The state’s social studies standards, ideologically aligned with conservative values, American exceptionalism and Christianity, will guide a committee’s review of dozens of textbooks and materials for use in Oklahoma classrooms.
A team of educators and the State Textbook Committee began evaluating the textbooks for this year’s adoption cycle, which includes social studies as well as personal finance. The textbooks generally have an online version for access on school computers; some are fully digital with no printed books.
Parents, teachers and lawmakers attempted to block the social studies standards, arguing they are inaccurate and designed to promote Christianity over all other faiths. Academic standards are essentially a roadmap of what students should learn in each subject and grade or high school course.
The social studies standards call for high school students to study the 2020 elections by looking into election fraud theories such as batch dumps and mail-in balloting risks using graphs and other information.
They’re also infused with references to Christianity, calling for students as young as first grade to study Bible stories such as Moses and the Ten Commandments.
High school students are expected to learn how Christianity and the Bible influenced America’s founding fathers. Religious elements like these support Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ push for Bibles in every public school classroom.
Publishers sidestep controversy
Oklahoma, with fewer than 700,000 public school students, represents a small market for textbook publishers.
Most made little effort to embrace the controversial aspects of the new standards, an Oklahoma Watch review of submitted materials found. Some made minor adjustments. And a few refused to do business with Oklahoma altogether.
Regarding the 2020 election, for example, an Advanced Placement textbook titled “By The People, A History of the United States,” published by Pearson, makes no mention of sudden batch dumps or mail-in ballot concerns. It states: “The Trump campaign submitted a total of 63 lawsuits claiming voter fraud, but none of them, including several that reached the Supreme Court, resulted in a finding for the campaign.”
Another textbook for high school students, this one published by Cengage and titled “America Through the Lens,” addresses claims of election fraud with this: “Supporters of his claim believed that mail-in balloting was not secure, and alleged that ballot-counting was halted in key battleground states, accompanied by sudden batch dumps of unfavorable votes. With an unforeseen record number of voters in the election, determining the final vote count was challenging. Investigations by numerous state and federal authorities determined there was no credible evidence to support such a claim.”
However, an online version for Oklahoma is different. The same section instead reads: “He claimed the 2020 election had been stolen through widespread fraud, even though numerous state and federal authorities determined there was no credible evidence to support such a claim.”Then, there’s this from a McGraw Hill textbook titled “United States History”: “As mail-in balloting began, stories appeared in the media describing mail-in ballots being lost or found dumped, people receiving ballots for someone else, ballots being filled out for people who had passed away, people accepting payments in exchange for their ballots, and people being charged with election fraud. These stories were anecdotes, personal stories, and they did not prove there were widespread problems.”
That book describes COVID-19 as being from an unknown origin in Wuhan in central China — not a Chinese lab, as specified in the standards. It dedicates several pages of text to the effects of the pandemic, including some of the economic and social effects: isolation and loneliness, schools closed, elderly people dying alone, risks to essential workers, and the trillions of dollars in federal aid to help businesses and workers.
“In December 2019, Chinese health authorities reported a mysterious disease that had emerged in the city of Wuhan,” reads the opening of a section on COVID-19 in “America Through the Lens.” There is no mention of a lab.
Oklahoma Watch’s review of materials found just one Bible story. Studies Weekly, a civics and social studies curriculum for elementary students, tells the Biblical story of David and Goliath in a first-grade lesson titled “Big Ideas from History.”
It reads: “The Hebrews told stories. One story was about David, a boy. He had to fight Goliath, a giant man. He won. People use this story when they talk about facing a big problem.”
The lesson also mentions the Ten Commandments but doesn’t list them, describing the laws as carved on stone and telling people what they should and should not do.
How to participate in the textbook selection processThe public can access the same materials under review by the state Textbook Committee. These materials are on display across the state for public perusal. Here is a list of the locations; they include university libraries and the Oklahoma Department of Education. The State Textbook Committee plans to hold a public hearing Oct. 3, according to a calendar on the textbook committee’s webpage. Members of the public wishing to comment at the hearing should contact the committee by Sept. 12 and include a typed summary of the comments they wish to make. Studies Weekly publishes a newsletter-like format instead of textbooks, with colorful, folded pages given to students each week. The company customizes its product for each state, building curriculum from each state’s standards.
John McCurdy, chief executive officer of Studies Weekly, said he prefers not to wade into local politics and stays focused on meeting all of each state’s requirements in age-appropriate ways. “We don’t take a position,” McCurdy said. “We just follow the standards.”
In contrast, another publisher that submitted an elementary curriculum for review, InquireED, sidestepped a second-grade standard about stories from Christianity, suggesting educators use the online platform’s edit feature to add that manually. (The company suggested editing the materials to meet other, less controversial standards, too.)
While alignment with state standards is the first element reviewers consider, they don’t have to align perfectly to gain the Textbook Committee’s approval.
Fewer publishers offering textbooks
Eleven publishers submitted materials to the state for approval in social studies, fewer than the 18 approved by the committee six years ago in the last social studies cycle. And the rubric evaluators use is different now, with a new section assessing social and moral issues and adherence to a law banning the teaching of certain race and gender concepts.
Notably absent is one of the country’s largest and most well-known textbook publishers, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The company withdrew from Oklahoma in 2023 amid the state’s review of math textbooks. Company representatives could not be reached for comment.
During the last cycle, Oklahoma approved hundreds of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt titles for teaching social studies.
Two smaller publishers didn’t bid on social studies materials this year, either. Teachers Curriculum Institute and Gibbs Smith Education each had textbooks approved in the last cycle but opted out this year.
Elizabeth Wallace, publisher and president of Gibbs Smith Education, said their Oklahoma history textbook wouldn’t have met all of Oklahoma’s standards on its own and she didn’t want to risk rejection by the committee.
“That’s a huge gamble for a small publisher,” Wallace said.
Textbook publishers presented their materials to the State Textbook Committee over three days last week. Selected educators will review the textbooks through October, then give their evaluations to the committee. In November, the committee will vote on whether to accept the materials for state adoption.
It’s up to individual school districts to choose which materials to purchase. The Legislature allocates $33 million annually for textbooks and districts can only spend that money on materials recommended by the committee. But districts can buy materials from the list using other funds.
Legal efforts to stop the implementation of the new standards are ongoing. A district court judge threw out one lawsuit, but the parents and teachers who sued said they will appeal. A second case is pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
