CSCOPE Update
(Aug. 19 through 8 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9)


Here’s a quick summary of CSCOPE related news since our last issue went to press:

1. Name change — CSCOPE is officially no more, and what remains of the program has been renamed the TEKS Resource System under a decree by the Texas Curriculum Management Program Cooperative (TCMPC) board. The name change took effect on Aug. 30.

As promised, the CSCOPE website went out of business as of Aug. 31, and a new website www.tcmpc.org
was launched to provide info about the TCMPC and the TEKS Resource System.

Although lesson plans, as promised to legislative leaders last May, were pulled from distribution as of Aug. 31, they remain publicly available from another source (see next item).

2. Lesson plans — The online-only Texas Tribune published the complete set of CSCOPE sample lesson plans (some 10,000 documents) in a searchable format. A number of school districts report they still plan to use the lesson plans, which were deemed, by a TEA attorney, to be in the public domain.

3. Debate — If you missed the Aug. 24 debate on CSCOPE between CSCOPE opponent/Senate Education Chair Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and State Board of Education Vice Chair Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, we’ve posted a link to the webcast archive here (courtesy Texas Freedom Network), and to news articles about the debate, here and here.

4. Audit — Sen. Dan Patrick announced on Aug. 21 on his Facebook page that he has received word that the state auditor will conduct an audit of CSCOPE beginning in September. Patrick said he was the first elected official to request the audit of CSCOPE by the state auditor.

5. SBOE hearing — The SBOE CSCOPE Ad Hoc Committee was scheduled to hold a Friday, Sept. 13 public hearing on CSCOPE Social Studies lesson plans. We’ll have an update about the hearing in next week’s issue.

6. Tests — After two conservative bloggers published a total of about 30 of the approximately 700 sample CSCOPE-related student tests (which are not part of the lesson-plan pull-down effort), the Associated Press quoted service center spokesperson Mason Moses as saying that all of the sample tests designed to be used after the first six weeks of school will be pulled down and then modified over concerns that the tests would no longer be useful to teachers if they became publicly available.

Moses said the effort could cost up to $1 million if a rewrite of all compromised tests is required.

7. TEA advisory — Education Commissioner Michael Williams on Aug. 27 reminded school districts about a provision in recent legislation (SB1474/summary/bill text) requiring districts to follow a new process prior to the adoption of any major curriculum management system (such as what was CSCOPE).

The bill requires school boards to solicit input from school employees, and to have a meeting to discuss the proposed initiative and to allow feedback from community members prior to adopting a major curriculum initiative/system.

END