• CLARITY. The 2011 frameworks are meant to be extremely clear with precisely worded standards that cannot be treated as a checklist.  The standards give detailed descriptions of the various components of skills and knowledge that must be thoroughly addressed in order to master each standard. Consider how presenting the curriculum in this fashion differs from handing out a checklist of skills the students will learn in each grade. How will increased clarity change the manner in which you or your district colleagues introduce units of study to students and their families?

• RIGOR. The framework emphasizes the skills and knowledge needed for success beyond high school and includes mathematical practices that require students to:

1. make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
2. reason abstractly and quantitatively
3. construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
4. model with mathematics
5. use appropriate tools strategically
6. attend to precision;
7. look for and make use of structure  and
8. look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

The challenge with this focus on mathematical practices is how to balance helping students to develop/maintain their number sense with emphasizing their conceptual understanding of the big ideas.