This year’s sweeping win for science education in Texas now appears to be complete. Multiple sources tell us that a special expert panel has given unanimous approval to the Pearson biology textbook whose adoption by the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) last month had been tripped up by allegations that it contained “factual errors.” A creationist on […]
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)
GOP Candidates for Texas Lieutenant Governor Advocate Teaching Creationism in Public Schools
During a debate in Waco on Thursday, candidates for the Republican nomination for Texas lieutenant governor said they support teaching biblical creationism in the state’s public schools. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that teaching creationism in public school science classrooms violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and two […]
Learn How to Lobby to Defend and Improve Science Education
Our friends at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) have been fantastic partners with the Texas Freedom Network in defending teaching about evolution and climate change in Texas public schools. Now NCSE is offering an online workshop on December 18 to train people around the country how to lobby their elected officials in support of science […]
Even More Good News on the Texas Science Textbook Adoption
As we have reported, the State Board of Education voted last month to adopt all of the high school biology textbooks up for adoption in Texas. The adoption of one of those textbooks, from Pearson Education, was made contingent on a final examination of factual errors made by Ide Trotter, a creationist who had served […]
2014 Elections: Three Contested Primaries in Texas SBOE Elections
The deadline for filing to run for state office in Texas in 2014 was last Friday. Six of seven incumbents are seeking re-election to the Texas State Board of Education, and two of them face opposition in their party primaries. A third contested primary is for a seat in which the incumbent is not seeking […]
