It’s probably safe to assume that when the Los Alamitos Board of Education adopted a policy on teaching controversial issues – such as global warming — back in May, they underestimated the brightness of the national spotlight they had just stepped in front of. Last night, in an effort to end the controversy,, the Board of Education changed the policy.
When the original policy was adopted last spring, the Board of Education and the Los Alamitos Unified School District were the subject of widespread unflattering national media attention. This media coverage was made even more challenging by inflammatory comments made by Board Member Dr. Jeffrey Barke. See our related articles below for our exclusive coverage of the controversy.
The Board Members present last night, who did not include the outspoken Dr. Barke, appeared united in the perspective that the original policy, and hence the negative media attention, did not reflect their intent. The first application of the policy was to be on a class at Los Alamitos High School which would cover global warming. The image presented in the media, fueled by Dr. Barke’s comments, was that the class would be required to present the minority view of global warming, whatever that might be. Here are two of his comments from last May:
“I believe my role in the board is to represent the conservative voice of the
Community and I’m not a big fan of global warming.”
And…
“Most teachers are left to center, and if we leave it to teachers to impose their liberal views, then it would make for an unbalanced lesson.”
Of course the media presented this as a requirement to present an alternative point of view on global warming. But, last night’s Board agreed that was not their intent at all.
“There is so much information out there for everyone to have access to, that we as adults and as students who are doing research, we need to learn what items have good resources and what items are not necessarily as well resourced, how you can have very different opinions and you have to be able to sit through the information and make your own decisions,” said Board Member Mrs. Meg Cutuli. “As adults we do this and our students will do this for the rest of their lives. That is why I wanted to approve the Controversial issues policy, because we do need to have things that cause kids to think. This is what we want to do, we want our students to think.”
Thus, the revised policy adds more emphasis on critical thinking and problem solving.
“We’ve added some wording that I think is really significant,” Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services, Mark Johnson, Ed.D. said. “It really gets at the intent of what I think the Board was after. It talks about multiple perspectives to ensure students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.”
There were changes made in section (d) which now reads as follows:
“Represents facts and concepts of controversial issues from multiple perspectives and balance viewpoints and encourages students to examine each side of the issue to ensure that students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.”
This theme was also added to the final paragraph.
“Upon the Board’s request, The principal or teacher shall provide an annual presentation to the Board, including how multiple perspectives of controversial issues are taught, to ensure that students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills…”
Thus, the Board of Education and the Los Alamitos Unified School District hope to end the controversy around their controversial issues policy.
“I would hope that this clears up the whole issue,” Board of Education President Karen Russell said. “I apologize publicly to any teacher or student, or community member that felt that this [policy] was inappropriate in the first place.”
The Board approved this first reading of the new policy. The text of the policy follows:
CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES
The Board of Education (Board) believes that the consideration of controversial issues has a legitimate place in the instructional program of the schools. For purposes of this policy, a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible opinion; are likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community; and are subject to interpretation as obscene, profane, doctrinaire or grossly inappropriate.
The Board will permit the introduction and proper educational use of controversial issues provided that their use in the instructional program:
(a) Is related to the specific instructional goals of the subject being studied and to the level of maturity of the students.
(b) Does not tend to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view. (Education Code 51530)
(c) Does not reflect adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed, national origin or ancestry. (Education Code 51500)
(d) Represents facts and concepts of controversial issues from multiple perspectives balance viewpoints and encourages students to examine each side of the issue to ensure that students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
(e) Is conducted in a spirit of scholarly inquiry.
(f) Is instigated by curricular design or by the students themselves but not by a source outside of the schools.
(g) Draws upon information and insights from the widest feasible range of resources.
In the discussion of any issue, a teacher may express a personal opinion, but shall identify it as such, and the teacher must not express such an opinion for the purpose of persuading students to his/her point of view.
Upon the Board’s request, the principal or teacher shall provide an annual presentation to the Board, including how multiple perspectives of controversial issues are taught, to ensure that students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The Board shall identify the courses in which an annual update is required, and these courses will be listed in Regulation 2013.
Legal Reference: Education Code
51500 et seq. Prohibited instruction
60002 Standards and guidelines re: selection of instructional material
60040 et seq. Requirements, materials Rev. 4/12/11
The Los Alamitos Unified School District serves nearly 10,000 students in Seal Beach, Rossmoor, and Los Alamitos. The district includes Los Alamitos High School, a full service high school, Laurel High School, a continuation high school, McAuliffe Middle School, Oak Middle School, and six elementary schools. Mrs. Karen Russell is the current President of the Board of Education. Dr. Sherry Kropp is the Superintendant of the Los Alamitos Unified School District.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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So, the Board added language about problem solving and critical thinking skills. That does not change the policy in any meaningful way.
It seems that the media’s conclusions in May were correct–teachers must teach “the other side” of any controversial subject. In essence, this is the same as the “Teach the Controversy” policy put forth to support the teaching of creationism in our state-funded (and therefore religion-free) public schools.
Teachers should be free to consider, choose and follow their own curriculum. Since that seems to be a level of trust the school board cannot stomach, education funding and curriculum will always be dominated by the political process and be influenced by personal beliefs.
You were beat on the original story by Patch.com and even the London Guardian! Your coverage was hardly “exclusive.”
The reference in this article to “our exclusive coverage of the controversy” refers to our original articles published on May 12, 2011 and May 16, 2011. Both of these articles were original and exclusive to OC180NEWS. When this story broke, and OC180NEWS was sitting in the room, there was widespread media coverage. But, most of this coverage came from secondary sources which carried Dr. Barke’s quotes from the Board of Education meeting. OC180NEWS went beyond this limited and often distorted coverage and did an exclusive interview with Dr. Barke. That interview was the basis for our article of May 16, 2011. This was our original and exclusive work product and unless somebody copied it without our knowledge and permission, it is exclusive to OC180NEWS.
By definition, an “exclusive” interview or story would mean Dr. Barke hadn’t talked with other media. In this case, both the London Guardian and Patch.com interviewed Dr. Barke before OC180News.
OC180NEWS uses the word exclusive to mean that our content, that is, our work product, our research, our wording, and everything which makes our article separate and different from any other article, is exclusively available on OC180NEWS. This may be contrasted with syndicated articles, or Associated Press articles, which are presented by numerous publishers. Others are certainly free to use terms in whatever manner they believe appropriate.
The OC180NEWS articles which we consider as “exclusive,” may also be differentiated from press release articles which many publications present as original reporting. Unfortunately for readers interested in understanding the source of articles, without access to the original press releases, it is very difficult to tell if an article is nothing more than a press release dressed up and presented as original work. We don’t do that on OC180NEWS.
While we certainly publish press releases, such as those from the U.S. Department of Defense, OCDA’s office, or California Department of Public Health, we never pretend these articles are our original work. We always attribute these articles to their actual sources.
Further, since this thread of comments has nothing to do with the content of the articles involved, we believe it has out lived its usefulness. Any further comments in this thread will be removed.
There are two errors in your report.
1. “Balanced viewpoints” was removed from section “d”. This certainly changes the flavor of the policy.
2. The word “annual” was removed from the final paragraph. The teacher or principal might be asked to make a presentation but certainly not an “annual” presentation.