{"id":406024,"date":"2026-08-14T01:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/406024\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T01:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:28:13","slug":"factual-errors-texas-focus-lead-colorado-district-to-reject-controversial-reading-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/406024\/","title":{"rendered":"Factual errors, Texas focus lead Colorado district to reject controversial reading curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, elementary schools in a small southwestern Colorado district stopped using a controversial reading curriculum developed by the state of Texas. <\/p>\n

It was the third day of school.<\/p>\n

The sudden shift came a day after the Montezuma-Cortez school board voted 4-3 to reject the new curriculum, called Bluebonnet, and four days after the district\u2019s superintendent pledged that Biblical material would be removed from lessons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The controversy over Bluebonnet likely has staff at the district\u2019s three elementary schools scrambling for replacement lessons this week. The debate has also raised questions about the number of errors in the curriculum, whether a Texas-built product is right for Colorado students, and how the curriculum was adopted with little notice over the summer.<\/p>\n

Colorado school districts don\u2019t have to use state-approved reading curriculum, but they must ensure their curriculum meets state academic standards.<\/p>\n

Justin Schmitt, the district\u2019s executive director of academic services, didn\u2019t specify what reading curriculum the district\u2019s elementary schools are using now. <\/p>\n

He said by email that district leaders are working with school staff on next steps. <\/p>\n

Board Vice President Laura DeWitt, who has a fifth grade daughter, said at Tuesday\u2019s board meeting that she looked at some of the Bluebonnet materials on the first day of school and found what she described as \u201crobot errors\u201d \u2014 mistakes probably generated by AI.<\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat Colorado is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

A story about a Japanese man who visited Houston to plant rice in 1904 includes a map that shows Houston next to the Florida panhandle, instead of in Texas.<\/p>\n

DeWitt showed a printout of the erroneous map at the meeting, drawing a chuckle from one person and a \u201cwow\u201d from someone else.<\/p>\n

Such mistakes are in addition to thousands of mistakes in Bluebonnet that Texas is already paying $8 million to fix<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Board member Barbara Mate said when she visited classrooms on the first couple days of school, she saw reading lessons centered on Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI viewed a lot of stuff about Texas and Houston and San Antonio and migrant workers, and Texas and Texas,\u201d she said. \u201cI just wondered why we\u2019re not representing our current demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2,200-student Montezuma-Cortez district in May adopted a school improvement model borrowed from the Houston school district. When that district, the largest in Texas, adopted Bluebonnet in late June<\/a>, Montezuma-Cortez administrators soon followed suit. <\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s meeting, Montezuma-Cortez board members raised concerns that Bluebonnet\u2019s use was announced just weeks before the school year started with no analysis to ensure it meets Colorado academic standards, no public review process, and no school board vote. <\/p>\n

While several board members were critical of Bluebonnet, most said they supported the school improvement model from Houston. It\u2019s called the New Education System and is a highly structured system that includes fast-paced teacher-led instruction, daily monitoring of student progress, and immediate re-teaching for students who aren\u2019t proficient.<\/p>\n

Some board members asked Superintendent Eddie Ramirez pointed questions about mysterious changes to an agreement with the Houston school district the board approved in May. The original version didn\u2019t mention Bluebonnet, but the one Ramirez signed in June did. <\/p>\n

Ramirez assigned blame to district lawyers, and said he didn\u2019t notice the change. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I am testifying to you and telling the board here tonight is that I had no knowledge that it said Bluebonnet,\u201d he said. \u201cI signed the document thinking that it was vetted by the lawyer, and that it was agreed upon.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some board members seemed skeptical of Ramirez\u2019s explanation and suggested there are \u201cintegrity issues\u201d at play, but said it was a matter to be addressed another day. <\/p>\n

Board member Mike Lynch defended Ramirez. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s trying to implement something for our district. The board\u2019s job is the why, and the superintendent\u2019s job is the how,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was doing the how and the document was changed without his knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado\u2019s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57091,46429,13516,943,142192,76189,142187,142188,14769,138112,142189,142190,142191,2384,27,29,28,11454],"class_list":["post-406024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-chalkbeat","tag-clouds","tag-co","tag-colorado","tag-cortez","tag-desert","tag-deserts","tag-famrs","tag-farming","tag-getty-editorial","tag-monsoonal","tag-overland","tag-scenics","tag-storms","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-thunderstorms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}