About Renaissance Focus Skills

Focus Skills are—simply put—the building blocks of student learning. Based on extensive research into how learning progresses in reading and mathematics, Focus Skills provide a roadmap for closing learning gaps as you move every student toward greater mastery.

Critical

Focus Skills are fundamental to student understanding, involving concepts that students must master in order to advance to the next step.

Impactful

Because Focus Skills are prerequisites for future learning, focusing instruction on these skills provides the greatest return in terms of student growth.

Standards-based

Focus Skills are identified through a detailed study of your state’s standards of learning—and reflect your state’s grade-level expectations.

Using Renaissance Focus Skills

The videos below will help you get the most out of Renaissance Focus Skills.

For more about the development of Focus Skills, view this page.

Focus Skills Center Tour

Accelerated Learning Primer

Focus Skills by the numbers

The graph below shows the number of Focus Skills or domain groups by grade for the selected subject and state. For more information about a grade’s Focus Skills, hover the mouse over the grade’s bar and then click or tap the bar. You’ll then see a summary of the Focus Skills for the domain you clicked or tapped. To view detailed information about all the Focus Skills for the grade, click the View Details link in the pop-up.

Alabama
AL
Alaska
AK
Arizona
AZ
Arkansas
AR
California
CA
Colorado
CO
Connecticut
CT
Delaware
DE
District of Columbia
DC
Florida
FL
Georgia
GA
Hawaii
HI
Idaho
ID
Illinois
IL
Indiana
IN
Iowa
IA
Kansas
KS
Kentucky
KY
Louisiana
LA
Maine
ME
Maryland
MD
Massachusetts
MA
Michigan
MI
Minnesota
MN
Mississippi
MS
Missouri
MO
Montana
MT
Nebraska
NE
Nevada
NV
New Hampshire
NH
New Jersey
NJ
New Mexico
NM
New York
NY
North Carolina
NC
North Dakota
ND
Ohio
OH
Oklahoma
OK
Oregon
OR
Pennsylvania
PA
Rhode Island
RI
South Carolina
SC
South Dakota
SD
Tennessee
TN
Texas
TX
Utah
UT
Vermont
VT
Virginia
VA
Washington
WA
West Virginia
WV
Wisconsin
WI
Wyoming
WY

View domain table

Domains

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Domain Details

State • Grade

Group: Domain

0 Focus Skills

Focus Skills are also available for Spanish reading for Pre-K to grade 12.

See Spanish Focus Skills

Find the Focus Skills for your state

Click your state—or use the dropdown menu—to access full lists of Focus Skills.

Alabama

AL
Alaska

AK
Arizona

AZ
Arkansas

AR
California

CA
Colorado

CO
Connecticut

CT
Delaware

DE
District of Columbia

DC
Florida

FL
Georgia

GA
Hawaii

HI
Idaho

ID
Illinois

IL
Indiana

IN
Iowa

IA
Kansas

KS
Kentucky

KY
Louisiana

LA
Maine

ME
Maryland

MD
Massachusetts

MA
Michigan

MI
Minnesota

MN
Mississippi

MS
Missouri

MO
Montana

MT
Nebraska

NE
Nevada

NV
New Hampshire

NH
New Jersey

NJ
New Mexico

NM
New York

NY
North Carolina

NC
North Dakota

ND
Ohio

OH
Oklahoma

OK
Oregon

OR
Pennsylvania

PA
Rhode Island

RI
South Carolina

SC
South Dakota

SD
Tennessee

TN
Texas

TX
Utah

UT
Vermont

VT
Virginia

VA
Washington

WA
West Virginia

WV
Wisconsin

WI
Wyoming

WY

Trip Steps for Reading and Math

If learning is a staircase, then all steps are not created equal. In both reading and math, some skills are extraordinarily difficult for students to master. We call these skills Trip Steps because they can cause a stumble in learning. See lists of Trip Steps, which span kindergarten through high school.

Reading Trip Steps

Math Trip Steps

Focus Skills™