A case study was made of the implementation of an innovative measurement program. In this instance, curriculum implementation was seen as a process in pedagogical, occupational, and sociocultural contexts in which social groups with unequal power, and in contradictory ways, contended for control. "Beyond academic achievement" emerged as a theme underlying the knowledge being distributed by the school. Six subthemes are analyzed: (1) the controlling influence of middle-class ideology; (2) curriculum and organizational fragmentation; (3) how the school muted academic competition to the advantage of middle-class students; (4) instructional processes that contributed to an unequal distribution of knowledge; (5) instructional processes that contributed to and effectively masked an unequal distribution of knowledge; and (6) forms of control, resistance, and compliance. Conclusions are made on parent participation and social class, and power and curriuclum development, both of which clearly point up differences in perspectives on curriculum implementation. Two pages of references are included. (Author/TE)