Social Studies Adoption | Parent Volunteer
The Adoption
Miami-Dade County Public Schools is looking for parent volunteers to serve on the upcoming Social Studies textbook adoption District review committees. Any parent interested in participating in the adoption process must complete this application form to be considered for placement in one of the textbook review committees. Parent reviewers will be selected through a random selection process.
The District will be adopting new instructional materials for the following subject areas/grade levels to be used through July of 2028.
- Grades K-3 Elementary Social Studies
- Grade 4 Elementary Florida History
- Grade 5 Elementary U.S. History
- 6th Grade U.S. History
- 7th Grade Civics
- 8th Grade World History
- 9th Grade World History
- 11th Grade U.S. History
- 12th Grade U.S. Government
- 12th Grade Economics
- High School Personal Finance
- High School Psychology
- AP United States History
- AP Human Geography
- AP World History
- AP United States Government & Politics
- AP Macro Economics
The Requirements to Volunteer
- Parents selected to serve on any review committee must have a verified child enrolled in a District public school and have the required availability for participation. Likewise, the child of the parent selected to review materials must have access to the materials at some point throughout the adoption lifetime.
- Should the participating parent be unavailable during any stage of the adoption process, the alternate parent shall assume the role of committee member for the duration of the process.
- Candidates and alternates selected for a committee must attend all required meetings, virtual or in person.
- Alternates are not eligible to vote for the adoption or purchase of any instructional materials, unless they have replaced a committee member who could no longer fulfill the responsibilities of or serve on the review committee.
- Candidates must have reliable transportation to attend all required in-person meetings.
- A member of a State adoption committee may not serve on the local adoption committee.
- Members of a review committee will receive instructions and training in the evaluation techniques to be used, characteristics of effective instructional materials, and the skills necessary to make valid and objective decisions regarding the content and rigor of instructional materials.
- No school official or member of a District or State instructional materials review committee shall accept any emolument, money, other valuable things, or any inducement, to directly or indirectly introduce, recommend, vote for, or otherwise influence the adoption or purchase of any instructional materials.
- No member of a District evaluation committee may discuss matters relating to instructional materials submitted for adoption with any agent of a publisher or manufacturer of instructional materials, either directly or indirectly, except during the period when the committee shall have been called into session for the purpose of evaluating instructional materials submitted for adoption or in a public presentation showcasing the materials. Aside from exception noted above, both parties (District evaluation committee member and agent of a publisher or manufacturer or instructional materials) must comply with the District’s “Cone of Silence” (Policy 6325). Definition of the cone of silence and its stipulations may be found at http://procurement.dadeschools.net/pdp.asp.
- To participate in a District evaluation committee, candidates must have access to a computer and Internet connectivity as some of the meetings will be conducted online and some materials being reviewed are online resources. The District is not responsible for providing a computer or Internet connectivity to committee members.
- An approved application does not imply that a parent has been selected to serve on a review committee. If there are more parents interested in being part of a review committee than there are open parent seats, the parents to serve on the committee will be randomly selected with the first name serving as the participating committee member and the subsequent name as the alternate. Additional weighting will be applied to non-employee parents of the District prior to random selection. Likewise, selected employees that voluntarily applied to serve as parents must utilize personal or vacation days if selected to serve on a committee.
- Upon selection to serve, candidates shall sign an affidavit that contains the requirements set forth in F.S. 1006.30 and must adhere to any additional provisions of service set forth in School Board Policy 2510, which will be provided at the DIMRC training session.
The Commitment to Volunteer
July 24 - August 9, 2023
Digital Resource Review
The District Instructional Materials Review Committee (DIMRC) will be provided with access to the digital resources to begin reviewing the material. DIMRC members will be provided with a rubric and links, but will not be expected to begin evaluating materials. During this period, reviewers should become well acquainted with the resources so that after they are trained, they may begin the review/evaluation process. This is a self-paced process. This is not a meeting.
August 9, 2023
Webinar Training on Adoption Process
The District Instructional Materials Review Committee (DIMRC) will be trained on the adoption procedures. This training will be hosted online as a webinar by the Instructional Materials Department. Attendance is mandatory for all DIMRC members and alternate members. The webinar will be open to the public for viewing and archived.
August 9-11, 2023
Publisher Presentations
Publisher Presentations will be in-person at a designated site. These meetings are open to the public and observers may pre-register and be present during the presentations. This in-person meeting is mandatory for DIMRC members and alternates. Not all days may be used by a particular grade level/subject committee.
September 1, 2023
Progress/Discussion Meeting
This in-person meeting is mandatory for DIMRC members and alternates. DIMRC committees will convene to check on progress of their independent review of the material for adoption and discuss matters related to their review with the committee members. These meetings are open to the public and observers may pre-register and be present during the presentations.
September 7, 2023
Evaluation & Recommendations
This in-person meeting is mandatory for DIMRC members and alternates. DIMRC committees will convene to submit their evaluation of the materials they have reviewed using the rubric made available to the reviewers during their independent review. The committees will then present their findings. These meetings are open to the public. Participants may register and observe the meetings in-person.
The Selection of DIMRC Parent Members
- One (1) participating parent committee member and one (1) alternate parent member will be selected from the eligible applicants interested in volunteering per grade level/subject area committee.
- If there are more parents interested in being part of a review committee than there are open seats, the parents to serve on the committee will be randomly selected with the first name serving as the participating committee member and the subsequent name as the alternate.
- Additional weighting will be applied to non-employee parents of the District prior to random selection.
- Selected employees that voluntarily applied to serve as parents must utilize personal or vacation days if selected to serve on a committee.
- Parents that are members of PTSA and express interest in being considered by the PTSA as the PTSA representative on the DIMRC, will have their application shared with the Miami-Dade County PTA/PTSA for consideration. The PTA/PTSA will follow the same selection procedures outlined above. One (1) participating PTSA parent committee member and one (1) alternate will be appointed by the President of the Miami-Dade County Council of Parent-Teacher/Parent-Teacher-Student Association per grade level/subject area committee. The appointed parents may not be employees of the school district.