Last week we reported that publishers are resisting pressure to dumb down instruction on evolution in the new science textbooks they are proposing for Texas public schools. And we asked you to send publishers an email thanking them for standing up for science despite the efforts of anti-evolution activists on and off the State Board […]
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)
Important News: Publishers Are Resisting Pressure to Dumb Down Their Biology Textbooks for Texas
We have now had our first look at changes publishers have submitted in response to objections — many of them attacks on evolution and climate change science — raised by official state review teams evaluating new science textbooks for Texas. And we have very encouraging news: All 14 publishers are refusing to water down or compromise instruction […]
TFN Is Featured in New Radio Documentary about the Public Education Culture Wars in Texas
Austin public radio station KUT is airing and streaming online a new documentary about the right’s long-running culture war over public education in Texas. “The Long Game: Texas’ Ongoing Battle for the Direction of the Classroom,” by award-winning producer Trey Kay, looks at the ongoing political witch hunt over CSCOPE as well as the divisive […]
Cargill Wants to Use 'Outrage about CSCOPE' to Remove Limits on Texas SBOE's Power to Censor Textbooks
It’s always important to look for the real motivations behind witch hunts. Example: Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) Chairwoman Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, wants to use the right’s manufactured “outrage” over the CSCOPE curriculum tool to loosen restrictions on the ability of SBOE members to censor textbooks for public schools. Writing in her September […]
Prof Tears Apart Official Texas Textbook Review, Pt. 2
Yet another Texas science professor has stepped forward to challenge one of the inaccurate textbook reviews prepared by an SBOE-appointed science review panel (see last week’s installment here). This one comes from Dr. Rick Hammer, a professor of botany, ecology, and environmental ethics at Hardin-Simmons University, and he zeros in on the misleading claims about climate change […]
