Like many publishing executives, Roger Rogalin of D.C. Heath has doubted that school authorities would press for upgrading the notoriously bland content of textbooks. Even after California's superintendent of public instruction Bill Honig warned publishers last year that his state meant business in reaching for higher standards, Rogalin said, "We've heard a number of times that things were going to change, only to see them fall apart down the road."
But California made good this month when the state school board notified eight publishers that it would not accept in present form the junior high science texts they offered for adoption....