Focuses on books, booklets, and position papers that would be useful reading for educators involved in making decisions about selecting materials for schools. Discusses guidelines for judging and selecting textbooks and studies and readings on textbooks. (PRA)

Assails the problem of emphasizing "don'ts" in freshman English composition courses. Suggests remedies for negativism in teaching and calls for "delight" as a professional goal for freshman writing. Offers suggestions on selecting textbooks, maximizing student interaction in class, and bringing teacher writing into the…

The lack of cultural content, low interest level, and crowdedness of second language textbooks arise because every textbook represents a compromise: between the publisher's need to sell a book and the author's need to address specific pedagogical issues, and between the need to explain grammatical points fully and the need to explain them briefly.…

Presents the views of three secondary-level teachers regarding the use of textbooks in geography instruction. (JDH)

Presents the concerns and ideological agenda of Accuracy in Academia (AIA). Argues that there is a real threat that professors' rights to textbook selection are endangered by such groups. (MS)

The powerful influence the state of Texas exerts in textbook adoptions throughout the country is analyzed. In revising a text or writing a new book, it is easier for publishers to omit issues that may be controversial than lose out on an adoption and big money. (RM)

In response to Ben Brodinsky's article, the authors submitted a paper describing the service they offer of reviewing textbooks and providing critiques. They maintain that educators no longer hold to the Judeo-Christian ethic, although three-fourths of Americans believe in these values. (MLF)

Reports, from personal textbook publishing experience, that composition teachers do not want the results of research in their textbooks; they want what's familiar to them. (JL)

Offers arguments for the use of published textbook material as a basis on which to mold the unpredictable interactions necessary to classroom language learning. Suggests that textbooks are useful for orientation and independent study and describes the gradual process of replacement by which new textbook materials evolve. (Author/MES)

Discusses why teachers must help to review and/or select textbooks on a regular basis and how they can participate in this process. A slightly revised edition of the criteria used by the State of Michigan Social Studies Review Steering Committee illustrates critical factors that must be considered in evaluating textbooks. (SR)

Notes that boys continue to be portrayed in reading materials in activities stereotypically associated with males, such as sports, adventure, and leadership; suggests that reading materials are needed that show boys in nurturing and expressive roles as well. (MKM)

The premise that the "subjective" defense of literature is contributing to its demise and that responses to literature are finite and predictable to some degree is proposed. Based on this premise, criteria for selecting texts that give structure to teaching literature are presented. (HTH)

Problems regarding the relationship between college stores and their college communities are addressed. Among the issues addressed are: profit v nonprofit philosophies imposed by the college administration; textbook pricing and markups; academic freedom and textbook selection; bookstore contacts with administrators, students, and faculty; and…

Textbooks have come under a barrage of criticism ranging from overall textbook quality to changing costs. Litigation in the federal courts has challenged textbook content. New York State school boards need to examine the issues in the textbook problem. This paper explains New York State's textbook selection process, which is based on local…

In 1984, parents of a Minneapolis, Minnesota, ninth grader came before the school district's "Students' Right to Learn Committee" to object to what they described as a bowdlerized version of "Romeo and Juliet" in the Scott, Foresman text, and the publisher's failure to acknowledge in the text that the play was abridged. The…