At its March 17 meeting, the District 202 School Board approved the adoption of nine new textbooks, workbooks and supplements and the deletion of six textbooks. The new adoptions relate to new courses or replace outdated textbooks, according to a March 13 memo from Dr. Peter Bavis, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Evanston Township High School.
New are AP Chemistry, AP Physics 1 and 2, a new AP workbook for Spanish, and AP Language and Composition textbooks. “AP textbooks have a 10-year window,” Dr. Bavis said, “If our textbooks aren’t up-to-date, our courses aren’t approved by the College Board.”
The District will also purchase a new textbooks for Introduction to Public Safety, a dual-credit course with Oakton Community College.
The school’s textbooks for economics, AP chemistry, geoscience (H), AP physics and Introduction to Public Safety are outdated, Dr. Bavis said.
The textbooks underwent “strenuous vetting by teachers,” Dr. Bavis said.
“What is the future of hard-paper textbooks?” asked Board member Jonathan Baum.
“There will be a shift in time [to online textbooks],” Dr. Bavis said. “That won’t necessarily translate into savings, because the publishers [will] still hold the copyright.” He answered affirmatively to Mr. Baum’s next question: “Will it translate to lighter backpacks?”