Protocols and Procedures for Textbook Review

Truthintexastextbooks.com

TRUTH IN TEXAS TEXTBOOKS

PROTOCOLS AND PROCEDURES FOR TEXTBOOK REVIEW

Sept 2015

Lt Col (ret) Roy White

Director, Truth in Texas Textbooks Coalition

The Truth in Texas Textbook Coalition Leadership

Lt Col (ret) Roy White, Director

Pat Blair, Director of Research

Dr Amy Jo Baker, Director of Curriculum

Dr Sandra Alfonsi, Senior Scholar

Truth in Textbooks Coalition began in the Fall of 2013 when concerned citizens decided to take action and return facts and truth in to the Texas social studies textbooks. The dedication of three women, Pat Blair, Dr Amy Jo Baker and Dr Sandra Alfonsi was instrumental in the success of this project. The countless hours of reading, research and coaching of the TTT volunteers inspired our volunteers to achieve our goal. The friendship, both professionally and personally is one of many of the great benefits I’ve enjoyed in leading this great group.

TTT acknowledges that without the advice and counsel of Neal Frey, Dr Ellen Wald, Bill Ames, Dr Sandra Stotsky, Donna Gardner, Alice Linahan, Dr Bill Saxton, Dr David Patterson and an expert in textbook reviews from California who wished to remain anonymous our path down this road would’ve been nearly impossible. Thank you all so much.

To the Texas State Board of Education members who encouraged our efforts and showed courage in using our information to demand changes to the textbooks from the publishers, your efforts have allowed the children of Texas to have more accurate textbooks. Thank you.

To Dr Andrew Bostom, Daniel Akbari and Rev. Joe Carey your expertise on all matters of religion will be felt by the five million children of Texas. When facts had to be stated clearly, these gentlemen were called upon to provide clarity and accuracy. Thank you.

Susan Watts, ACT! for America Houston Chapter Leader, called me in October 2013 to ask me if I would lead this project. She knew the right words to say and without her encouragement TTT Coalition wouldn’t have been born. Chris Byrd, ACT! for America Texas Lead Counsel worked the legal maze behind the scenes. His contributions merely illustrate his passion for educating the children of Texas with historically accurate facts.

Before I thank the most important group of volunteers, I want to thank the spouses and families of all of our volunteers for sharing your loved ones and supporting them despite the many hours they spent conducting reviews, training and testifying instead of spending times with their families. I add to that list my spouse who indulges me and tolerates my projects that number many but is always behind me cheering me on.

Finally, our team of volunteers. Initially we started with over 130. To those who started but couldn’t continue to contribute, thank you for your efforts. We said all along this was a marathon and not a sprint but in any effort unexpected challenges occurred and no excuses are required. What is required is to thank you for any and all contributions. For those who stuck out to the bitter end, we said at the beginning this would be a monumental task but seeing it through to the end would be one of the most rewarding things you will have done in your life. I hope you feel like me that has been the case and no thanks I can give you will match that sense of accomplishment. However, please know my admiration and respect pales in comparison to the unspoken thanks from the parents of the children you impacted with your work. You are all patriots for “taking action” versus following the path of the vast majority or merely talk about the problem but do nothing about.

Preface

The following Protocols and Procedures for textbook/instructional material review is a compilation of 18 months of work done by approximately 50 volunteers from Texas and several other states. It is a series of “best practices” and lessons learned that applied to the conditions that Texas textbook selection faces for every subject matter taught in Texas.

The important thing to remember is this: 50 volunteers just like you altered what 5 million Texas children will use in the classroom for the next eight years. Of the 1500 findings revealed by this study, approximately 15-20% of those findings resulted in changes made in the textbooks. In one case the findings were so significant, an entire publisher was prohibited from being on the Texas list of approved publishers for certain social studies areas because of the TTT findings on the accuracy of their textbooks. When one considers that many states simply choose the same textbooks as Texas, 50 persons altered what is closer to 25-30 million children will be using in the classroom.

The good news is the textbooks reviewed by TTT do not necessarily need to be reviewed again. The total number of social studies submissions by all publishers for all grades was approximately 90 textbooks. TTT was able to review 37 of those, mostly but not all Middle and High School social studies textbooks (World Geography, World History, US History, US Government, World Cultures, and Texas History).

As of this writing, North Carolina, Ohio and Montana are following the TTT template. By building upon the reviews previously accomplished, it is reasonable to consider that these states may be able to conclude reviewing all of the major publishers for the appropriate grade level to build upon the database already established by TTT and others. This becomes a powerful tool for other concerned parents, teachers and concerned educational professionals to use in returning truth to the textbooks our children are using.

Please submit any recommendations, changes or other comments that will make this guideline more useful. Good luck and feel free to ask any questions by writing to or by calling directly, 214.924.9033.

Thanks for taking on this task and adding to this effort in teaching our children the truth.

Sincerely,

Lt Col (ret) Roy White, Founder/Director

Truth in Texas Textbooks Coalition

Boerne, TX

Executive Summary

Truth in Texas Textbooks Coalition conducted social studies textbooks reviews that is fundamentally different than most other textbook review projects that have occurred in the past. Using the approach that was used in Tennessee volunteers in the summer of 2013 and enhanced by the Texas team, the goal was to:

Affect the publisher’s content in social studies textbooks under consideration by Texas SBOE.
Affect the purchasing of textbooks by the 1200+ school districts by providing useful summaries of textbook reviews therein affecting the bottom line of the publishers in how many books are sold.

Truth in Texas Textbooks (TTT) is a volunteer organization of interested citizens who worked for a year accomplishing beginning in October 2013 the following mission:

To provide the children of Texas the most accurate and informative social studies books beginning school year '15-'16.

Specific goals for the organization were:

100% accuracy in identifying errors and corrections
Identify misstatements of fact, notable omissions or opinions disguised as facts
Insure the standard of 51% of Texas Essential Knowledge Skills (TEKS) are contained within the textbook(s).
Provide feedback to public officials and publishers
Inform the public of our findings
Review as many social studies books as possible
Be transparent between TTT leadership and our volunteers in how we operate and conduct our business.
Insulate volunteers from distractions from the media or outside agencies who may wish to disrupt the efforts of our volunteers.

TTT reviewed textbooks in World History, World Geography/Cultures, US History, US Government, Texas History and Economics.

Review teams were organized into four person teams. One textbook was assigned to each four person team to review. The textbook was divided in half with two persons reviewing one half, and the other two team members reviewing the second half. Each team of two would read the same sections and compile their errors. The entire team of four would come together and look at each person’s work and determine if the identified errors met all of the criteria to be included in the final report on the textbook. Each team was given approximately 3-4 weeks to review one textbook.

At the conclusion of the review, the final report would be given to the Director of Curriculum and the team would be assigned a new textbook and the 3-4 week timeline would begin again. The final report would be reviewed for accuracy, corrected and then submitted for final approval by the TTT leadership team.

These were the phases in accomplishing the mission and goals.

Recruitment: Locating a Director of Curriculum (experienced Social Studies teacher/supervisor preferred) and Director of Research (any person with technical computer skills, penchant for detailed work, good knowledge of social studies). TTT contacted various groups, Tea Party, Homeschool groups, retired teacher’s associations, education groups and recruited volunteers. This occurred from November 2013 through early February 2014. At the end of the recruitment, four person teams were created that would eventually be assigned a book for each team of four to review. Recommend reaching out to Concerned Women of America, Eagle Forum, Federation of Republican Women and others.

Training: Training consisted of various mediums to include conference calls with experts in the textbook review field, general textbook review lessons, explanation of template usage and much more. See appendix for example of various agendas. These conference call sessions were conducted twice over a 2-3 day period in order to give people options in listening live. All sessions were recorded for listening at a later date by the volunteers. Additionally a “mock review” was done using the current textbook publishers. Training stretched from January through mid-April 2014.

Textbook Review: Originally scheduled to begin May 1 but was delayed until mid-June (7 weeks after the original timeline published by TEA. Reviews were completed in mid-October.

September 5th Public and Publisher Testimony and Initial Publisher Engagement: TTT volunteers testified at the first public hearing and a sample of errors was submitted to the publishers at that time. Approximately 40 errors were submitted. TTT volunteers continued reviewing textbooks and the full 469 page report identifying 1507 errors was submitted.

November 18 Public Testimony: Seven TTT volunteers and Chairman spoke to SBOE providing examples of errors. Negotiations with publishers began several days prior when some publishers began to contact TEA and SBOE support asking to speak to TTT directly in order to get the desired corrections. Negotiations with publishers for changes occurred throughout the week directly with publisher representatives or through the SBOE members. The SBOE voted for approval on the social studies textbooks on Friday, November 21.

Final Ratings for Each Textbook: Thorough analysis of publisher’s responses to suggested changes and the percentage of TEKS determined the final rating of “Good”, “Acceptable”, “Poor”, “Worse” for each textbook. This will occur in mid-December 2014.

Distribution of Textbook Ratings: The final ratings and links to the TTT website to see actual reviews will be distributed to interested citizens in the 1200+ school districts.

Verification of Textbook Corrections: Any errors agreed to by the publishers to correct will be checked to make sure they are in fact corrected.

Submission of Remaining Errors to Texas Education Agency (TEA): TTT will have volunteers submit the errors that publishers refused to make changes to or failed to even acknowledge as errors to the TEA in 2015-16. The state will be forced to mediate/arbitrate which material is factually correct and which is in error.

TTT reviewed a total of 37 textbooks from eight publishers. Only instructional material in grades 6th through 12th were reviewed. TTT reviewed four Edmentum textbooks but Edmentum withdrew their books prior to the formal testimony in September 2014. However, the new rules in place for local school districts still permit districts to purchase books from any source for their schools regardless if they were reviewed or approved by the SBOE. Responsibility for covering 100% of the TEKS in the instructional material now falls on the local school board. Books approved by the SBOE have been vetted for TEKS compliance.

Texas Education Agency (TEA) is directed by elected State Board of Education (SBOE) members to put out a timeline for listing the various procedures, dates for these procedures to be complied with and other information that publishers, schools and the public can access for the purposes of planning up to 18 months in advance for the review cycle. For social studies, Proclamation 2015 spells out these details. It can be found at this link.

Checklist to Determine the Best Path for Your Team

There are several decision points that will determine which of the paths outlined below is best. There maybe things to learn from looking at the other paths also but generally speaking, once you answer the questions properly, your strategy will be outlined more clearly.

First,

Determine if your state has a “centralized process” or whether materials are chosen at the local level exclusively and publishers lobby those districts directly.

Once you determine that fact regardless of which selection process applies in your state the next decision tree is reached.

Either in a centralized process or a local school district selection process you need to determine “where are we in the selection cycle?”

I will use Texas as an example. It uses a “centralized” selection process. However even if they were a district directed approach, the questions at this early stage are the same. Texas chooses textbooks every eight years, thereby making the “selection cycle” for every subject eight years. Approximately two years before the cycle ends, a new “selection process” begins. TTT was fortunate to learn of this and was able to time our recruitment and training to coincide precisely at the beginning of the “Review Process” of the overall “selection process.”

What does this mean for your team?

Find out not just when the next cycle begins but get the important dates of when certain deadlines occur.
What office within the State Education Office/local school district has the responsibility for overseeing the textbook selection? Who is the point of contact you can have questions answered? At the district level that usually falls under “Curriculum” or possibly “Purchasing.” Look for the specific area of “Social Studies”, “Instruction”, etc.
Obtain the publishers, titles and dates of textbooks/instructional material previously approved and currently in use. This information will be useful when conducting “mock reviews” for your team to practice on.
How long is the cycle between social studies textbooks selection? 5 years, 8 years, 10 years? If the next cycle if less than 2 years, it is recommended to continue with the course TTT followed. Skip to question 5 if the timeframe is in excess of 2 years.
When does the state begin the process in soliciting proposals from the publishers?
What is the deadline the state provided to the publishers for their submissions?
Will the State notify you of this information or will it be posted publicly via the web?

You are now at the next decision point regardless of whether you have a centralized process or at the district level.

If the review cycle concludes (a decision is made on what new books to use) within the next two years, it is best to use your energy to correct/defeat new textbooks that are due to arrive within two years. Wasting time on getting instructional material removed that is in classrooms now knowing it will be replaced with similar material in two years or less is a waste of your time. Better to attack the longer range problem of getting better textbooks and training your team properly for a proper review. In Texas our process extended for over 18 months and continues as of the 2015-’16 school year.

What if the textbooks are going to be around for over two years? Begin a similar but slightly different review process than if the books will be removed within two years. That approach starts with knowing the books in the classroom presently. Get the name of the book, publishers, book’s ISBN and appropriate grade level.

If you have only one book your group wishes to review there is another option. Dr Ellen Wald of Verity Educate has a paid service in which she will provide you a full report on an individual book. Highly professional and expertly prepared, her team of experts can do the job but it is a fee based system. You can contact her at to learn more or visit her website here. You can request a sample of their work by visiting this link.

If you wish to review the textbook(s) individually or with a team of reviewers, then continue reading as the protocols will be helpful.

These approaches outline are not gospel and can and should modified, added to and changed as it suits each situation. I ask for your inputs and suggestions to this document for “lessons learned” so others can learn from your experiences. Send those to