At a time marked by strong demands for educational reform, the American school curriculum is a topic of special concern. This volume provides a comprehensive historical record of the evolution of the curriculum in America from the colonial period to the present day. The editors have compiled a collection of influential and representative documents in primary, secondary, and higher education in the United States. Each document is introduced by a short essay that discusses its historical context and significance. The result is a valuable chronicle of the development of the American school curriculum.

The work begins with an introductory piece that overviews the development of the curriculum and surveys the most important works on curriculum history. The introduction is followed by excerpts from 34 documents representative of the school curriculum from The Rules and Course of Study of Harvard College, 1642 to the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. The essay that introduces each document closes with a brief bibliography, and the volume concludes with a more extensive list of sources for further reading. By consulting this reference, historians and educators can trace the development of the curriculum over the last 350 years.