How do schools in America or any Western country choose textbooks for their curriculum?

Here’s a start.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-07-we-1470-story.html

At my daughter’s high school, they were chosen by the head of each department in consultation with the faculty of that department.

At the college level, I have always chosen my own textbooks for my classes although, I have heard of some places where the books are chosen by deans or department heads.

Schools and individual teachers are regularly approached by textbook publishers to adopt their books. We are given free advance copies to read. They’re fairly aggressive, not unlike pharmaceutical sales people.

Fun Fact: I stopped assigning textbooks in my classes around 2015 because I think they are too expensive for students. Between curated free web content and OER books, there’s really no reason for me to assign an overpriced textbook. I just have to put the work in to assemble all the free content into my class.

I believe the way public school textbooks are selected vary from state to state. In Texas and perhaps some other states, Ithey are selected on a statewide basis by the state education department. Unfortunately, because they are such a large market they often can dictate to textbook publishers the content they want in such as downplaying the role of racism in our history. Then, other districts in the country may buy books with the same doctored content.

In other states, the individual school districts decide on what textbooks to buy with input from the academic supervisors at the schools within that district. Textbook salesmen would market to the department supervisors who would make suggestions to the principals or Boards of Ed.

In my state, New Jersey, broad aspects of the curriculum such as Holocaust and diversity education are mandated by the state but it is up to each district to select what materials to use.

The US there are also private (non-government) schools. At private schools in the US, the faculty and/or administration or board of directors of the school choose the text books.

@cookieman I was too broke in college to buy all of my textbooks. Even with financial aid and my discount working at the student bookstore. I’d buy one or two used. And go to the library for all of my other textbooks and readers.

Really appreciate that you took that into consideration for your students.

@Mimishu1995 That’s interesting that they will be experimenting with a similar system. What do you think that would look like?

The school board of each district makes the decision.

@raum: Thank you. I was in the same boat in college. Deep in debt, working 30-hours/week — I racked up 12K in textbook and art supply debt after five years.

As soon as I see an opportunity to help my students save money, I take it.

My daughter just started college and all her textbooks were $10–20/ea. except for her Anatomy & Physiology class which was $332.00… for a digital RENTAL !!

@cookieman For a digital rental?! Damn.

I remember kids would have textbook bonfires after finals. I get that it’s cathartic and all. But I couldn’t help but think those bonfires were worth thousands of dollars. :/

We never did that. We sold them back.

@raum to be honest I have mixed feeling about it. On one hand I’m happy that they are trying to make school curriculum more suitable for individual students. I can see some books that even fit specific regions of the country. The old system uses the same book for the entire country, so I’m glad they finally acknowledge that not all students can learn like that.

But on the other hand, I’m afraid this is going to be really chaotic. If I can take away anything from this thread, it’s that textbooks are typically distributed state-by-state, or at least district-by-district. Here they seem to want each school to make the choice. This can get really confusing because no school is the same, and each school would have way different curriculum from each other. Coupled with the fact that this is a small country, that would give parents a real headache.

And there are two big things that really stands in the way of this project and I don’t think they really think about it carefully: cram schools and the exam system. Cram schools are essentially the requirement of all students here. It’s not required by law, but you will be in a severely disadvantage position if you don’t take cram lessons. Cram schools are required because lessons at schools just don’t provide students with enough knowledge to pass exams, and of course no parent wants their child to be behind their peers. Cram schools work because the curriculum are the same in all schools. But if this project is to succeed, it will put a whole new pressure on everyone, from students who have to study according to the textbooks in both official class and cram class to parents who have to find the right cram class to teachers who have to prepare lessons according to students’ school. I may have to prepare lessons in the future and I already have a panic attack thinking about it.

As for exams, I think you @raum know how it goes, because it is similar to the ancient time. But for those who don’t know, every year we have an exam for entrance to universities. The exam paper is the same across the nation. The exam is already stressful enough with one official curriculum. Now it’s going to be even more chaotic with different curriculum. How can people guarantee that an exam paper will be fair for everyone if each school teaches students differently? And how can examiners make an exam paper that incorporate all the textbooks out there? Again, more stress for everyone involved.

I like their idea, but I don’t have any hope for the future.

@Mimishu1995 I think there will be growing pains as they test out this system.

Even though we’ve been doing this for years in the states, there’s still a lot of contention around standards.

People have some big feelings about Common Core, man.

@Dutchess_III The sane ones did!

In 2010 the U S tried to adopt a system called Common Core. The idea was to make sure every student was given the same level of instruction. The problem is it was based on the belief that every student had the same ability to learn and every teacher was able to conform to the program. In addition, it was also based on preparing every student for going on to college.
Most schools refused to be part of it, and among those that did sign on, many simply ignored the framework required to implement it.
Here in California, schools try to meet the common core goals, but mainly fail, because it is not suitable for either teachers or students.

@cookieman

“I racked up 12K in textbook and art supply debt after five years.”

I think my total tuition for 4 years at UC Berkeley would have been $6K. :-0
That was in 1965, but luckily I dropped out 4 months into my freshman year. ;-)

@Brian1946 I know someone who would be really jealous :D

You’re probably right, @Mimishu1995.

I think he was sentenced to 20 years of hard time at Harvard, working as a textbook mule. :D
That kind of punishment doesn’t exactly promote coherency. ;-)