Comer decision appealed

added 8/31/2009: The case of the banned band T-shirts in Missouri may be eerily related to this case.
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Chris Comer, who was forced out of her job as Science head in the Texas Education Agency for forwarding an email announcement of a talk by Barbara Forrest in Austin, has filed her brief appealing the decision by [...]

Earth: 6,000 years old, so not at risk from nuclear power (AZ Senator), w/ video

But can there really be a legislative district anywhere in this country that would wan’t somebody like her making the decisions? What does that tell us about the state of education in this country?

the Comer decision: What “disputed issues”?

While awaiting news on whether the decision against Chris Comer’s suit against the TEA will be appealed, I have finally gotten around to reading the opinion by District Court Judge Lee Yeakel (not to be confused with the Simpson’s character).
There’s a serious problem in the judge’s analysis (and the TEA’s argument), but to take advantage [...]

Obama supports science (with audio, & link to video)

Speaking before the National Academy of Sciences today, President Barak Obama said that in recent years,
… scientific integrity has been undermined and scientific research politicized in an effort to advance predetermined ideological agendas.
And, as noted on the White House blog, “The President gave the context in his remarks”:
On March 9th, I signed an executive memorandum [...]

Pluto demoted: Opposition in state legislatures

Last night I watched the BookTV airing of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s talk on his new book, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet.
Sometimes I find his showmanship annoying — a distraction from the substance that I’m interested in.
This time I thought his presentation was wonderful. You can see the video here. [...]

TX SBOE’s s “not-religion” problem

Throughout the day, SBOE majority members seemed baffled by how one speaker after another was talking about them interjecting religion, when they insisted they were doing no such thing.
This time, I think they are honestly baffled. They’re thinking that ID or religion is not being brought into the classroom if nobody is talking about a [...]

TX Ed Agency defense in evolution case

The Texas Education Agency [TEA] has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Chris Comer, who lost her job as the TEA’s top science education specialist after forwarding an email announcement of a talk by Barbara Forrest. ‘a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, a co-author of “Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse” and [...]

La’s Bio-major Gov. signs anti-Biology law

Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal, who was himself a Biology student at Brown University, apparently doesn’t care if Louisiana students “don’t know much about Biology” when they graduate from high school.
As reported in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Jindal has signed into law the “Louisiana Science Education Act,” that “will allow local school boards to approve supplemental [...]

Texas ELAR standards debacle (evolution next?)

The Texas State Board of Education’s shocking action Friday (May 23, 2008) in adopting new standards for K-12 English/Language Arts is being viewed by some as a harbinger of things to come for the new science standards, which are the next to be revised.

Tom Chapin: “IT’S NOT ON THE TEST”

Extra (Oct. 21, 2008): Breaking news on NCLB & assessment under President Obama
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You can play this video here, but be sure to visit Tom Chapin’s site for “It’s not on the test.”
Includes Lyrics, Statement, Fact Sheet, Press Info, Advocacy …

Kansas science standards vote Feb 13, 2007

UPDATE Wednesday Feb 14, 2007:  for the action taken by KSBE, see
http://curricublog.org/2007/02/14/kansas-science-decided/
UPDATE Sunday Feb 11, 2007: See this article in today’s LJWorld.com for background on the vote that is expected Tuesday.
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According to their agenda, the Kansas State Board of Education is scheduled to “Act on Kansas Science Education Standards” at 4:00 Tuesday afternoon on Feb. [...]

Cato: CHOICE would prevent curriculum conflicts

The Cato Institute has release a report titled Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict by Neal McClusky, which makes the case for school choice as a preventive solution for avoiding conflict over public school curriculum.

Florida law: history is fact–not constructed

After this bill was passed by the Florida legislature and was waiting for Jeb Bush’s signature, I posted these pages from the omnibus 2006 Florida Education Law [pdf file] to a couple of email lists that I am on.
I have recently received requests from a couple people who want to make this available to their [...]

wikis and/as textbooks

An article in Teachers College Press reports on the lack of adequate textbooks in California’s public schools — especially in financially less well-off communities. The authors have been sharply critical of high-stakes consequences being imposed by NCLB on students in schools without the resources needed for an education that measures up to the state’s standards.
Meanwhile, [...]

evolution=atheism=religion=unconstitutional?

Ed Brayton on Dispatches from the Culture Wars has done a great job critiquing both the legal reasoning and the general logic and use of quotations and authorities deployed in an argument that teaching about evolution in public schools is a violation of the First Amendment.
Ed’s critique meticulously picks apart particular flaws in the logic [...]

Waxman letter on SMART Grants for Evolutionary Biology majors

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Cal) has written to U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings demanding explanation and corrective action for the omission of Evolutionary Biology from a list of college majors eligible for need-based financial assistance, as discussed on this blog here and here and here, and on The Panda’s Thumb here and here.
Congressman Waxman’s letter is [...]

“Traipsing” authors on BookTV Aug 26-27

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UPDATE: The BookTV page linked below now has a link for a video of this program that you can watch on your computer if you have RealPlayer installed. The URI for the video is http://www.booktv.org/ram/feature/0806/btv082606_4b.ram .
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Casey Luskin and John G. West, two of the authors of Traipsing into Evolution, will be on CSpan-2’s BookTV this weekend in [...]