A systematic approach to assure the teacher of readable materials suited to the student's age level. (Editor)

Finds that state-level textbook adoption committee members reported four major unresolved reading issues: (1) assessment of students' reading progress; (2) whole language versus basal approaches; (3) ability grouping; and (4) use of tradebooks in place of basals. Suggests that the members may lack sufficient specific knowledge of the issues to…

Readability formulas can be useful tools in accomplishing their primary purpose--to give very general estimates of difficulty. Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of misunderstanding regarding their use, which has resulted in misuse and abuse. The formulas were designed to be applied post hoc to existing materials. They were not intended to…

Selection of instructional materials for business and distributive education programs is increasingly difficult because there are more materials, new courses, and programs, matching instruction to the student, and some teacher options. The writer presents steps for use by school personnel in evaluation and adoption of text materials. (MF)

This booklet shows teachers and administrators how their school districts can use the Reading Authority List of the Reading Information System I (I-RIS), an analytic process for making decisions about language arts curriculum materials. Following an outline of I-RIS, pages of the Reading Authority List are accompanied by guidelines for using the…

One component of an evaluation research model for system-wide selection of curriculum materials is reported: implementation of an evaluation design for obtaining data that permits professional and lay persons to base curriculum materials decisions on a "best fit" principle. The design includes teacher characteristics, learning environment…