The curriculum implementation literature has recently focused more on identifying and measuring the key components of the innovative curriculum needed to achieve desired outcomes. However, most of this work centers on curriculum implementation external to the field of teacher education. In this article, we report on our identification of the…

For educators, the content of the curriculum really is like oxygen: it is the necessary precondition for improving schools, closing the achievement gap, engaging parents, and preparing teachers. However, when educators take the content of the curriculum for granted, they lose opportunities to coordinate and collaborate. Good curriculum instruction…

To achieve fairness and excellence in education, an elementary school should teach a body of shared knowledge, grade by grade. The Core Knowledge Foundation offers some principles and guidelines for developing such programs. As one South Bronx inner-city school shows, core knowledge works because it acknowledges human learning limitations,…

"The Core Knowledge Sequence (CKS) is a consensus-based model of specific content guidelines that, when used as the basis of about 50% of a school's curriculum, can provide a solid, coherent foundation of learning for students in the elementary grades." An introductory section discusses the CKS, its implementation, profiles of the CKS at…

Profiles curriculum reform efforts at a Spanish Harlem school participating in a diverse, 150-member Basic School Network inspired by Ernest L. Boyer's work. Curriculum is constructed around eight commonalities: the life cycle, use of symbols, group membership, sense of time and space, aesthetic responsiveness, connections to nature, production…

This paper describes the progress of applying the integrated curriculum in two elementary classrooms. Utilizing science as the core course of integrated curriculum, three elementary teachers and two university-based educators worked together to design and to conduct the experimental course of integrated-curriculum. Based on the approach of…

Multiple Intelligences (MI) curriculum has demonstrated increased student achievement including improved engagement and performance on standardized tests. MI-based instruction also improves student achievement in science. Many educators focus solely on delivering content standards instead of infusing their curriculum with pedagogy that engages…

Pierre Indian Learning Center is a residential Bureau of Indian Affairs grant school that serves Indian children in Grades 1-8 from 15 tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. Recently, the average enrollment of the school has been 165 students, referred by social service agencies or courts because of various family, social, learning,…

This scheme for a core curriculum rejects central control over the precise body of knowledge taught or the teaching methods used but advocates some control over experiments in education and the early assessment of their results. (Author/SJL)

Discusses how three states are implementing the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, focusing on Massachusetts' Common Core of Learning, Delaware's First Schools in the First State pilot curriculum project, and Oregon's Initial Mastery and Advanced Mastery certificates. Notes that one of the aims of Goals 2000 is to make states true laboratories of…

The enrollment growth of Japanese language courses in U.S. K-12 classrooms has resulted in a strain on delivery systems due limited teacher training programs, materials, and standardized tests. A new Johns Hopkins/College Board project to develop a national curricular framework is described. (LB)

The Arizona Elementary Foreign Language Task Force's response to a state mandate requiring foreign-language instruction in all elementary schools is described. After a review of curricular and personnel resource needs, Northern Arizona University's teacher-training model is summarized. (Contains 29 references.) (Author/LB)

A resource of statements about the values of music in education, this paper is intended to help answer the question, "Why is it important to teach general music to children in grades K-6?" Material is quoted from several disciplines including psychology, education, music education, and the medical field. The paper is directed primarily…

Reported in this document are the Secretary of Education's personal recommendations for a sound elementary school core curriculum, presented by means of a report on a fictional "James Madison Elementary School." The report opens with discussion of the importance of commitment to course content and instruction in basic skills in…

American elementary school children need a common core curriculum so that they can share common points of references that will enable further learning; multiculturalism must be a part of this curriculum. But two types of multiculturalism exist: one that is universalistic in viewpoint, which might be called cosmopolitanism, and another that is…