Miami-Dade school board to review social studies material amid politicized textbook debate
MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Public Schools announced a plan to abide by Florida law requiring districts to review core instructional materials.
The Miami-Dade School Board has since received a list of social studies textbooks they will have to endorse before they end up in the classroom next school year.
“This is critically important,” said school board member Steve Gallon.
Historically, this has been a routine process for the school board, but in this highly politicized world we live in, there is a lot of scrutiny over what ends up in the classroom and school libraries, not to mention new laws from Tallahassee pushing more parental involvement.
“That has required districts to create safeguards and appropriately establish formalized process which we now see,” said Gallon.
The textbooks were selected by committees comprised of social studies classroom teachers, district staff and the parents of students who will be using the materials.
Back in June, nearly 1,500 parents volunteered to be part of these committees. Of those, 47 parents ended up going through the entire selection process. The district granted public online access to the materials recommended on Sept. 7.
“I think the process worked,” said school board member Luisa Santos. “I think the process involved so many hundreds of people over the last couple months.”
But on Tuesday, it was all about the public.
Some speakers said they reviewed some of the books and are concerned about the content.
In one fourth-grade book, Holly Zwerling said slavery is watered down.
“This is unacceptable,” she said. “Children need to understand the term slavery and what it means.”
Added concerned citizen Stephanie Rook: “It appears that we are not allowed to look back into our history because it may hurt our child’s feeling or make a child feel guilty.”
The school board will hold a hearing on Wednesday that will allow public comment and another public meeting on Oct. 11 to approve a plan.
The petition deadline to contest the adoption of instructional material is in November.
Subject: K-3 Social Studies
| Course | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| K | Florida History Makers: Myself, My School, My Community | Analytic Orange, Inc. (2021) |
| 1 | Florida History Makers: My Family, My Community | Analytic Orange (2021) |
| 2 | Florida History Makers: My Country and My State | Analytic Orange (2024) |
| 3 | Florida History Makers: Our Regions, Our Country, Our World | Analytic Orange (2022) |
Subject: Social Studies
| Course | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Florida Studies | McGraw Hill LLC |
| 5 | United States History | Gallopade International, Inc. |
| 6 | U.S. History: Florida and United States History: My World Interactive | Savvas Learning Company LLC |
| 7 | Civics and Government | Gallopade International, Inc. |
| 8 | National Geographic World History Ancient Civilizations | Cengage Learning |
| 9 | World History Florida Edition | McGraw Hill |
| 11 | National Geographic U.S. History 1877 to Present Florida Edition | Cengage Learning |
| U.S. Government | Florida Magruder’s American Government Interactive | Savvas Learning Company |
| Economics with Financial Literacy | Economics with Financial Literacy | McGraw Hill |
| Personal Finance | Personal and Family Finance | eDynamic Holdings LP. |
| AP World History | Ways of the World for AP Modern (5th ed) | Bedford Freeman and Worth Publishing Group |
| AP U.S. History | Brinkley, American History: Connecting with the Past AP Edition, 16e | McGraw Hill |
| AP U.S. Government & Politics | American Government: Stories of a Nation | Bedford Freeman and Worth Publishing Group |
| AP Human Geography | A Spatial Perspective | Cengage |
| AP Macro Economics | Krugman’s Macroeconomics for AP (4th ed) | Bedford Freeman and Worth Publishing Group |
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