The governor Schwarzenegger of California has launched a new initiative to compile free digital textbooks for high school math and science classes to be adopted by the state. He hopes that the plan will help cut costs and improve the quality of education, reports Ars Technica. The effort seems very promising, but the state’s complex standards and arduous textbook evaluation process will pose major challenges.
The official press-release and related news here: Gov. Schwarzenegger Launches First-in-Nation Initiative to Develop Free Digital Textbooks for High School Students.
For a glance of the California textbook adoption process see 2004 Thomas B. Fordham Institute Report at the The Mad, Mad World of Textbooks Adoption.
The textbook adoption process is nothing if not “complex…and arduous.” The whole textbook-industrial complex, complete with various lobbying groups and special interests, is ripe for reform.
I agree that an open textbook initiative faces an uphill battle. However, clearly open educational resources that can be modified for differentiation are one of the primary means we have to improve education, which MUST be done if we are to remain viable as a society.
Perhaps, the two of these facts together will motivate lawmakers and citizens to reform the whole textbook adoption process. Some states like Indiana are already starting to do this.
When I was teaching middle school in the late 1980s and early 1990s I knew our history and literature texts were horrid, but I couldn’t really put my finger on exactly why.
Reading “The Mad, Mad World of Textbook Adoption” was a revelation. On virtually every page I would find myself almost leaping out of my seat, thinking “YES!! That’s exactly what is wrong!!!”
Our textbooks are boring, banal, devoid of voice or life. Our history texts are scrubbed of any value judgements or controversy. Everything is just, well. . .nice. All cultures are nice, aren’t they? It’s like living in Pleasantville.
Let’s trash the entire procurement system.