This report is the second of a series on cultivating excellence in education for the purpose of training and retraining school leaders of the 1990s. The common role of educational leaders in curriculum and instructional programs is discussed in response to the following question: How can an educational leader make sense out of the many diverse ideas, theories, and strategies that compete for inclusion in curriculum development? The solution to this question rests with the challenge of developing a thoughtful and balanced curriculum that includes a representative portion from each of four interwoven approaches based on Schiro's (1978) Scholar Academic (SA), Child Study (CS), Social Reconstruction (SR) and Social Efficiency (SE) ideologies. The SA ideology's primary goal is to teach the knowledge that has been accumulated by the culture or to enculturate the learners. The CS ideology's primary goal is to tap the individual potential of each learner. Those who follow SR Ideology believe that their primary goal is to empower all learners to transform society. SE ideology concentrates its focus on the teaching skills and knowledge that will be productive in society. (JAM)