Power standards are a subset of academic standards that are essential for student success. They prioritize the most important standards and distinguish them from nice-to-know standards. Power standards narrow the focus to the core understandings and skills students need. They do not remove other standards but help identify the critical ones. Assessments should be tied to power standards to provide evidence of student proficiency. Power standards aim to prevent superficial coverage of all standards and instead emphasize depth of learning on the most important concepts.