Benchmark in LA and Other Adoption News

Benchmark Education (New Rochelle, NY) took the K-5 schools in Los Angeles by storm this year in the elementary adoption of English language arts programs.

Almost all the elementary schools in the district adopted Benchmark’s K-5 programs, Benchmark Advance and Benchmark Adelante for English-language development. District schools spent just under $77.1 million on the Benchmark programs.

The other choice, Wonders by McGraw-Hill Education (New York) generated $3.1 million for MHE, as the program was picked up by only a few schools, mostly affiliated charter schools. The showing was a decided come-down for MHE, which had swept grades 6-8 in Los Angeles in 2016.

Elsewhere in Instructional Materials Adoption

The Marion County school district has become the first district in Florida to opt to conduct its own adoption process for instructional materials instead of choosing from the list of materials approved annually by the state Department of Education.

Marion in late September called for community volunteers to serve on the committees, which will review materials for 17 separate courses:

• Grades K-5: Language Arts, K-2 and 3-5;
• Grades 6-8: U.S. History, World History, Civics, Life Science, Earth/Space Science, and Physical Science;
• High School: U.S. History, Economics with Financial Literacy, U.S. Government, World History, Biology I, Anatomy and Physiology Honors, Environmental Science, Physical Science, and Chemistry I.

The review process is set to last five weeks from Oct. 11 through Nov. 7. The committees’ final vote of approval is set for November 27. The board will then make the final approval.

The district plans to begin using the materials in fall 2018.

About 60 private schools in Mississippi that for years have received state funding to purchase textbooks are slated to lose about 40% of those funds this year due to state budget cuts to the state Department of Education. The state education department funding was cut 22% for the current fiscal year.

As a group, the schools have received about $600,000 annually for the past five years. Last year, total funding for the schools was $596,184. This year, the funding will be about $200,000 less for a total of $396,647.

More information on instructional materials adoptions in K-12 education can be found in Simba Information's report, 2016 National Instructional Materials Adoption Scorecard and 2017 Outlook. (Updated Edition Upcoming)

Discover more about the market for PreK-12 publishing in Simba's report, Publishing for the PreK-12 Market 2017  .