A Curriculum Analysis of Everyday Mathe-

matics

A critical look at a math curriculum, which currently being used by about 4.3 million stu-dents in over 220,000 classrooms.

Written By: Shelley Stetler

History of Everyday Math 2Reasons for Development 2Ongoing Professional Development 2How EDM is Organized 2

The Content 3

History of Everyday MathEveryday Mathematics was created by the University of

Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP).

Click here the timeline to see it up close.

Figure 1 - The very first edition of K-6 Everyday Math curriculum was finally finished in 1997. Since then, three more editions have been created, with the most recent one being completed in 2001.

UCSMP began its work by examining curricula from other coun-tries to determine what methods have proven successful. Then, with the help of grants from corporations such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York and other non-profits such as the Na-tional Science Foundation, they moved into the creation stage of

K-12 math curricula, and finally thorough evaluation and field testing of the new programs.

Reasons for DevelopmentThe authors of Everyday Mathematics believe that it is vital to be-gin math instruction at an earlier age the offered in more tradi-tional math programs. Based on research, they firmly believe that young children are ca-pable of learning much more than was previ-ously expected.

The University of Chicago School Mathematics staff believe edu-cating our society’s citizens to become mathematically literate has become a prior-ity in the United States. Adults who are mathemati-cally literate must have a range of sophisticated math-

ematical knowledge and skills that go far beyond that of basic cal-culation.

Ongoing Professional Devel-opmentThe Everyday Math Program is an extensive and “meaty” curricu-lum, complete with support materials, reference books, assess-ments and differentiated options for each math lesson. The au-thors understand the need to offer training to teachers who imple-ment the curriculum so it is taught with rigor and fidelity. The third edition of EDM has been used in Adams 12 Schools since 2007. Since funding for professional development has been sig-nificantly reduced, the district’s math specialists are conducting all of the trainings for teachers who are new to the program.

Video 1 - Everyday Math Professional Development Opportunities

How EDM is OrganizedLike most other comprehensive content area programs, Every-

day Math is quite prescriptive. It is possible to simply follow the teacher’s guide, step-by-step, and have enough content to teach for the entire year.

There are pros and cons to such a struc-tured program.

←

←Structured curriculum is based on exten-sive research←Teachers who have not received adequate training in planning lessons in teacher preparatory programs have support from a high quality, structured program←Such an extensive program includes many support materials in addition to the daily lessons that align with best practices in ed-ucation←Everyday Math aligns closely with the Common Core State Standards

←Having such a structured curriculum al-lows for little flexibility in what and how skills and concepts are taught←Though differentiation options are of-fered, some teachers may tend to teach to the “middle” and avoid or ignore individual student needs←Such a structured program begins to feel like teachers are teaching content and not kids

The ContentEveryday Mathematics was built on the philosophy that stu-

dents must experience math in real-world situations, where they are empowered to think critically and problem-solve.

Video 2 - Everyday Math Strategies

Everyday Math was built on sound philosophical beliefs.

Content StrandsThe learning and instructional goals for Everyday Mathematics fall into six program strands, across all of the grades:

Operations and Computation (including: ba-sic facts, mental math, algorithms, estimation, number stories, money, powers of ten, and ex-ponents)

Numeration (including: counting, or-der, relations, estimation, odd/even, fractions, decimals, and percents)

Patterns, Functions, & Algebra (including: number and visual patterns, properties, se-quences, functions, number sentences, equa-tions and inequalities, variables, and formu-las)

Data & Chance (including: mean, median, range, mode, tally charts, line plots, graphs, and probability)

Measurement & Reference Frames (including: linear measures, weight, capacity, money, time, temperature, perimeter, area, volume, diameter and circumference, angle, and coor-dinate grid)

Geometry (including: two-dimensional, three-dimensional, symmetry, congru-ence, angles)