The undergraduate curriculum in colleges and universities in the United States can be viewed in three large and distinct periods. Knowing these periods, one can determine the interaction between education and society, can suggest what will come next, and can help make one comfortable with a patchwork curriculum. (Author/MLF)

Membership appeal for Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (DS)

Shifts in funding priorities at the National Institute of Education may indicate significant changes in the types of activities NIE will support in coming years. Less emphasis will be placed on curriculum development activities and more on research and strengthening others' development capabilities and efforts. (Author)

Article discusses various aspects of relevancy and proposes ways to increase the choices of students in preparing for their role in society. (GB)

Two educational development programs--a revolutionary project in Cuba and an evolutionary project in Jamaica--have implications for the rest of the world. (Author)

Ralph W. Tyler reviews five significant events in the field of curriculum development: (1) work of Edward Thorndike, (2) John Dewey's monograph on interest and effort in education, (3) the 26th yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, (4) the formation of the Society for Curriculum Study in 1930, and (5) curriculum experiments…

In 1983 Manchester High School (CT) became involved in a five-year planning process to reshape the school curriculum through redefinition of the competencies needed by its students to achieve success in the future. The five-year plan is outlined along with a discussion of establishing a flexible planning process that allows the school to shape the…

Article focuses on the credibility gap between students and their teachers, the dangers of failure in resolving the problem, and the ultimate decision for educators-whether to take a position of continued hypocrisy or one of honesty and realism. (RK)

Describes a program of educational improvement wherein the community and teacher interacted to save precious time in the classroom and enhanced the relationship of parents and educators. (RK)

Discusses "backward design," a strategy for planning curriculum and school improvement by first thinking carefully about desired results and then working backward to develop meaningful assessments and learning plans. For this design to work, educators must identify desired results, analyze multiple sources of data, and determine appropriate action…

Discusses how schools can avoid mistakes in building their school-improvement plans. The two most common mistakes are (1) using measures of student learning that are not sensitive to the actual learning occurring, and (2) having no system for interpreting and using the data. (Contains 1 figure and 11 references.) (WFA)