Textbooks are a widely used educational intervention that can affect student achievement, and the marginal cost of choosing a more effective textbook is typically small. However, we know little about how textbooks get from the publisher to the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways mathematics textbook adoption practices…

Textbooks are a vital component in many higher education contexts. Increasing textbook prices, coupled with general rising costs of higher education have led some instructors to experiment with substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercial textbooks as their primary class curriculum. This article synthesizes the results of 16…

Features of eighth-grade history textbooks were examined through replication of a 20-year-old study that investigated "considerateness" of textbooks. Considerate texts provide clear, coherent information and include features that promote students' comprehension, such as explicit use of organizational structures, a range of question types…

The California State Board of Education is responsible for adopting textbooks and instructional materials for use in kindergarten through grade eight. The purposes of the instructional materials program are to: (1) establish clear standards for the educational and social content of texbooks and instructional materials; (2) evaluate instructional…

California's "History-Social Science Framework" adopted by the State Board of Education in 1987 is similar to the report by the National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools in emphasizing the central role of history in the social sciences. (MLF)

To assist California school district personnel in their selection of state-adopted instructional materials, this catalog of literature materials consists of four parts. The first, an annotated index of instructional materials identified as basic materials, gives pertinent information about each literature program, including program title, year of…

Changes in textbook adoption policies in three states--North Carolina, Texas, and California--are examined in this paper, which analyzes major legislative or regulatory changes in the context of each state's educational improvement efforts. Findings indicate a growing conflict between advocates for statewide versus local responsibility for…

The instructional materials listed in this document were reviewed by a California Legal Compliance Committee using the social content requirements of the Educational Code concerning the depiction of males and females, ethnic groups, older persons, disabled persons, and others to ensure that the materials were responsive to social concerns.…

This framework, centered in the chronological study of history, proposes an integrated and correlated approach to the teaching of history and the social sciences. The framework is structured around three major goals, each comprising several curriculum strands which are to be developed from kindergarten through grade 12. The three goals are: (1)…

This article examines the history textbooks available in 1998 for adoption in the United States at both the high school and elementary levels. New books have appeared on the scene since the last textbook adoption series. California begins its textbook considerations in August. The California adoption will rekindle national interest in the content…