The goal of Alabama’s K-12 mathematics curriculum is founded on “Building Mathematical Foundations”. Student achievement of this goal enhances future opportunities and options for the workplace and for everyday life by enabling all students to be college and career ready. Mathematics content is both rigorous and aligned throughout the grades, thus providing students with the necessary steps to acquire the knowledge and skills for developing a strong foundation in mathematics.

The Standards for Mathematical Content, are a balanced combination of procedure and understanding. Expectations that begin with the word “understand” are often especially good opportunities to connect mathematical practices to mathematical content. Students who lack understanding of a topic may rely on procedures too heavily. Without a flexible base from which to work, they may be less likely to consider analogous problems, represent problems coherently, justify conclusions, apply the mathematics to practical situations, use technology mindfully to work with the mathematics, explain the mathematics accurately to other students, pause for an overview, or deviate from a known procedure to find a shortcut. Thus, a lack of understanding effectively prevents a student from engaging in the mathematical practices.