Studies Weekly was mentioned in a recent news article about Florida House Bill 7 and its influence on the Florida math and social studies adoptions.

OREM, Utah, March 18, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Studies Weekly was mentioned in a recent news article about Florida House Bill 7 and its influence on the Florida math and social studies adoptions.

HB 7 forbids anything that encourages students to believe any group is inherently racist, implies a person can be considered oppressed because of their race, or infers that one should feel guilty because of actions committed by members of their same race. (The Florida Senate. House Bill 7 (2022) - The Florida Senate. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/7/?Tab=BillText)

As a social studies publisher, it is our duty to follow the directives provided by each state department of education. We write to the state standards and trust educators to ensure implementation is aligned with their state standards and legislation. The state has the right and responsibility to determine how and what its students are taught. Studies Weekly does not lean to the political left, right, or middle.

Because the Florida Department of Education provided no guidance on interpreting Florida House Bill 7, Studies Weekly, like every publisher, has had to decipher how to comply with their legislation. That being said, during the Florida social studies adoption, individuals in our curriculum team severely overreacted in their interpretation of HB 7 and made unapproved revisions. Typically, our quality assurance processes would have flagged and denied edit approval. Unfortunately, during the final hours before the deadline, they circumvented our established protocols in an attempt to submit their revisions on time. We have identified those individuals, taken corrective action, and implemented additional safeguards to avoid any issues in the future.

We find the omission or altering of historical facts to be abhorrent and do not defend it. Although it was too late, once we discovered the unapproved changes, as evidenced by the file discrepancies within our submission, we planned to rectify the situation but could not edit it during the review. Those unapproved changes have already been removed from our curriculum. We had no intention of allowing those versions to become our official state publications.

As an entire company, we sincerely apologize for this situation and the distress that the adoption review submission has caused. We are grateful that these unapproved changes were never finalized nor delivered to schools for classroom use because we are a strong advocate, partner, and supporter of education.

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Marketing, Studies Weekly, 1 (866) 311-8734, marketing@studiesweekly.com

SOURCE Studies Weekly