Educational Publishers Are and Should Be Nervous

Last year, one state decided that although it had issued a request for social studies textbooks, it could not advise its school districts to purchase any of them. Why? The reviewers claimed that the textbooks were boring—well, they used nicer words than that. The state basically said to publishers that their works did not spark student interest, did not go into enough depth, and in some cases had egregious errors of fact. Not to mention that they weigh a ton.

States are using the term “instructional materials” rather than textbooks to describe what they're willing to buy for their students. Some states, such as my home state of Indiana, have clearly encouraged districts to develop their own materials using freelay available web resources. In fact, purchasing netbooks or small laptops for students is a legitimate “instructional materials” purchase in many states already. I guarantee that more will follow.

Completely oblivious to these clear signs, educational publishers like my employer continue to create bland programs that are unengaging to students and frustrating for teachers. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultants, writers, editors, marketers, salespeople, and executives result in poorly written materials that cannot demonstrate that they actually help students to learn.

The Problem with Educational Publishing

In one word: developers.

If you're not in the industry, you likely don't know what "developers" or the longer term "development houses" are or do.

In a nutshell: They are the people who write your children's textbooks.

Authors' names may appear on the covers of Joanie's fifth grade math book, but those authors did not write the book. Let me repeat: Authors of textbooks do not write them. If you're my age, you might think about it like Milli Vanilli: they were on the videos and CDs of their albums, but they did not sing. They just looked good for the consumers. Similarly, textbook authors seem to hold a lot of different degrees and affiliations and so they look great on the cover. But it's all lip synching.

Developers are usually English majors, 20- or 30-something editors working at a development house, that write the content of the book. Many times, especially with the lower grades, these editors do not have content, or subject-matter, knowledge; mostly, they're fair writers and that's what got them their job.