TEXTBOOK ADOPTION

Instructional Materials Evaluation and Adoption

The California State Board of Education (SBE) has constitutional authority to adopt textbooks for grades one through eight (Article IX, Section 7.5 of the California Constitution) and statutory authority to adopt instructional materials for kindergarten. Education Code sections 60200-60206 describe the process for the adoption of instructional materials for these grades and mandate that submitted materials be evaluated for consistency with the adopted content standards and specific evaluation criteria approved by the SBE. Below are the steps of adopting instructional materials in the state of California.

Step 1: Legal compliance review. This step verifies that all instructional material is in compliance with the Education Code as well as the State Board of Education guidelines set forth in the Standards for Evaluating Instructional Materials for Social Content (2000 Edition). Instructional material that does not meet these standards must be revised to comply or be withdrawn.

Step 2: Public review and comment. Samples of the instructional material submitted for adoption are available for public review at the Learning Resources Display Centers. Written comments are forwarded to the Curriculum Commission and the State Board of Education for consideration. There are three public hearings held prior to adoption:

  1. One before the appropriate Subject Matter Committee (SMC) of the Curriculum Commission,
  2. One before the whole Curriculum Commission, and
  3. One before the State Board of Education.

Step 3: Education content review. The evaluation criteria is developed by the Curriculum Commission and is adopted by the State Education of Board. The Curriculum Commission recommends and the State Education of Board appoints two panels, the Instructional Materials Advisory Panel (IMAP), composed of mostly classroom teachers, who evaluate materials according to all elements of the criteria, and the Content Review Panel (CRP), composed of subject matter experts who review materials according to content criteria and standards to ensure materials are accurate and adequate in their content.

Step 4: The IMAP and CRP prepare a report of their findings and pass it along to the Curriculum Commission. This report includes recommendations for adoptions, adoptions with corrections and edits, and rejections. The Curriculum Commission then makes its recommendations based upon the IMAP and CRP recommendations, publisher responses, and written comments from the public. They also consider the public hearing comments.

Step 5: The Curriculum Commission then prepares a report that goes the State Education Board. The State Education of Board then considers the recommendations from the Curriculum Commission, related documents, and public comment prior to adopting or rejecting each submission. The Curriculum Commission’s report is then modified as necessary to reflect the State Board of Education’s actions and the final document is widely distributed.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/instmatoverview.pdf

Flow chart-adoption process and overview
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/process.pdf