New K-5 Math Program: Reveal Math

After an almost two year process of reviewing new math curriculum options, the Diller-Odell elementary staff has implemented Reveal Math as our new program in grades K-5. The review was guided by resources from the Nebraska Instructional Materials Cooperative and the Nebraska Department of Education. The cooperative utilizes EdReports, which conducts reviews of content based on alignments to standards, usability, and other quality criteria. EdReports has identified Saxon, our previous math series, as not meeting current math expectations. This review, coupled with new math standards just adopted in the state of Nebraska, required action and implementation of a new math curriculum.

The Nebraska Department of Education said this about the new math standards:

College and career readiness for Nebraska’s K-12 students requires content area standards that are clearly defined and increasingly rigorous across grade levels. The standards are designed to ensure all students have access to grade-level mathematics content centered on deep learning of concepts while actively building new knowledge from their experiences. The revised mathematics standards encompass a wide range of essential skills across the strands of Number, Algebra, Geometry, and Data. The standards, both individually and as an integrated whole, describe not only expectations for college and career readiness, but the 21st century mathematical literacies for critical and innovative thinking and problem solving. The progression of skills within each strand are research and evidence-based and designed to prepare Nebraska’s students for postsecondary and workforce demands.

With the transition from Saxon to Reveal Math, we expect challenges. This “new” math instruction requires a shift in the way students, teachers and parents approach the concepts. Reveal Math, and really all new math curriculum, is based on this foundational belief:

By encouraging curiosity, exploration, and a growth mindset, Reveal math allows students to see math as a dynamic set of problem-solving strategies invested of the application of memorized algorithmic or computation procedures. This powerful paradigm shift allows students to learn the language of math and demonstrate their fluency all along the road towards standard mastery.

This change in the way students approach math is and will be challenging. Please know our teachers are doing their best to help transition to this new approach in Reveal Math. We believe the goals of Reveal Math will help our students become proficient with the newly adopted Nebraska Math Standards. Reveal Math will help students be able to visualize and communicate problem solving as well as approach math with creativity, thoughtfulness and flexibility. Please reach out to Mr. Mezger, Mrs. Coufal, or your child’s/children’s teacher(s) if you have any questions about Reveal Math.

More Information about the Nebraska Math Standards can be found on the back of this page and at this link:

https://www.education.ne.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Nebraskas-College-and-Career-Ready-Standards-f

or-Mathematics-Final-9-14-22.pdf