Textbook Case of Community Say in Schools : Publishing: Volunteers meet each month to review educational material for students around the state.

In a book-filled room near Camarillo Airport, a dozen volunteers from Ventura County meet every month to help decide which books may be used in classrooms across the state.

Although 80% of the textbooks used in public schools are put through stringent reviews for both educational and social content by state committees in Sacramento, the remainder are reviewed by local committees of volunteers.

In most years, there are one or two other volunteer committees that review textbooks and videos in counties around the state. But this year Ventura County has the only committee that has met regularly, state education officials said. In Riverside County, a review committee has met occasionally this year but school officials there notified the state last September that the panel planned to disband.

The committees ensure that books submitted by publishers show balanced portrayals of California’s multicultural society. Local districts then scrutinize the books for educational content.

“I find fulfillment in it because I love books,” said committee member Ernesto de la Cruz, a retired librarian. “It’s like taking refresher courses in college.”

Most of the books reviewed by the group meet state standards, but those that do not are cited for each violation of the state standards that the committee finds. Problems found by the county’s committee in recent years include:

* An English-as-a-second-language textbook titled “Live Action English” had a drawing on the cover and inside showing a man with a martini glass in his hand. The publisher changed the drawing to show the man holding a soda can.

* “Read With Me,” published in both English and Spanish, showed a disabled child with a brace on her leg apparently wincing in fear from a puppy. The committee, noting that the picture seemed to reinforce a stereotype of handicapped children as timid and afraid, issued a citation. The picture was redrawn to change the child’s expression of fear to a smile.

* A storybook titled “Mr. Squire’s Collection” included a drawing of a pair of pants with a Levi logo. State standards forbid the use of brand names or logos in textbooks, so the group issued a citation and the logo was removed.

The committee examines books based on guidelines in 13 categories, the same requirements used by the statewide committees.

The state standards aim to assure unbiased portrayals of racial, religious and cultural groups, aging and handicapped people and male and female roles. When alcohol or drugs are mentioned, warnings of their dangers must be included.

California is one of 23 states that have guidelines for adopting books. Committees began reviewing textbooks at the local level about 10 years ago, state officials said.

“In the beginning we had quite a lot of books that were cited because publishers were learning how to meet the guidelines,” said De la Cruz, 62, who holds a doctorate in education.

Now, committee members said, most publishers know the rules and only rarely do problems occur.

“Occasionally we’ll get a book with stories resurrected from another era, with only fair-skinned, blue-eyed children, or one that only shows mommies in the kitchen with aprons,” said member Pat Bell. “They don’t have the flexibility we look for.”

Over the past decade, publishers have made major changes in how they put textbooks together in an effort to meet California standards, said Glen Thomas, director of the state Department of Education’s textbook development office.

“It’s very, very rare to find a sexist or blatantly racially demeaning situation,” Thomas said.

State officials do not keep track of the number of citations issued each year by the county committees, Thomas said.

At least three committee members must agree before a publisher is notified of a problem, said Rovina Salinas, who coordinates the committee’s meetings at the Instructional Materials Display Center on Airport Way in Camarillo. All books that have been adopted for state use are on public display at the center.

In many cases, publishers trying to sell their books in the lucrative California textbook market will correct a problem, officials said. However, they may appeal to the state if they believe a citation is unwarranted.

The Ventura County committee has been meeting since 1982, longer than any other review panel in the state, Salinas said. School officials are seeking three more volunteers for the group, whose members include an attorney, current and former teachers, a college student, a retired librarian and a retired engineer.

The dozens of books, educational videos and other materials they review range from first-grade primers to middle-school history books to foreign-language videos and audiocassettes.

A list of the books approved by the Ventura County group will be distributed to school districts statewide next spring. After scrutinizing the books for educational content, local school boards will decide whether to adopt them, based on their district’s textbook needs.

Many of the county’s committee members have been with the group since it was formed.

“I think if you enjoy reading and you value education, those would be criteria for enjoyment,” said member Cathy Case, 46, who directs the curriculum laboratory at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks and also teaches kindergarten. “If you are not particularly interested in elementary and secondary subject areas, it may be tedious.”

Occasionally, the reviews can be arduous work.

This month, for example, the committee was assigned to review 56 educational videos, although some were as short as six or seven minutes. Two special meetings have been scheduled to allow members to view all the videos.

Member Lee Delzell, 78, a retired engineer and teacher, said he is often thrilled by the depth of information and the colorful graphics available to today’s schoolchildren.

Delzell said he remembers paying 2 cents each for pamphlets and booklets during his school days. The books he reviews sometimes cost $40 or more.

As a committee member, he said he is sometimes awed by the responsibility of helping to determine which books will be available in the schools.

“When my signature goes on that form,” Delzell said, the textbook company “may get to run through the presses thousands of books that will go out to our children.”

FYI

The Ventura County superintendent of schools office is seeking volunteers, particularly people under age 30, who are interested in reviewing books and other materials proposed for use in California’s public schools. Applicants must be approved by state education officials. Contact Rovina Salinas at 388-4216.

BACKGROUND

About 80% of the books used in California’s public schools are reviewed by two statewide volunteer committees whose members are appointed by the state Board of Education. One committee includes education experts who examine books for accuracy, breadth and depth of information. The other committee is made up of state residents whose task is to ensure that the books are balanced and nondiscriminatory. Each year, these committees review textbooks in one of seven subject areas and decide which to recommend to local districts. Between major textbook adoptions, however, publishers continue to submit textbooks to the state, hoping that they also can be used in public schools. Those books, plus other supplementary materials, are reviewed by committees at two or three of the 30 Instructional Materials Display Centers around the state. Those committee members are chosen by state officials. Both the statewide and local committees review textbooks for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, while individual school districts decide which books they will use at the high school level.