Elementary Math Curriculum

Our purpose is to design and deploy a guaranteed and viable curriculum k-6, constructed using the Wyoming Content and Practical Standards for Mathematics as its foundation, and to ensure quality data-driven assessment and instruction with student learning as the primary focus. Math is not viewed as an isolated set of procedures to be memorized; rather, it is a process of engaging learners in rich mathematical investigations that help them make connections within mathematics and with the real world.

The adoption of the current Wyoming Content and Practical Standards for Mathematics required shifting to a more focused and coherent approach to math curriculum in grades K-8. These standards emphasize conceptual understanding of key ideas while consistently revisiting enduring understandings that are present across the entire K-8 learning continuum.

The Wyoming Content and Practical Standards for Mathematics, implemented through the traditional high school path, specify the concepts students should study to become college and career ready. The standards are organized in six conceptual categories: Number and Quantity, Algebra, Functions, Modeling, Geometry, and Statistics and Probability. The design of curriculum around the conceptual categories increases rigor while providing coherence throughout high school mathematics. For example, students begin working with functions in Algebra 1 and continue developing function concepts through Geometry, Algebra 2 and potentially through Pre-Calculus and Calculus.

Historically, math standards have been centered solely around content performance. The current standards demand attention to the practical standards as well. The Wyoming Practical Standards for Mathematics define what the qualities of mathematically proficient students look like in practice. Mathematically proficient students can:

• Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
• Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
• Model with mathematics.
• Use appropriate tools strategically.
• Attend to precision.
• Look for and make use of structure.
• Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Instructional and assessment methods must shift to allow students the opportunity to demonstrate practical proficiency. The mathematical practices should be obviously visible in every math classroom.

Increasing focus, rigor, and coherence requires attention to the potential for initial gaps in student learning, but ultimately across time the benefits reaped from curriculum designed around deep and rich content that is steeped in the mathematical practices far outweigh the growing pains associated with the curricular shifts.