The history of education is replete with examples of instruction designed to promote students' mastery of knowledge that the students already possessed. The teachers in those instances simply misjudged what the students already knew. Similarly, there are numerous examples of instructional efforts that failed to provide students with important knowledge or skills that they did not possess. In this second type of curricular error, the teachers erroneously assumed that the students knew content that, in fact, they did not.

The way to avoid these two curriculum-planning errors is to determine the objectives and curricular content of an HIV education program after assessing what the preinstruction status of students actually is. By identifying students' preinstruction status regarding knowledge, skills, attitudes, and risk behaviors, the architects of HIV education programs can make sure they incorporate needed content while, at the same time, avoiding redundant content

It is really quite simple to get a fix on students' preinstruction status with respect to potential content for an HIV curriculum. All we have to do is assess the students with measurement devices that focus on the content of most interest, for example, students' HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors. Other booklets in this handbook provide a variety of appropriate assessment instruments for students in grades 5-7 and grades 7-12.

It is obvious that students differ from community to community with respect to their HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors. This initial guideline emphasizes the importance of designing an HIV curriculum for the specific students to be taught.

It is also possible to use more qualitatively focused approaches to gain an idea of students' current HIV-related knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. Individual interviews or focus group interviews can provide illuminating insights. Ideally, such qualitative approaches would be used in conjunction with more quantitatively oriented assessment approaches such as the self-report instruments found elsewhere in the handbook.

Once a clear estimate is garnered of students' current status, then more appropriate instructional objectives can be identified for the program as well as a set of instructional procedures to accomplish those objectives. This first guideline emphasizes the need to determine what the particular needs of the students are before selecting or designing an HIV curriculum.

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