By Juan Reynoso

BACKPAGE EDITOR

By Laney Paulson

COPY EDITOR

            A quick glance at the English textbooks reveals a sorry state. Peeling covers, water stains, pen marks and torn pages seem to be the common story among the orange, blue, yellow and purple McDougal-Littell textbooks. For nearly a decade now, students from across the Escondido Union High School District (EUHSD) have had to cope with these aging materials.

“It’s not just that the materials are old. The problem is that they are outdated,” says English Department Co-Chair Doug Paulson. “Our current text sets were purchased before there were State Standards, before the Exit Exam existed, before we had all the technology that is available now.”

Paulson explained,” If you look at the textbook materials which are available today, they are tremendously sophisticated. The entire student edition is on-line. There are on-line tutorials, video clips with every story, PowerPoints for every unit, computerized essay editing programs.  The standards are imbedded right into the pages of the books. The new programs may be using the same stories, but the resources to bring those stories to life for students are light years ahead of what we have now.”

            Traditionally, the district follows a cycle where every ten years a core subject area re-evaluates its curriculum. The process begins at the lowest levels, among the subject area councils at each school, and slowly rises through committee after committee, until it reaches the Superintendent and the School Board at one of their regular board meetings.

            Since May 2008, representatives from the English Departments at the three comprehensive high schools (Escondido, Orange Glen and San Pasqual) have come together to establish a new curriculum and search for a new set of textbooks. As Doug Paulson described, “The teachers from the English Department worked very hard for almost two years in refining the essential learnings for students, developing an excellent curriculum, and selecting textbooks that meet the needs of students.”

            Unfortunately, the English department’s slot in the curriculum cycle came at the country’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Because of the subsequent budget cuts in education that the State of California has had to enact, the EUHSD does not have sufficient financial resources to adopt a new curriculum and the costly, new textbooks that it requires. Paulson went on to relate the situation, “Everyone was very disappointed when we found out we wouldn’t be adopting the textbooks as expected. It felt like a great deal of effort was put in for which we will get little return.”

            In addition, the district is waiting upon a new set of national standards in English/Language Arts that are currently in draft form and might take effect in the fall of 2010. As the district’s Director of Curriculum and Professional Development, Ruth Hellams stated, “We want to make sure prior to purchase that we don’t buy something that may not meet this new need.” 

            In the meantime, English teachers must continue to cope with the out-dated curriculum and textbooks they use for classroom instruction. As Paulson asserted, “We will continue on with the textbooks we have had for the past eleven years, we keep on doing our best with what we have.”