The Board of Education is responsible for the selection and adoption of all textbooks to be used in the district schools. The Superintendent of Schools shall recommend suitable lists of textbooks to be used in the schools for the Board’s consideration.
Texts, once approved by the Board, shall not be superseded for a period of five years, except by a three-fourths vote of the Board.
The Superintendent shall establish procedures for the selection and recommendation of textbooks and a method for selection of staff members who shall serve in the selection and recommendation process.
The following criteria are to be considered in the selection of textbooks:
- textbook or material should have been copyrighted within the past five years;
- qualifications of the author(s) on the subject;
- adaptability to existing instructional program;
- accuracy of the information presented;
- sufficient scope to meet the requirements of the curriculum as developed locally and approved by the State Education Department;
- objectivity and impartiality in treatment of subject matter and freedom from bias and prejudice;
- high quality format in respect to typography, arrangement of materials or pages, cover design, size and margins;
- appropriateness to grade level as to vocabulary, sentence structure and organization;
- textbook series should meet grade-to-grade requirement. They should contain supplementary aids to learning, when desirable and necessary, such as a table of content, introduction, study activities, exercises, questions, problems, selected references, bibliography, index glossary and appendices; and
- tests should include appropriate illustrative materials–pictures, maps, charts, graphs, diagrams, etc. which clarify the text and enrich the content.
The following criteria are to be considered in the selection of literary works for classroom use in teaching literature, as well as the assignment of such works to particular grade levels:
- use of compositional and contextual concepts which contribute to the reader’s critical and appreciative understanding of the work;
- interrelationships among literary concepts that suggest an orderly structure and a sequence of experience that serve to facilitate learning;
- levels of student maturity and experience necessary to emphatic reading of literature;
- capacity of a work to capture student interest;
- thematic treatment which promotes sound and healthy values for students;
- intrinsic qualities that establish a work as a significant part of the literary heritage; and
- variety to avoid duplication of theme, plot, setting, etc., unless such duplication affords opportunities for comparison and contrast or serves to reinforce understanding.
Ref:
- Education Law §§701; 702; 1709(4)
Adoption date: May 27, 1997
Reviewed: May 22, 2017