Professional Guidelines for Selecting Classroom Materials and Assignments
Here is an outline of the course:
-
Defining Content: Selecting Instructional Materials
-
Process for Selecting Materials
-
Selection Criteria (including board policy and ed code)
-
RJUHSD Board Policies (BP 6161.1; AR 6161.1)
-
The Importance of the Teacher’s Professionalism
-
-
-
The Miller Test
-
In order to determine appropriateness, teachers can apply the Miller test. This is the primary legal test for determining whether expression constitutes "obscenity". It is named after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. California (1973.
-
These guidelines are the three prongs of the Miller test:
-
-
whether the average person applying contemporary community standards would find the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
-
whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and
-
whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
-
All three provisions must be met to find a work obscene and undeserving of First Amendment protections.
-
-
Causes of Controversy
-
Notification
-
Teachers are expected to list all major units/books assigned to students in their course syllabus, including textbooks, novels, and units
-
An *asterisk should be used to mark any instructional materials that contain portions of content that might not pass the Miller Test since these materials will require extra care when communicating with families.
-
-
Communicating Concerns
-
Teaching Challenging Issues
-
-
-
In this section, we have created a “Guest Speaker form” to be filled out ahead of time and turned in to the school administration.
-
-
-
Fair Use Doctrine
-
United States copyright law provides important exceptions to the rights of copyright holders that are specifically aimed at nonprofit educational institutions.
-
-
-
Teachers and students have certain rights to publicly display and perform copyrighted works in the classroom (Section 110 of U.S. Copyright Law
-
The "fair use" allows limited copying of copyrighted works without the permission of the owner for certain purposes, including teaching and research (Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law
-
Use of Copyrighted Materials
-
If the material is not in the public domain or no recognized exception applies, the staff member shall seek permission from the copyright holder before using the material.
-
If it is impractical to obtain permission, the staff member is advised to contact their site administrator for clarification and assistance
-
-
Students shall not copy or distribute copyrighted works to others
-
Staff members shall take reasonable precautions to prevent copying or the use of unauthorized copies on school equipment
-
-
Potential Penalties
-
Student Assignments, Surveys and Data Collection
-
Student and Family Privacy
-
Student Assignments, Activities, and Assessments
-
Surveys and Data Collections
-
Each module, as well as at the end of the course, ends with an acknowledgment section for teachers to mark that they’ve read and understood the information.
For the 2024-2025 school year, RJUHSD instructors completed a training course, Professional Guidelines for Selecting Classroom Materials and Assignments. The purpose of this course is to clarify and explain some of the terms, processes, and policies that are related to instructional materials within the classroom. The resources are designed to support district staff members and provide them with clarity on how to comply with board policy in each of these areas and how those policies intersect with the California Education Code.