Inspiring Connections Course 1-Course 3
Core Code Alignment
Mathematics
Elementary Mathematics
07010000007: Mathematics - Grade 6
Elementary Mathematics
07010000007: Mathematics - Grade 6
Recommendation
Recommended Primary
Evaluation
Based on the comprehensive review of the criteria, the CPM curriculum is recommended for adoption as it largely provides a coherent and Standards-aligned instructional program. Its greatest strength lies in its consistently problem-based design, which successfully drives the development of conceptual understanding and mathematical reasoning through demanding, application-focused tasks. While the curriculum's spiral review structure poses a challenge due to its high demand for consistent prerequisite mastery, this is partially addressed by dedicated Skill Builder sections and the problem's relevant Western U.S. contexts. Overall, the curriculum's commitment to application-based assessment and collaborative learning supports student proficiency and is well-aligned with the Standards for Mathematical Practice.
Educators Using These Materials
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Material Categories
Comprehensive
Rubric : Mathematics 2025
Compliance with State Law (Required)
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sensitive Materials and Prohibited Submission 53G-10-103, R277-628 | Does Not Violate Law | NA | NA | May Violate Law | ||
| We found no evidence within the materials to suggest a contradiction with or violation of any state laws. | ||||||
| Prohibited discriminatory practices 53G-2-103-5, 53B-1-118 and 67-27-107 | Does Not Violate Law | NA | NA | May Violate Law | ||
| We found no evidence within the materials to suggest a contradiction with or violation of any state laws. | ||||||
| Maintaining constitutional freedom in the public schools. 53G-10-202 | Does Not Violate Law | NA | NA | May Violate Law | ||
| We found no evidence within the materials to suggest a contradiction with or violation of any state laws. | ||||||
| Free from advertising, e-commerce, or political interest | Contains none of the listed items. | NA | NA | Contains one or more of the listed items. | ||
| We found no evidence within the materials to suggest a contradiction with or violation of any state laws. | ||||||
Focus and Coherence (Non-Negotiable)
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-negotiable materials must focus coherently on the Major Work of the grade in a way that is consistent with the progressions in the standards. 1- Student and teachers using the materials as designed devote the majority of time to the Major Work of the grade. 2- Supporting Work enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by also engaging students in the Major Work of the grade. 3- Materials follow the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. Content from previous or future grades does not unduly interfere. 4- Lessons that only include mathematics from previous grades are clearly identified. Materials that do not meet the non-negotiable requirements for Focus and Coherence will not be recommended as primary resources. Please continue with the review to determine if the materials may be recommended for supplemental use. | This item has not been graded. | |||||
Rigor and Balance
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The materials support the development of students’ conceptual understanding of key mathematical concepts, especially where called for in specific standards or cluster headings. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The CPM materials adequately meet the standard because the curriculum's problem-based tasks are intentionally designed to be conceptually driven, which directly supports the deep understanding of key mathematical concepts called for by the standards. | ||||||
| The materials are designed so that students attain the fluencies and procedural skills required by the Standards. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The materials adequately meet the standard for developing fluency and procedural skills. This is largely accomplished through the Skill Builder sections, which are essential because the core textbook tasks are primarily conceptual and problem-based. This dedicated section provides the necessary supplemental practice to ensure students attain the required procedural proficiency and automaticity called for by the standards. | ||||||
| The materials are designed so that teachers and students spend sufficient time working with applications, without losing focus on the Major Work of each grade. (Are there single and multi-step contextual problems that develop the mathematics of the grade, afford opportunities for practice, and engage students in problem solving?) | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The materials are well-designed to support application and problem-solving, as the problem-based tasks naturally engage students and serve to develop the Major Work of the grade. This curriculum's structure allows for minimal teacher lesson planning and includes user-friendly technology features. However, while the tasks encourage exploration and problem solving, the overall application could be strengthened by incorporating more diverse, explicitly applicable real-world contexts into the problem sets. | ||||||
Standards for Mathematical Practice
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Materials address the practice standards in such a way as to enrich the Major Work of the grade; practice standards strengthen the focus on Major Work instead of detracting from it, in both teacher and student materials. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The CPM curriculum is focused and coherent, as its lessons adequately cover the major work of each grade level. However, a significant structural concern is the curriculum's reliance on a spiral review format. While intended to build understanding, this approach demands that foundational knowledge from previous grades is retained and perfectly understood in order to successfully access the complex, problem-based tasks of the current material. The curriculum does attempt to mitigate this issue by including a Tools and Topics document for each chapter that identifies the necessary background knowledge; nonetheless, the high prerequisite demand inherent in the spiral structure remains a notable challenge. | ||||||
| Tasks and assessments of student learning are designed to provide evidence of students’ proficiency in the Standards of Mathematical Practice. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The materials are designed to provide evidence of proficiency in the Standards for Mathematical Practice. CPM includes summative assessments at the conclusion of each chapter and integrates various embedded opportunities for formative assessment, such as suggested Quick Writes, which teachers can use to effectively gauge student understanding of the mathematical practices throughout the unit. | ||||||
| Materials support the Standards’ emphasis on mathematical reasoning. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The CPM materials excel at supporting mathematical reasoning because the entire curriculum is problem-based. Instead of being taught procedures, students are constantly challenged to reason and discover concepts collaboratively by wrestling with complex tasks. This structure naturally requires students to justify their thinking, make and test conjectures, and construct arguments as they work in teams, which is central to developing deep mathematical reasoning skills. | ||||||
Access to the Standards for All Students
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Support for English Language learners and other special populations is thoughtful (evidence-based) and helps those students meet the same Standards (and rigor) as all other students. The language in which problems are posed is carefully considered. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The curriculum offers Spanish language support and embeds a Google Translate feature directly on the digital platform. However, the quality of this support and whether it is truly evidence-based and sufficient to ensure all students meet the same high rigor of the Standards is unclear based on this feature alone. | ||||||
| Materials provide scaffolding, differentiation, intervention, and support for a broad range of learners with gradual removal of supports, when needed, to allow students to demonstrated their mathematical understanding independently. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The materials show some effort toward scaffolding and differentiation, but the support provided is not yet fully adequate. While the inclusion of the Skill Builder sections offers necessary intervention for procedural practice, there remains a need for more robust scaffolding and supports specifically for students who struggle with necessary background knowledge and prerequisite concepts. Although some lessons include optional scaffolding suggestions for teachers, these are generally insufficient to ensure a broad range of learners can achieve independent mastery of the demanding mathematical tasks. | ||||||
| Design of lessons incorporates strategies such as using multiple representations, deconstructing/reconstructing the language of problems, providing suggestions for addressing common student difficulties, etc. to ensure grade-level progress for all learners. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The materials incorporate helpful design strategies to ensure grade-level progress, as evidenced by the lesson facilitation section within the teacher materials, which provides specific language supports and practical differentiation strategies. | ||||||
| Ethnic Studies- (Ethnic studies in core standards and curriculum should be a narrowly tailored incorporation of age-appropriate opportunities that naturally arise through education without pretextual effort in courses, programs, or activities where ethnic studies is not a primary focus. The material should incorporate a curriculum of people and cultures that reflect the state’s various demographics without commentary that seeks to violate the neutrality standard established in codes: 53B-1-118, 53G-2-103, 53G-2-104, 53G-2-105, 67-27-107, | In addition to the content outlined in “Adequate,” this material offers multiple evidence-based supplemental resources and opportunities for learning about various forms of cultural philosophies and epistemologies from Utah, the United States, and worldwide. The materials provide cultural backgrounds, contemporary real-life experiences, and contexts that are relevant to local students. Some examples may include people with disabilities, various body types, and ages. | This material demonstrates respect for diverse socio-cultural identities. The material provides opportunities to acknowledge and integrate the histories, cultures, contributions, and perspectives of people from the United States and worldwide. The material accurately represents the cultures, languages, traditions, beliefs, values, and customs of people from diverse backgrounds through a variety of texts, examples, scenarios, imagery, and applications. | The material has limited themes of social and cultural histories within the United States and globally. The material provides limited examples of inclusive or cultural real-life experiences and does not include diverse characters. | The material does not meet the requirements within the ethnic studies core standards and curriculum requirements. (53E-4-204.1). | ||
| We found no evidence within the materials to suggest a contradiction with or violation of any state laws. | ||||||
| Shared Values and Character Traits | The material extends beyond the content outlined in "Adequate", it includes elements that connect Utahns to the world. The material offers multiple evidence-based supplemental resources and opportunities for cultivating character traits in students. The material offers multiple evidence-based supplemental resources and opportunities for cultivating character traits in students. Some examples may include characters with a variety of personalities, education, income, occupation, or behaviors that illustrate character traits. | The material focuses on the shared values of diverse people and communities, the common elements that unite Utahns, and displays some character traits in its imagery and content. It aims to cultivate character traits in students, such as courage, leadership, intelligence, integrity, honesty, respect, morality, civility, duty, honor, and service, along with principles found in the Constitution. | The material lacks a sense of shared values or common elements that unite Utahns. Furthermore, the material has limited resources addressing civic and character education. | The material does not meet the requirements within the ethnic studies core standards and curriculum requirements (53E-4-204.1) and civic and character education. (53G-10-204) | ||
| The CPM curriculum inherently cultivates character traits—specifically collaboration, perseverance, and communication—through its required student study teams and problem-based learning structure. The curriculum's development in the San Francisco Bay Area is advantageous because the contextual scenarios and real-world applications used throughout the textbook are ones that are generally familiar to students on the western side of the United States, allowing students in Utah to easily relate to the problems. | ||||||
Assessment
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple measurements of individual student progress occur at regular intervals ensuring success of all students. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The materials track student progress through multiple measurements that occur at regular intervals. Specifically, the curriculum includes both individual assessments and required "team" assessments at the end of each chapter, providing varied data points on student mastery. | ||||||
| Assessments measure what students understand and can do through well designed mathematical tasks and applications. | Meets | Partially meets | N/A | Does not meet | ||
| The assessments effectively measure understanding because the tasks are designed to be less procedural and more application and task-based, directly mirroring the problem-solving structure and emphasis of the textbook itself. | ||||||
UTAH STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
250 East 500 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111-3204
Phone: 801.538.7807