The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' "Principles and Standards for School Mathematics" outlines fundamental elements that are crucial for creating a problem-solving and inquiry-driven classroom learning environment that highlights conceptual understandings of mathematics ideas. Even though this document outlines essential goals for the improvement of mathematics education, many urban high-poverty school environments continue to fall short in their implementation. As such, the research team investigated the mathematics instructional practices of star teachers and those not so identified. Based on a chi-square test for independence, the results revealed that star teachers demonstrate those instructional practices advocated by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics more frequently than do those teachers not so identified.