Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Department of Defense schools have adopted the Common Core State Standards. Adoption was only the first step. Ensuring that the standards will improve student learning will require new assessments, curriculums, instructional materials and resources, and professional development.…

The decrease in the instructional time and professional development at the expense of arts and foreign languages highlights a significant danger to the United States educational system. The educational quality in schools and focus on reading, writing, mathematics, and science being diminished are discussed with the help of several studies…

One fifth-grade teacher feels it is unfair if some students learn one thing, while others learn something else. Teachers must agree on some core of specific content and resolve to teach it at appropriate levels. Core Knowledge Sequence for grades 1-6 provides model of grade-by-grade content including literature, U.S. and world civilization,…

To realize future continuous learning, thinking, and complex problem-solving goals and standards, educators must exchange content acquisition and knowledge retention as ends in themselves for more adventuresome, experiential learning strategies. Teachers will assume new roles as knowledge managers, team planners, collegial coaches, and…

Describes California's integrative approach to curricular planning and staff development. Under the state's new vision of excellence, all students experience a common core curriculum providing a solid academic background and promoting literacy in the various disciplines. Content and skill development go hand in hand. Includes four references. (MLH)

The nation's oldest college is reforming its general education program to meet the challenge of the 1980s. What it does and how well it works may have profound consequences, not only for higher education, but for the high school curriculum as well. (Author)

The Basic School Network, Housed at James Madison University in Virginia, plans lessons based on Ernest L. Boyer's Core Commonalities--a system of eight themes underlying all human experience aimed at renewing early childhood education. Commonalities include the life cycle, use of symbols, membership in groups, sense of time and space, response to…

Outlining procedures involved in arriving at a newly adopted curriculum for the Oak Park, Illinois, high school of which he is the associate principal in charge of instruction, the author argues the importance of developing a comprehensive vision of educational priorities before considering specific curricular components. (JBM)

The major emphasis of "A Nation at Risk" is that less time in school is spent on academic areas and that the number of required courses has decreased. However, public opinion does not favor removing "personal development" and "general track" courses or lengthening the school day or year. (MLF)

The multiculturalism sought by Ronald Takaki is not ethnic separatism, but a serious scholarship that includes all United States peoples and challenges traditional master narratives of U.S. history. Class is a "hidden reality" of U.S. history. Multiculturalism affirms what this country stands for: opportunity, equality, and realization…