The meaning of "standard" has not only a rich and long history outside of education, but also a complex evolution in education in recent years. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) development of Curriculum, Teaching, and Assessment Standards in 1989 represented a historically important first attempt by a professional organization to provide explicit and extensive goals statements for teachers. At that time NCTM offered three reasons for a professional organization to formally adopt standards: to ensure quality, to indicate goals, and to promote change. Since 1989 these standards have provided a vehicle for focused, sustained efforts toward the improvement of students’ mathematical education in school.

Standards 2000 has been developed around five mathematical content standards and five process standards. The five content standards address the areas of number, measurement, algebra, geometry and data. Each content standard describes goals for student understanding of concepts and procedures. The five process standards address problem solving, reasoning, connections, communication, and representation. The process standards are described in terms of student’ mathematical learning outcome. Standards 2000 are further organized into the grade bands, pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. In each grade-band, the ten standards are elaborated in terms of key focus areas, with varying emphasis and depth as appropriate. Surrounding and supporting the ten standards is a set of principles for school mathematics instructional programs that address equity, mathematics curriculum, teaching, student learning, assessment and technology.

Please use the menu on the left to guide you to a wealth of standards based curriculum materials for Mathematics. The lessons are being developed by teams of teachers across the country working with the "Career Connection to Teaching with Technology" Challenge Grant.