New Instructional Materials for Science 2018

The Florida Department of Education issued a “Call for Reviewers Invitation for Science” back in August 2017 in preparation for the review and adoption of new science instructional materials in 2018.

Every year the FDOE reviews and approves a list of recommended textbooks for that year’s academic subject. The previous year it was Social Studies. This year (2017-2018) it is Science. Once the state compiles a list of approved instructional materials, each of the state’s school districts then select from the list the books they want to purchase to be used in their classroom for the next several years. Reviewing and approving these instructional materials is important work and we know without a doubt that our opposition — those who challenge the validity of evolution and climate change and vaccines — will be out in force. We need to step up to the plate to ensure that the textbooks selected are of the highest quality.

We need you. Without you, we can’t do this.

 

There will be a public input time at both the state level and each local school district level. This is when we anticipate the major problems could start. You need to be there to inspect the books yourself and then speak up on behalf of the quality materials against anti-science attacks that could come.

If you want to participate in the textbook review and selection process, go to this blog post: March is a busy month for science textbook adoptions. It lists every single school district and what we know about the process in each one. Unfortunately, there are a lot of gaps in our knowledge, as you can see when you visit that blog post. We need you to do the hard work of supplying us information if your district is one of those we know little about.

Updates:

As new information comes in, links to the relevant blog posts will be posted here.

Marion County to review and approve textbooks on their own (9/24/17)

Brevard County asking for help with science materials selection (10/11/17)

Marion County got complaints about science textbooks (11/10/17)

The time for action is now in Marion County (12/16/17)

Meanwhile in Clay County: the teaching of evolution is “intellectually deceptive” (1/10/18)

Clay County superintendent: “In no way, shape or form do our textbooks or will our textbooks ever reflect evolution as a fact …” (2/3/18)

March is a busy month for science textbook adoptions (3/4/18)