Family Guide to Accessibility
CPM believes that students with learning differences deserve full access to high-quality, challenging mathematics. Drawing on Universal Design for Learning and the English Learners Success Forum guidelines, CPM curriculum supports students with IEPs, 504 plans, and multilingual learners through flexible, inclusive strategies that recognize each student’s strengths.
Families are essential learning partners. This guide explains what your student’s classroom is designed to do, the questions worth asking their teacher, and what helps at home.
Support at Home
A short email for anyone helping a student at home, whether you are a parent, caregiver, grandparent, or tutor. Practical ways to support their math, plus new resources as we add them. No classroom jargon.
CPM believes that every student is a capable mathematical thinker who deserves access to challenging, meaningful mathematics, not a simplified version of it. Many students process math in unique, brilliant ways. Where others say “students with disabilities,” CPM uses “students with identified exceptionalities” to emphasize uniqueness rather than deficit. That language does not minimize the challenges these students face. CPM’s curriculum embeds Universal Design for Learning principles, which means lessons are designed from the ground up to work for a wide range of learners rather than treating accessibility as an afterthought.
How CPM Supports Students
Multiple ways to engage and show understanding
Students demonstrate mathematical thinking through writing, speaking in team discussions, using physical manipulatives such as algebra tiles, drawing, annotating diagrams, working on vertical whiteboards, or using digital tools. Teachers reinforce prior learning, provide intentional movement, and use Guided Skill Supports to increase engagement.
Collaborative learning is prioritized and supported
Team roles and specific responsibilities are embedded in the first chapter of every course. This is especially helpful for students who need explicit expectations about participation, and for students who need communication support. Teachers use Study Team and Teaching Strategies such as Think-Ink-Pair-Share and Teammates Consult to scaffold participation and increase processing time before a discussion.
Sentence frames and visual scaffolds are built in
Language supports such as sentence frames, annotated diagrams, word walls, and choral responses are part of CPM’s routines for all students. These are not special accommodations, they are part of the standard lesson design.
Status and belonging are actively addressed
CPM explicitly addresses status, the perceived level of mathematical competence that affects who gets to participate. Practices like Visibly Random Teams, Warm Call, Rough Draft Talk, asset-based feedback, and publicly assigning competence ensure that students who might be marginalized have genuine access to the mathematics.
Reflection prompts support metacognition
Students regularly reflect on their learning, their goals, and their thinking process. This structured self-awareness supports executive function skills that many students with identified exceptionalities are still developing.
A consistent lesson structure every day
The Launch, Explore, Closure, and Reflection and Practice structure reduces cognitive load by making the shape of every lesson predictable and familiar. This particularly benefits students with autism, reducing stress, improving attention, and supporting participation.
Questions to Ask the Teacher
What You Can Do at Home
Want to Learn More
CPM’s curriculum is built on the principle that multilingualism is a powerful asset, not a deficit. Students should not have to set aside their home language or cultural background to participate in math. They are encouraged to use every language they know to make sense of problems and share their thinking. CPM curriculum is designed to meet the English Learners Success Forum guidelines, which position multilingual learners as capable and competent mathematicians.
How CPM Supports Students
Language objectives are identified for every lesson
The language objective clarifies how each student will engage with the math, through talking, writing, listening, or reading, so students develop the skills to understand and communicate mathematical ideas over time.
Sentence frames are incorporated into lessons
Short, structured phrases give students a starting point for expressing their thinking. Frames such as Something I noticed was or I used to think, now I think help students focus on what they think about the math rather than getting stuck on how to say it.
Key vocabulary is taught in context
Rather than memorizing a list of definitions, students encounter new math words as part of making sense of a problem.
English vocabulary is supported
Teachers are guided to make translation tools accessible and to model how to use them, so students can participate fully without waiting until they have the English vocabulary. Glossaries are also included to support language development.
Collaborative structures promote discussion
Working in teams and using collaborative whiteboard spaces give multilingual learners the chance to think and communicate in ways that feel natural, building math confidence and language skills at the same time.
Annotating, gesturing, and physical materials are encouraged
Color, arrows, drawings, gestures, and hands-on materials such as algebra tiles are all valid ways to express mathematical thinking.
Questions to Ask the Teacher
What You Can Do at Home
Want to Learn More
Productive struggle is expected and encouraged in a CPM math classroom. It helps students focus on the effort they are putting in and builds a growth mindset around learning. When struggle becomes unproductive, teachers use a range of strategies to bring it back into productive territory, and CPM provides resources for students who need extra practice.
How CPM Supports Students
Teachers circulate intentionally
Teachers visit each team multiple times to listen, observe, and provide asset-based feedback that moves learning forward without over-scaffolding.
Just-in-Time Supports are built into the curriculum
Rather than preloading content before students have a chance to grapple with it, teachers provide targeted instruction based on observed needs as they arise during the lesson.
Concepts return many times
CPM is designed so that students encounter concepts repeatedly over weeks and months. A student who struggles with a concept today will have many future opportunities to revisit it and develop proficiency.
Methods and Meanings, or Math Notes
These boxes include key definitions, formulas, diagrams, examples, and explanations. They are placed after concepts are introduced, giving students time to explore and build understanding before meeting a formal definition, and they serve as a reference throughout the course.
Core Connections: Checkpoints
Checkpoint problems are identified in each course so students can check their understanding of important concepts. Each is marked with a checkmark icon in the take-home practice. After completing one, students check their answers, and if they do not match, additional practice is available with explanations, worked examples, and full solutions.
Core Connections: Guided Skill Supports
Available in 3rd Edition to assist students and families with the concepts and skills in the course. Organized by chapter, each one gives an overview of the concept, detailed examples with complete solutions, and additional problems with answers to try.
Core Connections: Parent Guide with Extra Practice
A chapter-level resource available in 2nd Edition that explains key concepts along with examples and additional practice problems.
Core Connections: Toolkits
An optional printed resource your student uses through the year to record their own notes, key vocabulary, and important concepts in their own words. The 3rd Edition Student Toolkit includes Methods and Meanings, the glossary, and take-home practice problems.
Inspiring Connections: Skill Builders
Organized by topic, Skill Builders offer feedback and worked examples so students can take responsibility for their own skill development. Most include multiple levels, so a student can start at an entry level to build confidence or move to harder work.
Inspiring Connections: Tools and Topics
Chapter letters for families that describe what your student is learning and how it connects to the course. Each letter highlights key concepts, gives a peek into how the classroom works, points to resources for when students get stuck, and includes a Try This at Home section.
Inspiring Connections: Mathematician’s Notebook
A living record of your student’s mathematical journey, including rough draft thinking, journal entries and reflections, learning targets, take-home practice, and Methods and Meanings, all in one place to look back on through the year.
Questions to Ask the Teacher
What You Can Do at Home
If a student is unsure how to get started
If a student has started but gotten stuck
Want to Learn More
CPM believes that mathematical learning is not about racing through content, but about deeply understanding mathematical concepts and developing robust problem-solving skills. The approach focuses on ensuring students truly comprehend mathematical ideas and build strong problem-solving habits.
How CPM Supports Students
Encourage Deeper Thinking problems
These are built into many lessons as an added challenge. Teachers use them to invite students to investigate follow-up questions, identify patterns, make connections, explore extensions, and develop understanding through playful exploration. They push students beyond surface-level learning toward mathematical curiosity and higher-level reasoning.
Targeted questioning strategies
CPM provides teachers with questioning strategies that turn standard problem solving into advanced exploration, asking students to justify their reasoning, explore alternative strategies, and articulate underlying principles.
Pacing and depth over speed
Advanced learners are encouraged to spend time exploring the layers of mathematical concepts, engaging with enrichment problems, and developing thinking strategies that go beyond procedural competence.
Collaborative teams create advanced discourse
Structured collaborative activities let advanced learners challenge each other’s thinking, explore multiple solution strategies, and engage in discussions that extend their collective understanding.
Chapter Closure activities
Activities such as concept maps give advanced learners rich opportunities to explore broader mathematical connections, reflect on their learning, and articulate complex relationships between concepts.
Questions to Ask the Teacher
What You Can Do at Home
You Are a Learning Partner
Your student’s teacher knows their classroom, their team, and their goals. The questions in this guide are written to open that conversation. When you need something outside of class, these resources can help.
Tell Us What You Think
Your feedback shapes what goes on these pages. For questions about your student’s specific supports or plan, their teacher and school team are the right people to ask.
Quick Reference
Words in This Guide
IEP
An Individualized Education Program. A legal plan describing the specialized instruction, services, and goals a student receives.
504 plan
A plan that sets out accommodations a student needs to access the same instruction as everyone else, without changing what is taught.
Identified exceptionalities
The phrase CPM uses instead of “disabilities,” to emphasize that students process math in unique ways rather than framing them by deficit.
Universal Design for Learning
Often shortened to UDL. Designing lessons from the start to work for a wide range of learners, rather than adding supports afterward. It removes barriers without lowering expectations.
English Learners Success Forum
Often shortened to ELSF. A set of guidelines for math materials that position multilingual students as capable mathematicians. CPM’s curriculum is designed to meet them.
Study team
The 2 to 4 students your student works with in class. Each has an assigned role, and teams change often.
Status
The perceived level of math ability that affects who gets listened to in a team. CPM addresses it directly so quieter or marginalized students still get access to the math.
Assigning competence
A teacher naming out loud something specific a student did well mathematically, so the rest of the team sees them as a capable contributor.
Visibly Random Teams
Teams formed by a visible random process in front of the class, so no one believes they were sorted by ability.
Warm Call
The teacher tells a student in advance that they will be asked to share, so they can prepare rather than being put on the spot.
Rough Draft Talk
Saying an idea out loud before you are sure it is right. It is meant to be unfinished.
Think-Ink-Pair-Share
Think alone, write it down, talk with a partner, then share with the team. It gives processing time before anyone has to speak.
Teammates Consult
A structure where the team pauses, puts pencils down, and talks through the problem before anyone writes.
Launch, Explore, Closure
The predictable shape of a CPM lesson. The same structure every day reduces cognitive load and helps students know what is coming.
Reflection and Practice
The take-home practice in Inspiring Connections. Called Review and Preview in Core Connections. It mixes in older topics on purpose.
Methods and Meanings
The boxes with the definitions and formulas. They appear after students have worked with an idea. Called Math Notes in 2nd Edition.
Checkpoints
Marked skill checks in the book with worked examples and full answers, so a student can test what they actually know.
Guided Skill Supports
Extra practice organized by chapter, for Core Connections 3rd Edition. Overview, worked examples, then problems to try.
Skill Builders
Extra practice organized by topic, for Inspiring Connections. Most have multiple levels so a student can pick where to start.
Tools and Topics
A letter home for each chapter explaining what your student is learning, with a Try This at Home section.
Mathematician’s Notebook
The notebook a student builds through the course in Inspiring Connections, holding their notes, reflections, and key ideas. Called a Toolkit in Core Connections.
Encourage Deeper Thinking
Optional extension problems built into lessons that push past the surface, used to challenge students who are ready for more.
Just-in-Time Supports
Teaching a needed skill at the moment students hit it, rather than front-loading it before they have grappled with the problem.
Productive struggle
Working at something hard without being rescued too early. It is expected in a CPM classroom and is how understanding gets built.
Sentence frames
Short starter phrases such as “Something I noticed was...” that give students a way into explaining their thinking.
Language objective
A stated goal for how students will use language in a lesson, through talking, writing, listening, or reading.
Translanguaging
Using every language a student knows to make sense of math, rather than setting the home language aside.
Cognates
Words that look or sound alike across languages. Noticing them helps multilingual students connect what they already know.
Three Reads
Reading a word problem three times: what is it about, what information matters, and what strategy could start it.
eTools
CPM’s free drag-and-drop tools, including digital algebra tiles. No login needed.
No match. Try another word, or ask your student’s teacher.
2.3.4
Defining Concavity
4.4.1
Characteristics of Polynomial Functions
5.2.6
Semi-Log Plots
5 Closure
Closure How Can I Apply It? Activity 3
9.3.1
Transition States
9.3.2
Future and Past States
10.3.1
The Parametrization of Functions, Conics, and Their Inverses
10.3.2
Vector-Valued Functions
11.1.5
Rate of Change of Polar Functions
This professional learning is designed for teachers as they begin their implementation of CPM. This series contains multiple components and is grounded in multiple active experiences delivered over the first year. This learning experience will encourage teachers to adjust their instructional practices, expand their content knowledge, and challenge their beliefs about teaching and learning. Teachers and leaders will gain first-hand experience with CPM with emphasis on what they will be teaching. Throughout this series educators will experience the mathematics, consider instructional practices, and learn about the classroom environment necessary for a successful implementation of CPM curriculum resources.
Page 2 of the Professional Learning Progression (PDF) describes all of the components of this learning event and the additional support available. Teachers new to a course but who have previously attended Foundations for Implementation can choose to engage in the course Content Modules in the Professional Learning Portal rather than attending the entire series of learning events again.
