Books face gantlet of reviews, ideology
HEADLINE: Books face gantlet of reviews, ideology
BYLINE: MATT FRAZIER; Star-Telegram Staff Writer
HIGHLIGHT:
BOOKS: State Board of Education members believe that despite the politics and rhetoric, the review has resulted in steady improvement in textbook quality.
BODY:
A battle begins in Austin on Wednesday that will influence the education of children in Texas and throughout the nation.
The State Board of Education is kicking off a series of public hearings to gather opinions before choosing which social studies books will shape Texas’ children’s views of history and the world around them.
Seventy organizations and individuals already have signed up to speak. Some political and education analysts say the outcome will be a key test of Texas’ textbook selection process. They want to see whether the state board can put aside party politics, absorb a barrage of opinions from lobbyists and choose the most accurate, complete textbooks.
Because Texas is the nation’s second-largest purchaser of textbooks, the board’s decision will affect the education of students throughout the nation. Books approved in Texas are virtually assured some financial success and often are shipped to schools in other states.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a key player in past textbook debates, says it has discovered 553 errors in the recommended books, as well as hundreds of cases where key historical figures and events were misrepresented or ignored.
Publishers eager to earn the $344.7 million Texas will spend on books this year have already been working with such concerned groups to correct factual errors and consider possible revisions to make the texts more acceptable.
The Texas Freedom Network has launched an “I Object!” campaign, claiming groups such as the foundation will try to censor texts and impose conservative and religious agendas on the new textbooks. Groups such as the foundation, however, counter that the Texas Freedom Network is pushing its own liberal viewpoints.
Education board members say that despite the politics and rhetoric, the result of the review process has been steady improvement in textbook quality.
Bill Miller, a lobbyist and political consultant, said there’s little question that the review process has helped catch errors before they make it to classrooms.
“Whether it has gone too far – I think we are bordering on that,” Miller said. “That would be damaging to education.”
Constant battles
In the past, groups have complained about how textbooks portray a variety of subjects, including God, sex, slavery, evolution, patriotism and gender bias.
The constant battles prompted state legislators in 1995 to limit the State Board of Education’s textbook selection powers. The board cannot directly alter textbook content but can reject books because of errors or failure to follow the state curriculum.
Groups such as the Texas Freedom Network have complained that conservatives and religious right groups have had too much influence on textbooks.
Those complaints came to a head last year when the Texas Public Policy Foundation and other conservative lobbying groups said a proposed environmental science book unfairly portrayed the significance of acid rain, deforestation, global warming and other environmental issues.
The state board voted along party lines to reject the book.
Republican board members say they and Democrats were elected to represent their constituents’ wishes in educating their children. Because Republicans have had control over the board since 1996, more conservative, patriotic philosophies have appeared in textbooks, they say.
“We are just trying to do our jobs and make sure we have accurate, error-free textbooks in our children’s hands,” said education board member David Bradley, a Republican. “I think we’ve seen vast improvement in our textbooks.”
Although Republicans outnumber Democrats, board member Rene Nunez, a Democrat, said there is enough philosophical diversity on the board to keep textbooks from following extreme agendas.
“I think it’s worked, contentwise,” Nunez said. “The textbooks are improving.”
Hundreds of errors
Famed African-American Rosa Parks made headlines in the 1950s when she took a seat in the middle section of a public bus where blacks and whites were allowed to sit together.
Or, at least that’s what Texas students would learn from one of the textbooks proposed this year, according to the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In fact, there were no such bus sections, and Parks made headlines by sitting in the whites-only area.
This year, the state seeks to update textbooks for a variety of high school subjects under the broad heading of “social studies,” including U.S. history, comparative government and politics, human geography, psychology and sociology. English and Spanish textbooks for elementary and middle school also are being reviewed.
All but one proposed text passed preliminary state review this year.
The San Antonio-based foundation asked 16 university professors and public school teachers to study how well proposed replacement texts meet state essential knowledge and skills requirements.
Including Rosa Parks’ bus seating error, the organization said it discovered 553 errors in the books and hundreds of instances where key historical figures and events are misrepresented or ignored.
After spending almost $100,000 on the three-month review project, the organization does not think any of the proposed books deserves to be removed from the state’s acceptable list. But the group believes changes must be made.
“We gave our reviews to the publishers about two weeks ago,” said Chris Patterson, director of education research for the foundation. “If it is possible, we hope some can add material to make their textbooks more historically comprehensive.”
Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy also is collecting a list of mistakes. The group says it rejects revisionist history, anti-free market, anti-American sentiment and “politically correct textbooks” that promote student advocacy.
April Hattori, spokeswoman for education book publisher Glenco/McGraw Hill, said the company is studying some of the reviews and is “very willing and happy” to correct factual errors in its book samples, but that content is guided overall by educational experts and Texas requirements.
But the Texas Freedom Network argues that, for many conservative groups, complaining about mistakes and balance is cover for a deeper agenda.
“We are seeing the same thing this year we saw last year,” said Ashley McIlvain, spokeswoman for the network. “Groups certainly did identify factual errors. But when it came right down to it, they were rejecting books based on philosophical objections they had with the author.”
Richard Kouri, spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, agreed.
“Politics is being interjected,” Kouri said. “What we are going to be watching this time is how successful this new attack strategy is going to be. Is the board going to start knocking off three, four or five books at a time, or forcing companies to go back and rewrite books in order for them to have a chance to be adopted by local school districts?”
Matt Frazier, (817) 548-5403
mfrazier@star-telegram.com
State textbook review panel
Texas is one of 22 mostly Southern states that use a statewide textbook adoption process. The process begins with the State Board of Education issuing a proclamation to publishers that details the subject areas for review, content needed to meet state requirements, the maximum acceptable per-student costs and the estimated number of books required.
Members of the state textbook review panel search for factual errors while determining whether the proposed texts cover knowledge and skills deemed essential by the state.
Based on these evaluations, the commissioner of education prepares a preliminary report detailing which textbooks should be placed on the conforming list, nonconforming list or be rejected. School districts choose books from the conforming list.
The board then conducts public hearings in Austin on Wednesday, Aug. 23, Sept. 11 and Nov. 14. A final decision is expected Nov. 14.
Public hearing
The first public hearing on proposed textbooks is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday in Room 1-104 of the William B. Travis Building, 1701 N. Congress Ave. in Austin. It is too late to register to speak at this hearing. Those interested in speaking at subsequent hearings may fill out a registration form at the board’s Web site at www.tea.state.tx.us/sboe/input/register.html.
PHOTO(S): AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN VIA AP
