1st Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 do not meet the expectations for assessing grade-level content. Although there are no probability, statistical distribution, or similarity, congruence, and transformation items present, the instructional materials assess content from future grades within the summative assessments provided for each chapter.  The items which assess off-grade level expectations are too numerous to simply skip. Examples of future grade-level assessment items from the chapter tests and mid-year tests include:

• Chapter 5, question 7 assesses students on finding three-fourths of a rectangle, which is a Grade 2 standards.
• On the mid-year assessment questions 4–9 , 15, 17, 27, 36, 37 and 41–45 assess the procedures for addition and subtraction with regrouping. Questions 29 and 30 assess students on creating patterns, which is a Grade 4 standard.
• The chapter 10 assessment has students comparing masses, which is a Grade 3 standard. The chapter assessment has 14 questions and all assess mass.
• On the chapter 13 assessment, questions 7–13 assess the procedures for addition and subtraction with regrouping.
• In chapter 14, questions 4, 5, 9, 10 and 12 assess students on subtraction within 100, which is a Grade 2 standard.
• In the Benchmark Assessment 2 for chapters 10–15, questions 1, 12 and 19 assess mass, which is a Grade 3 standard. Questions 4 and 18 assess using the procedures for addition and subtraction with regrouping. Question 5 assesses subtraction at the Grade 2 standard. Question 13 assesses creating number patterns, which is a Grade 4 standard.
• In chapter 14, questions 4, 5, 9, 10 and 12 assess students on subtraction within 100, which is a Grade 2 standard.
• The chapter 17 assessment assesses the procedures for addition and subtraction with regrouping.
• In the chapter 18 assessment all 12 questions assess students on completing multiplication and division, which is a Grade 3 standard.
• The chapter 19 assessment contains 12 questions that assess money.
• On the end-of-the-year assessment, questions 5 and 25 assess creating patterns, which is a Grade 4 standard. Questions 7, 33, 34 and 37 assess the procedures for addition and subtraction with regrouping. Questions 10 and 30 assess mass, which is a Grade 3 standard. Questions 13, 14, 17, 22, 33 and 43 assess subtraction at Grade 2 standards. Questions 18, 19 and 39 assess equal groups, which is a Grade 2 standard. Questions 20 and 40 assess money. Question 38 assesses multiplication, which is a Grade 3 standard.

*Evidence updated 10/27/15

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 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 1 and on work of future grade levels.

Of the 19 chapters:

• Major clusters are represented in 63% of chapters.
• Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16 and part of chapter 17 address major work of the grade.
• Supporting and additional standards represent approximately 16% of the content.
• Future grade-level content is addressed approximately 18% of the time.
• Chapters 10, 18 and 19 exclusively focus on future grade-level materials, while nearly half of chapter 17 contains future grade-level material. These chapters teach and assess mass, subtraction to 100, multiplication/division and money.
• Approximately 5% of the materials (parts of chapters 6 and 15) have topics that are not addressed in the CCSSM. Chapter 6 contains ordinal numbers and chapter 15 includes lessons on the calendar.
• Of the 95 days of instructional time, 60 are spent on the major work of the grade, representing approximately 63% of the instructional time. (Assessment time was not included in this calculation.)

For this indicator, all grade-level work that is not major work was considered supporting work. The supporting content does not enhance the focus and coherence by engaging students in the major work of the grade.

• For this indicator, all grade-level work which was not major work was considered supporting work.
• Chapter 11 on picture/bar graphs supports major work at Grade 1 (1.OA.D). For example, chapter 11, lesson 2, TE 38-39, while focusing on graphs, is supporting addition and subtraction.
• Chapters 5 and 15 treat supporting work separately from the major work of the grade.

The amount of content designated for Grade 1 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 65 lessons in the program, which cover 95 days of instruction.
• Out of those 95 days, only 60 days are spent on the major work of the grade level.
• The typical school year has 170-190 days, therefore there is not enough content for one school year.

Grade 1 Math in Focus materials are not consistent with the progressions in the CCSSM. Content is not clearly identified, there are not extensive grade-level problems and concepts are not explicitly related to prior knowledge.

Materials do not develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions.

• Materials from prior or future grade-level work are not clearly identified. For example:

• Chapter 10 contains Grade 3 work and the skills trace and the chapter planning guide do not identify this or offer how it is related to grade-level work.
• Chapter 6 addresses ordinal numbers, which is not a Grade 1 standard. This content is not identified as learning that is beyond the scope of CCSSM.
• Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all focused on Kindergarten standards. The curriculum does not mark these 17 days of instruction; all focus on the prior year's skills.
• Chapter 15 covers the calendar, which is not addressed in the CCSSM. This content is not identified as learning that is beyond the scope of CCSSM.
• Chapter 18, "Getting Ready for Multiplication" addresses a Grade 3 standard. This content is not identified as learning that is beyond the scope of CCSSM.
• Chapter 19 on money is a Grade 2 standard. The materials do not identify this as a future year's standard.

• Approximately 35 days are spent on off grade-level material. The materials have labeled lessons stating that they are grade-level standards where they are not.

The materials do not give students extensive work with grade-level problems.

• Grade 1 Math in Focus has 66 lessons over 95 days.
• Thirty-nine lessons or about 59% of the time is spent on grade-level problems.
• Twenty-seven lessons or about 41% is spent on work other than grade-level problems.
• Each lesson has about four guided practice problems before independent practice.
• Lessons do not consistently contain the same number of independent practice problems.
• Some lessons only have 4 independent practice problems (e.g., chapter 1, lesson 1), which may not be enough for some students.

The materials do not relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.

• Each chapter contains an initial lesson "Recall Prior Knowledge." In this lesson students are recalling prior knowledge from earlier grades and chapters.
• Not all chapters trace the concepts from earlier grades, some only trace back to earlier chapters in Grade 1.
• For example, chapter 8 traces prior knowledge from chapter 4 in Grade 1 instead of K.OA.A.2.
• Chapter 11 only relates to knowledge acquired in chapter one of Grade 1.
• Chapter 19 on money does have students recall prior knowledge, but since money is not to be taught until Grade 2 this is not prior knowledge that should be in a Grade 1 book.
• Chapters 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 are additional examples of alignment to prior chapters and not prior grade-level concepts.
• Materials link to prior knowledge of strategies, not to the CCSSM content standards that have previously been covered in Kindergarten or earlier in Grade 1.

Grade 1 materials do not foster coherence through connections at a single grade level. Overall, the materials do not include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings, and the materials rarely connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade when appropriate.

The materials do not include learning objectives visibly shaped by the CCSSM headings.

• For example, chapter 2 lists the objectives as "number bonds can be used to show parts and whole; use connecting cubes or a math balance to find number bonds; find different numbers bonds for numbers to 10." Number bonds are a strategy and are not mentioned in the CCSSM.
• The teacher guide includes CCSSM correlations. However, chapters 6, 10, 18 and 19 correlations include learning objectives that are not specific Grade 1 standards.

The materials do not include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in Grade 1.

• Some connections between clusters are made beginning in chapter 8. For example, in lesson 1 of chapter 8 students are connecting place value and addition.
• In the chapter planning guide there are several references in each lesson to two or more clusters and/or two or more domains. However, a closer look at the activities shows the activities do not truly align to the stated standards. For example, in chapter 12 lesson 2 the lesson states it aligns to both 1.NBT and 1.OA. In fact, the lesson does not ask students to determine whole number in an addition or subtraction equation relating to whole numbers as stated.
• In Grade 1, the first 6 chapters are reviewing work of Kindergarten. Students do not begin learning the major work of Grade 1 until chapter 7, which is 30 days (excluding assessments) into the school year.