• 1 Department of Mathematics [Urbana]

The Schubert polynomials lift the Schur basis of symmetric polynomials into a basis for Z[x1; x2; : : :]. We suggest the prism tableau model for these polynomials. A novel aspect of this alternative to earlier results is that it directly invokes semistandard tableaux; it does so as part of a colored tableau amalgam. In the Grassmannian case, a prism tableau with colors ignored is a semistandard Young tableau. Our arguments are developed from the Gr¨obner geometry of matrix Schubert varieties.