Chris Comer's Fight vs Creationism in Texas

Only in Texas could the state science director be fired for insisting on teaching only good science.

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60 Minutes II Investigates Claims That Houston Schools Falsified Dropout Rates

All in all, 463 kids left Sharpstown High School that year, for a variety of reasons. The school reported zero dropouts, but dozens of the students did just that. School officials hid that fact by classifying, or coding, them as leaving for acceptable reasons: transferring to another school, or returning to their native country.

“That’s how you get to zero dropouts. By assigning codes that say, ‘Well, this student, you know, went to another school. He did this or that.’ And basically, all 463 students disappeared. And the school reported zero dropouts for the year,” says Kimball. “They were not counted as dropouts, so the school had an outstanding record.”

Sharpstown High wasn’t the only “outstanding” school. The Houston school district reported a citywide dropout rate of 1.5 percent. But educators and experts 60 Minutes checked with put Houston’s true dropout rate somewhere between 25 and 50 percent.

“But the teachers didn’t believe it. They knew it was cooking the books. They told me that. Parents told me that,” says Kimball. “The superintendent of schools would make the public believe it was one school. But it is in the system, it is in all of Houston.”

Those low dropout rates – in Houston and all of Texas - were one of the accomplishments then-Texas Gov. George Bush cited when he campaigned to become the “Education President.”

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A Million Texas Children between 1996-3003 Did Not Graduate

"In 2001-02, Texas schools enrolled 364,270 freshmen – and 225,756 seniors. The state's official annual dropout rate: 1 percent." (Source: The Dallas Morning News - August 31, 2003)

Hundreds of thousands of Texas students never made it to graduation from their high schools in the past seven years, but the reported dropout rates of many Texas school districts came through in small single digits.

A miracle? Hardly. More like a disgrace, a statistical sleight of hand that does more to cover up failure than demonstrate success.

The Texas ATTRITION RATE (on the right) provides a far more revealing (and harsh) portrait of what actually happens to many Texas students.

Where are those thousands of children today? Were they simply LEFT BEHIND? Discarded? Many were lost, forgotten, neglected and in some cases even PUSHED OUT. Push out the weak students and you will see test scores skyrocket.

If you were running for President or Secretary of Education, which number would make you look better, the dropout rate or the attrition rate?



Enrollments for the Houston ISD in 2001-2002

Source: The Dallas Morning News - August 31, 2003

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Failure of No Child Left Behind

ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2008)

A new study by researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas-Austin finds that Texas' public school accountability system, the model for the national No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), directly contributes to lower graduation rates. Each year Texas public high schools lose at least 135,000 youth prior to graduation -- a disproportionate number of whom are African-American, Latino and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students.

...60 percent of African-American students, 75 percent of Latino students and 80 percent of ESL students did not graduate
...The discrepancy between the official dropout rates, in the 2 to 3 percent range, and the actual rates can be attributed to the state's method of counting...
The study has been published in the peer-reviewed policy journal "Educational Policy Analysis Archives"

Kelso at Statesman.com on Comer

Speaking of evolution, the TEA should stop monkeying around

Comer, who taught science for 27 years, recently was given the boot by the agency for forwarding an e-mail that her bosses thought dumped on the theory of "intelligent design," which as best as I can figure is creationism with a fancier name. Creationism is the theory that God created the world in six days and then took Sunday off.

TEA Director of Science Forced to Resign

A Report of Texas Citizens for Science
by Steven Schafersman

November 29, 2007

True Reason for the Forced Resignation
Thus, it is easy to conclude that Chris was forced to resign because someone wanted her out of the TEA--not because she violated a formal written policy, but because she DID violate the preposterous and unethical verbal policy of neutrality to Creationism. I doubt that this policy is written anywhere, but I hope another FOIA request will reveal its official existence. Reporters should interview Associate Commissioner Susan Barnes about her September address to TEA staff. She may still have her notes available (unless she has shredded them, which has been the official TEA policy since...September). A reporter should read back to her what Monica Martinez wrote, and ask Associate Commissioner Barnes to explain why violating a policy that the TEA "must remain neutral" on--not publicizing or seeming to "endorse" a group that "opposes teaching creationism"--is the same as "you are not to communicate in writing or otherwise with anyone outside the agency in any way that might compromise the transparency and/or integrity of the upcoming TEKS development and revision process." I, for one, can't see that these are the same thing, but apparently Monica Martinez and Susan Barnes think they are.

Email from Don McLeroy

Could there be a worst qualified school board member? Read the email below. It just gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

October 30, 2003
The Glencoe Motion

My Personal Confession

Given all the time in the world, I don't think I could make a
spider out of a rock. However, most of the books we are considering
adopting, claim that Nothing made a spider out of a rock.

I don't think I share a common ancestor with a tree. However, most
of the books we are considering adopting, claim as a fact that we all
share a common ancestor with a tree.

Discussion

Has science made its case that Nothing made a spider out of a rock
and that we share a common ancestor with a tree? I say NO, there are
too many difficulties with their case, therefore, I am making these
motions.

Evolution science is predominantly historical science; it is not
observable or testable empirically, it must be inferred. For example,
even the empirical research on embryology and the sequences of
proteins and DNA only give rise to historical speculations. Thus, the
argument for evolution is not deductive, but inductive; in an
inductive argument, scientists weigh evidence to see what is most
probable to have occurred. On this basis, most scientists hypothesize
that Nothing made a spider out of a rock and that we share a common
ancestor with a tree. However, other scientists find serious flaws
with those hypotheses.

In most of the books we are considering adopting, our students are
not being presented both sides; the minority viewpoint is being
withheld. This means that these books do not conform to our
standards.

In fact, most of the books assert the majority view as a fait
accompli. While all the books contain some "qualifiers", Glencoe's
Biology, the Dynamics of Life comes the closest to meeting Texas'
high standards and is the most "qualified" book up for adoption.

The Motions

Therefore, I plan to make the following motions at our November
board meeting.

First, I will move that we separate out the regular biology books
from the commissioner's recommendation.

Second, I will move that we adopt Glencoe's Biology, the Dynamics
of Life as conforming and adopt the rest of the regular biology books
as non-conforming.

Last Thought

This action would approve all the books up for adoption, plus
reward the book that most closely follows our standards. It does not
negatively single out any book but fulfills our responsibility of
standards conformity.

Don McLeroy

Just wrong on so many levels.

Dr. McLeroy is apparently a dentist. My advice is to avoid him if you have dental problems. Anyone who does not believe in evolution is so incompetent in biology as to not be trusted in medicine.