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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the program initiated by EdReports.org for analysing instructional materials, improving local decision making for selecting materials, and providing professional learning to support implementation of high-quality materials in schools. The Context Input Process Product model was used to evaluate decision-making by policy groups during the stage of context evaluation, and operation managers in EdReports.org during the stages of input, process and product evaluation. The results show that EdReports.org reviews materials in English language arts, mathematics and science, and supports efforts to improve local selection and implementation of high-quality materials in schools. Activities include publishing research findings, increasing outreach within the education community, collaborating with education organisations and professional associations to strengthen professional learning for implementing high-quality materials, and partnering with state education agencies on projects to assist districts ensure that teachers use high-quality materials. The findings of the study show that EdReports.org has planned, structured and implemented a program during the first five years of operation that meets the needs of educators for guidance and advice about the selection and implementation of high-quality, standards-aligned materials.

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare key elements of the actions that states and territories are taking to implement the Australian Curriculum, and what innovative processes and products they are using to facilitate implementation. A rubric adapted from a diagnostic tool, developed by Achieve and the U.S. Education Delivery Institute, was used to analyze the strength of strategies employed by states and territories to implement the Australian Curriculum. The analysis of state-level implementation focused on the preliminary phase, 'organize to implement', and the first two implementation actions: 'align instructional practices'; and 'train educators'. Content analysis was used to analyze educational literature and research studies investigating state- and local-level implementation of the Australian Curriculum, and to describe and classify the strategies reported by eight Australian states and territories. The results showed that the strengths of states' and territories' capacities to implement the Australian Curriculum varied widely across the preliminary phase and the two implementation actions. The preliminary phase sets out a process for a state or territory to organize implementation based on seven building blocks: aspiration; internal leadership team; time line; budget; gap analysis; guiding coalition; and communications. The capacity of the states and territories was equal and strong for aspiration and internal leadership team, equal and moderate for time line, equal and weak for budget, and varied from weak to moderate for gap analysis, guiding coalition and communications. Implementation action I sets out a process for a state or territory to disseminate aligned instructional practices to teachers by undertaking three critical actions: identify strategies to achieve success; understand how the strategies will be implemented through the field to the classroom; and connect strategies to expected outcomes. The capacity of states and territories ranged from moderate to strong for identifying strategies to achieve success and understanding how the strategies will be implemented through the field to the classroom, but weak for connecting strategies to expected outcomes. Implementation action II sets out a process for a state or territory to train teachers by undertaking three critical actions: identify strategies to achieve success; understand how the strategies will be implemented through the field to the classroom; and connect the strategies to expected outcomes. The capacity of states and territories were strong for identifying strategies to achieve success and understanding how the strategies will be implemented through the field to the classroom, and ranged from weak to strong for connecting strategies to expected outcomes. The findings identified important implications for educational theory, research and practice relating to the four objectives for the study. First, planning, structuring and implementing decisions made during the change process were effective in producing a national curriculum that satisfied the expectations of most stakeholders. Second, each state and territory engaged with stakeholders on various strategies to align instructional practices to the Australian Curriculum and train educators to implement the Australian Curriculum. Third, states and territories showed some variation in the strength of plans for aligning instructional practices to the Australian Curriculum, but little variation in the strength of plans for training educators to implement the Australian Curriculum. Fourth, there was no evidence that states and territories use delivery approaches, although several states have created new structures at the local level conducive to adoption of a delivery framework.

The purpose of this study was to review research studies investigating the role of instructional materials in relation to the Common Core State Standards and to evaluate whether a new organisation, EdReports.org, founded to evaluate the alignment of instructional materials to the Common Core State Standards, has achieved its objectives. Content analysis was used to analyse the subject matter of reports on the research studies. A decision-oriented evaluation model was used to analyse the decision process, decision-making setting, decision model and types of decisions in the change process within EdReports.org. The results showed that the research studies have produced important findings concerning the role of instructional materials in relation to the Common Core State Standards and EdReports.org has attained its objectives in successfully developing and diffusing a program to evaluate the alignment of instructional materials to the Common Core State Standards. The conclusion recommends that policymakers in other educational settings should consider whether its operating system provides a valid model for creating a program to evaluate the alignment of instructional materials to academic standards.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate decision making in the Common Core State Standards Initiative as the change process moved from research, development and diffusion activities to adoption of the Common Core State Standards by the states. A decision-oriented evaluation model was used to describe the four stages of planning, structuring, implementing and recycling decisions in the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Content analysis and survey methods were used to analyse literature referring to the Common Core State Standards and to obtain verification of information reported on the Common Core State Standards from officials of national organisations and state education agencies. The results showed that planning, structuring and implementing decisions were effective in producing Common Core State Standards that satisfied the expectations of most stakeholders, but recycling decisions needed to modify the Common Core State Standards Initiative remain unresolved. Awareness about a lack of agreement between what standards-based education is intended to be and what it actually is led policy makers to determine that common standards offered a solution to this problem. The setting for decision making in attaining this solution involved attempting a large change supported by a low understanding of how to accomplish the change. This setting required the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers to design an action plan for programming the segments of research, development, diffusion and adoption of the Common Core State Standards in advance. Decisions about the extent, to which the desired ends of the Common Core State Standards Initiative have been attained, have focused attention on determining a new governance structure. All of the states, except for Alaska and Texas, joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative by signing a memorandum of agreement. By July 2011, all of the participating states, except for Montana, Nebraska and Virginia, had adopted the Common Core State Standards formally or provisionally. State profiles for each of these states describe the process of adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards by referring to plans for teacher development, curriculum alignment, instructional materials selection, assessment alignment, and accountability systems design. The results showed that effective decision making in planning, structuring and implementing the Common Core State Standards Initiative led most of the participating states to adopt the Common Core State Standards readily, and to initiate plans for implementation by aligning state standards and curriculum to the Common Core State Standards and to provide professional development for educators. (Contains 2 tables.)

The purpose of this article was to review published research literature about procedures used to select textbooks in the USA. The contents of books, collected works, reports and journal articles were analysed, and summaries of the contents were then organised chronologically to present a commentary on the topic. The results showed that procedures for selecting textbooks arose in the states in the late nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century, a balance between the numbers of states using state-level or local-level adoption procedures had been established, and a geographic pattern of north-eastern and mid-western states using local-level adoption and south-eastern, southern and western states using state-level adoption had emerged. Although early studies researching this phenomenon were limited to tabulating various provisions in selection policies, more recent studies have identified important differences between groups operating within these two types. Research examining the intent of state-level adoption has identified that its practice is most closely associated with controlling the cost of textbooks. Other research suggests that populous state-level adoption states influence the content of textbooks used across the USA. Research examining this phenomenon at the local level has identified complexity and diversity among selection procedures, but failed to identify a typical pattern from these data. Research comparing the differences and effects between local-level selection procedures in state-level and local-level adoption states has identified that the only significant effect is related to the cost of textbooks. [This article was published in "IARTEM e-Journal," 2:1 (2009) by the International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media.]

The purpose of this study was to review five initiatives in national curriculum collaboration, which have emerged since the move to national consistency arose in 2003, and to examine reports on these initiatives published by the news media and the education profession. Searches on web sites of education organisations, an electronic magazine, and the Australian Education Index were conducted to identify documents, news reports and educational literature referring to the five initiatives. Content analysis method was applied to summarise and categorise the documents. The results showed that policy making during this phase of national curriculum collaboration has shifted from establishing national consistency to introducing standards-based education, and reports published by the news media and the education profession have increased since this shift occurred. The conclusion indicated that, whilst a national debate has emerged on this issue, only a small proportion of policy makers and leaders within the education community has been engaged in contributing to this debate.

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent, to which factors in the process of decision making involved in curriculum development in Australia, have determined the quality of curriculum documents. Searches on web sites of education organisations and electronic databases of educational literature were conducted to identify source documents and research literature. Content analysis method was applied to identify evidence in written communications about factors affecting decision making in the process of curriculum development. The results showed that curriculum development is conducted at the national level and in all states and territories, except Tasmania, by a two-tiered structure of committees. Super-ordinate committees make decisions in overseeing and coordinating the work of subordinate committees, which are responsible for conceptualising curriculum. Curriculum co-construction, in which super-ordinate committees make decisions in overseeing and coordinating the work of teachers in conceptualising curriculum, forms the principal means for undertaking curriculum development in Tasmania. The results indicated that the findings of research studies, investigating the decision-making process, identify formal and informal relationships between particular groups playing crucial roles and the dynamic process of interactions between these groups, but offer few insights to improve understanding of what factors in the decision-making process influence the development of a rigorous curriculum. Policy makers and education officials, who wish to gain greater insight into particular factors influencing decision making in the process of curriculum development, could apply one of four evaluation techniques outlined in the conclusion. (Contains 1 table.)

The purpose of this article was to review published research literature about the publishing process and the roles of participants in this process on the textbook publishing industry in the USA. The contents of books, collected works, reports and journal articles were analysed, and summaries of the contents were then organised chronologically to present a commentary on this topic. The results showed that the main facets of the textbook publishing industry arose in the early nineteenth century. Several surveys conducted in association with a report on textbooks issued in 1931 indicated that procedures for selecting authors, their role, and the methods they applied were well defined at this time. Commentators reporting on textbook publishing in the 1950s and 1960s depicted an industry in which the publishing process and the roles of authors, editors and sales people had been institutionalised for many years. However, the textbook publishing industry at that time was faced by the challenges of integrating new technologies in printing and new media for presenting materials. Commentators writing in the 1990s were more concerned to analyse changes in the textbook publishing industry occurring in response to globalisation. Mergers and takeovers, resulting from reductions in profit margins faced by many textbook publishing companies, led to the incorporation of textbook publishing activities within multinational media, communications and entertainment conglomerates, whilst small emerging textbook publishing companies filled a vacuum in the marketplace as niche publishers. [This article was published in the journal of the International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media (IARTEM).]

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate initiatives the state government announced in 2006 to review the curriculum and assessments, and enhance capacity building and accountability. The methodology for reviewing states' systemic reform policies devised by Achieve, an organisation based in Washington, DC, was applied to identify issues and challenges confronting these initiatives, and determine whether they improve capacity building, accountability and public leadership. The results indicated that the initiatives took account of surveys conducted by the Australian Education Union and Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends, and the Reporting to Parents Taskforce. Comparisons with standards-based reforms in California, Indiana, and Massachusetts identified that some factors leading to success in these states were absent in Tasmania. Potential for improving capacity building and accountability has been met by an 18-month plan. David Bartlett, the new Minister for Education, has restored credible leadership following controversy over the Essential Learnings curriculum in 2005, but absense of a cross-sectoral group to provide strong leadership limits the likelihood of successful reform. Comparison with the controversy over the Profile of Learning in Minnesota revealed similarities to challenges faced in Tasmania. A set of recommendations is presented to meet challenges faced by curriculum reform in Tasmania.

The purpose of this study was to review national and state level initiatives in curriculum reform to identify whether the move towards greater national consistency in curriculum outcomes confirms the dominance of outcomes-based education or reflects a shift from outcomes-based to standards-based education. Policy documents were examined, and the content of curriculum documents developed at both the national and state levels in Australia was analysed to identify whether the philosophical and theoretical bases of curriculum reforms derived from outcomes-based or standards-based education. The results indicated that the principles underpinning the national statements and profiles, which were published in 1994, derived initially from the national curriculum being developed at that time for England and Wales, although outcomes-based education increased in its influence. However, outcomes-based education became the predominant educational philosophy underpinning the curriculum frameworks and syllabuses developed by the states and territories from the national statements and profiles. The development of the statements of learning, commenced in 2003, represented an attempt to circumscribe the increasing diversity among state and territory curriculums, but also gave greater acknowledgement and recognition to the principles of standards-based education. The results showed that whilst curriculum developers are giving greater attention to setting clear and measurable outcomes in curriculum documents, the lack of a strong tradition of independent evaluation of these documents makes it difficult to judge their quality. As well as recommending the need for independent evaluations of curriculum documents, policymakers and curriculum developers need to consider alternative approaches to curriculum planning to ameliorate divisive debates. The document includes two tables, a bibliography and a glossary.

The release of the Labor government's policy statement, "Learning Together," in December 2000 initiated a long-term systemic reform strategy, which included the first attempt in Tasmania to formulate a new curriculum, the "Essential Learnings Framework." The purpose of this paper is to trace the historical pattern of change in the curriculum in Tasmania's education system, and to recount the main activities involved in developing and implementing the "Essential Learnings Framework" and the associated assessment system. The process for reviewing states' systemic reform policies devised by Achieve, an education organisation based in Washington, DC, is applied to identify the key issues and challenges confronting the curriculum reform. The analysis focused on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the new curriculum and assessments, and determining the extent to which Tasmania's education system provides capacity building and teacher development, accountability, and public leadership to mount successful curriculum reform. The paper concludes by presenting a set of recommendations to meet these challenges.

The purpose of this paper was to introduce readers to the main aspects of standards-based reforms in the United States of America. Content analyses of policy documents, reports of studies on education reforms, standards' documents and curriculum frameworks, and verbal communications from officials of education agencies provided the main sources of information on standards-based reforms. The main aspects of standards-based reforms occurring during the three phases of developing standards at the national level, translating the national standards into state standards, and establishing assessment systems to support state standards are reported and discussed. The paper concludes by identifying key strengths and weaknesses of standards-based education, and predicting its prospects for further development. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper summarizes the findings of a study examining the impact of standards-based and curriculum reforms on the role of curriculum materials in educational systems in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Australia. Concepts derived from a model of decision-oriented evaluation were applied to define a typology to classify various activities relating to the development, selection, and use of curriculum resources. The study focused on identifying activities to develop, select, and use materials by investigating two areas. First, the activities of publishers' associations and publishing companies in developing new materials to meet the needs of schools in implementing standards-based and curriculum reforms were analyzed to determine their impact on changing practices for selecting and using curriculum resources in educational systems. The findings of the study in the form of various activities relating to the development, selection, and use of curriculum resources were then classified according to categories defined in the typology. Data on the findings are presented in this report. (Contains 17 tables and 6 references.) (SLD)

An evaluation of the "Discovering Democracy" program, launched by the Commonwealth government in May 1997 to provide civics and citizenship education in schools across Australia, recommended developing a Web site to disseminate curriculum resources. This paper defines a prototype by examining the features of Web sites established by state education agencies in the United States to promote standards-based reform. After presenting overviews of standards-based reforms, the paper describes, through a series of case studies focusing on particular states, specific applications for jurying and organizing lesson plans, assessment techniques, and curriculum resources. It concludes by assessing the implications of applying each feature to the design of a Web site for the Discovering Democracy program. Appendixes list Web sites relating to the Discovering Democracy program and Web sites and Web-based tools of U.S. state education agencies. (Contains 14 references.) (BT)

This paper examines the impact of international and national influences on curriculum reform. The reforms were first manifested in the proceedings of the Forum on National Statements and Profiles in Australian Schools and arose from the work undertaken in the states and territories to implement and review curricula based on the national statements and profiles. By presenting accounts of developments in each of the states and territories between 1996 and 1999, the report examines the significance of external influences on shaping state-level policymaking in curriculum reform. The article details the New South Wales Board of Studies; the Victoria Board of Studies; the Queensland school curriculum since the 1950s; and school-reform movements in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory, and Northern Territory. The reforms in five of the territories employed two processes: curriculum frameworks, where several groups worked in coordination, and course-based syllabuses, which involved a more disjointed process of developing syllabuses in rounds or independently. In both types, the processes of consulting the educational community through field reviews appeared to be more extensive than had occurred previously. The paper's conclusion focuses on new influences on curriculum reform and offers comments on those aspects that have been adopted and rejected. (Contains 22 references.) (RJM)

Between 1986 and 1993 Australia developed a national curriculum framework of statements and profiles in eight learning areas. These areas were (1) English, (2) mathematics, (3) science, (4) studies of society and the environment, (5) arts, (6) health and physical education, (7) technology, and (8) languages other than English. This development represented the most significant curriculum reform ever attempted in Australian education. Previous studies have examined the effects of the contrasting doctrines of corporate federalism and economic reform with the states' rights' position adopted by the states and territories. This article explores how antecedent conditions for curriculum development have influenced the process of implementing the national statements and profiles in the states and territories between 1993 and 1997. The states and territories examined are Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. The national curriculum reform movement was based on assumptions and goals driving the broader agenda for educational reform during the 1980s. The individual states and territories, however, had already begun their own curricular reforms by the time the national agenda began implementation in the 1990s. The level of success and implementation of the national curriculum has been significantly affected by the success, degree of political support, and level of implementation of the individual efforts in each state and territory. (MJP)

This project examines past and present activities in curriculum planning affecting the Australian educational system, and the relationship of curriculum change to prospects for improving the selection of curriculum materials used in Australian schools by investigating current developments in curriculum reform and methods for selecting materials. The project focused on identifying key elements in the decision-making process for selecting materials in the context of curriculum reform by investigating: (1) the historical context for national collaboration in curriculum development in Australia; (2) the present context for developing a national curriculum framework in Australia; (3) the procedures used by state and territory education and accreditation agencies in Australia to select and evaluate curriculum materials; (4) the practices used in a nationwide sample of Australian schools to select materials and use information services; (5) research literature on procedures used in the United States for selecting materials, and by conducting a survey of state education agencies in the United States; (6) case studies of selection procedures used in the states of California, Florida, and Washington, and by Connie Muther & Associates; and (7) case studies of services used to exchange evaluative information on curriculum materials in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. The report concludes by presenting sets of recommendations to improve the match between the curriculum and the selection of materials, to improve the selection process, to increase involvement by publishers, to increase public involvement, to establish procedures for adopting and disseminating materials, and to improve implementation of materials in classrooms. Tables and surveys relating to the project are appended. Contains a 509-item bibliography. (Author/DQE)

This evaluation project presents a plan for a program to establish a clearinghouse for exchanging qualitative and quantitative data on instructional materials used in Australian schools. A range of elements necessary to plan a program suited to Australian requirements and conditions was investigated. Focus was on: the program's mission, capability, and setting; its management; its personnel; its coordination and balance; its research activities; its development activities; its potential for relationships with other institutions, agencies and organizations; its schedule; its facilities; its funding; and its product dissemination. The conclusion presents educational authorities with a set of recommendations for action. A bibliography, five appendices, and a glossary are included. (SI)

This report elaborates on nonnumerical summaries of quantitative data on practices applied to instructional materials by the staff members of 17 service agencies of the Education Department of Tasmania, Australia. The descriptions presented are based on interviews and observations made during a survey conducted between October 1987 and February 1988. Each description has two parts: an introduction and a descriptive account of the practices. The descriptive account consists of descriptions of practices applied in the sequence between development and implementation of the materials: the techniques of learner-based verification and revision; screening for adoption; descriptive analyses and evaluation; and decision-making for selection and implementation. Appended are seven references and a glossary. (SI)

Several reform reports on American education that focus on improving the quality of instructional materials are reviewed. This project had three aims: (1) to survey the scope of the reports emanating from the reform movement and to describe the process of their selection for review; (2) to present reviews of reports by the Paideia Group, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, E. L. Boyer's "High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America," the Education Commission of the States Task Force on Education for Economic Growth, the National Science Foundation, W. J. Bennett's "To Reclaim a Legacy: A Report on the Humanities in Higher Education," a National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Commission on Educational Issues of the National Association of Independent Schools joint project to study high schools (three reports by Sizer, 1984, by Powell et al., 1985, and by Hampel, 1986), the United States Department of Education's "The Nation Responds: Recent Efforts to Improve Education," the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy Task Force on Teaching as a Profession report, W. J. Bennett's "First Lessons: A Report on Elementary Education in America," and W. J. Bennett's "American Education: Making it Work"; and (3) to summarize the findings of the reviews. A bibliography is included. (Author/AA)

This document reports on a project with the following aims: (1) to identify and discuss the important issues about using curriculum materials in bilingual-bicultural education and multicultural education through a comparative analysis of these conditions in the United States and Australia; (2) to identify and analyze relevant research in the idexes of the Educational Resources Information Center, the Australian Education Index, and the British Education Index; (3) to review the activities of three institutions--the Social Science Education Consortium, the Educational Products Information Exchange Institute, and the Centre for Educational Technology at the University of Sussex--involved in the selection and the evaluation of curriculum materials, with particular reference to the characteristics of their programs for teacher education; (4) to present a description for an inservice teacher education program that aims to develop the knowledge and skills of teachers in selecting and evaluating curriculum materials for bilingual-bicultural education and multicultural education; (5) to present alternative models and approaches to implement the inservice teacher education program; and (6) to conclude with a commentary on introducing to Australian education the techniques for both selecting and evaluating curriculum materials and implementing teacher education programs. A bibliography, author index, and nine appendices are included. (Among the appendices are a list of the organizations forming the national network of bilingual education, five bibliographics from specific educational indexes, and materials pertaining to a survey on the need for a course designed to improve the quality of selection and evaluation of curriculum materials.) (Author/JD)

Traces the development of five information systems for exchanging information on instructional materials within the educational communities of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, and examines how these information providers are responding to the challenges posed by changes deriving from national educational reform efforts. (Author/LRW)