Aim to correct history

President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives, President Andrew Jackson died in 1845 and many of the battles in the War of 1812 were in the United States.

As true as those statements may be, depending on which textbook your child has in school, they might have a completely different impression of U.S. history. Assemblyman Van Tran and parent, former Newport-Mesa school board member and Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Wendy Leece teamed up to help parents rewrite history.

“My goal is that textbooks be accurate,” Leece said. “It’s tiny little details, but in the bigger picture parents and students will benefit.”

Starting in 2009, student edition of textbooks awaiting approval from the board of education for use in public schools will be available online and open to scrutiny for free. The change comes through legislation backed by Tran and Leece and adopted by the state’s board of education Wednesday. Currently, student editions of textbooks are only available in certain locations throughout the state for viewing during business hours. In 2005, Leece examined five U.S. history textbooks and found 427 factual errors ranging from war dates and locations to court rulings and political party identifications.

“I think this is very important. If we expect our students to have high standards of accuracy in their work then we as adults must do our due diligence [so] that we don’t just hurry and be sloppy,” Leece said. “The inaccuracies that publishers allow in their textbooks do make a difference in our culture.”

Beginning in 2009, textbook publishers must provide direct hyperlinks to websites showing their textbooks that are awaiting board approval.

“The process had to be open and democratized,” Leece said.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].