Editing Textbook (section)

==K-12 textbooks==
In most U.S. [[K-12]] public schools, a local school board votes on which textbooks to purchase from a selection of books that have been approved by the state Department of Education. Teachers receive the books to give to the students for each subject. Teachers are usually not required to use textbooks, however, and many prefer to use other materials instead.

Textbook publishing in the U.S. is a business primarily aimed at large states. This is due to state purchasing controls over the books, most notably in Texas, where the [[Texas Education Agency]] sets curricula for all courses taught by the state's 1,000+ school districts, and therefore also approves which textbooks can be purchased.

Commonly used American history textbooks are customized for students in California and Texas.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goldstein |first=Dana |date=12 January 2020 |title=Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories. |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html |access-date=2 December 2020}}</ref>

===High school===
In recent years, high school textbooks of United States history have come under increasing criticism. Authors such as [[Howard Zinn]] (''[[A People's History of the United States]]''), [[Gilbert T. Sewall]] (''[[Textbooks: Where the Curriculum Meets the Child]]'') and [[James W. Loewen]] (''[[Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong]]''), make the claim that [[History of the United States|U.S. history]] textbooks contain mythical untruths and omissions, which paint a whitewashed picture that bears little resemblance to what most students learn in universities. Inaccurately retelling history, through textbooks or other literature, has been practiced in many societies, from ancient [[Rome]] to the [[Soviet Union]] (USSR) and the People's Republic of China. The content of history textbooks is often determined by the political forces of state adoption boards and ideological pressure groups.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jr |first=James C. McKinley |date=12 March 2010 |title=Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html |access-date=18 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107135554/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html |archive-date=7 January 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Science textbooks have been the source of ongoing debates and have come under scrutiny from several organizations. The presentation or inclusion of controversial scientific material has been debated in several court cases. Poorly designed textbooks have been cited as contributing to declining grades in mathematics and science in the United States and organizations such as the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (AAAS) have criticized the layout, presentation, and amount of material given in textbooks.

Discussions of textbooks have been included on [[Creationism|creation]] and [[evolution]] in the public education debate. The ''[[Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County]]'' case brought forward a debate about scientific fact being presented in textbooks.

In his book, ''[[Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!]]'', the late physics Nobel Prize laureate [[Richard P. Feynman]] described his experiences as a member of a committee that evaluated science textbooks.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Book Review: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! |url=http://textbooks.org/2012/09/book-review-surely-youre-joking-mr-feynman/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508135103/http://textbooks.org/2012/09/book-review-surely-youre-joking-mr-feynman/ |archive-date=8 May 2016 |access-date=23 April 2016 |website=Textbooks.org – Compare Textbook Prices}}</ref> At some instances, there were nonsensical examples to illustrate physical phenomena; then a company sent – for reasons of timing – a textbook that contained blank pages, which even got good critiques. Feynman himself experienced attempts at bribery.