In April of 2024, Nassau County School District (NCSD) is proposing the adoption of numerous textbooks from McGraw Hill, Gallopade and SAVVAS Learning, LLC (division of Pearson Publishing). If you also object, respond TO SCHOOL DISTRICT LEADERSHIP immediately. The district will have a public hearing on May 20th at the School District Chambers on Atlantic Avenue.
Based upon research, Nassau Citizens Defending Freedom objects to all of the SAVVAS Learning, LLC textbooks due to specific textbook content, dynamic online materials that are not available and have not been reviewed, SAVVAS/Pearson Social Emotional Learning (CASEL.org) relationship, and Pearson alignment with Gender Spectrum Symposium and their family of transgender advocacy and indoctrination organizations.
Details of the facts behind the objections are included via links and documents below.
SPECIFIC TEXTBOOK Objections
Objection form Florida World History Interactive, Regular & Honors (Course Group) NEW objection form to fill out
Link to Flip Page Textbook Florida World History Interactive, Regular & Honors (Course Group)
Online dynamic resources not available for review:
- NBC News – NBC Learn myStory videos and Essential Questions
- SAVVAS Realize Online reviews 1.25 stars,
- Constitutional Rights Foundation
- Interactive Social Studies
- Connections to Today
- Quest
- SAVVAS Project Imagine (facts or imagined history?)
- World History Interactive
- Active Classroom Strategies
- Comparing Viewpoints
- Mastery System
- Interactive Primary Sources
- BOUNCE to activate videos
These interactive resources were not available for review.
NBC News – Page 5 – In collaboration with NBC News –NBC Learn mystories – multiple occurances throughout textbook. None were available to review.
Project Imagine – Page vi (8 on the flipbook) …instead of teaching about wars, the textbook seeks to teach “When is war justified?” Students are not supposed to be “imagining” history, but should be learning historical facts.
Page 110 BOUNCE to Activate Gallery is not active to read/review
Page 110 GO ONLINE to access digital course not active to read/review
Page 2 (Flipbook page 87) that says “Lucy is 3,000,000 years old and “Neanderthals disappeared 50,000 years ago.” There is absolutely no proof that there were humans, a hominid or any form of humans were on earth this many years ago.
Page 440 – flip book page 522
Notable industrial revolution dates Communist Manifesto and Charles Darwin Origin of Species
How are these 2 of the 4 most notable industrial revolution dates?
Page 901 flip page 983 provides credence to Global Warming and Climate Change which have not been proven scientifically. These are political terms. Refers to these terms as “shared consensus”. A textbook should be teaching facts and not politically shared consensus.
Page 918 Textbook asks students to use report from World Resources Institute (WRI) (formerly The New Climate Economy). Globalist reporting claims fossil fuels are the root of “climate change” and goes on about international globalist initiatives to eliminate fossil fuels. This is not accurate information but is sourced from International NGOs supporting globalist policies. Facts and figures should be presented in text books and not politically charged, globalist political policies.
BELOW ARE REFERENCES TO SAVVAS Learning/Pearson corporate guidelines, strategic partnerships that are of grave concern for a public academic setting.
SAVVAS Editorial guidelines
Pearson Releases Race and Ethnicity Editorial Guidelines to Address Systemic Racism in Education
The guidelines will inform Pearson’s broader Global Editorial Policy that will be re-released later this year with enhanced standards for content relating to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, religion and disability.
Specifically, the guidelines identify five main challenges that are commonly highlighted in academic sources including: underrepresentation of minorities, exaggerated negative associations, limited positive associations, missing stories, and the idea that disadvantages are personal, rather than systemic.
“The guidelines produced represent a cultural shift in publishing that attempts to center race and racial equality at its core,” said Dr. Arday. “Pearson’s commitment to changing the racialized dynamics of publishing and the contents of its books, speaks to a boarder need for the educational publishing industry to disrupt how bodies of knowledge are presented with regards to texts and learning resources.
Similar guidelines for content relating to gender, LGBTQ+ and disability from Pearson employee resource groups will inform the Global Editorial Policy and advance Pearson’s commitment to being a fully inclusive and diverse organization that reflects the communities it serves. Link to full article
SAVVAS Learning, LLC concerns with vendor promotion of radical agendas
So, when the publishing giant’s editorial guidelines say that the company will make radical ideas, such as “antiracism,” “colorism,” “colonial discourse,” “genderism,” and “intersectionality,” part of everything it does, parents should know what this influential publisher is producing for students and adults everywhere.
Local, state, and federal K–12 education officials, as well as federal hiring managers across the U.S. government, must be aware of the radical race-related and “gender”-related content produced by Pearson because such materials may violate state and federal civil rights laws by promoting unlawful discrimination.
The publisher’s editorial content guidelines booklet, which provides information on Pearson’s priorities for the content created or published by Pearson, states a commitment to “anti-bias, anti-racism, and social equity in any content we produce” (emphasis added).
Pearson commits to “embedding” these woke concepts in “teaching and learning.”
Pearson wants consumers of its materials to be social justice warriors: “We go beyond representation and strive to practice principles of social equity. Within this, we intend to create products and services that impact learners’ engagement in social justice.”
Pearson, however, has produced material to train students and teachers to have “meaningful conversations” about race and ethnicity, LGBTQ+, equity, gender, and disability.18 Pearson, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources.”
A book featured among Pearson’s DEI resources—Sociology: Structure and Change—promotes the use of gender identity over biological sex to describe individuals. The book approvingly cites the work of Alfred Kinsey, a trained zoologist who used poorly designed research methods in an attempt to prove that children of all ages can benefit from sexual activity. Link to full article
SAVVAS – Literacy + Social Studies = Empowered Citizens video
This 1 hour video shows the methodical process SAVVAS uses to incorporate “critical” thinking skills into their curriculum. This is code word that you will hear in the video. You may remember Critical Race Theory and other “critical” theories that have nothing to do with academics. This video suggests that children should be “critically literate” and “literate citizens”. Link to full video here.
Pearson (SAVVAS) partners with Tavistock and Portman in the UK – the largest provider of transgender services in England.
The Tavistock has been accused of forcing racist ideology on students, with lectures such as “Whiteness – A Problem of Our Time”, and is currently being sued for discrimination on the basis of race and religion.
SAVVAS/Pearson Gender Spectrum Conference – CHAMPION SPONSOR
Gender Spectrum is an organization that promotes a “gender inclusive” world for children and youth. Other prominent sponsors included Align Surgical, Transgender Law Center, PFLAG, Gender Confirmation Center, and many others.
Here are the official online Nassau School District textbook adoption schedule and links to flip books to review. They only posted in “MS word format”. (Note: Flipbook links DO NOT have links to dynamic online materials from 15 aligned vendors including NBC News)
2024-2025 Updated Social Studies and Science Textbook Adoption Timeline.docx (30 KB)
2024-2025 Social Studies Instructional Materials Adoption Recommendations 1 (4).docx (24 KB)
2023-2024 Science Textbook Adoption 1 (2).docx (29 KB)
Links to relevant Florida Statutes supporting grounds for complaint. HB7, 1006,28, 1006.38, 1006.29, 1003.41, 1003.42, 6A-7.0710, 6A-1.094121
Link to objection form.
What should we do?
We can crawl under a rock and ignore it. We can pull our kids out of public school. Or, we can take action to ensure that the materials used to teach children in public school are academic – clear of bias, Marxist ideals, CRT, sexualization, and values in conflict with family, American and Judeo-Christian values.
Our recommendation is to adopt textbooks from vendors who support family, American, and Judeo-Christian values such as Hillsdale College or Liberty University.
You can attend the School Board Hearing on the Textbook Objection on May 20, 2024.
Only the Nassau County Superintendent and the School Board can change the textbook decision. Below is contact information for school leadership.
You can easily create and send a customized email with one click here.
Nassau County School District and Board Members
Superintendent
Dr. Kathy Burns burnska@nassau.k12.fl.us (904) 491-9902
School Board Members
Lissa Braddock braddockli@nassau.k12.fl.us 904-507-9522 (C)
Gail Cook cookga@nassau.k12.fl.us (904) 261-9127 (h)
Curtis Gaus gauscu@nassau.k12.fl.us no number provided on School Board Web page
Dr. Cynthia Grooms groomscy1@nassau.k12.fl.us 904-845-8105
Shannon Hogue hoguesh1@nassau.k12.fl.us no number provided on School Board Web page