“I felt like the best course of action would have been to have an open, public, transparent review of CSCOPE lessons, and allow smaller districts who use them to make the determination of whether they want to continue using the lessons or not. It’s essentially deprived school districts of the ability to make that decision.” […]
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)
Does Texas State Rep. Steve Toth's Word Mean Much?
UPDATE: The Texas House gave final passage to SB 1406 this morning. The bill now goes to Gov. Perry for his signature or veto. *** State Rep. Steve Toth’s commitment on Monday to pull down the CSCOPE bill he is sponsoring in the Texas House of Representatives had a shelf life of less than 12 […]
Texas SBOE Member Ratliff Tears into Sen. Patrick on CSCOPE Decision
Thomas Ratliff’s defeat of creationist Don McLeroy in the 2010 Republican Primary for the District 9 seat on the State Board of Education was an important step toward getting politics out of Texas public school classrooms. Now Ratliff, who currently serves as the state board’s vice chairman, has released a blistering critique of state Sen. […]
Witch Hunt Takes Down CSCOPE
Once again, politics trumps education in Texas. State Sen. Dan Patrick, the Republican chairman of the Texas Senate Education Committee, sounded downright gleeful today in making a surprise announcement that the state’s Education Service Centers will no longer provide lessons in their CSCOPE curriculum management system. “The era of CSCOPE lesson plans has come to […]
You Give 'em an Inch …
… they’ll give you the axe. Or at least try to. From the start, the CSCOPE hysterics have demanded accountability and transparency from whatever they think CSCOPE is. Well, they’re getting it (there was a public meeting today from which we’ll have a report soon). And they’ve gotten it (there was a public meeting last […]