ABSTRACT
Achieving substantial, lasting improvements in the curriculums of large numbers of classrooms may be the greatest curriculum challenge. It is probably not impossible, although Americans have not achieved it in this century. The dozens of massive curriculum reform movements Americans have seen since World War II, including the standardsbased reforms currently underway, have all failed to change the curriculums of most American classrooms. Few progressive reforms can be found in American classrooms today. The post-Sputnik reforms did not transform the teaching of science and mathematics. The Great Society reforms did not substantially reduce the gap in educational achievement between privileged and disadvantaged children. Let us see what makes this problem so hard.
