Texts axed for being ‘graph’ic

The Florida Department of Education released examples of what it called “problematic” material that led it to ban dozens of math textbooks — including an algebra lesson with a graph measuring racial prejudice.

The DOE rejected 54 math textbooks — about 41% of publisher submissions — for content that officials said tried to “indoctrinate” students or expose them to “dangerous and divisive concepts.”

Facing requests to share examples of what led to the bans, the department posted four photos of math problems on its Web site Thursday.

“What? Me? Racist?” says a lesson titled “Adding and Subtracting Polynomials.”

“More than 2 million people have tested their racial prejudice using an online version of the Implicit Association Test. Most groups’ average scores fall between ‘slight’ and ‘moderate’ bias, but the differences among groups by age and political identification, are intriguing,” the problem says.

It shares a formula telling students they will partake in exercises using a model to measure bias.

Another problem involves graphs that supposedly measure levels of racial prejudice and are broken down by age and political identification. They were based on the Implicit Association Test, as was the polynomials lesson, although it wasn’t clear if both were from the same rejected textbook.

A third posted lesson said its objective was for students to “build proficiency with social awareness as they practice with empathizing with classmates.” The so-called social-emotional learning in math is prohibited in Florida.

The fourth image shows text that says the problem’s goal is “focusing on students’ social and emotional learning.” The context of that assignment isn’t included on the site.

The site noted, “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,” the site added.

Most of the rejected math books were on grade levels K-5, the department said.