Family and consumer sciences education national curriculum standards: implementation plans for reform

Abstract

This study documented the implementation of the national teaching and learning standards developed and published in 1998 for family and consumer sciences curricula in secondary schools. Telephone interviews were used to collect data from 44 family and consumer sciences administrators in state departments of education. The Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) provided a framework for developing an interview schedule to identify the level and degree of use, concerns, and models of implementation related to the family and consumer sciences national standards. Descriptive statistics were generated to summarize the data pertaining to the number of states using or not using the family and consumer sciences national standards, components of 16 areas of study most/least used, and the attitudes of family and consumer sciences state administrators toward the standards. Data from open-ended questions were analyzed using hand sorting methods to identify common themes related to concerns and models of implementation. The interview results showed that 93% of these state department of education family and consumer sciences administrators were implementing the national standards in their states. The top reasons identified for implementing the