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Report Overview
Summary of Alignment & Usability: Math Innovations | Math
Math 6-8
The instructional materials reviewed for Grades 6-8 do not meet the expectations for focus nor for coherence. The materials for Grades 6 and 7 assess the grade-level standards, but the materials lack focus as they do not spend a majority of time on the major work of each grade level. In each grade level, the materials meet the expectations for having the supporting content engage students in the major work of the grade, and they also provide some examples for fostering coherence through connections at each grade level. The materials do not meet expectations, though, for having an amount of content that is viable for one school year at each grade level, and the materials for each grade level do not neet expectations for being consistent with the progressions in the Standards.
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 7th Grade
Alignment Summary
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 do not meet the expectations for alignment to the CCSSM. An exceptional aspect of the materials is the integrated nature of the lessons. No topic is taught in isolation. Major work is incorporated in to supporting topics and many connections are made between domains and clusters. The materials go to great lengths to develop a conceptual understanding of math topics. However, the materials frequently cover off grade-level topics. In doing this, approximately 46 percent of the time is spent on the major work of the grade. The materials fail to follow the grade-by-grade progression, content from prior or future grades is not clearly identified, the materials do not relate grade level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge, and the lesson objectives are not shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings. Since the materials do not meet expectations for focus and coherence in Gateway 1, they were not reviewed for evidence of rigor and the mathematical practices in Gateway 2.
7th Grade
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Usability (Gateway 3)
Overview of Gateway 1
Focus & Coherence
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 do not meet the expectation for focus and coherence with the CCSSM. Major work topics only account for approximately 46 percent of the instructional time. Major work is incorporated into lessons that focus on the supporting work, however too many topics are off grade-level. The integrated nature of the materials gives ample opportunity for supporting work to enhance the major work, and there are also many connections made between domains and clusters. However, far too much time is spent covering off grade-level topics. Because of this, the amount of content for one grade-level is not viable for one school year. Furthermore, the materials fail to follow the grade-by-grade progression, content from prior or future grades is not clearly identified, the materials do not relate grade level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge, and the materials are not shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings.
Gateway 1
v1.0
Criterion 1.1: Focus
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the expectations for assessing material at the Grade 7 level. There are a few concepts assessed that are beyond the Grade 7 CCSSM, but the alteration or omission of these items would not significantly impact the structure of the materials. Overall, assessment questions that are reflected in two of the units involve above grade-level topics. This would not significantly impact the materials so focus on the CCSSM through assessments is maintained.
Indicator 1A
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the expectations for assessment. There are only a few above grade-level assessment items whose accompanying lessons cannot be modified without impacting the underlying structure of the instructional materials. The instructional materials offer assessment materials on their Flourish website. These assessment materials include a quiz for each section of a unit and a unit test. There is an included test generator, which would enable teachers to omit all above grade-level assessment items. For this reason, when above grade-level questions were found on the unit tests and quizzes, the corresponding sections were examined to see the extent that students would be expected to understand the above grade-level topics and if it would be possible to modify the lesson. Listed below are the above grade-level assessment items that cannot be modified without impacting the structure of the materials and above grade-level assessment items that could be easily omitted without impact to the materials.
Assessment Items that impact the materials:
Accent on Algebra: Unit Test (Questions 8, 9 and 15) and Section 3 Quiz (Questions 7 and 14) call for students to write an explicit rule and find the nth term. The content of these questions aligns to 7.EE.4, however, the use of the term "explicit rule" introduces vocabulary that is not part of the Grade 7 standards. This vocabulary aligns with high school standard F.BF.2. Sections 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 in Accent on Algebra include this concept and would need to be skipped to avoid going above grade level.
Puzzling Proportions: Section 2 Quiz (Question 9) includes questions on similarity and corresponding sides. The concept of similarity is first introduced in the Grade 8. This above grade-level question is included in section 2.3 of puzzling proportion and that section would need to be skipped in order to avoid going above grade level.
Puzzling Proportions: Section 2 Quiz (Questions 5 and 6) and Unit Test (Question 8) include the term slope. The use of the term "slope" introduces vocabulary that is not part of the Grade 7 standards. Section 2.4 connects slope to similar triangles, which aligns to 8.EE.6. The section would have to be skipped to avoid going above grade-level.
Above grade-level assessment items that could be skipped without impacting the materials:
Accent of Algebra: Section 1 Quiz, Question 10, has students analyze the formula for the sum of interior angles of a polygon. The use of the formula for the sum of interior angles introduces a concept that aligns to G.CO.10. This question type is covered in Section 1.2, "Formulas." The section includes the use of many appropriate grade level formulas, and the quiz question could be skipped without impacting the underlying structure of the materials.
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 are not designed to spend the majority of class time on the major clusters of each grade. Only about 46 percent of the days are spent on the major work of the grade, while the supporting work does incorporate some major work, too much time is spent on off grade-level topics. Overall, the instructional materials do not meet the criteria for the time devoted to the major work of the grade.
Indicator 1B
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 do not meet the expectations for focus by spending a majority of class time on the major work of the grade. There are five books/units included in the Grade 7 materials, those five books/units are each divided into three sections, which are then divided into lessons. A pacing guide is provided, which breaks down the number of days (45-minute class periods) per lesson. To determine the amount of time spent on major work, three perspectives were evaluated: 1) the number of sections devoted to major work, 2) the number of lessons devoted to major work, and 3) the number of days devoted to major work. The number of days devoted to major work is the most accurate reflection for this indicator because it specifically addresses the amount of class time spent on concepts. Overall, 58.75 out of the 127 days (approximately 46 percent) of the class time is devoted to major work, 30 out of 127 days (approximately 24 percent) of class time is devoted to supporting clusters, and 38.25 out of 127 days (approximately 30 percent) is spent covering off grade-level topics. At times, some lessons included major or supporting clusters and included above/below grade-level work. In those cases, the time was divided based on the number of examples and problems.
- Sizing Up Solids: 6.25 out of 27 days of major work. 11.5 days of supporting clusters. 6.25 off grade level. 3 days of MPs.
- Section 1: (1 out of 8 days of major work. 2 days of supporting clusters. 2 days off grade level. 3 days of MPs.)
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.G.A with some 7.EE.B (1 day of major work. 2 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.G.A (2 days off grade level).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers mathematical practice standards 5 and 7 (0 days of major work).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers mathematical practice standards 5 and 7 (0 days of major work).
- Section 2: (0 out of 6 days of major work. 2 days of supporting clusters. 4 days off grade level).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers below grade level work 4.G.A (2 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers below grade level work 4.MD.C (2 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers 7.G.B (2 days of supporting work).
- Section 3: (5.25 out of 13 days of major work. 7.5 days of supporting work. 0.25 days off grade level).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.G.A, 7.EE.B and 7.NS.B (1 day of major work. 1 day of supporting work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 7.G.A, 7.EE.B and 7.NS.B (0.5 day of major work. 0.5 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers 7.G.A and 7.NS.A (1 day of major work and 1 day of supporting work).
- Lesson 4: Covers 7.G.A, 7.NS.A and goes above grade-level to 8.EE.B (0.75 days of major work, 0.25 days off grade-level and 1 day of supporting work).
- Lesson 5: Primarily covers 7.G.B and 7.NS.B (1 day of major work. 1 day of supporting work).
- Lesson 6: Primarily covers 7.G.B and 7.NS.B (1 day of major work. 1 day of supporting work).
- Lesson 7: Primarily covers 7.G.B ( 2 days of supporting work.)
- Puzzling Proportions: (16 out of 27 days of major work. 4.5 days of supporting work. 6.5 days off grade-level.)
- Section 1: (5.5 out of 9 days of major work. 3.5 days off grade level.)
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.RP.A (1 day off grade-level).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers below grade level work 6.RP.A also includes some 7.NS.A (0.5 days of major work. 1.5 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.RP.A (1 day off grade-level).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers 7.RP.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 5: Primarily covers 7.RP.A (3 days of major work).
- Section 2: (2.5 out of 10 days of major work. 4.5 days of supporting work. 3 days off grade level).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.RP.A and 7.G.1 (1 day of major work. 1 day of supporting work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 7.RP.A and 7.G.1 (1 day of major work. 1 day of supporting work).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers above grade-level work. 8.G.A also includes some 7.RP.A and 7.G.A (0.5 days of major work. 0.5 days of supporting work. 2 days off grade level).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers above grade level work 8.EE.B (1 day off grade level).
- Lesson 5: Primarily covers 7.G.1 (2 days of supporting work).
- Section 3: (8 out of 8 days of major work).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.EE.B and 7.RP.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 7.NS.A and 7.RP.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers 7.NS.A and 7.RP.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers 7.NS.A and 7.RP.A (2 days of major work).
- Accent on Algebra: 18 out of 25 days of major work. 7 days off grade level).
- Section 1: (8 out of 8 days of major work).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.EE.B (3 days of major work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 7.EE.B (1 day of major work).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers 7.EE.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers 7.EE.A (2 days of major work).
- Section 2: (7 out of 7 days of major work).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.EE.B (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 7.EE.B (1 days of major work).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers 7.EE.B (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers 7.EE.B (2 days of major work).
- Section 3: (3 out of 10 days of major work. 7 days above grade level).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.RP.A (3 days of major work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 8.F.B (2 days above grade level).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers F-BF.A (3 days above grade level).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers 8.F.B and F-BF.A (2 days above grade level).
- Let's Be Rational: (14 out of 29 days are spent on major work. 15 days are spent off grade level).
- Section 1: (4 out 14 days of major work. 10 days of off grade level work).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers below grade-level work 4.NBT.A (3 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.NS.B and 6.NS.C (3 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers below grade-level work 5.NF.A (2 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers below grade-level work 5.NF.B (2 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 5: Primarily covers 7.NS.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 6: Primarily covers 7.NS.A (2 days of major work).
- Section 2: (0 out of 5 days of major work. 5 days off grade level).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.NS.C (1 day off grade-level).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.NS.C (2 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.NS.C (2 days off grade-level).
- Section 3: (10 out of 10 days of major work).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.NS.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 7.NS.A (1 day of major work).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers 7.NS.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers 7.NS.A (2 days of major work).
- Lesson 5: Primarily covers 7.NS.A (1 day of major work).
- Lesson 6: Primarily covers 7.NS.A (2 days of major work).
- Driven By Data: (1.5 out of 19 days of major work. 14 days of supporting work. 3.5 days off grade-level.)
- Section 1: (0 out of 5 days of major work. 4 days of supporting work. 1 day off grade-level).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.SP.C (2 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 7.SP.C (2 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers S-CP.B.9 (1 day off grade level).
- Section 2: (0 out of 7 days of major work. 7 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.SP.C (2 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers 7.SP.C (2 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers 7.SP.C (2 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers 7.SP.C (1 day of supporting work).
- Section 3: (1.5 out of 7 days of major work. 3 days of supporting work. 2.5 days off grade level).
- Lesson 1: Primarily covers 7.SP.A (2 days of supporting work).
- Lesson 2: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.SP.B but includes 7.NS.A (0.5 days of major work. 0.5 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 3: Primarily covers below grade-level work 6.SP.B (2 days off grade-level).
- Lesson 4: Primarily covers 7.RP.A (1 day of major work).
- Lesson 5: Primarily covers 7.SP.A (1 day of supporting work).
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 do not meet the expectations for being coherent and consistent within the standards. The integrated nature of the materials gives ample opportunity for supporting work to enhance the major work, and there are also many connections made between domains and clusters. However, far too much time is spent covering off grade-level topics. Because of this, the amount of content for one grade-level is not viable for one school year. Furthermore, the materials fail to follow the grade-by-grade progression, content from prior or future grades is not clearly identified, the materials do not relate grade level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge, and the materials are not shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings.
Indicator 1C
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 meet the expectation for the supporting content enhancing focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade. It is noted that the theme of the materials is to integrate several topics into one lesson, and as a result, no one topic is taught in isolation. Overall, the major work of Grade 7 is incorporated into lessons that focus on the supporting clusters some examples of this indicator are listed below.
- Sizing Up Solids:
- Lesson 1.1: The focus of this lesson is that students gain an understanding of the characteristics of three-dimensional shapes and describe the two-dimensional figure that results from slicing a three-dimensional figure (7.G.3). In order to achieve this the materials have students find patterns of the numbers of faces, vertices, and edges of three-dimensional and write a rule to express this pattern (7.EE.4).
- Lesson 3.1: The focus of this lesson is on measures of circles (7.G.4). In doing this students look at the ratio between circumference and diameter to get pi, a brief discussion of the division process and the resulting irrational number is made (7.NS.2.D). Students also use the formula for circumference to find unknown dimensions of a circle (7.EE.4).
- Lesson 3.2: The focus of this lesson is on area of circles (7.G.4). The lesson includes students finding unknown dimensions when given either the area or circumference (7.EE.4). Additionally the problems use fractions and decimals in their measures, so students solve the given equations while practicing operations with rational numbers (7.NS.3).
- Lessons 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5: The focus of these lessons is surface area (7.G.6). The problems use fractions and decimals in their measurements so students are simultaneously using operations with rational numbers in real-world problems (7.NS.3).
- Lesson 3.6: The focus of this lesson is volume (7.G.6). The problems use fractions and decimals in their measurements so students are simultaneously using operations with rational numbers in real-world problems (7.NS.3).
- Puzzling Proportions:
- Lessons 2.1, 2.2 and 2.5. The focus of these sections is on scale models and drawings (7.G.1). In solving problems that use scale models, students simultaneously use proportions to find new measure when the scale was enlarged or reduced (7.RP.2).
Indicator 1D
The instructional materials for Grade 7 does not meet the expectations for the amount of content designated being viable for one school year. The materials claim to take between 175 and 180 days to cover. However, there are many off grade-level concepts covered in that time frame and some of the Grade 7 standards are not fully attended to.
- The instructional materials would take 180 days to cover, however much of the time is spent on off grade-level work. If a teacher skipped these topics that would remove about 54 days of work, taking the amount of content to 126 days.
- Some of the Grade 7 CCSSM are not taught to the depth required by the standard.
- 7.RP.1. There is time spent on unit rates, however, there are very few problems that have students compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions as stated in the standard.
- 7.SP.3 and 7.SP.4. There are very few examples of students comparing two populations, especially when it comes to comparing their measures of center and variability.
Indicator 1E
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 do not meet the expectation for having materials that are coherent and consistent with the standards. Materials attempt to follow grade-by-grade progression, however too much attention is given to off, grade-level standards. Materials do not give all students extensive work with grade-level problems, and grade-level concepts are not explicitly related to prior knowledge.
Materials do not develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the standards. Content from prior or future grades is clearly identified and related to grade-level work
- When there is content from prior or future grades, the content is not clearly identified and not explicitly stated. Some of the materials attempt to relate to prior knowledge by addressing below grade level standards but this is not explicitly stated.
- Off grade-level work is present in every book/unit. The off grade-level work is not identified as such, though in some cases it might be a plausible extension or reinforcement of grade-level standards. In many cases, it is deliberately teaching a topic that is not intended in the Grade 7 standards. For example, the Let's Be Rational unit/book indicates that it aligns to 7.NS.1, 7.NS.2 and 7.NS.3 with no indication of below grade-level standards. The first section of this book/unit includes place value, placement of fractions and decimals on a number line, adding and subtracting fractions, and multiplying and dividing fractions. All of these topics are natural reinforcements of dividing fractions, however, the majority of time in this section is spent on review topics. Section 2, making sense of signed numbers, is a review of Grade 6 standards. Finally in section three students focus of the Grade 7 number sense standards. This book/unit spends more time reviewing than it does on grade level topics, but only indicates that it is presenting grade level information.
- The notes in the Teachers’ Edition at the start of each section, “Teaching the Lesson” attempts to explain what concepts need to be developed first before students are able to be successful in the grade-level concepts and even above-level concepts. The progressions with the concepts are somewhat explained here, yet, it does not identify any standards within the unit.
- There is evidence that the materials are following the progression. However, they are not necessarily concentrating on the mathematics of the grade. For example, in the unit/book on proportional relationships section 1 starts by exploring Grade 6 topics of ratios and rates with the last two sections focused on the Grade 7 topic of proportions. Section 2 appropriately connects proportion to scale drawings, but in section 2, the lessons progress from scale drawings to the Grade 8 topics of similar figures and slope. It is clear that this is a natural progression of the standards, however, the progression was not intended to take place in one school year. In presenting the concepts in this manner, less time is spent on the Grade 7 standards and students are not given the opportunity to fully develop their understanding.
Materials do not give all students extensive work with grade-level problems.
- The problems in the On Your Own section provide students with the opportunities to engage deeply with the mathematics. The problem sets begin with writing about mathematics. The problem structures focus on open-ended, thought-provoking questions in which a student frequently has to preform an investigation and justify their reasoning.
- The materials do not designate specific problems and examples that are on grade level as being appropriate for struggling students. It is expected that all students will engage in most of the problems. There are some suggested teaching strategies and tips, and some ready-made tools to help with special populations. However, if a student is not able to keep up with the high-level questions provided in the On Your Own section of the student materials, no alternates are provided.
- For advanced students, there are Think Beyond Questions that are more rigorous and involve topics from later grades, and these can be found at the end of the On Your Own sections and can be included at the teacher discretion.
Materials do not relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades
- There are no signals or indications of when something is review or new information. The lessons frequently contain topics that are presented in a way that span multiple grade levels. However, the materials provide no indication of when this is happening and only indicate which grade-level topic is present. Furthermore, because of the integrated nature of the materials, even when a multi-grade topic is covered, it is almost impossible to easily identify the on-grade portion of the lesson.
- The connections between concepts from previous grade levels are not clearly articulated from lesson to lesson. They make an effort to explain this process in the "Goals of the Unit" summary, but they do not clearly identify previous grade level standards to the current grade level standards.
Indicator 1F
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 partially meet the expectation to foster coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the standards. The very integrated nature of the materials leads to frequent domain-to-domain and cluster-to-cluster connections. However, the materials partially have learning objectives that are shaped by the CCSSM. Overall, the materials included lessons that are not presented in isolation of other important topics, but the materials are not shaped by the CCSSM alone.
Materials partially include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings.
- There are clearly identified lesson objectives at the beginning of each lesson that describe what students should be able to do by the end of the lesson. However, many of the objectives are not at grade level nor is there any indication that they are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. For example, in “Accent on Algebra”, lessons 3.3 and 3.4, the publisher states that these lessons focus on cluster headings 7.RP.A and 7.EE.A. The actual objectives focus on clusters dealing with determining explicit and recursive rules for linear relationships, which is a high school standard (F-BF.A).
- The material sometimes includes learning objectives that are shaped by the CCSSM cluster heading, and sometimes there is not a clear connection to a grade level, CCSSM cluster heading. For example, in “Let’s Be Rational,” lesson 2.2, the publisher states that the cluster being addressed is 7.NS.A. Upon reading the lesson objectives, the lesson more closely addresses the cluster 6.NS.C.
Materials include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain, or two or more domains in a grade, in cases where these connections are natural and important.
- The materials are very integrated and as a result there are numerous examples of places that connections are made between domains and clusters.
- Puzzling Proportions lesson 3.2. In this lesson students use their knowledge of setting up equations (7.NS.B) to solve percent problems (7.RP.A).
- Accent on Algebra lesson 1.4. In this lesson students set up and solve algebraic expressions and equations (7.EE.B) while using the distributive property to understand equivalent expressions (7.EE.A).
- Accent on Algebra lessons 2.1 and 2.2. In these two lesson students primarily learn strategies for solving equations (7.EE.B). The equations involve all types of rational numbers, thus students are also practicing 7.NS.3.