8th Grade Report Overview

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 partially meet the expectations for alignment to the CCSSM. While the instructional materials met the expectations for focus and coherence, they did not meet the expectations for rigor and the mathematical practices.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 had approximately 70% of the work on the major clusters for 8.EE.A, 8.EE.B, 8.EE.C, 8.F.A, 8.F.B, 8.G.A and 8.G.B. The content could be covered in 145 days. There are two chapters that connect two or more domains within Grade 8. In the teacher edition, the CCSSM are listed for each lesson. In the student edition, the lesson objective is listed each time and these objectives are based on the CCSSM.

The materials reviewed for Grade 8 do not meet expectations for rigor, balance and practice-content connections. Each lesson is launched with a real-world situation but they are often application problems and do not also build conceptual understanding. The materials have very few conceptual problems. There are inconsistencies among chapters and concepts on how much conceptual understanding is presented. Procedural skills are evident throughout the chapters; however, most if not all of the problems are skills-based without attending to conceptual understanding. Non-contrived and/or non-routine real-world application problems were not present in all chapters. There is no evidence of students making their own assumptions or simplifying to model mathematically in the chapters. The program is not balanced between conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency and application. The MPs for each chapter are listed in the chapter at a glance pages. The MPs are there as a structure to design procedural problem work. The lessons do not allow students to construct meaning from the MP. During lessons, there is no specific mention of the MPs and it is not clearly evident how students might use the practices. Many of the lessons and homework are procedural in nature and do not offer many opportunities for students to apply the practices in order to extend learning and understanding. There are few instances where students have to justify an explanation and even fewer where they critique others. Mathematical vocabulary is used appropriately at the Grade 8 level. This text excels in mathematical language - it is used consistently throughout instruction, examples, practice and assessment.