About This Report
- EdReports reviews are one tool to support curriculum decisions. We do not make recommendations, and our reports are not prescriptive.
- Use this report as part of a comprehensive, teacher-led adoption process that prioritizes local needs and integrates multi-year implementation planning throughout.
- EdReports evaluates materials based on the quality of their design: how well they structure evidence-based teaching and learning to support college and career-readiness. We do not assess their effectiveness in practice.
- Check the top of the page to confirm the review tool version used. Our current tools are version 2.0. Reports based on earlier tools (versions 1.0 or 1.5) offer valuable insights but may not fully align with current instructional priorities.
Report Overview
Summary of Alignment & Usability: Math in Focus | Math
Product Notes
Kindergarten assessments were not reviewed because they are not included in the materials. The assessment book is available for purchase separately from the main materials. Grades 1 and 2 assessments were reviewed.
Math K-2
The grade band texts include several future grade-level assessments. The grade band texts do not meet the publisher criteria for having the large majority of time spent on the major work of the grade. Supporting and additional clusters are treated separately therefore not counted as a part of the major work. The materials are not coherent or consistent with the standards. There is not enough content for one school year.
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 grade band texts have several future grade-level assessments. The grade band texts do not meet the expectations for the large majority of time spent on the major work of the grade. Supporting and additional clusters are treated separately and do not enhance the major work. The materials are not coherent or consistent with the standards. There is not enough content for one school year.
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 materials reviewed for grades 6-8 do not meet the expectations for alignment to the CCSSM. The materials devote the majority of class time to the major work for Grades 6 through 8. The materials are coherent and consistent with the CCSSM for Grade 8, but Grades 6 and 7 have concepts beyond those grades. There are a few times that the supporting work enhances the understanding of the major clusters. The CCSSM are visibly listed on the student pages and in the teacher edition. Since the materials did not meet the expectation for Gateway 1 in Grades 6 and 7, those grades were not reviewed in Gateway 2. The Grade 8 text excels at mathematical language, but does not address the full meaning of the mathematical practices or spend sufficient time on building conceptual understanding.
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 5th Grade
Alignment Summary
Students and teachers using the Grade 5 materials as designed will not devote a majority of time on the major work of the grade. The materials are not coherent or consistent with the standards. Assessments often assess future grade level content. Chapter 11 assesses probability at the high school level. Approximately 50 percent of the content is on the major work of the grade. An additional 14 percent of the time is spent on the supporting/additional clusters; however these lessons are treated separately from the major work. Finally, 36 percent of the time is spent on off grade-level material. Grade 5 Math in Focus did not receive any points in Gateway 1. Overall, the Grade 5 materials do not provide a focus on the major work nor are the materials coherent. Materials were not reviewed for Gateway 2.
5th Grade
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Usability (Gateway 3)
Overview of Gateway 1
Focus & Coherence
Students and teachers using the Grade 5 materials as designed will not devote a majority of time on the major work of the grade. The materials are not coherent or consistent with the standards. Assessments often assess future grade level content. Chapter 11 assesses probability at the high school level. Approximately 50 percent of the content is on the major work of the grade. An additional 14 percent of the time is spent on the supporting/additional clusters; however these lessons are treated separately from the major work. Finally, 36 percent of the time is spent on off grade-level material. Grade 5 Math in Focus did not receive any points in Gateway 1. Overall, the Grade 5 materials do not provide a focus on the major work nor are the materials coherent.
Gateway 1
v1.0
Criterion 1.1: Focus
Grade 5 Math in Focus instructional materials assess probability in chapter 11 and topics from future grade-level content. Chapters 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 15 all contain future grade level assessments.
Review Team Note: The assessments are included in the teacher edition, but are printed at a small scale: ⅛ of a page. Since the assessments are not included in the student edition and are so small in the teacher edition, an additional assessment book would need to be purchased or teachers would need to reproduce the assessments.
Indicator 1A
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 Math in Focus do not meet the expectation for this indicator due to assessing probability in chapter 11 and there are several instances where future grade level work is covered and assessed.
The following evidence describes both the chapter tests and the chapter reviews.
- In chapter 11, question 4 assesses probability, a seventh standard.
- Chapter 5 test questions 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 assess expressions at the Grade 6 level.
- In chapter 6, the focus is the area of a triangle at the Grade 6 level. All assessment questions in the chapter assessment assess Grade 6 standards for area of a triangle (items 1-12).
- All assessment questions in chapter 7 cover ratio, which is a Grade 6 standard (items 1-12).
- The content in chapter 10 includes questions on percent, which aligns to Grades 6 and 7 standards (Items 1-12).
- Benchmark Assessment 2 questions 8, 9, 10, 17, 18, 19, and 20 address percent, which aligns to Grades 6 and 7 standards.
- In chapter 12 all assessment questions are assessing angles at the Grade 7 standard by assessing adjacent angles, vertical angles and complementary angles (items 1-12).
- Chapter 14, question 4, asks students to use nets for the problem which is a Grade 6 standard.
- End-of-year test questions 8 and 18 address Grade 7 standard on adjacent, vertical, and complementary angles, and question 19 addresses Grade 6 standard on nets.
*Evidence updated 10/27/15
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
Students and teachers using the Grade 5 Math in Focus instructional materials would not devote a large majority of the time to the major work of the grade. Approximately 50% percent of the time was spent on the major work of the grade. A large amount of time is spent on work that is not grade-level content. Overall, the materials did not provide the majority of time on the major work of the grade level.
Indicator 1B
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 do not meet the expectations for spending the large majority of class time on the major clusters of the grade. Overall, the instructional materials allocate too much instructional time to clusters of standards that are not major work of Grade 5 and on future grade level work.
- The Grade 5 material contains 14 chapters. Seven of the 14 chapters (1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 14) or about 50% of the time focuses on the major work of the grade.
- Two out of 14 chapters (5 and 11) or about 14% of the time is focused on the supporting work of the grade.
- Five chapters (6, 7, 8, 12 and, 13) or about 36% of the time is focused on work not related to grade level.
- The content in chapter 7 is focused on ratio, which is a Grade 6 standard.
- The content in chapter 6 is focused on the area of triangles at the Grade 7 standard level.
- In chapter 8, content is focused on decimals at the Grade 4 level, but does not meet the full intent of the Grade 5 standard.
- The content in chapter 12 is focused on adjacent, vertical and complementary angles at the high school level.
- The content in chapter 13 is focused on area of a triangle at the Grade 8 standard level.
- The material covers 111 instructional days. Fifty-eight percent (64 days) is spent on major work, 15% (17 days) is spent on supporting clusters and 27% (30 days) is spent on topics that are above grade level or not contained within the CCSSM.
- There are 75 total lessons. Fifty-two percent of the lessons (39) are spent on major work, 15% (11 lessons) are spent on supporting clusters and 33% (79 days) are spent on topics that are off grade-level work.
- A large amount of time is spent on work that is not grade-level content.
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
The Grade 5 instructional materials are not coherent and consistent with the standards. The materials do not represent a full year of content. Additionally, 34 of the 111 days are spent on future grade level work. Teachers using the materials would not be providing their students with extensive work in grade-level problems, since only approximately 57% of the lessons focus on grade-level problems. Due to the amount of future grade-level content, the materials are not able to develop according to the progressions of the standards. Overall coherence and consistency of the standards is not achieved in Grade 5 Math in Focus.
Indicator 1C
The supporting content for Grade 5 materials does not enhance the focus or coherence by engaging students in the major work of the grade.
- For this indicator, all grade-level work that was not major work was considered supporting work.
- Chapters 5 and 11 include supporting work of the grade. In chapter 5, the content focus moves from simple expressions to expressions and equations at the Grade 6 level. The content that does represent the Grade 5 supporting work of the grade is treated separately and not in support of learning the major work of the grade.
- In Chapter 11, graphs, coordinate plane and probability are the focus. Within the lessons, the graphs and coordinate plane work is treated separately and does not support the major work of the grade. Probability is a Grade 6 standard.
Indicator 1D
The amount of content designated for Grade 5 Math in Focus is not viable for one school year. Overall, the amount of time needed to complete the lessons is not appropriate for a school year of approximately 170-190 days.
- There are 75 lessons in the program that cover 111 days of instruction, this falls about 64 days short of the typical school year.
- Many of the instructional days are focused on content that is not major grade level work or is off grade-level work.
Indicator 1E
Grade 5 Math in Focus materials are not consistent with the progressions in the standards. Content is not clearly identified, there are not extensive grade-level problems and concepts are not explicitly related to prior knowledge.
The Grade 5 materials do not develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions and prior or future grade level content is not identified.
- There are many topics in the Grade 5 materials that align to Grade 6 standards (e.g., chapter 6 is about area, chapter 7 is about ratios, chapter 10 is about percents, and chapter 11 is about graphs and probability).
- Chapter 4 includes lessons about angles that addresses Grade 4 standards, but never reach the intent of Grade 5. There is no explanation in the skills trace (found at the front of each chapter) or in the chapter planning guide (found in each chapter) how this is related to grade-level work.
- Additionally, chapter 6 is Grade 7 work and there is no indication in the skills trace (found at the front of each chapter) or in the chapter planning guide (found in each chapter) that the work is Grade 7 work or how this is related to grade-level work.
- The student and teacher editions do not state that standards that are taught are for future or previous grade levels.
The Grade 5 materials do not provide students extensive work with grade level problems.
- Grade 5 Math in Focus includes 75 lessons that span approximately 111 days.
- Thirty-nine lessons or about 57% of the time is spent on grade-level problems.
- Thirty-six lessons or about 43% is spent on work other than grade-level problems
- On a positive note, each lesson contains at least four guided practice problems followed by at least 10 independent practice problems.
- With 34 out of only 111 instructional days spent on off grade-level work, there is not time for extensive work on the standards.
The materials do not explicitly relate grade-level concepts to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
- Each chapter contains an initial lesson called "recall prior knowledge." In this lesson, students are recalling prior knowledge from earlier grades and chapters. However, it does not always directly trace back to the standards.
- For example, chapter 1 states "students learned in Grade 4 to write numbers to 100,000 in word form, standard form, and expanded form, find the value of each digit in a 5-digit number using a place-value chart, compare 5-digit numbers using greater than and less than, and use rounding and front-end estimation to check sums and differences." The Grade 4 standard 4.NBT.A.2 states "Read and write multi-digit whole numbers using base-ten numerals, number names and expanded form. Compare two multi-digit numbers based on meanings of the digits in each place, using >, = and < symbols to record the results of comparisons."
- If prior knowledge were aligned to the standards and not the materials from previous grades, then CCSSM concepts would be explicit. Instead, skills and strategies from the series are explicitly discussed in the prior knowledge section.
- Some chapters do not specifically name learning in previous grades. For example, chapter 14 states to review the definitions of cylinders, spheres and cones but does not reference in which previous grade level students had received this learning.
Indicator 1F
Materials do not foster coherence through connections at a single grade level. The learning objectives are not clearly linked to the CCSSM cluster headings, and the materials do not connect two or more clusters in a domain.
The Grade 5 materials do not include learning objectives visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings.
- The teacher edition contains a section identifying the lesson correlations to CCSSM. The scope and sequence is not organized by CCSSM cluster headings and there are many chapters that address objectives that are not part of the Grade 5 CCSSM standards (chapters 6, 7, 10, 11 and 12).
- In chapter 2, lesson 1, the objective is to use a calculator to add subtract, multiply and divide whole numbers. Using a calculator is a strategy and is not mentioned in the CCSSM.
The Grade 5 materials do not include problems and activities serving to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domain in a grade.
- Each chapter's content is treated separately and there are no explicit connections made between them.
- Chapter 4 misses the opportunity to connect multiplying fractions (5.NF.B) with extending student understanding of the operation of multiplication (5.NBT.B.5).
- Opportunities to connect measurement conversion (5.MD.1) do not connect with the application of the place value system (5.NBT.1), because the material does not include measurement conversions.