District-Level Textbook and Instructional Material Adoption

Table of Contents

• Local Textbook Committee Responsibilities At-A-Glance
• Instructional Material Evaluation Rubrics: General Information
• Submission of a Textbook Plan
• Flexibility in the Use of State-Appropriated Funding
• Replacement of Destroyed Textbooks
• Additional Support

Each Oklahoma school district has a responsibility to conduct a thorough review of instructional materials to guide the investment of textbook funding. A Local Textbook Committee must be established consistent with legislative requirements found at 70 O.S. § 16-111.

In brief, the Local Textbook Committee should:

• consist of three to nine members, including a local community stakeholder, a chairperson who is a principal or curriculum specialist, and the remaining members (and also a majority of the Committee) should be classroom teachers; 
• establish a duly appointed local textbook coordinator who may request any approved publisher provide an examination copy of the textbook and teacher edition and a copy of the software for purposes of complete demonstration and review; 
• review instructional materials according to the process prescribed by the State Board of Education and adopt textbooks only from the list of textbooks selected by the State Textbook Committee; and 
• be able to, upon request, provide agendas and sign-in sheets for local textbook committee meetings.

Local Textbook Committee Responsibilities At-A-Glance

1. Districts must appoint members to the local textbook committee. This usually occurs in October or early November of each year and no later than February. 
2. The local textbook committee needs to meet to become familiar with, and/or make recommendations to improve, district guidance and requirements for textbook evaluations. 
3. After the Oklahoma State Textbooks Committee approves materials up for adoption for the upcoming school year, the district committee can begin to reach out to selected publishers to request samples and/or present them to the committee.
4. Once the district chooses the textbook(s) for adoption, the textbook committee must submit the adoption recommendation to the district. 
5. Districts may purchase textbooks on or after July 1 of each year.

For additional information, click here for a more detailed District Adoption Timeline. (Return to the top.)

Instructional Material Evaluation Rubrics: General Information

The evaluation rubrics are designed to allow reviewers to determine a threshold for quality for each Gateway. If instructional materials do not meet the thresholds for Exemplifies Quality or Approaching Quality for a Gateway, reviewers are prompted not to move forward with reviewing the next Gateway.

Rubric Structure

The rubrics below are the State Textbook Committee-approved rubrics used by content-expert review teams to evaluate instructional materials bid for state adoption. Each rubric contains a three-tiered rating system. The first tier is labeled "Exemplifies Quality"; the second tier is labeled "Approaching Quality"; and the third tier is labeled "Not Representing Quality" 70 O.S. §16-102(F).

Rubric Results

The new state textbook/instructional material lists include evaluation rubrics completed by content area experts, in the state, for comprehensive materials that districts can use along with their own data and local-level priorities to identify the instructional materials appropriate for their district. Go to the Approved Titles page for a list of all state-reviewed instructional materials with completed rubrics.

The rubrics listed below may be used to evaluate an existing district curriculum to support internal reviews and/or other comprehensive instructional material programs that may not have been bid for state adoption.

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Submission of a Textbook Plan

The superintendent of each school district shall submit to the State Board of Education a textbook plan outlining the estimated number of textbooks needed by the school district and the total amount of money to be expended by the district for textbooks.

 is the online ordering system for all Oklahoma school districts to submit estimates of instructional material needs and orders. Registered users can click here to access. To register with iSTAR, email [email protected].

Estimates and orders may also be submitted directly to each vendor's registered depository.

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Flexibility in the Use of State-Appropriated Funding

According to 70 O.S. § 16-114a(B), districts may request flexibility in the use of state-appropriated funding. Approval for such a request requires the school district to demonstrate to the State Board of Education that the textbooks and instructional materials used by the district for the subject areas being considered in the current textbook adoption cycle are current and appropriate for student learning. A school district that has received textbook funding flexibility approval from the Board may elect to expend any monies allocated for textbooks, including any monies carried over, for any purpose related to the support and maintenance of the school district as determined by the board of education of the school district. 

Visit the Accreditation Standards Division for more information about Statutory Waiver and Deregulation processes. 

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Replacement of Destroyed Textbooks

State law, 70 O.S. §16-114a(C), allows for any textbooks distributed to districts that have been destroyed by fire or other hazards to be replaced by the State Board of Education. Please direct related inquiries to the Office of Legal Services. 

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Additional Support

For further reading and ideas for improving the local review process, the following reports may be useful:

• EdReports

  • Selecting for Quality: Six Key Adoption Steps (2019)

• Instruction Partners

  • Questions for Naming Curriculum Criteria (Curriculum Support Guide, 2018)
  • Selection and Decision Making Approaches (Curriculum Support Guide, 2018)
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