Washington is a local-autonomy state; this means curriculum decisions are made within each school district. When decisions are made locally, the state does not dictate content or resources, but may identify appropriate standards for measuring student success. The identification of appropriate standards is one way that Washington State has made it easier for teachers to develop a curriculum that could be used statewide. Without the national standards, teachers would have had to identify specific standards for each area taught in their schools. In this article, the author discusses the development of a common format for presenting a curriculum to the state's education office and the importance of the national standards in making statewide curriculum development possible and easier for teachers to share curriculum ideas.