ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the interest in a high standards curriculum is derived from critics of progressivism who valued intellectualism and the public’s demands for an education that gives all students access to the knowledge and skills expected of those who have historically been prepared to attend college. The interest in accountability for results and high standards is the iteration of efforts to reform schools so that they respond to social and economic demands. Progressivist educational thinkers throughout the twentieth century have asserted that a common college preparatory curriculum does not meet the needs of all students or prepare them to take their proper roles in society. As the academic curriculum lost its importance as the central focus of the public school system, the schools lost their anchor, their sense of mission, their intense moral commitment to the intellectual development of each child.
