Somehow I missed this. But this is something that all homeschoolers should be aware of and be watching.
My sons used those books for years. They weren’t perfect, but they were just as good as public school books.
Twelve of the most popular science textbooks used at middle schools nationwide are riddled with errors, a new study has found.
Researchers compiled 500 pages of errors, ranging from maps depicting the equator passing through the southern United States to a photo of singer Linda Ronstadt labeled as a silicon crystal.
None of the 12 textbooks has an acceptable level of accuracy, said John Hubisz, a North Carolina State University physics professor who led the two-year survey, released earlier this month.
How about our history books? (And in this case, our really includes me, because this is from Texas.)
In 1991, we found 231 un de tect ed factual errors in six high school U.S. History books after the state approval process certified them error-free. When this year’s process ended, we found 249 still-un cor rec ted factual errors in four books — more mis takes over looked in fewer texts. This despite publish ers’ claims to have beefed up their fact-check ing, despite Texas Education Agen cy emphasis on verifying accuracy to the State Textbook Review Panel, and despite an $80,000 Texas Tech review team backing them up.
Proposed math books for elementary school children and their teachers have resulted in one computation that publishers would just as soon erase – 109,263.
That’s the number of errors that were uncovered in proposed math textbooks that are under review by the State Board of Education for distribution to schools in the fall of 2008.
The total number of errors was nearly five times the total for last year, thanks to one publisher whose books contained more than 86,000 errors – 79 percent of the total.
Publishers will have until the spring to clean their books up. After that, they can be fined up to $5,000 for every error that makes it into the final editions of books shipped to Texas schools.
I almost want them to leave a few errors in to contribute to Texas’ schools. But I know if they do, some child will find it and a teacher somewhere will insist it is not an error and the world of learning will be darkened.
And, think about this, do you think those publishers are just going to throw those books away? Nope. They’re going to sell them to the public school system in California.