US Government
Core Code Alignment
Social Studies
Political Science
09060000020: United States Government and Citizenship
Political Science
09060000020: United States Government and Citizenship
Recommendation
Recommended Teacher Resource
Evaluation
After review, the textbook has been given the designation as a Recommended Teacher Resource. The main reason for this designation versus the designation of Student Limited/Recommended is due to two reasons. The first includes explicit left-leaning bias. While every textbook has bias, there is consistent issues throughout that groups or populations may find off putting. However, this likely would have earned the resource a Student Limited designation. It's fatal flaw is the inclusion of material that would likely be offensive or destructive in a classroom setting (see "Anarchy" example below). With this flaw, even if it is only one, it cannot be used in a classroom due to student safety concerns. The material may be beneficial to teachers as a gateway to include small excerpt, or for their own use. However, teachers should be cautioned that the supplemental material is not extensive, and that there may be material throughout the book that should not be for student use. It also may be difficult to identify mate
Educators Using These Materials
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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. | ||
| The book likely aligns with the current core curriculum. However, topics are difficult to find and do not go in depth. For example, attempts to find information about the major beliefs of Democrats and Republicans came up empty, excluding a very vague and broad paragraph or two. Attempts to find specific information from the core curriculum was very difficult to find unless the search feature. However, instructors should note that most material (at least vaguely or broadly) will likely be found. However, specifics may be more difficult to find. | ||||||
| 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. Most of the material is text, with every five or so pages including some sort of an image. | ||||||
| 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. Additionally, it is difficult to find information that you are looking for. For example, attempts to find the major beliefs of two political parties could not be found, even when looking at multiple pages with titles that should have led to that information. | ||||||
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. | ||
| Throughout the course, key vocabulary terms are highlighted. Students can select those words and understand their meaning. Each section is normally short, allowing students to read through the material quickly and in a short amount of time. Students may have difficulty being engaged in the reading as it is very word intensive. Many words that are more difficult are not necessarily highlighted. | ||||||
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. | ||
| Throughout the text, there are occasional supplemental resources in some guiding questions as well as references. However, guiding questions cannot be answered in-reading, and references are just to state where the statement was from versus any sort of interactivity. While there are some guiding questions in the text. The student supplemental resource area automatically has one resource automatically listed, entitled “American Government YouTube Playlist.” Instead of creating videos from their own publishing, such as including the ones throughout the textbook, they instead link to a YouTube playlist of Crash Course, TED-X, and others. Additionally, the section entitled “Research and Writing Tutorials” has three subheaders, and when each is clicked, it states “This container is empty.” The publisher includes another section entitled “Speech Confidence Video Library” aimed to strengthen speech skills, which may help in a class that focuses on speech (although this is not necessarily integrated perfectly with the Utah core curriculum). The section entitled “Research and Developing a Paper” may be helpful to assist students in knowing how to complete research assignments. | ||||||
| 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. These would be beneficial for quick checks of understanding, as they are only 10 or so questions long from a 40-60 page chapter. Other activities are a bit clunky and may need teacher assistance to engage students or relate to the course. | ||||||
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 reading makes a fatal flaw in some of its writing. For example, the section of anarchism, which is implied through the reading to be negative and against the government, includes a link to an anarchist website. There may be strong issues with this, as students would be linked to an anarchist based website which is quite biased: “Anarchism stands opposite totalitarianism on the political continuum. Anarchists oppose all government in any form. As a political philosophy, anarchism values absolute freedom. Because all government involves some restriction on personal freedom (for example, forcing people to drive on one side of the road), a pure anarchist would object even to traffic laws. Like totalitarianism, anarchism is not a popular philosophy, but it does have adherents on the political fringes. Anarchists also have a website: www.anarchistnews.org.” A liberal bias can be found throughout the book. News articles referenced in the book include CNN, Washington Post, New York Time, the Atlantic, and the Guardian, all of which have a left-liberal bias. However, one image was referenced to the Tax Foundation, a right-center bias. However, the book includes several sections that portray bias. For 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.” Another section includes: “In managing the tensions between freedom and order, the police sometimes impose their powers in an unequal fashion. For example, although blacks report only slightly higher rates of marijuana usage than whites, blacks are arrested three times more frequently than whites for marijuana possession. In short, the evidence shows that some groups, typically racial minorities, receive unequal treatment in the dispute of freedom versus order. Those groups enjoy less freedom before order is imposed—sometimes violently, even—on their actions.” | ||||||
| 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. | |||||
UTAH STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
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Phone: 801.538.7807