Separation of Church and State Curricula? Public vs. Religious Private School Textbooks

 Curricula impart knowledge, instill values, and shape collective memory. Despite growing public funding for religious schools through U.S. school choice programs, little is known about what they teach. 

This study examines textbooks from public schools, religious private schools, and home schools, applying computational methods—including AI tools—to measure the presence and portrayal of people, topics, and values over time. 

Despite narratives of political polarization, the research reveals few meaningful differences between public school textbooks from Texas and California. However, religious school textbooks have less female representation, feature lighter-skinned individuals, and portray topics like evolution and religion differently. Over one-third of pages in each collection convey character values, with a higher proportion in religious school textbooks. Important similarities also emerge: all textbook collections rarely include LGBTQIA+ discussion, portray females in more positive but less active or powerful contexts than males, and depict the U.S. founding era and slavery in similar contexts.