Mathematics at Seattle Public Schools

Our goal is to equip each of our students with the ability and preparation to meet the mathematical demands presented by college and careers. We strive to support students as they carry their mathematical thinking and problem-solving into multiple learning situations.

SPS Mathematics Vision

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (NCTM) Effective Math Teaching Practices (ETP) are a core set of high-leverage practices and essential teaching skills necessary to ensure successful mathematics learning for all students.  Teachers in Seattle use the ETPs to ensure students engage in challenging tasks, make connections between new learning and prior knowledge, acquire conceptual and procedural knowledge, construct knowledge socially, and reflect on and revise their thinking.  Teachers in Seattle also attend to equity in their mathematics classrooms and make decisions that reflect the needs and cultures of their students.  Seattle teachers go deep with mathematics, leverage multiple mathematical competencies, affirm mathematics learning identities, challenge spaces of marginality and draw on multiple resources of knowledge which will strengthen mathematical learning and cultivate positive student mathematical identities.  Seattle teachers use these practices effectively to allow every student to develop a strong math identity and sense of agency in their mathematics learning. 

Sources:

• Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All, NCTM 2014
• The Impact of Identity in K-8 Mathematics: Rethinking Equity-Based Practices, Aguirre, J., Bernard Martin, D., Mayfield-Ingram, K., 2013

SPS Adopted Instructional Materials

Elementary School

enVision Math 2020 Common Core has been adopted as the K-5 math instructional material starting in the 2022-23 school year. Students can access SavvasRealize, the digital content for enVision, through the Seattle Public Schools student portal (Clever).

Middle School

SPS adopted enVision Math 2.0 in 2018. The current version in place is  enVisionmath 2024 for middle school. Students can access SavvasRealize, the digital content for enVision, through the Seattle Public Schools student portal (Clever).

High School

SPS math textbooks for Algebra 1 through Calculus are published by Kendall Hunt.  Students can access online versions of the textbook with username and password information supplied by their teacher.  The textbook for AP Statistics is Stats: Modeling the World, AP Edition, 3rd Edition.  Because these textbooks were adopted prior to the 2012 adoption of the Washington State Learning Standards, not all content in the textbooks is aligned to standard.  Teachers have been provided supplemental resources to use with students in order to address all of the grade-level standards.

The math content area of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction has launched an Algebra 1-Geometry-Algebra 2 Digital Instructional Materials Adoption for the 2023-24 school year. Find the math adoption webpage. The digital instructional materials adoption process will follow the Seattle Public Schools Selection and Adoption of Instructional Materials, Policy No. 2015.  If approved by the Seattle School Board, the new digital instructional materials will be ready for implementation by the 2024-25 school year.