Florida releases reviews that led to rejection of math textbooks

It was the equivalent of: “Show your work.” To help explain its puzzling rejection of dozens of math textbooks, the state of Florida released nearly 6,000 pages of reviewer comments this past week and revealed an often confusing, contradictory and divisive process.

A conservative activist turned textbook reviewer was on the lookout for mentions of race. Another reviewer didn't seem to know that socialemotional learning concepts, like developing grit, should be banned, according to the state.

A third flagged a word problem comparing salaries for male and female soccer players.

As part of the official review process, the state assigned educators, parents and other residents to review textbooks, in part to determine whether they adhered to Florida's teaching standards for math — from simple addition in kindergarten to interpretation of graphs in high school statistics.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and allies in the state Legislature have also fought against what he calls “woke indoctrination” in public schools and advanced a series of regulations and laws intended to limit how race, gender and social-emotional subjects are taught.

So reviewers were asked to flag “critical race theory,” “culturally responsive teaching,” “social justice as it relates to CRT” and “social-emotional learning,” according to the documents.

In an illustration of how politicized and subjective those terms have become, the various reviewers seldom agreed on whether those concepts were present — and, if they were, whether the books should be accepted or rejected for including them.

While many states and school districts appoint textbook reviewers, Florida's process has been highly unusual.

Some reviewers considered race and social-emotional learning alongside detailed points of math content and pedagogy, while others looked only for critical race theory, according to the documents.

It is not clear why particular reviewers took on a more narrow task, and the Florida Department of Education did not immediately respond to a list of written questions about the review process.

But in an April news release announcing the textbook rejections, the department said, “Florida's transparent instructional materials review process ensures the public has the opportunity to review and comment on submitted textbooks.”