Controversy surrounding a Lumberton High School social studies class that had students don burqas as part of a cultural lesson plan has prompted the Texas Education Agency to launch a review into the course materials used in all state public schools.
TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said her office has received a number of complaints about the incident, which made national headlines last week when a photo of Lumberton teens wearing burqas, traditional Islamic women’s garb, went viral on the Internet.
Superintendant John Valestro said last week the course material was presented out of context, and was meant only to educate students about world geography, including religion and customs of other countries.
Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams said in a prepared statement Monday that TEA employees met with Lumberton ISD administrators to discuss the class and curriculum.
“I have been assured the decisions regarding development of this particular lesson were made at the local classroom level and not part of the CSCOPE curriculum management system,” Williams said.
CSCOPE is a flexible lesson plan used by Texas teachers since 2011. The curriculum has been criticized by both educators and politicians for being too rigid and only teaching students how to pass standardized tests.
Culbertson said because of the Lumberton incident, however, state education experts will soon begin reviewing CSCOPE lesson plans, beginning with social studies.
Culbertson said there is no timeline for the review to be completed.
Any recommendations will be given to the developers of the curriculum, she said.