The process by which the Mississippi History and Mississippi State and Local Government curricula were validated in the 1988-89 school year is described. The validation effort was part of a state program of review of the entire curriculum. The first validation panel consisted of 10 university professors, who reached consensus on the 35 objectives for the history curriculum and 77 objectives for the state and local government curriculum. A second part of the validation was review by a panel of eight practicing secondary school teachers, who examined the recommendations and changes of the first panel and established the content and format of a questionnaire for the final stage of validation--a review by all regularly certified Mississippi secondary teachers with endorsement in social studies. The questionnaire sent to 980 Mississippi teachers elicited responses from 228 teachers of the government course and 236 teachers of the history course. To become a core skill, an objective had to be rated "desirable" by a minimum of 40% of the respondents. The final government curriculum contained 70 objectives, of which 23 were identified core skills, and the final history curriculum contained 39 objectives, with 9 core skills. The teachers expressed their concerns and interests about the implementation of both curricula. The recommendations and results of this validation will be submitted to the State School Accreditation Committee in fall 1989. Six tables present the study data, and six appendices supplement the text and include a list of the objectives. (SLD)