The Richmond County School System is requesting feedback from parents and community members on textbooks for various subjects and grade levels from K-12.
“This is a joyful time of year. We have, in the Richmond County School System, a six year textbook adoption process that we follow for all of our textbooks to ensure that we have updated material to support student learning,” said Director of Teaching and Learning, Kinesha Ponder.
According to Ponder, textbooks are selected for review based on specialized rubrics that account for what students need to learn, what aligns with the system’s enrichment goals and the best researched ways for them to learn it.
After committees have reviewed state and county standards and narrowed down selections, the school system presents possible textbook options for future usage in the following six years. Feedback from the community is being collected in preparation for committees to vote on Dec. 9, for which textbooks will be adopted.
Ponder said she believes the review and voting process is important because it allows parents and stakeholders to have hands-on input regarding resources schools are utilizing to enhance learning.
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Materials in consideration include: English and Language Arts for Kindergarten through 5th grade, middle school science and high school health and physical education.
Kayleigh Coggins, an eighth grader from Hephzibah Middle School on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, said she thinks student input should be valued since they are the ones who have to learn from the materials throughout their education. She believes this is especially important so students can voice certain topics or areas they want to learn about in addition to the set curriculum. For Coggins, everybody should have an opinion because inclusivity causes education to improve.
“I think it’s really important that we get everybody’s opinion and not just people who are teaching, but people who are learning as well,” she said. “Everybody should have an opinion – not just parents or adults … and parents should be involved with this process because they are raising the future generation, and they should know what [kids] are learning about in school and in these environments.”
Parents and community members can review textbooks in-person on Nov. 30 and Dec. 5 between 3 to 5:30 p.m. Augusta review locations include the National Hills Learning Center, previously known as National Hills Elementary School, at 1215 Northwood Rd and the Alternative School at Morgan Rd at 3635 Heirs Blvd.
In addition, materials can be reviewed and surveyed online at rcboe.org/textbookadoption where parents can also submit feedback.
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
