Free Online Resources Challenge Textbook Industry's Dominance

The Washington Post (5/2, Chandler) reports on the use of free online resources in Montgomery County, Maryland, classrooms, citing teachers who say they use online content more than they use their assigned textbooks. "Enterprising teachers have long scoured the Internet for ways to improve on their textbooks or local curricula. Now, though, lessons accessed via the Web are proliferating in the classroom as never before and are challenging the position of the powerful education-publishing industry in public schools." The piece notes that ED has taken part in the push to "promote access to free instructional materials tied to the new standards," noting that Education Secretary Arne Duncan "lauded the 'tremendous transformational promise' of open resources. 'In America, what a child gets a chance to learn will no longer depend on their ZIP code,' he said in an online video."