Readability formulas can be useful tools in accomplishing their primary purpose--to give very general estimates of difficulty. Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of misunderstanding regarding their use, which has resulted in misuse and abuse. The formulas were designed to be applied post hoc to existing materials. They were not intended to…

Student-teacher contracts are used to individualize instruction in a course on the selection of instructional materials for a school library collection. The course was designed as part of a graduate library/media training program. Included are: (1) a description of the course and its student objectives, (2) student contracts for each course topic,…

Serving as the basis for the first administrative complaint alleging sex discrimination in textbooks to be filed under federal law, the findings presented in this report are based on an analysis, made by parents and citizens in a midwestern city, of 12 texts in the elementary reading program of a major publisher. Generally, the findings are stated…

Adults who wish to help children come to terms with loss from death, divorce, and other separations have a good ally in books. While not a complete cure, bibliotherapy can help children cope with loss by engaging the emotions and freeing them for conscious and productive use. Numerous books have appeared for children to read, enjoy, and use in…

A variety of resource documents and articles are included in this professional improvement packet that is designed to assist teachers and administrators in reducing the conditions under which censorship might occur. The documents presented are: the Indiana code laws concerning textbook adoption; the American Library Association's library bill of…

This booklet contains various papers, commissioned by the National Catholic Educational Association, on the hiring, education, and evaluation of Catholic school teachers. The topics discussed include (1) guidelines for hiring teachers, (2) characteristics to look for in teachers, (3) preparation of teacher applications and conducting the…

The American phenomenon of "more is better" extends a value-loaded concept implicit in budget preparation. At any university, the scope, magnitude and cost of a residence hall assistant program selection process is a metaphor to illustrate efficiency and effectiveness of human resources. In order to discover a more efficient and…

This paper is an introduction to the fundamentals of the art (including architecture) slide library, with some emphasis on basic procedures of the science slide library. Information in this paper is particularly relevant to the college, university, and museum slide library. Topics addressed include: (1) history of the slide library; (2) duties of…

These guidelines are intended to provide personnel administrators with a means of evaluating their current practices and procedures in teacher selection. The guidelines cover recruitment, hiring criteria, employment interviews, and the follow-up to selection. A suggested personnel selection procedure outlines application, file preparation, and the…

A seminar was held in March, 1976, at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Annual Convention to discuss the problems of nonprint media selection. The major question raised in the seminar was the extent to which an economical information system to provide qualitative as well as purely technical descriptions of…

The Maryland department of education provides guidelines for forming policies and procedures for selecting textbooks and instructional materials. Items to be included in the selection policy are listed, and 14 guidelines are provided for evaluating materials, with particular attention to procedures for handling requests for reconsideration of…

In this study of the private and social rates of return to education, the differences between the incomes of college graduates and those with less eudcation are reviewed. In the analysis, it is estimated how much of a graduate's increase in income can be attributed to educationally acquired "productivity gains" and how much stems from an…

The controversy over which books should be included in school reading lists and library shelves is outlined and analyzed. The three standards generally accepted for a "good" book are identified and discussed. The problems which arise in book selection are described, along with the stages of selection and use at which challenges are most likely to…

The Bills seek to lessen the administrative burden upon the States through reduction of the number of State plans, which must be submitted and approved annually, from five to one and to afford the States greater discretion in allocating funds to meet specific State needs by combining, within a single authorization, the programs formerly authorized…

Recognizing that interest is essential to motivation, this study was designed both to identify and describe the content interest patterns and media preferences (print and television) of middle-grade children and to determine any relationship between these interests and sex, race, or socioeconomic status (SES). An inventory was administered to 250…