Four groups that help shape the curriculum are teachers, parental and community groups, students, and standardized tests.
Teachers play the greatest role in developing the curriculum, because they have hands on perspective of the school. "Teachers develop curriculum both formally and informally." Teachers may actually work on writing the district's curriculum, and be involved in the process of determining what textbooks the school will purchase. "Classroom teachers interpret and adapt whatever official text or curriculum guide has been assigned, stressing certain points in a text while giving scant attention to others; supplementing with teacher-made materials or directing students to the internet."
Parents and Community Groups can also be forceful in influencing the curriculum. "They might advocate for more rigorous academic courses, concerned about poor student performance on standardized tests, or they may desire more practical vocational training, such as an increase in computer science courses." Many communities do differ in opinions, but most usually, parents make their voice clear. As much as parents desire better materials, they also at the same time ban certain books that they feel are inappropriate for their children. Such as books that use racial, ethnic or gender slurs, and stereotypes.
"During the 1960s and 1970s, students demanded curricular relevance and sought more relevant curriculum." Today, students are more interested in protests against standardized testing, than they are interested in influencing the curriculum. "Typically, students are given some freedom to select topics for independent projects, research papers, book reviews, and even authentic learning."
Standardized tests deeply influence what is taught in the school curriculum. "If students perform poorly in one or more areas of these standardized tests, public pressure may push school officials to strengthen the curriculum in these weak spots.
I believe the least influential group in shaping the curriculum are publishers. Textbook publishers major goal is to sell their books. "That is why textbooks are attractively packaged and chock full of terms and names, but unfortunately, do less well in providing depth or conflicting points of view." Therefore, publishers fall into the category of being the least influential group because their textbooks come to the market pleasing the eyes of the purchasers and not of the scholars.
-- Jessica Magnuson, Florida Atalantic University