This paper introduces the questions and approaches of a five-nation cross-cultural study of state-based curriculum-making discussed in this issue of "JCS." The paper reviews the two decade-long interest of many nations in state-based curriculum-making and presents a framework for thinking about state-based curriculum-making as a tool of…

The paper identifies three tools that support the administrative instrument of a state-based curriculum commission: compartmentalization, licensing, and segmentation. These tools channel the state's curriculum-making towards forms of symbolic rather than regulatory action. The state curriculum becomes a framework for the ideological governance of…

Data from the Second International Mathematics Study were examined using the course, rather than the country, as the unit of analysis. Findings from Grade 8 and Grade 12 did not support the conclusion that centralized control of curriculum is associated with more consistent and more equitable delivery of curricula. (SLD)