Secondary Textbook Options
Back in October 2007, I invited all department chairs (or their representative) to participate in the textbook selection committee. All who responded were invited to be on the committee. The committee also included district representatives from Special Ed, Title I, Professional Development, Ed Equity and Curriculum. The purpose of selecting books for the entire district was to help provide consistency for students who transfer from school to school, to allow coordinated professional development be offered from the district office, to help negotiate the best deal from publishers, and of course, to choose books that will best suit our needs in covering Utah's science core. The subjects that were included in the selection process are the ones that nearly every Granite District student will take before graduation. Schools may continue to use the books they already own, but as they upgrade and purchase new books, those new books need to be from the approved list (if they are using budget 9340 monies). If a school wishes to purchase a book not on the list, they may do so if they use a different budget.
The goal of the committee was to find the best textbook program to support teachers. The committee went through over 40 different books and assessed reading levels, core coverage, supplementary materials, technology support and publisher support and have narrowed the choices to two per subject.
2007-2008 is the district's rotation for science books. Please discuss with your administration why it is important for our students to have new books (I've provided a sheet that you can use to help convince your administrator if you need it).
Thank you,
Stephanie Wood, Science Specialist