This is quite the collection of essays. Unfortunately, the issue landed the same month as the attacks of 9-11, and was less read than it might have been. You can acquire a copy from Harper’s at https://harpers.org/archive/2001/09/untitled-1136/.
Category: Curricula
The Controversial and Condemned National Education Standards for History (1994)
The 1980s and 1990s saw a bipartisan push for national education standards. Unfortunately, when the history standards were released in 1994, a political firestorm erupted and the Senate voted to condemn the standards for being too politically correct. (For more on this story, see my book, Failing Grades: The Federal Politics of Education Standards (2006) and Diane Ravitch’s National Standards in American Education: A Citizen’s Guide (1996).
Copies of the standards, which were created by Charlotte Crabtree and Gary B. Nash, can be downloaded at https://eric.ed.gov/?q=title%3a%22national+standards+for+united+states+history%22&id=ED375076 and https://eric.ed.gov/?q=title%3a%22national+standards+for+world+history%22&id=ED375077.
Federal Curricula: James Madison High School
In December 1987, Secretary of Education William J. Bennett released a high school curriculum. It was not federally mandated, rather, it was a model for schools to consider adopting in whole or in part. “James Madison High School” also included profiles of seven high schools whose curricula Bennett found admirable for their depth and rigor.
Hat tip to Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, who reminded me of this.
Federal Education Policy History 