<p>[Judge</a> says UC can deny class credit to Christian school students](<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/12/BAQT129NMG.DTL&tsp=1]Judge”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/12/BAQT129NMG.DTL&tsp=1)</p>
<p>I’m not even sure if this is the right forum for this topic. Maybe the mods will move it.:)</p>
<p>I don’t necessarily agree, but his reasoning is sound. And, after all, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to go there.</p>
<p>Interesting- didn’t realize the Christian cultists were that serious in mind controlling that they published books like those mentioned. Christ, as presented by Christianity, would be apalled at their lack of scholarship, but that’s my inflamnatory opinion. I can’t imagine students being taught like that wanting to mix with the rest of the population in a public college setting, they couldn’t help but be “corrupted”- in and out of the classroom.</p>
<p>^Let me get something perfectly straight…I don’t know what the people you’re referring to are, but they are DEFINITELY not Christians.</p>
<p>Well, HGFM, I would say that they are - just a more extreme version than most.</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware that colleges examined the textbooks of all the schools that students apply from.</p>
<p>Let me point out that homeschoolers who join h/s associations or are part of a secular charter public which uses/permits such curriculum among its accepted texts (yes, there are some), risk also having their own applications to UC compromised, even if they themselves as students/families never read those texts in the course of their ‘home’ education. I tried to point this out to one of my colleagues in education, in such a public homeschool, but at the time they did not divorce themselves from those authors & series. Perhaps they will now.</p>
<p>It seems they just won’t receive credit as biology courses. Big deal. I came into college with no credits. If you want credit, take the AP exams. California sucks anyway, except for the weather and the girls/fashion in LA.</p>
<p>Hmmm – bad news for graduates of Hogwarts…</p>
<p>Adding onto my previous post – How do they examine the books of those in foreign countries? My D’s textbooks for grades 9-11 were all in German. (And their German history was a bit different from what my boys were taught, by the way.)</p>
<p>What does it mean that they don’t “get credit.” Does it mean they aren’t eligible for admittance because they haven’t had the required HS curriculum?</p>
<p>From the article (emphasis mine):
</p>
<p>They are still eligible for admittance but must demonstrate mastery of the core course ("[A-G</a> coursework](<a href="http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/subject_reqs.html]A-G">http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/subject_reqs.html)") concepts via other methods (e.g. good SAT scores). (From the UC site: "The courses you take to fulfill the Subject Requirement must be certified by the University as meeting the requirement and must be included on your school’s [UC-certified</a> course list](<a href="http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/]UC-certified">http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/).") The “A-G coursework”/“UC-certified courses” bit is well known at CA high schools, and any homeschoolers who aren’t familiar with these requirements probably have been hiding behind a rock under some sand.</p>
<p>binx, what it means is that they would not get credit for that particular core science course, in the a-g UC group of courses. As mootmom says, they would have to demonstrate competence by other means.</p>
<p>
That’s what struck me. The article implied that the UC people had specific knowledge of the particular textbooks used. I understand that they can have an idea of the books the public school system is using but it seems that it’d be quite a challenge to firstly, know the particular books being used by all of the private schools and secondly, actually know what material is covered in the books.</p>
<p>I believe high schools in California have to submit their courses to UC for certification if they want them to count for the students’ A-G requirements. The submission is a pretty complete description - course goals, units, activities, assessments. My kids’ school is fairly new, and I remember that it was a milestone when they got their courses UC-certified with minimal changes.</p>
<p>^Not only that, but when you apply for a UC (or a CSU, for that matter), you have to list all the courses that you think fall under the A-G reqs. You have to choose from a list, so you know if yours qualifies or not. Although you can state “Other”, and they review it and tell you if it qualifies or not.</p>
<p>calreader is correct.</p>
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This is a good policy. I would imagine every private school which earned certification would advertise the fact.</p>
<p>That’s also why other accreditations, like Middle States, are so valued for the private schools. There has to be some imprimatur of the curriculum’s worth. You can call the course anything you want, but that name may not truly represent the content. In the case of this challenge, the biology text states on the first page that when the Bible & science conflict, science is wrong. The course, then, is NOT a biology course, regardless of what it is named.</p>
<p>The amusing thing (to me anyway) about this is that any reference to evolutionary biology in my kids’ public school text books has been so bowlderized that I’d bet that there is little difference between them and the ones in most Christian schools. Also, most of biology at the high school level is completely understandable WITHOUT needing to go into evolutionary biology at all. What my kids got in high school was mostly ecological and basic cellular biology. Their textbooks didn’t go into things like the theory of punctuated equilibrium or jumping genes. </p>
<p>It’s another tempest in a teapot, and the court wasted it’s time. For the five days a year my kids spent learning about evolutionary biology topics in public school, the Christian kids didn’t. Big deal. I’ve skimmed a high school biology textbook meant for use in Christian schools and other than in the introduction it was pretty much identical to the public school texts my kids used. I don’t get all the sturm and drang, other than that the atheists are making this a religious issue.</p>
<p>Well, Washdad, they just don’t leave out references to evolution; they also question scientific thinking in general:</p>
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<p>Not really a great preparation for college.</p>
<p>I agree with Garland’s point. It really defeats the whole purpose of studying a500+ page textbook, even one almost identical to those used in public school, if the opening page states that anything covered inside could be worthless if someone finds it to be in contradiction to the Bible.</p>