• Standards and Curriculum

    Introduction 

    Florida's standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts were adopted in 2020 and are called the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.). The Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Science were adopted in 2008, and Florida’s State Academic Standards for Social Studies were adopted in 2023. Each set of standards outlines what students in each grade should be able to do by the end of the school year in that subject area. They form the basis for the curriculum (the lessons we teach and practice assignments students complete). School and state assessments are designed to document students' mastery of each standard.

    Standards

    These sites provide in-depth information on all of Florida's standards for each subject.
    • CPALMS - the state's official source for all standards, listed by subject and grade level
    • FloridaStudents.org - resources for students to practice each standard
    • FLFAST.org - resources for families about the Florida Assessments of Student Thinking (FAST), which are the state standardized tests based on the standards.

    Levels of Content Complexity

    Each of Florida's standards is assigned a level of cognitive complexity. Students are expected to master the standard at or above the given complexity level. More information about Florida's levels of content complexity, which are based on the Depth of Knowledge Model by Dr. Norman Webb, is available from the Department of Education on their Cognitive Complexity/Depth of Knowledge Rating webpage.
     

    Curriculum

    Leon County elementary schools use the following curriculum programs to teach Florida's standards: