New Initiative Changes Math Education This Year

Students in SAU #39 will be challenged with a new math program that is part of a larger plan to improve mathematics teaching in schools.

The schools of Amherst, Mont Vernon and Souhegan will be implementing the Common Core State Standards Initiative into their math curriculum this year, which will provide critical areas of focus for grades K-8.

For example, kindergarteners will need to learn how to represent and compare whole numbers with sets of objects, and 7th grade students will need to develop an understanding of and applying proportional relationships. Read the full list here.

A new primary resource called Math in Focus will be used by faculty and staff to support this new curriculum. In a press release, the school district said that it was selected for its “high level of rigor, alignment of CCSS initiative and international learning expectations and a departure from ‘a mile wide and inch deep’ in the content and skills American classrooms have historically asked for students.”

This is the second year in a three-part action plan to tackle math understanding in students, which has been in the planning and development stage for several years. School officials have evaluated the math program, reviewed the latest research about math education and brought that research to completion in designing the three year action plan to improve mathematics teaching and learning throughout the schools.

The school district is hoping that these changes will develop an understanding in students of each grade level that had not been asked in the past. Students will be encouraged to think in new and different ways during their math lessons.

This change in approaching math may cause changes in students’ assessment results, as they are evaluated in new ways, and administrators and teachers will work to support students during that transition, according to the school district.

Parents looking for more information can read the K-8 critical areas of focus by grade level and the Parent Toolkit provided by the National PTA on the CCSS initiative.

SAU #39 is also hosting a parent evening on Oct. 3 at 6:30 p.m., where the lead American author of Math in Focus will talk to families and help them understand the new changes.