The Principles and Standards book does a wonderful job explaining the importance of "the best mathematics education possible (3)." We need to be able to "ensure quality, to indicate goals, and to promote change (5)" in our mathematics curriculum. In order to accomplish these three things we need to look at each of the principles and standards. The six principles for school mathematics are equity, curriculum, teaching, learning, assessment, and technology. Equity "requires high expectations and worthwhile opportunities for all (12)." These expectations can be achieved with instructional programs that are interesting for all students and for the students to see how important math is in their everyday life. In order to have high expectations from all we have to teach to all students" learning styles and difficulties. This is achieved easier when the resources are there for every classroom and student. .

             The second standard is curriculum. A mathematics curriculum should be coherent, focus on the important facets, and be well articulated across the grades. "A well articulated curriculum challenges students to learn increasingly more sophisticated mathematical ideas as they continue their studies (14)." In order for this to take place, the national, state, and school curriculum must be organized together to best suit the students. The third principle is teaching. First of all, teachers need to know the math curriculum inside and out. They must feel comfortable with the whole domain. Another important facet in teaching is the environment and role modeling. The "teacher"s actions are what encourage students to think, question, solve problems, and discuss their ideas, strategies, and solutions (17)." The last part mentioned about teaching is continually seeking improvement. All teachers should be committed to being lifelong learners, even math teachers.