Open Up High School Mathematics, our new mathematics curriculum launching this summer (2021), is a complete curriculum built around the idea that discussion-filled classrooms beget deeper learning. Formerly called, Mathematics Vision Project or “MVP,” Open Up High School Mathematics will continue setting up students and teachers for success with engaging, rich tasks and effective guidance.
Kat Stevens, Director of Math, PreK-12, Guilford County Schools said of the curriculum:
“We cannot say enough about this curriculum resource! We are so thankful that our teachers and students have access to high quality, standard aligned, engaging tasks that provide opportunities for critical thinking and student discourse in every lesson.”
Open Up High School Mathematics helps teachers foster meaningful conversations that advance student thinking through teacher supports including Lesson Notes and Discussion Charts. It further provides tools that help assess the progress of student understanding and standards alignment.
Educators across the country have found the collaborative environment created by the curriculum allows students to develop problem solving skills that they can use in real-life. This curriculum promotes mathematical literacy for all students through multiple guidance and support tools.
Equitable, Engaging Learning
The philosophical stance guiding the formation of this curriculum is that all children can learn mathematics when provided with the proper structures, accommodations and supports. Open Up High School Mathematics is designed to be accessible for all students with coherent lessons, units and courses built with the CMI framework.
Margaret "Peg" Smith, Author of 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics Education University Pittsburg said:
“This high school curriculum provides exactly what teachers need to help students learn mathematics with understanding. The high-level tasks provide students with the opportunity to think, reason, and apply their developing understandings. The support provided to teachers (e.g., sample solutions, questions to ask, ways to select, sequence and connect solutions) will help them in orchestrating whole class discussions that utilize students’ thinking to make key mathematical ideas public and accessible to all students. This curriculum is a game changer for high school mathematics!”
Effective Instructional Practice
It is the only high school curriculum with every lesson built upon the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions. Open Up High School Mathematics treats teachers as the experts, while providing support in anticipating and responding to student thinking, as well as advancing student thinking to reach lesson goals.
Kaycie Maddox, Director of 6-12 Mathematics Northeast Georgia RESA said:
“I am thoroughly convinced that the MVP lessons and modules are the most comprehensive and complete curriculum available, built on the firm foundation of evidence-based mathematics education research. The MVP teachers I support have been challenged to transform their teaching and learning practices from traditional models to those aligned with the NCTM Effective Teaching Practices, the Standards for Mathematical Practice, and the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions to engage and include every student as well as to create opportunities for agency and identity for every student.
Even though I did not see how the Mathematics Vision Project resources could be improved, the latest edition of the curriculum materials authored by the MVP team provides even more support for teachers within each lesson through the explicit inclusion of anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting practices to highlight student strategies with careful guidance from the teacher[…]Learning goals are specifically and visibly articulated at the end of every lesson in the new additional section called Pause and Record: Takeaways. And, for good measure, math language routines and supports for students with disabilities have been incorporated for each lesson as well. Clearly, the Mathematics Vision Project resources support high levels of cognitive demand and engagement for students from every background and every walk of life.”
Student Agency
This curriculum uses accessible, real-world contexts in a collaborative learning environment that provides choices for students to use various strategies, procedures and representations. It further allows students to “own” their learning through periodic, lesson goal-aligned self-assessments.
Michael D. Steele, Professor, Mathematics Education University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Immediate Past President, Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), CoAuthor 5 Practices in Practice High School said:
Time and again, mathematics education research has shown that when students have the opportunity to engage in discourse around rich, high cognitive demand mathematics tasks, they have greater opportunities to gain critical conceptual understandings of mathematics. The Mathematics Vision Project has long provided such tasks to teachers and their students, but the new edition of the materials takes the support for teachers to the next level. To scaffold teachers in supporting student discussion around complex mathematical ideas, MVP has provided charts to support teachers in anticipating student thinking and monitoring student interactions as they work in small groups, and for selecting, sequencing, and connecting students’ mathematical solutions and thinking in a whole-class discussion. These charts will help teachers put their students’ thinking and reasoning at the center of their classrooms, ask great questions of students at exactly the right moment, and focus their efforts on drawing meaningful mathematical connections with their students in a discourse-based format.”
Teacher Efficacy
For teachers, Open Up High School Mathematics provides meaningful pedagogical guidance with highly effective, research-based teaching practices. It empowers teachers to use student learning as a basis in building whole class conversations.
Tony Riehl, a 40-year teaching veteran in Billings, Montana said:
“To this day, I am amazed by the MVP materials, as they inspired me to be a better teacher developing students to be problem solvers that could conceptualize math topics and make connections from previous knowledge to new material and continue to use those skills after they left my classroom[...]When I first discovered the MVP materials, I was in awe and amazement with the well-thought-out processes as a concept was developed. Occasionally in the beginning I made the mistake of adding to the conversation, thinking that I needed to supplement the concepts, only to find that it would have been better to allow the lesson to play out as the authors had intended.”
Assessment
Open Up High School Mathematics provides a full suite of assessment tools for each lesson and unit including exit tickets, quick quizzes and rich performance tasks. It also includes standards alignment and teacher guidance for students with unfinished learning.
Steve Leinwand, from the American Institutes of Research said:
“Revised work is always so much stronger than what came before. That’s why these are engaging, accessible and powerful units that work as great single unit replacements or as a whole curriculum. Best of all are the detailed tables that guide instruction aligned with the Five Practices of anticipate, monitor, select, sequence and connect – a wonderfully unique support for effective teaching.”
Visit our high school math curriculum page to learn more about what sets Open Up High School Mathematics apart from other curricula, view sample materials, and see what kind of quality professional learning opportunities are available for your school.
