Instructional Materials

Continuous development, evaluation, and adaptation of primary curricular resources are necessary to meet the evolving educational needs of students. To ensure that our instructional materials are meeting the rigorous demands of our classrooms, the Office of Student Achievement seeks feedback from our educators and continuously evaluates the impact of our materials in relation to our district's vision and our core learning objectives.

The Board of Education's Instructional Material Management Policy and Procedures protect the integrity of our commitment to excellence and ensure that instructional materials are selected in a manner which are:

• in alignment with District DESK Standards and Utah core standards
• of high quality, evidence-based, and proven effective in supporting student learning
• objective and provide balanced viewpoint of issues
• accurate and factual
• accurate in the representation of diverse ethnic groups
• free from sexual, ethnic, age, gender, or disability bias and stereotyping\
• appropriate to varying levels of learning
• age appropriate
• aligned to support personalized competency-based learning
• compatible with District technology systems, of high technical quality, and easy to use.

SCHEDULE

Materials are scheduled for adoption based on two criteria: 1) expiration of current licenses, and 2) USBE Core Standards adoption cycles.  Courses are considered for new adoptions when materials are materially or electronically non-functioning, license-use expires, and/or soon after new standards are written by the Utah State Board of Education.

To get more information for the proposed timeline for read here Core Standards revision and implementation (USBE).

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• Secondary social studies materials were adopted in 2021 when all online licenses from the last adoption ended.
• Elementary socials studies materials are scheduled for 2022 when USBE completes its Core Standards revision. 

PROCESS

The adoption process consists of the following steps and stages:

• A needs-assessment is conducted.
• Materials requirements and selection criteria are used to develop a technical rubric.
• A request for proposals (RFP) is sent to vendors.
• Application for service on the adoption committee and sub-committees are sought from the community and educators.
• An adoption committee is formed to represent all geographic areas of the district and all courses involved.
• Committee members are trained on their responsibilities, review the materials, and apply the rubric to obtain a score.
• If scores are not conclusive, a "presentation phase" is scheduled for committee members to hear from vendors.
• Evaluation rubrics are re-applied by individual committee members.  
• If scores are not conclusive, a more detailed rubric is applied to vendors with the highest scores.
• A pricing rubric is applied to the highest scoring vendors.
• A public open house is conducted, and feedback is collected.
• The award is made to the vendor with the highest score. 

The USBE Instructional Materials Center contains information on the following topics:

• Utah's Review Process
• RIMS
• Regulation
• Rubrics
• Core Standards
• Commission Members