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Board to appoint state textbook committees; department explains closed-review process and timeline
Summary
The board discussed nominations and the legal process for appointing textbook committees that will review materials aligned to new computer science, digital literacy, arts and social studies standards; board members asked whether the board can approve parts of a committee report or must accept/reject the full recommendation.
The Alabama State Board of Education discussed appointments to state textbook committees and the law governing how textbook recommendations are handled after committees finish their reviews.
Department staff explained the multi-year cycle: standards development is followed by textbook reviews and an appointment process that includes nominees from the governor and appointments by the board. "The textbook committee will review all the textbooks. They will rank them using a rubric," staff said, noting the rubric commonly rates submissions green, yellow or red and that the board historically encourages districts to purchase green-rated materials.
Board members asked whether the board can accept parts of a textbook committee’s report or must accept or reject it in full. Staff said the statutory process generally results in a committee recommendation packet that the board may accept, reject or send back, but board members recalled past practice where the board handled certain grade bands separately (for example, K–3 reading materials). A board member asked the department to confirm ahead of the committee’s work whether the board could separate recommendations by subject or grade level.
The department described logistical details: committee appointments require recruiting volunteer reviewers (sometimes difficult because reviewers must read large volumes of material), the governor makes a set of appointments that require senate confirmation, and the department keeps initial recommendation materials confidential until the board acts. The department said social studies is expected to be a challenging review given recent changes splitting Alabama history across grades 3–5 and other grade-level shifts in middle grades.
The agenda lists appointments to the textbook committees for arts and social studies; the transcript records discussion of the process and nominations but does not include the board’s final confirmation votes during the provided excerpt.
