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Texas: We don't need academics to fact-check our textbooks
Texas: We don't need academics to fact-check our textbooks
The latest controversy of Texas textbooks involved African slaves being described as 'workers.' Texas education officials rejected a proposal that would require university academics to fact-check the textbooks.
By Story Hinckley
Christian Science Monitor, Staff NOVEMBER 19, 2015
The Texas Board of Education rejected a measure Wednesday that would require university experts to fact-check the state’s textbooks in public schools.
The board rejected the measure 8-7, reaffirming the current fact-checking system that relies on citizen review panels made up of parents, teachers, and other members of the general public.
The measure was likely proposed in response to a complaint last month, when a Houston mother found her child’s newly approved geography textbook referred to African slaves shipped to plantations in the United States between the 1500s and 1800s as “workers.”
Instead of requesting academic consultation, the board voted unanimously to require that review panels be made up of “at least a majority” of people with “sufficient content expertise and experience,” at the discretion of the Texas education commissioner.
SNIP...
Republican board member Thomas Ratliff proposed the initial measure to reduce the national controversy over Texas’ textbooks
CONTINUED...
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2015/1119/Texas-We-don-t-need-academics-to-fact-check-our-textbooks
The latest controversy of Texas textbooks involved African slaves being described as 'workers.' Texas education officials rejected a proposal that would require university academics to fact-check the textbooks.
By Story Hinckley
Christian Science Monitor, Staff NOVEMBER 19, 2015
The Texas Board of Education rejected a measure Wednesday that would require university experts to fact-check the state’s textbooks in public schools.
The board rejected the measure 8-7, reaffirming the current fact-checking system that relies on citizen review panels made up of parents, teachers, and other members of the general public.
The measure was likely proposed in response to a complaint last month, when a Houston mother found her child’s newly approved geography textbook referred to African slaves shipped to plantations in the United States between the 1500s and 1800s as “workers.”
Instead of requesting academic consultation, the board voted unanimously to require that review panels be made up of “at least a majority” of people with “sufficient content expertise and experience,” at the discretion of the Texas education commissioner.
SNIP...
Republican board member Thomas Ratliff proposed the initial measure to reduce the national controversy over Texas’ textbooks
CONTINUED...
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2015/1119/Texas-We-don-t-need-academics-to-fact-check-our-textbooks
Remember: A conservative education is a miseducation.
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