Chapter Summary

	Teachers, Schools, and Society by Sadker & Sadker
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Chapter 8: Controversy Over Who Controls the Curriculum

Chapter Summary

The curriculum can be influenced by many different groups and data. These include students, parents, administrators, the federal government, the state government, the local government, colleges and universities, national test results, education commissions and committees, professional organizations, and special interest groups.
The effort to establish national curricular standards has moved forward for subjects such as mathematics, but it has encountered a vocal opposition in more value-laden disciplines, such as history, in which no national consensus exists as to what should be included. While some Americans believe that the institution of national standards will enhance the level of learning and national unity, critics argue that funding for additional resources, rather than national standards, is needed in order to improve America's schools.
More than twenty states, mainly located in the South and West, are textbook adoption states. Typically, in this centralized adoption system, local school districts select their texts from an official, state-approved list.
Those who are in favor of the state adoption system believe that this process leads to the selection of higher-quality texts and creates a common, statewide curriculum. Those who criticize the state adoption system claim that large, populous states have unfair influence over textbook development.
Under pressure to publish books that have appropriate readability levels, publishers and authors "dumb down" textbooks or substitute simplified, shorter words and phrases for more complex ones. This may result in books in which sophisticated ideas are simplified into meaningless ones. Critics of textbooks cite the "mentioning phenomenon" as another problem. They claim that the books try to include too many subjects and gloss over them to such a degree that students fail to gain sufficient depth or context.
Seven forms of bias can characterize textbooks: invisibility, stereotyping, imbalance and selectivity, unreality, fragmentation and isolation, linguistic bias, and cosmetic bias.
Controversies over religious fundamentalism and secular humanism have characterized textbook adoption in recent years. In some communities, these controversies have led to book banning and censorship.
Debate continues over the impact of a core curriculum. Proponents of a core curriculum feel that it will benefit the disadvantaged and transmit the culture.

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