Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 believes that EVERY student can learn mathematics at the highest levels for college and career readiness.  In alignment with this belief, we embrace current, evidence-based math teaching practices.  We believe the purpose of mathematics instruction is to ensure students:

• Develop deep mathematical understanding as confident and capable learners;

• Learn to understand and critique the world through mathematics; and

• Experience the wonder, joy, and beauty of mathematics.

In order to achieve this purpose, we believe in providing our students with rigorous, innovative, and culturally-responsive mathematics instruction.  We engage all students with standards-aligned mathematics focusing on meaningful application and the development of conceptual understanding.  We believe in establishing application and conceptual understanding as the foundation of our instruction, so students move beyond rote memorization and mimicry of computational skills to develop procedural skill and fluency over time.  We believe procedural skill and fluency are developed systematically through effective strategy use and the incorporation of appropriate tools and models, as opposed to through the replication of a particular algorithm. 

We believe in student-centered mathematics instruction in which students utilize the 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice to develop mathematical reasoning habits and engage in complex problem solving.  We believe instruction that actively engages students with the 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice builds student agency and deeper confidence in students’ ability to think mathematically.  We embrace the 8 Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices and provide students with rich mathematics tasks affording appropriate levels of challenge and involving students in the practice of “productive struggle”.  Our classroom systems, structures, and routines promote students’ flexible thinking, effective communication, and application of mathematics to real-world settings.  Through these practices, we create mathematics environments which develop students’ positive mathematical identities and their belief that mathematics is useful and worthwhile.