[The subject header refers--gratuitously, I admit--to a quotation found at http://slate.msn.com/Features/bushisms/bushisms.asp] Forwarded without comment: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/15/science/AP-Textbook-Errors.html Study Finds Errors in Science Textbooks By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS January 15, 2001 RALEIGH, N.C. -- Twelve of the most popular science textbooks used at middle schools nationwide are riddled with errors, a new study has found. Researchers compiled 500 pages of errors, ranging from maps depicting the equator passing through the southern United States to a photo of singer Linda Ronstadt labeled as a silicon crystal. None of the 12 textbooks has an acceptable level of accuracy, said John Hubisz, a North Carolina State University physics professor who led the two-year survey, released earlier this month. "These are terrible books, and they're probably a strong component of why we do so poorly in science," he said. Hubisz estimated about 85 percent of children in the United States use the textbooks examined. "The books have a very large number of errors, many irrelevant photographs, complicated illustrations, experiments that could not possibly work, and drawings that represented impossible situations," he told The Charlotte Observer. The study was financed with a $64,000 grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. A team of researchers, including middle school teachers and college professors, reviewed the 12 textbooks for factual errors. "These are basic errors," Hubisz said. "It's stuff that anyone who had taken a science class would be able to catch." One textbook even misstates Newton's first law of physics, a staple of physical science for centuries. Errors in the multi-volume Prentice Hall "Science" series included an incorrect depiction of what happens to light when it passes through a prism and the Ronstadt photo. Hubisz said the Prentice Hall series was probably the most error-filled. Prentice Hall acknowledged some errors, partly because states alter standards at the last minute and publishers have to rush to make changes. "We may have to change a photograph because of a new content objection, and the caption isn't changed with the photograph," Wendy Spiegel, a spokeswoman for Prentice Hall's parent company, Pearson Education, told the Observer. "But we believe we have the best practices to ensure accuracy." Last year, the company launched a thorough audit of its textbooks for accuracy and posted corrections on a Web site, she said. Textbooks are generally reviewed by teachers, administrators, parents and curriculum specialists before the books are used in a classroom. But Hubisz, president of the American Association of Physics Teachers, said many middle-school science teachers have little physical science training and may not recognize errors. The study's reviewers tried to contact textbook authors with questions, Hubisz said, but in many cases the people listed said they didn't write the book, and some didn't even know their names had been listed. Some of the authors of a physical science book, for example, were biologists. Hubisz said educators need to pressure publishers to get "real authors" for textbooks. "They get people to check for political correctness ... they try to get in as much cultural diversity as possible," he said. "They just don't seem to understand what science is about." Hubisz said the researchers contacted publishers, who for the most part either dismissed the panel's findings or promised corrections in subsequent editions. Reviews of later editions turned up more errors than corrections, the report said.
