February 10, 2006
Dear Editor:
Your recent editorial on the cost of college textbooks deserves some additional comments that will provide Daily Free Press readers with a more complete picture of this issue (oeEasing the Textbook Burden,” Jan. 19).
The publishers of Pearson Education have long worked with college instructors to help them select textbooks and course materials that are right for their students. We respond to their needs and requests for the most effective material possible. In fact, three-fourths of instructors polled in a recent Zogby International study either require or recommend the use of supplementary materials in addition to textbooks. Pearson Higher Education already conforms to the demand that we sell our material oeunbundled” as well as in money saving oebundles.” We offer all of our textbooks and learning material in a variety of formats and combinations. We offer training on using these new learning solutions to both instructors and students. When a student invests in this material, we want them to use it to succeed.
College professors strive to deliver the very best courses every time they teach. With over a million college instructors teaching over 18 million students each year, some will disagree about revision cycles. The great majority prefers recent textbooks reflecting contemporary scholarship and methods, and a variety of original exercises and problem sets. The Zogby study found that 80% of instructors select the most current material and 62% actually prefer a text with the latest copyright date. In order to help instructors consider our new editions we publish details of our improvements and enhancements in the preface of the textbook. Contrary to popular complaint, this longstanding practice makes the important business decision to revise transparent to the instructor and to the end user student. You will not find a revision of a book limited to just a change in pagination.
We remain committed to producing textbooks and learning materials that help instructors teach and students learn.
Sincerely,
Daniel Bartell Vice President ” Campus Relations Pearson Higher Education
[For verification purposes, my address is 1185 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036, telephone (212) 782-3450]