As required by the Quality Basic Education Act of 1985, Georgia must maintain a curriculum that specifies what students are expected to know in each subject and grade. Additionally, the state's standardized tests, the Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) for grades 1-8, and the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) for Grade 11, must be aligned with that curriculum. The curriculum content for the State of Georgia is outlined in the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) for English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Foreign Language. At this time, courses in Career and Technical fields are being converted to performance standards. The Quality Core Curriculum (QCC) governs the state objectives that should be taught in health, physical education, and the fine arts. These courses will be converted to performance standards at a future date.

Performance standards provide clear expectations for assessment, instruction, and student work. They define the level of work that demonstrates achievement of the standards, enabling a teacher to know "how good is good enough." The performance standards isolate and identify the information needed for students to use the knowledge and skills to problem-solve, reason, communicate, and make connections with other information. Performance standards also tell the teacher how to assess the extent to which the student knows the material and can apply the information.

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