The proposed article intends to contribute to the debate about the instruction and curricular content for students with an intellectual disability, focusing on the micro level of schools and classrooms. In Sweden, considerable changes have occurred in the curriculum policies for students in an intellectual disability with a major shift in focus from functional skills and social care to academic skills. The aim of the study is to get a deeper understanding of how teachers at two schools for students with an intellectual disability enact the curriculum policies based on their views of purposes of schooling and purposes of instruction. Three focus group interviews with ten teachers were conducted and analysed using inductive qualitative analyses. The results revealed two positions to academically focused curriculum policy: holding oneself accountable for students' achievement and expressing scepticism to the curriculum contents. These two positions are further illustrated with the help of video-observations of teachers' instruction. The results of the study reveal how the intentions of the standards-based curriculum reform may be mediated by teachers' interpretations of the purposes of schooling for students with an intellectual disability.