Acton (Massachusetts) Public Schools' open enrollment experience shows that a system can develop a common curriculum while allowing individual schools and teachers considerable instructional latitude. Confronting open enrollment pitfalls such as intensified competition, pressures for curriculum standards, and enrollment dilemmas helped this…

The author explains how a humanistic curriculum can function as a component of systems in which learning outcomes are predicted, and in which students' and teachers' responsibilities are defined clearly. (GW)