Education Week - February 7, 2024 - 7

One School District Just Pulled 1,600 Books
From Its Shelves-Including the Dictionary
And the broadening book ban
attempts may drive some teachers
out of the classroom
By Elizabeth Heubeck
Dictionaries have long been considered
an indispensable part of any
classroom or school library as both a
reliable reference for inquisitive students
and a teaching tool to expand
vocabulary and comprehension. But
recently, the Escambia County school
district in Florida pulled MerriamWebster's
Dictionary for Students
from its shelves, along with an estimated
1,600 other books from its
library collections, according to multiple
news reports.
The texts are under review to determine
whether they comply with recently
passed Florida House Bill 1069,
which calls for increasing " school district
transparency and accountability
for selecting and using instructional
materials and library materials. " Part
of fulfilling this responsibility, the bill
says, involves allowing members of
the public to formally object to specific
materials that depict or describe
sexual conduct.
Objections to books containing information
related to gender, sexual
content, and race have fueled a surge
in book censorship over the last few
years. PEN America, which tracks
K-12 school book bans nationwide,
documented 3,362 such bans during
the 2022-23 school year, a 33 percent
increase from the 2021-22 school
year. Florida school districts accounted
for more than 40 percent of
those book bans during that period,
followed by Texas, Missouri, Utah,
and Pennsylvania.
Critics of book censorship frequently
point to the negative impact
it has on students' learning experiences.
But evidence suggests that
it's taking a toll on teachers, too, as
they struggle to decipher what they
can and can't teach or possess in
their classrooms and, more broadly,
attempt to manage the implications
of censorship on their professional
judgment.
Teachers bear the brunt
of censorship legislation
" I know teachers who have left
the state, and teaching, as a result
of this, " said Heather Felton, who
taught high school English for nine
years in Southeast High School in
Florida's Manatee County school
district, before resigning at the end
of the 2022-23 school year.
She is one of them.
" I really just couldn't take it any
more, " said Felton, who, after the
passage of HB 1069, was advised by
school administrators to cover up
the 800-plus books in her classroom
library until district employees could
vet each one individually. " Removal
of books as a literature teacher really
hurt. "
Hers wasn't the only district affected
by the legislation. Teachers
in the 38,000-student Escambia district
decided to review its entire collection
for books that contained references
to sexual conduct, a process
that led to the removal of MerriamWebster's
Dictionary for Students
pending the full review, explained
Raegan Miller, a spokesperson for
the citizen-led advocacy group
Florida Freedom to Read Project,
which has been closely following
this legislation and its after-effects.
The Escambia County school district
did not respond to requests via
email and phone for comment.
Effects on teachers' morale
Recent research suggests that
other teachers have also been negatively
impacted by attempts at book
censorship. In a 2023 nationally
representative survey by First Book
Research & Insights, a nonprofit
educational research organization,
researchers polled more than 1,500
teachers in school communities
where at least 70 percent of children
are from low-income families.
Thirty-one percent of the teachers
reported book bans, challenges, or
restrictions in their school districts;
an estimated 15 percent preemptively
removed books from their libraries;
and 65 percent agreed that book bans
are having a negative impact on their
ability to teach.
It's hard to tell from the numbers
how the new censorship push has affected
Florida's teaching ranks.
Discrepancies in reports of vacancies
exist between Florida's department
of education and the FEA.
In August 2023, Florida Education
Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. announced
that Florida schools' total
teacher vacancies topped out at
4,776, down from 5,208 vacancies at
the start of the 2022-23 school year.
But FEA data showed 6,920 vacancies
among instructional positions
in August 2023, up from 6,066 in
August 2022. In January, the Florida
Education Association announced
that the state currently has 4,096
advertised instructional vacancies
in its public schools. That would be
almost a quarter of 16,909 instructional
staff members working in the
state's schools last year, according
to the department of education. It's
unclear why these discrepancies
exist, or how the two organizations
count the vacancy numbers. The
education department did not respond
to phone and email inquiries
about the impact of new legislation
on vacancy rates.
Tuan Nguyen, an associate professor
in the college of education at Kansas
State University, studies teacher
vacancy rates around the country.
" When we look at the states where
we see high vacancy rates, it's concentrated
in the South and Southeast regions, "
parts of the country with high
proportions of book bans, Nguyen
said. " It may be the case that because
of legislation and related book bans,
it's pushing people out of the teaching
profession. "
But Nguyen added that his team
currently does not have sufficient
evidence to draw conclusions linking
recent policy decisions aimed at K-12
curriculum restrictions to teacher vacancy
rates; he does plan to continue
to collect and evaluate data on teacher
vacancies to learn more about the reasons
behind them.
Asked if he thinks recent legislation
that spurs book censorship is contributing
to teacher vacancies, Andrew
Spar, the FEA's president, responded:
" It's certainly part of the overall climate
that is driving teachers out of
the profession. " Spar, on behalf of
FEA, also has publicly announced several
factors it believes could improve
educator vacancy rates-including
better funding for teacher pay, investments
in mental health and student
safety, improved teacher working
conditions, and keeping politics out
of classrooms.
As for politically driven censorship,
Spar said that in some Florida
districts, teachers have been required
to take all books off their
shelves or cover them up until they
can be vetted. Some Florida teachers
have been required to scan the
content of every book, an hourslong
process. " Those things take a
toll on teachers, " he said.
Book censorship activity: erring
on the side of caution
Miller, from the Florida Freedom
to Read Project, explained that districts'
efforts to comply with new and
vaguely written legislation often lead
them to err on the side of caution.
That has resulted, in some cases,
in sweeping, districtwide vetting of
classroom and library books.
" My kids are in 6th grade and 9th
grade, and I've never seen pornography
in their schools, " said Miller, who
described herself as a parent actively
engaged in her children's education.
Some state lawmakers, however,
have used the term pornography to
describe books with LGBTQ themes
and characters.
" Most parents appreciate teachers, "
Miller said. " The ones staying
are good at drowning out the noise. "
Whether those teachers will stick
around when book censorship attempts
include a longstanding classroom
tool, such as the dictionary, remains
to be seen.
Greg Barlow, the president of
Merriam-Webster, still believes that
to be true.
" They help all of us, including students
of all ages, expand our knowledge,
learn the value of words, and
most importantly teach us how to
communicate with each other, "
he wrote in an email to Education
Week.
EDUCATION WEEK | February 7, 2024 | www.edweek.org | 7
Books are displayed at the
Banned Book Library at
American Stage in St.
Petersburg, Fla., Feb. 18,
2023. In Florida, some
schools have covered or
removed books under a
new law that requires an
evaluation of reading
materials and for districts
to publish a searchable list
of books where individuals
can then challenge specific
titles.
Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times via AP
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - February 7, 2024

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