After any curriculum change or reform, it is necessary to assess its actual impacts. Based on such assessments, the revision and improvement of the curriculum will then be possible. However, since years of implementation of the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum, there have been few empirical evaluative studies of its actual effects and influences. By contrast, there have been lots of articles criticizing the reform policy and its consequences. Particularly, there was almost no study concerned with its critical impacts on rural schools. Through focus group interviews with practitioners of rural junior high schools from all over Taiwan, this study tried to understand the effects of the curriculum reform policy on pedagogical practices and student learning. The authors addressed their discovery in terms of doubts in practice, problems of supporting measures, and phenomena of student learning. Furthermore, gaps between reform ideal and pedagogical reality are critically examined, and suggestions for policy evaluation and improvement are also provided.