History Textbook Wars Are Back At State Board Of Education

[DhhD]

http://www.texasaft.org/history-wars-are-back-at-state-board-of-education/

The link above provides other links to Analysis done by Scholars and Teaching Professionals as well as the rest of the article written by the American Federation of Teachers.

A scholarly analysis of new social-studies textbooks that have been drafted to meet official Texas specifications has found significant evidence of bias and errors. The report, commissioned by the Texas Freedom Network, an independent watchdog group and ally of Texas AFT, was conducted by scholars from a number of universities.

The reviewers looked at textbooks intended to teach American government, U.S. and world history, and religion (in world geography and world history courses). Overall, they found that the textbooks were better than the underlying Texas curriculum standards—the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills—on which the texts were based. Here’s how Texas AFT legislative counsel Patty Quinzi sized up the evidence in testimony prepared for delivery on September 16 at a State Board of Education textbook hearing:

After reviewing the “Writing to the Standards” report released by TFN last week, we conclude that the SBOE should rely more on subject-matter practitioners both in standard-setting and in textbook review.

Problems that have been identified in social studies textbooks are traceable in many cases to defects in the standards. The standards for U.S. history, for instance, were described by the conservative Fordham Institute in 2011 as a “politicized distortion of history” marked by “misrepresentations at every turn.”

more at link

[blkmusclmachine]

1. The Christian Dominionists are hard at work revising history to their liking/extreme hard right

agenda.

[RussBLib]

2. did you see this recent toon?

I think we need another concerted effort to put regular, rational people onto school boards.