How Do Good English Curricula Develop?

Abstract

don't. Sometimes the top-notch curriculum comes about from committees which toil for years over professional issues and selection of materials. Sometimes an outstanding program seems to be the exclusive product of an inspired and energetic curriculum leader. Although we English teachers often talk about the contents of good programs and criteria for evaluating them, the professional literature does not offer many insights into the process of composing that most elusive of genres: the English language-arts curriculum. While engaged in writing a monograph on the English curriculum (The Process of English Language Arts Curriculum Development, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, forthcoming), I became curious about questions of curriculum process. After casting about for curriculum narratives in the professional literature and finding few, I turned to the NCTE Centers of Excellence. In the fall of 1989, I surveyed the centers that had been selected for recognition between 1987 and 1989.