The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 do not meet the expectations for appropriately assessing grade-level standards. Overall, the materials assess topics from future grades in such a way that the modification or omission of the assessment items aligned to the above grade-level topics, and the accompanying lessons, would significantly impact the underlying structure of the materials for the grade. A list of the above, grade-level topics and the chapters in which they occur follow.

• In Chapter 3, there are assessment items that address scientific notation (8.EE.A.4).
• In Chapter 7, there are assessment items that address working with scale drawings (7.G.A.1).
• In Chapter 8, there are assessment items that address angle relationships, which most closely align to 7.G.B.5, and transformations, which most closely align to 8.G.A.
• In Chapter 9, there are assessment items that address parts of circles and the circumference of circles, which most closely aligns to 7.G.B.4.
• In Chapter 10, there are assessment items that address the area of circles (7.G.B.4), the volume of triangular prisms (7.G.B.6), and the volume of cylinders (8.G.C.9).
• In Chapter 11, there are assessment items that address transformations on the coordinate plane, which align to 8.G.A, operations with negative, rational numbers, which align to 7.NS.A, and solving equations involving negative, rational numbers, which align to 7.EE.B.
• In Chapter 12, the vast majority of the assessment items address probability, which aligns to 7.SP.C.
• In Chapter 13, there are assessment items that address writing functions in two variables, which aligns to 8.F.B.4, and solving multi-step equations and inequalities, which aligns to 7.EE.B.

*Evidence updated 10/27/15

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 do not meet the majority of class time spent on the major work of Grade 6. The major work of Grade 6 is:

• understanding ratio concepts (6.RP.A);
• applying and extending previous understandings of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions (6.NS.A);
• applying and extending previous understanding of numbers to the system of rational numbers (6.NS.C);
• applying and extending previous understanding of arithmetic to algebraic expressions (6.EE.A); and,
• representing and analyzing quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables (6.EE.C).

Course 1 of the Holt McDougal series has approximately 25% of its content focused on the major work of the grade.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 do not meet the expectations for being able to complete Course 1 in a school year.

• Using the 45-minute lesson planning guide, it would take more than 190 days to complete this course.
• These concepts in the lessons would cover less than a third of the Grade 6 CCSS.

The instructional materials for Grade 6 do not meet expectations for being consistent with the progression in the standards.

• The mathematics progression for Course 1 is based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum Focal Points instead of the Common Core State Standards, 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 do not 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, but there is no indicator in the materials that this lesson will repeat in future grades.
• There is a mathematics background section for each chapter for the teacher. It gives a general overview of connections between grade levels.

The instructional materials for Grade 6 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 CCSS, 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 repetitive work across the grade levels. For example, chapter 7 course 1 and chapter 4 course 2 cover almost identical material on ratios, rates and proportions. Chapter 8 in both course 1 and 2 include practically the same geometry information on lines and angles and transformations.