Curriculum change and the dynamics of this change were explored by means of a case study of secondary social studies, science, and vocational education curriculums in Gary, Indiana, between 1940 and 1970. The time period is characterized by both unprecedented effort to produce change and slow change in schools. Talcott Parson's hierarchy of levels; Charles Perrow's notion of goals, technology, and structure; and Kirst and Walker's assumption that curriculum decisionmaking was "political" were used to conceptualize and stabilize the data as curriculum development was traced through the time period. The study findings revealed that change occurred in small ways in individual classrooms -- by policy decision and by organizational "drift." Change and financial resources were found to be related. School system resources were used for "maintenance" of the system; few resources were left for innovation. The advent of federal funding (NDEA, Vocational Education Act of 1963) brought additional funds, which permitted the curriculum change that the Gary school system had failed to bring about with its own limited resources. An extensive bibliography is included. (Author)