I spoke this week with Gail A. Lowe, the chairwoman of the Texas state board of education, and she told me that state board members support Texas Commissioner Robert Scott’s decision not to join the effort to create national common standards. Since Missouri got on board, only three states—Texas, Alaska, and South Carolina—are still holding out.
Lowe picked up on some critics’ views that the drafting of the common standards has not been transparent, saying she has a “concern that something is done in a group in secret, and we don’t know where it’s headed.”
She added: “The work they’ve done so far is mediocre. As Texans, we think what we have is better.”
I’m working on a story about how Texas is now revising its social studies standards. Look for that story on edweek.org later this week.