Baker Institute paper: Religion coverage must be balanced, broadened in Texas public schools

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Baker Institute paper: Religion coverage must be balanced, broadened in Texas public schools

HOUSTON – (Nov. 2, 2016) – Texas’ current approach to teaching religion fails to ensure that public school students receive the balanced treatment they need in order to fully understand their world and to function effectively in an increasingly diverse society, according to a new research paper from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Credit: shutterstock.com/Rice University

“Religious Imbalance in the Texas Social Studies Curriculum: Analysis and Recommendations” examines how Texas treats religion throughout the curriculum process, from the development of the current social studies curriculum standards to the review and adoption of instructional materials for use in Texas classrooms. The paper was written by Baker Institute nonresident scholar David Brockman, who is also an adjunct professor at both Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University, where he teaches various courses in religion and religious studies.

While most scholarly and media attention has focused on controversies over the teaching of science and history in Texas, Brockman argues that the coverage of religion in the Texas curriculum is equally if not more important, since religion underlies much of the debate surrounding instruction in other disciplines.

Religion “is the metaphorical elephant in the classroom,” Brockman wrote. “Until Texans recognize the role of religion and deal with it constructively, controversy will continue to plague public education in the Lone Star State.”

Brockman said balanced coverage gives an accurate and neutral account of each religion’s history and does not overemphasize one religion at the expense of others. He found that the current social studies curriculum fails to meet this standard, since it gives greater coverage to Christianity and presents a more positive account of Christian history than is warranted.

This imbalance involves two major players — the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) and the publishers of social studies instructional materials — and is manifested in two distinct but related areas of the social studies curriculum: the curriculum standards (the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS) and the social studies instructional materials currently approved for use in Texas public schools.

The report explores the SBOE’s record of obstructing religious balance in the social studies curriculum; examines imbalances in religion coverage in the social studies TEKS; and highlights similar imbalances in recently adopted instructional materials that focus on the illustrative case of how world geography and world history instructional materials cover violence in the spread of Christianity and Islam. Brockman also offers a list of recommendations for achieving balanced treatment of religion in Texas public schools.

Among the key findings of Brockman’s report are the following:

• The SBOE, whose members are chosen in partisan elections and are not required to have any educational or academic expertise in the subjects they oversee, has a record of prioritizing political and ideological considerations over scholarly consensus.
• The SBOE has established a climate and a process which not only fail to promote religious balance in the social studies curriculum, but in some cases actively impede it.
• In 2009-10 SBOE members appointed some people with no relevant academic credentials to the committees charged with developing the social studies TEKS. Despite their own lack of relevant credentials, SBOE members also directly modified the TEKS.
• The social studies TEKS adopted in 2010 do not promote balance in the coverage of religion, and they prioritize Christianity over other religions.
• During the 2014 review of new social studies instructional materials, SBOE members secured review panel appointments for political activists with no relevant academic credentials while passing over credentialed social studies specialists from Texas colleges and universities. SBOE members also used the public comment phase to favor ideological groups with little or no academic standing. In some cases, attempts by publishers to accommodate these groups worked against religious balance.
• While the social studies instructional materials currently approved for use in Texas are generally far more balanced than the TEKS, they, too, are marked by instances of religious imbalance, particularly in their handling of the role of violence in the spread of Islam and Christianity.

“It is hoped that this report will raise awareness of problems in the way religion is taught in Texas and will spark a broad conversation among stakeholders about how to improve this vital area of public education, particularly in advance of the next revision of the social studies TEKS in 2019 or 2020,” Brockman wrote.

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For more information or to schedule an interview with Brockman, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

Related materials:

“Religious Imbalance in the Texas Social Studies Curriculum: Analysis and Recommendations” paper: www.bakerinstitute.org/files/11034.

Brockman biography: www.bakerinstitute.org/experts/david-r-brockman.

Baker Institute Religion and Public Policy Program: www.bakerinstitute.org/religion-policy-program.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Founded in 1993, Rice University’s Baker Institute ranks among the top five university-affiliated think tanks in the world. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute’s strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows, Rice University faculty scholars and staff, coupled with its outreach to the Rice student body through fellow-taught classes — including a public policy course — and student leadership and internship programs. Learn more about the institute at www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute’s blog, http://blogs.chron.com/bakerblog.