In many urban schools, teachers are expected to rely on predetermined, scripted curriculum materials to shape their instructional practices rather than on their own professional judgment. Although with adequate support, development, and training, teachers can develop and enact rational curricular and instructional decisions in the classroom for student learning (McCutcheon, 2002;Milner, 2010a), too many teachers are not well prepared to make such decisions for a range of reasons. For example, alternative, fast-track teacher "education" programs such as Teach for America (TFA) make it necessary for scripted, narrowed curriculum because some of these teachers are not prepared to make rational, appropriate, and responsive curricular decisions in the classroom with students (Darling-Hammond, 1994;Vasquez Heilig & Jez, 2010). The reason for teachers' inability to make decisions without a script is likely a consequence of both their preparation and the amount of time they have been in the field of teaching (Vasquez Heilig & Jez, 2010). Moreover, traditional teacher education programs have not fared well either in preparing teachers to teach and make curricular decisions for student learning in highly diverse and urban environments (Milner, 2010b;Sleeter, 2001;Zeichner, 2006)-further exacerbating the press for scripted and narrowed curriculum.When teachers are underprepared, scripted and narrowed curriculum is seen as the means to help them know what to teach, when to teach it, and how. This line of thinking suggests that because teachers have not "gotten it right" in the past or because they do not have the knowledge and skill to teach effectively, they need guidance. Teaching guided by scripted and narrowed curriculum is seen as technical work as teachers are not necessarily expected to study what their students know and need to know because the curriculum is predetermined and preassembled. Unfortunately, urban schools-often those serving African American and Latino American students, those living in poverty, and those whose first language is not English-are heavily populated with underprepared teachers. Consequently, students in these environments experience scripted, narrowed curriculum more often than do those in other sociocultural contexts, such as suburban schools (Darling-Hammond, 2010). In their policy analysis, King and Zucker (2005) maintained that part of the impetus to narrow the curriculum 549685U EXXXX10.