A Superintendent Writes... The Anti-CSCOPE Agitators

A LYS Superintendent submits the following:

SC, 

The problem with the anti-CSCOPE agitators is that they can find “facts” that support their agenda. For example, the CSCOPE management organization (TESCC) has petitioned the Attorney General for a ruling on its status. Though this is not an uncommon practice (as any Superintendent knows), to the layperson or purposefully uninformed, it smells like something else.

If there is a CSCOPE controversy, it is driven by the lessons.  I would advise CSCOPE to get out of the lesson business and just let teachers share ideas via some forum, like Project Share.

The anecdotal evidence provided by the agitators can be attributed to random (yet expected) incidents of poor teaching practice, poor leadership practice, and general griping. Nothing by itself detrimental, but the overall mix is toxic and confuses the real issues of instructional support and improvement. Like it or not, the anti-CSCOPE movement does seem to have legs.

SC Response

I can’t disagree with anything you present. But it does bring two things to mind. 

First, in the early 2000s a group that wanted to develop and sell a curriculum tool, similar to what CSCOPE is today, approached me.  They made me a very attractive offer, which I turned down. When they asked why, I told them that I didn’t see their idea as viable. The reason? I had never met a teacher or administrator that didn’t hate the curriculum and blame the majority of their problems on it.  This is seemingly a universal truth.  Long story short, the company didn’t make it.  It seems that no matter what they did, teachers kept complaining about the product.

Second, in dealing with the anti-CSCOPE agitators, I’m reminded of the reason why you don’t wrestle with pigs.  All that happens is that you get dirty and the pigs like it.

Think. Work. Achieve.

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