California’s latest attempt to right the ship is through the new 2023 Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools, which is currently being implemented statewide. Math practitioners hope the new framework will connect math concepts to the real world and make the subject more relevant for students.

“We’ve got to do something different,” said Rebecca Lewis, a consultant for the California Mathematics Coherence Initiative, which provides resources to support the implementation of the framework. “We’re not okay with the achievement levels that we’re seeing right now. So, we’re making a shift to really bring it together in a more cohesive way that promotes deeper learning.”

It’s important for board members to have a basic understanding of the framework and how it evolved from the 2013 version — especially as they fulfill their role as the final approvers of instructional materials and professional development funds, key supports for improving math instruction and outcomes.

The purpose of the 2023 Math Framework is to support implementation of the California Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Adopted in 2010 and updated in 2013, the standards put forth the state’s vision for K-12 math, mapping out what students need to know and be able to do in math by the end of each grade level. The framework offers guidance for enacting the standards through curriculum and instructional approaches grounded in research and reflecting best practices across the globe.

According to a summary document from the CDE, “Given the status of mathematics access and achievement, California and the United States need to develop new approaches for deepening math learning, addressing achievement gaps, and modernizing instruction to meet the demands of a fast-changing world. The U.S. has long rated below the international average in mathematics on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and scores have declined since PISA began in 2000. Currently, U.S. 15-year-olds score lower than those in 30 other education systems.”

While the 2013 framework focused on the standards as a sort of check-off list of goals, it was left entirely to teachers to create any meaningful connections between them or to the real world. The new framework aims to build a more conceptual understanding of math and being able to use math to solve real-world problems, explained Kyndall Brown, executive director at the California Mathematics Project Statewide Office, which aims to develop and enhance K-12 teachers’ content knowledge and instructional strategies aligned with the framework.

“The framework talks about this whole idea of purpose, understanding and connection — that math should be coherent,” Brown said. “Students should be able to make connections between the different aspects of mathematics. And so, it’s a lot more about student understanding, critical thinking and problem solving, as opposed to rote memorization and drilling.”

While that doesn’t sound controversial on the surface, the document’s attention to equity and cultural relevance caused a stir during its nearly four years of rewrites, debates and thousands of public comments submitted to the State Board of Education (SBE). The 1,000-page framework aims to put meaning-making at the center of the math classroom, and one of the ways it encourages this is by asking teachers to make math culturally relevant and accessible for all students, especially students of color who have been traditionally marginalized in the subject. A letter submitted to the State Board signed by more than 1,000 mostly math-affiliated professionals, read, “The proposed framework would, in effect, de-mathematize math. For all the rhetoric in this framework about equity, social justice, environmental care and culturally appropriate pedagogy, there is no realistic hope for a more fair, just, equal and well-stewarded society if our schools uproot long-proven, reliable and highly effective math methods and instead try to build a mathless Brave New World on a foundation of unsound ideology.”

While some of the letter’s specific comments were addressed in the framework, an emphasis on equity and social justice is still prominent in the document, as evidenced by Chapter 2: Teaching for Equity and Engagement.

According to Brown, an important aspect of looking at math instruction through an equitable lens is implementing an asset-based approach to instruction. “That means that you’re looking at students in terms of the strengths that they bring to the classroom as opposed to looking at their past test scores or their past grades and worrying about what they don’t know. It’s also taking the time to find out what are some of the outside-of-school attributes that students have that we can make connections to in the classroom to help build their mathematical skills? Perhaps they work with a family business or there’s some organization or entity within their neighborhood or community where they go — it’s making those kinds of connections.”

This is an emphasis that is already in practice in Santa Clara Unified School District, which uses cultural relevance in its definition of high-quality math instruction. “Santa Clara Unified defines high-quality math instruction as learning experiences that are conceptually rich, culturally relevant and aligned to grade-level content standards,” said Secondary Education Director Matt Baldwin. “This instruction empowers students to build deep mathematical understanding through inquiry, reasoning and real-world applications.”

The Math Coherence Initiative’s Lewis also highlighted the framework’s emphasis on big ideas and making connections. “I think this document is meant to really transform math learning from that procedural repetition — which has a place and is important — by really getting to that deep, conceptual math understanding through investigations, real-world applications,” she said. “We know that we have persistently low math achievement scores, and we do have equity gaps in California. To counter that, the framework spends a lot of time describing and emphasizing how all students can have access, engagement and high expectations in their learning.”

Another big emphasis in the 2023 framework is active engagement, investigation and connection. “As opposed to teacher-centered instruction where it’s lecture, rote memorization and drill and practice, with this approach, we see students working together collaboratively on open and engaging mathematics tasks that are planned around big ideas as opposed to a sheet of a hundred multiplication problems,” Brown said. “These types of tasks invite student questions and conjectures, and they prioritize reasoning and justification.”

The last 15 years have seen broad changes in K-12 math brought by the adoption of the Common Core State Standards in 2010 and the first math framework in 2013, and Brown says there are still plenty of teachers that aren’t very familiar with the standards. A large contributor to that issue was that the state provided no funding to roll out and implement the 2013 framework. This time around, the state has dedicated $20 million in the 2024–25 budget for framework implementation over three years and groups like the California Mathematics Project, California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), California Mathematics, Science and Computer Science Professional Learning Partnership, and many others are stepping up with trainings and resources to support teachers and administrators in implementing the framework.

The Rural Math Collaborative (RMC) is one organization working to build capacity in the rural counties of California to support math instruction aligned with the new framework and improve the culture of math education in rural communities. Led by Lake and Butte counties in partnership with CCEE, the RMC consists of 24 rural county offices of education in Northern California that, in addition to building capacity for math instruction, also strive to create positive changes in attitudes and dispositions about math and support teachers in the mindset shift from deficit-based, remedial approaches to asset-based, acceleration approaches.

Over the past two years, the RMC has hosted in-person opportunities for grade-span teachers to come together to learn about the structure, content and organization of the framework, along with the opportunity to engage in some mathematics and grapple with major shifts of the framework, said an RMC representative. The organization has also hosted a virtual Community of Practice (CoP) for teachers in grade spans TK-5 and 6-12 over the course of this school year to allow educators to continue networking around framework implementation.

RMC’s main strategy has been to build capacity in two continuous improvement models for professional learning: California Action Network for Mathematics Excellence and Equity Lesson Study and High Impact Cycle Instructional Coaching. Both have an emphasis on studying the students with an asset-based lens, developing math and agency goals, selecting teaching strategies and lesson designs, testing through iterations, and collecting evidence to analyze effectiveness to inform next steps. RMC also offers intervention models and in-person, virtual and asynchronous learning and networking opportunities around implementation of the math framework.

“The implementation design of the RMC centers around an implementation specialist at each COE,” said Kim Ferguson, RMC lead coordinator and Lake COE learning support specialist. “The implementation specialist is the point of contact for the county and the person who will support the work from the RMC. This design assists in strengthening the communication between the COE and districts, allows them to build capacity of the COE for sustainable efforts when the grant is sunsetted, and creates a mechanism of coherence between the grant efforts and the COE efforts.”

Down in Southern California, Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE) has been working on building a positive math culture for the past six years. “To us, that means shifting people’s mindsets around what teaching and learning mathematics looks like — that it doesn’t look like what we experienced as kids in a math classroom,” explained Dennis Regus, RCOE administrator of Instructional Services. “A lot of us sat and got instruction that makes who is in the room a little irrelevant. We’re making math instruction access more equitable for students, but also ensuring that the instruction takes into account who’s in the room, that you have an idea of what the student’s likes and dislikes are, and you bring that in to bring them more into the mathematics learning.”

Instructional Services Administrator Diana Ceja said it’s important to combat the “not a math person” mentality. “Traditionally, the culture of math has been a culture of exclusion,” she said. “There’s been a belief that only some kids can do math and math looks a certain way. It’s about memorizing and not necessarily understanding. It’s about being fast and not necessarily about making connections, and both of those things exclude a lot of kids. We’re trying to work on that belief that everybody is a math person and everybody can think mathematically because in fact, math makes sense.”

The COE was glad to see the new math framework dovetailed with much of the work it was already doing. “The idea of teaching to big ideas, open and engaging tasks, teaching for social justice, and making reasoning and justification — those five components are a huge piece of getting at what [Ceja] had mentioned about bringing student voice into the classroom and making mathematics open and engaging for all students and accessible for all students,” Regus said.

RCOE provides direct support for contracted districts in its county, differentiated support for identified districts and professional development for teachers on special assignment (TOSAs) and district administrators around the framework and pedagogical practices. They also provide open workshop learning opportunities. A district math collaborative brings together leaders from 12 districts and a CoP for coaches and teachers to discuss issues and build capacity as leaders who can advocate for students.

CoPs are just one of the major levers in Santa Clara USD’s professional development for math educators. “The work of the CoPs is to delve into big ideas and course-specific content. In the district ‘Days of Learning,’ we have focused heavily on the other four components of equitable and engaging instruction as defined by Chapter 2 of the framework,” said Baldwin. “We have instructional coaches provide modeling, co-teaching and feedback aligned to the Mathematical Practice Standards. We’ve also partnered with Silicon Valley Math Initiative and county offices to offer advanced coursework in mathematics content and pedagogy. New teachers receive targeted induction support with a focus on math instruction.

“None of the progress we’ve made in improving math teaching and learning would be possible without the leadership of our TOSAs,” Baldwin continued. “This has been a monumental shift for our district. While my team and I worked hard to help build the initial structure, the real transformation began with our TOSAs and teachers. They have led the heavy lifting, facilitating communities of practice, guiding teachers to reflect deeply on their impact on student learning, and making math more relevant, engaging and accessible for all students.”

The SBE is set to approve instructional materials for grades K-8 at its November 2025 meeting. At present, the Instructional Quality Commission is reviewing 69 programs from 29 publishers and content developers. The SBE does not select materials for grades 9-12. While local educational agencies aren’t mandated to use SBE-adopted content, when considering programs, trustees must weigh how instructional materials will or won’t meet the needs of their educators and students and their alignment with the new framework.

Governing boards are required by California Education Code to adopt instructional materials in accordance with provisions in Section 60040. Additionally, Section 60002 requires LEAs to allow for the involvement of teachers, parents and community members. CSBA Principal Research Manager Angela Asch emphasized the importance of trustees being familiar with the document in order to fulfill their responsibilities.

“It is important to understand the framework’s goals of equity, conceptional understanding of mathematics and real-world applications as well. This understanding will help board members make informed budget decisions about quality professional development and adopting standards-aligned instructional materials,” Asch said. “School boards should communicate the process clearly and regularly and share the legal obligations regarding instructional materials. During the review process, boards should include teachers from all grade levels and expertise, families and other content experts to review materials. Boards should also provide many opportunities and reminders to the community to give feedback on the materials or the process itself. Lastly, allowing teachers to pilot materials and provide feedback about their effectiveness in supporting classroom instruction, and sharing out that feedback, increases transparency and buy-in from all community members.”

In addition to ensuring the input of a wide range of LEA stakeholders, boards should verify that the instructional materials meet social content and SBE-content standards. They must also ensure that each student has sufficient instructional materials for use at school and home and approve an annual resolution stating that the LEA has sufficient instructional materials. And finally, boards need to adopt a budget that includes approved instructional materials and professional development.

The Math Coherence Initiative hosts a website with most of the partners mentioned here as well as others. With a plethora of resources to implement the math framework this time around, the idea is that at least one can help any LEA on their math journey. “All these initiatives really are working together to elevate the message of the framework and to provide resources,” Lewis said. “Districts don’t need to use them all, but should really look at them to figure out what are the resources that are going to help them match their vision.”