Textbooks have more influence than teachers in shaping the curriculum. They set objectives, daily lessons and activities, and influence test questions. Since the text is often the determinant of a course of study, the selection of a text can be a critical task. Consequently, an instrument for measuring the strengths and weaknesses of textbooks is…

Context in this article is the victimization of teacher's in their purchase of textbooks. (RK)

Offers a worksheet for evaluating the readability of content area textbooks. (RL)

Many corporations and vested interest groups prepare free or inexpensive educational materials for the schools. The authors present guidelines teachers can use to screen such material for objectivity, accuracy, appropriateness, and feasibility. (SJL)

Directed toward media specialists and social studies teachers, this article outlines a selection process and evaluation criteria for print and nonprint social studies materials. (SJL)

Asserts that the move to create more challenging textbooks abandons the lower-ability students, resulting in high dropout rates. Cautions that all students will not naturally gravitate toward higher academic levels simply because standards and expectations are upgraded. (MM)

Creative interchange enables people to appreciate and absorb the experiences of others. Creative interchange, as one answer to the problem of selecting instructional materials in a diverse society, promotes thinking in a context of goodness (knowledge, love, and truth) which a broad spectrum of society can support. (Author/SJL)

Author suggests criteria that can be weighted mathematically for computing comparable strengths and weaknesses in textbooks. (MB)

Discusses the problem school systems have in selecting textbooks that do not offend special interest groups but still address pertinent, possibly controversial, issues. (JC)

Suggests that those who evaluate textbooks for adoption in schools use a framework such as the one included, which examines writing style, tone, analogies and illustrations, sentence and paragraph coherence, headings and subheadings, and location of charts, graphs, and figures. (JC)