the lowest level of curriculum development. It is therefore very difficult for teachers in stares with mandated curricula to function beyond the imitative maintenance level of involvement in curriculum development.
One argument often made by state officials discussing this reality is that teachers don't need to have a say in the curriculum because they can use their professional expertise and creativity when they plan how to reach the curriculum in their classrooms. These policymakers fiat to understand that the curriculum, if rigidly enforced, has a significant impact on hour teachers teach. For example, teachers working under a highly prescribed curriculum with long lists of required objectives approach instruction quite differently than teachers with a webbed curriculum that they have designed themselves. In short, what gets taught (curriculum) has a strong impact on how it gets taught (instruction).