Math Benchmarks of Quality

Download a one-page overview of our Math Benchmarks
1

BENCHMARK 1

Mathematics language and content learning are interdependent.

BENCHMARK 1

Instructional materials show how mathematics language and content are interdependent by providing opportunities for intentional, explicit, and integrated language and content learning. They offer consistent and spiraled opportunities for ELs to build content understanding and math language practices over the course of a unit or year.

1
Indicator 1

Instructional materials include clear and interdependent content and language objectives.

2
Indicator 2

Instructional materials explicitly guide teachers and students to understand the purpose of mathematical language within the context of each lesson.

3
Indicator 3

Instructional materials include interactive discussions that engage all students in supporting each other to develop mathematical language.

4
Indicator 4

Instructional materials include reading and writing activities that develop math language and conceptual understanding simultaneously.

2

BENCHMARK 2

Scaffolds and entry points are responsive to ELs in the moment and shift responsibility to students over time.

BENCHMARK 2

Instructional materials include scaffolding through interactive activities that amplify mathematical language learning, develop students’ understanding of how language works in math, and support students to appropriate language practices in math over time. They provide as-needed entry points based on the language demands of mathematical tasks.

1
Indicator 1

Instructional materials encourage inclusive and equitable student participation that supports the development of language and content learning based on student needs.

2
Indicator 2

Instructional materials provide students with multiple methods to solve math problems and offer clear connections among those methods.

3
Indicator 3

Instructional materials provide as-needed scaffolding and entry points to amplify—rather than simplify—complex language.

4
Indicator 4

Instructional materials guide teachers to gradually increase student agency and responsibility for learning over time.

3

BENCHMARK 3

ELs are positioned as active and reflective participants in developing mathematics learning and language.

BENCHMARK 3

Instructional materials show teachers how to engage students as active and reflective participants in rigorous mathematical learning through productive struggle, reflection, and student agency. They offer consistent opportunities for ELs to dialogue, revise their thinking, and purposefully communicate ideas in math, and understand where they need additional content or language support.

1
Indicator 1

Instructional materials offer opportunities for students to share their reasoning and regularly discuss relationships and connections between ideas.

2
Indicator 2

Instructional materials offer opportunities for students to revise thinking and re-engage with concepts, procedures, and applications to maintain mathematical rigor.

3
Indicator 3

Instructional materials provide strategies to develop students’ metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness.

4
Indicator 4

Instructional materials provide students with opportunities to make choices and foster agency in their learning.

4

BENCHMARK 4

The assets and strengths of ELs are resources for teaching and learning.

BENCHMARK 4

Instructional materials explicitly reject the historical culture of exclusion in mathematics and intentionally validate students’ home language, culture, and prior knowledge. They show teachers how to incorporate students' knowledge and experiences to support language and content learning and create a safe, inclusive learning environment where curiosity and openness to differences are acknowledged and celebrated.

1
Indicator 1

Instructional materials guide teachers to recognize, acknowledge, and use the home language of students as a resource for learning.

2
Indicator 2

Instructional materials include content that is inclusive and culturally relevant, elicits a sense of belonging, and connects content learning to student identities and communities.

3
Indicator 3

Instructional materials guide teachers to connect students’ prior knowledge, literacy and language practices, and experiences to content learning.

5

BENCHMARK 5

Assessments inform the teaching of content and mathematical language.

BENCHMARK 5

Instructional materials include formative and summative assessments that provide students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate language and content learning. Materials indicate to teachers when to collect language samples, how to analyze them for content and language, what specific feedback to give to students, and what progress looks like, including "listen fors" and “look fors.”

1
Indicator 1

Instructional materials include formative assessments that are ongoing to assess students’ progress in both language and content learning.

2
Indicator 2

Instructional materials include summative assessments that offer multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate content and language learning.

3
Indicator 3

Instructional materials include guidance for how to collect and use assessment data to inform teacher decision-making for content learning and language development.

4
Indicator 4

Instructional materials provide ways to communicate student progress to students and their families or caregivers.

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