Parents in San Diego (and doubtless elsewhere) are fighting against dumbed—down curriculums adopted to raise the "performance" of low achieving students, partiularly minority and immigrant children. The Wall Street Journal reports ($link): When San Diego's school district began overhauling its science—education curriculum five years ago, it wanted to raise the performance of minority, low—income and immigrant students. But parents in middle— and upper—income areas, where many students were already doing well, rebelled against the new curriculum, and a course called Active Physics in particular. They called it watered—down science, too skimpy on math. A resistance movement took hold. Some teachers refused to use the new textbooks, which are peppered with cartoons. They gathered up phased—out texts to use on the sly. As controversy over the issue escalated, it played a part in an election in which the majority of the school board was replaced....(Read Full Post)