Think Texas lawmakers forgot about the State Board of Education after this year’s legislative session came to a close on June 1? Don’t bet on it. Republican legislative leaders might have stopped efforts to reform the state board during the session, but the state board has done plenty since then to remind lawmakers why those […]
Textbook Censorship
The Texas State Board of Education decides what every student in Texas public schools will learn from kindergarten through high school. The board does so by adopting curriculum standards and textbooks for public schools in the state.
For decades, far-right politicians on the State Board of Education and their extremist allies have taken advantage of this flawed system to dismiss the advice of experts and scholars. They have instead worked to inject their personal views into textbooks on everything from evolution and climate change to the history of slavery, civil rights, and separation of church and state.
Resources
- Report Reveals Serious Flaws in Social Studies Textbooks
- The State Board of Education: Dragging Texas Schools into the Culture Wars (2008 report)
- Evolution, Creationism & Public Schools: Surveying Texas Scientists (2008 report)
- Culture Wars and the Classroom (2010 report)
- Senate Bill 6: Changes in the Textbook Adoption Process (2011 report)
- Texas Science Curriculum Standards: Challenges (2012 report)
- Science Textbook Review (2013 report)
- Social Studies Textbook Review (2014 report)
‘Engage the Darwin-Lovers’
Are evolution deniers in the “intelligent design”/creationism movement adopting the disruptive tactics of rowdy folks who besieged “town hall” meetings in August to protest health insurance reform? We hope not. But it’s a fair question considering an extra-credit assignment some students at a fundamentalist Christian seminary were offered last week. A little background: Southern Methodist University in […]
Don McLeroy on Civil Rights: Not Pretty
It just gets worser and worser. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9vJ5XTFBFU] So the countless civil rights workers who put their lives on the line and women who marched and lobbied for voting and equal rights — all of those generations of Americans who demanded that our country live up to its promise of justice and equality for all — have “the majority” to thank […]
Debating Mediocrity and Expertise
Last week’s Texas State Board of Education meeting included an interesting discussion about who should be helping guide the revision of curriculum standards. The conversation was a perfect example of how politics and mediocrity have taken precedence over scholarship and expertise in deciding what students will learn in Texas public school classrooms. […]
Important Progress
Today’s State Board of Education hearing on proposed new social studies standards for Texas public schools was long and often exhausting. (Scroll down to find our blog posts from the hearing.) But we noted some important progress for ensuring that our schoolchildren get an honest and sound education. In particular, David Barton and Peter Marshall […]
