DISCONTINUITY IN ENACTED SCOPE AND SEQUENCE OF MIDDLE GRADES MATHEMATICS CONTENT

The 2010 release of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) initiated a tremendous effort to align the mathematics curriculum across the United States. However, the work of enacting these standards, including determining the order to teach grade-level standards, was often left to local schools and district experts to determine. These decisions were influenced by several factors and often formalized in scope and sequence documents, which outlined the order in which grade-level standards would be taught and the amount of time devoted to specific mathematical content and skills. In this paper, we report the analysis of eight Grade 8 mathematics teachers’ scope and sequence documents and the underlying factors that influenced their development. Given the discrepancies apparent across these eight documents, we discuss the implications stemming from these curricular decisions and recommend district leadership consider the connections across mathematical content when making decisions regarding the sequencing of topics in any grade level.