Describes a grand jury investigation into a school's purchase of allegedly objectionable and obscene materials and the inservice course on "Writing Rationales for Teaching Potentially Controversial Literature" resulting from the investigation. (DD)

Paper presented at the general session of the annual meeting of the Dutch Modern Language Teachers Association, December 14, 1971. (WB)

Article relates the findings of a 1971 National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) study of a series of textbooks, which found the situation unsatisfactory. Author requests that more study be done on the subject. (JB)

Provides five key questions teachers need to answer in order to determine whether a textbook can be used effectively in the classroom. (FL)

Discusses the types of current confrontations regarding censorship in the schools and lists several reasons why issues involving censorship are occurring more frequently in recent years. (CHC)

Controversy has been generated by a right-wing group over the merit of various high school American history textbooks. The author argues that his textbook fits all ethical categories. (JN)

Examines the effects of corporate mergers in the publishing industry on the publishing of textbooks and standardized tests. Concludes that restructuring, acquisitions, and mergers have an intrusive effect on established practices of academic publishing and may severely limit the access of scholars to the academic marketplace. (FMW)

To fulfill expectations for history curriculum reform, schools must clarify essential instructional goals and objectives, provide increased instructional time for history, reintroduce history in elementary grades, obtain improved textbooks and materials, and provide appropriate teacher preparation and staff development programs. Includes 11…

Examines the relationship between composition textbook authors and publishers. Discusses editors and publishers' concerns, and what authors need to know about textbook publishing. Focuses on ideology, economics, legalities, and the need for integrity and respect. Looks at the written contract, contractual brutality, legal counsel, contractual…

Examines the reading level and potential comprehension level of 10 fourth-grade science textbooks. Reports that there is a great deal of variability between and within the science texts. (YP)

Describes what publishers can do to improve textbooks and teaching, and what teachers can do with inadequate textbooks to repair the "faulty" state of language education. Lists nine "knowns" about language education and explains how textbooks can exploit that knowledge within existing constraints. (RS)

Mathematics textbook publishers often include recommended tradebooks to be used in mathematics instruction. Teachers, however, remain unaware of the criteria used by the publishers when making their recommendations. Using Schiro's (1997) standards for assessing mathematics in children's literature, this inquiry assessed the quality of 127…

The aim of this article is to map out the priority directions and shape the program for the development of the textbook. The tasks of adjusting the aims of education, renovating the priority directions in the selection of the content of areas of education and school subjects, and improving the tools and means, methods, and organizational forms of…

Three main factors in textbook selection for distance education--readability, appropriateness, and availability--are examined in detail, and suggestions for adapting standardized texts to the needs of individual groups are provided. Twelve specific criteria are listed for determining the appropriateness of a text and textual factors influencing…