ABSTRACT
The design and implementation of the National Curriculum constituted the most extensive curriculum development enterprise this century-greater in scale, even, than the national literacy and numeracy strategies introduced in 1998 and 1999. In its early years, its gradual implementation was monitored by HM Inspectorate and, to a lesser extent, by officers of the National Curriculum Council. Evaluation by independent researchers was far less extensive. The political rhetoric which helped launch the National Curriculum in 1987-88 promised (perhaps even expected) rapid improvements in educational standards and quality and the equally rapid establishment of a consistently implemented curriculum characterized by greatly improved progression and continuity within and between stages.
