MIAMI – After months of deliberations, the Miami Dade school board approved the classroom textbooks recommended by committees made up of teachers and parents on Wednesday.
It’s a process that started back in June when parents were asked to participate in selecting social studies textbooks for grades K-12.
These standards were approved by the Florida Board of Education in July, which shifted away from the Common Core curriculum. However, Florida’s new standards stirred national outrage due to their inclusion of teachings about how African Americans benefited from slavery.
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 process worked with lucidity, clarity and consistency,” said school board member Steve 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 personally have spent hours with high school students, teachers and parents reviewing pages to ensure that they’re objective and they teach our students what they need to know on this topic,” said school board member Luisa Santos.
Historically, it has been a routine process for the school board, but now, there’s a lot of scrutiny over what ends up in the classroom and school libraries -- concerns from some school board members over standards coming from the state that some argue are creating confusion in the classroom.
“A lot of the bans and restrictions and changes in Tallahassee that are happening right now are absolutely not contributing to an inclusive environment and they’re creating a lot of self-censorship in our classroom,” said board member Lucia Baez-Geller. “The laws are vague enough that teachers are not sure what they can and can’t say, and that’s a disservice to our students.”
Gallon had a message for teachers about what the selection of textbooks really means:
“A curriculum is a curriculum and a textbook is a textbook, but we do trust and have confidence in our teachers to navigate our students in an age-appropriate ways through some very difficult topics.”
Parents will have 30 days to contest the adoption of instructional material.
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 |
For more information about the recommendations, visit this page.