Embedded Files
Elementary Math Vision
Elementary Math Vision
In Oakland Unified, elementary mathematics is a humanizing, intellectually courageous practice that prepares every learner to graduate college, career, and community ready. Grounded in the California Mathematics Framework and taught through coherent, high-quality materials such as Eureka Math², our classrooms invite students —especially those furthest from opportunity— into rich problem-solving, purposeful discourse, and real-world modeling. In these joyful spaces, learners build on one another’s ideas, see multiple ways of knowing, and experience productive struggle supported by UDL and language scaffolds. Students leave each lesson as critical thinkers and collaborative sense-makers who leverage mathematics to expand their futures and uplift their communities.
Elementary Math Instructional Guide 2025-2026
Elementary Math Instructional Guide 2025-2026
Every Student. Every Classroom. Every Day.
Every Student. Every Classroom. Every Day.
Oakland students walk into math classrooms every day carrying brilliance, curiosity, and lived experience that should be honored—and stretched. But too often, their math experiences feel fragmented, disconnected, or out of reach. When math becomes about memorizing rules instead of making sense of the world, we risk losing students—not just from a lesson, but from the discipline itself.
This site exists to help change that reality.
In 2025–26, we’re doubling down on coherence—not just in curriculum, but in how we show up as adults to support teacher learning, planning, and feedback. Grounded in the belief that all students can do grade-level math, our work is focused on helping every teacher design and facilitate math experiences that are rigorous, accessible, and rooted in student thinking.
This year’s coaching and professional learning will center a few core instructional practices that bring our district’s vision for math to life:
Supporting all students to understand the purpose of the lesson and how it connects to their learning journey
Engaging students in meaningful, grade-level tasks that demand reasoning and sensemaking
Facilitating classroom talk and collaboration that deepens understanding and builds ownership
These practices are part of our broader MTSS strategy and reflect a shared commitment to equitable math instruction across our system. When teachers are supported to plan with intention, build from student strengths, and create classrooms full of dialogue and challenge, students experience math as it was meant to be: challenging, connected, and alive.
OUSD Math Framework
OUSD Math Framework
In OUSD, we believe every student deserves access to math instruction that challenges, affirms, and empowers. Our framework for high-quality math instruction is grounded in equity practices—deliberate, culturally responsive strategies that affirm students’ identities, disrupt deficit narratives, and leverage the brilliance our students bring into the classroom.
At the core of this framework are standards-based tasks—rich, grade-level-aligned problems that push students to think deeply, reason flexibly, and apply their learning in meaningful ways. These tasks live at the intersection of four essential dimensions:
Mathematical Rigor: Tasks reflect the balance of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Students are expected to engage with ideas, not just get the right answer.
Positive Math Identities & Agency: Classrooms foster student confidence, voice, and persistence by treating struggle as part of the learning process and math as something every student can and should own.
Equitable Access to Language & Mathematics: Rather than simplifying content, we create entry points through intentional scaffolds—especially Math Language Routines—that support all students in accessing, discussing, and making meaning of mathematics.
Formative Assessment: We use data to listen to students—identifying what they know, what they’re ready for, and what support they need to move forward.
Eureka Math²™ is designed to ensure that students move beyond rote memorization to build enduring math knowledge through the intentional integration of digital resources and a focused approach to encouraging student discourse. Eureka Math² helps students establish a foundational understanding of mathematics (the why) rather than only relying on procedural skills (the how), to better prepare them for college and career. Teachers will see students strengthening reasoning and critical-thinking skills that students can apply to solve real-world problems and that can be applied to many real-world situations.
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