The Williamsburg-James City County School Division is considering these five textbooks for adoption for the next school year. (Ian Brickey/WYDaily)
Middle and high school students in Williamsburg-James City County schools are likely to begin the next school year with updated textbooks.
The WJCC School Board is set to approve five new textbooks for middle and high school social studies and science classes.
The selected textbooks are:
- The Cultural Landscape by James Rubenstein
- Geography, published by Holt McDougal
- Biology, published by Holt McDougal
- Earth Science, published by Pearson
- Biology Interactive Reader, published by McDougal
The books were selected by committees using the division’s textbook selection rubric, which emphasizes the books’ achievements in innovation, up-to-date content, course of study correlation and other academic criteria.
The committees also consulted the Virginia Board of Education’s list of recommended textbooks, an annual list compiled by the Virginia Department of Education to assist school divisions in selecting new textbooks.
Of the selected textbooks, only The Cultural Landscape did not appear on the state list, while each met the school division’s own criteria for selection.
The full list of criteria for selecting textbooks is available on WJCC’s website.
The school division held a public comment period on the selected textbooks April 24 through May 8.
WJCC Senior Director of School Performance Valerie DiPaola said the school division received one comment during the period, which supported the selection of the Pearson book as it aligned with Standards of Learning strategies.
The School Board will vote on whether to approve the selected textbooks at its June 16 meeting.
If the textbooks are approved, all three middle schools will have new science textbooks, and all three high schools will have new biology and earth science textbooks.