2020P: Curriculum Development and Adoption of Instructional Materials

The curriculum of a district will be reviewed on an annual basis. The district adoption cycle will be updated annually by the Executive Director of Teaching and Learning or designee.

Definitions:

Committees:

• Instructional Materials Committee (IMC): This committee meets 3 times per year to review adoption processes for Basic and Additional materials to approve materials for recommendation to the School Board and Superintendent or Designee.
• Adoption Committee: These are sub-committees for Basic Instructional Materials adoptions to review materials for adoption and makes a recommendation to the IMC for approval.
• Review Committee: These are subcommittees for Additional Materials adoptions to review materials for adoption and makes a recommendation to the Superintendent or Designee.

Curriculum Categories:

• Basic Instructional Materials: are the major instructional materials both in-print and non-print for a given course. These are evaluated by an Adoption Committee, recommended by the Instructional Materials Committee, and approved by the School Board. These materials are provided for all students to address learning standards.
• Additional Materials: used in conjunction with the Basic Instructional Materials of a course and are evaluated by a Review Committee, recommended by the Instructional Materials Committee, and approved by the Superintendent or designee for use across all sections of a course within the district. Additional Materials are used to support, enrich, individualize, and deliver the major skills content of a course or unit of study to meet the instructional needs of students. These materials, including novels, collections, films, plays, and non-fiction, may be in print or non-print format. Additional materials require IMC and Superintendent or Designee approval, but do not require School Board approval.
• Supplementary Materials: support and do not supplant the basic instructional material of a course. These materials serve to extend and support instruction; they should be rich, inclusive, and culturally responsive to serve the needs of all students. Supplementary materials do not require IMC or School Board approval.
• Experimental Use: are materials of a pilot nature and may be authorized for use by the superintendent or designee prior to School Board approval for general use throughout the district. These resources should be used for only one school year to either be submitted for approval or removed from use. Experimental materials do not require IMC or School Board approval.
• If any of the above materials have a technology component, approval and support must be attained from the Director of Educational Technology or designee.

Request for New Course or Major Modification to Existing Course

In the context of the development and publication of the middle school and high school course catalogs, schools requesting new courses or major modifications to existing courses will submit a request (Exhibit 2020P-A) to the Director of Teaching and Learning by December first of each Page 2 of 6 Procedure 2020P year. The Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, the Executive Directors of Schools, the Directors of Teaching and Learning, an administrator from the school making the request and the appropriate Curriculum Developer will meet to approve or deny the requests. Notification of the decision of the committee will be provided to the initiator of the request prior to winter break for inclusion in the first edit of the course catalog. New Basic and Additional instructional materials need to be approved through the IMC processes for new courses.

Selection of Instructional Materials:

Equity and Accountability

Per the Equity and Accountability Policy 0130, the district shall “adopt curriculum, and teaching and learning strategies, that leverage, reflect, and affirm the unique experiences and social, racial, cultural, linguistic and familial backgrounds of our Bellevue School District community.” In addition to Exhibit E, Bias Review, the critical criteria will be considered in the adoption of all District curriculum materials per Procedure 0130P.

Goals and Principles

1. Freedom to read and to have access to a wide variety of materials presenting differing points of view is an inherent right of students in a democratic society.
2. Materials will be chosen because they contribute to the mastery of course objectives, the enrichment of the curriculum and the students’ independent search for knowledge.
3. Materials selected will be suitable to the reading level, intellectual and social maturity, and interests of the intended student users.
4. Materials should contribute to the students’ growing understanding of their culture and other cultures, the concerns, and contributions - current and historical - that represent the diversity of the human population.
5. The variety of materials selected will provide a wide range of perspectives and present the concerns and contributions - current and historical - that represent the diversity of the human population.
6. Teachers’ knowledge of a given subject area and students’ needs and abilities will guide the evaluation, selection, and adoption of all types of materials.
7. The variety of materials selected shall provide opportunities for the advancement of students’ understanding of concepts of equity and facilitate optimum opportunities for appropriate student inclusion within the classroom.

Instructional Materials Committee (IMC)

Scope and Schedule

The Instructional Materials Committee is formed to establish and monitor such procedures as may be necessary for the selecting, adopting, and discarding of instructional materials owned and used by the district. The committee will act upon requests for instructional material approval and removal and will evaluate and act upon citizens’ requests for reconsideration of instructional materials. The function of the committee is to ensure that selected materials conform with stated criteria.

Regular committee meetings will be held three times a year on a schedule to be set by the committee chairperson at the beginning of each school year. Special meetings may be called by the committee chairperson if necessary.

Membership

This committee will consist of Ten (10) voting members. The composition will be:

1. Director of Teaching and Learning (Chairperson of the IMC)
2. One building administrator recommended by the District
3. One member from the Department of Equity recommended by the District
4. One curriculum developer jointly recommended by the District and the Association
5. Four teachers recommended by the Association: one elementary level, one middle school level, one high school level and one special education
6. One librarian recommended by the Association
7. One parent/guardian appointed by the Superintendent or designee The instructional materials committee will establish screening criteria to identify and eliminate bias based on sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, disability or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal.

Term of Office

The chairperson will be a permanent member of the committee. Other members will have two-year terms and may serve two consecutive terms.

Duties

1. Receive and act upon recommendations from the Teaching and Learning Department for the adoption of basic instructional materials, approval of additional materials, or removal of materials from adopted lists.
2. Approve processes developed by the Teaching and Learning Department for evaluation and adoption of instructional materials were followed.
3. Receive and review reports from subject matter committees regarding challenged materials, act on the recommendations, and forward its recommendations to the Superintendent.

Instructional Materials Processes

Basic Instructional Materials

1. Initial Selection: Basic Instructional Materials initially will be selected by such certificated staff as the superintendent may designate. Basic Instructional Materials are major instructional materials for a given course.
2. Adoption Committee Composition: Includes representation from grade level/course teachers, MLL educators, special education educators, advanced learning educators, administrators, parents/guardians and potentially an outside expert.
3. Evaluation: To evaluate materials by these criteria, instructional material selectors may find the following steps helpful:
   1. Read reviews in professional periodicals through the Teaching and Learning office, state superintendent of public instruction, etc.
   2. Review copies of other available texts. The district Teaching and Learning office will order samples on request.
   3. Evaluate instructional material alignment to applicable standards using published and accepted evaluation tools.
   4. Check the reading level of the text through use of a standard readability formula.
   5. Use tentatively selected materials according to experimental-use processes.
4. Stakeholder Feedback: Stakeholders will provide feedback in multiple ways: Adoption Committee members will give feedback from their perspective role, students and families provide feedback in either focus groups or surveys. All stakeholders will be able to share feedback with the curriculum developer through a designated email from the adoption’s webpage
5. Recommendation: The Adoption Committee for Basic Instructional Materials will consider the evaluation and feedback provided to the committee by stakeholders and come to consensus on an instructional material to recommend for approval to the Instructional Materials Committee (IMC).
6. Tasks and Timelines: Basic Instructional Materials can be approved at any IMC meeting and sent for adoption to the next board meeting. The superintendent directs that all non-emergency requests be confined to three board meetings per year. The committee chairperson will forward requests for instructional materials adoption to the board only three times per year as noted in the committee meeting schedule. Requests to deviate from this timeline should be forwarded to the committee chairperson.
7. Approval: Basic Instructional materials will be approved by the board prior to their use in classrooms. Instructional materials selected previously or that have been recommended by a college partner for College in the High School courses are exempt from this requirement.

Additional Materials – Please see Exhibit C

Supplementary Materials

1. Initial Selection Supplementary Materials will be selected by certificated staff using such materials with the understanding that while such materials do not require item by-item approval of the committee, they must be selected using the above goals and principles and are subject to normal reconsideration procedures. Supplementary Materials support and do not supplant the basic instructional material of a course. These materials serve to extend and support instruction; they should be rich, inclusive, and culturally responsive to serve the needs of all students.
2. Approval: Supplementary materials do not require Instructional Materials Committee approval or School Board approval.

Experimental Use

Materials of a pilot nature may be authorized for use by the superintendent or designee prior to School Board approval for general use throughout the district. These resources should be used for only one school year to either submitted for approval or removed from use.

Challenges to Instructional Materials

The following procedures are established for consideration of objections by parents, teachers, students, or other District residents to print or non-print materials in use within the Bellevue School District.

A. The process begins with an informed conversation between the complainant and the teacher or librarian. The staff member explains the use of the instructional material including the relationship to the selection criteria identified in the Policy 2020 -Instructional Materials. Staff is encouraged to keep an informal record of the discussion. If the objection cannot be resolved through a discussion between the staff member and complainant, the principal will:

1. Schedule a conference with the complainant and the staff member(s) using the material. The principal discusses the issues with the parties involved and works toward a resolution at the building level. Agreement may be reached at that time to continue to use the material within that building. An informal complaint will not require the removal of any instructional material.

B. If the complainant is not satisfied with the building level decision, the principal will give the complainant a “Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials” (Exhibit 2020PB) to complete and send to the Director of Teaching and Learning. No requests for reconsideration will be processed unless the above steps have been completed by one complainant for the material in question. A Request for Reconsideration must be filed with the Director of Teaching and Learning. The Director of Teaching and Learning will then complete the following:

1. Inform the Superintendent’s office of the complaint

2. Initiate committee review

3. Inform the patron of the handling of the request; and

Materials will remain in use until a determination has been made by the Superintendent.

C. The Director of Teaching and Learning will appoint a subject matter committee of the Instructional Materials Committee to review the Request for Reconsideration. The subject matter committee will prepare a recommendation as to the future use of the challenged material.

D. The complainant and staff members currently using the material in question will be given the opportunity to appear before the subject matter committee to present information. Hearings of a community member’s request for reconsideration will be open to the public. The review and recommendation should be completed with all due speed, considering the time needed to make a careful study of the material in question.

E. The Instructional Materials Committee will review the report of the subject matter committee and make a recommendation to the Superintendent.

F. The decision concerning future use of materials will be made by the Superintendent following receipt of committee recommendation(s). The Superintendent will inform the involved parties in writing of the decision.

G. The complainant or any staff member affected may appeal the Superintendent’s decision to the Board of Directors. Such appeal will be in writing and will be reviewed by the Board at its next regular meeting. The Board’s decision will be final.

Conditions for Loan and Sale of Instructional Materials

Free textbooks and other instructional materials may be made available for loan to students when, in the judgment of the board members, the best interests of the district will be served by such a decision. The professional staff will maintain records necessary for the proper accounting of all instructional materials and schools will set forth conditions for student replacement of lost or badly damaged materials.

Removal of Instructional Materials

Instructional materials may be removed from collections at any time that they no longer meet the criteria for initial selection outlined in “Goals and Principles.” Any instructional materials may be removed when the administration judges such removal to be in the best interests of the district. Ordinary procedures for withdrawal of materials are outlined below:

1. Instructional and Additional materials will be removed from collections by the Instructional Materials Committee based on the criteria for selection in this procedure.
2. Supplementary materials will be removed from collections by individual certificated staff holding such collections based on the criteria for selection in this procedure.

Members of the community are invited to review any instructional materials in current use or proposed for district purchase. Such review may be accomplished at the school or by contacting the Director of Teaching and Learning.