The state of Florida has rejected at least 50 textbooks in its search for math materials aligning to the new Florida Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) Standards.
According to a news release on Friday, the list approved by Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran followed a thorough review of submissions at the Department, which found 41 percent of the submitted textbooks were impermissible with either Florida’s new standards or contained prohibited topics – the most in Florida’s history.
“It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
The state rejected 54 of 132 textbooks. Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics. The state has not specified the exact language in the books made them inappropriate.
“Math is about getting the right answer. And we want kids to learn to think so they get the right answer. It’s not about how you feel about the problem. Or to introduce some of these other things,” said DeSantis.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools say the district is awaiting feedback as to why they titles were rejected. In Broward county, the President of the Teacher’s Union, Anna Fusco, said it could be the wording in some of the math problems that may reference, for example, having same sex parents.
“A lot of our math is tied with literary because there is a lot of reading of word problems,” said Fusco.
Fusco also said she believes it could be political and issues like critical race theory is not even a topic covered in early childhood education.
“Definitely catering to a certain group that are homophobic, only want deal with the dominant what they may still feel the white race,” said Fusco.
In June 2021, Florida’s state Board of Education banned “critical race theory” from public school classrooms, adopting new rules it said would shield school children from curriculum that could “distort historical events.”
Florida law already requires schools to provide instruction on a host of fundamentals, including the Declaration of Independence, the Holocaust and African American history. Current events, including the killings of Black people by police, have intensified debates.
The rules say classroom instruction “must be factual and objective, and may not suppress or distort significant historical events.” It goes on to mention the Holocaust, slavery and the Civil War, as well as the civil rights movement and the contributions of Blacks, Hispanics and women to the country.
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According to a news release on Friday, the list approved by Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran followed a thorough review of submissions at the Department, which found 41 percent of the submitted textbooks were impermissible with either Florida’s new standards or contained prohibited topics – the most in Florida’s history.
“It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
The state rejected 54 of 132 textbooks. Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics. The state has not specified the exact language in the books made them inappropriate.
“Math is about getting the right answer. And we want kids to learn to think so they get the right answer. It’s not about how you feel about the problem. Or to introduce some of these other things,” said DeSantis.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools say the district is awaiting feedback as to why they titles were rejected. In Broward county, the President of the Teacher’s Union, Anna Fusco, said it could be the wording in some of the math problems that may reference, for example, having same sex parents.
“A lot of our math is tied with literary because there is a lot of reading of word problems,” said Fusco.
Fusco also said she believes it could be political and issues like critical race theory is not even a topic covered in early childhood education.
“Definitely catering to a certain group that are homophobic, only want deal with the dominant what they may still feel the white race,” said Fusco.
In June 2021, Florida’s state Board of Education banned “critical race theory” from public school classrooms, adopting new rules it said would shield school children from curriculum that could “distort historical events.”
Florida law already requires schools to provide instruction on a host of fundamentals, including the Declaration of Independence, the Holocaust and African American history. Current events, including the killings of Black people by police, have intensified debates.
The rules say classroom instruction “must be factual and objective, and may not suppress or distort significant historical events.” It goes on to mention the Holocaust, slavery and the Civil War, as well as the civil rights movement and the contributions of Blacks, Hispanics and women to the country.
Continue reading...
