An examination of five social studies textbook series for grades one through four reveals a lack of consistent application of geographic concepts from publisher to publisher as well as a lack of reinforcement of previous learning within the individual series. This disjointed presentation of textbook materials contributes to a disjointed learning process and hinders the transfer of learning. The absence of commonly used concepts also has serious implications with regard to identifying reasonable questions and answers for standardized achievement tests. The five specific aspects examined which reveal these disparities are: (1) the number of geographic concepts used in geographic textbooks compared to other social studies disciplines; (2) the geographic concepts actually used in the texts; (3) a comparison of the general geographic concepts used with the fundamental geographic concepts; (4) the most frequently appearing geographic concepts in the textbook; and (5) a comparison of the National Council for Geographic Education and the Association of American Geographers list of recommended concepts to be taught in elementary grades with the most frequently cited concepts used in the five series. This examination also reveals considerable variation in presentation of place locations, maps, and map reading skills. The variety of places in the world does not correspond with the Guidelines for Geographic Education's emphasis on learning about local geography from first hand experience. Tables referring to the five aspects examined in the texts, references, and a list of the texts examined are included. (PPB)