October 20, 2014 5:58 PM

SBOE grills publishers over social studies textbooks

Three firms emerge in fight for assessment contract

The State Board of Education on Monday raised questions about the content of a controversial round of social studies textbooks.

Secondary math, too, is on the list for Proclamation 2015, but it’s the specifics of history textbooks, and often US History, that took center stage. At the same time, the agency scheduled an initial bidders conference across the hall for a four-year assessment contract, which could top $400 million.

Initial letters of interest in the assessment contract were due to the Texas Education Agency on Friday. The agency would not disclose who had filed the documentation, calling it part of the bid process, but the initial bidders meeting held some clues. The agency would offer no confirmation, but consortia appear to have emerged led by three major testing companies: McGraw Hill, the non-profit Educational Testing Service and Pearson.

Only a handful of testing companies are large enough to handle the Texas testing contract, which Pearson has held since standardized testing was implemented in the mid-90s. The amount of the assessment contract, half of what is spent on textbooks each biennium, will be one of the few competitive contracts remaining for bid once the majority of states move to Common Core and its common assessments.

By Kimberly Reeves