This review of instructional materials currently used in secondary school remedial reading programs provides rating sheets for magazines, commercially published reading programs, paperback library books, specific skill sets, multimedia materials, workbooks, supplementary materials, and book sets. Each rating sheet analyzes the material's…

The Fry Readability Graph was used to determine the validity of the publisher's recommended grade usage for four reading series at the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade levels. Three samples were analyzed from each text, and these results were compared with the publisher's stated grade levels. The majority of the basals investigated had an average…

The first four books of the Economy spelling series, "Spelling Growth," are reviewed in this paper in terms of content and, to a lesser degree, method. The Economy series is teacher-directed and emphasizes discrimination and identification of sounds. These two skills are clearly useful for spelling, but it is claimed that the series…

The main purpose of this paper was to show what the author, a Sioux Indian, regards as the lack of a balanced perspective in history books dealing with the American Indian--in particular the Indian in Minnesota history. The procedure used examines several textbooks which present a derogatory or unfair picture of the Indian. The paper includes…

Described here is a pilot development of a method for analyzing the structural content of a set of teaching materials, underwritten by the Committee for Cooperation on English in Japan and conducted in cooperation with the Fulbright Program in Japan and the English Language Education Department of the Faculty of Education at Hiroshima University.…

A user-centered educational product evaluation model for the prepublication and postpublication assessment of materials designed for medical and dental education is presented. The model has four components: the author, user, evaluator, and publisher. It is dynamic, reactive, and interactive, with feedback from each component providing input to…

This document, part of which is in checklist form, sets forth a set of criteria for analyzing materials which are relevant for the education of minority groups. The checklist itself consists of 29 items, each of which must be judged on a scale ranging from "superior" to "not pertinent." Some sample evaluation questions are:…

This study of 45 social studies texts widely used in American junior and senior high schools examines the current treatment of Negroes, Jews, and other minorities. It is stated that, despite past criticism of publishers and authors, "a significant number of texts published today continue to present a principally white, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon view…

The new edition of Eckermann's and Piert's textbook: "English" (Klette, Stuttgart, 1974) is analyzed in regard to topics such as problem-oriented texts and linguistic requirements for the college diploma. (Text is in German.) (IFS/MS)

Examines validity of claims made for the Mannheim Rating (of teaching texts for German as a foreign language), as well as its criteria for judging textbooks. The nonexistence of a comprehensive grammar of contemporary German makes it difficult to discuss grammar; therefore, some ratings are seen as too harsh. (IFS/WGA)

Finds that teaching textbooks are becoming more complex and difficult, and less interesting. A procedure is suggested for measuring these qualities in a textbook, based on the "Reading Ease" and "Human Interest" indices of R. Flesh, in Volume 6 of his work "The Good Companion". Two samples from texts are appended. (IFS/WGA)

A method of analyzing the content of biology/curricula, courses, and texts on the basis of the relative emphasis on different levels of biological organization, is discussed. It is suggested that this method may have led to unwarranted contrasts between traditional and modern curricula. A simple modification is proposed. (Author/BB)

The author describes in personal terms the genesis of his introductory psychology text, Understanding Human Behavior. (Author)