The instructional materials for Grade 6 do not meet expectations for focus within assessment.

• These reviews only consider the student/teacher editions, the STEM project books, and the art project book. Digital assessment materials are considered supplemental; therefore, there are limited summative assessments.

• In the student textbook, at the end of each lesson there are four questions that can be found in the student edition. These questions were not considered for this indicator because they were formative assessments. However, the stem projects offer the opportunity for some assessment. In the stem project books students complete projects, and based on a rubric, teachers can assess their students’ understanding. The STEM books incorporate both CCSSM and MP. For that reason, the STEM project books were used to compile evidence for indicator 1a.

• The 6th grade textbook offers practice on the entire Grade 6 CCSSM; no topics from any other grades are included. However, the Grade 6 STEM project book pulls in topics from higher grades. If a student used the textbook as the main part of their math practice they would be unable to complete the projects listed below because they would not have had any exposure to those above grade-level topics.
  
  Those include:
  
  Project 6, “Walk This Way.” According to the rubric on page 104 of the teacher’s edition, in order for a student to receive full points on this project, “Ratio and scale are used to develop the puppets. Numbers are clearly shown in the design.” The concept of scale is taught in Grade 7, 7.G.A.1.
  
  Project 8, “Movin’ On.” According to the rubric on page 134 of the teacher’s edition, in order for a student to receive full points on the project “The scale and use of least common multiple to determine the scale for the map is clear and applicable.” The concept of scale is taught in Grade 7, 7.G.A.1.
  
  Project 11, “Playing the Nails.” According to the rubric on page 162 of the teacher’s edition, in order for a student to receive full points on this project, “Scale drawings correct to scale” are required. The concept of scale is taught in Grade 7, 7.G.A.1.
  
  Project 14, “Tour of Your Trash.” According to the objectives on page 191, students are expected to “develop an understanding of large numbers by recognizing and appropriately using exponential, scientific and calculator notation.” The concept of scientific and exponential notation is taught in Grade 8, 8.EE.A
  
  Project 23, “What’s your type?” According to the rubric on page 320, “All outcomes are correctly identified and the probability of each outcome is correctly calculated. All probabilities are correctly calculated as a percent and as a fraction.” The concept of probability is taught in Grade 7, 7.SP.C.
  

• Not all of the Grade 6 CCSSM are assessed in the STEM project books, and if the above listed projects are removed from use, then a large part of the topics covered in the textbook will never be assessed.

*Evidence updated 10/27/15

Instructional materials do not meet the expectations of consistency with the progressions in the standards.

• The textbook does not provide enough repetition of skills for students to become fluent. Teachers would have to find additional resources for extending the lesson.
• In the teacher edition, it clearly states in each section, "What Students Should Know Already." Although the materials offer a statement of what students should already know and a place in the introduction for connecting to prior knowledge, the connections are often not articulated explicitly and do not make connections to how teachers can build on students' previous knowledge.
• Some of the lessons give students extensive work, but many lessons do not provide enough work. For example, the materials offer one day of time and about 35 problems to "Fluently divide multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm" (6.NS.B.2). At no other point in the text/school year is this skill revisited. To become fluent, students should have other opportunities to work with this standard.
• The expectation for 6.RP.A.3.C is to use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems involving percentages. The textbook lesson offers one day on this topic, and in that time students are expected to learn how to use a tape diagram, a double number line and a hundredths grid to develop an understanding of percent. Students are exposed to many conceptual examples with very few problems for them to try.
• Overall, the materials do not meet the expectations of this indicator.