教育部繼國民教育階段九年一貫課程改革後，積極推動高級中等教育階段的課程改革。此波課程改革一方面凸顯後期中等教育在學制與課程設計上的定位問題；另一方面也反映課程政策在形成與實施過程中的複雜性。由於改革是在既有教育環境與文化脈絡中實行，原本改革所秉持的理念，很容易在學校層級實施時，受到升學考試的牽制，無法達到課程改革所預期的目標。本文主要目的是藉由分析台灣高中課程改革的脈絡，指出台灣高中課程改革所遭遇的困境，包含課程改革論述轉變的過程，以及由上而下課程架構規劃的問題，與由下而上的升學考試文化的牽制。主要資料蒐集包括：課程政策文件、報章雜誌與學術期刊等論述，與課綱委員個別訪談與團體焦點座談資料。研究發現：從上層政策擬定過程的論述轉變到高度妥協的課綱成形，反映課程政策形成的非系統性與非理性。而政策與升學文化之間的矛盾，也迫使學校行政人員與教師尋求最小阻力（或「務實」）方向調適。

After the nine-year integrated curriculum is reformed in elementary and junior high schools, the Ministry of Education is taking a further step to initiate curriculum reform in the senior high level of education. Such a new wave of high school curriculum reform denotes an urge of repositioning senior high education in the educational system and redesigning high school curriculum framework. And at the same time it reflects the complexity of curriculum policy in the process of formation and implementation. Reform cannot be practiced in a vacuum. It is the cultural and educational milieu in which the original reform ideas are embedded as well as to be constrained, especially by the entrance exam competition fanatic. There is always a gap between the ideal and the practice. By analyzing the context of how the reform policy is called for and put into practice, this article is to illustrate predicaments of the reform policy from top down to bottom up. Data collection includes: documents about the reform policy, journals and articles about the reform policy, and focus group interviews of high school teachers and administrators. From shifting discourse of the reform policy to the formation of comprised Curriculum Guidelines, it is proved that the process of curriculum policy formation is non-systematic and irrational. Furthermore, due to facing a contradiction between the new curriculum policy and the entrance exam competition fanatic, school practitioners are forced to modify the curriculum policy in order to fit their curriculum conception and make their workloads manageable.