Everyone is telling teachers what to teach

Even in an era of standardized tests, state governments and others are adding mandatory subjects to schools.

From urban Philadelphia to rural Illinois, the new school year also means new requirements for what, precisely, students must learn. In addition to their normal English classes, science labs, and test-prep work, more will be studying topics such as African history, personal finance, and genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda.

Curriculum mandates sometimes come top-down from state legislatures. Others spring from grass-roots demands on school boards. They’re the product of a wrestling match of sorts – between American education’s tradition of local control and the growing movement to standardize subject matter for the sake of global competitiveness.

When the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) periodically shows US students performing dismally on a certain subject, "usually there’s a hue and outcry," says Peggy Altoff, president-elect of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). That can spur state lawmakers to try to expand the curriculum in, say, history or geography. But in addition, "states [or local districts] begin to pick up the mantle for certain issues … when a certain segment of the population begins to say, ‘There’s a neglect here,’ " she says.

By Stacy A. Teicher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Full Story: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0908/p12s01-legn.html?s=hns