With the science textbook adoption mostly behind them, State Board of Education (SBOE) members are turning their attention to next year’s adoption of new social studies textbooks for Texas public schools. And we’re already seeing right-wing activists preparing to turn that adoption into another “culture war” battleground. Circulating among tea party and other right-wing activists in […]
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)
Cynthia Dunbar (Remember Her?) Says Teaching Texas Kids about Climate Change Is 'Socialized Education'
Remember Cynthia Dunbar? She’s the creationist former member of the Texas State Board of Education who wrote a book in which she called public education “tyrannical,” unconstitutional and a “subtly deceptive tool of perversion.” Dunbar left the board at the end of 2010 and last we heard was teaching law at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. On […]
How Science Won in the Texas Textbook Battle
Last week’s State Board of Education (SBOE) vote to adopt new science textbooks for Texas public schools represented an important victory for science education. But what you have been reading in the news media doesn’t tell the whole story about what was happening behind the scenes in this battle — including the effort to derail […]
BREAKING NEWS: Science Education Wins in Texas!
The State Board of Education just voted to adopt all of the high school biology and environmental science textbooks without watering down instruction on evolution and climate change. We just sent out the following press release: TEXAS TEXTBOOK ADOPTION IS A MAJOR VICTORY FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION No Compromise on Science Instruction about Evolution or Climate […]
Big News: Science Education Advocates Thwart Late-Night Hijacking of Texas Science Textbook Adoption
Today science education advocates have good reason to be encouraged by developments in Texas. But we’re not out of the woods just yet. After two hours of heated debate and nerve-wracking twists and turns, a majority on the State Board of Education very late last night gave preliminary approval to all of the proposed textbooks for […]
