The quality of mathematics and science education in the United States and the goal of becoming first in the world in those two disciplines are topics of concern. This study attempts to describe the current condition of mathematics and science education and to evaluate the adequacy of existing national data to provide such a description. The report is presented in six sections. An introduction defines curriculum, enumerates the research questions, and describes the organization of the report. Sections 2-5 present the current status, the availability and reliability of data, and the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of alternative indicators for the following areas: graduation requirements; course availability; course completion; and course content. Section 6 presents conclusions and recommendations of the study. The study concluded that the existing data sources were inadequate to construct a system of curriculum indicators. The indicator patchwork pieced together did not cover all aspects of curriculum, was temporally uneven, relied on sources of uneven quality, contained measures that were not always congruent, and in sum, was inadequate for effective policymaking. The following recommendations were made to fill in data gaps and build a comprehensive curriculum indicator system: (1) ensure the continued and extended availability of graduation standards, course availability, and course completion data; (2) develop, validate, and incorporate measures of course content into ongoing data-collection efforts; (3) support research to validate and extend the information provided by ongoing data sources; and (4) develop sources for information to describe the mathematics and science curriculum at the elementary and middle school levels. Supplemental sections provide a summary, lists of tables and figures, principal data sources for building the curriculum indicator patchwork, NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) variables with high rates of missing values in 1985-1986, additional tables and figures, and a list of 59 references. (MDH)