1. Learning Progressions for the Common Core State Standards
Bradford Findell
April 15, 2011
NCTM Annual Meeting
Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics

2. Grade Level Overview Cross-cutting themes Critical Area of Focus
Each grade in K-8 and each high school conceptual category begins with an Overview.
These overviews identify the critical areas, which cut across topics, in the grade or conceptual category.
The description of each critical area illustrates the focus for the learning.

3. Format of K-8 Standards Grade Level Domain Standard Cluster
(Teachers might benefit from looking at the Common Core document as the next section is described.)
Each K-8 grade is made up of domains, clusters and standards.
Domain names are in the shaded band. Clusters are underneath in bold with the standards numbered under each of the clusters.
(The next slides describe each level.)
Cluster

4. CCSS Domain ProgressionK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 HS
Counting & Cardinality
Number and Operations in Base Ten
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
Number & Quantity
Number and Operations – Fractions
The Number System
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Expressions and Equations
Algebra
Functions
Geometry
Measurement and Data
Statistics and Probability
Statistics & Probability
This diagram illustrates how the domains are distributed across the Common Core State Standards.
What is not easily seen is how a domain may impact multiple domains in future grades.
An example is K-5 Measurement and Data, which splits into Statistics and Probability and Geometry in grade 6.
Likewise, Operations and Algebraic Thinking in K-5 provides foundation Ratios and Proportional Relationships, The Number System, Expressions and Equations, and Functions in grades 6-8.

5. Progressions Progressions Three types of progressions
Describe a sequence of increasing sophistication in understanding and skill within an area of study
Three types of progressions
Learning progressions
Standards progressions
Task progressions

6. Learning Progression for Single-Digit Addition
From Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics, NRC, 2001.

7. Standards Progressions

9. Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas and Details
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
3. Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
3. Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
3. Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

10. Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas and Details
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
3. Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
3. Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
3. Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

11. Flows Leading to Algebra
Because of structural differences between the disciplines of mathematics and English Language Arts, the mathematics standards do not support such easy analysis of the progression of standards across grades.
This diagram depicts some of the structural features of the mathematics standards, where several different domains from grades K-8 converge toward algebra in high school. This diagram does not include other “flows,” such as from Number and Operations—Fractions in grades 3-5, to Ratios and Proportional Relationships in grades 6 and 7, to Functions in grade 8 and high school, with connections to geometry and probability.

12. Standards Progression: Number and Operations in Base Ten
Nonetheless, to support some analysis of the progressions of standards across grades, we can place the text of the standards, for each domain, in a table as shown. Sometimes the clusters of standards support more fine-grained analysis.

13. Use Place Value Understanding …
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract.
4. Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used.
Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
5. Given a two-digit number, mentally find 10 more or 10 less than the number, without having to count; explain the reasoning used.
6. Subtract multiples of 10 in the range from multiples of 10 in the range (positive or zero differences), using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used.
5. Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.
6. Add up to four two-digit numbers using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.
7. Add and subtract within 1000, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method. Understand that in adding or subtracting three digit numbers, one adds or subtracts hundreds and hundreds, tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose or decompose tens or hundreds.
8. Mentally add 10 or 100 to a given number 100–900, and mentally subtract 10 or 100 from a given number 100–900.
9. Explain why addition and subtraction strategies work, using place value and the properties of operations.
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
1. Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.
2. Fluently add and subtract within 1000 using strategies and algorithms based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.
3. Multiply one-digit whole numbers by multiples of 10 in the range 10–90 (e.g., 9 × 80, 5 × 60) using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.

14. Standards Progression
To support analysis of standards across grades, the progressions within domains are being elaborated by the CCSS writers
See
A draft progression for Number and Operations in Base Ten has been released. Progressions for other domains should be released over the next several months.

15. Task Progression
A rich mathematical task can be reframed or resized to serve different mathematical goals
goals might lie in different domains

16. Constant Area, Changing Perimeter
You have been asked to put together the dance floor for your sister’s wedding. The dance floor is made up of 24 square tiles that measure one meter on each side.
Experiment with different rectangles that could be made using all of these tiles
Record your data in a table and a graph
Look for patterns in the data

17. Width vs. Length

18. Suppose the dance floor is held together by a border made of edge pieces one meter long.
What determines how many edge pieces are needed: area or perimeter? Explain.

19. Perimeter vs. Length
Make a graph showing the perimeter vs. length for various rectangles with an area of 24 square meters.
Describe the graph. How do patterns that you observed in the table show up in the graph?
Which design would require the most edge pieces? Explain.
Which design would require the fewest edge pieces? Explain.

20. Perimeter vs. Length

21. Suppose you wish to design a dance floor using 36 square tiles that measure one meter on each side. Which design has the least perimeter? Which design has the greatest perimeter? Explain your reasoning.
In general, describe the rectangle with whole-number dimensions that has the greatest perimeter for a fixed area. Which rectangle has the least perimeter for a fixed area?
Begin with a different area to encourage students to generalize their results.

22. Extension Questions Can we connect the dots? Explain.
How might we change the context so that the dimensions can be other than whole numbers?
How would the previous answers change?

23. Width vs. Length

24. Perimeter vs. Length

25. Perimeter and Width vs. Length

26. Questions for Teachers
How might we use this context and related contexts to support the learning at the level of Algebra 2 or its Equivalent (A2E)?
Domain and range
Limiting cases
Intercepts and asymptotic behavior?
Rates of change, maxima and minima
Equation solving with several variables?
Generalizing from a specific to a generic fixed quantity?
We must work together as a field to provide better access to mathematics at the level of Algebra 2. The phrase “Algebra 2 or its Equivalent” was used initially in Ohio to allow an integrated course “Mathematics 3” at the same level to be allowable. But in fact the name is a proxy for “college and career readiness.” Because typical Algebra 2 courses serve far too few students, I use the term A2E to encourage teachers and administrators to rethink curriculum and instruction in courses at the level of Algebra 2 so as to provide access to all students while maintaining a sufficient level of problem solving, reasoning, and symbolic skills.
Now with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), we have a more precise definition of College and Career Readiness: all of the standards not marked with ‘(+)’. And although some folks might want to quibble with some of the decisions about which standards are for all students, now is the time to suspend disbelief and to develop collaborative strategies for helping all students reach these high standards. When the CCSS are revised in perhaps 7 or 9 years, we will then have much better evidence upon which to base adjustments in the college- and career-ready line.
This slide illustrates some of the A2E opportunities afforded by this seemingly elementary problem. The accompanying Geometer’s Sketchpad file illustrates how this context (length, width, area, and perimeter of rectangles) can be used to distinguish among direct proportions, indirect proportions, linear functions (that are not direct proportions), decreasing linear functions (that are not indirect proportions), quadratic functions, and rational functions.
Note: Teachers sometimes say, “For a direct proportion, as x increases y increases; for an indirect proportion, as x increases y decreases.” But these statements are misleading because the conditions are insufficient. (Furthermore, if the constant of proportionality is allowed to be negative, the statements are false.)
Recall from Calculus that the conditions “as x increases y increases” and “as x increases y decreases” are the definitions used to determine whether a function is increasing or decreasing, respectively, over an interval. The GSP Sketch includes counterexamples for each claim above.

27. Perimeter and Area of Rectangles
Fix one and vary the other
Grade 5: to distinguish the two quantities
Grade 9: to represent the quantities algebraically and to use graphs, tables, and formulas to explore how they are related
Grade 11: to distinguish linear, quadratic, and rational functions, and to explore domains in context and to push toward limiting cases
Calculus: as an optimization context in which to use differentiation
Later, in multivariable calculus, explore relations among 3 or more variables

28. Progressions Learning progressions Standards progressions
Based in research on student learning
Standards progressions
Built into standards
Task progressions
Afforded by tasks

29. Connections How might these ideas help you think about
Formative Assessment
Differentiated Instruction
Response to Intervention
For slides, see
For examples of task that provide a ramp for access, see