On September 14, 2009, the Arkansas Board of Education adopted new textbooks, instructional materials, and learning technologies for grades K-12, in the curriculum areas of Art, Music, Special Education, Agriculture, Career and Technical Education, and Family and Consumer Science. The new state-adopted lists for these curriculum areas will be accessible via the Internet on the Arkansas Department of Education Web site at http://arkansased.org/teachers/instructional_material.html. State contracts with publishing companies for these materials accommodate Arkansas’ six-year adoption cycle. The contracts will become effective July 1, 2010, and will expire June 30, 2016.
The instructional materials on the lists were extensively reviewed and evaluated and were recommended by state selecting committees. The selecting committees were composed of grade/subject area teachers and administrators in the aforementioned curriculum areas from across the state. The main criterion for review and evaluation was correlation of the materials to the state curriculum frameworks.
The adoption process now moves from the state to local districts. Districts should now form local selecting committees consisting of certified personnel, primarily classroom teachers. Local committees should follow the local district's curriculum development in selecting textbooks and other materials that best meet the local district's curriculum needs.
The present state-adopted lists for the affected curriculum areas remain current until June 30, 2010, when the present state contracts expire. The committees can use the new lists as working copies during the local adoption process.
Examination copies (samples) of the state-adopted materials will be sent to local schools. The samples received during the adoption process are on loan to the local school systems. After adoption choices are made, the samples must be returned to the Educator's Book Depository, located at 6700 Sloane Drive, Little Rock, Arkansas 72206. School systems may keep the samples of textbooks or other materials adopted and purchased, but all others must be returned. Please note the following instructions when returning all other samples:
For shipments weighing 100 pounds or less, send parcel post Fourth Class. Package no more than 50 pounds per carton. Do not send C.O.D.
If a depository shipment weighs over 100 pounds, ship “Freight Collect" via a trucking- motor freight company. Be sure to label all boxes “Official Samples.”
There should be no charges to districts for returning samples, providing the above options are followed. Any charges inadvertently paid by districts may be recovered from publishers through the textbook depository.
Timely reporting of adoptions is very important. It will provide the necessary lead-time for stocking the textbook depository and will help the depository avoid delays and backorders in shipping textbook orders for the 2010-2011 school year.
Forms for reporting adoptions are available at the instructional materials Web site address previously given in this communication. The deadline for receiving Reports of Local Adoptions is March 15, 2010. This date for reporting local adoptions should meet schools’ needs in securing vertical articulation with local district curriculum development. Please file local adoption reports as soon as adoptions are made, but no later than March 15, 2010, and fax or mail to:
Sue McKenzie, Coordinator
Arkansas Department of Education
Textbooks/Instructional Materials
Four Capitol Mall, Room 109-A
Little Rock, AR 72201
FAX – 501-682-4886
Please fax or mail all textbook/instructional materials orders for state-adopted materials to:
Educator’s Textbook Depository
6700 Sloane Drive
Little Rock, AR 72206
FAX 501-490-0006