Abstract: INVESTIGATION OF ALIGNMENT BETWEEN GOALS OF SCHOOLING RELEVANT TO GEORGIA AND THE GEORGIA PERFORMANCE STANDARDS by Anissa Lokey Vega Since the American Revolution free public education has been a discussion of political debate. The purpose that such an institution should play in society is a debate fervently argued when the founding fathers wanted to build a republic based on meritocracy. The problem this study addresses is the undefined relationship between the goals of schooling relevant to Georgia and the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) which is a critical piece to creating a complete systemic view of public schooling in Georgia. The purpose of this study is to investigate the alignment between the GPS and schooling goals. The guiding question and sub-questions are: How well are the GPS, or the intended curriculum of Georgia schools, and each of the various stated goals of schooling aligned? How relevant are the eighth-grade GPS to the latent themes of each of the stated goals of schooling? How balanced are the latent themes of each of the stated goals of schooling in the eighth-grade GPS? Through a historical investigation of the literature and current policy the author establishes the currently relevant goals of schooling which serve as the latent goals for which the method will seek to find evidence within the Georgia Performance Standards. The study employs a quantitative content analysis of a significant section of the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) looking for themes associated with various stated goals of schooling as indicated by the literature review. The manifest themes, developed from the latent goals of schooling, are incorporated as the dependent variables in the study, while the GPS serve as the independent variable. Neuendorf‟s (2001) framework for content analysis is used to develop a new method for investigating the goal-curriculum alignment relationship through new measures of Curricular Balance, Curricular Relevance, and Manifest Theme Presence. This study presents a new visual model to compare a curriculum‟s alignment to multiple goals of schooling called the Goal-Curriculum Alignment Measures (G-CAM) model. This study finds that the GPS are strongly aligned to the goals of Americanization, high student test scores, post-secondary enrollment, and national gain, while poorly aligned to democratic participation and social justice. Evidence for these conclusions are discussed and related to the current socio-political literature. INVESTIGATION OF ALIGNMENT BETWEEN GOALS OF SCHOOLING RELEVANT TO GEORGIA AND THE GEORGIA PERFORMANCE STANDARDS by Anissa Lokey Vega A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Instructional Design and Technology in the Department of Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology in the College of Education Georgia State University Atlanta, Georgia 2010 Copyright by Anissa Lokey Vega 2010 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Completion of this dissertation required the dedicated support of several Georgia State faculty members, including my dissertation chair, Dr. Laurie Brantley-Dias. She patiently read innumerous drafts of varying quality, while maintaining an encouraging demeanor to help me see this project to the end. An eclectic collection of committee members have contributed according to their interest and expertise including Dr. Mary Shoffner, Dr. Amy Flint, and Dr. Philo Hutcheson. Faculty members who did not sit on the dissertation committee also contributed to the completion of this project, including Dr. Phillip Gagne and Dr. Ronda Tighe. Dr. Gagne assisted by providing constructive criticism of the math formulas I present in this dissertation. Serving as an encouraging mentor and grammar editor was Dr. Tighe, who taught me several English-language rules that I had clearly failed to retain up to this point in my education. Her patience and humor have been greatly appreciated. Fellow doctoral students Dana Smith-Bryant, Valora Marcette Richardson, Peggy Lumpkin, Roxanne Russell, and Kathryn Land all participated in various capacities of data analysis and/or document editing. Acknowledgements would be incomplete without recognizing those individuals outside of the university who assisted me in the completion of this project. My personal life is rich with family, neighbors, and close friends who have supported me in many different ways throughout this project, including my mother-in-law, Patricia Gale, who read the initial draft of each chapter. Still, this degree and, in particular, this project has come to fruition through a long series of events, choices, and circumstances occurring throughout my life, all beginning with my parents. A paper investigating the purpose of