All of us at the Texas Freedom Network are grateful for our friends at the National Center for Science Education. NCSE has been a fantastic partner in our battles at the State Board of Education, including the current debate over proposed new science textbooks for Texas public schools. Josh Rosenau, NCSE’s programs and policy director, […]
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)
Breaking News: Official State Reviewer Confirms Concerns over Science Textbook Adoption in Texas
A University of Texas scientist is expressing serious concerns about the qualifications of fellow reviewers examining new biology textbooks proposed for public high schools in the Lone Star State. A letter he sent to State Board of Education members this week also highlights concerns that SBOE Chairwoman Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, might have inappropriately tried […]
Creationists Launch Their Assault on Science Education in Texas: Reviewers Push Publishers to Insert 'Creation Science,' Other Junk Science in New Biology Textbooks
Now the veil is dropped. We already knew that creationists on the State Board of Education had nominated anti-evolution ideologues to sit on teams reviewing proposed new high school biology textbooks in Texas. We now have seen the actual reviews from those ideologues — and they’re every bit as alarming as we warned they would […]
Anti-CSCOPE Activists Take Law into Their Own Hands, Screw Over Taxpayers
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the state’s Education Service Centers confirmed late Friday afternoon that tests anti-CSCOPE activists irresponsibly posted on the Internet will have to be rewritten. Depending on how many assessments must be replaced, the total cost to taxpayers could be up to $1 million. *** Tea party and other right-wing activists have screamed […]
'21st Century Learning Is Dangerous!'
That’s from a tweet by an anti-CSCOPE fanatic in Texas today. Seriously. That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? […]
