Bay area school districts left in the dark after selected math textbooks were rejected by state
TAMPA, Fla. - Despite newly released examples of objectionable content, school districts across the Bay Area said they're still in the dark over why some of their selected math textbooks for the 2022-23 school year were rejected by the state.
School districts in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota counties all confirmed at least one of their math textbooks selected for the upcoming school year had been rejected. The reasons for their rejection, however, were neither obvious nor made clear to the districts.
The Florida Department of Education posted a list of 54 rejected math textbooks for grades K-12. The list scores books on subject-specific standards and notes whether they include "special topics." Those that fall under a 4.0 on the DOE's five-point subject-specific standards score or are deemed to contain "special topics" were not recommended by the state.
The Department of Education said it rejected math textbooks for a broad range of reasons. They may not have been deemed up to par with Florida’s newly-adopted B.E.S.T. standards, contained elements of old Common Core curriculum, or included "special topics" like critical race theory (CRT) or social emotional learning (SEL) concepts.
School districts said their vetting process for selecting books is lengthy and many were surprised to learn that some of their selections had been rejected.
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"We can only assume that the DOE found some things that are specific to misalignment. We trust the process, and we respect their right to vet textbooks," said Manatee County Deputy Superintendent Dr. Dan Evans.
Many school districts explained their selection process for new textbooks typically takes an entire year and includes review from educators, administrators and the public.
"When we look at textbooks, we're looking at things like, are the reading passages and the math problems challenging and engaging for our students," said Evans. "We're looking through an educator lens, not from a social-political one."
All school districts explained they are waiting to hear back from publishers on whether they are able to amend the rejected textbooks in order to gain approval.
"We’re in communication with the Department of Education and expect to work with them to ensure that our programs are available and appropriate for Florida students," said a spokesperson from publisher McGraw Hill LLC.
Publishers declined to provide specific examples of content flagged by the DOE.
After nearly a week of requests for specific examples of objectionable math content, the DOE published four images of math problems it said demonstrated an attempt by publishers to indoctrinate students.
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One math exercise included a bar graph that measured racial prejudice by age and political affiliation along with a subsequent word problem that began, "What? Me? Racist?" designed to teach adding and subtracting polynomials.
"Why on earth would you have discussions and graphs that discuss systemic racism and implicit biases in a math book unless there's an underlying theme, which there is," said Sarasota school board member Bridget Ziegler.
While some objectionable content may seem obvious, SEL techniques can be tougher to identify. One example provided by the DOE described asking students to count aloud in order to identify successive numbers in a sequence. It explained this would increase social awareness while students practiced "empathizing with classmates."
Evans said he'd let others decide what's objectionable but said he doesn't necessarily see why SEL concepts would land a book on a rejection list.
MORE: Few specifics provided on Florida's textbook rejections
"I don't know why it's objectionable," said Evans. "The idea of social emotional learning has been again an ever-evolving conversation in the industry about how to attend to the social and emotional needs of our students, especially coming out of COVID. The labels and the definitions, as I said, I will leave to others, but we all recognize that we need to attend to the emotional needs of our students, building their life skills, their character skills regarding hard work and determination and perseverance and respect for others. All of those sort of life skills have always been part of school."
The examples given on the state's site do not include the publisher or name of the textbook that contain the passages. The DOE would not confirm that the examples were from any of the 54 books it had rejected, but a disclaimer included with the examples stated:
"The following are examples provided to the department by the public and presented no conflict in sharing them. These examples do not represent an exhaustive list of input received by the Department. The Department is continuing to give publishers the opportunity to remediate all deficiencies identified during the review to ensure the broadest selection of high quality instructional materials are available to the school districts and Florida’s students."
Several districts said that while it's "unusually" late for the state to release a list of rejected textbooks, they're prepared to quickly pivot to different books on the state's approved list, if necessary.
"We want to make sure the material that's in front of our students is appropriate, that it's aligned to the standards and that it is with the purpose of academic excellence and mastery of the subject matter and nothing else," said Ziegler. "The Department of Education is having to send a very clear message that no longer will people who receive tens and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars be allowed to inject agendas that have nothing to do with the material and the intention of us purchasing them."