The vast majority of U.S. teachers supplement their officially adopted curriculum materials with unofficial materials. Despite this, the body of supplementation-relevant literature tends not to focus on supplementation specifically, so lacks cohesion, and sometimes fails to capture all aspects the phenomenon. I systematically review…

If the textbook and material selection process is to be adequately supported in school budgets, curriculum directors, teachers, and administrators must be able to defend their requests with high-quality information. This article offers nine suggestions to help build a leadership structure and a database for making appropriate textbook selections.…

Instructional materials are usually selected by classroom teachers. Little is known about what criteria they use in making these choices. Most of the literature recommends, instead, the attributes to be used. This study employs a qualitative approach to examine one teacher's thinking about her selection of materials. Fundamental to her thinking…

The political implications of decisions on curriculum content are discussed. A review of the literature on school policies is analyzed with particular consideration of who determines what will be studied in the classroom and what bias may be reflected in textbook selection. It is argued that while it is generally assumed that boards of education…

Argues there is a problem with how California local school boards and district administration interpret curriculum and instruction in terms of their role in the evaluation of schools, teachers, and students. Notes that the California Teachers Association proposed legislation that would allow teachers to negotiate their role in decision-making…

The purpose of this study is to account for the spatial distribution of school systems in the United States that had adopted High School Geography Project (HSGP) materials as of October 1970. A history and description of HSGP opens the study. The premise that the distirubution of materials has not occurred by chance is stated. Factors isolated and…

The paper is designed to aid social studies educators and teachers in selecting curriculum materials. It is presented in three sections. Section I outlines problems involved in choosing among curricula. These problems include similarity of traditional social studies textbooks; recent proliferation of innovative curricula which have not been…

A brief and flexible overview is presented of the steps that should be taken to revise social studies instruction. The booklet lists 10 steps in the revision process. Each step has a brief commentary followed by questions that a local curriculum planning group may want to consider. Some resources to help answer these questions are included. The…

This case study recounts the attempts of two school districts to improve decision making on the adoption of a new elementary social studies curriculum by using formal evaluation methodology. The study's main objective was to develop a series of criterion referenced (mastery level) tests from a list of social studies objectives to determine whether…

This annotated bibliography is intended for use as a reference volume by educational administrators. It contains 321 annotations of documents and journal articles, all of which are indexed in the ERIC system. The chapters cover 20 topics of current interest to the practitioner. The materials annotated were selected to give the reader a good idea…