1. Outline History of the Textbooks and Basal Readers in the United States:
   • No dates listed – New England Primer was the first widely distributed primer.
   • Prior to 1775 – Primers emphasized religious text.
   • 1778- Noah Webster publishes his American Spelling Book.
   • 1775 to 1825 – Primers emphasized religious text and secular text equally.
   • 1808 to 1810 – Samuel Wood produced first graded readers. Heavily religious and practical.
   • 1825 to 1875 – Primers emphasized moralistic and secular values.
   • 1836 & 1844 – McGuffey Eclectic Readers published. Emphasis on moralistic content and phonetic/alphabetic content. 122 million copies sold 1836 to 1920.
   • 1875 to 1915 – Primers emphasized literary values.
   • 1915 to present – Various emphases including the common “realistic experience.”
   • 1920’s – Start of reading reading readiness and pre-primers.
   • 1920’s – Scientific research “furthers the form of basal readers.”
   • 1920’s – Leveling of texts becomes a concern as more students with less-educated parents attend high schools. 
   • 1921 – Thorndike Teacher’s Word Book provides objective measurement tool for leveling texts.
   • 1939 – William S. Gray and Scott Foresman write the Elson-Gray Readers (Dick and Jane).  200 Million Americans learned to read with these.
   • 1940’s – Schools begin to promote by age rather than achievement, creating a leveling problem for textbook creators.
   • Mid 1960’s – 18 Publishers were producing K-8 Reading basal Readers, which were used by more than 85% of elementary teachers.
   • 1970’s – Calls for accountability resulted in increased emphasis on test preparation in Basel programs.
   • 1970’s and 1980’s – Increased direct instruction
   • 1970’s and 1980’s – Development of programs designed for low income children and for minorities.
   • 1970’s and 1980’s – Textbooks include more stories about minority characters.
   • 1980’s – There were 12 national publishers of basal reading programs.
   • 1980’s – The top five publishers sold 80% of basal reading programs.

2. Characteristics of the Textbook Market in the U.S. (1986 & 1987):
   • 40 Large Textbook Publishers
   • $2 billion in textbook sales (converts to $3.8 billion in 2008 dollars)
   • 11% of all textbooks were purchased in California
   • 7.3% of all textbooks were purchased in Texas
   • Highest per pupil textbook spender was Washington D.C. at $68 (converts to $127 in 2008 dollars) per student.
   • Lowest per pupil textbook spender was the Great State of Utah at $19 (converts to $35 in 2008 dollars) student.
   • 21 states were doing state wide textbook adoptions.
   • $436 million (converts to $820 million in 2008 dollars) spent on reading programs for elementary students.
   • $600 million (converts to $1.2 billion in 2008 dollars) spent on reading programs, spelling programs, and all other programs and textbooks used for literacy instruction.
   • I admit that 1986 and 1987 were a long time ago.  I’d like to see what the current statistics look like today.  I’d like to if spending trends compare with the rate of inflation?

I didn’t find the rest of the article to be very interesting as it cites a lot of very old studies on textbook features and how they related to student comprehension.  I’d rather spend my time reading more current research.

Chall, J.S., & Squire, J.R. (1996). The publishing industry and textbooks. In R.Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthan, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2, pp. 46-67). (Original work published 1991)

Summary

The development of western literacy has diffused in a generally top down manner from the church and the government down through nobility and businesses to the urban masses and finally to the rural areas. This process was pushed forward by the expansion of urbanism, long distance trading, increasing stature of vernacular languages, the introduction of technologies such as paper and printing presses, the protestant reformation, and the introduction of public education.  Some factors, such as the industrial revolution had a negative effect on literacy.

Outline

1. Factors influencing the expansion of literacy over the past thousand years.
   • Development of the Market Economy
   • The Reformation
   • Industrialization
   • Development of Nation States
   • New need to communicate with people much further away than in feudal times.
   • New need to follow current events.
   • Development of printing presses.
   • Development of schools.
   • Literacy empowered people to participate in social, political, and economic spheres.
   • Literacy was required to maintain status.

2. What is Literacy?
   • Roman Era: Literatus – Latin meaning a learned person.
   • Middle Ages: Literatus – one who could read and write Latin.
   • After 1300: Literacy in vernaculars.
   • Late 1800’s:  The term ‘Literacy’ was born.
   • Historically there was a dichotomy between literacy and illiteracy, but there this obscures the facts because of the lack of proficiency information.
   • Historians have sometimes been measured literacy by counting the number of people able to sign their names to legal documents (rather than just a mark).

3. Historical Evidence of Literacy:
   • 1300’s France and England – Clerics were tried by oral bible reading proficiency Assessment.
   • 1600s to 1800s Sweden had nationwide literacy assessments.  Some parish priests measured and recorded proficiency levels.
   • Starting in the 1840’s – The U.S. Census began asking for self reports of literacy ability. Such self reporting was also used elsewhere.
   • Late 1800s-  The Swiss military begins measuring writing proficiency.
   • Word War I- The U.S. military measures literacy using tasks such as writing a letter or reading a newspaper article. 
   • Historians may use writing samples to measure literacy; However this may be complicated by the existence of scribes and by the variation in relative value (for literacy measurement) of the documents.
   • Reports of contemporary observers may be available.
   • Literacy may be measured by the relative availability of reading materials.  Examples: Library borrowing, Books bought and Sold, Private Libraries, Newspaper subscriptions, the existence of low-cost reading materials.  This evidence may be of limited value because of economic and other factors that may have influenced the availability of print materials.
   • Evidence based on byproducts of literacy and the production of print materials.
   • Schooling records (number of years of education per person).  Often this evidence won’t included all sectors of society and the relative quality of schooling may differ.

4. [Pages 57 & 58 weren’t available in the Google Books version]
   
5. General Development of Literacy over Time
   • Church Monopoly at First.
   • Nobility and High Professions acquired literacy (starting in the 800s, increases in 1000s and 1100s).
   • General trend of top down diffusion.
   • First to Men, then women.
   • First to Cities and Towns, then to rural areas (starting in the 1000s and 1100s).
   • 1100s: Emerging bureaucracies begin churning out documents.
   • 1100s: Paper technology imported from Asia.
   • Around 1300:  Vernaculars gain importance.
   • 1300s: Introduction of lens grinding.
   • 1300s and 1400s: News service begins.
   • Starting in the 1520s: Martin Luther, reformation, bible printing, religious publications, expansion of literacy through the expansion of Protestantism.
   • 1500s: German public schooling established.
   • 1500s: Governments attempt to restrict printing activities.
   • Expansion of printing leads to expansion of literacy.
   • 1791:  United States First Amendment
   • Mid 1800’s:  Industrialization stagnates the expansion of literacy.
   • In the 1800s, governments begin providing basic reading Education.
   • 1830:  Britain ends attempts to control presses.

6. [Pages 64 & 65 weren’t available in the Google Books version]

Venezky, R. L. (1996). The development of literacy in the industrialized nations of the West. In R.Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthan, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2, pp. 46-67). (Original work published 1991)