The State Board of Education, on September 13, 1999, adopted new textbooks and other instructional materials for kindergarten through grades twelve in the curriculum areas of reading, special education, foreign language, family and consumer science, agriculture, and trade and industrial education. Lists of these materials will be delivered to you in the next bulk mailing.
State contracts for these materials will be effective July 1, 2000, through
June 30, 2006. Classroom implementation will be for school year 2000-2001.
State committees of subject area teachers and administrators favorably reviewed the textbooks and other instructional materials that were adopted by the Board. The State Committees' main review criteria were how well the materials correlated with the state curriculum frameworks. Local selection committees will be guided by their local district's curriculum development. They will choose textbooks and other materials that best meet their district's curriculum needs.
Local selecting committees should now be appointed, composed of certified personnel including subject or grade level teachers, for each subject area adopted by the Board.
The lists of state-recommended materials you receive may be incorporated into the total listing of Textbooks and Other Instructional Materials (red and gray binders or other binders being used). The lists now in the binders in these adoption areas, however, are current until June 30, 2000, when the present state contracts expire. The new lists are useful, at this time, as working copies during the adoption process.
Examination copies of the state-adopted materials received during the selection process are loaned to the school systems. After adoptions are made, they must be returned to the appropriate textbook depository which, in most cases, will be to Educator's Textbook Depository, 6700 Sloane Drive,
Little Rock, AR 72206. School systems may keep the samples of the textbooks or other materials they adopt and purchase. Please exercise one of the following options when returning the 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.
Ship "freight collect" (trucking-motor freight company), if a depository shipment weighs more than 100 pounds. There is a minimum charge of $20.00 when returning by freight. Be sure to label all boxes, "Textbook Samples."
Please request examination copies by contacting the Arkansas representative of the publisher.
Forms for reporting adoptions will also be included with the other attachments to this Director's Communication. Timely reporting of adoptions will provide the necessary lead time for stocking the textbook depository, and it will help to avoid backorders or delays in shipping your textbook orders for the 2000-2001 school year. We will appreciate receiving the adoption reports as soon as selections are made or for grades K-5 or K-6, no later than February 15, 2000, and grades 6-8 and 9-12, no later than April 15.
Note: There are attachments to this Director's Communication and they will be delivered to you in the next bulk mailing. Furthermore, discrepancies in reporting style on the lists will appear between vendors.