Social Studies Curriculum Adoption California Reviews Impact and My World
When Nikita Walker, a parent in Rutherford County, Tenn., saw that her daughter's homework asked the then-5th grader to write a few sentences in support of slavery, she was confused—and angry.
Walker's girl was given the assignment concluding year in an result of Studies Weekly, a national social studies publication that presents lessons on history, government, and social club in a newspaper format, designed to be consumed week-past-week. The action instructed her to write from the point of view of several Ceremonious State of war-era actors, including a southern cotton plantation owner. Walker told the teacher that her girl, who is black, would not be completing the assignment. "Y'all're education them the horrors of slavery, and then you're asking them to give three pros for slavery?" she said in an interview with Didactics Calendar week.
Walker was angry with the teacher, but too with Studies Weekly. "What editor was like, this is a proficient idea?" she asked.
Her business organisation comes at a time when there is a growing call for schools to acknowledge the Usa' history of racism and oppression, and elevate the voices of groups of people who take been marginalized since this country's founding. Recent campaigns have pushed schools to remove the names of Confederate leaders, and some districts have resurfaced debates nearly how to describe well-known historical events and figures.
The article Walker identified wasn't an isolated incident. An internal review of Studies Weekly's widely used materials found more than 400 examples of racial or ethnic bias, historical inaccuracies, age-inappropriate content, and other errors in the materials, according to internal documents that were presented to the company's executive lath, which were recently provided to Teaching Week. The staff review squad flagged well-nigh 100 every bit loftier-priority fixes, which included biased language or historic period-inappropriate content, such equally descriptions of graphic violence, co-ordinate to these documents. The review took place during the 2018 agenda year.
As part of the procedure, the company convened a diversity lath, fabricated upward of Grand-12 administrators and social studies directors, pedagogy and history professors, and advocates, all but i of whom did not work for the company. This board reviewed incidents flagged as high-priority and made suggestions as to whether changes needed to exist made, according to internal documents.
Many of the issues identified in that review business concern Native Americans or enslaved people. Some lessons asked students to espouse the views of plantation owners, or write from the perspectives of slaves. Examples in other lessons include describing Native Americans as "troublemakers," saying that they "seemed vicious," and stating that tribes agreed to trade abroad their lands to white colonists.
"Nosotros take a tendency to either erase or whitewash our difficult history, and this seems to exist an fantabulous example of the way that starts," said Maureen Costello, the managing director of Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who reviewed examples of flagged problems at Teaching Week's request. "We start laying downwards these simulated narratives in elementary schoolhouse."
The visitor says that it has changed and reprinted some of these materials and removed offending articles online. Other articles that included these issues, such equally the Arkansas 4th grade and Kentucky 4th grade curricula, were pulled from the online shop only afterwards Education Week inquired near the review procedure.
"All of these bug are a concern for history and social studies publishers because social awareness is an evolving mindset," the company said in a statement emailed to Teaching Week, attributed to the executive team.
"Many of our products had gone to press while our diversity board was reviewing them," the statement reads. "Since that time, we take fabricated improvements, replaced identified publications, and reprinted revisions of others for the 2019-2020 schoolhouse year."
Finding Inaccuracies
Studies Weekly, a Utah-based curriculum company founded in 1984, sells social studies curriculum for grades K-8 and science curriculum for grades Chiliad-v. More than thirteen,000 schools across the country, with about 4.3 1000000 students, use Studies Weekly, co-ordinate to the company'south website. Eight states take adopted its materials, including Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.
The review process focused on the company's social studies materials, which include "newspapers" with articles, activities, and writing prompts.
In February 2018, the company came nether fire for an article included in a fifth form publication. The short fiction, titled "Cotton wool-Pickin' Singing," told the story of a white girl, Alana, and a blackness male child, Jackson, who were magically transported back to Georgia in the 1700s. Alana explains the history of slavery to the boy in a passage that includes several historical inaccuracies—including the faux statement that white colonists didn't besides enslave Native Americans. As she talks, Alana directs Jackson to choice cotton to appease the overseer. Parents in the Monroe County, Ind., school district voiced concerns nigh the lesson, and, equally a upshot, the school board concluded its contract with the company.
That year, the company started an internal review process of their content—and assembled the external diversity board to assist in the work.
In discussing the need for the lath, Studies Weekly CEO John McCurdy said that what is considered adequate linguistic communication is different today than it was in the 1980s and 90s, when Studies Weekly was a new company. Now, he said, "You don't call people slaves, you lot say they were enslaved. Information technology's political definiteness, and it's sensitivity monitoring, and those kind of things."
As a result of the review procedure, some articles have been changed and will be reprinted with updates, he said. The company also decided to discontinue some manufactures and write entirely new publications for those states. If teachers call in asking for these publications, they will be able to purchase online-only versions—with the offending manufactures removed, McCurdy said.
"You've got teachers out there that are like, 'If you lot guys don't have something for me, I don't have the time to go create new stuff myself,' " he said. "Teachers are swamped. So they wanted it."
Time constraints stalled the updating process, which volition pick upwardly once more in July, said McCurdy. The company had to divert time to creating new publications for several state adoptions, and as a upshot not all of the flagged issues were addressed, he said in an e-mail to Pedagogy Week.
Educational activity publishers do periodically update textbooks and other materials. Merely because of adoption timelines and purchasing cycles, these changes in the publications frequently don't accomplish schools right away. And it can be a logistical claiming to rapidly correct a problem or error.
In 2015, for case, a Texas high schoolhouse pupil constitute a explanation in a McGraw-Hill textbook that described enslaved Africans as "workers." At the time, there were 100,000 copies of the book in the state, NPR reported. In this case, McGraw-Hill decided to ship corrected copies to schools for free or provide additional materials—a sticker to cover the caption in the volume, and a lesson plan near the language.
In their emailed statement, the Studies Weekly executive team noted that a revised weekly unit of measurement would be mailed to all of the customers who ordered the Florida 4th grade curriculum, which includes an action that asks students to fence for or confronting secession.
The diversity lath's work had also halted. The visitor'south chief production officeholder told the board in an April x email it was disbanded, and the members received no further assignments. However, they received a second electronic mail recently from McCurdy stating that the board'south piece of work would continue. That email was sent later he spoke with Education Week on June 7.
Framing Historical Narratives
Several patterns sally amidst the articles that the visitor flagged as problematic during the review process.
Many manufactures, every bit described in documents created by the review team, which were obtained past Education Week, include historically inaccurate or misleading information nearly the relationship between white colonists and indigenous people.
Some of these materials are no longer available on Studies Weekly'southward purchasing website. The rest have been inverse online and volition be corrected for the impress copies purchased for the 2019-2020 school year, co-ordinate to the visitor's statement.
Articles in Indiana'due south 3rd grade curriculum and Washington's fourth grade curriculum land that Native Americans agreed to trade away their lands. That framing obscures the contentious history of land rights in these areas, said Costello of Teaching Tolerance. "State of war was often fabricated on tribes," she said. "The treaties were also problematic, because they oft were coerced. Imitation promises were fabricated [by the U.S. government]."
The trends in Studies Weekly materials reflect the broader erasure of Native people in U.South. history curriculum writ large, she said. "Nosotros don't really ever grapple with the fact that we invaded this land, and then we proceeded to enslave and exploit an entire group of people."
Other articles nearly Native Americans describe tribes as aggressive and primitive. An commodity in the Arkansas fourth grade curriculum calls indigenous people "troublemakers," while an commodity in the Kentucky 4th grade publication states that Native people had "elementary clothing, houses and machines."
"Statements that draw ethnic cultures as 'simple' reflect Eurocentric views that are woefully out of step with current historical knowledge," said Sam Wineburg, a professor of history at Stanford University, in an email.
Other flagged manufactures concern slavery. Some ask that students take on the perspective of slavery advocates. Florida'southward fourth grade publication includes an action that gives students the option to argue in favor of seceding from the Union to protect slavery. Others, like Nebraska'south 4th and Southward Carolina'south 3rd grade curricula, ask students to imagine that they are enslaved.
Simply request students to imagine the perspective of a slaveholder doesn't give them the tools to understand the by, said Stephanie P. Jones, an assistant professor of education at Grinnell College in Iowa. Instead, she said, teachers can enquire students to interrogate main sources.
And activities that enquire students to pretend they're enslaved can be harmful for students of colour—including students who are descended from enslaved people, said Jones. "Why do nosotros always take to emulate ourselves at the worst office of our lives?" she asked.
Acknowledging a Trouble
Walker, the Tennessee parent, also raised concerns nigh this kind of perspective-taking. After calling and emailing Studies Weekly nearly the writing exercise in her 5th grader's piece of work with no response, Walker posted on Studies Weekly's Facebook page in August 2018. A reply from the visitor on its page noted that it was working with the multifariousness board to remove "dated and offensive content." The department had been removed online, the comment read.
The incident made her worry about what her son, who will exist starting 5th form presently, might see in the publication. "It just kind of strengthened why information technology'southward so important for me to teach my kid history at home, and especially blackness history," said Walker. "There'south no way that I trust this company to tell them annihilation about information technology."
In an internal review, Studies Weekly flagged the following bug in their state-specific publications. This listing is an excerpt from the hundreds of issues identified in internal documents in 2018, which were obtained by Education Week. Some of these materials are no longer available on Studies Weekly's purchasing website. The others accept been inverse online and will be corrected for the print copies purchased for the 2019-2020 school twelvemonth, according to the company's argument.
- Arkansas' 4th grade, Calendar week 10: An article calls indigenous people "troublemakers."
- Arkansas' fourth grade, Calendar week xvi: An article asks students to imagine that they are a plantation owner.
- Indiana's third form, Week nine: An commodity states that Native Americans "agreed" to go on a small function of land in Ohio.
- Kentucky'south 4th course, Week 7: An commodity says that Native Americans had "unproblematic wearable, houses and machines."
- Kentucky's 4th class, Calendar week 8: An article about the French and Indian War includes the following quote: "Afterward all, colonists probably thought, 'Who exactly owns all that wildland anyway?' When the war was over, though, it was pretty articulate: England was the possessor! Suddenly, heading west didn't seem like trespassing. Folks came with confidence into this state that had once seemed 'off limits.'" The commodity does not mention that Native Americans were living on those lands.
- Michigan's tertiary grade, calendar week 17: An article states that settlers feared Native Americans because they "seemed savage."
- Nebraska'south 4th grade, Week 12: A writing action asks students to imagine that they are enslaved.
- Virginia's 4th course, Week 9: An article describes Africans who were brought to Jamestown to work on tobacco fields without pay. "It wasn't wonderful, simply it was better than being a slave!" the commodity reads.
- Washington'south 4th grade, Week viii: An article states that the Yakama people traded away their lands.
Lavora "Gayle" Gadison, a fellow member of the diversity board that had been assembled to review flagged problems and advise changes, said that the Studies Weekly materials that she saw shared many of the same problems she sees in social studies curricula nationwide. Gadison is the social studies curriculum manager at Cleveland city public schools.
In general, she said, lessons objectify enslaved people and teach slavery in isolation without showing how American racism stems from justification of the institution. Materials don't explain that slavery was perpetuated considering it was assisting for white people—including the founding fathers. "The stories [in Studies Weekly] were no more objectionable than the stories that we find in other U.Due south. history textbooks," said Gadison, whose district uses Studies Weekly. Gadison said the company was progressive for even looking at these issues. "At least there was a kickoff there, and at least in that location was an acquittance—it was best-selling that at that place was a trouble."
Costello of Educational activity Tolerance noted that the problems identified past Studies Weekly in their review are non specific to elementary social studies and history curricular materials. Misrepresentations of Native American history and reenactments of slavery tin be institute in K-12 classrooms across the land, she said. "The fact that they're reinforced in a textbook series is awful. Merely they're handed down as the air we breathe," Costello said.
Simply a review like this should be an opportunity to set the record straight, said Costello. "It's a lesson in historiography. The way nosotros interpret history changes as we learn more."
Jones, the Grinnell professor, said that some of the onus is on districts, schools, and teachers to critically examine the materials they're handed. Teachers need to exist shown how to be "interrupters" of bias or racism in materials, she said.
"In that location are very few elementary schoolhouse teachers who accept much background in social studies," said Costello. Most are either reading or math specialists. "Very, very, very few of them either majored or minored in history," she said. "They tend to replicate what they were taught."
A version of this article appeared in the June 19, 2019 edition of Education Week as Review Finds Errors, Bias in History Materials
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Source: https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/a-popular-social-studies-curriculum-got-an-internal-review-the-findings-werent-pretty/2019/06
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