In January 2020, the Florida Department of Education announced the required full implementation of the new Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking standards for the 2022-2023 school year. The Florida Department of Education emphasized the importance of the intentional progression of the new Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking standards and outlined all teachers' responsibility to instruct all students on their grade-level standards. When standards change, this expectation can become a daunting task that can potentially impact educators' confidence, content understanding, and teaching abilities, especially when there is limited support and time to learn the new material. Thirty-two public, elementary school teachers (kindergarten-fifth grade) participated in a study focusing on content-specific standards for English language arts and mathematics. This mixed-method study collected data using pre-and-post five-point Likert scale surveys with open-ended questions. The purpose was to determine what impact attending vertical articulation of content-specific grade-level standards professional development through professional learning communities had on individual elementary school teachers' self-efficacy and collective efficacy related to instructional strategies and the progression of standards. Open-ended questions used a multistep coding system to generate themes to support the numerical results. The study also used a paired two-tailed t-test and open-ended responses to support the findings. Findings determined a statistically significant positive impact on teachers' self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and understanding of progression content-specific standards after attending the professional development through professional learning communities. Research question one demonstrated a difference between pretest (M = 3.1, SD = 1) and posttest (M = 4.1, SD = 0.8), t(222) = 15.6, p < 0.001. Research question two demonstrated a difference between pretest (M = 3, SD = 0.9) and posttest (M = 3.9, SD = 0.7), t(159) = 17, p < 0.001. Research question three demonstrated a difference between pretest (M = 3.1, SD = 1) and posttest (M = 4, SD = 0.8), t(350) = 20.4, p < 0.001. The study findings support providing professional development when standards change and illustrate the importance of providing elementary school teachers with opportunities for vertical articulation to increase self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and understanding of the progression of content-specific standards. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]