Experts: Texas textbooks are unlikely to spread

[marmar]

Experts: Texas textbooks are unlikely to spread
By PAUL J. WEBER (AP) – 5 days ago


SAN ANTONIO — Pop quiz: Does the school curriculum adopted in Texas really wind up in textbooks nationwide? If you answered yes, you might get a failing grade.

As the second-largest purchaser of textbooks behind California, the Lone Star State has historically wielded enormous clout in deciding what material appears in classrooms across the country. That's why the state school board's recent decision to adopt new social studies standards was closely watched far beyond Texas.

Critics feared the new, more conservative curriculum in Texas would spread elsewhere. But publishing experts say those concerns are overblown.

"It's easier nowadays to create one edition for one situation and a different edition for another situation," said Bob Resnick, founder of Education Market Research, based in New York. "I don't believe the Texas curriculum will spread anyplace else."

After months of discussion, the Texas Board of Education last week approved placing greater emphasis on the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers and teaching schoolchildren that the words "separation of church and state" do not appear in the Constitution.

In Washington, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the process a case of politicians deciding curriculum. California lawmakers went a step further, proposing that education officials there comb through textbooks to ensure that Texas material isn't twisting the history curriculum.

This year, as states weigh which textbooks to buy, many "are going to be asking whether this was the book that went to Texas," said Kathy Mickey, an analyst at Simba Information, a market research firm.

The influence of Texas on the $7 billion U.S. textbook market has steadily weakened. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jokmIAwsqG7ypo567h2KHAApqdUAD9G20UN00

[aquart]

1. When accepting students for colleges outside Texas....

Will the Texas curriculum be considered?

It seems to me that standardized tests can be written to screen for Texas curriculum.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Great idea and deserves it's own thread. Why not start a movement

to contact the standardized testing companies and urge that they include questions designed to weed out the Texas brainwashed students?

Also, why not ask the obama administration to establish national testing standards or national text book standards that would ban the sort of crap Texas has done? Why should those poor kids in Texas grow up ignorant in America? Don't we have an obligation to protect them from the morons in their legislature?

[kestrel91316]

7. One could argue that the good people of TX should be given what they

want and let the chips fall where they may. They will find their children can't get into good colleges and/or good jobs.

[On the Road]

2. "Unlikely to Spread"?

The author seems to be referring to Texas textboooks as some kind of communicable disease. Or maybe an oil spill.

[SeattleGirl]

5. I think it could be argued that what would be spread is the

loads of dis- and misinformation the new textbooks that Texas has approved, if they were to be used all over the country. In that sense, I think "spread" is an apt word to use.

[On the Road]

9. I Was Being Tongue in Cheek

I understand the rumored influence of Texas textbooks on the rest of the country, but the "spread" could make it sound like some kind of noxious influence. Which in most cases it is.

Glad to see it's not happening as much. I went to 6-8th grades in Eastern NC, and the history textbooks we used were written from a Confederate point of view and justified slavery on economic grounds. And this was the mid-60s.

[HughMoran]

4. Good.

Leave the ignorance there.

[madrchsod]

6. it never dawned on my feeble brain that this really is a non issue

my family has around 20yrs experience in the printing industry. it`s simple to print textbooks for different states. when i worked on a bindery line we`d have multiple editions for the same magazine.my wife was a roll tender and my son still is.a press can run off impressions for a magazine then change a "plate" and 15 minutes later the press is running different impressions for the same magazine.

[Book Lover]

8. From the printer's POV, yes. From the publisher's POV, not so much

As someone with 20+ years on the publisher's side of things, I can tell you they (meaning teh bean counters and people with the actual title "Publisher") don't want the tracking, editing, and warehousing hassles of having many different versions of the same edition of any given volume. POD does help with the problems some, but you'll still be making more books, paying more writing, developmental editing, copyediting and production hours.

[TexasObserver]

10. Make your state reject Texas approved textbooks!

Please! It's bad enough these troglodytes foist this nonsense on Texas children. Don't let it get past our borders.