2nd Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for the Grade 2 Math in Focus do not meet the expectations for this indicator largely due to the several instances where future grade level work is covered and assessed.

For Grade 2 Math in Focus there are no probability, statistical distribution, or similarity, congruence and transformations items assessed.

• In Chapter 3, subtraction procedures are expected to be used on the assessment instead of focusing on conceptual understanding.
• In Chapter 5, questions 3, 5, 8, 9b, 10 and 12 assess division which is a Grade 3 standard.
• In Chapter 6, questions 1, 2, 5, 7, 10 and 11 assess multiplication, which is a Grade 3 standard.
• In Chapter 8, all assessment questions are about mass, which is a Grade 3 standard.
• In Chapter 9, all assessment questions are about volume, which is a Grade 3 standard.
• In Chapter 10, questions 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 11 assess students mentally adding or subtracting more than 10 or 100. Question 5 assesses a Grade 4 standard.
• In Chapter 12, questions 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 assess fractions at the Grade 3 standard. Questions 5, 6 and 9 assess fractions at the Grade 4 level.
• In Chapter 14, questions 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 assess elapsed time, which is a Grade 3 standard.
• In Chapter 15, content covers multiplication and all assessment questions are about multiplication, which is a Grade 3 standard.
• In Chapter 16, all assessment questions assess multiplication or division, which is a Grade 3 standard.
• In Chapter 17, questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 assess scaled graphs, which is a Grade 3 assessment.

*Evidence updated 10/27/15

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 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 2 and on future grade level work.

• Thirty-seven percent of the chapters are major work (chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, & 13).
• Sixteen percent of the chapters are supporting clusters (chapters 11, 14, & 17).
• Sixteen percent of the chapters are additional clusters (chapters 12, 18, & 19).
• Thirty-one percent of the chapters are off grade level (chapters 5, 6, 8, 9, 15, & 16).
• There are 102 days of instruction in Grade 2. 43/102 or 42% of the learning time is spent on major work. 13/102 days or 13% are spent on supporting clusters. 11/102 or 11% of instruction time is spent on additional clusters, and 33/102 days or 34% are spent at work above grade level.
• Many of the multiplication chapters include an introductory lesson that is repeated addition and on Grade 2 level, but as the chapters progress, Grade 3 level work is being taught and assessed.
• There are 77 lessons in Grade 2. 33/77 lessons or 43% of the time is spent on major work, 11/77 or 14% of the sort is spent on supporting clusters. 8/77 lessons or 11% are spent on additional clusters. 25/77 lessons or 31% of the work is spent on work above grade level.
• The multiplication and division chapters (5, 6, 15 and 16) covered Grade 3 concepts, and chapter 8 covers mass, which is a fourth grade level topic.
• The supporting and additional work is treated separately from the major work of the grade.

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.

• Chapters 11, 12, 14, 17, 18 and 19 represent supporting work of the grade.
• Though supporting content is often not connected to the major work of the grade, there are some instances where the major work is supported, such as:

• Chapter 11 is supporting the major work of the addition using money.
• Lesson three in chapter 17 supports the major work of addition and subtraction using graphs.

• Chapters 12, 14, 18 and 19 treat the supporting work separately from the major work of the grade.

The amount of content designated for Grade 2 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 77 lessons in the program, which cover 102 days of instruction.
• Only 37 of those instructional days are spent on major work of the grade.
• This falls approximately 70 days short of the typical school year of 170-190 days.

Grade 2 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. Prior or future content is not clearly identified.

• Chapter 6 is Grade 3 work. However, in the skills trace (found at the front of each chapter) and in the chapter planning guide (found in each chapter) there is not a notation explaining the work is Grade 3 work or how this is related to grade-level work.
• The skills trace (found at the front of each chapter) and the chapter planning guide (found in each chapter) in Chapter 8 does not notate the content as Grade 3 work or how this is related to grade-level work.
• Chapters 5, 15 and 16 cover Grade 3 topics (multiplication and division) and the materials do not identify these topics as Grade 3 CCSSM. The student edition and teacher edition both state that these are all Grade 2 standards.

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

• Grade 2 Math in Focus includes 75 lessons that span 105 days of instruction.
• Thirty-nine lessons (52% of the time) are spent on grade-level problems.
• Thirty-six lessons (48% of the time) are spent on work other than grade-level problems.
• Each lessons begins with at least four guided practice problems followed by independent practice problems.
• Thirty-five out of 101 days are spent on future grade level work and only 37 out of 101 instructional days spent on major work of the grade.

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

• All chapters contain a section called "Recall Prior Knowledge;" however, only some sections contain connections to work in Grade 1, other sections only make connections to work in previous chapters. For example, chapter 4 traces prior knowledge from chapters 2 and 3 in Grade 2 instead of 1.OA.A.1 (Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions).
• The prior knowledge is not always grade-level appropriate with the CCSSM. The prior knowledge addressed in chapters 6, 15 and 16 is not grade-level appropriate because multiplication is a Grade 3 skill.
• In chapter 8's prior knowledge examples, addition and subtraction procedures are shown instead of focusing on conceptual understanding. Conceptual understanding should not be the focus until Grade 4.
• Prior knowledge in chapters 9 (prior knowledge required is Grade 3 work) and 12 (prior knowledge required is Grade 2 work) is not grade-level appropriate because the chapters are future grade level work.
• In the other chapters where prior grade-level work is presented, the materials refer to chapters from the Grade 1 materials rather than the standards or concepts.
• If prior knowledge were aligned to the standards and not the text, then CCSSM concepts would be explicit. In this case, the skills and strategies from series are explicitly referred to rather than the concepts and skills.

Materials do not foster coherence through connections at a single grade level. The learning objectives are not clearly linked to the CCSSM cluster headings, though the material sometimes connects two or more clusters in a domain.

Materials do not include learning objectives visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings.

• There are several chapters that do not have learning objectives that are shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings (chapters 5, 6, 8, 9, 15 and 16).
• For example, in chapter 5 the objectives are to "make multiplication stories about pictures, make multiplication stories, divide to share equally, solve multiplication word problems, and solve division word problems." These objectives are not shaped by CCSSM cluster headings because multiplication and division are Grade 3 standards.

Materials sometimes include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade.

• The chapter planning guide has several references in each lesson from two or more clusters and/or two or more domains; however, a closer look at the activities shows that some of the activities do not truly align to the stated standards. For example, in chapter 9 the opening lesson states it aligns to both 2.MD and 2.NBT. A critical part of those standards is missing since the lesson does not ask students to fluently add and subtract within 100.
• A positive example of alignment is in chapter 4, lesson 1. This lesson aligns to its stated standards in 2.NBT and 2.OA.
• Another positive example is in chapter 11, where there are some connections with money to place value.