That which we may or may not be required to know

I don't pretend to even come close to understanding public school finance, which would make me fit right in with the TX Legislature since they can't quite seem to get it right either. School finance has been and issue for well over a decade and it hasn't been fixed yet, and I'm not totally convinced it's just because Republicans and Democrats can't agree. The latest in the ongoing saga is the decision handed down by the TX Supreme Court stating that the current plan is unconstitutional.

One of the main reasons listed for finding the current school financing plan unconstitutional is that the individual school districts have no control of the tax rates. The court holds that the state-designated cap on property taxes which are used for public school financing is in effect a statewide property tax, which is prohibited in the TX Constitution. Maybe the June 1 deadline stated in the decision will light a fire under the Legislature to actually come up with a better plan. I'll let them borrow my lighter if it will help get that fire lit.

The other points of this lawsuit are the adequacy of public school funding and the equity of school funding between districts. The court holds that current school funding is adequate to achieve a 'general diffusion of knowledge.' The problem with this is that the standards used to measure whether to not the schools are achieving this are set way to low. The current requirements for a school to be rated as 'academically acceptable' are focused on reducing the failure rate, not educating the students in a way that will prepare them to function in our society as adults. The court's majority opinion on the school finance decision addresses this, although it's long and may take a little bit to wade through.

Current requirements for a school in Texas to be academically acceptable state that only 25 % of their students have to pass the science portion of the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test, 35% have to pass the math portion, and 50% have to pass the English, writing and social studies portion. The rates will increase incrementally until 2009 when the rate will have to be 70% passing in all areas, but it doesn't really make sense to start the levels low and incrementally increase them. I've found that when you settle for standards that require lower levels of education that's exactly what you'll get. Allowing students and teachers a lower level of accountability in passing rates on the TAKS now doesn't promote increased learning as there is a lower base to build on which will make it harder to increase the passing rate at later dates. And people wonder why our students aren't better educated.

Because the passing rates are measured by standardized test scores, I feel like I need to comment on the reliability of standardized tests. While I recognize the need for a uniform system of evaluating what students have learned, I am not a big fan of standardized testing. While it may show how much a student knows to a certain degree, I believe that it is more a measure of how well a student tests. Additionally, the TAKS test doesn't cover all of the prescribed curriculum, and therefore isn't necessarily an accurate measure of whether or not a school has provided a 'general diffusion of knowledge.'

Unfortunately, without a better way of evaluating how well our schools are preparing students to function in college and society, we are stuck with standardized tests. I'm sure this issue will be visited again in future posts. Equity in funding between the districts is a different issue for a different time. Not even the high court would touch the Robin Hood law in their latest ruling.

Maybe some day, someone will come up with a better method of evaluating how effective our schools are. And maybe Legislature can fix public school finance.

Hmmm... a girl can dream can't she?

Black & White & Grey all over

Shalom! I'm back from Israel with only minor jet lag. Am trying to catch up on US news since the only newspaper I've read in the last few weeks is the Jerusalem Post, which I highly recommend for keeping up with news in the Middle East. Lessons from my pilgrimage:

1) Close counts only in horse shoes, hand grenades, and Holy sites. Given the multiple turn overs in occupation and control in the region for the last few millenia, it's hard to tell sometimes which is the actual site, and twhich is the 'traditional' site as designated by the Catholic Church. At first this bothered me, but as our tour guide, Doreen, said, it's more about the symbolic importance than about the actual location sometimes. Although I must say those Byzantines sure knew how to do mosaics and stained glass.

2) Nothing in that area is as black and white as we would like to make it. For every person you talk to with one opinion, you will find another with an opposite opinion. I took a side trip to Bethany, which is just outside of Jerusalem, in the Palestinian West Bank. Our guide was a Palestinian Muslim who was very knowledgeable about the Christian sites in Bethany. He took us to the tomb of Lazarus among other sites. He told us that he believes that those in power keep trying to make the issue of control in the region a religious one when it is really about possession of the land and political power. This was totally opposite of an editorial I had recently read stating that those in power keep trying to make it a political issue when it's really a religious issue. I really don't think we can have one without the other. The political issues are religious, and unfortunately the religious issues are political.

3) True peace in Israel isn't possible until Jesus returns. As simplistic as that may sound I believe that there will be temporary periods of relative peace, but no true lasting peace this side of Jesus return. There are too many different groups with history there, and the future for every one of us, whether we want to admit it or not, lies there.

4) I don't know nearly as much about Judaism or Islam as I should. I was amazed that both our Jewish Israeli guide and our Palestinian Muslim guide knew much more about Christianity than I know about either religion.

All in all the trip was absoultely fabulous. I'm still processing the great amount of information that I've been given over the last few weeks, so I'm sure there will be more later on the subject.