Vines High School - Odyssey Yearbook (Plano, TX)

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HAVE YOU EVER BEEN 'BIRDWI-lLKING ? OR DON'T PARK UNDER THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE HOUSE o you know what the team ubirdwalkingn means? Bird- walking, as defined by the glossary of PDP terminology with House Bill 72, means to wonder off the objective while teaching so that time is wasted and learners lose focus of the learning. That's a technical term if ever there was one, and House Bill 72 is just filled with technical terms. Words such as closure which is eliciting feedback from learners at the end of a lesson in order to determine if learners grasped critical attri- butes of the learning. ln other words, that means a quiz to see if the class was paying attention. Everything in this document seems to be purposely written so that only the Texas Legislature can interpret what it means. House Bill 72 was passed the last week of the Texas Legislature's meeting the week of l uly 3, l984 and includes selected sections on administration and oversight of public educa- tion policy, school finance, teachers and ad- ministrators, students, school districts and programs. Each section tin a condensed ver- sionj had an average of six pages each, all written in a very small type. fThe entire bill has 226 pages and reading the condensed version saved time.D Most of the bill was print- ed underlined bringing special attention to important changes in policy. BILL 72 Part of House Bill 72 now appears on the bottom portion of report cards. The four no- tices are taken from section 2l.72lf 722 which is the student section of the bill and in a subchapter on advancement and course credit. lt tells of the new passing grade changed to a 70 which rid Texas school sys- tems of the D letter grade. Another well publi- cized addition in House Bill 72 is section 21.920 part B which is also known as the no passfno play rule. Of course this is self-ex- planatory in the way that is a student doesn't pass one or more of his classes, he or she will not be allowed to participate in extracurricu- lar activities involved in the school. Another new addition high school students face is that starting in l985, students in the eleventh grade will be given a test to check basic skills in both the math and the English areas. lf students do not pass both sections of the test before the year they graduate, their diploma will be withheld from them until both sections in math and English are passed. House Bill 72 may make a lot of students mad at the Texas Legislature for what they believe are unnecessary changes in the school system, but all in all, the Texas Legisla- ture has done what it believes is necessary for complete reform in Texas schools. The Class of 1988 is the first to ex- perience many changes in the Texas school systems.

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EDITORIAL The condensed version of House David Ramey and Roger Robin- Bill 72 is only a small part of the son take the changes of House entire bill. Bill 72 seriously. 4 ouse Bill '12 seems unnecessary to me. All it appears to be is a whole bunch of changes made for students Cand teachersl by people who don't have to spend almost nine months a year in a public school. Because they don't go to school and have the particular workload we students do, how would they know what type of changes are needed to better Texas public education? To make the school systems better is their goal, but sitting in an isolated room in the state capital brainstorming ideas that sound good is not the way to do it. They should ask the people who know what changes should be made-the students. l'm not talking about the students who don't appreciate the educa- tion provided for them. I mean the ones who care about learning to the extent they want to make necessary changes to make it better. Take for example the No Pass!No Play rule. When a student fails a class, he can no longer play a particular sport for the next six weeks, That's stupid. A student who participates in sports, and is good, should not be pune ished for not doing well in a class that has nothing to do with that sport. Anyone can fail a class, and if someone who fails a class doesn't take athletics, he doesn't get an extra punishment . Therefore the punish- ment given to athletes isn't fair. Next came the end to the 'D' grade. This forced students to start making higher than a 69 to pass their classes. This was the one good idea l agree with in some classes. Other classes, the advanced or more difficult ones, should have been allowed to keep the 'D' letter grade as a safety catch for difficult assignments or tests. Although l could go on with most of the changes House Bill 72 makes, it really is pointless. The Texas State Legislature won't ever come to the kids to ask what they feel is wrong because most adults feel they know more than students already. House Bill 72 started out to be a really good idea, but the rules were changed to suit the wrong group of people. EDITOR'S PEROGATIVE Kelly Thompson l ulie Burdick calculates her grades to ensure herself she's is no failing.

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