AP US Government & Politics
Core Code Alignment
Social Studies
Political Science
09060000010: A.P. US Government & Politics
Political Science
09060000010: A.P. US Government & Politics
Recommendation
Reviewed, Not Recommended
Evaluation
Upon review, this resource is not recommended for an AP U.S. Government and Politics aligned class for a multitude of reasons. First, the textbook is not aligned with either the most recent exam changes nor the previous ones. Instructors would find it difficult to use the textbook in a class that requires the use of it. Second, teachers are given limited resources that do not align with the course description, such as short quizzes that are not stimulus based, no free response questions, etc. Third, the book is incomplete, with additional supplemental areas being blank (the same supplemental areas in another book with the same headers were present in the later book, but not in this one, see comments). Fourth, the book is not at a college level, which is necessary for proper instruction in a college level course. Finally, the book content itself has a left-leaning bias. While this itself is not means to fully discredit the book, the other factors contribute to the book fully being rejected after review as not
Educators Using These Materials
No educators found.
Rubric : Generic
Content
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alignment | The content of this resource aligns with appropriate grade-level core standards and is current, well-researched and referenced from reliable sources. | The content of this resource aligns with most grade-level core standards but will need supplementary materials to ensure coverage of all the objectives for this course. | The content of this resource aligns with a few grade-level core standards for a portion of the course. | The content of this resource does not align with standards and objectives for this course. | ||
| While the book is aligned with the Utah Core standards for Government, the book is aligned and was designed for the AP U.S. Government course. Because of this, teachers may find it difficult to find materials in the textbook for a core class, particularly as the reading is quite extensive. Educators should be aware that this textbook would be most aligned with AP style courses in comparison to a core course. In regards to the AP course, material does not accurately align to the newest course description or standards. The majority of AP Government textbooks normally have each part aligned with the CED. However, this does not. This would make it difficult for an AP teacher to use this material in their classes. | ||||||
| Scaffolding | Scaffolding supports for these materials are complex and challenging, engage learners from various skill levels, assist all students in enhancing conceptual understanding, and offer opportunities for students to share evidence and research. | Scaffolding supports for these materials engage learners from various skill levels and assist students in enhancing conceptual understanding. | Scaffolding supports for these materials engage learners from various skill levels. | Scaffolding supports for these materials do not engage learners. | ||
| Short videos are supplemented with short formative assessments, allowing the student to learn in smaller chunks of information. This allows the student the ability to receive information in small, manageable sections rather than feeling overwhelmed like a traditional textbook. While textbook style sections of the book are included, they are separated into small sections of reading that can be completed in less than a few minutes.However, the reading itself is quite extensive, and students are expected to read the material versus interact with it. For example, while guiding questions are sometimes shown in the reading, students are not able to interact with it. The textbook would be described as a traditional AP style textbook with a substantial amount of reading but little activities or interactiveness. | ||||||
| Navigation | Students can navigate the material independently. Instructions are clear and understandable. | The material contains instructions that are understandable and easy to navigate. Students may need educator support to navigate material. | The material may be used with direct educator support but lacks clear instructions. | The instructions in this material are unclear, and navigation is difficult. | ||
| The navigation of the site is not the easiest. Students are first encouraged to watch a video, then answer some questions. However, students cannot click to the next section without first going back to the main menu. Additionally, when in the textbook, it is difficult for the reader to know how to navigate back to the main page or table of contents. Instead, students are encouraged to just click through the pages. You can figure out an easy way to get to the Chapter Table of Contents, but not the full table of contents for the book. | ||||||
Accessibility
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Characteristics | The design of the material is ADA-compliant and can be utilized by all students. In physical terms, this material is durable, interactive, and provides high-quality audio-visual and tactile experiences for all users. The material contains modern, up-to-date, and relatable visuals, including diverse groups of people. | In physical terms, this material is durable, interactive, and provides high-quality audio-visual and tactile experiences for all users. | In physical terms, this material is fragile in construction, and provides limited tactile experiences for students. | In physical terms, this material is designed to be disposable and temporary. | ||
| The materials are difficult to navigate at times to get to the page you want. However, once you are there, the pages can easily be moved from page to page. However, there are no interactive activities, pictures, videos, etc. in the textbook readings. There are occasional photos that normally do not have to do with specifics are more seem to be stock photographs (for example, the section of social media and its impact on politics has a generic image of people holding cell phones at a concert, or the section regarding the Affordable Care Act had a generic picture of a doctor and a patient). There are one to two videos per section that are about a minute and a half long, and include formative questions. These were easy to access. Some activities also included videos, but these were not embedded in the learning but were more activities and assignments. Students will find the textbook to be very word heavy, with little visuals. | ||||||
| Technical Standards | The material goes above and beyond meeting all the technical standards, ensures student data privacy is safeguarded, and can be easily installed or accessed without technical assistance. Licensing information is clearly stated in the description. | The material meets all the requirements of federal and state laws, along with the accepted technical standards (ISTE Standards and VPAT Compliance). Additional technical specifications and limitations, including hardware requirements, bandwidth demands, student data privacy, and software/ web access restrictions, are adequately noted in the description. The design of the material allows for error-free installation or access without purchasing additional components. | The material is limited by specifications requiring additional materials, technical assistance, hardware, software, or infrastructure. Student data privacy could be at risk. Resources within the material end after a trial period. | Student data privacy is at risk. | ||
| The materials are able to be accessed on multiple computers with different requirements. Ad blockers, however, did not allow the program to load without being paused. This may be an issue with some school or district software. Additionally, other software must be purchased in order to use instructional materials. Word and a Zip program are required to access these files. | ||||||
| Adaptability | The material is currently relevant and adaptable for teacher and student use in individualized or group instructional settings across multiple content areas. The material can be customized for the needs of diverse learners. | The material is currently adaptable for a teacher or student to use in a limited instructional setting across a few content areas. The material can be utilized by diverse learners (not customizable). | The material has some features adaptable for students in at least one content area. The material has limited options to address the needs of diverse learners. | The material is not adaptable or easily incorporated into various educational settings or with various diverse learners. | ||
| The textbook includes some highlighted vocabulary words that are easily clickable for students to understand the terms being used in the readings. However, there are few highlighted words in each section, as the textbook is created for advanced students in Advanced Placement courses versus the core students. Students who are ESL/ELL, SPED, etc. may have difficulty in this textbook due to the advanced verbiage used and lack of supports. Students may find it difficult to stay focused in a core class due to its lack of interesting features that traditionally pull students in, such as embedded videos, photos, graphics, etc. The textbook would benefit from ensuring proper citation is given to all resources (example: one section included statistics of who supported the Affordable Care Act yet gave no citation, reference, etc. to that claim) | ||||||
Pedagogy
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instructional Support | The material provides multiple examples and strong support to educators of ways to deliver instruction. These may include: -Scaffolding Lesson Plans, Personalized/Differentiated Instruction, Experiential Learning, Concept Mapping, Questioning Techniques, or Family Involvement. Furthermore, this material has content that can be problem/project-based, with incorporated skills and concepts that are integrated with all disciplines equally to support student sense-making. (Transdisciplinary/ Interdisciplinary Content Integration) | The material provides some examples to educators of ways to deliver instruction. It contains a few of the following: Scaffolding Lesson Plans, Personalized/Differentiated Instruction, Experiential Learning, Concept Mapping, Questioning Techniques, or Family Involvement. | The material contains limited instructional support on using the material with diverse groups of students, various skill levels, and student needs. | The material does not provide instructional support or examples for the educator. | ||
| The publisher includes a section entitled “Instructor Resources” at the bottom of the page. However, the Instructors Resources are lacking and do not help the teacher. The first link is to a YouTube page that includes playlists from other creators, such as Crash Course and TED-X. There are no instructor’s guides or correlation guides to these videos. The “Educator’s Guide” to the courses lists activities and how many points they suggest each to be worth. The syllabus includes a more detailed explanation of each section. Educators will find the “Instructor Resource Manual” to be the best help, as it goes in depth on each section, includes guiding questions and activities, as well as links to supplemental resources. However, all of these resources are very clunky to access. Rather than imbed the resources into the online platform, they require downloads that are in Word formatting. The Instructor resource Manual, for example, is a Zip file and requires Word as well. Additionally, the publisher would benefit from making the resources obvious to the instructor of their meaning and purpose. When reading through the instructor resources, none appear to directly help or assist the teacher with the names and descriptions given. | ||||||
| Supplemental Resources | The material provides a wide variety of supplemental resources that are evidence-based and are linked to real-world circumstances and current events. | The material references numerous available supplemental resources. | The material references some available supplemental resources. | The material does not refer to any supplemental resources. | ||
| The textbook references outside information extensively throughout the reading. In particular, educators will likely enjoy the numerous Supreme Court case references, particularly because of the emphasis of these cases in the AP Government curriculum. Activities, such as guided questions, are not able to be submitted in the reading. At the end of the textbook, the publisher includes “Student Resources” in order to help assist students in preparing for the exam. However, the resources given are poorly executed. For example, the textbook includes a link to an “American Government YouTube Playlist,” which links to the Cengage Political Science YouTube page. Rather than having a collection of videos by the publisher, it is instead a collection of YouTube playlists that link to other creators, such as Crash Course, NPR, and TED-X. The section entitled “Research and Writing Tutorials” has three subheaders, and when each is clicked, it states “This container is empty.” This is in contrast to another book by the same publisher, with the same subheadings, which does include expansive resources. The publisher includes another section entitled “Speech Confidence Video Library” aimed to strengthen speech skills, which again does not make much sense for the course goals as there is not a focus on speech skills in AP Government. While these videos were created by the publisher, it is surprising that they would focus their time and skills to the creation of videos that are | ||||||
| Assessments | The material contains a variety of formative and summative assessments aligned with Utah Core Standards, Personalized Competency-Based Learning, and Universal Design for Learning. It provides appropriate intervention strategies that lead to observable performance and real-world experiences for students. The assessments are ADA-compliant. | The material contains summative assessments aligned with Utah Core Standards with few interventions and is ADA-compliant. | The material contains a limited number of assessments without intervention strategies but is ADA-compliant. | The material does not provide assessment materials. | ||
| Throughout the textbook, there are occasional sets of guiding questions. However, students cannot fill out or complete these questions while reading. With the textbook being a substantial amount of reading (around 40 pages or so per chapter), students are not assessed until the end of the chapter. “Focus Activities” do not cover the material learned in the chapter but instead are more reading with fill in the blank or very short questions. Teachers will find that “Wrap it Up Quizzes” and “Test Prep” are likely the best source for quick, summative style questions. However, questions are not aligned to the AP Government style of questions per the newest exam changes, and questions for the “Test Prep” are very basic Level 1 and 2 style questions without much depth. Teachers will need additional question banks in order to prepare their students adequately for the exam. Extension activities at the end of each “Part” of the book do not align with the AP Gov exams and do not include depth. For example, one question asks about what percentage of voters in 2016 were conservative, with a specific amount listed (it was a true false question). | ||||||
Culture of Learning and Belonging
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bias Free | This material is free from bias and is in compliance with all relevant federal and state laws, rules, and regulations, as listed in the next “2-Adequate” section for this item. Furthermore, this material focuses on shared identity and includes the unique characteristics & cultural differences of students in Utah. (53E-4-204.1) This material supports civic and character education. (53G-10-204) | This material is neutral and is in compliance with the laws, rules, and regulations below: -It can be used by all students regardless of sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or membership in any other protected class, such as ethnicity, or disability, as described in (R277-328). -This material supports educators to be in compliance with (53G-10-202.4), where they may not use their positions to endorse, promote, or disparage a particular religious, denominational, sectarian, agnostic, or atheistic belief or viewpoint. -The material is free from discrimination and does not support stereotyping of character traits, including hard work ethic. (53G-10-206) -It is free from advertising, e-commerce, or political interest and is in compliance with the law and community standards. | This material may be interpreted as biased. Or promoting advertising, e-commerce, or political interest. Or maybe considered to regard or treat some groups unfairly. | This material does not comply with federal and state laws, rules, and regulations. This material is biased and favors a point of view that may be distracting to the educational experience of students. | ||
| The book does not extensively go into controversial issues. For perspective, the section regarding Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act gave a very brief overview of issues but do not go in depth regarding its controversy. For instance, the section under the Affordable Care Act is very brief and mostly goes over the differences of the uninsured from before and after the act. It mentions in one sentence that President Trump attempted to repeal it but was unsuccessful, but does not go into depth about the issue.Other sections, such as that of same-sex marriage, are far more detailed. The content is not up-to-date, and the publisher may want to update these issues (such as stating that there are penalties for the Affordable Care Act which was abolished from 2019 to present). Reading throughout the book includes a strong liberal bias. For example, such as expanding on why insurance is important as well as only giving one sentence regarding a potential appeal, even though the book was published two years after President Trump’s attempts to repeal (as well as making it a major campaign issue). In a more complex example, the section regarding the Clinton/Trump debates found the following (Note that in the section, there were no comments on Clinton nor what she discussed in the debates): “Trump and Clinton debated three times. Polls and pundits agreed that Clinton prevailed each time. In the first debate, Trump appeared unprepared and claimed that his microphone was malfunctioning. The second debate followed the release of an audio recording of Donald Trump bragging to TV host Billy Bush that “when you are a star” you can grab and kiss women without their consent. Trump called the conversation “locker room talk.” Indeed, just 90 minutes prior to the second debate, Trump had appeared with four women who had in the past accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. Trump and Clinton did not shake hands before or after the second debate in a breach of political protocol and a sign of the deep rancor between the candidates. In the third and final debate, Trump stunned everyone when he refused to say that he would accept the outcome of the election.” An additional section stated: “Donald Trump was a highly controversial candidate who seemed to delight in defying conventional political rules by insulting Gold Star families, women, Muslims, Hispanics, and people with disabilities.” | ||||||
| Cultural Awareness | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Inclusive Components | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Shared Values and Character Traits | This item has not been graded. | |||||
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