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Since its foundation, the Council has achieved a prominent place in national exchanges about history textbooks and the social studies curriculum. The Council's has issued many reports and textbook evaluations, primarily in the social studies. It makes repeated efforts to educate the nation about the multiculturalism and contain it as a ruling idea in the curriculum. The Council's studies demonstrate that some textbooks are satisfactory and others are not, and they give detailed reasons why. Reports are available on this website at http://www.historytextbooks.org/reports.htm.
The Council endorses textbooks that embody vivid narrative style, stress significant people and events, and promote better understanding of all cultures, including our nation’s, on the principle that improved textbooks will advance the curriculum, stimulate student learning, contribute to civic welfare, and encourage educational achievement for children of all backgrounds.
The Council was founded on the following premises. Textbooks are powerful instruments of teaching and learning. They constitute the de facto curriculum in most schools. Yet textbook selection at the district and school level is often a casual and haphazard affair. Political considerations too often intrude on content. To remedy this condition, the American Textbook Council acts as a clearinghouse of information about educational publishing and social studies textbooks. Consulted by educators and policymakers at all levels, it provides detailed information and textbook reviews for individuals and groups interested in improving history materials.
The Council is a non-partisan research organization interested in textbook improvement and review. But it has not shrunk from landmark curriculum controversies in California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and other states and at the national level. The Council figures prominently in national debates about curriculum, multiculturalism, national history standards, world history, history of religion, women's history, textbook accuracy, and moral education. Its work has been featured in many books on contemporary education and culture. But most important, each year, working with hundreds of educators on a one-to-one basis, the Council helps schools make better decisions about the social studies textbooks they use. Most recently, the Council has been active in the creation of an education website, www.neoclassicism.us, for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Council is not a trade association or commercial enterprise. The Council does not represent textbook publishers or editors. American Textbook Council director Gilbert T. Sewall was a history instructor at Phillips Academy and an education editor at Newsweek. He has been on the faculties of New York University and Boston University. He has been a Kenan Fellow at the American Academy in Rome and Fellow at the National Humanities Center. He is the author of Necessary Lessons: Decline and Renewal in American Schools and the co-author of After Hiroshima: The U.S.A. since 1945. In addition, Sewall is the editor of The Eighties: A Reader. His articles on education have appeared in Fortune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Education Week, and many other publications.
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Texas 2010 | Widely Adopted History Textbooks
Senate Testimony | Review Guidelines |
Islam | Digital Textbooks
Texas 2010 | Widely Adopted History Textbooks
Senate Testimony | Review Guidelines |
Islam | Digital Textbooks
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