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Educational Research Analysts
2001 Grades 7-8 Literature textbook reviews

Texas has approved the Grades 7-8 Literature programs of four major pub­lishers for 2001 local adoption. Based on the story content of their read­ing selections (we have standard review criteria to judge this), they rank thus:

better
ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE
Holt Rinehart Winston ©2001
fair
LITERATURE:
Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes
Prentice Hall ©2001
poor
LITERATURE: The Reader's Choice
Glencoe ©2001
LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE
McDougal Littell ©2001
These two series have the greatest total numbers of the following problems:
  • amoral storylines normalizing ethical cynicism and anti-social behavior
  • emphasis on death or sorrow
  • political correctness (e.g., anti-white, anti-male, anti-Christian bias)
  • editorial insensitivity (swearing, near-profanity, sexual suggestiveness)

No publisher funded our reviews in any way. We have no financial stake in any text­book company. Unlike publishers' sales reps, we have no monetary interest in any text­book adoption outcome. Our support comes from concerned individuals and a few small foun­da­tions, none of whom to our knowledge have any connection with the public school textbook industry.

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