On September 22nd, 2022, Fremont Unified School District released a resolution stating that “sufficient textbooks and materials were provided to each pupil.” Sufficient, per the California education codes, is defined as every child having access to their own textbook and the material in the said book is consistent with the latest learning standards. However, recent developments regarding textbooks have raised concerns amongst staff and students about the state of learning materials at Irvington

“Our economics book was published in 2007,” said Ms.Olsen, Government and Choir teacher at Irvington High School. “Our Social studies American government textbook was published in 2008. So when it references Junior Senator Barack Obama, that’s a problem.”

Normal standard, as specified by the California State Education Codes, entails learning material to be updated every five to seven years. Especially for subjects like Economics, it is important the information be up-to-date, where new information and research are published every couple of years. Therefore, teachers must change the way they teach and students change the way they learn.

“Most of the content my teachers use has shifted into slides,” said Soham Jain, a senior. “Now what happens is most of the teachers don’t use the textbook at all. My math teacher only uses the math book for practice problems.”

Teachers and students have adapted to the outdated textbook situation.Teachers adopted their own google slides during online school, many of which are still in use today.  “I hope eventually we can transition to electronic versions of everything,” said Principal Stan Hicks. “Because then you can get real-time updates and catch it. I think that’s the path all schools will eventually go, but we have to address the technology piece first to make sure everybody has access to technology.”  

This transition that Mr. Hicks envisions is ongoing and might make textbooks obsolete in the coming years, thereby mitigating the clear issue FUSD has with outdated textbooks. However, that is still only a vision for the future. 

  “The textbooks that we used are adopted by the state, they go through a process at the state level,” said Mr. Hicks. “And then the district can choose from those states. And there’s an adoption committee …so we don’t pick and choose at the school level.”

The responsibility for textbook adoption largely falls on the district. FUSD has replaced textbooks in certain subjects in the past year. Pre-Calculus classes have recently received an updated batch of textbooks from the district. The district is also in the process of adopting new Social Science textbooks, easing the plight of Irvington Students.

“ 6 World History teachers around the district,” said Mr. Vucurevich on the newly adopted textbooks, “ are going to take the two new textbooks for World History to teach a unit. After we have used each of those books, we will go ahead with our recommendations for which book to use going forward.” 

Overall, the adoption is still in its fledgling state and there is some way to go. However, there will be new textbooks for Irvington teachers and students to utilize soon.