After the Florida Department of Education rejected dozens of math books last week, the big question was, why?
The department said some books “contain prohibited topics” from social-emotional learning or critical race theory — but it has released only four specific textbook pages of content it objects to.
Using online sample materials provided by publishers to Florida school districts, DailyExpertNews was able to review 21 of the rejected books and see what prompted the state to reject them. Because Florida has released so few details about its textbook review process, it’s not known whether these examples led to the rejections. But they do illustrate the way these concepts appear — and don’t appear — in teaching materials.
Most of the books talked little about race, let alone an academic framework like critical race theory.
But many of the textbooks contain socio-emotional learning content, a practice with roots in psychological research that seeks to help students develop a mindset that can support academic success.
The image below, taken from marketing materials from the company Big Ideas Learning — whose elementary textbooks Florida rejected — shows a common way teachers are trained to think about social-emotional learning.
The pie chart lists the five core skills students should develop: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness, and relationship building. This framework was developed by CASEL, a non-profit education organization.
Until recently, the idea of building social-emotional skills was fairly undisputed in American education. Research suggests that students with these skills achieve higher test scores.
But right-wing activists like Chris Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, have tried to link social-emotional learning to the wider debate about teaching race, gender and sexuality in classrooms.
In a March interview conducted via email, Mr. Rufo stated that while social-emotional learning sounds “positive and undisputed” in theory, “in practice, SEL serves as a delivery mechanism for radical pedagogies such as critical race theory and gender deconstructionism.”
“The intent of SEL,” he continued, “is to soothe children on an emotional level, reinterpret their normative behavior as an expression of ‘repression’, ‘whiteness’ or ‘internalized racism’, and then rewire their behavior according to the precepts of left-wing ideology.”
Mr. Rufo also expressed concern that for social-emotional learning, teachers “have to serve as psychologists, for which they are not equipped”.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has talked more generally about social-emotional learning as a distraction, he says, from math itself.
“Math is about getting the right answer,” he said at a news conference on Monday, adding, “It’s not about how you feel about the problem.”
Stephanie M. Jones, a developmental psychologist and social-emotional learning expert at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, disagreed.
“Feelings arise all the time — they arise when we work in our offices and when children are learning things,” she said. “It makes sense to try to deal with or struggle with those feelings in order to be more effective at what we do.”
CALMING MATHEMATICS FEAR
Many of the rejected textbooks encourage students to think about their emotions. In a fifth-grade McGraw Hill book, shown below, students are encouraged at the beginning of the school year to write a “math biography” that reflects on their feelings about the subject and how they expect math skills can help them. to enjoy hobbies or achieve goals.
“A math biography is one way to help children,” said Professor Jones. “There’s a fair amount of evidence indicating that if you can bring your insecurity and fear about something to the surface, it’s easier to deal with and control it.”
Educators can read the biographies to find out which students need additional support, she added.
Some McGraw Hill pages contain social-emotional clues that have little to do with the math problems, such as this example below from a fifth-grade book. Under a common math problem, students are asked, “How can you understand your feelings?”
GIVING STUDENTS A ‘GROOWTH MIND SET’
Some theories related to social-emotional learning have penetrated deeply into popular culture and the business world. Among the most popular are the concept of a “growth mindset” developed by Carol Dweck of Stanford, and the closely related idea of ”grit” developed by Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania.
These theories have sometimes received more criticism from the left than from the right. Some educators were concerned that the field of social-emotional learning behaviors associated with upper-middle-class white culture is being celebrated, paying too little attention to the kind of guts needed to grow up in poverty, for example, or about race, language, and class barriers that can make it more difficult for many students to progress academically.
Understand the Critical Race Theory Debate
Conservative educators, on the other hand, often praised attempts to teach “character,” a concept that overlaps significantly with social-emotional learning.
The textbooks Florida rejected are full of references to character traits like perseverance and cooperation. A first-class textbook from the publisher Savvas Learning Company, formerly known as Pearson K12 Learning, repeatedly refers to the importance of “effort,” “learning together,” and having a “growth mindset.” Throughout the book, cartoon kids appear on the sides of pages to remind students of these ideas:
High school textbooks also draw on these concepts. A rejected geometry textbook from the publisher Study Edge, shown below, asks students to rate, from 1 to 4, how willing they are to “try new things” in math or “persevere when something is challenging.”
In the past year, as Republican Party activists increasingly focused on what they call the excesses of progressive education, socio-emotional learning has come under fire.
In June 2021, the Florida Department of Education sent a memo to math book publishers advising not to include “social-emotional learning and culturally responsive education” in their materials.
Timothy Dohrer, director of teacher leadership at Northwestern University, called that “short-sighted” and said research showed that incorporating social-emotional learning into texts helped students learn social skills.
“If you ask 100 CEOs what skills they want in a new hire, the top five skills are about social-emotional learning — not algebra,” he said.
“Are you a pleasant person to talk to? Will you be a good colleague?” Professor Dohrer added. “We know the best way to teach that is to combine it with math, social studies, whatever.”
RACE AND DIVERSITY
Professor Dohrer said that, despite its importance, social-emotional learning has become embroiled in a debate over critical race theory, which is generally not taught in K-12 schools, but has become an object of alarm among those attacking attempts at a more critical history of the breed in America.
“SEL is unrelated to critical race theory,” he said, “yet it is connected at the level of local school boards and local communities, as well as in national dialogue.”
There are few references to race in these math books, although publishers often took care to include word problems with ethnically diverse names and foods like empanadas. But this rejected McGraw Hill pre-algebra textbook, shown below, contained mini-biographies of mathematicians throughout history, almost all of whom were women or people of color:
In a statement, Savvas said it would “work with the Florida DOE to resolve perceived issues” and said it was common practice for publishers to revise materials to meet state standards. Other companies said they wouldn’t comment until they had time to review why their books were rejected. The publishers have 21 days to appeal the decisions under Florida state law.
Vincent T. Forese, president of Tampa-based publisher Link-Systems International, which submitted curricula for three high school math subjects that were rejected for reasons unrelated to socio-emotional learning or critical race theory, wondered why the state issued a rousing announcement that books had been rejected.
“I’m not sure what the value proposition is of making such an announcement, other than that there is political value in it,” he said.