Curriculum experts agree that evaluation is a necessary part of the curriculum
revision process, but one standard model of curriculum evaluation is not in place. This
research study proposed a curriculum evaluation instrument that was developed based on
criteria identified and validated by experts in the field as necessary for curriculum
evaluation. The study involved three stages: developing and pilot testing the instrument,
having the instrument critiqued by a panel of experts, and field testing it in school
districts of varying sizes and demographics.
The scope of the study limited the instrument to focus on secondary English, but
the conclusions indicated that it could potentially be adapted to other content areas and
other levels, as well as modified to work with curriculum mapping software. Curriculum
teams from school districts of varying demographics that field tested the evaluation
instrument found that it was useful in three stages of curriculum writing: (1) at the
beginning, to provide focus areas for curriculum writing, (2) during curriculum writing,
to guide the revision, and (3) at the end, to evaluate a new curriculum before it