{"id":1338,"date":"2011-05-28T09:27:53","date_gmt":"2011-05-28T13:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2011-05-28T09:28:07","modified_gmt":"2011-05-28T13:28:07","slug":"new-textbook-selection-process-now-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1338","title":{"rendered":"New textbook selection process now law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Textbook selection committees from across the state are now history in Florida<\/a>. It will now be up to three appointed “experts” to decide what textbooks will be approved for use in our classrooms. I completely agree with the opinion of: it’s not a good thing.<\/p>\n

With the stroke of the governor’s pen, Florida now has a Texas-style textbook adoption process. The commissioner of education, who is appointed by the governor, has been handed control of which textbooks and other materials will be used. The commissioner selects three state or national bureaucrats, called “subject matter experts,” who will serve as the review committee. Two of the experts will review books, and the third will act as a tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“I worry that this new legislation will take away checks and balances that keep the focus on student achievement, and it has the potential to allow political agendas to play a more active role in the process.<\/p>\n

“I know the number of hours I personally dedicated to the process. I do not see how it is possible that a few people can accurately screen and select the materials given time limitations. I also do not know how it is possible that a few people can have absolute expertise in every course offered in the K-12 public school system.”<\/p>\n

Like many others who have served on adoption committees, Griffin also worries that the new centralized system will face the same problems that Texas faces, including perpetual charges of political corruption, publishers’ favoritism and religious influence.<\/p>\n

As a result of such problems, cultural battles stay in the headlines, all at a high cost to children’s education. Which version of the human narrative should be in textbooks, creation or evolution? What about the history of black slavery and its significance? How far should textbooks go in discussing Islam and other non-Christian religions? Which books teach math the “acceptable” way? Which books teach reading “correctly”? Who should decide? Which publishers should profit?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Textbook selection committees from across the state are now history in Florida. It will now be up to three appointed “experts” to decide what textbooks will be approved for use in our classrooms. I completely agree with the opinion of: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-lA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2901,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2901","url_meta":{"origin":1338,"position":0},"title":"Marion County to review and approve textbooks on their own","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a new wrinkle in the Florida instructional materials world. We already know that the Florida Department of Education is in the process of reviewing and approving new science textbooks that school districts could then pick from to purchase for their schools. We already know that two new laws could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1322,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1322","url_meta":{"origin":1338,"position":1},"title":"Textbook selection process to change?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Hmmmm ... did this slip by everyone unnoticed until now? And even now there is only one reporter on the story so far. This seems like a rather significant change, don't you think? Florida Textbook Adoption Process May Be In For Big Changes Fewer people will approve what textbooks Florida\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2756,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2756","url_meta":{"origin":1338,"position":2},"title":"Collier County: the epicenter of textbook calamity","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Fresh off their success in the Florida legislature where their instructional materials bill passed, the Florida Citizens' Alliance is now causing migraine headaches on their home turf:\u00c2\u00a0Group sues Collier County schools over textbook selection -- Three parents sued the Collier County School Board on Wednesday over new textbooks slated for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1331,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1331","url_meta":{"origin":1338,"position":3},"title":"Another textbook selection process article","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There is another article today about the proposed radical changes to the state's textbook selection process. School bill removes citizens from textbook reviews Average citizens may lose what limited role they have now in the state's adoption of public school textbooks -- a proposal from the GOP-controlled Legislature that has\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2318,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2318","url_meta":{"origin":1338,"position":4},"title":"Textbook trouble: history and sex ed","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lee County school board will hear from concerned citizens this week about the content of history textbooks under consideration for adoption. Board documents show nine objections have been filed for a sixth-grade world history text published by Pearson. Among the complaints for the book, called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153my (sic) World History,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2318#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2011,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2011","url_meta":{"origin":1338,"position":5},"title":"Proposed changes to textbook selection process","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"State Sen. Alan Hays filed a bill that will change the way textbooks are selected in Florida. If approved, the bill would give local school boards full control over the process and the state Department of Education would have no role. The Gradebook blog notes the bill's filing: Florida senator\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2011#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1340,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions\/1340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}