An analysis and critique of two elementary textbook series: "Discover Art" by Davis Publications and "World of Music" published by Silver Burdett & Ginn are presented. "Whose content, context, and culture?" is an ideological question that assumes that equitable social relations and diverse ways of knowing ought to…

A study examined three recent language arts textbook programs for grades one through six to determine the frequency of writing activities, the nature of the writing tasks, and the frequency of process-approach activities such as selecting topics, prewriting, sharing, revising, and publishing. The programs analyzed were Scott, Foresman's "Language:…

A study (1) surveyed the views of educators and textbook publishers regarding suitable reading levels of textbooks used for instruction in reading and content area subjects; (2) examined preferences for difficulty of reading textbooks considering students' achievement levels and for reading content area textbooks when selections are made for…

Research has shown that secondary school teachers are generally unable to rank text passages accurately according to their reading difficulty. To determine if this was true of elementary and middle school personnel, 177 teachers, administrators, and supervisors attending a summer reading workshop were asked to rank order each of five 100-word…

Two representative samples of expository prose from sixth grade textbooks (one in science and one in social studies) were analyzed for clarity of explanation. Four text criteria were applied to the analyses: structure, unity, coherence, and audience appropriateness. The results of the analysis suggested that many children's textbooks are not…

This investigation analyzes 16 current reading series in order to: (1) determine if sex stereotyping exists in reading materials for grades 1-10, (2) determine if a majority of the stories show one sex in a dominant role, (3) explore types of career roles shown for females and males, and (4) determine the number of different career roles depicted…

A model of social studies textbook analysis and evaluation is developed in this paper and is applied to the analysis and evaluation of the content on Hawaii in selected elementary school social studies textbooks. Innovative methods of content analysis and evaluation of textbook presentations were developed and applied to the subject of Hawaii to…

This study focuses on two tasks: (1) the development of a general procedure for evaluation of social studies textbooks which could be adapted to any locale, which could be used at any grade level, and which might be applied to other subject areas, and (2) to illustrate the suggested procedure at the fifth-grade level. The procedure involves the…

Concludes that the American Indian is misrepresented, distorted, romanticized and victimized in children's literature. (JH)

Compares understanding of social studies concepts among 6th grade Navajo and Anglo students in four Arizona communities. Findings indicated that Anglo students' scores exceeded those of Navajo students for all concepts and tasks. Offers recommendations for increasing Navajo students' comprehension of social studies. (DB)

Reports on a study designed to investigate possible patterned differences in the content of science textbooks and its functional/dysfunctional role in socialization for scientific careers. Discusses instrument development and rationale and presents results comparing use of textbooks in middle-class and working class districts. (ML)

Focuses on the development of materials to help textbook adoption committees evaluate the instructional quality of commercially developed basal reading programs. Describes the development of the Adoption Guidelines Booklets. (Author/NH)

Describes how in the 1960s and 1970s critics of the schools as well as the transitory interests of the schools themselves were the greatest forces for change in basal reader programs. Discusses how current demand for high test scores has influenced those who prepare basal material. (Author/NH)

Shows that a wide variety of textbook characteristics play a role in influencing teachers' selection process, and that some of these interact with teacher characteristics. (FL)

Concludes that it is necessary to consider text frequency and standard frequency index and to discriminate technical words from technical support and nontechnical words to obtain a reliable indication of a science text's readability. (AEA)