Miami-Dade Schools moves toward adopting social studies books after Black history disputes
The Miami-Dade County School Board took the first step toward approving new social studies instructional materials — despite members failing to address the content or specific topics within the books themselves.
Instead, board members in a Wednesday meeting pointed their questions to how the textbook review committees were formed and the procedures district staff followed to ensure compliance with state statute. Questions and comments also applauded district staff’s efforts for completing the lengthy process, the accessibility the community had to the materials online and the high number of parents participating.
Around 1,100 people joined committees to review social studies textbooks in Miami-Dade public schools — a list released by the state earlier this year as part of the state’s overhaul of academic standards. The social studies standards, approved by the Florida Board of Education in July, sparked national outrage for including teachings about how enslaved people benefited from their bondage.
Board member Steve Gallon asked district staff to explain which parents were able to participate, the difference between instructional and library materials and the distinction between curriculum and state standards. (Textbook committee members were required to have children in the district’s public schools; library books can be challenged not only by district parents, but by county residents, too.)
Board member Mary Blanco asked for more details surrounding the composition of the review committees, which, according to staff, varied. While some committees included up to five parents, others included just two or three, in addition to teachers and education professionals, staff said.
The materials are expected to come before the board again next month during its regular board meeting Oct. 11 and members could discuss the contents of the books then — a point member Luisa Santos pointed out, calling the discussion “the middle of the process.”
Like the board members, the majority of public speakers Wednesday focused their comments not on the books themselves, but on the state’s new social studies standards, which this summer caused a national uproar. The handful of speakers urged the board to adopt materials they said would teach an accurate account of history and not a whitewashed version of events.
Just one speaker, Crystal Etienne, a seventh-grade civics teacher at West Homestead K-8 Center, drew her concerns from the content of a textbook up for adoption — a seventh grade civics book that she said favors one religion over another.
“That’s not what I taught last year,” she told board members, adding there was no mention of religion last year. “You are the last defense for our students against the indoctrination of white supremacy” of our students.
READ MORE: Teachers enraged that Florida’s new Black history standards say slaves could ‘benefit’
Board member Lucia Baez-Geller honed in on Etienne’s comments, asking staff if the district could do more to gauge teachers’ sentiments about the new textbooks. She, too, applauded the increased role parents played this year, but said she wanted to “hear from people in her schools” to see how the textbooks compared to what’s currently in the classrooms.
Social studies a hot topic in Florida
Wednesday’s discussion is part of the state’s effort to move away from the Common Core standards and adopt new standards, the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, or B.E.S.T standards approved in 2020 by the Florida Department of Education. Adopting new social studies books is the last step in the state’s curriculum overhaul.
But the adoption process also comes after the Florida Department of Education has come under fire for multiple decisions it has made regarding how social studies and civics education should be taught in K-12 public schools.
The new history standards, which discussed how enslaved people benefited from their bondage, also attempted to contextualize American slavery within the global history of slavery and the false equivalence of anti-Black violence with acts of Black resistance. The announcement prompted educators, civil rights leaders and parents to rebuke the board and the Department of Education, with some calling the move “evil” and disrespectful.
In May, the department was heavily criticized for the initial list of social studies textbooks it approved for this school year, which districts use to buy textbooks for classrooms. (The list of books up for adoption in Miami-Dade are from the state’s approved list.)
According to the department at the time, some of the books were approved only after the department worked with publishers who “updated their materials to comply” with Florida standards. One change included removing a section titled “New Calls for Social Justice,” which included topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement and references to the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
And in February, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the department garnered national attention after the administration announced it rejected a new Advanced Placement course on African-American studies for high school students because some of the topics attempted to use Black history to push a political agenda.
The course has not yet been approved and was not made available to students in Florida for this school year.
