An era of education reform began. The results were somewhat uneven. A shortcoming of the movement up to this point has been the lack of focus on rigorous academic standards. The desire to improve student achievement guided the effort, but it lacked a comprehensive, specific vision of what students actually needed to know and be able to do.
Standards are a bold initiative.
With the adoption of these content standards in mathematics, California is going beyond reform. We are redefining the state's role in public education. For the first time, we are stating explicitly the content that students need to acquire at each grade level from kindergarten to grade twelve. These standards are rigorous. With student mastery of this content, California schools will be on a par with those in the best educational systems in other states and nations.