GUIDING PRINCIPLES  

Teachers are held accountable for implementing state-approved high-quality instructional materials as the core to the instructional content as outline in T.C.A. § 49-6-2206. Teachers, school administrators, and instructional supervisors/specialists will collaborate to select appropriate high-quality instructional materials for content areas in which high-quality instructional materials are not outlined by the Tennessee Department of Education. Such materials could include (but are not limited to) books, magazines, newspapers, journals, and video, audio, digital, and web resources.  

Decisions around additional instructional materials are most effectively made at the point closest to their impact, i.e. at the school, classroom, or individual student level.  Recognizing it is not feasible nor desirable at the district level to develop an exhaustive list of approved resources for every school need, teachers, instructional supervisors/specialists, and administrators will be expected to use professional judgment as well as established review criteria when selecting instructional materials for each usage case. It is expected that educators consult with content area support staff as needed during the planning process. 

MATERIALS USAGE CASES  

Instructional materials, in addition to the HQIM in the adopted curriculum, may be used in a variety of ways that are suitable for and consistent with the educational mission of the school.  The usage case should be considered when selecting instructional materials, as some materials are more suitable for some purposes than others.  

• Supplements for direct instruction: Educators may select additional high-quality materials to support their adopted curriculum when a need for supplementation is revealed during the course of instruction and formative assessment.  These decisions should be driven by the core actions in the Instructional Practice Guide for the content area.  Any supplemental texts should serve to support students in accessing the rigorous grade-level texts and tasks of their core instructional content. In content areas where high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) are in use through state adopted materials, supplemental materials may not replace the HQIM; instead, the supplemental materials may be utilized in addition to the HQIM.
• Audiovisual works: Any audiovisual content selected to supplement classroom instruction should be reviewed using the same criteria and process as textual content.  Audiovisual materials will only be shown in teacher-guided activities as part of regular instruction, in ways allowed under U.S. copyright law, as outlined in Board of Education Procedure AP-I-231 “Use of Copyrighted Materials in Educational Settings.”
• Independent choice reading: The school day may include a wide variety of times that are not spent in direct instruction, including early completion of assigned tasks, class or activity transitions, before or after school periods, etc.  Educators may promote independent choice reading during any time that is not dedicated to direct instruction, including materials that are made available to students for their individual perusal and selection, rather than directly assigned. 
• Special events, summer reading, and school-wide reading lists: Teacher and school administrators who approve special events, summer reading lists, and/or school-wide reading assignments (i.e. school-wide, SLC, or advisory book study) should ensure that any potentially sensitive instructional materials will be reviewed through the IMA process.  

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ASSESSMENT  

The Instructional Materials Assessment (IMA) process will use the criteria listed below, as well as the attached form and protocol. For instructional materials that include potentially sensitive content, the IMA documentation must be reviewed and approved by the school principal or his/her designee prior to their assignment.  The school principal will be responsible and accountable for ensuring that the IMA process is consistently utilized to assess potentially sensitive content. 

Teachers will read any written materials and/or carefully preview any non-written materials prior to their assignment. Teachers should use the following criteria along with professional judgment when reviewing instructional materials for classroom use. 

Criteria for Review:  

• Educational purpose (as defined by the Tennessee State Academic Standards)
• Contribution the subject matter makes to the curriculum and to the interests of the students 
• Appropriateness to social, emotional, and intellectual level of intended audience
• Measures of complexity: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Reader and Task are appropriate for gradelevel and time of year
• Favorable reviews found in standard selection sources
• Favorable recommendations based on preview and examination of materials by professional personnel • Reputation and significance of the author, producer, and publisher
• Validity, currency, and appropriateness of the material
• Contribution each material makes to the breadth of representative viewpoints on controversial issues offered by the materials collection as a whole
• High degree of potential user appeal
• High artistic quality and/or literary style
• Quality and variety of format 
• Value commensurate with cost and/or need 
• Timeliness or permanence 

All materials must be age-appropriate for the student(s) to whom they are assigned or made available. Any instructional materials that include content which might be considered sensitive by parents or students (for example, materials that might contain coarse language, graphic violence, explicit sexual content, illegal use of drugs or alcohol, acutely illicit activity, malicious denigration of religious beliefs, and/or extremist inducements) must be assessed and approved at the school level using the IMA process prior to being assigned.  If there is any question as to whether instructional materials are potentially sensitive, then they should be treated as such. 

If such instructional materials are assessed and reviewed at the school level and it is determined that their literary and/or educational value greatly outweighs the concerns over the sensitive material, then the materials may be utilized, but only if clear, timely, and detailed notification is made to students and parents about the sensitive content, and alternative materials are offered and communicated at the time of the assignment. Detailed documentation of the IMA process and review shall be forwarded to the Office of Learning and Literacy well prior to the materials being assigned. 

If there is not significant literary and/or educational value to the instructional materials being assessed, or if that value does not outweigh the potentially sensitive content, such instructional materials will not be assigned nor utilized. 

DISCLOSURE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS 

To the extent possible, materials used during the course of direct instruction as supplements to the adopted HQIM curriculum should be openly disclosed to parents and guardians sufficiently in advance of their use with students.

• At the elementary school level, resources and instructional materials selected from outside the curriculum, including selections by guest readers and other special events, should be communicated through appropriate communication channels (for example: classroom newsletters, websites, class pages, etc.). 
• At the secondary school level, all resources and instructional materials used during the course of study should be included in the syllabus and posted for students’ and parents’/guardians’ online access. . Department Chairs or another staff member formally designated by the principal will be responsible for verifying syllabi postings to the teacher web page.  If teachers discover a useful resource after the syllabus is posted, parents/guardians must be notified via a syllabus addendum at least two weeks before the start of instruction. 

Should a learning opportunity (e.g. a current event requiring a video clip) relating specifically to a teacher’s curriculum unexpectedly arise during the course of study, the teacher is expected to use professional judgment along with the established selection criteria to determine the appropriate use with students.  If the instructional material in question contains potentially sensitive material, then said materials should not be used until such time as a thorough IMA can be conducted by the teacher, approved by the principal or his/her designee, and communicated to parents through the best available method. 

Materials used outside the course of direct instruction, such as those made available for independent choice reading, will be posted for parents/guardians to access, in accordance with Board of Education Policy I-241 “School Libraries.” 

• A list of the materials in each school’s classroom libraries will be posted on the school website. 
• Each school library’s open public access catalog (OPAC) will be linked on the school website so that the school library collection may be searched. 

Materials used for special events, summer reading, and/or school-wide reading promotions should be reviewed and communicated to parents well in advance of the event or assignments.  

Parent notification is not required for the showing of audiovisual works in the following categories, which are disclosed in other ways: 

• Materials included in education programs, which have been adopted by the Knox County Board of Education, i.e. Character Education and Drug and Violence Prevention. 
• Materials provided by the Student Support Services Department specifically for use by school counselors. 
• Materials supplied as ancillaries by publishers of Board-approved and adopted textbooks and instructional materials.