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Report Overview
Summary of Alignment & Usability: Go Math | Math
Product Notes
For Go Math, materials reviewed included student editions for each grade and teacher editions for each grade. No digital materials were reviewed.
Please note: The copyright for Go Math K-5 is 2015. The copyright for Go Math 6-8 is 2014.
Math K-2
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten through Grade 2 partially meet the expectations for alignment to CCSSM. The instructional materials for Grades 1 and 2 meet the expectations for gateway 1 as they appropriately focus on the major work of the grade and demonstrate coherence within the grade and across other grades, but the materials for Kindergarten only partially the expectations from gateway 1. The instructional materials for all grades partially meet the expectations for gateway 2 as they appropriately address rigor within the grade-level standards, but there are missed opportunities in the materials when it comes to attending to the full meaning of the Standards for Mathematical Practice. Overall, the instructional materials address the content standards very well and do a nice job of identifying and partially integrating the practice standards.
Kindergarten
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
1st Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
2nd Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
Math 3-5
The instructional materials reviewed for Grades 3-5 partially meet the expectations for alignment to the CCSSM. The instructional materials for Grades 3, 4, and 5 meet the expectations for gateway 1 as they appropriately focus on the major work of the grade and demonstrate coherence within the grade and across other grades. The instructional materials in Grades 3, 4, and 5 partially meet the expectations for gateway 2 as they appropriately address rigor within the grade-level standards, but there are missed opportunities in the materials when it comes to attending to the full meaning of the Standards for Mathematical Practice. Overall, the instructional materials address the content standards very well and do a nice job of identifying and partially integrating the practice standards.
3rd Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
4th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
5th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
Math 6-8
The instructional materials reviewed partially meet expectations for alignment to the Common Core State Standards. For focus, the instructional materials for Grades 6 and 8 meet the criteria for the time devoted to the major work of the grade, but the Grade 7 material does not. For coherence, supporting work is clearly connected to the focus of the grade and is done so in a meaningful way. Coherence is also evident in the instructional materials, including problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain and that connect two or more domains in a grade.
6th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
7th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
8th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
Report for 1st Grade
Alignment Summary
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for alignment to the CCSSM. The instructional materials meet the expectations for gateway 1 as they appropriately focus on the major work of the grade and demonstrate coherence within the grade and across other grades. The instructional materials partially meet the expectations for gateway 2 as they appropriately address rigor within the grade-level standards, but there are missed opportunities in the materials when it comes to attending to the full meaning of the standards for mathematical practice. Overall, the instructional materials address the content standards very well, and identify and partially integrating the practice standards.
1st Grade
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Usability (Gateway 3)
Overview of Gateway 1
Focus & Coherence
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for alignment to focusing on major work of the grade and coherence. The instructional materials meet expectations for both of the two focus criteria by not assessing above-Grade 1 standards and by allocating a large enough percentage of instructional materials to major standards of the grade. Many strengths are found and noted in the coherence criterion, and the instructional materials meet quality expectations for coherence. Overall, the instructional materials meet the expectations for each indicator in gateway 1 except for indicator 1C.
Gateway 1
v1.0
Criterion 1.1: Focus
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for assessing grade-level content. In the planning guide there is a section titled "Getting Ready for Second Grade." Planning resources for this are described on pages 40 and 41, but these are aligned to Grade 1 CCSSM and are clearly identified. Students are not being assessed on the content. Overall, the instructional materials do not assess content from future grades within the summative assessments provided for each chapter.
Indicator 1A
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for assessing grade-level content. Overall, the instructional materials do not assess content from future grades within the summative assessments provided for each chapter.
- In the planning guide there is a section titled "Getting Ready for Second Grade." Planning resources for this are described on pages 40 and 41, but these are aligned to Grade 2 CCSSM and are clearly identified. Students are not assessed on the content.
- Standards assessed are clearly identified for each assessment item in the textbox titled "Data Driven Decision Making." For example, see chapter 8, page 500A in the teacher edition.
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for spending the large majority of class time on the major clusters of the grade. There are 12 chapters, and nine of them, or about 75%, focus on the major work. Overall, the instructional materials allocate a large percentage of instructional time to clusters of standards that are major work of Grade 1.
Indicator 1B
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for spending the large majority of class time on the major clusters of the grade. Overall, the instructional materials allocate a large percentage of instructional time to clusters of standards that are major work of Grade 1.
- The first five chapters focus on concepts of addition and subtraction. Chapter 8 covers two-digit addition, focusing on 1.OA.A.1, 1.OA.B.3, 1.OA.C.6 and 1.OA.D.8. The other major clusters are covered in other subsequent chapters.
- There are 12 chapters, and nine of them, or about 75%, focus on the major work.
- Nine of the 12 are centered on counting sequence, addition, subtraction, place value and measurement.
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for being coherent and consistent with the CCSSM. The instructional materials have an amount of content designated for Grade 1 that is viable for one school year, and they also give students extensive work with grade-level problems. The instructional materials only have some of the supporting content enhancing focus and coherence simultaneously but do have materials that foster coherence through connections at a single grade. Overall, the instructional materials for Grade 1 strongly exhibit characteristics of coherence as noted in indicators 1D, 1E and 1F, and for the entire criterion, the instructional materials meet the expectations.
Indicator 1C
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for having the supporting content enhance focus and coherence simultaneously. Overall, the instructional materials miss some opportunities to connect nonmajor clusters of standards to major clusters, and as a result the supporting content does not always engage students in the major work of Grade 1.
- The content of chapter 10 enhances focus and coherence by engaging students in the major work of the grade. For example, in lesson 10.3, problems 2 and 3, students use a graph to find how many more. Lesson 10.1, problem 9, asks students to add three whole numbers.
- Chapters 11 and 12 treat the supporting content separately.
- Supporting content in Grade 1 includes 1.MD.A ("Measure Lengths Indirectly and by Iterating Length Units"). Chapters 9 ("Measurement") and 10 ("Represent Data") cover the supporting content, and the content is covered in isolation of the rest of the major work content.
Indicator 1D
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for having an amount of content designated for one grade level as viable for one school year. Overall, the amount of time needed to complete the lessons is appropriate for a school year of approximately 180 days.
- The suggested pacing for Grade 1 is 160 days according to the chapter pacing chart provided on the chapter-at-a-glance pages in each chapter. This includes assessment days in the series. Additionally, if time permits there is a unit called "Preparing for Grade 2," which has 26 days total in the unit.
- Not including days for assessment, the amount of content is viable within one school year because lessons account for a total of 125 days.
Indicator 1E
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for having materials that are consistent with the progressions in CCSSM. Overall, the materials give students extensive work with grade-level problems, and grade-level concepts are explicitly related to prior knowledge from earlier grades. Also, the materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions, with non-grade-level content clearly identified.
- Each chapter identifies grade-level work and how it ties into previous and future grades-for example, see chapter 1, teacher's manual, page 9J.
- In chapter 3, lessons 7, 8 and 9, students use knowledge of 10 to help with addition and subtraction. Additionally, these lessons include the Common Core learning progressions.
- In chapter 5, students are asked to add and subtract within 20 and create number sentences for the operations they are using to solve the problem, which is also aligned to the progressions.
- Future content is identified and also included explicitly in the getting ready for second grade portion of the planning guide in the teacher edition.
- Materials give all students work within the grade level. RTI activities are provided for tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 work. Differentiated instruction is clearly mapped out.
- Within chapters and lessons, there are daily routines and fluency builders that provide students with addition and subtraction practice that is on grade level, and in each lesson, there is spiral review of major work. Lastly, each lesson offers the option to reteach and enrich, which provides additional information and/or practice for students to work with the major work.
- There are 101 lessons over about 160 days. All lessons provide work with grade-level problems.
- Children are assessed on prior knowledge at the beginning of each chapter-for example, see chapter 1, teacher' manual, page 10.
- Grade-level materials make explicit connections to other grades. For instance, in chapter 2, page 65j, the curriculum provides a map of the progression of operations and algebraic thinking across Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2.
- Each chapter has a page titled "Learning Progressions and Content Standards" where the learning progressions are highlighted, as well as the standards before and after the grade level.
Indicator 1F
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for having materials foster coherence through connections at a single grade. Overall, the materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings, and the materials connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade when appropriate.
- Materials include learning objectives shaped by Common Core cluster headings-for example, see chapter 5, lesson 5.2, teacher's manual, page 261A.
- For instance, chapter 1 ("Addition Concepts") connects to 1.OA.A, 1.OA.B and 1.OA.C; lesson headings include "Model Adding to" and "Modeling Putting Together." Chapter 10 (10,ND.C ["Represent Data"]) also has lessons 10.7 ("Represent Data") and 10.3 ("Read Bar Graphs").
- The beginning of each chapter clearly defines where these connections take place. A critical area is defined, along with Common Core domains. For example, in chapter 7 of the teacher's manual, numbers and operations are the critical area, in addition to operations and algebraic thinking.
- One example is chapter 3, lesson 6, where students are asked to model how they would solve the addition problem and to add and subtract within 20.
- Students are asked in lesson 3.12 to write an equation, represent the problem and add within 20.
- Chapter 8 connects operations and algebraic thinking with numbers and operations in base 10.
Overview of Gateway 2
Rigor & Mathematical Practices
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for rigor and mathematical practices. The instructional materials perfectly meet the expectations for the criterion on rigor and balance, but they only partially meet the expectations of the criterion on practice-content connections because they do not fully attend to the meaning of each mathematical practice standard. Overall, the instructional materials are strong in regards to rigor, identifying mathematical practices, and the language of mathematics, but improvements can be made in consistently attending to the full meaning of practice standards where they are identified.
Gateway 2
v1.0
Criterion 2.1: Rigor
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet expectations for rigor and balance. The instructional materials give appropriate attention to conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency and application, and the materials address these three aspects with balance but always treating them separately and not always together. Overall, the instructional materials reflect the balances in the CCSSM, which help students meet rigorous expectations by developing conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application.
Indicator 2A
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for giving attention to conceptual understanding. Overall, the materials develop conceptual understanding of key mathematical concepts, especially where called for in specific content standards or cluster headings.
- Each lesson includes a share-and-show exercise where students are asked to demonstrate conceptual understanding.
- Of the 101 lessons in the grade, 77 are primarily conceptual in nature and match the standards calling for conceptual understanding. For example, in chapter 1, lesson 6, the cluster heading for the objective is titled "Understand and Apply Properties of Operations and the Relationship between Addition and Subtraction," and the lesson uses unifix cubes to help students gain understanding of addition and subtraction.
- The beginning of each chapter has a page heading of "Teaching for Depth." For an example, see chapter 2, teacher's manual, page 65E, which identifies key ideas of which students should have a deep understanding.
- Also, all lessons have a textbox titled "Teaching for Depth," which specifically identifies what students should have conceptual understanding of in that particular lesson. For an example, see chapter 2, lesson 3, teacher's manual, page 81A.
Indicator 2B
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for giving attention to procedural skill and fluency. Overall, the materials give attention throughout the year to individual standards that set an expectation of procedural skill and fluency.
- In Go Math, each chapter and lesson includes connections to procedural skill and fluency. For example, in chapter 1, lesson 1, page 13A, the text identifies the "on-your-own" section to connect to this.
- In addition, there are daily routines, such as the problem of the day, where students are asked to work on their addition fluency, and the fluency builder, where students build on one at a time aloud.
- Of the 101 lessons in the grade, 24 primarily focus on procedural skill and fluency and match the standards calling for procedural skill and fluency. For example, in chapter 3, lesson 6, the objective is "add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10," and the lesson has students practicing addition fluency.
- Each lesson has a fluency builder for the standards asking students to demonstrate fluency. For an example, see chapter 4, lesson 2, page 217B.
- See chapter 4, lesson 1, teacher's manual page 213 for an example of an "on-your-own" section.
- Each chapter has "practice and homework" to help with fluency-see chapter 4, lesson 1, teacher's manual, pages 215-16.
Indicator 2C
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for giving attention to applications. Overall, the materials are designed so that teachers and students spend sufficient time working with engaging applications of the mathematics, without losing focus on the major work of each grade.
- In the section of chapter 1, lesson 1, titled "Go Deeper," teachers can have students create their own addition problem, have the class solve it and ask extending questions: "How did you find out how many there are? What is a different way to solve the problem? How did the pictures help you solve the problem? How do you know the story is an addition problem?" Also, questions 6 and 7 pay attention to an application in which students have to interpret pictures and solve a word problem.
- For example, see chapter 8, lesson 7, where questions 6 and 7 on pages 475-76 are labeled as "think smarter and go deeper" problems.
- For example, see chapter 8, lesson 9, teacher's manual, page 488.
Indicator 2D
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for balance. Overall, the three aspects of rigor are not always treated together and are not always treated separately within the materials, and there is a balance of the three aspects of rigor within the grade.
- The three aspects are all touched upon in each lesson and sometimes overlap, but they are not always treated together or always separately. For example, in chapter 1, lesson 1, question 5 is a part of the fluency portion and application portion.
- These aspects work together in some cases and are treated separately in other cases. Each chapter specifically outlines how rigor is addressed and balanced. For an example, see chapter 9, lesson 7, teacher's manual, page 549A.
Criterion 2.2: Math Practices
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for practice-content connections. The materials meet expectations for identifying the practice standards and explicitly attending to the specialized language of mathematics, as addressed in indicators 2E and 2G.iii, respectively. However, the materials only partially meet the expectations for attending to the full meaning of each practice standard and for engaging students in mathematical reasoning as addressed in indicators 2F, 2G.i and 2G.ii. Overall, in order to meet the expectations for meaningfully connecting the Standards for Mathematical Content and the Standards for Mathematical Practice, the instructional materials should carefully pay attention to the full meaning of every practice standard, especially practice 3 in regards to students critiquing the reasoning of other students.
Indicator 2E
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for identifying the Standards for Mathematical Practice (MPs) and using them to enrich the mathematical content. Overall, the instructional materials do not over-identify or under-identify the MPs, and the MPs are used within and throughout the grade.
- The identified MPs are found in the "lesson at a glance" section of each lesson. For example, in chapter 2, lesson 1, this can be found on page 69A.
- In Go Math, the MPs are identified as well as the chapters, lessons and sections where these standards are covered.
- For instance, in the teacher edition for Grade 1, chapter 8, lesson 3 covers MP3 in the "mathematics talk" section.
- More examples of MP3 are the "think smarter problems" section in chapter 12, lesson 10 and the "go deeper" section in chapter 9, lesson 7.
- In addition, each lesson identifies the individual sections where each standard for mathematical practice will be addressed.
- The practices are related to grade-level work in the "teaching for depth" section, located in the teacher's manual of each chapter-for example, see chapter 5, page 251E.
Indicator 2F
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for carefully attending to the full meaning of each practice standard. Overall, the instructional materials carefully attend to the full meaning of some of the practice standards but not all of them.
- In chapter 1, lesson 1, page 15 of the teacher edition, MP2 is referred to along with a series of questions to ask the students. The questions are very direct and do not require the students to reason abstractly or quantitatively. Another example for this practice is in chapter 7, lesson 3, page 168 of the teacher edition.
- Chapter 8 says that it will review MPs 4, 6 and 8. In the "model and draw" section, MP4 is covered. Students are asked to work through the model and the pictures together. Students are asked what they can draw to represent a problem, to represent how to find the difference, and what other ways there can be to solve a problem.
- The full meaning of MP5 is for students to consider all available tools to solve a math problem. In some instances, the Grade 1 material gives students the tool to use for solving the problem and does not ask students to choose strategically. For examples, see chapter 1, lesson 2, teacher's manual, page 21, and chapter 9, lesson 4, teacher's manual, page 532.
Indicator 2G
Indicator 2G.i
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for prompting students to construct viable arguments and analyze the arguments of others concerning key grade-level mathematics detailed in the content standards. Overall, the materials consistently allow students to construct viable arguments, but they do not consistently prompt students to analyze other students' arguments.
- There are several places where MP3 is identified in the student materials, but they do not meet the intent of the practice standard. For example, in chapter 9, lessons 1, 2 and 4 identify MP3, but the question provided is a question that has a right or wrong answer and does not have students constructing viable arguments.
- In chapter 3, lesson 10, students are asked to share a strategy that they used to solve the problem. The "math talk" section prompts teachers to have students explain how they came to their answer and share their strategies, but the students are not prompted to analyze each other's strategies and answers.
Indicator 2G.ii
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for assisting teachers in engaging students in constructing viable arguments and analyzing the arguments of others concerning key grade-level mathematics detailed in the content standards. Overall, the materials consistently assist teachers in having students construct viable arguments, but they do not consistently assist teachers in having students analyze other students' arguments.
- There are several places where MP3 is identified, but the full meaning of the practice is not met. For example, in chapter 2, lessons 5, 7 and 8, there is no explanation for teachers on how to encourage students to participate in a conversation using viable arguments and analyzing the arguments of others. The questions often have right or wrong answers, and when they do no, they still are not asking students to explain how they went about solving a problem and then talking with others about how they solved the problem.
- When MP3 is identified, such as in the "math talk" sections, it gives students a focus. For instance, in chapter 3, lesson 10, page 185, teachers are prompted to have students share their understanding of how they combined the three addends and the strategies they use. Additionally, the curriculum provides exemplar responses, but there is no prompting for the analysis of different strategies.
Indicator 2G.iii
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for explicitly attending to the specialized language of mathematics. Overall, the materials for both students and teachers have multiple ways for students to engage with the vocabulary of mathematics that are consistently present throughout the materials.
- Each chapter begins with vocabulary builders and vocabulary games. An example can be found in chapter 4 on pages 209-210B.
- The lessons attend to using correct vocabulary. For example, the questions for teachers to ask use correct vocabulary. In chapter 8, lesson 3, page 454 of the teacher edition, the problems are asking students to find addends.
- In chapter 2, page 65H, there is a section on developing the language of mathematics, which identifies the vocabulary, graphic organizer strategies for teaching the vocabulary and strategies to use with English language learner (ELLs). Pages 67-68B cover strategies for building vocabulary, games to play, vocabulary flashcards, writing prompts and suggestions for how to use a mathematics journal.
- The beginning of each chapter includes a page titled "Developing Math Language." For example, see Chapter 8, teacher's manual, page 433H.