Two elementary history textbooks found riddled with errors have been revised and are now placed at colleges throughout Virginia for public review. That gives parents, teachers and other residents 30 days to leaf through “Our Virginia: Past and Present” and “Our America to 1865,” both from small Connecticut publishing house Five Ponds Press.
The factual errors prompted Virginia’s school board to overhaul the textbook review process, shifting the burden of proof to publishers from classroom teachers and school administrators.
| College | Building | City | ||
| The College of William and Mary | School of Education | Williamsburg | ||
| George Mason University | Johnson Center Library | Fairfax | ||
| James Madison University | Educational Technology & Media Center | Harrisonburg | ||
| Radford University | Peters Hall, C111 | Radford | ||
| The University of Virginia’s College at Wise | 131 Darden Hall / Education Department | Wise | ||
| Longwood University | Greenwood Library | Farmville | ||
| Old Dominion University | Darden College of Education | Norfolk | ||
| J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College | Massey Building Campus Library | Richmond | ||
“We’ve had a lot of discussion on this,” state school board President Eleanor Saslaw said, laughing, before the board voted unanimously to begin the public review period.
Both texts are available at the College of William and Mary, George Mason University, James Madison University and five other schools.
The overhaul was spurred by dubious statements discovered in the textbooks, first reported by the Washington Post. Fourth-graders using “Our Virginia: Past and Present” read that thousands of blacks fought for the South during the Civil War, a claim disputed by most historians. More errors were found in that textbook and the fifth-grade “Our America to 1865.”
The school board now requires all publishers to provide a list of authors and their credentials with each textbook. Additionally, at least three experts in the subject must vouch that the textbook is accurate.
In revising the books, Five Ponds Press enlisted dozens of state historians to research, rewrite and pick through the texts.
Karenne Wood, director of American Indian programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, said the publisher was “completely responsive to everything we suggested. We were able to change images as well as text.”
That included an image of Pocahontas in the dress of an American Indian that never inhabited Virginia. Wood, a member of the Monacan tribe, was able to replace it.
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said the revised textbooks arrived at the colleges by Friday afternoon.
James Madison University received the books earlier in the week and was already fielding calls from people eager to check the new texts.
“I’m curious about some of these issues — we have a sticky note on at least one or two of the pages, so you can see where the problems were,” said Richard Clemens, director of the university’s educational technology and media center, where both the revised and error-ridden books are housed.
