| Selecting textbooks has had a checkered history in United States schools. Special interest groups, churches, and even politicians have all exerted influence on the books students use. Recently, parent groups have become more active in the textbook selection processes as they have become suspicious of "fuzzy" mathematics and whole language. What is their role in textbook adoptions? How should their influence be balanced with the interest of other stakeholders such as teachers and administrators? The purpose of this study was to develop a policy statement that would guide school districts in a textbook adoption process. Through a Delphi survey, parents, teachers, and administrators pondered the composition of textbook adoption committees, their activities, and the decision making mechanism.;The Delphi participants reached agreement on few ideas that would guide the development of a textbook adoption. They agreed that teachers and parents should be on a textbook adoption, that teachers should be selected from each grade level or subject affected by the adoption and that teachers should have expertise in the subject under consideration. The Delphi participants agreed that the teachers role was to represent their faculty viewpoint and that they should communicate the pros and cons of each text to their peer group.;Although the Delphi participants could not agree that administrators participate in the selection process, they agreed that the administrators should communicate the pros and cons of each text to their peers.;The Delphi participants agreed to five activities that a textbook adoption committee (TAC) should undertake before making a textbook selection. These activities included training, publisher presentations, visitations to districts using the proposed texts, conducting a needs assessment and matching each text to those needs and standards.;The participants could not agree to a decision making process nor to the relative coposition of the TAC. An adoption policy must address the issues of stakeholder parity and a process for deciding. Although this study provides some guidelines for a textbook adoption policy, it does not answer the central question, "How do we decide?"... |
