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)

Advocates a skills-based curriculum as an inexpensive way of preparing children for the future. Briefly discusses the eight independent learning skills to be taught: reading, writing, research, planning, problem solving, self discipline, self evaluation, and presentation. This model was developed at the Zoo School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (SJL)

Highlights and criticizes changes in the traditional core curriculum during the 1960s and 1970s. Points to weaknesses in the current "return to basics" trend infiltrating core curricula. Calls for a clearer definition of undergraduate curriculum goals and the adoption of guidelines in order to eliminate the formlessness of the current system. (CAM)

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)

Warns against the dangers of allowing a student too much freedom in choosing his curriculum. (JF)

Outlines ways that the core skills recommended by the British Secretary of State can be integrated into the economics A/AS level syllabi. Identifies and discusses these skills in the context of curriculum development. Discusses the implications for the first national examination in 1996. (NL)

Ontario's curriculum development centralization is examined in respect to (1) definition and implementation, (2) narrowed curricular possibilities, (3) constraining aspects of standardized evaluation, and (4) narrowed teacher professionalism. (MB)

This bulletin describes the Dallas Community College District's (DCCD's) efforts to develop a common learning core curriculum. Introductory material discusses the creation of Committees for Common Learning to decide on standards and requirements for all students who enroll in degree programs at any of the seven district colleges and to design an…

The author reviews several government reports and other publications for their definitions of core curriculum and comments on particular problems of middle school curriculum: balance and articulation. (SJL)

The project on which this report focuses is basically a research and development enterprise set up to investigate the possibilities of constructing and introducing core syllabuses and to study problems that emerge in such an undertaking. The project is largely an attempt to test the feasibility and practicability of an approach to curriculum and…

This collection of papers on the history of developmental education includes: "Historical Perspectives: With Hindsight We Gain Foresight" (Normal Stahl); "Supporting the Research Mission" (David V. Taylor); "A Brief History of the American Council of Developmental Education Associations" (Hunter R. Boylan);…

The time has come to improve the quality of core courses so that all students have equal opportunities to become prepared for postsecondary education and for work. The purposes of this report are to examine the gap between secondary and postsecondary education in the U.S. and to focus on successful strategies for eliminating this gap so that all…

Intended to introduce educators in secondary schools and colleges to discussion promoting economic literacy for all students, this paper offers a critique of the typical economics curriculum, a rationale for economics education, and a working definition of economic literacy. The first section reviews and critiques current curriculum planning in…

Criticizes the "Five New Basics" proposal on the basis of the Educational Testing Service's Growth Study, which found that completion of core curriculum enhances test performance only if the student's course performance is very high. Concludes that the National Commission did not comprehensively evaluate current educational conditions…

Examines the debate over "key skills" in the United Kingdom's higher education curriculum, intended to compensate for early specialization in school and make education more relevant to work. Suggests that a more fundamental curriculum reform is needed, because key skills focus narrowly on"practical" outcomes and because the…