GUIDELINES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS SELECTION
AND RE-EVALUATION OF MATERIALS
1. Legal and delegated responsibility.
a. The School Board is legally responsible for all materials purchased for the operation of Alachua County Schools.
b. Selection of the district's loan materials is primarily the responsibility of the designated district media personnel in consultation with administration, faculty, students, parents, and others. Selection is a continuous process. All selections of books and audiovisual materials should be on the basis of professional evaluation, personal evaluation and/or teacher recommendations.
c. Final approval of the selection is the responsibility of the Superintendent or his designee.
d. Details for each school's instructional media selection process will be on file in each school and in the office of the Director of Instructional Media Services.
2. Objectives of the selection process are:
a. to provide a collection which enriches and supports the curriculum, one which promotes educational growth in students at all grade levels, and stimulates the acquisition of factual knowledge, literary appreciation, aesthetic values, and ethical standards.
b. to provide pupils with a background of information which will enable them to make intelligent choices in their daily lives.
c. to make available media of opposing and/or controversial issues so that young citizens may develop the practice of critical thinking under the guidance of a qualified person.
d. to provide a useful and useable collection which is appropriate for the users of the district by placing principle above opinion and reason above prejudice in the selection process.
3. Responsibility for selection of materials.
Teachers, students, lay persons, supervisors, principals, and media specialists are actively involved in making recommendations for purchases. The responsibility for coordinating the selection of instructional materials for the district and making the recommendation for purchase rests with the professionally trained media personnel and/or district subject area personnel.
4. Criteria for selection of materials.
The following criteria for selection will be considered:
a. the needs of the district's schools based on the knowledge of the curriculum and of the existing collection.
b. the needs of the students for this type of media.
c. the excellence of this material compared to others available.
d. the relationship of this material to the course of study.
e. suitable content and format for the ability and maturity of the student for which it will be used.
f. appeal to the student for whom it is intended.
g. recommendations in critical reviewing media.
h. the relationship of its purchase to long-range plans for meeting curriculum needs and student interests.
i. literary quality.
5. In the following areas which are more apt to be subject to criticism, our procedure is:
a. Sex Education Materials presenting information on sex should be subjected to a stern test of literary merit and reality by the district science, health, and human growth and development specialists, who take into consideration the majority of the district's users and the district's programs.
b. Profanity The fact that profanity appears in material will not automatically disqualify a selection. Care will be taken to exclude materials using profanity in a lewd or detrimental attitude.
c. Ideologies The district should, without making any effort to sway student judgment, make available basic factual information on the level of its students, on any ideology or philosophy which exerts a strong force, either favorably or unfavorably in government, current events, politics, education, or any other phase of life.
d. Science Medical and scientific knowledge should be made available without any biased selection of facts.
e. Religion Factual unbiased materials which represent all major religions can be included in the district's collection, but since religion is not taught in the district's school, materials in this area will not be a high priority.
Gifts of materials or money are welcomed. Gifts will be accepted with the understanding that their use or disposition will be determined by district media personnel according to the same selection criteria and procedures as purchased materials.
7. Request for consideration of instructional materials.
Requests for the re-evaluation of an instructional material shall be on an approved form signed by the person making the request. The material in question shall be reviewed at the local school level by the principal and a committee composed of persons responsible for selecting and using the material to be re-evaluated and subject area specialists, when appropriate.
The school principal shall report the disposition of any such review to the Superintendent and to the person requesting the review, appending the signed re-evaluation form, a list of the reviewing committee and the written recommendations of the committee. The requestor may initiate further challenge by contacting the office of the Superintendent. The Superintendent may take further suitable action if he has reason to believe that the request for re-evaluation is of sufficient concern or may have implications for more than one school. Any such request or action of a substantial nature may be brought before the Board for its consideration after the process described above has been completed
