Describes errors regarding the meaning of increase in life expectancy found in 7 of 17 gerontology textbooks examined. Discusses the myth that increase in life expectancy at birth indicates an increase in life span. Attempts to clarify the nature of this increase and reviews common misconceptions concerning it. (NRB)

Ten textbooks on psychological and educational assessment in special education were analyzed with the Flesch formula for reading ease and interest. Reading levels were surprisingly low, human interest scores of eight of the books were classified as "dull," and great disparity was found in the topics treated by the various authors. (Author/CL)

Analyzed with the Flesch formula for reading ease and interest were 29 textbooks on education of children with behavioral disorders and/or emotional disturbance. Reading levels were surprisingly low. Great disparity was found in the topics treated by the various authors. (Author/CL)

Reviewed 26 marriage and family textbooks for content about stepfamilies. Many authors did not include the topic or included it in only a cursory fashion. Stepfamily information could be categorized as factors related to successful functioning, source of stress, and recommendations. Concluded that stepfamilies have been relatively neglected. (JAC)

Discusses errors/misleading statements concerning the principle of action/reaction as found in two published sources. The first, focusing on the application of Newton's third law to airplane lift, is found in a college-level text. The second, related to electromagnetic forces, is found in a book providing solutions to physics problems. (JN)

A publisher lists guidelines on how to evaluate a textbook for a lab-oriented course. (HD)

The purpose of this research was to analyze recent statistics textbooks in the behavioral sciences in terms of their coverage of exploratory data analysis (EDA) philosophy and techniques. Twenty popular texts were analyzed. EDA philosophy was not addressed in the vast majority of texts. Only three texts had an entire chapter on EDA. None of the…

An examination of 10 randomly selected introductory sociology texts revealed that five of the ten failed to index a reference to women. The analysis of the role of women in American society is an area which the introductory texts leave impressively unexplored. (Author)

A review of The Acquisition of Language: The Study of Developmental Psycholinguistics" (Harper and Row), by David McNeill. (RY)

Closet drama illustrating how the desire for mass commercial acceptability may cause a stimulating and informative textbook to end up in an editor's wastebasket. (DE)

Objects to an alleged misrepresentation and inaccurate presentation of a J. R. R. Tolkien quotation in "Adventures in Reading" (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969), a ninth grade literature anthology. (RD)