ABSTRACT
There is a tension between curriculum developers’ need to maintain the integrity of innovations and teachers’ need for local adaptation. On one hand, reformers need to make sure that teachers’ practices in classrooms are compatible with the essential ideas in curriculum materials in order to evaluate the influence of reform. On the other hand, teachers frequently adapt curriculum materials according to local needs not anticipated by curriculum designers. Without understanding the intentions behind the curriculum materials, there is a danger that the essence of the reform can be lost in the adaptation. Therefore, teachers need access to the implicit design rationale of curriculum materials to help make wise adaptation decisions (Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002). It is insufficient to merely provide an overview of the reform ideas behind curricula. Teachers need to see the detailed relationships between reform ideas and each curriculum component. Our hope is that by showing teachers the way that individual curricular components relate to standards, we will help teachers make enactment choices that preserve the essence of the innovation.
