Textbooks pictured a in the Gordon Persons Building in downtown Montgomery, AL on Monday, May 15, 2023. The Alabama State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on new textbooks at its meeting next month (Todd Van Emst for Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama State Board of Education will vote on adopting new social studies and arts education textbooks for the 2026-2027 school year at its November meeting.
Members of the Alabama State Board of Education earlier this month were given scores granted to textbooks by the Alabama State Textbook Committee.
The two committees, one for social studies and one for arts education, were appointed in April to review and rate textbooks. Once the ratings were complete, they were sealed and given to State Board of Education members.
The scores and number of textbooks evaluated were not shared with the public. Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey told the board the textbook approval process in Alabama is a “tight-lipped” process due to contracts with publishers.
“Until the board votes and says, ‘This is the list we are sending to the governor to sign contracts with,’ then they can’t be public,” he said to board members.
The board will vote on the textbooks at its Nov. 13 meeting.
Mackey also told the board the textbook approval process is the only one that carries criminal charges if done incorrectly.
“Remember that for textbook companies, these are multi-million dollar contracts, and if they get pushed out of a contract, and they think it’s because board members or the superintendent didn’t follow the law, they would, in a heartbeat, bring charges against us,” he said.
ALSDE only facilitates the textbook approval process. The textbook committee reports directly to the Board of Education members.
Mackey reminded board members that previously, Alabama textbook law stated that recommendations from the committee couldn’t be made public until the governor signed contracts with publishers.
“You all went to the Legislature and got that changed, because that’s an extra couple of months, and now the law is as soon as the board votes on them, they’re public so that’s been speeding things up by about three months,” he said.
Members of the public may review the social studies and arts textbooks that are under consideration until Nov. 12 at select libraries.
Alabama social studies standards were updated last December. A report from Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education thinktank, was mostly positive but critiqued the teaching of slavery, “state’s rights,” and lack of post-1970s history.
The updated curriculum includes three years of world history and geography and three years of Alabama in American history and government. It also requires schools to teach the Holocaust and shifts teachings of the Civil Rights Movement to the fifth grade to build on context and expand on the role Alabama played in the movement.
In 2021, board members approved the Preservation of Intellectual Freedom and Non-Discrimination in Alabama Public Schools. The resolution prohibits “concepts that impute fault, blame, a tendency to oppress others, or the need to feel guilt or anguish to persons solely because of their race or sex.” The move was aimed at critical race theory, an academic framework that seeks to understand the persistence of racism in the United States after the civil rights movement. Teachers and officials repeatedly stressed that critical race theory is not taught in K-12 schools.
The textbook selection process ties into the new curriculum that has yet to be implemented. While the state can set the course of study, companies don’t always create textbooks with each state’s standards in mind.
According to American Public Media, California and Texas have the most influence in the K-12 textbook industry with Florida beginning to have influence as well.
The last time Alabama updated social studies textbooks was 2013. EdReports, a non-profit organization that reviews instructional materials, said in a statement Oct. 23 that new textbooks and other instructional materials are needed for students.
“We believe that students are best served by high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) that reflect the most current research on how kids learn and what they need to succeed in school and beyond. These materials help support educators with clear instructional pathways and strong guidance, especially when paired with thoughtful local adoption processes and professional learning,” the organization said.
Local school boards get the final say in what books are adopted for their schools and can even consider textbooks that are not recommended by ALSDE.
“So long as the state board of education doesn’t reject it. If you reject a textbook, then they cannot use state funds to buy the textbook. But if it’s a textbook that they just didn’t submit to the committee, and they want to go sell to a local county, they can still do that,” Mackey told board members.
This will be the last textbook adoption for a core class until math in 2029.
From Alabama Reflector Post Url: Visit
Author: Andrea Tinker