GRADE: B – The push to teach abstinence-only education landed Health Education (primarily sexual education) in an abysmal place. As we have explained on the NCAC website, government funding-based mandates to provide a narrow and limited curriculum on a topic, such as human sexuality, amounts to censorship. Essentially, the abstinence only curriculum left out essentially information about contraception and sexually [...]
Grade: C+ The show must go on? Back in December Rowlett High School canceled a production of the musical Rent after controversy was sparked by some particularly vocal parents in the community. The school’s theatre director said she made the decision to cancel the show in the interest of the students involved: “In light of everything that has happened, I [...]
This week we're running a little segment we're calling the NCAC Report Card. Our look into free expression in school and how it fared in the main subject areas. You can read our performance assessments here, but we'd also like to know how you think your school, school district, or college fared. If you're graphically-savvy, you can modify this report [...]
GRADE: C The debate around the role of creationism in American high school science classrooms continues to evolve. Although the courts have rebuffed creationist attempts to re-brand their religious message as “intelligent design,” creationists continued their assault on science in the classroom with urges to “teach the controversy.” Texas, the nation’s second largest purchaser of high school textbooks and therefore [...]
GRADE: A- Math has been falling behind, and is overdue for some one-on-one attention. Wall Street, the state budget crises, the six-month-long-and-still-ongoing election recount in Minnesota, and investigations into the crane collapses in Manhattan, somewhere in each of these calamities is number theory, statistics, geometry or algebra. Our national report card in mathematics achievement seems deplorable. Last month, it was [...]