The instructional materials for Grade 8 do not meet the expectations for assessing materials at the Grade 8 level. Overall, there are too many items that align most closely to standards above Grade 8 whose inclusion is not mathematically reasonable and whose alteration or omission would significantly impact the underlying structure of the materials.

• In Chapter 12, there are assessment items involving linear inequalities in two variables, which most closely aligns to A.REI.D.12. Although this is only a slight extension of the Grade 8 standards involving linear equations in two variables, this inclusion introduces confusion for students as they are initially creating and manipulating equations in two variables. This confusion makes the inclusion of inequalities in two variables mathematically unreasonable.
• In Chapter 13, there are assessment items involving arithmetic and geometric sequences, which align most closely to standards from F.LE. There are also assessment items involving quadratic and exponential functions, which align most closely to standards from F.IF. The inclusion of these topics is not mathematically reasonable as they expect students to identify discrete and specific non-linear situations when Grade 8 grade standards expect students to identify linear or non-linear situations in general.
• The majority of Chapter 14 includes assessment items involving operations with polynomials, which most closely aligns to A.APR.A.1. The inclusion of these topics is not mathematically reasonable as some involve expressions with more than two variables and operations builds upon understandings of the number system which are not fully examined until the end of Grade 8.

*Evidence updated 10/27/15

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 do not meet the expectations for spending the majority of time on the major work of Grade 8.

• The major work of Grade 8 is to work with radicals and integer exponents (8.EE.A); understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines and linear equations (8.EE.B); analyze and solve linear equations and pairs of simultaneous linear equations (8.EE.C); define, evaluate and compare functions (8.F.A); use functions to model relationships between quantities (8.F.B); understand congruence and similarity using physical models, transparencies, or geometry software (8.G.A); and understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem (8.G.B).
• Course 3 of the Holt McDougal series has approximately 20% of its content focused on the major work.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 do not meet the expectations for the supporting content enhancing the major work.

• The only lesson that uses a supporting cluster to enhance major work is chapter 4, lesson 7. Students have to know that there are numbers that are not rational, and approximate them by rational numbers (8.NS.A) to support working with radicals and integer exponents (8.EE.A).
• The rest of the supporting clusters for Grade 8 are taught in isolation from the major work.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 do not meet the expectations for being able to complete Course 3 in a school year.

• Using the 45-minute lesson planning guide, the course would take more than 190 days to complete. There is minimal time spent on Grade 8 CCSSM.
• The majority of the lessons are on material well below Grade 8 or are Grade 9 CCSSM.

The instructional materials for Grade 8 do not meet expectations for being consistent with the progression in the standards.

• The mathematics progression for course 3 is based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum Focal Points instead of the CCSSM, thus the grade-by-grade progression of the CCSSM is not reflected in these materials.
• The materials have a reaching all learners section at the beginning of each chapter but it does not give specific support for teachers on how to differentiate in each lesson. There are pretests for each chapter but in order to use the data to make instructional decisions a teacher would need to have the supplemental materials.
• The materials don't explicitly relate grade level material to prior knowledge from earlier grades. The same exact lesson is in each of the Grade 6 through Grade 8 texts. This implies that it may be an attempt to link to prior knowledge but without a teacher looking at the other grades this would not be known.
• There is a math background section for each chapter for the teacher. It gives some general ideas of connections.

The instructional materials for Grade 8 do not meet expectations for fostering coherence.

• The mathematics progression is based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum Focal Points instead of the CCSSM, thus the learning objectives are not visibly shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings.
• The mathematics taught in this series is done in isolation without connections between clusters.
• There is also a lot of repetitive work across the grade levels.