COSTP World History Project/Project

This is a starter page for our major push to create an open content textbook that meets the California content standards for 10th grade World History.

Go to contents of the California Open Source Textbook Project's K-12 World History Project

California Content Standards

California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) COSTP began as a public/private undertaking; it was the first organization created to address the high cost, content range, and consistent shortages of K-12 textbooks in California. The latter goal is currently well on its way to being accomplished. COSTP has evolved over recent years to establish and spread the Open Textbook, Open Educational Resource (OER), Open Courseware, and Open Education memes to K-12 and postsecondary educational institutions, worldwide. Many Open source textbook and courseware projects have started up since COSTP’s inception.

COSTP's aim is to use California State K-12 Standards to develop open-licensed eBooks and printed textbooks that will be approved for adoption by California's State Board of Education for use in California public schools at far less cost than current commercial textbook offerings, thus helping the State of California save money (more than $200M per year) while providing more robust content for its public schools.

In order for open source books to pass peer review (and thus approval for public school adoption) at the California State Board level (this is also true in most other states), textbook content must conform to the written state K-12 education framework standard, or it can be specially submitted to the Governor for approval. This is a sine qua non for adoption; no exceptions are made.

The COSTP World History Project on Wikipedia was used a placeholder pilot that helped to prove the open source concept in the K-12 textbook sector. The COSTP World History Project was successful in helping California education officials understand - even in its current basic beginnings - the value of the open source content approach applied to K-12 textbooks.

Please visit http://www.opensourcetext.org for more.