UNCHARTERED TERRITORY: Using the Curriculum Focal Points as a Basis for Designing State Standards

Florida was the first state in the United States to develop state standards focused on rigor and coherence. This article describes the experiences of crafting state standards based on NCTM’s (2006) Curriculum Focal Points from the perspectives of two members of the state standards writing team. Decisions related to how to organize the standards, where to place Algebra 1, and ways to reconcile the issue of transforming instructional goals to learning objectives are shared. Implications for implementing new standards that diverge from existing standards such as how to communicate major differences from previous standards (a narrowed breadth and increased depth) are discussed and the outcome of providing remarks to further explain the new standards is presented.