder teachers are stressed over the TAKS test!

*Here's what I think: teacher stress leads to kid stress and that leads to mom/dad stress! (Like the expression when momma's not happy, no one's happy!) Let's give our wonderful teachers black and white guidelines like this: "Students should correctly write and punctuate compound sentences." OR "Students will identify the tense of verbs." Our children need to master basic skills so they will have a strong foundation--that is what prepares them for higher learning!

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