Advance Planning

• As a department, spend time studying the Core-Plus Mathematics curriculum and instructional model.

• Form a curriculum study committee to align your district's mathematics program across grades K-12.

• Build understanding of mathematics education reform and a support base from administrators, counselors, parents, board members, business/community leaders, other departments within your high school, and middle school faculty.

• Assess district technology needs. A graphing calculator with at least the capabilities of a TI-82 or TI-83 is required for each student. Some districts provide an at-home calculator for each student, as well as an in-class set for each mathematics teacher.

• Develop an extended professional development plan for ongoing support for teachers. Information on course-specific CPMP implementation workshops is under Teacher Support. On-site programs can be designed to meet district needs. Contact the CPMP office: cpmp@wmich.edu.

• Consider providing cooperative learning, technology, and alternative assessment workshop opportunities for mathematics teachers before they attend curriculum implementation workshops or begin teaching the curriculum. (See Mathlink Vol. 2, No. 1.)

• Begin adoption with Course 1 and add a course level each year. Encourage teachers to progress from Course 1 to Course 4 in stages, so they can develop an understanding of the growth of mathematical ideas across the curriculum. (See Mathlink Vol. 2, No. 2.)

• Schedule classes to allow for common planning periods for teachers teaching the same course.

• If your district has a history of enrolling strong eighth-grade students in an algebra course, you may wish to maintain an accelerated program using Core-Plus Mathematics Course 1 for select eighth-graders. These students could then enroll in AP Calculus as seniors upon completing Course 4 as juniors. Students can enroll in AP Statistics anytime after completion of Course 3.

• Consider ways to schedule classes to allow for individual students to accelerate themselves. The following is a list of options that some districts implementing Core-Plus Mathematics have successfully used in cases in which accelerated students have not studied Course 1 as eighth-graders.

  • A student could choose to double up on classes as a senior by enrolling in both Course 4 and AP Statistics.

  • In schools with semester block scheduling, a student could enroll in two courses in a given year.

  • In schools with alternate-day academic-year block schedules, the schedule could be adjusted for one or more classes of a course to meet each day for the first semester and classes of the next course similarly scheduled the second semester.

  • In schools with traditional academic-year schedules, two mathematics classes may be scheduled back-to-back to allow study of one course in the first semester and the next course the second semester.

  • Strong students who have completed one of the NSF-funded middle school mathematics programs, or an algebra course, could be enrolled in Course 2 supplemented with prerequisite material from Course 1.

  (See Mathlink Vol. 4, No. 1.)

• Recognize that implementing the Core-Plus Mathematics curriculum with classes consisting only of students previously unsuccessful in mathematics will create additional implementation challenges.

• Formulate a plan to evaluate your mathematics program and the results of changes made. Plan to collect data over the long term, not just the year or two before and the year or two after the changes. (See examples of evaluations under School Reports.)

• You may wish to produce an FAQ document containing your district's responses to local questions so that there are common responses from administrators, mathematics teachers, counselors, science teachers, and school office staff.

• Consider how district and individual teacher decisions can affect the amount of material taught each year. In particular, time should be spent aligning middle and high school mathematics programs to maximize student learning. (See Mathlink Vol. 3, No. 1.)

• Consider ways to align with your state curriculum frameworks and to polish skills using the CMIC Reference and Practice books (RAP) - Course 1, Course 2, Course 3.

Getting to Know Contemporary Mathematics in Context: A Unified Approach

This two-day workshop is designed for teams from schools that wish to gain a broad understanding of the mathematics in the four-year Core-Plus Mathematics program, of the associated instructional and assessment methods, and of the implementation strategies that have proven effective. This workshop can be presented locally.

Download Description
Download Agenda

Core-Plus Mathematics Summer 2007 Professional Development
2nd and 1st Editions

See Teacher Support.

The Core-Plus Mathematics Project Listserv

The goal of the CPMP email listserv is to provide a vehicle for teachers, currently teaching the Core-Plus Mathematics program, to assist each other in effective implementation of the program. The CPMP list is monitored by CPMP staff who contribute to discussions where appropriate. To request membership, send a message to cpmp@wmich.edu or call the project at 1-866-407-CPMP (2767). You will be sent a questionnaire to complete regarding your district's implementation of Core-Plus Mathematics. Upon return of the questionnaire, you will receive a confirmation email of being subscribed, or an explanation of why we can't subscribe you at this time.

External Resources and Contact Information

• The CPMP curriculum is published by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill under the title Contemporary Mathematics in Context: A Unified Approach. Courses 1, 2, 3, and 4 are available.

  For further information contact Glencoe Customer Service at 1-800-334-7344 or locate your local regional sales representative.

• The National Implementation Center for Standards-based high school mathematics curricula is:
  
  COMPASS
  contact: Eric Robinson
  Ithaca College
  306 Williams Hall
  Ithaca, NY 14850
  (800) 688-1829
  compass@ithaca.edu
  www.ithaca.edu/compass
  
  COMPASS is charged with providing information, training, and support to school districts.

• The K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center (K-12 MCC) at the Education Development Center, Inc., also supports districts as they build effective mathematics education programs.

  The K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center offers a variety of products and services to assist district leadership teams with curriculum selection and implementation. They offer a series of three seminars nationwide; the seminars address the selection and implementation of new curricula, professional development for successful implementation, and leadership for curriculum change.

  Additionally, the K-12 MCC provides many print resources. See their web site.

  K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center
  Education Development Center, Inc.
  (800) 332-2429
  mcc@edc.org
  www.edc.org/mcc

• Mathematically Sane
  Promoting the rational reform of mathematics education.
  www.mathematicallysane.com