The purpose of this article is to present a brief account of the California State Curriculum Commission's recent evaluation of spelling textbooks for the elementary grades. Briefly described, the plan of procedure involved four major steps: (I) the development of a set of criteria by which the books might be judged; (2) the formulation of a score card based on the assignment of numerical values to the items of the criteria; (3) the completion of a series of studies, primarily objective in character, designed to secure data with respect to the relative merits of the books on all items of the criteria; and (4) the interpretation and utilization of these data in rating the books on the score card.'