Curriculum standards provide classroom teachers with frameworks to guide instruction during the academic year and throughout a student's schooling. Unfortunately, standards are misconstrued as all-encompassing--as a compendium of all mathematics content that can and should be taught to students. Such a view is unfortunate. Mathematics teachers…

The California Education Code requires school boards to "establish standards of expected pupil achievement at each grade level in each area of study" and to consider student progress when evaluating teachers. The guidelines in this document have been prepared to help superintendents, principals, and teachers take steps to meet these…

A competency-based, individualized, English course was designed so that, at any one time, students would be working toward a grade of C, B, or A. While some students, based on a pre-course writing evaluation, might begin work at an advanced level, other students might spend the whole semester attempting to achieve the skills required for a C.…