Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2008 > July > 03 > Entry
Parent textbook reviewers scarce
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There I sat, listening to the AC hum, surrounded by about 1,000 textbooks and other educational materials.
I was in the technical building at Grayson High School. Alone. Me, myself and I. AJC Gwinnett News photographer Kim Smith has already left because, frankly, there was little to capture on film. She arrived on campus about 40 minutes earlier, so she’d greeted me at the entrance.
“Where’s the party?” I asked, noticing that there were only two cars in the massive parking lot.
“We are the party,” she answered as she pointed to the lecture hall set up as a textbook review room.
Grayson High is one of 13 sites statewide where parents can review language arts textbooks and curriculum resource materials under consideration for grades k-5 statewide. The review at Grayson High, overseen by the Georgia Department of Education as are the others, is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays through July 18.
The Badie Tour decided to stop by on day No. 2 of the public viewing. I stayed for an hour and a half Wednesday morning, then cruised back through around 2:55 p.m. I wanted to see if anyone had plowed through any of the 51 tables to review material pertinent to their kids’ grade levels. If so, they were supposed to rate the materials’ strengths and weaknesses on an evaluation form, and say whether they should be recommended for use in Georgia public schools.
Maybe someone had picked up the completed forms; none were in the designated folder.
“Oh no,” said Matt Cardoza, a DOE spokesman. “Sometimes that’s the difficulty in putting [the materials] out there, and getting people to come. We’re not sure of the input we’ll get.”
No doubt, it’s early in the process. The public has till mid-July to review the materials at host sites in 13 congressional districts. Maybe there’ll be a rush at Grayson as the review period cranks down. Right now, though, at least on Wednesday, turnout was pitiful.
Much works against a summer textbook review. First of all, it’s summer. School’s out. Many families are out of (school) sync, so to speak. Probably out of town, too. Add to that the fact that this is a holiday week, and chances of even a marginal parent turnout run slim.
“I hope it picks up,” said Alicia Trager, president of the Area II Gwinnett Council PTA, who plans to review the materials before the opportunity passes. “It’s unfortunate because it is summer, and so many people are out of school. It’s hard to get the word out. Back in the fall, some books were available at the [instructional support center] and there was a pretty good turnout.”
Which brings to mind a question: Why not just hold statewide reviews in the fall, when school is in and education is on everybody’s mind?
“We have time frames we are looking at to get resources to the state board of education,” Cardoza told me. “You try your best to hold them at a time that’s convenient to everyone. Vacation weeks are always difficult.”
Like Trager, Cardoza said that when textbook reviews are held locally - when individual school systems consider state-approved materials - turnout ratchets up. The more grass-roots, the more the participation.
“People tune into their own community,” he said. “Their own child.”
If you didn’t know about the textbook review under way, now you do. Give the materials a look-see.
Information collected at the current reviews is to be shared with a committee that makes recommendations about textbook selections to the state Board of Education. For more information about the process, contact the Georgia Department of Education’s Office of Policy and External Affairs at 404-463-1487. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By Mike K.
July 3, 2008 1:27 PM | Link to this
Is the schedule something that the state DOE or the county school systems have on their website?
By Badie
July 3, 2008 2:10 PM | Link to this
Mike: This link has the schedule for textbook review dates: http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/pea_communications.
By Mark
July 5, 2008 1:55 PM | Link to this
Chirp, chirp, chirp…..
By stine
July 5, 2008 9:36 PM | Link to this
the link above doesn’t work (imagine that), but here is one for Rockdale Co. http://www.rockdale.k12.ga.us
click on the link at the top of the 4th paragraph.