The symbolic function of curricular debate, as it is manifested in the minimum competency testing movement (MCT), is investigated. Curricular debate necessarily reflects the demands of the society in which it arises. The topics that are addressed spring from this milieu and the language in which issues are couched must be appropriate to it.…

The Vermont State Board of Education is required to approve competencies for each vocational program. This has resulted in a comprehensive, broad-based approach that can readily be adapted by local schools. Instructors' committees draft curriculum that reflects core competencies for entry-level employment in a given occupational area. (JOW)

"Creating a Place in History" (Decker) discusses the evolution of tech prep and the challenges it offers to secondary and postsecondary schools. "Tech Prep for Business and Marketing Technology" (Butler) describes tech prep in Arkansas. (JOW)

Productive changes in schooling throughout the 1980s are contingent on emphasis being placed on school effectiveness rather than on curriculum adjustments. Today's curriculum sprawl, caused by the state and federal legislatures' penchant for creating courses to cure newly-emerging social ills, must not deplete resources that should be directed…

Fear of poor teaching and low national test scores have spawned a back to basics movement and a shift from the use of tests as predictors and models to that of assessment and achievement. This movement may have positive impact on the teaching of English, which previously has not lent itself well to standardized testing. Although many English…

Text from a speech delivered by the past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development declares that a liberating education offers students abundant knowledge, that content by itself does not liberate individuals, and that individuals employ knowledge in their own liberation. (MLF)

Developing A CurriculUM (DACUM) is an approach to job/occupational analysis. The profile chart that results from DACUM analysis is a low-cost, effective method of quickly determining what tasks must be performed by employees in a given job or occupational area. The DACUM analysis can be used as a basis for the following: curriculum development;…

Galveston College (Texas) adapted a strategic planning approach in revising curriculum to identify current use and future demands for microcomputer competencies for students in selected vocational programs. Their strategic planning relied on external and internal scanning to determine the relationship of such competencies to future job…

Comments on state legislative intervention in curriculum during the past decade. Discusses attempts to establish minimum competency testing and legislative mandates regarding subjects and minimum instructional time. Addresses back-to-basics and saleable skills issues and reviews a Presidential Advisory Committee report with a discussion of…

The author states that throughout the past century or more, especially during the twentieth century, the continuing conflict between proponents of the minimum essentials approach to curriculum excellence and those of the individual development approach has been an obstacle to the achievement of excellence. (CT)

The attorney for the plaintiffs in Debra P. v. Turlington discusses the harmful effects and the arbitrary and unfair nature of minimum competency testing. (Author/WD)

If competence is the outcome of a set of carefully designed behavioral objectives, then the form, generality, and focus of these objectives must be impeccable. Eight guidelines that eliminate the weaknesses in existing competency statements are presented. (CMJ)

Discussion of the standards issue in gifted education stresses the value of program models characterized by academic freedom and development of creative expression and urges that lists of standards and high-stakes testing do not replace a rich curriculum. (Contains references.) (DB)

The need for improved accountability has led to more competency-based testing. This provides test makers with the opportunity to have greater impact on the curriculum. Several strategies are suggested for measurement-based instructional improvement. (Author/PN)

The promotion of basic skills need not conflict with present elective systems which seek to create interest and to address student concerns. The solution is not to narrow subject offerings to a "no-frills" level, but to design learning systems which ensure that current offerings cover the basic skills. (SJL)