On Nov. 22, our Stand Up for Science campaign will come to an end. That’s when the Texas State Board of Education will take a final vote on adopting new science textbooks that will be in classrooms for the next decade. Now is the time to take action by telling the members of the state board: “Adopt […]
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)
National Science Teachers Association Exec Director Weighs in on Texas Textbook Adoption
David Evans, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, has written an opinion column about the science textbook adoption in Texas this year. You can read the full piece posted on LiveScience.com. Here’s an excerpt: There are many ways that humans come to know, experience, understand and appreciate the world in which we live. […]
Google+ Hangout: What's Happening with the Texas Science Textbook Adoption
Watch and listen in as the Texas Freedom Network’s Kathy Miller, the National Center for Science Education’s Josh Rosenau, and University of Texas Professor Arturo De Lozanne talk about the battle to defend evolution and climate change science in proposed science textbooks for Texas schools. The State Board of Education is scheduled to vote November […]
More Good News on Texas Science Textbooks, But Politics Still an Obstacle
Despite complaints from anti-evolution activists, state-appointed citizen reviewers are now giving a top rating to most of the high school biology textbooks proposed for adoption in Texas this year — but the adoption of those textbooks still faces a big political obstacle at the State Board of Education. State reviewers in August gave a top […]
Help Us Spread the Message: Stand Up for Science in Texas
Last week we brought you the good news that publishers are, thus far, refusing to cave to demands by anti-evolution activists and climate change deniers to water down the science in proposed textbooks for Texas public schools. Now that we have convinced publishers not to mess with science, we have to convince the State Board […]
