TCSD Math Vision and Guiding Principles

Math Vision Statement 
The students in the Treynor Community School District experience math in a culture that uses highly effective and aligned resources to develop and grow students who become persistent problem-solvers.  In a rigorous learning environment, the students think critically and use reasoning skills to solve real-world problems.  They are actively engaged and learning from peers across all grade levels, with their teachers as facilitators of learning, and with support from the community outside the school walls.  Focus and coherence are built on conceptual understanding, skills, and fluency that allows the students to achieve high levels of success.  Cognitive engagement is used to reach grade-level and standards-specific expectations to develop the capacity through rich mathematical tasks, problem-based instructional tasks, and distributed practice that is meaningful and purposeful.

Math Guiding Principles

It is the belief of the Phase I Math Committee that the following principles should guide the teaching and learning of math in the Treynor Community School District and influence our decision and actions, recognizing that as goals and strategies change, it is our principles that must remain steadfast. 

• A passion for math should be ignited and supported for students and staff through the following:

  • Math-specific professional learning

  • Quality teachers as facilitators of learning

  • Collaboration among students, staff, and community

  • Highly effective and aligned resources

  • Common academic language

• Strong foundational knowledge of math across grades K-12 where reasoning, mental math, conceptual understanding, and procedural skills are used to develop persistent problem solvers.

• Students of math must be able to solve real-world problems in multiple ways.  

• A safe learning environment is important for students of math to engage in productive struggle.

  • *Mathematics is not solely about getting the right answers—it’s about the process as well. Productive struggle is developing strong habits of mind, such as perseverance and thinking flexibly, instead of simply seeking the correct solution. Not knowing how to solve a problem at the outset should be expected. The key is working through a problem, encouraging students to think outside the box, and not letting them get discouraged if their initial strategies don’t work.

• Teachers consider themselves lifelong learners and the district supports their growth through math-specific professional learning opportunities.

• Teachers believe that all students are capable of learning and provide supports through hands-on, highly engaging lessons.  

• Highly effective teachers using high-quality instructional materials results in a culture of learning.  This culture of learning includes the three key shifts in math.

  • Focus:  The Common Core calls for a greater focus in mathematics. Rather than racing to cover many topics in a mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum, the standards ask math teachers to significantly narrow and deepen the way time and energy are spent in the classroom. 

  • Coherence:  Mathematics is not a list of disconnected topics, tricks, or mnemonics; it is a coherent body of knowledge made up of interconnected concepts. Therefore, the standards are designed around coherent progressions from grade to grade. Learning is carefully connected across grades so that students can build new understanding onto foundations built in previous years.

  • Rigor:  Rigor refers to deep, authentic command of mathematical concepts, not making math harder or introducing topics at earlier grades. To help students meet the standards, educators will need to pursue, with equal intensity, three aspects of rigor in the major work of each grade: conceptual understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and application.

• Experiences in math are designed with an understanding that students thrive when they are held accountable to the standards, are given clear, focused learning goals, are modeled multiple representations and given multiple opportunities to achieve the intended learning.  Assessments are used to diagnose student learning, inform instruction and provide evidence for the students’ progress toward mastery.