High-quality K-12 instructional materials can meaningfully improve teaching practice and student achievement, especially when paired with professional learning support. Yet state policymakers have usually left ultimate authority for textbook selection to school district leaders. Consequently, the quality of materials across U.S. classrooms and…

The vast majority of U.S. teachers supplement their officially adopted curriculum materials with unofficial materials. Despite this, the body of supplementation-relevant literature tends not to focus on supplementation specifically, so lacks cohesion, and sometimes fails to capture all aspects the phenomenon. I systematically review…

This study employs textbooks and legitimacy theories to examine the complexity of legitimizing China's textbook reform, planned since 2012, for three ideologically-laden subjects (Chinese language, History, and Morality and Law). Specifically, it explores why, to whom, and how China's Ministry of Education legitimized this textbook reform, which…

Adopting systemic functional linguistics (hereafter SFL) as the main theoretical framework, this study as part of a larger research project, aimed to examine how the language of textbooks deployed in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the Vietnamese context shifted across levels in a book series. In order to do this, this research…

The enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and the subsequent succession of legislative acts have had a profound impact on educational policy. An increased emphasis on teacher accountability and effectiveness led to the use of standardized test results to determine tangible rewards or punishments. In response, a culture of teaching to…

In the fall of 2013, a parents' group formed to protest the new Common Core based mathematics textbook recently adopted by their school district. Quickly allying with teachers, the new coalition began to, "hammer," the district to drop the Common Core and return to more traditional texts and pedagogies. They did so by speaking at…

An electronic textbook (e-Textbook) is a digitized (or electronic) form of textbook, which normally needs an endorsement by the national or state government when it is used in the K-12 education system. E-Textbooks have been envisioned to replace existing paper-based textbooks due to its educational advantages. Hence, it is of paramount importance…

Choosing books for the music classroom can seem like a daunting task. Which ones are useful--and not so useful? What works for one teacher or situation may not work for all, but guidelines and recommendations can prove helpful, particularly to the beginning music educator or one undertaking a new subject. This article discusses the views of music…

In 2006, after nearly two decades of civil conflict and instability, Liberia's physical and governance infrastructure was destroyed and its brutalized population was stricken with high levels of illiteracy and unemployment. The newly formed government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was not able to meet the stringent requirements imposed by the…

School librarians are experts at so many things: navigating the seas of digital information to find an elusive article, creating interactive forums in which kids learn to collaborate and create, and, of course, critically selecting materials. Some have been reading and reviewing books for so long they can smell a stinker from a mile away or…

New laws in California have set the state on a course for some potentially significant changes to the curriculum, including a measure that revisits the matter of teaching Algebra 1 in 8th grade and another that revamps the state's textbook-adoption process and hands districts greater leeway in choosing instructional materials. The algebra-related…

In 2008, the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation began the social studies textbook adoption process. Concurrently, the Indiana State Board of Education wrote a memo encouraging schools to look at digital resources; BCSC did not hesitate. This article describes why BCSC chose to move to a digital format at the secondary level, the process…

What do principals need to know about the use of electronic textbooks? Students, referred to as the Millennials or the Net Generation, born between 1980 and the present, have very different learning styles than those of previous generations. They were born into a world of everyday applications of technology and have utilized it from a very young…

Suzanne M. Kauer believes we must honor all voices in the discussion of what books students should read; she refuses to simplify the issue of censorship by dismissing the multifaceted concerns parents have for saying no to certain books. Kauer advocates doing more listening--asking parents questions to better understand their perspectives--and…

Textbooks are often a core element of curricula and delivery of classroom instruction and have long been a source of controversy. The textbook adoption process has become less about content and more about political/cultural pressure. Special-interest groups from the right and left exert enormous influence on textbook content through bias and…