Levy sought for update of textbooks
Bill Clinton is still president – at least in the Coeur d’Alene School District’s high school social studies books.
And the 1996 biology books Mike Criswell uses in his Lake City High classroom talk about an exciting upcoming scientific effort – the Human Genome Project, which was actually completed two years ago. Species that the book lists as endangered are “either off the list or dead,” Criswell said.
These are just two examples of the Coeur d’Alene School District’s textbook troubles. Most of the district’s textbooks fall far behind the state’s guidelines for replacements, and many have been overtaken by events. Furthermore, the district has not reported its tardiness on textbook replacement to the state in most of its accreditation reports.
Lake City English teacher Andy Partington said the 1993 books students are using still work in many ways, but new books have a contemporary connection that engage students in the learning process.
“If students sit down to some of these books, where the binding’s coming off and the cover’s all icky, they perceive how much this subject is respected and how much they are respected,” Partington said. “It’s hard for kids to think something’s valuable if the materials they’re given to use doesn’t reflect that value.”
Idaho schools are supposed to replace textbooks on a five-year cycle and pick those books off a state-approved list. About three-fourths of textbooks in Coeur d’Alene classrooms aren’t on the state-approved list. Now, the district is looking to get back on schedule by asking taxpayers for $1.5 million – part of a $14.6 million supplemental levy that will go before voters in May.
“A lot of things about our budget are fixed,” said Hazel Bauman, the district’s assistant superintendent. “The small amount that’s not fixed is our wiggle room. Textbooks tend to be in the category of non-fixed costs.”
Though the state doesn’t give specific funding to districts for textbooks, Coeur d’Alene’s neighboring districts say they’ve been able to stick to the state’s adoption cycle and budget annually for textbook purchases.
“We’ve been able to pride ourselves that we’ve been able to stay on that cycle faithfully,” said Ron Schmidt, Lakeland’s assistant superintendent. Post Falls administrators said they’ve kept up with the adoption cycle, too, with the help of supplemental levies and “good money management.”
According to Tom Farley, bureau chief of accountability for the State Department of Education, the state has had textbook adoption guidelines in place since the 1920s. A statewide committee reviews materials each year to select which textbooks schools can use.
Schools are advised to purchase books from the state-approved list on the five-year cycle the state has established, and that cycle hasn’t changed in the past 50 years, Farley said.
Purchasing books from the list ensures schools are using up-to-date materials that jibe with what students are expected to know under the state’s education standards, Farley said. During the five-year cycle, the state also has a contract with publishers to guarantee lower prices for schools.
The only way schools are held accountable for keeping textbooks current – aside from public scrutiny – is through the state accreditation process. If schools don’t select textbooks from the current guide, they could be docked points on their accreditation.
“Folks don’t really understand fully or know the value of being accredited,” Farley said. Students can’t transfer credits to other schools, receive federally funded grants for schooling or participate in extracurricular activities if they attend a school that isn’t accredited.”
If schools don’t have textbooks from the approved list, they could receive three deviation points, Farley said – not enough to affect their accreditation status “unless it became a continuing problem.”
Though the Coeur d’Alene School District admits to being behind on textbook adoptions – and the list of textbooks being used by the district shows most aren’t on the state-approved list – the district’s accreditation reports show no deviation points. Accreditation is self-reported and the Coeur d’Alene School District reported it was using textbooks from the approved list or had approved waivers in place.
According to the State Department of Education, the district submitted waivers this year for English books, due to be replaced with levy funds. Waivers were not submitted, however, for a majority of the out-of-date textbooks being used in Coeur d’Alene schools.
“Our ducks are in a row,” Bauman said. “Every textbook that’s adopted right now is on the state approved list or we have a waiver. That is news to me if there is stuff that is not on the state adopted list or doesn’t have a waiver.”
Hayden parent Brad St. John, who has been aggressively pushing the school district to update its textbooks, says the accreditation reports from the Coeur d’Alene School District are evidence that the district is knowingly filing false records. School principals and Superintendent Harry Amend signed and dated the reports.
Amend said the district is in the clear. If a book has previously been approved, Amend maintains that the book is still state-approved, even if it’s not on the state’s current approved list.
He said the district’s stance is validated by an April 2003 letter from State Superintendent of Public Instruction Marilyn Howard.
“Materials do not lose their approved status after having once been approved,” Howard wrote.
However, Howard also said in the letter that the question on the accreditation form implies “that a school district should purchase materials that are the most up-to-date according to state review” and that “schools may incur deviation points in the annual accreditation.”
Farley said the reports are reviewed and an accreditation committee visits schools every six years. The Coeur d’Alene School District’s last site visit was in 2002 and the State Department of Education said the on-site review raised no questions about textbooks.
If a district were to report false information on the accreditation reports, department spokeswoman Alison Westfall said the department “has no ‘teeth’ or authority to sanction a school or district.”
“School districts report a lot of information to the state and we take school districts for their word,” Farley said. “If they believe they’re using up-to-date curricular materials, they’re going to say yes.”
Until 2000, accreditation site visits were thorough, Farley said, but he said recent visits haven’t gone into as much detail. Now, he said, there’s a moratorium on the site visits until the state implements changes to its accountability system.
Schools must be given credit for the challenges they face, Farley said. If there’s a limited amount of money and there’s a leaky roof that needs fixing, Farley said, schools will fix the leaky roof and put off textbook adoption.
Bauman said budgetary constraints are to blame for the three to four instances in the past dozen years that the school district didn’t purchase textbooks. In previous adoption cycles, decisions were made to adopt only classroom sets of books – instead of one for every student – and teachers used the leftover funds to purchase other materials, such as movies and maps.
English teachers made the decision in the 1980s to purchase novels instead of new textbooks, believing they could hold out for another cycle, Partington said. As the adoption cycle stretched on, she said, it became more of a concern for teachers.
She said teachers expected the 1993 books would be replaced four to five years ago, but they weren’t. Instead, replacement copies were purchased – some are newer editions, which have some differences from the earlier text.
Bauman said that two years ago, the district realigned with the state cycle.
New math books were purchased last fall and schools will have new science books in September. If voters approve the district’s supplemental levy in May, health, reading, literature and driver’s education books will also be purchased.
It may take another levy cycle for the district to get completely caught up. The district’s plans for textbook purchases through 2008 don’t include social studies. And a few weeks later, yet another president will have left the White House.