The "Current Approved" Book List for Blue Valley Communication Arts classes
The "current approved" book list consists of those books that have been "approved" for use in a particular CA class by the Blue Valley school district. Therefore, you can expect the books on this list to be used in each of the Blue Valley high schools. The list consists of approximately 15 books per CA class. Find out which books are "approved" according to Blue Valley district standards via the Books link.
Unfortunately, the "current approved book list" is not currently available through Blue Valley's own Web site. We are told by Blue Valley officials, however, that the list is available at each high school library. In addition, we are told that documentation on how each book addresses the Blue Valley Communication Arts curriculum goals as well as how it meets overall learning resource selection criteria (as outlined by board policy 4600) is also supposed to be available in each high school library.
Obviously, the "Current Approved Book List" for each class is important to parents, else parents have no idea whether an assigned book has gone through any sort of formal review process as promised by the policies set forth by the school district. So yes, it is sad that the Blue Valley school system has not yet provided the list of books that are approved for the Communication Arts curriculum in an on-line format. This lack of communication is one reason for the existence of classkc.org.
Of primary concern, however, is that as of September 1, 2004, none of the public documentation provided by the Blue Valley school system addressed the central issue of concern that was identified and publicly discussed by many parents over the past year. Many parents want to know how the books that the school is requiring their children to read are deemed age appropriate -- a selection criterion that the Blue Valley board of directors established in both the old selection of learning resources policy 4600 (the selection policy that was in effect when these books were actually selected), as well as the revised policy (to be voted upon by the Board September 13, 2004). To date, the Communication Arts teachers have refused to address this important criterion in their selection documentation. None of the public documentation provided by the Blue Valley School system to support the selection of these novels identifies what parents clearly need and want to know about the education of their children, which is prior knowledge of the adult content regarding sexuality, profanity, vulgarity, the occult, and other adult topics as promoted in many of the books our children are required to read.
Yet, the following language is taken directly from the revised selection policy. The new selection policy claims that books will be screened for... "The absence of vulgar language, sexual explicitness, or violent imagery that is gratuitously employed."
UNFORTUNATELY, this part of the proposed policy is NOT currently practiced nor respected in the classroom!
Evidence of the DISCONNECT between policy promises and classroom realities appears in many selections in the current "approved book list". The currently approved book list still contains many examples of extensive profanity (Catcher in the Rye and Bless Me Ultima), sexually-explicit material (Beloved and Song of Solomon), and gratuitous violence (Fallen Angels and Black Boy)...to identify a few.
Sadly, and of even greater concern, however, is the common practice of assigning books that have not gone through any formal review process whatsoever. (For example, click here to view a syllabus for a Blue Valley CA IV class that contains over 30 books that have not gone through any district-wide selection process whatsoever. Some of the books on this syllabus such as The Bluest Eye or Bastard Out of Carolina are EXTREMELY profane and should NOT be recommended to minor children.) HOW SAD THAT THIS SITUATION EXISTS IN BLUE VALLEY!
In summary, the problem of our children being fed obscene material for required grades in Communication Arts classes in the Blue Valley school system is not simply a policy problem that will be solved at the September 13th board meeting when the board adopts a new selection policy. This problem is also a severe communication problem between the district, the parents, and the actual classroom experience. Finally, it is also an accountability problem in that the teachers have not yet been held accountable to the promises made to the public through existing and revised district book selection policies.