Establishing Curriculums through Effective Public Relations

Developing a curriculum is a task that is often discounted in many school corporations during the course of selecting new textbooks. Most school corporations simply adopt a publisher's text and design a curriculum around it. This paper describes some fundamental elements of an effective public-relations program and ways in which the elements can positively affect curriculum decisions. The paper discusses how internal publics (administrators, teachers, and support staff) and external publics (parents, taxpayers, civic leaders, and business leaders) can be used to design a curriculum that reflects student and community interests, to offer specific measurable learning outcomes, and to provide specific instructional strategies to meet these outcomes. Finally, the paper highlights elements of two Indiana elementary schools ' successful public-relations programs to illustrate the roles that internal and external publics play in the curriculum process. Public-relations tactics for dealing with special-interest groups are also discussed. One table is included. (Contains 10 references.) (LMI) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document