School accountability decisions based on standardized tests hinge on the degree of alignment of the test with a state's standards. Yet no established criteria were available for judging strength of alignment. Previous studies of alignment among tests, standards, and teachers' instruction have yielded mixed results that are difficult to interpret…

This study presents a process used to assess the general education component of the undergraduate curriculum, focusing particularly on the components of the methodology that provided the data used to suggesting changes in the program. The study was undertaken at an urban institution with an undergraduate population of 6,000, and involved analysis…

Serious attention should be paid to analysis of the ideological, social, and educational factors that influence Israel's secondary school curriculum. The values of the kibbutz and its educational system are not included in existing school courses and should be integrated into the social studies curriculum. More than 400 curricula, used in schools…

In this study two high school students participated in the revision of a technology curriculum. These students were paid to work through lessons with one of the original authors to provide input for final editing and rewriting. The students were matched to the intended population for which the materials were originally written--poorly motivated…

From the initial invitation for proposals from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1962 until their end the reorganization of 1971, 16 "Project Social Studies Curriculum Centers" (PSSCC) existed at universities throughout the country. Social Studies programs came under fire from the educational reformers of the early…

This paper is based on the assumption that each school creates its own culture and that comparisons between a tribal society and a school society might prove profitable as a heuristic device to learn how change might be more effectively approached by change agents. Studies of the impact of western technology on tribal societies have suggested that…

Discussions of "test curriculum overlap" that focus on the term "mismatch" tend to be based on several untenable premises. This paper addresses the issue of the degree to which standardized tests should reflect the specific content of a given school curriculum with regard to three points: (1) The idea of matching the content of…

It is now almost universally acknowledged that science education must be rejuvenated to serve the needs of American society. An emerging science of science education based on recent advances in psychological research could make this rejuvenation dramatic. Four aspects of psychological research relevant to science curriculum design are discussed:…

Five years ago Los Angeles Unified School District administrators began efforts to ensure that teachers teach students what they are expected to learn and test them accordingly. The initial stage of this projected curriculum alignment was first of all to define the essential skills to be taught in the elementary grades and provide a list of these…

How best to prepare beginning tachers and what is meant by an adequately prepared teacher are issues that directly influence the structure and practice of teacher preparation programs. A critical review of recent research (1978-1988) on social studies methods classes, examined those with a focus on overall course design and those that focus on a…

This study examined curriculum procedures and the roles, decision-making processes, and perceptions of central administrators, building administrators, and teachers in five school districts. Qualitative data collection included taped interviews using a focused indepth interview schedule, field notes, observation, and document collection. The study…

A review of the research literature on systematic instructional design indicates that few empirically supported guidelines exist for testing materials under development and for improving materials on the basis of feedback from potential learners. In an analysis of 17 textbooks on instructional design, eight specific aspects to be considered in…

Having broadly defined the process of curriculum formation as a complex set of interactions among many specified internal and external factors, the authors review the field of curriculum theory with the goal of finding the most potent theory for structuring and guiding studies of how changes occur in the curriculum of American public schools. For…

The view that people of black African descent have made few significant contributions to the history of mankind is a widely held concept in the social science and humanities curricula of U.S. secondary and higher education. Prior to celebrating the cultural diversity of the United States, the curriculum and materials should be analyzed and…

Efforts to reform teacher education should include careful reconsideration of what teachers learn about curriculum design and instructional methodology. The selection and organization of school knowledge have significant social, political, and ethical implications that are ignored by traditional, rationalistic assumptions about educational…