The example given was “types of housing for different groups of people.” One second-grade book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was penalized on its alignment to state standards because “attempts at multicultural teaching” were evident in its text. To that end, two publishers seeking to provide K-5 math books were flagged by reviewers for broaching lessons on social emotional learning, according to the documents. But the state has since adopted additional publishers after they tweaked their proposals. This decision initially left schools across Florida with only one textbook option for standard K-5 math. Some 28 of the math textbooks - or 21 percent - were left off the adoption list due to “prohibited topics” including critical race theory, according to the state education department. Another book from Pearson covering precalculus honors was dinged for a section that asked students what algebra can help tell about “racial bias.”įlorida originally rejected 54 of the 132 proposed math textbooks, some 41 percent, submitted by publishers, the bulk of which were proposed for kindergarten through fifth grade. This textbook, published by Pearson, was one of dozens renounced by the state. They pointed to pages that discussed “racial profiling in policing” and “discrimination in magnet school admission,” along with one instance in which the book mentioned there were “too many” white police officers in the NYPD compared with the racial makeup of the community. In one example that caught the state’s attention, a reviewer noted that a high school statistics book included lessons on race that could violate the rule. Florida’s Board of Education in 2021 passed a rule banning critical race theory along with The 1619 Project from The New York Times, claiming they are theories that “distort historical events.”Ĭritical race theory, an analytical framework developed by legal scholars, examines how race and racism have become ingrained in American law and institutions since slavery and Jim Crow. The state education department specifically sought to know if the books aligned with the state’s rule outlawing critical race theory, and if they included any snippets of “Culturally Responsive Teaching,” “Social Justice,” or social emotional learning, which aims to teach students how to manage their emotions and develop strong relationships with their peers. The book reviews released Thursday illustrate that the Florida Department of Education asked its analysts a series of four questions on “special topics” that could ultimately disqualify a text from being adopted for use in classrooms across the state. “It’s not two plus two and let’s have a struggle session over that.” “Two plus two equals four,” DeSantis said at an event in Ocala. Ahead of the midterms and his reelection campaign, DeSantis has pushed measures limiting how race can be taught in classrooms and defended Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, known by opponents as “Don’t Say Gay.” That bill bans teachers from leading classroom instructions on sexual orientation and gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade.ĭeSantis on Friday said the state will follow Florida standards and praised his education department for flagging the texts and sending them back to publishers to “take the nonsense out of the math books.”
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