Textbook selection strongly influences on what students will learn and what the teachers will teach. Certain statements regarding the process of development and selecting mathematics textbooks are given and assessed.

Article seeks to alert educators to the problems resulting from the use of textbooks that are unsatisfactory, and indeed harmful, to members of both majority and minority groups. (Author/GB)

Provides guidelines for evaluation in textbook selection. (MD)

Using short-term pilot programs to evaluate textbooks can lead to unreliable results and interfere with effective education. Alternative methods for evaluating textbook-based programs include obtaining documented analyses of competitors' products from sales agents, visiting districts using programs being considered, and examining publishers' own…

The textbooks used by public schools generally reflect the values and essential priorities of that society, and in cases of value and attitude conflicts arising in curriculum design, textbooks are apt to become prime targets for criticism. (MM)

Presents a procedure for curriculum change and textbook adoption using a step-by-step decision-making process. (MD)

Although textbooks structure from 75 to 90 percent of classroom instruction, they are often criticized for contributing to American students' appalling ignorance and for being compendia of inadequately treated topics. This article explores deficiencies in science, social studies, and history and offers remedial actions. The key is a careful…

School districts should identify those whom new textbooks will affect--including teachers, students, administrators, and support personnel--and determine the needs of each, then negotiate a legally binding service guarantee with the textbook publisher to ensure that services and materials will be provided to meet the determined needs. (PGD)

The "skills trace" is a textbook evaluation process by which an evaluator isolates one skill and reads every reference listed in the index of the teacher's manual. The evaluator then observes how that skill is introduced, taught, practiced, and tested throughout the grades. (Author/DCS)

Outlines the inadequacies of conventional curriculum guides. The emerging emphasis on the use of curriculum alignment is presented as a promising alternative with four major advantages: (1) local control of the curriculum, (2) textbook adoption by local needs, (3) better pupil achievement, and (4) simpler curriculum monitoring. Includes a…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: Conflicts over schools in general and curriculum and materials in particular have increased in recent years. A contributing factor is that organized groups, determined to reform society by imposing their values on others, insist that textbooks and other educational materials reflect their views.…

Knowing what you need in a textbook is the first step in adopting one. This article gives tips on how to review the current research in a subject area before assessing needs. A list of four references is provided. (DCS)

Changes the state of California wishes incorporated in the materials used by the children of the State become incorporated in the publishers' national editions to ensure their availability whether the textbooks are supplied by the California state printers or the publishers. (RC)

Presents information on textbook design and marketing practices, and their consequences for textbook content; recommends that selection committees firmly define the role of the textbook in curriculum, and adapt published materials to their school system's unique requirements. (MCG)