To help school boards exercise better policy control over the instructional program, researchers reviewed the literature and surveyed board members to determine how much influence boards should have over curriculum, how much influence they do have, and how much they want to have. After briefly tracing the history of board involvement, the literature review summarizes current opinion on the board's role, finding that most writers feel school boards are not involved enough in the instructional program. The authors list recommendations found in the literature of ways that boards can become more involved in curriculum. The recommendations cover four facets of the instructional program: the social, involving curriculum content; the institutional, regarding curriculum implementation; the instructional, involving teacher selection and evaluation; and the personal experience facet, concerning evaluation of student learning. The authors then report on their national questionnaire survey of 810 board members on what boards are actually doing regarding curriculum matters. They compare their results with the literature's recommendations, particularly in the areas of community desires, district needs, policy establishment, administrative reports, teacher and curriculum evaluation, and communication with the public. Appendices provide the survey questionnaire and reprints of two articles on boards' roles in curriculum development. (RW)