I am extremely disappointed to hear about such a poor choice! I home school my son now, and have found fantastic online resources that are also used by school systems across the country, and many are FREE!! My son did a year's worth of Algebra I on Khan academy in just a few months, and understood it better than having 1 1/2 years of it in school.... That is just one of hundreds of free resources out there. Maybe the school board needs to do some homework before making such commitments in the future.

Just 234 days left, Steve

until we have a Superintendent worthy of the entire student body, teachers, parents and teachers of Fairfax. Hang in there. It gets better.

I think what bothers me the most about this decision is that the Superintendent rushed this thru after the budget was already approved. Did they not know they needed math textbooks? They claim they haven't bought math books for over 10 years-- and there was no set aside in the budget discussions--seriously? $2.2 billion and we couldn't find $10 million for textbooks?? Incredible.

It would also have been nice if staff mentioned to all those hard working volunteers on the math textbook committee that they were going to be purchasing online textbooks. Did they not know or did they deliberately withhold this information from the committee? I'm thinking they deliberately didn't tell them.

I am sick and tired of these decsions being made without asking stakeholders. Teachers know better than anyone if online textbooks would work. Parents would like to be kept in the loop as well. Oh, yea, and how about ask the kids??? Maybe a pilot program in a few schools?

School Board members need to be a little more street smart when these rushed decisions are thrust on them. The budget discussion begins in November and is usually finalized in April--that is SIX MONTHS--which is plenty of time to talk about $10 million purchases. We expect more from our leadership.

I have the same problems the author noted above regarding online texts. They are harder on the eyes, and reading that much from an electronic screen can cause headaches and eyestrain. Also, because they require internet access, it means kids can only study from a place where the internet is available. The nice thing about a textbook is that it can be taken along to a soccer tournament, a swim meet, a track meet, etc. and students can study in between matches or while waiting for their event. Textbooks can be read in a car, while waiting in an airport when on vacation, etc. It would be better if electronic texts could be downloaded to a Kindle or Nook, but I think the small screen would require restructuring of how the text is presented. Overall, I agree that electronic texts are a poor choice for FCPS right now. They need to do more research before subjecting students and teachers to it.

I have difficulty with computer sharing for three children from an affluent family with 2 computers trying to each get their time on the computer for homework and can't imagine how challenging it is for larger families with only one (or no) reliable computer in the home. We learned that borrowing a hard copy of the book was an option at BTSN but there weren't enough for everyone. I will write to the SB.

Actually, parents can spend over $100 to purchase the hardcopy version of the math textbook. The precalculus textbook used in my son's math class, ISBN 9780076602186 cost $150 or more if I were to purchase myself.

Kudos to Mr. Greenburg for calling for accountability applied to the decision makers in the FCPS administration it is about time that type of standard was used. Kudos also to Board members Patty Reed and Megan McLaughlin for stepping up. They should ensure this textbook fiasco is addressed timely and effectively, and continue by keeping FCPS management accountable on all topics including facilities.

Having taught college courses online to adult students I am hardly a Luddite when it comes to online education. However, this move by the FCPS is political-educational correctness run amuk. I come from a family of educators and strongly support teachers but believe this evolving fiasco indicates a top-heavy administrative tail in the FCPS hierarchy that needs to be sent back to the classroom - if they have actual teaching skills rather than being steeped in management and "learning delivery" theories. Previous commentators have listed all of the technical reasons why this idea was poorly thought out. However there is indeed an entire industry and lobby out there insisting that education must be digitized, and basically eliminate the teacher as an intermediary - education is seen merely as a product to be delivered. There are still plenty of places where the interenet is not available and students - even college graduate students - often need to have a real book to carry around with them. This internet access issue one would think is even more critical in school districts subjected to week long electric power and FIOS and other ISP disruptions. As for the usefulness of internet media for home schooling; it could be argued by some as akin to that of representing one's self in court. "He or she that teaches one's own kids has a fool for a client." My certified teacher parents would never have dreamed of "doing this at home" in fields they weren't accredited in.

The unfortunate problem is you likely have non technical administrators making technical decisions and they have not even thought about consulting the IT staff within the county or the schools.The school board knew all too well when they did not place the order for paper textbooks that this unguided missile was being launched, however, all indications is nobody within FCPS even gave a second thought to informing staff, parents and students as to what this year would bring. Since there are multiple publishers, finding the proper web links for the online textbooks is a chore at times. There is no "universal" username and password for each student. They likely have different account credentials for each publisher. I do a lot of home networking and many families that were no where near prepared for this major change. With household of multiple students, many families did not have the resources for their students to be online simultaneously. I had families that had to rush out and buy additional computers, families where parents were coming home from work with their company laptop so their children could do homework. Then not to mention all the problems with teachers not having consistent Blackboard portals with links to the online books, the school websites not having links for the textbooks when Blackboard is down. Even situations where the publishers of all people chose to perform maintenance on the web servers on the weekend when kids likely needed to access the book most!

The online text for Algebra II is horrible. Whoever bought it obviously never tried to use it.

I ended up buying a hard copy for my daughter. Cost about $90 including delivery.

The hard copy textbook is ISBN 013253102X
Parents may call 1-800-848-9500 to order a hard copy directly from Pearson.

Nobody seems to mention my biggest concern -- if a student is online he or she is inevitably multitasking and distracted. It is impossible to prevent this if a student is sitting in front of the computer. I would like virtually ALL schoolwork to be AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER.

We voiced our concern to School Board Member Jane Strauss who said, among other things, that "it is more important than ever that students learn to efficiently navigate the online world." Was she kidding? Teenagers need more time "navigating the online world"? We don't think she's spent much time with any if she believes that. Technology is great, and a sophisticated on-line platform might be appropriate where competent professionals have actually thought through how it would work. But here we had a bunch of out-of-touch bureaucrats ratifying an expensive decision to purchase a wildly inadequate system, and it's the teachers and the kids who are paying the price. In addition to what others here have said - limited number of compatible devices; problems with several children in a family needing the same resource at the same time; eyestrain; inability to do homework in any place but in front of the computer; distraction of trying to do homework with social media a click away; power outages; pages that won't load; on and on - there is as well the great economic inequity to this. Families who can will buy their way out of this mess. But for the kids for whom this isn't an option, it is deeply unfair and antithetical to everything public education is supposed to stand for. Oh, and one final note -- it appears one school has stood firm against this nonsense: TJHSST. Yes, the flagship tech school. Now, what does that tell us?

I was a teacher who participated in the online textbook "pilot." Not one high school or middle school teacher recommended the online social studies books. We were dismayed to learn that we weren't testing anything. The books were purchased! We weren't piloting anything. We were giving free advice to McDougal Little on things they needed to fix such as including Dec 7th on their timeline! Most social studies teachers don't even use the book because it's user-UNfriendly. Teachers manage student accounts.I have 7 students who have signed up twice for the textbook due to confusing sign-ons. I have never been taught how to delete these accounts so the county is being double charged. Last year, this kid in our soccer carpool was bragging that he is the only one in his AP History class getting an "A" because his dad argued for a hard copy of his book. He said no one else was gettiing their reading done, but he was because he could open his text book anywhere, anytime. Imagine that! I'd like to see Jack Dale read the online history textbook and like it!

Wow, there is so much stuff online- and so many great ways to do this. Which product line did they choose? It would be a lot more effective of a message if I could see exactly what it was that they bought.

Hi Matt, there's some more info here: http://vienna.patch.com/articles/online-math-textbooks-rankle-teachers-parents

I clicked on that, but couldn't see where it identified which DRM overloaded thing we paid for. I was able to find it here http://www.fcps.edu/is/textbooks/onlinetextbooks/index.shtml